Aristophane

Aristophane (in Greek old Ἀριστοφάνης / Aristophánēs ) is a comic Poète Greek of fifth century BC, born in the Dème of Kydathénée towards 450 - 445 and died towards 385 av. J. - C.

Biography

It began young person with the theater, was made known by two parts now lost: Daetaliens (427) and the Babylonians (426). He wrote many comedies, whose majority are known for us only by fragments. Eleven reached us: Acharniens (425) and Peace (421), where the author intervenes frankly in the Politique and fought the party of the war; the Riders (424), where it attacked Cléon openly, the very powerful demagog; the Clouds (423) where he scoffed Socrate; the Wasps (422), where it turned into ridiculous the organization of the Athenian courts and the manias of the judges; the Birds (414), where it was caught some with the political and social Utopias, like later in Lysistrata (411) and in the Parliament of the women (392); Thesmophories (411), and the Frogs (405), satires literary directed against Euripide. However, the boldness of the comic poets, the return to the capacity of the aristocratic party, and misfortunes of Athens, had brought a reaction against the freedom of the theater. This reaction had taken shape already towards (412) and under the Thirty: it leads towards (388), seems it, with a law which formally prohibited the attacks against the people. It was the death warrant of the old comedy. Aristophane tried new ways: by the Cocalos (today lost) and the second edition of the Ploutos (388), it inaugurated the satire of manners, from where was to leave the new comedy the Athenians.

Except the Ploutos and the parts against Euripide, the comedies of Aristophane are political social satires or lampoons. Attached to the aristocratic party, the poet made use largely of freedoms which left him the popular state to tackle the institutions and the leaders of the democracy. Between its hands, the comedy became a power which one precisely compared with the modern political press. Considered from the point of view of art, the work of Aristophane is one of the wonders of the Greek genius. There are an incredible liveliness and an astonishing imagination in its satirical dialogs, interfered lyric choruses, where the experts always admired the perfect agreement of the bottom and the form, the idea, the expression and the rate/rhythm. The parts of Aristophane are very invaluable for the knowledge of the history of time, the institutions and Athenian manners at the end of fifth century BC

Works

Although he wrote 44 parts (including four of doubtful attribution), the majority are lost. Only remain:

Acharniens ( Ἀχαρνεῖς / Akharneîs ), incentive with peace during the Peloponnesian War (425);
the Riders ( Ἱππεῖς / Hippeîs ), against Cléon (424);
the Clouds ( Νεφέλαι / Nephélai ), against the sophists, the first of which it places Socrate (423);
the Wasps ( Σφῆκες / Sphễkes ), against the Athenian mania of the lawsuits (422);
Peace ( Εἰρήνη / Eirḗnē ), for peace (421);
the Birds ( Ὄρνιθες / Órnithes ), about the Forwarding of Sicily (414);
Lysistrata ( Λυσιστράτη / Lysitrátē ), a conspiracy of the women in favor of peace (411);
Thesmophories ( Θεσμοφοριάζουσαι / Thesmophoriázdousai ), against Euripide and its misogyny (411);
the Frogs ( Βάτραχοι / Bátrakhoi ), on the decline of the tragic art, allotted to Euripide (405);
the Parliament of the women ( Ἐκκλησιάζουσαι / Ekklēsiázdousai ), against the projects of new constitutions (392);
Ploutos ( Πλοῦτος / Ploûtos ), over better times to come (388).

See too

Random links: