A bust of Aristophanes

Aristophanes (c. 448 BC - 380 BC) was a Greek comic dramatist.

The place and even the exact date of his birth are unknown, but he was probably educated in Athens. He is famous for writing comedies such as The Birds for the two Athenian festivals: the Dionysia and the Lenea. He wrote at least 30 plays, 11 of which still survive, and his plays are the only surviving examples of Greek Old Comedy. Many of his plays were political, and often satirized the well-known citizens of Athens and their conduct in the Peloponnesian War. He is known to have been prosecuted for Athenian law's equivalent of libel more than once. A famous comedy, The Frogs, was given the unprecedented honor of a second performance.

He appears in Plato's Symposium, giving a humorous mythical account of the origin of Love. The Clouds pokes fun at famous figures, notably Socrates, and may have contributed to the common misconception of the philosopher as a Sophist. Lysistrata was written during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta and presents a pacifist theme in a comical manner: the women of the two states deprive their husbands of sex until they stop fighting. This play was later illustrated at length by Pablo Picasso.

Surviving Plays

• The Acharnians (425 BC)
• The Knights (424 BC)
• The Clouds (second version, 423 BC)
• The Wasps (422 BC)
• Peace (first version, 421 BC)
• The Birds (414 BC)
• Lysistrata (411 BC)
• Thesmophoriazousae ("The Festival Women", first version, c.410 BC)
• The Frogs (405 BC)
• Ecclesiazousae ("The Assemblywomen", c.392 BC)
• Plutus ("Wealth", second version, 388 BC)

Dated Non-Surviving Plays

• Banqueters (427 BC)
• Babylonians (426 BC)
• Farmers (424 BC)
• Merchant Ships (423 BC)
• The Clouds (first version) (423 BC)
• Proagon (422 BC)
• Amphiaros (414 BC)
• Plutus ("Wealth", first version, 408 BC)
• Gerytades (uncertain, probably 407 BC)
• Koskalos (387 BC)
• Aiolosikon (second version, 386 BC)

Undated Non-Surviving Plays

• Aiolosikon (first version)
• Anagyros
• Broilers
• Daidalos
• Danaids
• Dionysos Shipwrecked
• Centaur
• Niobos
• Heroes
• Islands
• Lemnian Women
• Old Age
• Peace (second version)
• Phoenician Women
• Poetry
• Polyidos
• Seasons
• Storks
• Telemessians
• Triphales
• Thesmophoriazousae ("The Festival Women", second version)
• Women Encamping

See also

• Agathon
• Greek literature
• Asteroid 2934 Aristophanes, named after the dramatist

External links

• The texts of Aristophanes' plays (in translation)
• eTexts of Aristophanes' works, at Project Gutenberg; also here
• Contribution to the English Language