The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

ARISTOPHANES

Aristophanes was the greatest comic poet of ancient Greece. He was born probably about the year 444 BC at Athens and died not later than 380 BC. Little is known of his life. He appeared as a poet in 427 BC, and having indulged in some sarcasms on the powerful demagogue Cleon, was ineffectually accused by the latter of having unlawfully assumed the title of an Athenian citizen. He afterwards revenged himself on Cleon in his comedy of the Knights, in which he himself acted the part of Cleon, because no actor had the courage to do it. Of fifty-four comedies which he composed eleven only remain; believed to be the flower of the ancient comedy, and distinguished by wit, humour, and poetry, as also by grossness. In them there is constant reference to the manners, actions, and public characters of the day, the freedom of the old Greek comedy allowing an unbounded degree of personal and political satire. The names of his extant plays are Acharnians, Knights, Clouds, Wasps, Peace, Birds, Lysistrata, Thesmophoriazusse, Frogs, Ecclesiasuzse, and Plutus.
Research Aristophanes