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Three plays by the comedian of Ancient Greece

Greek playwright, Aristophanes, lived during the 5th and 4th century BC and is considered one of the principal authors of the Greek classical period. Of the nearly thirty plays he wrote during his career, eleven are extant. Amongst the most famous of these is "Lysistrata,"... Read Full Overview

In addition to its many topical references to social life, religion, and politics in classical Athens, the Lysistrata is one of our best sources for the life of women in antiquity: unlike epic, tragedy, and oratory, Attic comedy draws its characters and plots from everyday life... Read Full Overview

Aristophanes, a native Athenian and the leading exponent of Greek comedy, was born c. 450 BCE. Today forty-three of his plays are known by title; eleven survive. The most famous of these is the whimsical fantasy Lysistrata.

Lysistrata and Other Plays centers a disgruntled woman whose attempt to end a war takes the battle from an open field to the soldier's bedroom. Wives from both camps deny their husbands basic affection in an effort to quell the violence.

Set during the... Read Full Overview

About Aaron Poochigian's translation "Aristophanes was a funny, often obscene social commentator, and he was also a brilliantly fluent, wide-ranging poet, whose lyric rhythms were recited and sung to music, with dancing. It's very rare for modern translators to convey his poetic... Read Full Overview

First presented in 411 B.C., this ancient comedy concerns the efforts of Lysistrata, an Athenian woman, to persuade other women to join together in a strike against the men of Greece, denying them sex until they've agreed to put down their arms and end the disastrous wars... Read Full Overview

Aristophanes' Lysistrata is one of the great surviving comedies of ancient Greek theatre, a bold political satire of war, sex, civic power, and domestic rebellion. First staged in Athens in 411 BCE, during the long strain of the Peloponnesian War, the play... Read Full Overview

Writing at a time of political and social crisis in Athens, Aristophanes was an eloquent, yet bawdy challenger to the demagogue and the sophist. In Lysistrata, the titular heroine persuades the women of Greece to withhold sex from their husbands, forcing them to end the Peloponnesian... Read Full Overview

Greek playwright, Aristophanes, lived during the 5th and 4th century BC and is considered one of the principal authors of the Greek classical period. Of the nearly thirty plays he wrote during his career, eleven are extant. Amongst the most famous of these is "Lysistrata,"... Read Full Overview

The acknowledged master of Greek comedy, Aristophanes brilliantly combines serious political satire with bawdiness, pyrotechnical bombast with delicate lyrics. "Lysistrata and Other Plays" features his four most celebrated masterpieces: THE CLOUDS, THE BIRDS, LYSISTRATA, and... Read Full Overview