Aristophanes Aristophanes

Capturing the antic outrageousness and lyrical brilliance of antiquity’s greatest comedies, Aaron Poochigian’s Four Plays brings these classic dramas to vivid life for a twenty-first century audience. The citizens of ancient Athens enjoyed a freedom of speech as broad as our own. This freedom, parrhesia, the right to say what one pleased, how and when one pleased, and to whom, had no more fervent champion than the brilliant fifth-century comic playwright Aristophanes. His plays, immensely popular with the Athenian public, were frequently crude, even obscene. He ridiculed the great and the good of the city, showing up their hypocrisy and arrogance in ways that went far beyond the standards of good taste, securing the ire (and sometimes the retaliation) of his powerful targets. He showed his contemporaries, and he teaches us now, that when those in power act obscenely, patriotic obscenity is a fitting response. Aristophanes’s satirical masterpieces were also surpassingly virtuosic works of poetry. The metrical variety of his plays has always thrilled readers who can access the original Greek, but until now, English translations have failed to capture their lyrical genius. Aaron Poochigian, the first poet-classicist to tackle these plays in a generation, brings back to life four of Aristophanes’s most entertaining, wickedly crude, and frequently beautiful lyric comedies―the pinnacle of his comic · Clouds , a play famous for its caricature of antiquity’s greatest philosopher, Socrates; · Lysistrata , in which a woman convinces her female compatriots to withhold sex from their warmongering lovers unless they negotiate peace; · Birds , in which feathered creatures build a great city and become like gods; · and Women of the Assembly , Aristophones’s most revolutionary play, which inverts the norms of gender and power. Poochigian’s new rendering of these comic masterpieces finally gives contemporary readers a sense of the subversive pleasure Aristophones’s original audiences felt when they were first performed on the Athenian stage.

Treating ancient plays as living drama. Classical Greek drama is brought vividly to life in this series of new translations. Students are encouraged to engage with the text through detailed commentaries, including suggestions for discussion and analysis. Numerous practical questions stimulate ideas on staging and encourage students to explore the play's dramatic qualities. Frogs is suitable for students of Classical Civilisation and Drama. Features include a full synopsis of the play, commentary alongside translation for easy reference and a comprehensive introduction to the Greek Theatre. Frogs is aimed at A-level and undergraduate students in the UK, and college students in North America.

A brand-new translation of the world's greatest satirist. With a signature style that is at once bawdy and delicate, as well as a fearless penchant for lampooning the rich and powerful, Aristophanes remains arguably the finest satirist of all time. Collected here are all 11 of his surviving plays-newly translated by the distinguished poet and translator Paul Roche.  

Ecclesiazusae, probably produced in 391 BC, is at once a typically Aristophanic fantasy of gender inversion, obscenity and farce, the earliest surviving work in the western Utopian tradition, and the source of a blueprint for a communist society on which Plato may well have drawn in his Republic.

Birds is generally recognized as one of Aristophanes' masterpieces, for its imaginative plot (it is the source of the word "Cloudcuckooland"), and its charming and original lyrics. This abridgment of Nan Dunbar's widely acclaimed edition of Birds , published in 1995, preserves all the material designed to help the less advanced student of Greek or the non-specialist to translate, understand, and enjoy the play. It also retains the notes on staging, but the metrical, textual, and ornithological problems are dealt with more summarily, and purely illustrative parallels are omitted.

This new verse translation of Aristophanes' comedies offers one of the world's great comic dramatists in a form that is both historically faithful and theatrically vigorous. Aristophanes' plays were produced for the festival theater of classical Athens in the fifth century BC and encompass the whole gamut of humor, from brilliantly inventive fantasy to obscene vulgarity. This edition includes a substantial general introduction and introductory essays for each of the plays, as well as full explanatory notes and an index of names. About the For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

The Frogs (Ancient Greek: Βάτραχοι, Bátrachoi) is a comedy written by the Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus in Athens, in 405 BC, receiving first place.

Aristophanes (İ.Ö. 450 civarı-İ.Ö. 388 civarı): Yaşamı hakkında hemen hiç bir şey bilinmeyen, yazdığı kırk kadar oyundan günümüze ulaşan on bir tanesiyle kenti Atina'dan yola çıkarak, çağının tanıklığıyla komedya sanatının tüm inceliklerini buluşturabilmiş gerçek bir tiyatro atasıdır. Nitekim, elinizdeki ciltte biraraya getirilen Eşekarıları, Kuşlar ve "Barış Oyunları" olarak da adlandırılan Barış, Kömürcüler ve Kadınlar Savaşı da yazarın, kendinden sonraki tüm çağların seyirci ve oyun yazarlarını neden etkilemeyi sürdürdüğünün en iyi kanıtlarıdır.

Whether his target is the war between the sexes or his fellow playwright Euripides, Aristophanes is the most important Greek comic dramatist—and one of the greatest comic playwrights of all time. His writing—at once bawdy and delicate—brilliantly fuses serious political satire with pyrotechnical bombast, establishing the tradition of comedy as high art. His messages are as timely and relevant today as they were in ancient Greece, and his plays still provoke laughter—and thought.   This volume features four celebrated   Lysistrata, The Frogs, The Birds, and The Clouds , translated by three of the most distinguished translators and classicists of our time.  

Aristophanes (MÖ 450?-MÖ 388?): Yaşamına dair pek kesin bilgiler yoktur. Yazdığı kırk kadar oyundan sadece on biri günümüze ulaşmıştır. Kıvrak ve keskin diliyle ünlü olan Aristophanes, komedya sanatının bütün inceliklerini çağının tanıklığıyla kaynaştırmış büyük bir tiyatro ustasıdır. Kadın Mebuslar’da, Aristophanes’in bir başka komedyası Lysistrata’ya benzer bir şekilde kadınların kent yönetimini ele geçirmesini konu edilir. Kadınların yönetiminde kent ve bütün mülkler herkesin ortak malı haline gelecek, herhangi bir hukuki dava görülmeyecektir artık. Platon’un Devlet’iyle birlikte ilk komünist ütopyalardan biri olarak da görülen Kadın Mebuslar, Türkçeye ilk kez Eski Yunanca aslından çevriliyor.

En las obras de Aristófanes, mito y realidad, arcaísmo ritual y modernidad, seriedad y risa aparecen ante nosotros en un friso monumental. Conservamos pocos documentos tan auténticos de una cultura antigua. El presente volumen es la primera entrega de las once comedias conservadas.

Las nubes (en griego clásico, Νεφέλαι) es una comedia temprana dentro de la obra del autor ateniense Aristófanes. En ella se hace una fuerte crítica de los sofistas y sus enseñanzas, y no faltan los temas y personajes de moda de la Atenas de finales del siglo V a. C. La obra también es destacable por ser la referencia histórica más antigua sobre la figura de Sócrates. Las Nubes fue presentada por primera vez el año 423 a. C., pero Aristófanes no logró ganar el primer lugar, sacando el tercero en las Dionisias. Aristófanes jamás se resignó a haber perdido. Por lo mismo, reescribió entre los años 420 y 417 el texto de su obra y esa es la versión que se conserva en la actualidad. Esto lo sabemos porque en la misma comedia el coro exhorta a los espectadores reprochándoles el haber perdido. Aristófanes la consideraba su obra más fina de entre sus comedias. En las nubes aparece la primera referencia histórica sobre Sócrates, que es presentado como un sofista. Argumento de la obra La obra trata de un padre, Estrepsiades (Στρεψιάδης), y su hijo Fidipides (Φειδιππίδης). Fidipides es un joven fanático de la hípica y los caballos, cuya diversión le sale bastante cara a su padre, que ha contraído una serie de deudas por su amor a los caballos. Su padre va directo a la ruina y no tiene interés en pagarle a los acreedores y para eso idea un plan que lo sacará de problemas: Mandará a su hijo a estudiar al Pensadero (φροντιστήριον, palabra inventada por Aristófanes), también traducido como Pensatorio, de Sócrates, que es una especie de escuela donde enseñan, por dinero o cosas de valor, los sofistas Sócrates y su amigo Querefonte (Χαιρεφῶν) las diversas disciplinas sofísticas y especialmente el argumento justo y el argumento injusto que lo sacarán de todas las deudas al poder ganar los juicios en su contra. Fidípides se niega a ir y termina yendo Estrepsiades, que cuando se encuentra con los discípulos de Sócrates y Querefonte pregunta lo que hacen y mantiene después un diálogo con uno de ellos, durante el cual es presentado a Sócrates que es llamado "él mismo" (αὐτός) que está colgando de un cesto observando el cielo. Tras ese episodio cómico Sócrates le habla del cielo y le demuestra que Zeus no existe y que las nubes también son diosas y muy importantes, y quien junta las nubes no es Zeus sino el "Torbellino" (Δῖνος). Después comienza un diálogo donde prueba a Estrepsiades hasta que aparecen las Nubes. Luego comienza un diálogo entre las Nubes y Estrepsiades y más tarde reaparece Sócrates que le enseña nuevas cosas, pero Estrepsiades es un hombre viejo y además rústico, así que olvida todo lo que aprende. Las Nubes le dicen que vaya a buscar a su hijo por ser más joven y así Estrepsiades lo convence para que aprenda los dos argumentos en un diálogo donde el hijo sostiene opiniones antiguas y el padre las opiniones nuevas. Después Sócrates le dice que éste será enseñado por ambos argumentos, y gana el argumento injusto. Así Fidípides aprende el argumento injusto y su padre se lo lleva a casa.

Siamo nel secondo giorno della festa femminile delle Tesmoforie ed Euripide si lamenta: teme che le donne lo condannino a morte, per punirlo di aver parlato male di loro. Convince quindi il Parente – un buffone – a vestire abiti femminili e a infiltrarsi come agente segreto. Ed ecco l’assemblea delle Tesmoforie: le donne protestano contro Euripide: il Parente denigra il gentil sesso: viene scoperto ed Euripide è costretto a intervenire; e così via, di trovata in trovata, ognuna più spettacolare e divertente dell’altra. Nelle "Donne alle Tesmoforie", la volgarità di Aristofane tocca il suo culmine: la commedia sembra una farsaccia da paese, come spesso le commedie di Shakespeare – ma una fantasia prodigiosa innalza tutto ciò che è volgare e osceno nel regno della vertiginosa follia comica.

"Quando, nel 392 a.C., si rappresentano ""Le donne al parlamento"", l'impero di Atene è caduto da poco più di un decennio, strangolato dalla potenza militare spartana, e la città è sopravvisuta a se stessa. Instancabilmente, Aristofane continua a prendere a oggetto del suo discorso teatrale la vita politica del suo paese, e i tempi della disperazione gli suggeriscono un paradosso estremo da indicare come via di salvezza: ribaltare il rapporto di potere da sempre stabilito tra i due sessi e affidare il governo alle donne. Esse poi, dentro questo paradosso, ne costruiranno un altro, istituendo per legge la comunità dei beni e dei rapporti sessuali - un'idea già avanzata da qualche intellettuale utopista e di lì a poco elaborata da Platone. Obbedendo alla tecnica drammaturgica che è abituale in Aristofane,questo progetto fantastico si presenta come lo strumento necessario e sufficiente a una rigenerazione creativa del mondo, che assicura la realizzazione del sogno di benessere e di felicità. Ma gli esiti sono diversi dal solito e sconcertanti: quando la nuova legge costringe un giovane innamorato nel cerchio infernale di tre megere che si contendono le sue prestazioni sessuali, il sogno assume le tinte grottesche dell'incubo, quando una logica chiara e perversa mostra che è impossibile apettarsi dagli uomini una collaborazione al benessere sociale che prescinda o contraddica il profilo personale, l'idea che si rivela ingabbiata in limiti irriducibili. Testo greco a fronte."

Quando Aristofane fece rappresentare le Rane, nel 405 a.C., la guerra del Peloponneso stava volgendo per Atene al suo disastroso esito. Euripide e Sofocle erano morti da poco, e l’estinguersi di una gloriosa tradizione d’arte sembrava coincidere con il destino stesso della città, esausta e logorata dal conflitto. Dioniso decide di scendere nell’Ade per riportare in vita il prediletto Euripide, ma giunto alla reggia di Plutone si trova coinvolto in una mischia furibonda: Euripide pretende di scalzare Eschilo dal seggio del primato tragico. Alla presenza di Dioniso, i due rivali si affrontano in una gara poetica di scintillante comicità, che è però anche lo scontro di due concezioni di arte e morale e, allo stesso tempo, la denuncia delle cause morali e culturali che hanno portato Atene alla rovina. Guido Paduano illustra nell’introduzione gli aspetti strutturali e ideologici della commedia.

Sullo scorcio del V secolo a.C., in un'Atene esausta e logorata dalla lunga guerra del Peloponneso, l'estro comico di Aristofane riflette, in forme di esuberante invenzione fantastica, i problemi che più direttamente coinvolgono la coscienza collettiva della polis: la corruzione, la demagogia, i conflitti di valori e, soprattutto, l'assillante nostalgia della pace. Nella Lisistrata - che fu rappresentata nel 411 a.C. a due anni di distanza dalla catastrofe della spedizione ateniese in Sicilia - l'urgenza della pace è dichiarata e risolta 'dalla parte delle donne', assunte a protagoniste di una delle più scintillanti fantasie di potere che l'antichità ci abbia lasciato. Lisistrata incarna l'intelligenza femminile, intuitiva, lungimirante, consapevole di sé. Sotto la sua guida sagace, le donne greche si coalizzano e occupano l'Acropoli di Atene, adottando, contro la testarda volontà di guerra degli uomini, una paradossale, e infine vincente, strategia di lotta: lo sciopero ad oltranza dell'amore. In tal modo, la realtà della guerra è smascherata nella sua concreta negatività, come privazione dei diritti naturali. La Lisistrata è una grande, giocosa, mordace commedia, costruita con mirabile concatenazione di spunti comici e polemici. Nell'introduzione al volume, Guido Paduano ne illustra acutamente le valenze ideologiche e artistiche, portando il lettore a riconoscere, nelle articolazioni di una struttura testuale acutamente analizzata, gli effetti drammaturgici e i significati dell'opera.

Aristophanes, a native Athenian and the leading exponent of Greek comedy, was born c. 450 BCE. Today forty-three of his plays are known by title; eleven survive. The most famous of these is the whimsical fantasy Lysistrata .A perennial classroom and stage favorite as well as the basis of Spike Lee's Chi-Raq , the play is as relevant today as it was 2,500 years ago. The premise is simplicity to end the Peloponnesian War, women decide to withhold sex from their husbands until the fighting stops.The play is by turns raucous, bawdy, frantic, and funny. David Mulroy's exciting new translation retains the original's verse format, racy jokes, and vibrancy-setting it apart from previous efforts, which are typically reproduced as prose or depart from meaning and meter. His introduction offers a concise summary of Aristophanes' life and social milieu, including a brief overview of the Peloponnesian War, which took place during the playwright's lifetime. The appendices include guides on translating meter and Greek pronunciation for aspiring thespians.

Aristophanes' comic masterpiece of war and sex remains one of the greatest plays ever written. Led by the title character, the women of the warring city-states of Greece agree to withhold sexual favours with their husbands until they agree to cease fighting. The war of the sexes that ensues makes Lysistrata a bawdy comedy without peer in the history of theatre.

Writing at the time of political and social crisis in Athens, Aristophanes was an eloquent yet bawdy challenger to the demagogue and the sophist. The Achanians is a plea for peace set against the background of the long war with Sparta. In Lysistrata a band of women tap into the awesome power of sex in order to end a war. The darker comedy of The Clouds satirizes Athenian philosophers, Socrates in particular, and reflects the uncertainties of a generation in which all traditional religious and ethical beliefs were being challenged. For this edition Alan Sommerstein has completely revised his translation of these three plays, bringing out the full nuances of Aristophanes’ ribald humour and intricate word play, with a new introduction explaining the historical and cultural background to the plays.

Three plays by the comedian of Ancient Greece Writing at the time of political and social crisis in Athens, Aristophanes was an eloquent yet bawdy challenger to the demagogue and the sophist." The Achanians" is a plea for peace set against the background of the long war with Sparta. In "Lysistrata "a band of women tap into the awesome power of sex in order to end a war. The darker comedy of "The Clouds" satirizes Athenian philosophers, Socrates in particular, and reflects the uncertainties of a generation in which all traditional religious and ethical beliefs were being challenged.

Writing at a time when Athens was undergoing a crisis in its social attitudes, Aristophanes was an eloquent opponent of the demagogue and the sophist. This collection includes Lysistrata, the hilariously bawdy anti-war fantasy; The Acharnians, a plea for peace set against the background of the long war with Sparta; and The Clouds, a satire on contemporary philosophy.

Ultima commedia a noi pervenuta di Aristofane (445-380 a.C ?), "Pluto" ci offre una prospettiva singolare sull'Atene degli inizi del IV secolo, un'Atene sulla quale gravano la miseria e le incertezze sociali.

The satire in this, one of the best known of all Aristophanes' comedies, is directed against the new schools of philosophy, or perhaps we should rather say dialectic, which had lately been introduced, mostly from abroad, at Athens. The doctrines held up to ridicule are those of the 'Sophists'-such men as Thrasymachus from Chalcedon in Bithynia, Gorgias from Leontini in Sicily, Protagoras from Abdera in Thrace, and other foreign scholars and rhetoricians who had flocked to Athens as the intellectual centre of the Hellenic world.

Offering a window into the world of ordinary Athenians, Aristophanes' The Birds and Other Plays is a timeless set of comedies, combining witty satire and raucous slapstick to wonderful effect. This Penguin Classics edition is translated from the Greek by David Barrett and Alan H. Sommerstein. The plays in this volume all contain Aristophanes' trademark bawdy comedy and dazzling verbal agility. In The Birds, two cunning Athenians persuade the birds to build the utopian city of 'Much Cuckoo in the Clouds' in the sky, blockading the Olympian gods and installing themselves as new deities. The Knights is a venomous satire on Cleon, a prominent Athenian demagogue, who vies with a humble sausage-seller for the approval of the people; while The Assembly-Women deals with the battle of the sexes as the women of Athens infiltrate the all-male Assembly in disguise. The lengthy conflict with Sparta is the subject of Peace, inspired by the hope of a settlement in 421 BC, and Wealth reflects on the economic catastrophe that hit Athens after the war. These lively translations by David Barrett and Alan H. Sommerstein capture the full humour of the plays. The introduction examines Aristophanes' life and times, and the comedy and poetry of his works. This volume also includes an introductory note for each play. Aristophanes (c.445-386 BC) was probably born in Athens. Little is known about his life, but there is a portrait of him in Plato's Symposium. He was twice threatened with prosecution in the 420s for his outspoken attacks on the prominent politician Cleon, but in 405 he was publicly honoured and crowned for promoting Athenian civic unity in The Frogs. Aristophanes had his first comedy produced when he was about twenty-one, and wrote forty plays in all. The eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes are published in the Penguin Classics series as The Birds and Other Plays, Lysistrata and Other Plays, The Wasps and Other Plays and The Frogs and Other Plays. If you enjoyed The Birds and Other Plays, you might like Aristophanes' The Frogs and Other Plays, also available in Penguin Classics.

A brand-new translation of the world's greatest satirist. With a signature style that is at once bawdy and delicate, as well as a fearless penchant for lampooning the rich and powerful, Aristophanes remains arguably the finest satirist of all time. Collected here are all 11 of his surviving plays-newly translated by the distinguished poet and translator Paul Roche.  

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Thesmophoriazusae was performed in Athens in 411 BCE, most likely at the City Dionysia, and is among the most brilliant of Aristophanes' eleven surviving comedies. It is the story of the crucial moment in a quarrel between the tragic playwright Euripides and Athens' women, who accuse him of slandering them in his plays and are holding a meeting at one of their secret festivals to set a penalty for his crimes. Thesmophoriazusae is a brilliantly inventive comedy, full of wild slapstick humor and devastating literary parody, and is a basic source for questions of gender and sexuality in late 5th-century Athens and for the popular reception of Euripidean tragedy. Austin and Olson offer a text based on a fresh examination of the papyri and manuscripts, and a detailed commentary covering a wide range of literary, historical, and philological issues. The introduction includes sections on the date and historical setting of the play; the Thesmophoria festival; Aristophanes' handling of Euripidean tragedy; staging; Thesmophoriazusae II; and the history of modern critical work on the text. All Greek in the introduction and commentary not cited for technical reasons is translated.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Aristophanes; tr. by David Barrett, Wasps, The; the Poet and the Women; the Frogs