Nothing remains from his competitors, however, so it is difficult to make comparisons. Subjects taken directly from ancient mythology were treated in the same way. Only 11 of his plays have survived. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Aristophanes lampooned the most important personalities and institutions of his day, as can be seen in his buffoonish portrayal of Socrates in The Clouds, and in his anti-military farce Lysistrata. She has been featured by NPR and National Geographic for her ancient history expertise.

Once again, does this sound familiar? Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. But comedies of some sort written by Epicharmus were performed already in the 490s in the Greek city of Syracuse in Sicily, and the origins of the genre cannot in fact be determined with any precision. In doing so, Lysistrata engages the support of women from Sparta, Boeotia, and Corinth. During the twentieth century the complete text of Dyskolos, a play by Menander, the leading writer of New Comedy, was rediscovered. FOR BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY AS WELL AS A LIST OF MY DOZENS OF SOURCE BOOKS SCROLL FURTHER DOWN, ***  NEW! Lysistrata (/ laɪˈsɪstrətə / or / ˌlɪsəˈstrɑːtə /; Attic Greek: Λυσιστράτη, Lysistrátē, "Army Disbander") is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. If readers of my blog think I have a ton of books covering obscure global mythology brace yourselves for the sheer dorkgasmic level of material I have on Ancient Greek Comedy. For the first time love became a principal element in the drama. An examination of CITIES (POLEIS) BY EUPOLIS – Click HERE, *** NEW!!! America’s founding fathers were great students of ancient Greek democracy and they based a great deal of our own political system on the Greek model. We think of comedy as anything from the Three Stooges to Jon Stewart, and the Greeks would have agreed with us. And by the way, my favorite part of AGC is that there is plenty to offend BOTH left-wing zealots and right-wing zealots. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

If chosen, they were awarded a choregos, i.e.

The new comedy represented Athenian society and the social morality of the period; but it made no attempt to improve it, presenting only in attractive colors. In particular, they copied the technique of disguising a political attack as buffoonery. The name itself apparently comes from the Greek words komos, which means reveling band, and the verb aeido, to sing. The favorite themes were the literary and social peculiarities of the day, which, together with the prominent systems of philosophy, were treated with light and not ill-natured ridicule. Where Old Comedy was caricature and lampoon, Middle Comedy was criticism and review.

The plays of Menander, of which only the Dyscolus (Misanthrope) now exists, did not deal with the great public themes about which Aristophanes wrote. Similarly the doubts and concerns that the ancient Athenians felt toward elements of this new concept of popular rule find their echo today whenever Party Zealots pompously pretend THEY are intelligent enough to understand the issues but OTHER voters are simpletons, easily led astray by the loudest voice.

In spite of his narrower focus, the plays of Menander influenced later generations. Fragments of those works, by Aristophanes and the others, have been uncovered in archaeological digs and via other methods over the centuries, but the world will forever lack a complete enough picture to let us decide if WE would consider Aristophanes the greatest of the ancient political satirists. Finally, they agree to swearing an oath of allegiance by drinking wine from a phallic shaped flask, as the traditional implement (an upturned shield) would have been a symbol of actions opposed to the aims of the women. (Henceforth AGC) I’ve been into this topic since I was 17 years old and not only do I have multiple translations of each of Aristophanes’ surviving comedies but I also have multiple books  covering those comedies of his that have survived only in fragmentary form. The Athenian Democracy had thrown off the old Monarchy and elected officials now managed the running of the city-state, including auctioning off government contracts to mine precious metals, build ships, etc, Various political figures would be accused of awarding contracts to friends in return for kickbacks. Along with the sex went greed, of course. His sons Araros, Philippus, and Nicostratus were also comic poets.

According to Aristotle, writing a century and a half later, it first took shape in Megara and Sicyon; Susarion, the earliest Athenian comic poet, is himself supposed to have come from Megara. The Middle Comedy freely parodied the grandest tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles, the noblest passages of Homer, and the most beautiful lyrics of Pindar and Simonides. They were freely adapted by the Roman poets Plautus and Terence in the third and second centuries B.C.E.

This action is ironic and therefore comical, because Greek men believed women had no self-restraint, a lack displayed in their alleged fondness for wine as well as for sex. The period of the Middle Comedy extended from the close of the Peloponnesian War to the enthrallment of Athens by Philip of Macedon; that is, from the closing years of the fifth century B.C.E. As with the tragedians, few works still remain of the great comedic writers.

Thus comedy became a recognized branch of the drama, presenting brilliant dialogue and poetic beauty in the choral parts comparable to tragedy plays of the same period.

FOR BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY AS WELL AS A LIST OF MY DOZENS OF SOURCE BOOKS SCROLL FURTHER DOWN *** NEW! At the great library in Alexandria, Egypt, the works of Aristophanes were kept nearest the exits in case of fire in honor of his position of prestige. BY DEFAULT, IT ALWAYS COMES DOWN TO ARISTOPHANES. These divisions appear to be largely arbitrary, and ancient comedy almost certainly developed constantly over the years. The satire and abuse were directed against some object of popular dislike.

When the Muslim armies burned the great library around 1,000 CE countless works from antiquity perished in the flames (insert my 9,000th remark about how much contempt I feel for religious zealots). Another example would be the way Athens was often accused of “imperialism” because of the power and influence it held over the other Greek city-states and other parts of the world by nature of its naval, military and cultural might.

These plays represent an important advance in comic presentation. An examination of CITIES (POLEIS) BY EUPOLIS - Click HERE *** NEW!!! preserved only in relatively short fragments in authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis. A few long fragments by Menander have survived as well from such plays as The Arbitraton, The Girl from Samos, The Shorn Girl, and The Hero). The new comedy lasted throughout the reign of the Macedonian rulers, ending about 260 B.C.E. Perhaps one of the first works of literary criticism ever created, The Frogs pokes fun at the giants of Greek playwriting, Euripedes and Aeschylus. Aristotle describes the genre of comedy and especially how it differs from tragedy. Comedies had Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes, while New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander. Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy. The Old Comedy, dating from the establishment of democracy by Kleisthenes, about 510 B.C.E., arose from the obscene jests of Dionysian revelers, composed of virulent abuse and personal vilification. The reason for the odd survival rate of Aristophanes’ works compared to the ancient Greek comedians who came before and during his period of activity is easy to explain.