Theatre History Oral Report Aristophanes (448?-385 BC), Athenian playwright, considered one of the greatest writers of comedy in His plays have been produced through the centuries and have remained popular becauseof their wit, comic invention, and poetic language. Aristophanes is believed to have been born in Athens, Greece, in the deme, or township, ofCydathenaeum. Presumably, he was well educated and may have had property on the island of Aegina.He had three sons-Philippos, Araros, and Nikostratos-all of whom were comic poets. Aristophanes was first and foremost a satirist. During his lifetime Athens underwent a period ofconvulsive cultural and social change, and he found a ready target in the politicians, poets, andphilosophers of his day. It would nevertheless be misleading to describe Aristophanes as a reactionary or aconservative, since his works show no sympathy for the aristocratic party in Athenian politics. No class,age, or profession was exempt from his satire. Aristophanes wrote more than 40 plays, of which 11 areextant. His first three plays were produced under pseudonyms, including The Acharnians (425 BC), a pleafor ending the war with Sparta. The Knights (424 BC), the first of the plays of Aristophanes to bepresented under his own name, is a devastating satire about Athenian politician and military leader Cleon,champion of the democratic forces and leader of the war party. The Clouds (423 BC) satirizes Greekphilosopher Socrates, whose penetrating analysis of established values Aristophanes considered opposedto the interests of the state. In The Wasps (422 BC) Aristophanes satirized the courts of justice of theday, and in The Peace (421 BC) he again argued for peace between Athens and Sparta. The Birds (414BC) is a fantasy in which an Athenian persuades the birds to build a city in the clouds and then imposeshis own terms on the gods. Lysistrata (411 BC), another satire on war, in which women strike for peaceby practicin...
