Aristophanes (/rstfniz/ or /rstfniz/;[2] Greek: , pronounced

[aristopns]; c. 446 c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaeum,[3] was a
comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his thirty plays survive virtually complete. These,
together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of
comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are used to define the genre.[4] Also known as the
Father of Comedy[5] and the Prince of Ancient Comedy,[6] Aristophanes has been said to
recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author.[7] His powers of
ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato[8][9] singled out
Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent
condemning to death of Socrates although other satirical playwrights[10] had also caricatured the
philosopher. His second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by the demagogue
Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court but
details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his
subsequent plays, especially The Knights, the first of many plays that he directed himself. "In my
opinion," he says through the Chorus in that play, "the author-director of comedies has the
hardest job of all." ( )[11]
Less is known about Aristophanes than about his plays. In fact, his plays are the main source of
information about him. It was conventional in Old Comedy for the Chorus to speak on behalf of
the author during an address called the 'parabasis' and thus some biographical facts can be
found there. However, these facts relate almost entirely to his career as a dramatist and the plays
contain few clear and unambiguous clues about his personal beliefs or his private life.[13] He was
a comic poet in an age when it was conventional for a poet to assume the role of 'teacher'
(didaskalos), and though this specifically referred to his training of the Chorus in rehearsal, it also
covered his relationship with the audience as a commentator on significant issues.[14]
Aristophanes claimed to be writing for a clever and discerning audience,[15] yet he also declared
that 'other times' would judge the audience according to its reception of his plays.[16] He
sometimes boasts of his originality as a dramatist[17] yet his plays consistently espouse
opposition to radical new influences in Athenian society. He caricatured leading figures in the arts
(notably Euripides, whose influence on his own work however he once begrudgingly
acknowledged),[18] in politics (especially the populist Cleon), and in philosophy/religion (where
Socrates was the most obvious target). Such caricatures seem to imply that Aristophanes was an
old-fashioned conservative, yet that view of him leads to contradictions.[19]
The writing of plays was a craft that could be handed down from father to son, and it has been
argued that Aristophanes produced plays mainly to entertain the audience and to win prestigious
competitions.[20] The plays were written for production at the great dramatic festivals of Athens,
the Lenaia and City Dionysia, where they were judged and awarded places relative to the works
of other comic dramatists. An elaborate series of lotteries, designed to prevent prejudice and
corruption, reduced the voting judges at the City Dionysia to just five in number. These judges
probably reflected the mood of the audiences[21] yet there is much uncertainty about the
composition of those audiences.[22] The theatres were certainly huge, with seating for at least 10
000 at the Theatre of Dionysus. The day's program at the City Dionysia for example was
crowded, with three tragedies and a 'satyr' play ahead of the comedy, and it is possible that many
of the poorer citizens (typically the main supporters of demagogues like Cleon) occupied the
festival holiday with other pursuits. The conservative views expressed in the plays might therefore
reflect the attitudes of a dominant group in an unrepresentative audience. The production process
might also have influenced the views expressed in the plays. Throughout most of Aristophanes'
career, the Chorus was essential to a play's success and it was recruited and funded by a
choregus, a wealthy citizen appointed to the task by one of the archons. A choregus could regard
his personal expenditure on the Chorus as a civic duty and a public honour, but Aristophanes
showed in The Knights that wealthy citizens could regard civic responsibilities as punishment
imposed on them by demagogues and populists like Cleon.[23] Thus the political conservatism of
the plays might reflect the views of the wealthiest section of society, on whose generosity comic

dramatists depended for the success of their plays.[24]

When Aristophanes' first play The Banqueters was produced, Athens was an ambitious, imperial
power and The Peloponnesian War was only in its fourth year. His plays often express pride in
the achievement of the older generation (the victors at Marathon)[25][26] yet they are not
jingoistic and they are staunchly opposed to the war with Sparta. The plays are particularly
scathing in criticism of war profiteers, among whom populists such as Cleon figure prominently.
By the time his last play was produced (around 386 BC) Athens had been defeated in war, its
empire had been dismantled and it had undergone a transformation from the political to the
intellectual centre of Greece.[27] Aristophanes was part of this transformation and he shared in
the intellectual fashions of the period the structure of his plays evolves from Old Comedy until,
in his last surviving play, Wealth II, it more closely resembles New Comedy. However it is
uncertain whether he led or merely responded to changes in audience expectations.[28]
Aristophanes won second prize at the City Dionysia in 427 BC with his first play The Banqueters
(now lost). He won first prize there with his next play, The Babylonians (also now lost). It was
usual for foreign dignitaries to attend the City Dionysia, and The Babylonians caused some
embarrassment for the Athenian authorities since it depicted the cities of the Athenian League as
slaves grinding at a mill.[29] Some influential citizens, notably Cleon, reviled the play as slander
against the polis and possibly took legal action against the author. The details of the trial are
unrecorded but, speaking through the hero of his third play The Acharnians (staged at the Lenaia,
where there were few or no foreign dignitaries), the poet carefully distinguishes between the polis
and the real targets of his acerbic wit:
, ,
,
, ...[30]
People among us, and I don't mean the polis,
Remember this I don't mean the polis But wicked little men of a counterfeit kind....
Aristophanes repeatedly savages Cleon in his later plays. But these satirical diatribes appear to
have had no effect on Cleon's political career a few weeks after the performance of The
Knights, a play full of anti-Cleon jokes, Cleon was elected to the prestigious board of ten
generals.[31] Cleon also seems to have had no real power to limit or control Aristophanes: the
caricatures of him continued up to and even beyond his death.
In the absence of clear biographical facts about Aristophanes, scholars make educated guesses
based on interpretation of the language in the plays. Inscriptions and summaries or comments by
Hellenistic and Byzantine scholars can also provide useful clues. We know however from a
combination of these sources,[32] and especially from comments in The Knights[33] and The
Clouds,[34] that Aristophanes' first three plays were not directed by him they were instead
directed by Callistratus and Philoneides,[35] an arrangement that seemed to suit Aristophanes
since he appears to have used these same directors in many later plays as well (Philoneides for
example later directed The Frogs and he was also credited, perhaps wrongly, with directing The
Wasps.)[36] Aristophanes's use of directors complicates our reliance on the plays as sources of
biographical information since apparent self-references might have been made on behalf of his
directors instead. Thus for example a statement by the chorus in The Acharnians[37] seems to
indicate that the 'poet' had a close, personal association with the island of Aegina, yet the terms
'poet' (poietes) and 'director' (didaskalos) are often interchangeable since dramatic poets usually
directed their own plays and therefore the reference in the play could be either to Aristophanes or
Callistratus. Similarly, the hero in The Acharnians complains about Cleon "dragging me into court"
over "last year's play"[38] but here again it is not clear if this was said on behalf of Aristophanes
or Callistratus, either of whom might have been prosecuted by Cleon.[39]
Comments made by the Chorus on behalf of Aristophanes in The Clouds[40] have been
interpreted as evidence that he can have been hardly more than 18 years old when his first play

The Banqueters was produced.[41] The second parabasis in Wasps[42] appears to indicate that
he reached some kind of temporary accommodation with Cleon following either the controversy
over The Babylonians or a subsequent controversy over The Knights.[43] It has been inferred[1]
from statements in The Clouds and Peace that Aristophanes was prematurely bald.[44]
We know that Aristophanes was probably victorious at least once at the City Dionysia (with
Babylonians in 427)[45] and at least three times at the Lenaia, with Acharnians in 425, Knights in
424, and Frogs in 405. Frogs in fact won the unique distinction of a repeat performance at a
subsequent festival. We know that a son of Aristophanes, Araros, was also a comic poet and he
could have been heavily involved in the production of his father's play Wealth II in 388.[46] Araros
is also thought to have been responsible for the posthumous performances of the now lost plays
Aeolosicon II and Cocalus,[47] and it is possible that the last of these won the prize at the City
Dionysia in 387.[48] It appears that a second son, Philippus, was twice victorious at the
Lenaia[49] and he could have directed some of Eubulus comedies.[50] A third son was called
either Nicostratus or Philetaerus,[51] and a man by the latter name appears in the catalogue of
Lenaia victors with two victories, the first probably in the late 370s.[52]
Plato's The Symposium appears to be a useful source of biographical information about
Aristophanes, but its reliability is open to doubt.[53] It purports to be a record of conversations at
a dinner party at which both Aristophanes and Socrates are guests, held some seven years after
the performance of The Clouds, the play in which Socrates was cruelly caricatured. One of the
guests, Alcibiades, even quotes from the play when teasing Socrates over his appearance[54]
and yet there is no indication of any ill-feeling between Socrates and Aristophanes. Plato's
Aristophanes is in fact a genial character and this has been interpreted as evidence of Plato's
own friendship with him[55] (their friendship appears to be corroborated by an epitaph for
Aristophanes, reputedly written by Plato, in which the playwright's soul is compared to an eternal
shrine for the Graces).[56] Plato was only a boy when the events in The Symposium are
supposed to have occurred and it is possible that his Aristophanes is in fact based on a reading of
the plays. For example, conversation among the guests turns to the subject of Love and
Aristophanes explains his notion of it in terms of an amusing allegory, a device he often uses in
his plays. He is represented as suffering an attack of hiccoughs and this might be a humorous
reference to the crude physical jokes in his plays. He tells the other guests that he is quite happy
to be thought amusing but he is wary of appearing ridiculous.[57][58] This fear of being ridiculed
is consistent with his declaration in The Knights that he embarked on a career of comic playwright
warily after witnessing the public contempt and ridicule that other dramatists had incurred.[59]
Aristophanes survived The Peloponnesian War, two oligarchic revolutions and two democratic
restorations; this has been interpreted as evidence that he was not actively involved in politics
despite his highly political plays.[60] He was probably appointed to the Council of Five Hundred
for a year at the beginning of the fourth century but such appointments were very common in
democratic Athens.[61] Socrates, in the trial leading up to his own death, put the issue of a
personal conscience in those troubled times quite succinctly:
,
, .[62]
"...he who will really fight for the right, if he would live even for a little while, must have a private
station and not a public one.[63]
Aristophanes the Poet[edit]
Muse reading, Louvre
The language in Aristophanes' plays, and in Old Comedy generally, was valued by ancient
commentators as a model of the Attic dialect. The orator Quintilian believed that the charm and
grandeur of the Attic dialect made Old Comedy an example for orators to study and follow, and he
considered it inferior in these respects only to the works of Homer.[64][65] A revival of interest in
the Attic dialect may have been responsible for the recovery and circulation of Aristophanes' plays
during the 4th and 5th centuries AD, resulting in their survival today.[64] In Aristophanes' plays,

the Attic dialect is couched in verse and his plays can be appreciated for their poetic qualities.
For Aristophanes' contemporaries the works of Homer and Hesiod formed the cornerstone of
Hellenes history and culture. Thus poetry had a moral and social significance that made it an
inevitable topic of comic satire.[66] Aristophanes was very conscious of literary fashions and
traditions and his plays feature numerous references to other poets. These include not only rival
comic dramatists such as Eupolis and Hermippus[67] and predecessors such as Magnes, Crates
and Cratinus,[68] but also tragedians, notably Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, all three of
whom are mentioned in e.g. The Frogs. Aristophanes was the equal of these great tragedians in
his subtle use of lyrics.[69] He appears to have modelled his approach to language on that of
Euripides in particular, so much so that the comic dramatist Cratinus labelled him a
'Euripidaristophanist' addicted to hair-splitting niceties.[18]
A full appreciation of Aristophanes' plays requires an understanding of the poetic forms he
employed with virtuoso skill, and of their different rhythms and associations.[70] There were three
broad poetic forms: iambic dialogue, tetrameter verses and lyrics:[71]
Iambic dialogue: Aristophanes achieves an effect resembling natural speech through the use of
the iambic trimeter (corresponding to the effects achieved by English poets such as Shakespeare
using iambic pentameters). His realistic use of the metre[72][73] makes it ideal for both dialogue
and soliloquy, as for instance in the prologue, before the arrival of the Chorus, when the audience
is introduced to the main issues in the plot. The Acharnians opens with these three lines by the
hero, Dikaiopolis (rendered here in English as iambic pentameters):
How many are the things that vex my heart!
Pleasures are few, so very few just four But stressful things are manysandthousandsandheaps![74]
Here Aristophanes employs a frequent device, arranging the syntax so that the final word in a line
comes as a comic climax.[75] The hero's pleasures are so few he can number them (,
four) but his causes for complaint are so many they beggar numerical description and he must
invent his own word for them (, literally 'sandhundredheaps', here
paraphrased 'manysandthousandsandheaps'). The use of invented compound words is another
comic device frequently found in the plays.[76][77]
Tetrameter catalectic verses: These are long lines of anapests, trochees or iambs (where each
line is ideally measured in four dipodes or pairs of feet), used in various situations within each
play such as:
formal debates or agons between characters (typically in anapestic rhythm);
excited dialogue or heated argument (typically trochaic rhythm, the same as in early tragedy);
long speeches declaimed by the Chorus in parabases (in either anapestic or trochaic rhythms);
informal debates barely above the level of ordinary dialogue (typically iambic).
Anapestic rhythms are naturally jaunty (as in many limericks) and trochaic metre is suited to rapid
delivery (the word 'trochee' is in fact derived from trechein, 'to run', as demonstrated for example
by choruses who enter at speed, often in aggressive mood)[78] However, even though both these
rhythms can seem to 'bowl along'[72] Aristophanes often varies them through use of complex
syntax and substituted metres, adapting the rhythms to the requirements of serious argument. In
an anapestic passage in The Frogs, for instance, the character Aeschylus presents a view of
poetry that is supposed to be serious but which leads to a comic interruption by the god,
Dionysus:
AES.:It was Orpheus singing who taught us religion and how wrong people are when they kill,
And we learned from Musaeus medicinal cures and the science of divination.
If it's farming you want, Hesiod knows it all, when to plant, when to harvest. How godlike
Homer got to be famous, I'll tell if you ask: he taught us what all good men should know,
Discipline, fortitude, battle-readiness. DIO.: But no-one taught Pantocles yesterday
He was marching his men up and down on parade when the crest of his helmet fell off![79]
The rhythm begins at a typical anapestic gallop, slows down to consider the revered poets Hesiod
and Homer, then gallops off again to its comic conclusion at the expense of the unfortunate
Pantocles. Such subtle variations in rhythm are common in the plays, allowing for serious points

to be made while still whetting the audience's appetite for the next joke.
Lyrics: Almost nothing is known about the music that accompanied Greek lyrics, and the metre is
often so varied and complex that it is difficult for modern readers or audiences to get a feel for the
intended effects, yet Aristophanes still impresses with the charm and simplicity of his lyrics.[72]
Some of the most memorable and haunting lyrics are dignified hymns set free of the comic
action[80] In the example below, taken from The Wasps, the lyric is merely a comic interlude and
the rhythm is steadily trochaic. The syntax in the original Greek is natural and unforced and it was
probably accompanied by brisk and cheerful music, gliding to a concluding pun at the expense of
Amynias, who is thought to have lost his fortune gambling.[81]
Though to myself I often seem
A bright chap and not awkward,
None comes close to Amynias,
Son of Sellos of the Bigwig
Clan, a man I once saw
Dine with rich Leogorus.
Now as poor as Antiphon,
He lives on apples and pomegranates
Yet he got himself appointed
Ambassador to Pharselus,
Way up there in Thessaly,
Home of the poor Penestes:
Happy to be where everyone
Is as penniless as he is![82]
The pun here in English translation (Penestes-penniless) is a weak version of the Greek pun
-, Penstaisi-pensts, "destitute". Many of the puns in the plays are based
on words that are similar rather than identical, and it has been observed that there could be more
of them than scholars have yet been able to identify.[83] Others are based on double meanings.
Sometimes entire scenes are constructed on puns, as in The Acharnians with the Megarian
farmer and his pigs:[84] the Megaran farmer defies the Athenian embargo against Megaran trade,
and tries to trade his daughters disguised as pigs, except "pig" was ancient slang for "vagina".
Since the embargo against Megara was the pretext for the Peloponnesian War, Aristophanes
naturally concludes that this whole mess happened because of "three cunts".
It can be argued that the most important feature of the language of the plays is imagery,
particularly the use of similes, metaphors and pictorial expressions.[75] In 'The Knights', for
example, the ears of a character with selective hearing are represented as parasols that open
and close.[85] In The Frogs, Aeschylus is said to compose verses in the manner of a horse rolling
in a sandpit.[86] Some plays feature revelations of human perfectibility that are poetic rather than
religious in character, such as the marriage of the hero Pisthetairos to Zeus's paramour in The
Birds and the 'recreation' of old Athens, crowned with roses, at the end of The Knights.
Aristophanes and Rhetoric[edit]
It is widely believed that Aristophanes condemned rhetoric on both moral and political grounds.
He states, a speaker trained in the new rhetoric may use his talents to deceive the jury and
bewilder his opponents so thoroughly that the trial loses all semblance of fairness[87] . He is
speaking to the art of flattery, and evidence points towards the fact that many of Aristophanes
plays were actually created with the intent to attack the view of rhetoric. The most noticeable
attack can be seen in his play Banqueters, in which two brothers from different educational
backgrounds argue over which education is better. One brother comes from a background of oldfashioned education while the other brother appears to be a product of the sophistic education
[87] .
The chorus was mainly used by Aristophanes as a defense against rhetoric and would often talk
about topics such as the civic duty of those who were educated in classical teachings. In
Aristophanes opinion it was the job of those educated adults to protect the public from the
deception and to stand as a beacon of light for those who were more gullible than others. One of

the main reasons why Aristophanes was so against the sophists came into existence from the
requirements listed by the leaders of the organization. Money was essential, which meant that
roughly all of the pupils studying with the sophists came from upper class backgrounds and
excluded the rest of the polis. Aristophanes believed that education and knowledge was a public
service and that anything that excluded willing minds was nothing but an abomination.[88] He
concludes that all politicians that study rhetoric must have "doubtful citizenships, unspeakable
morals, and too much arrogance[87] .
The Greek word for comedy (kmida) derives from the words for 'revel' and 'song' (kmos and
d) and according to Aristotle[89] comic drama actually developed from song. The first official
comedy at the City Dionysia was not staged until 487/6 BC,[90] by which time tragedy had
already been long established there. The first comedy at the Lenaia was staged later still,[91] only
about 20 years before the performance there of The Acharnians, the first of Aristophanes'
surviving plays. According to Aristotle, comedy was slow to gain official acceptance because
nobody took it seriously,[92] yet only sixty years after comedy first appeared at the City Dionysia,
Aristophanes observed that producing comedies was the most difficult work of all.[93]
Competition at the Dionysian festivals needed dramatic conventions for plays to be judged, but it
also fuelled innovations.[94] Developments were quite rapid and Aristotle could distinguish
between 'old' and 'new' comedy by 330 BC.[95] The trend from Old Comedy to New Comedy saw
a move away from highly topical concerns with real individuals and local issues towards
generalized situations and stock characters. This was partly due to the internationalization of
cultural perspectives during and after the Peloponnesian War.[96][97] For ancient commentators
such as Plutarch,[98] New Comedy was a more sophisticated form of drama than Old Comedy.
However, Old Comedy was in fact a complex and sophisticated dramatic form incorporating many
approaches to humour and entertainment.[99] In Aristophanes' early plays, the genre appears to
have developed around a complex set of dramatic conventions, and these were only gradually
simplified and abandoned.
The City Dionysia and the Lenaia were celebrated in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine and
ecstasy. (Euripides' play The Bacchae offers the best insight into 5th century ideas about this
god.)[100] Old Comedy can be understood as a celebration of the exuberant sense of release
inherent in his worship[101] It was more interested in finding targets for satire than in any kind of
advocacy.[102] During the City Dionysia, a statue of the god was brought to the theatre from a
temple outside the city, and it remained in the theatre throughout the festival, overseeing the
plays like a privileged member of the audience.[103] In The Frogs, the god appears also as a
dramatic character, and he enters the theatre ludicrously disguised as Hercules. He observes to
the audience that every time he is on hand to hear a joke from a comic dramatist like Phrynichus
(one of Aristophanes' rivals) he ages by more than a year.[104] This scene opens the play, and it
is a reminder to the audience that nobody is above mockery in Old Comedy not even its patron
god and its practitioners. Gods, artists, politicians and ordinary citizens were legitimate targets,
comedy was a kind of licensed buffoonery,[105] and there was no legal redress for anyone who
was slandered in a play.[106] There were certain limits to the scope of the satire, but they are not
easily defined. Impiety could be punished in 5th century Athens, but the absurdities implicit in the
traditional religion were open to ridicule.[107] The polis was not allowed to be slandered, but as
stated in the biography section of this article, that could depend on who was in the audience and
which festival was involved.
For convenience, Old Comedy, as represented by Aristophanes' early plays, is analysed below in
terms of three broad characteristics topicality, festivity and complexity. Dramatic structure
contributes to the complexity of Aristophanes' plays. However, it is associated with poetic rhythms
and meters that have little relevance to English translations and it is therefore treated in a
separate section.
Topicality[edit]
Old Comedy's emphasis on real personalities and local issues makes the plays difficult to

appreciate today without the aid of scholarly commentaries see for example articles on The
Knights, The Wasps and Peace for lists of topical references. The topicality of the plays had
unique consequences for both the writing and the production of the plays in ancient Athens.
Individual masks: All actors in classical Athens wore masks, but whereas in tragedy and New
Comedy these identified stereotypical characters, in Old Comedy the masks were often
caricatures of real people. Perhaps Socrates attracted a lot of attention in Old Comedy because
his face lent itself easily to caricature by mask-makers.[108] In The Knights we are told that the
mask makers were too afraid to make a caricature of Cleon (there represented as a
Paphlagonian slave) but we are assured that the audience is clever enough to identify him
anyway.[109]
The real scene of action: Since Old Comedy makes numerous references to people in the
audience, the theatre itself was the real scene of action and theatrical illusion was treated as
something of a joke. In The Acharnians, for example, The Pnyx is just a few steps from the hero's
front door, and in Peace Olympia is separated from Athens by a few moments' supposed flight on
a dung beetle. The audience is sometimes drawn or even dragged into the action. When the hero
in Peace returns to Athens from his flight to Olympia, he tells the audience that they looked like
rascals when seen from the heavens, and seen up close they look even worse.[110] In The
Acharnians the hero confronts the archon basileus,[111] sitting in the front row, and demands to
be awarded first prize for a drinking competition, which is a none too subtle way for Aristophanes
to request first prize for the drama competition.
Self-mocking theatre: Frequent parodying of tragedy is an aspect of Old Comedy that modern
audiences find difficult to understand. But the Lenaia and City Dionysia included performances of
both comedies and tragedies, and thus references to tragedy were highly topical and immediately
relevant to the original audience.[112] The comic dramatist also poked fun at comic poets and he
even ridiculed himself. It is possible, as indicated earlier, that Aristophanes mocked his own
baldness. In The Clouds, the Chorus compares him to an unwed, young mother[113] and in The
Acharnians the Chorus mockingly depicts him as Athens' greatest weapon in the war against
Sparta.[114]
Political theatre: The Lenaia and City Dionysus were state-sponsored, religious festivals, and
though the latter was the more prestigious of the two, both were occasions for official pomp and
circumstance. The ceremonies for the Lenaia were overseen by the archon basileus and by
officials of the Eleusinian mysteries. The City Dionysia was overseen by the archon eponymous
and the priest of Dionysus. Opening ceremonies for the City Dionysia featured, in addition to the
ceremonial arrival of the god, a parade in full armour of the sons of warriors who died fighting for
the polis and, until the end of the Peloponnesian War, a presentation of annual tribute from
subject states.[115] Religious and political issues were topics that could hardly be ignored in such
a setting and the plays often treat them quite seriously. Even jokes can be serious when the topic
is politics especially in wartime. The butts of the most savage jokes are opportunists who prey
on the gullibility of their fellow citizens, including oracle-mongers,[116] the exponents of new
religious practices,[117] war-profiteers and political fanatics. In The Acharnians, for example,
Lamachus is represented as a crazed militarist whose preparations for war are hilariously
compared to the hero's preparations for a dinner party.[118] Cleon emerges from numerous
similes and metaphors in The Knights as a protean form of comic evil, clinging to political power
by every possible means for as long as he can, yet the play also includes simple hymns invoking
Poseidon and Athena,[119] and it ends with visions of a miraculously transformed Demos (i.e. the
morally reformed citizenry of Athens).[120] Imaginative visions of a return to peaceful activities
resulting from peace with Sparta,[121] and a plea for leniency for citizens suspected of complicity
in an oligarchic revolt[122] are other examples of a serious purpose behind the plays.
Teasing and taunting: A festival audience presented the comic dramatist with a wide range of
targets, not just political or religious ones anyone known to the audience could be mocked for
any reason, such as diseases, physical deformities, ugliness, family misfortunes, bad manners,
perversions, dishonesty, cowardice in battle, and clumsiness.[123] Foreigners, a conspicuous
presence in imperial Athens, particularly at the City Dionysia, often appear in the plays comically
mispronouncing Attic words these include Spartans (Lysistrata), Scythians
(Thesmophoriazusae), Persians, Boeotians and Megarians (The Acharnians).

Festivity[edit]
The Lenaia and City Dionysia were religious festivals, but they resembled a gala rather than a
church service.[124]
Dirty jokes: A relaxation in standards of behaviour was permitted and the holiday spirit included
bawdy irreverence towards both men and gods.[125] Old Comedy is rich in obscenities and the
crude jokes are often very detailed, as when the Chorus in The Acharnians places a curse on
Antimachus,[126] a choregus accused of niggardly conduct, wishing upon him a night-time
mugging as he returns home from some drunken party and envisioning him, as he stoops down
to pick up a rock in the darkness, accidentally picking up a fresh turd instead. He is then
envisioned hurling the turd at his attacker, missing and accidentally hitting Cratinus, a lyric poet
not admired by Aristophanes.[127] This was particularly funny because the curse was sung (or
chanted) in choreographed style by a Chorus of 24 grown men who were otherwise known to the
audience as respectable citizens.
The musical extravaganza: The Chorus was vital to the success of a play in Old Comedy long
after it had lost its relevance for tragedy.[128] Technically, the competition in the dramatic festivals
was not between poets but between choruses.[129] In fact eight of Aristophanes' eleven surviving
plays are named after the Chorus. In Aristophanes' time, the Chorus in tragedy was relatively
small (twelve members) and its role had been reduced to that of an awkwardly placed
commentator, but in Old Comedy the Chorus was large (numbering 24), it was actively involved in
the plot, its entry into the action was frequently spectacular, its movements were practised with
military precision and sometimes it was involved in choreographed skirmishes with the actors.
[130] The expenditure on costumes, training and maintenance of a Chorus was considerable,
[131] and perhaps many people in the original audience enjoyed comedy mainly for the spectacle
and music.[132] The chorus gradually lost its significance as New Comedy began to develop.
Obvious costumes: Consistent with the holiday spirit, much of the humour in Old Comedy is
slapstick buffoonery that doesn't require the audience's careful attention, often relying on visual
cues. Actors playing male roles appear to have worn tights over grotesque padding, with a
prodigious, leather phallus barely concealed by a short tunic. Female characters were played by
men but were easily recognized in long, saffron tunics.[133] Sometimes the visual cues are
deliberately confused for comic effect, as in The Frogs, where Dionysus arrives on stage in a
saffron tunic, the buskin boots of a tragic actor and a lion skin cloak that usually characterized
Heracles - an absurd outfit that provokes the character Heracles (as no doubt it provoked the
audience) to guffaws of helpless mirth.[134]
The farcical anti-climax: The holiday spirit might also have been responsible for an aspect of the
comic plot that can seem bewildering to modern audiences. The major confrontation (agon)
between the 'good' and 'bad' characters in a play is often resolved decisively in favour of the
former long before the end of the play. The rest of the play deals with farcical consequences in a
succession of loosely connected scenes. The farcical anti-climax has been explained in a variety
of ways, depending on the particular play. In The Wasps, for instance, it has been thought to
indicate a gradual change in the main character's perspective as the lessons of the agon are
slowly absorbed.[135] In The Acharnians, it has been explained in terms of a unifying theme that
underlies the episodes, demonstrating the practical benefits that come with wisdom.[136] But the
early release of dramatic tension is consistent with the holiday meanings in Old Comedy[137] and
it allows the audience to relax in uncomplicated enjoyment of the spectacle, the music, jokes and
celebrations that characterize the remainder of the play. The celebration of the hero's victory often
concludes in a sexual conquest and sometimes it takes the form of a wedding, thus providing the
action with a joyous sense of closure.[138]
Complexity[edit]
The development of New Comedy involved a trend towards more realistic plots, a simpler
dramatic structure and a softer tone.[139] Old Comedy was the comedy of a vigorously
democratic polis at the height of its power and it gave Aristophanes the freedom to explore the
limits of humour, even to the point of undermining the humour itself.[140]
Inclusive comedy: Old Comedy provided a variety of entertainments for a diverse audience. It
accommodated a serious purpose, light entertainment, hauntingly beautiful lyrics, the buffoonery

of puns and invented words, obscenities, disciplined verse, wildly absurd plots and a formal,
dramatic structure.
Fantasy and absurdity: Fantasy in Old Comedy is unrestricted and impossibilities are ignored.
[141] Situations are developed logically to absurd conclusions, an approach to humour that is
echoed for instance in the works of Lewis Carroll and Eugne Ionesco (the Theatre of the
Absurd).[142] The crazy costume worn by Dionysus in The Frogs is typical of an absurd result
obtained on logical grounds he wears a woman's saffron-coloured tunic because effeminacy is
an aspect of his divinity, buskin boots because he is interested in reviving the art of tragedy, and a
lion skin cape because, like Heracles, his mission leads him into Hades. Absurdities develop
logically from initial premises in a plot. In The Knights for instance, Cleon's corrupt service to the
people of Athens is originally depicted as a household relationship in which the slave dupes his
master. The introduction of a rival, who is not a member of the household, leads to an absurd shift
in the metaphor, so that Cleon and his rival become erastai competing for the affections of an
eromenos, hawkers of oracles competing for the attention of a credulous public, athletes in a race
for approval and orators competing for the popular vote.
The resourceful hero: In Aristophanic comedy, the hero is an independent-minded and self-reliant
individual. He has something of the ingenuity of Homer's Odysseus and much of the shrewdness
of the farmer idealized in Hesiod's Works and Days, subjected to corrupt leaders and unreliable
neighbours. Typically he devises a complicated and highly fanciful escape from an intolerable
situation.[143] Thus Dikaiopolis in The Acharnians contrives a private peace treaty with the
Spartans; Bdelucleon in The Wasps turns his own house into a private law court in order to keep
his jury-addicted father safely at home; Trygaeus in Peace flies to Olympus on a giant dung
beetle to obtain an end to the Peloponnesian War; Pisthetairus in Birds sets off to establish his
own colony and becomes instead the ruler of the bird kingdom and a rival to the gods.
The resourceful cast: The numerous surprising developments in an Aristophanic plot, the
changes in scene, and the farcical comings and goings of minor characters towards the end of a
play, were managed according to theatrical convention with only three principal actors (a fourth
actor, often the leader of the chorus, was permitted to deliver short speeches).[144] Songs and
addresses to the audience by the Chorus gave the actors hardly enough time off-stage to draw
breath and to prepare for changes in scene.
Complex structure: The action of an Aristophanic play obeyed a crazy logic of its own and yet it
always unfolded within a formal, dramatic structure that was repeated with minor variations from
one play to another. The different, structural elements are associated with different poetic meters
and rhythms and these are generally lost in English translations.
Dramatic structure[edit]
The structural elements of a typical Aristophanic plot can be summarized as follows:
prologue - an introductory scene with a dialogue and/or soliloquy addressed to the audience,
expressed in iambic trimeter and explaining the situation that is to be resolved in the play;
parodos - the arrival of the chorus, dancing and singing, sometimes followed by a choreographed
skirmish with one or more actors, often expressed in long lines of tetrameters;
symmetrical scenes - passages featuring songs and declaimed verses in long lines of
tetrameters, arranged symmetrically in two sections such that each half resembles the other in
meter and line length; the agon and parabasis can be considered specific instances of
symmetrical scenes:
parabasis - verses through which the Chorus addresses the audience directly, firstly in the middle
of the play and again near the end (see the section below Parabasis);
agon - a formal debate that decides the outcome of the play, typically in anapestic tetrameter,
though iambs are sometimes used to delineate inferior arguments;[145]
episodes - sections of dialogue in iambic trimeter, often in a succession of scenes featuring minor
characters towards the end of a play;
songs ('strophes'/'antistrophes' or 'odes'/'antodes') - often in symmetrical pairs where each half
has the same meter and number of lines as the other, used as transitions between other
structural elements, or between scenes while actors change costume, and often commenting on
the action;
exodus - the departure of the Chorus and the actors, in song and dance celebrating the hero's

victory and sometimes celebrating a symbolic marriage.

The rules of competition did not prevent a playwright arranging and adjusting these elements to
suit his particular needs.[146] In The Acharnians and Peace, for example, there is no formal agon
whereas in The Clouds there are two agons.