Aristophanes

Also known as Father of Comedy

Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens. He wrote forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete. The majority of his surviving plays belong to the genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are considered its most valuable examples. Aristophanes's plays were performed at the religious festivals of Athens, mostly the City Dionysia and the Lenaia, and several of them won the first prize in their respective competitions.

OverviewAI-generated

Aristophanes (Ἀριστοφάνης) was a male playwright, poet, and writer from Classical Athens, where he was born and died. A member of the deme Kydathenaion, he wrote in Ancient Greek and is associated with the Old Comedy movement. His works fall within the fields of literature and drama.

Notable works include The Acharnians, The Birds, The Clouds, and Assemblywomen. Other titles listed are Ornithes, Vatrachoi tou Aristophanē, Hippeis tou Aristophanē, and Thesmophoriazousai. He was influenced by Pindar, Euripides, and Socrates. He had a child named Araros.

His works are held in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. He is described by sources such as the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition, Pauly–Wissowa, and The Nuttall Encyclopædia.

Synthesized by Vinony from 25 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, Europeana Sparql, Open Library, TMDb. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: ca. 450 B.C.
Died: ca. 385 B.C.
Works: 424

Top works

Ornithes
Vatrachoi tou Aristophanē
Hippeis tou Aristophanē
Thesmophoriazousai
Acharnēs

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Athens, Greece

Aristophanes Ancient Greek: Ἀριστοφάνης, c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion (Latin: Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are used to define it, along with…

via TMDB

Key facts

Person.name: Aristophanes
Person.image: Bust of Aristophanes.jpg
Person.caption: Bust with the inscription "Aristophanes, (son) of Philippides, the Athenian", 1st century AD
Person.birth_place: Athens, Greece
Person.death_date: (aged c. 60)
Person.occupation: Playwright (comedy)
Person.years_active: 427 BC – 386 BC
Person.known_for: Playwright and director of Old Comedy

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Gender: male
Citizenship: Classical Athens
Place of birth: Classical Athens
Place of death: Classical Athens
Child: Araros
Occupation: writer
Languages spoken: Ancient Greek
Notable work: Peace
Field of work: drama
Movement: Old Comedy
Image: Bust of Aristophanes.jpg

Show 13 more facts

topic's main category: Category:Aristophanes
date of death: 0388-00-00
date of birth: 0445-00-00
Commons Creator page: Aristophanes
Commons category: Aristophanes
influenced by: Socrates
Commons gallery: Aristofane
member of the deme: Kydathenaion
writing language: Ancient Greek
has works in the collection: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
name in native language: Ἀριστοφάνης
on focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
P12674: Batumi Oblast

Sources (12)

via Wikidata · CC0

Works in European collections

21 objects attributed to Aristophanes, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

~32 min read

Encyclopedic overview

23 sections

Contents

Biography
Plato's ''Symposion''
Use of language
Aristophanes and Old Comedy
Dramatic structure of Aristophanes's plots
Parabasis
Influence and legacy
Literature
Radio shows
Music
Greek Language
Translation of Aristophanes
Works
Surviving plays
Datable non-surviving (lost) plays
Undated non-surviving (lost) plays
Attributed (doubtful, possibly by Archippus)
See also
Notes
References
Sources
Further reading
External links

Also known as "The Father of Comedy" and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy", Aristophanes wrote plays that often dealt with real-life figures, including Euripides and Alcibiades, and contemporary events, such as the Peloponnesian War. He has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His plays are characterized by preposterous premises, explicit language, wordplays, and political satire. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato singled out Aristophanes's play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates, although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Aristophanes” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.