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Aristophanes's farcical attempt at dramatic criticism
On the one hand Aristophanes's comedy "The Frogs" is obviously a farce, but it is of more interest because it presents the earliest known example of dramatic criticism. Presented in 405 B.C., the play tells of how Dionysus, the god of drama, had to go to Hades to fetch back Euripides, who died the previous year, because Athens no longer had any great tragic poets left. The first part of the comedy involves Dionysus, who has disguised himself as Heracles, and his slave Xanthias on their way to Hades and features several interesting songs by the chorus of blessed mystics and the chorus of frogs. However, the high point of the comedy is the contest between Euripides and Aeschylus.

Each of the two great tragic poets denounces the other and quotes lines from their own works to prove their superiority. We discover that Euripides writes about vulgar themes, corrupts manners, debases music and has prosaic diction. In contrast, Aeschylus finds obscure titles and is guilty of turgid prose. In the end Dionysus finds that artistic standards of judgment are useless and turns to a political solution. This makes sense since the problem facing Athens is a political one: what to do about the tyrant Alcibiades. What is most interesting is the implicit belief that the tragic poets had a social responsibility towards the audiences of their dramas.

"Frogs," in addition to being one of the better comedies by Aristophanes, is also of interest because it contains the only fragments from several tragedies by Euripides and Aeschylus that have been long lost to us. As always, I urge that if you are studying Greek plays, whether the comedies of Aristophanes or the tragedies by those other more serious fellows, it is important to understand the particular structure of these plays and the various dramatic conventions of the Greek theater. This involves not only the distinction between episodes and stasimons (scenes and songs), but elements like the "agon" (a formal debate on the crucial issue of the play), and the "parabasis" (in which the Chorus partially abandons its dramatic role and addresses the audience directly). ... Read more

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Lysistrata begat Sex and the City
I looked at two of Aristophanes plays in this book: Lysistrata and The Frogs.In reading these plays I made notes for each time I laughed or smiled.I even took notes when I didn't laugh but thought that maybe someone else would.Rather than try to find a theory of humor, I simply recorded what it was that I thought made the line or scene funny.The list is somewhat shocking about the nature of humor, but the list is funny in itself.

Some of the things that I found funny in the Lysistrata were:filing down a male body part, leather toys, filthy slang, slow talking yokel foreigners, taking pride in being called trampy, adultery, dumping a bucket of nasty on a stiff bureaucrat, threats of abuse, using lies and excuses to seduce, using a child as a tool to coax a wife into bed, desperate impatience and insensitivity, an abusive relationship happy in its misery, the mockery of a famous Greek homosexual, a logical argument against staying sober, perpetual arousal, ignoring the moral of the story while ogling a woman, and, finest of all, a drunken pile of people.

Another moment in the Lysistrata that caught my attention was the misinterpretation of a line that reminded me of the movie Airplane:
Lysistrata: "We want to get laid."
Koryphaios of Women:"By Zeus!"
Lysistrata:"No, no.Not by him."

Co-Pilot:"Surely you can't be serious."
Leslie Nielson: "I am serious.And don't call me Shirley."

In reading The Frogs, I made another list, a much different list but perhaps a worse indictment of mankind's sense of humor than the previous list because it covers much more than sex.The short list I made begins with a dookie, or in other words stifling a number two while carrying a heavy load.It continues with laziness, whining, mocking a the same Greek homosexual with a joke, advice on suicide, bartering with a corpse, lampooning gods and heroes, excuses and lies, name calling, disrespecting superiors,imitations of nature, the inherent comedy of discomfort and injury, mocking the audience, making light of death and hell, false bravery followed up with fear and insecurity, mutation--in particular a leg made of number two--and handicaps, snobbery and pompous behavior, strange asides with interjections about a pair of perkies in the audience, undermining public figures by questioning their legitimacy, defamation of character, taking a large item--such as a tombstone--in an uncomfortable place, a disgruntled Greek slave, mutilation, dismemberment, disguise and surprise, misplacement of a sponge over an exposed "area", a frightened "member", role reversals and ensuing reversals of fortune, dancing girls, a subordinate having fun as a superior and then being disciplined, insults, kissing and dooking simultaneously, gluttony, mistaken identity, threats and violent imagery, torture, burial, a superior appealing to a subordinate using flattery, reusing an argument against the original speaker, promising things that don't exist, treachery and betrayal, suppression of pain to appear fine-and-dandy, a deity praying to another deity, portraying a serious figure as an idiotic bird, criticizing government and institutions, misery loving company among slaves, making fun of the venerable dead, a fight between corpses, bums, execution, and a reference to a toot in the face.

The least funny part of The Frogs is the contest between the poets, although if I could see and hear the actual play I might feel differently.My laughs turned into dying smirks as the humor became highbrow, and as the argument between Aeschylus and Euripides went on I yearned for an interjection of a bar pianist or something childish.

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This anthology should be a `must' for all serious students of Aristophanes. It brings together for the first tinme in one volume all the most important contributions to the study of Aristophanes published over the last several decades - providing an ideal resource for anyone studying the plays. Aristophanes is the only surviving author of Greek Attic comedy who has left us more than fragments, and his eleven surviving plays reflect the spirit of Athens in the golden age - and its unique freedom of speech. The book deals not only with the better known comedies like Clouds and Birds, but also the later, more unusual works like The Assembywomen and Wealth, which represent important stages towards the evolution of modern comedy. Subjects range from the classic question of Aristophanes' relationship to contemporary politics to more modern issues such as feminism, gender, performance context, and the interaction between fifth century comedy and tragedy. Many of the contributions are not otherwise readily available to students and teachers, coming from foreign journals and books, difficult to obtain. All the greek has been translated for the benefit of students reading the plays in English. ... Read more

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The 'Ecclesiazusae, or Women in Council,' was not produced till twenty years after the preceding play, the 'Thesmophoriazusae' (at the Great Dionysia of 392 B.C.), but is conveniently classed with it as being also largely levelled against the fair sex. "It is a broad, but very amusing, satire upon those ideal republics, founded upon communistic principles, of which Plato's well-known treatise ['The Republic'] is the best example.-From the introduction to 'The Ecclesiazusae' by Aristophanes.Download Description
Come, withdraw and remain seated in the future. I am going to take this chaplet myself and speak in your name. May the gods grant success to my plans! My country is as dear to me as it is to you, and I groan, I am grieved at all that is happening in it. Scarcely one in ten of those who rule it is honest, and all the others are bad. If you appoint fresh chiefs, they will do still worse. ... Read more

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The comedies of Aristophanes are known not only for their boldly imaginative plots but for the ways in which they incorporate and orchestrate a wide variety of literary genres and speech styles. Unlike the writers of tragedy, who prefer a uniformly elevated tone, Aristophanes articulates his dramatic dialogue with striking literary and linguistic juxtapositions, producing a carnivalesque medley of genres that continually forces both audience and reader to readjust their perspectives. In this energetic and original study, Charles Platter interprets the complexities of Aristophanes' work through the lens of Mikhail Bakhtin's critical writing.

This book charts a new course for Aristophanic comedy, taking its lead from the work of Bakhtin. Bakhtin describes the way multiple voices -- vocabularies, tones, and styles of language originating in different social classes and contexts -- appear and interact within literary texts. He argues that the dynamic quality of literature arises from the dialogic relations that exist among these voices. Although Bakhtin applied his theory primarily to the epic and the novel, Platter finds in his work profound implications for Aristophanic comedy, where stylistic heterogeneity is the genre's lifeblood.

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Thesmophoriazusae is perhaps the funniest of all Aristophanes' comedies, in which gender inversion and transvestism run riot as the tragic dramatist Euripides is made to take part in a hilarious spoof on some of his own favourite plot lines, with his own life at stake as well as that of his loyal and much-put-upon old relative.

This edition offers a freshly constituted text making use of papyri published within the last few years, together with the first fully annotated English translation there has been of this play. ... Read more

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Aristophanes' "Esslesiazusae", written in the early 4th Century BC, marks a crossroads in his career. Post-dating the Peloponnesian War, it reflects a late change in his writing and a much changed society. This edition includes the complete text. ... Read more

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This book is designed as a companion to the new OCT of Aristophanes. After a brief introduction giving a sketch of the textual transmission of the plays the editor discusses a large number of passages which present textual or other difficulties. Problems of this kind in many cases require notes that are too long and complex to be incorporated in the relatively limited space allocated to the apparatus criticus in the Oxford series. ... Read more

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Of the 1995 full-length edition:`Aristophanes addicts unite!This book is for us.It has everything that we always wanted to know about Birds and we were unable to find in one place.' Greek Gazette`The commentary elucidates with an experts knowledge of syntax, meter, and artifacts.... The volume will remain authoritative for generations.' Religious Studies Review Birds is generally recognized as one of Aristophanes' masterpieces, for its imaginative plot (it is the source of the word `Cloudcuckooland'), and its charming and original lyrics.This is an abridgement of Nan Dunbar's widely acclaimed edition of Birds published in 1995, which was the first comprehensive edition in any language. The abridged version retains all the material designed to help the less advanced student of Greek or the non-specialist to translate, understand, and enjoy the play.It retains the notes on staging, but the metrical, textual, and ornithological problems are dealt with more summarily, and purely illustrative parallels are omitted.The Introduction covers more concisely the same ground as that of the full-length edition, but omits the detailed discussions of the individual manuscripts and their interrelations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Trusting Pisthetaerus builds a utopian city for the Birds
The problem with "The Birds" ("Ornithes") is that for once Aristophanes does not seem to be attacking some specific abuse in Athens. Still, we suspect that even this little fantasy is not simply escapist entertainment. Certainly there are those who see it as a political satire about the imperialistic dreams that resulted in the disastrous invasion of Sicily (which happened the year before his play was produced in 414 B.C.). Then again, this could just be Aristophanes bemoaning the decline of Athens.

Pisthetaerus ("Trusting") and Euelpides ("Hopeful") have grown tired of life in Athens and decide to build a utopia in the sky with the help of the birds, which they will name Necphelococcygia (which translates roughly as "Cloud Cuckoo Land"). Pisthetaerus and his feathered friends have to fight off those unworthy humans, malefactors and public nuisances all, who try and join their utopia. Then there are the gods, who come to make some sort of agreement with the new city because they have created a bottleneck for sacrifices coming from earth.

Because it is a more general satire, "The Birds" tends to work better with younger audiences than most comedies by Aristophanes. Besides, the chorus of birds lends itself to fantastic costumes, which is always a plus with young theater goers. In studying any of the Greek plays that remain it is important to I have always maintained that in studying Greek plays you want to know the dramatic conventions of these plays like the distinction between episodes and stasimons (scenes and songs), the "agon" (a formal debate on the crucial issue of the play), and the "parabasis" (in which the Chorus partially abandons its dramatic role and addresses the audience directly). Understanding these really enhances your enjoyment of the play. ... Read more

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All 11 comedies, literally translated. Two volumes in one file. Includes: Knights,Acharnaians, Peace, Lysistrata, The Clouds, The Wasps, The Birds, The Frogs,The Thesmophoriazusae, The Ecclesiazusae, and Plutus. ... Read more

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Term paper due tomorrow? Need to cram for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary work?

Turn to "Drama for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by Thomson Gale--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: plot summary; character analysis; author biography; an overview of the play's themes, style, and historical context; a compendium of in-depth critical material; study questions; suggestions for further reading; and much more.

Why choose "Drama for Students"? Because no other source offers so much in such a compact package. Trust the experts: Thomson Gale--and "Drama for Students."Download Description

Term paper due tomorrow? Need to bone up for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary work?

Turn to "Drama for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by the Gale Group--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: plot summary; character analysis; author biography; an overview of the play's themes, style, and historical context; a compendium of in-depth critical material; study questions; suggestions for further reading; and much more.

Why choose "Drama for Students"? Because no other source offers so much in such a compact package. Trust the experts: The Gale Group--and "Drama for Students." ... Read more

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Carlo Ferdinando Russo's classic work on Aristophanes examines his comedies as plays intended for the stage. The author considers the invention of printing as a cause of major changes in the nature of drama. The modern reader of Aristophanes is inclined to see him as an author of texts rather than of a fluid libretti which were intended to be performed, not simply read. Russo finds that deviations in the text can often be explained by their relevance to the specific theatrical competitions they were written for. In Aristophanes, the in-depth philological analysis of the plays is founded on an ever-present perception of the realities of Greek theatre. This work is unparalleled in the study of Aristophanes; its appearance in an English translation is long overdue. ... Read more

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Contents: The House of Atreus; Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus. Oedipus the King; Antigone by Sophocles. Hippolytus; The Bacchae by Euripides. The Frogs by Aristophanes. ... Read more

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A collection of four timeless plays: Agamemnon by Aeschylus, translated by Louis MacNeice; Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald; Alcestis by Euripides, translated by Fitts and Fitzgerald; and The Birds by Aristophanes, translated by Fitts. Introductory Note by each translator; Index.
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