Aristophanes is considered by most scholars to be the foremost Greek playwright and poet of the old Attic style of comedy. He was born in 447 BC, in the deme of Cydathenaeum. He was known to be the son of Philippos, and he enjoyed the benefits of an aristocratic life and education. Little is known about the personal life of Aristophanes, but it was known that he served as a councilor early in the fourth century. He sired three sons, Philippos, Araos, and Nikostratos, all of whom became comedic playwrights upon reaching adulthood. He was characterized as a joker and a lover of jokes by Plato, and he was depicted as being at ease with the intellectual and social elite of Athens. One account reported that he was seen walking home with Socrates after a gathering debating whether a writer could pen both tragedy and comedy. It was also said that the renowned playwright lost enough hair during his twenties that he could be called bald.Aristophanes career spanned four decades and had the battle-worn, waning power of Greece as its backdrop. He was known to have authored forty-four plays attributed to him, eleven of which are extant. He staged his first comedy in 247, and his last was staged in 386. At the famed annual Dionysia festival held in Athens each March, Aristophanes won six first prize awards, four second prize awards and two last place awards. In a gesture unusual for the times, Aristophanes contracted a producer-director to stage his plays early and late in his career. Although Aristophanes was awarded an honorific crown of olive leaves for his advisory parabasis in Frogs in 405, his popularity was transitory. He lampooned every institution sacred to the Greeks. No person, no matter how exalted the personage was safe from Aristophanes critical eye. From the political leaders, to the Athenian populace, to the Gods themselves, Aristophanes unabashedly attacked pretense at any level. He satirized Socrates and philosophy of the day in C...
