Plato on Aristophanes

A detailed Summary of Plato on Aristophanes

"The Age of Heroes was passed and the Age of Iron was come."(Lord 31) This age was the time when Aristophanes, the great Greek comic-poet, had lived and produced his fine works of literature. Aristophanes was "born an Athenian citizen some time in the decade following 450 BC"(Lord 21) "The Peloponnesian War began in 431 BC and dragged its weary course till 404 BC"(Lord 22-23)

Aristophanes lived to see his city shorn of all her power, her fleets scattered and dismantled, her commerce wrecked, her people reduced to starvation, the olive orchards cut down and the long walls which had been the symbol of her greatness demolished to the music of flutes. Aristophanes had been a member of the first and most complete democracy the world has ever seen. He lived to see this democracy succeeded by an oligarchy of Four Hundred. (Lord 23)

The works of Aristophanes therefore not only coincided with the war, but also were directly effected by it. His concerns and approaches to the world and its problems also reflected the democracy of the time, demonstrated clearly by Old Comedy.

Old Comedy could have only existed during the time of a complete democracy; it attacked anything and everything. Everything was a target, everything was a sati

Aristophanes. Lysistrata. Trans. by Donald Sutherland. Classical Comedy: Greek and Roman. Ed. Robert W. Corrigan. Applause Books, 1987. 11 - 68

During the war, Athens drained her finances and Aristophanes was the only person daring enough to expose the abuses of public finance. When the commissioner questions why Lysistrata's coups had seized the Acropolis, she states, "To protect all the money up there from you - you'll have nothing to fight for without it."(Aristophanes 33) Lysistrata then goes on to blame all of the troubles of Greece on money. (Aristophanes 33) The commissioner asks Lysistrata what she wants to do with the treasures, she replies, "Can you ask? Of course we shall superintend it."(Aristophanes 33) She then gives the groups' qualifications as many wives who manage the household money. (Aristophanes 33-34) During this scene Aristophanes has shown the audience, through the ludicrous act of women taking over the Acropolis in an attempt to end the war, that the government has some illicit tendencies with the reserve. Aristophanes proves that he "was not so much concerned with the maintenance of a reserve as with condemning improper expenditure for vicious purposes of such revenues as were available."(Hugill 9)

Plato. The Symposium. Trans. by William S. Cobb. Plato's Erotic Dialogues: The Symposium and The Phaedrus. State University of New York Press, 1993. 15 -59. (Commentary 61 - 84).

Hugill, William. Panhellenism in Aristophanes. The University Of Chicago Press, 1936. Chicago.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Aristophanes' Lysistrata, Clouds Aristophanes, Peloponnesian War, Aristophanes Comedy, Sparta Thebes, Aristophanes Plato, Comedy Comedy, Aristophanes Greek, Hundred Lord, Symposium Plato's, money aristophanes, allies athens, itaristophanes 33, complete democracy,

Approximate Word count = 1081
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: People