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Aristophanes

Also known as Father of Comedy

Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens. He wrote forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete. The majority of his surviving plays belong to the genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are considered its most valuable examples. Aristophanes's plays were performed at the religious festivals of Athens, mostly the City Dionysia and the Lenaia, and several of them won the first prize in their respective competitions.

OverviewAI-generated

Aristophanes was a male playwright, poet, and writer from Classical Athens, where he was born and died. He was a member of the deme Kydathenaion and wrote in Ancient Greek. His work falls within the field of literature and drama, specifically the Old Comedy movement. He was influenced by Pindar, Euripides, and Socrates.

Notable works attributed to him include The Acharnians, The Birds, The Clouds, and Assemblywomen. Other titles listed are Ornithes, Vatrachoi tou Aristophanē, Hippeis tou Aristophanē, and Thesmophoriazousai. He had a child named Araros. His works are held in collections such as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. He is described in sources including the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary and the Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition.

Synthesized by Vinony from 41 facts across 9 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Last.fm, Europeana Sparql, Open Library, TMDb, Wikiquote, MusicBrainz, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: ca. 450 B.C.
Died: ca. 385 B.C.
Works: 424

Top works

Ornithes
Vatrachoi tou Aristophanē
Hippeis tou Aristophanē
Thesmophoriazousai
Acharnēs

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Writing · Athens, Greece

Aristophanes Ancient Greek: Ἀριστοφάνης, c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion (Latin: Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are used to define it, along with…

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Country: Greece

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 13,730
Total plays: 90,944

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

Aristophanes: Clouds
· 1968 · cited 150x
An accurate description of the ground and excited states of CH
· 1999 · cited 110x
Aristophanes: Peace
· 1998 · cited 86x
Aristophanes: Lysistrata
· 1987 · cited 80x
Aristophanes: Acharnians
· 2002 · cited 72x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“Dicaepolis: Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right. I shall not please, but I shall say what is true. (tr. Athen. 1912, Perseus)”
“Lamachus: Ah! the Generals! they are numerous, but not good for much! (tr. Athen. 1912, vol. 1, Perseus)”
“Chorus [of Birds]: Man naturally is deceitful, ever indeed, and always, in every one thing. (tr. Warter 1830, p. 199)”
“Chorus [of Birds]: Man is naturally deceitful ever, in every way! (tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, p. 326)”
“Chorus [of Birds]: Man is a truly cunning creature. (abridged tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus)”
“Chorus [leader]: Come now, ye men, in nature darkling, like to the race of leaves, of little might, figures of clay, shadowy feeble tribes, wingless creatures of a day, miserable mortals, dream-like men. (tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, p. 338)”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Person.name: Aristophanes
Person.image: Bust of Aristophanes.jpg
Person.caption: Bust with the inscription "Aristophanes, (son) of Philippides, the Athenian", 1st century AD
Person.birth_place: Athens, Greece
Person.death_date: (aged c. 60)
Person.occupation: Playwright (comedy)
Person.years_active: 427 BC – 386 BC
Person.known_for: Playwright and director of Old Comedy

via Wikipedia infobox

Works in European collections

21 objects attributed to Aristophanes, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

~32 min read

Encyclopedic overview

23 sections

Contents

Biography
Plato's ''Symposion''
Use of language
Aristophanes and Old Comedy
Dramatic structure of Aristophanes's plots
Parabasis
Influence and legacy
Literature
Radio shows
Music
Greek Language
Translation of Aristophanes
Works
Surviving plays
Datable non-surviving (lost) plays
Undated non-surviving (lost) plays
Attributed (doubtful, possibly by Archippus)
See also
Notes
References
Sources
Further reading
External links

Also known as "The Father of Comedy" and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy", Aristophanes wrote plays that often dealt with real-life figures, including Euripides and Alcibiades, and contemporary events, such as the Peloponnesian War. He has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His plays are characterized by preposterous premises, explicit language, wordplays, and political satire. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato singled out Aristophanes's play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates, although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Aristophanes” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.