35 Aristophanes Facts: Know All About The Playwright Of The Old Comedy

Apart from what may be learned from his plays and a fictional picture in Plato's Symposium, little is known about Aristophanes.

He was born in Athens to a family of which nothing is known except that they were not impoverished. He received a good education and was well-versed in literature, particularly poetry, and in particular Homer and the great Athenian tragic dramatists.

He was writing after the enthusiasm of military successes of ancient Greece over the Persians had faded, and the Peloponnesian War had largely stifled Athens' imperial ambitions. Despite the fact that Athens' empire had been shattered, it had become Greece's intellectual capital, and Aristophanes was a significant figure in this shift in thinking.

He was also up to date on the most recent intellectual notions. He was widely considered as a conservative, particularly in politics, and he was well aware of the absurdity of some of the new innovations of his time.

Aristophanes, known as the Father of Comedy, was a prolific and well-known comic playwright of Ancient Greece. This article takes you through unknown and intriguing facts about Aristophanes that you might be interested to know about.

Life History Of Aristophanes

Key facts about the life history of Aristophanes. Read to gain interesting knowledge and insights about his life.

• Based on the dates of his writings, we estimate that he was born between 460-450 BCE and died between 386-380 BCE.
• Aristophanes lived his whole childhood in the Periclean Age when Athens was one of Greece's two most powerful political powers, as well as the most important center of artistic and intellectual activity.
• Aristophanes was still a child when the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 BCE.
• It is unknown what role he played in the war, but he most likely saw active duty before it concluded in 404 BCE.
• Aristophanes lived until a ripe old age, most likely until 386 or 385 BCE, but maybe as late as 380 BCE.
• At least three of his children Araros, Philippus, and a third named Nicostratus or Philetaerus, were comic poets and later Lenaia winners, as well as producers of their father's plays.
• Araros, one of his three sons, was a minor comic dramatist.
• Aristophanes was most likely responsible for the development of Greek comedy theater, such as the chorus's function and the decrease of current references.
• The Athenian authorities were embarrassed by his polemical satires in these popular plays, and some important citizens wanted to prosecute the young writer on a charge of slandering the Athenian polis.
• However, there was a discernible trend from Old Comedy to New Comedy during Aristophanes' time, involving a shift away from Old Comedy's topical emphasis on real people and local issues and toward a more cosmopolitan emphasis on generalized situations and stock characters, increasing levels of complexity and more realistic plots.

Famous Works Of Aristophanes

Some of the most prominent works of famous writer Aristophanes are listed down below.

• Aristophanes' career as a dramatist began in 427 BCE, when he staged 'The Banqueters', his first play.
• A year later, he produced another play, 'The Babylonians', which had a political theme and voiced some forthright criticism of Athens' imperial policies but did not survive.
• 'The Acharnians', written in 425 BCE, is the earliest of the existing plays; the hero, tired of the fight, strikes a private peace with the enemy, which pits him against a chorus of patriotic Acharnian charcoal burners and a swashbuckling soldier.
• The play is noteworthy for its bizarre comedy and inventive call for the Peloponnesian War to be ended.
• In another comedy, 'The Knights', Cleon is portrayed as the greedy and dishonest slave of a dimwitted old gentleman, Demos (the Athenian people personified); the slave is his master's favorite until he is superseded by an even more unscrupulous figure, a sausage salesman.
• 'The Clouds' (original 423 BCE, unfinished updated version from 419–416 BCE exists): The 'comedy of ideas' was invented for the first time.
• 'The Wasps', A young man vs. old man theme recurs throughout the play.
• Peace was signed just days before the 10-year Peloponnesian War came to an end. The drama is noteworthy for its exaltation of a return to rural life.
• The jokes are many, the action is wildly ridiculous, and the criticism is scathing, as in all of Aristophanes' plays.
• Cleon, Athens' pro-war populist leader, was once again a target, despite the fact that he died in battle only a few months before.
• 'The Birds' is a fantasy that is notable for its bird mimicry and songs. This splendid drama is one of Aristophanes' most poetic and exuberant works.
• In the winter of 411-412 BCE, political turmoil and intrigues in Athens resulted in an oligarchic revolution in May 411 BCE.
• In Lysistrata, Aristophanes had previously devised his own plot, in which the women of Greece came together to put an end to the war by refusing to sleep with their husbands until they reached an accord.
• Lysistrata is one of his most appealing characters, and his empathy for women's predicament during warfare makes the play a touching commentary on war's folly.
• 'The Knights', 'The Frogs', 'The Wasps', 'Lysistrata', 'Wealth', and the six other Aristophanes plays that survived antiquity are treasures.
   

What is Aristophanes known for?

The Greek comic poet Aristophanes was reputed for his great works in the genre of Old Attic Comedy. Explore interesting facts about this comic genius.

• Old Comedy reached its pinnacle under Aristophanes' comedic genius, and he was able to juxtapose incomparably elegant lyrical language with vulgar and unpleasant jests, adopting the tragedians' versification styles to his own purposes.
• 'Aristophanes and the Comic Hero' (1964) offers a thorough examination of Aristophanes' theatrical approach.
• The festival of Dionysia, devoted to the deity Dionysus, was the first venue for ancient Greek theater competitions.
• At the beginning of the fourth century BCE, he was most likely assigned to the Council of Five Hundred for a year, which was a frequent appointment in democratic Athens.
• On at least three occasions, Aristophanes won the less prestigious Lenaia competition.
• 11 of his 40 plays have survived virtually whole (along with up to 1000 small fragments of other works), and they are the only authentic examples of the comedy-drama genre known as Old Comedy that we have.
• His inventive and occasionally rough comedy might conceal more nuanced digs at the political elite as well as societal themes like cultural change and women's roles in society. In the realm of comedy, the bluntness of Greek comedy disappeared and was replaced by a more careful and sensible style that leads toward a more refined but less spectacular and spirited comedy.
• By Aristophanes' time, the comic play had become well-established, though the first official comedy was not staged at the City Dionysia until 487 BCE, by which time tragedy had been well-established.
• Old Comedies reached their pinnacle of development under Aristophanes' humorous genius.