Aristophanes

Aristophanes' Lysistrate is one of the great political comedies of world literature. It was performed in Athens in 411 BC at a Dionysus festival during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta as a plea for peace. As the men are incapable of peace, the women take the initiative for peace in a revolutionary action led by Lysistrate, because women also have "reason" and "insight". As the old women take control of the state and war coffers from the men and the young women join the Spartans in a love strike, together they force peace through play and thus save Greece. The intertwining of serious themes and lascivious comic action is a constitutive feature of Attic comedy in the classical period, which has its roots in Dionysian festival culture. It massively hindered the reception of Lysistrate until well into the 20th century and was only recognised as an element of carnivalesque comedy in modern times. The edition of the play with a precise translation and a differentiated commentary should help to secure the comedy its place in the cultural memory of the present.

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," a comedy which focuses on the women of Greece whose husbands have left for the Peloponnesian War. The women do not care about the conflict as much as they care about missing their husbands. Its titular character, Lysistrata, insists that men rarely listen to women's reasoning and exclude their opinions on matters of state. In retaliation she convinces the women of Greece to organize a strike, refusing to have sex with their husbands until both sides agree to cease fighting. The irony of this is that the men become more upset with their wives than they do with their enemies of war. Notable for its positive portrayal of women's rationality in a male-dominated society, "Lysistrata" stands as one the most popular and frequently performed plays from classical antiquity. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper and is translated and annotated by the Athenian Society.

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," a comedy which focuses on the women of Greece whose husbands have left for the Peloponnesian War. The women do not care about the conflict as much as they care about missing their husbands. Its titular character, Lysistrata, insists that men rarely listen to women's reasoning and exclude their opinions on matters of state. In retaliation she convinces the women of Greece to organize a strike, refusing to have sex with their husbands until both sides agree to cease fighting. The irony of this is that the men become more upset with their wives than they do with their enemies of war. Notable for its positive portrayal of women's rationality in a male-dominated society, "Lysistrata" stands as one the most popular and frequently performed plays from classical antiquity. Also included in this collection are two additional Aristophanes plays, "The Acharnians" and "The Clouds". This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper and is translated with annotations by the Athenian Society.

The Clouds: A Greek Comedy by Aristophanes. Translated by William James Hickie. The Clouds is a Greek comedy play written by the celebrated playwright Aristophanes. A lampooning of intellectual fashions in classical Athens, it was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC and was not as well received as the author had hoped, coming last of the three plays competing at the festival that year. It was revised between 420 and 417 BC and was thereafter circulated in manuscript form. No copy of the original production survives, and scholarly analysis indicates that the revised version is an incomplete form of Old Comedy. This incompleteness, however, is not obvious in translations and modern performances. Retrospectively, The Clouds can be considered the world's first extant "comedy of ideas" and is considered by literary critics to be among the finest examples of the genre. The play also, however, remains notorious for its caricature of Socrates and is mentioned in Plato's Apology as a contributor to the philosopher's trial and execution.