Aristophanes

• Aristophanes (c.446-c.386 BCE) was an Ancient Greek playwright who lived in Athens and wrote Comedies.
• He is known as the Father of Comedy and was a contemporary of Socrates.

Biography

• Aristophanes used three poetic styles: iambic dialogue, tetrameter verses and lyrics.
• He was known as the ‘Father of Comedy’ in a style known as ‘Old Comedy’.
  • ‘Old Comedy’ used real personalities involved in resolving real-life situations.
  • ‘New Comedy’ appeared around c. 330 BCE, using characters who were stereotypes resolving generalised situations.
• He notably depicted the Athenian General Cleon as a demagogue during the Peloponnesian War, along with Thucydides.

Works

• Aristophanes wrote 40 Plays of which 11 have survived complete (L. is the Latin name):
  • The Acharnians (L. Acharnenses) (425 BCE)
  • The Knights (L. Equites) (424 BCE)
  • The Clouds (L. Nubes) (423 BCE)
  • The Wasps (L. Vespae) (422 BCE)
  • Peace (L. Pax) (421 BCE)
  • The Birds (L. Aves) (414 BCE)
  • Lysistrata (L. Lysistrate) (411 BCE)
  • Thesmophoriazusae (L. Thesmophoriazusai) (The Women celebrating the Thesmophoria Festival) (c.411 BCE)
  • The Frogs (L. Ranae) (405 BCE)
  • Ecclesiazusia (L. Ekklesiazousai) (The Assemblywomen c.392 BCE)
  • Wealth (L. Plutus) (388 BCE)

Aristophanes’ Dramatic Structure

• Prologue:
  • the introduction explaining the issue that will be resolved in the play, addressed to the audience in soliloquy or dialogue using iambic pentameter.
• Parodos:
  • the Chorus arrives dancing and singing using long lines of tetrameters, often confronting one or several of the actors.
• Symmetrical scenes:
  • songs and verses in long lines of tetrameters, arranged in two symmetrical sctions.
    • Parabis: verses sung in tetrameter by the chorus in the middle and near the end of the play.
    • Agon: a formal dialogue mostly in anapaestic tetrameter that decides the outcome of the play.
• Episodes:
  • dialogue between minor characters in iambic trimester, during the last scenes of the play.
• Songs:
  • in symmetrical pairs during transitions in the plot or between scenes whilst actors were changing costumes.
• Exodus:
  • the departure of the Chorus and Actors.