Aristophanes

Aristophanes was recognized in antiquity as one of the greatest poets of Old Comedy, along with Eupolis and Cratinus; of his plays, eleven survive, or about a quarter of those he wrote. No other example of the genre has come down to us, save for fragments cited in later writers or, occasionally, on papyrus. Aristophanes’ plays are topical and set in the Athenian present (his comedies based on mythological themes are lost). Among those that survive, a first sequence was produced each year from 425 to 421 bce (Acharnians, Knights, Clouds, Wasps, Peace). The next group includes...

Aristophanes was recognized in antiquity as one of the greatest poets of Old Comedy, along with Eupolis and Cratinus; of his plays, eleven survive, or about a quarter of those he wrote. No other example of the genre has come down to us, save for fragments cited in later writers or, occasionally, on papyrus. Aristophanes’ plays are topical and set in the Athenian present (his comedies based on mythological themes are lost). Among those that survive, a first sequence was produced each year from 425 to 421 bce (Acharnians, Knights, Clouds, Wasps, Peace). The next group includes Birds (414 bce), Lysistrata and Thesmophoriazusae (both 411 bce). Frogs, which commemorates the recent deaths of Euripides and Sophocles, was produced in 405 bce. Finally, two plays date to the 4th century bce: Assemblywomen (c. 391 bce) and Wealth (388 bce).