| Title | : | Lysistrata and Other Plays |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0140448144 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780140448146 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 241 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 412 |
For this edition Alan Sommerstein has completely revised his translation of these three plays, bringing out the full nuances of Aristophanes’ ribald humour and intricate word play, with a new introduction explaining the historical and cultural background to the plays.
Lysistrata and Other Plays Reviews
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Chronology
Introduction & Notes
Further Reading
Translator's Note
Note on the Text
Preface to The Acharnians
--The Acharnians
Preface to The Clouds
--The Clouds
Preface to Lysistrata
--Lysistrata
Notes -
The Acharnians
No idea what I was expecting from my first venture into Classical Greek comedy, but it wasn't the crude, lewd, verbal and physical humour coupled with puns and political and personal satire that I got! The Introduction and notes were extremely useful for setting the historical and cultural scene, explaining how the Comedy of the day worked and elucidating obscure references and jokes. This made me wonder how well it would go on the modern stage, where one would surely expect most of the audience to be oblivious to everything explained in the apparatus. A lot of the humour would translate and the general message of peace vs. war might come through, but all the cultural and historical references would be lost, I think.
Tremendous fun from the page, though.
The Clouds
This time Aristophanes turns his satirical wit on the Sophists, as exemplified by none other than Socrates himself! The new education, based on - sophistry! - and the lack of belief in the traditional pantheon of gods are the prime targets.
It turns out that the surviving text is an unfinished revision of the play. This may be a factor in why I didn't like it as much as The Archarnians, or it might be that it's simply because I have a lot of sympathy for the Sophists' viewpoint on several matters. Either way, I didn't think it was as funny...
Lysistrata
For me the least funny but most interesting of the three plays in this volume. It's full of the same sexual humour as the others and equally preposterous. It's examination of sexual politics is more interesting than its plea for peace with Sparta (perhaps partly because the latter is treated more thoroughly in The Archanians, anyway). It seems that many things have not changes in nearly 2,500 years... One of them appears to be that perceived hairlessness (of women's bodies) was considered more attractive, then as now. I've often wondered if that has been a pan-cultural, pan-historical trend and, if so, whether it is a deep-rooted instinct that has led to evolution away from other, full-on furry, primate species? Odd thing to end up thinking about because of an old Greek drama, but there you go! -
Only a couple of pages into the actual play itself, the translator, Alan H. Sommerstein, footnotes a line of dialogue by the Spartan woman Lampito:
The translator has put the speech of the Spartan characters in Scotch dialect which is related to English about as was the Spartan dialect to the speech of Athens. The Spartans, in their character, anticipated the shrewd, canny, uncouth Scotch highlander of modern times.
I mean... sure? The dialogue itself (“It’s frae exercise and kicking high behint”) has no good reason to be in a different language, as it adds absolutely nothing. Furthermore, I find it rather perfectly ironic that Doric Greek and Scots English are both erroneously referred to as “dialects.”
The introduction, by Jack Lindsay, is similarly full of red flags, such as when it argues that “there are certain works in which a man finds himself at an angle of vision where there is an especially felicitous union of the aesthetic and emotional elements which constitute the basic qualities of his uniqueness. We recognize these works as being welded into a strange unity, as having a homogeneous texture of ecstasy over them that surpasses any aesthetic surface of harmonic colour, though that harmony also is understood by the deeper welling of imagery from the core of creative exaltation” (arguing that Lysistrata is Aristophanes’s best play). Not that I disagree, but this is such terrible writing that I lost a great deal of faith in the man’s ability to say anything without excessive floridity. But in case you're not convinced by the above paragraph, here’s this:The intellectual and spiritual tendrils of the poem are more truly interwoven, the operation of their centres more nearly unified; and so the work goes deeper into life. It is his greatest play because of this, because it holds an intimate perfume of femininity and gives the finest sense of the charm of a cluster of girls, the sweet sense of their chatter, and the contact of their bodies, that is to be found before Shakespeare, because that mocking gaiety we call Aristophanies reaches here its most positive acclamation of life, vitalizing sex with a deep delight, a rare happiness of the spirit.
It’s just all a bit misogynistic, innit? If I were a 20th-century oil baron describing lesbian pornography, “it holds an intimate perfume of femininity and gives the finest sense of the charm of a cluster of girls, the sweet sense of their chatter, and the contact of their bodies” is the kind of thing I would write. The play Lysistrata is hardly a feminist text in and of itself, don’t get me wrong, but it deserves better than... whatever this is.
I also did not care for the choices of illustrations, most of which depicted the scheming women as either scantily clad or entirely nude. The combination of the odd and unpleasant translation choices, patronisingly ridiculous introduction, and exploitative framing of the women in the play all put me in mind of a quote from the late
Terry Pratchett, who said, “Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. This is because most books on witchcraft were written by men.” -
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Lysistrata
No Peacey,
No Pussy!!
- or -
Make Love or Make War,
You can't have both!
The women of Greece, tired of war and its devastation, bring their message home to the men, et voilà, the Peace Movement is launched... -
54. Lysistrata/The Acharnians/The Clouds by Aristophanes, translated by Alan H. Sommerstein
translated: 1973
format: 250 page Penguin Classics paperback (27th printing of a 1973 publication)
acquired: May
read: Aug 26-30
rating: 4 stars
This was a nice corrective after all the dire Greek Tragedies. Aristophanes is really a wonderful addition to the ancient literature. His plays are charming and actually funny, and also full of fart and sex jokes. He was much less prude than we are today.
There are two challenges to reading his plays. One is it's rife with contemporary references, and this leads to extensive notes. As a reader you kind need to let this stuff go, or it breaks up the play. The other is it's full of Greek puns and jokes that don't translate to English. Sommerstein chose to replace these with bad, not-at-all funny English ones. I'm not sure what a translator should do (remember, a live performance can't use footnotes), but I like to think there are more graceful ways to handle this.
But don't be put off by that. These are enjoyable.
The Acharnians 425 bce
The old farmer Dikaiopolis, opening the play with a yawn at the Athens assembly, makes for wonderful character in comedy. Tired of Athen's war with Sparta and with Athen's assembly's inability to deal with it effectively, he makes his own personal peace with Sparta, and then welcomes all the enemies of state to his farm for trade. His defense against the outrage of various officials is his innocence. In the give and take, Aristophanes manages to mock about every Athenian contemporary leader.
At one point the leader of the chorus addressed the audience in defense of the poet - that is of Aristophanes himself:Be sure, though, and hold on to him. He'll carry on impeaching
every abuse he sees, and give much valuable teaching,
Making you wiser, happier men.
The Clouds 423 bce (only an uncompleted revised version survives, from ~419-416 bce)
When Strepsiades, another simpleton, finds himself overwhelmed with debt, he has the perfect solution, he'll head over the thinkery and learn how to argue himself out of the debt. He ends up under the personal tutorship of Socrates, who initiates him (playing on Orphic rites) and promises him success.
The play makes fun of the sophists, who taught the art of argument.
Socrates was active when this was performed. The play makes many crazy claims about him in humor. They are intended to be silly and were wildly untrue. Nontheless, the exact types of slights insinuated against Socrates here, such as that he was an atheist (he wasn't), were actually used against him legally some 16 years later. Socrates would be condemned to death. Anyway, here, it is actually entertaining, and it is hard to believe it was intended as more than in jest.
Lysistrata 411 be
Lysistrata is best encountered without a summary. So, in an effort not to spoil it, I'll just say that it was really funny in text and would surely be hundred times funnier in performance.
What strikes me in this collection overall is how unexpected and refreshing it was. Apparently raunchy humor was big part of Athenian drama, after all these plays were performed in celebration of the god of wine, Dionysos. But Aristophanes provides an intelligent humor. His plays are an argument for peace and against the ridiculousness of war. Too bad no one in power was listening. They never seem to. -
Full review to come!
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I had mixed feelings for this one. "The Acharnians" was overwhelmingly funny. The mixture of philosophical jokes and straight up filthy humor was great, and the translator did a great job of carrying over the jokes. On the other hand, the historical context provided was ridiculously confusing and poorly written. I actually had to use Wikipedia to figure out what the heck the translator was trying to say with the "introduction" to the play. The other introductions were clearer, but also less important.
"The Clouds", while interesting, is forever tainted in my mind for being so unfair to Socrates, and philosophy as a whole. That said, it was very well done. Plenty of dramatic irony and arguments/jokes that were translated well into English. "Lysistrata" struck a happy middle for me. It was just as funny as "The Archarnians" and also carried a very strong political message. Even though many of the characters and views presented were sexist, the women won in the end, so I could it as a win.
My biggest issue with this edition in particular was the notes and introductions done by the translator. Often the notes were placed at odd times, referencing and explaining things that had not yet happened in the main text. Also, notes from later plays would simply read "see note x from The Acharnians", which I found frustrating. It led to a lot more page flipping that I like to do simply to understand a story, especially because these are comedies instead of serious academic presentations. -
Peace is a major theme of these plays (this review only covers Lysistrata & The Acharnians). The Acharnians focuses on arguments against war among the men, while Lysistrata is a bawdy and demented fest of diatribes between women and men. When the women, led by the titular character, withhold their sex in their demand for peace the men seem to be at a significant disadvantage.
The Acharnians is set during the Peloponnesian War during the sixth year of conflict between Athens and Sparta. In Aristophanes play the protagonist is a farmer named Dikaiopolis who has suffered as the war has progressed. The Athenian military faces pressure to escalate the conflict for revenge against Sparta, while Dikaiopolis wishes to negotiate peace for his family alone. Throughout the play, Dikaipolis must use his wit to thwart his militaristic opponents. Democracy is presented as a vehicle for militarism and it allows many of the Athenian politicians to rally supporters under the guise of cooperation. A buffoonish and arrogant general, Lamachus, is held up as an example of the militaristic attitude that Greek democracy often produced.
The play is filled with outrageous puns and wonderful wit that skewers the military and the Athenian aristocracy as peace is sought. There is even a brief section that pokes fun at the then successful tragic dramatist Euripides. However, this play is definitely one about the men who are in charge whether in Athens or Sparta; thus it is easy to contrast it with the approach taken in Lysistrata.
The name Lysistrata can be loosely translated as "she who disbands armies". That is behind both her mission and her leadership of the women of Athens who she encourages to withhold their sex from the men until peace can be brokered with Sparta. The play was produced more than a decade after The Acharnians and Athens had suffered a major blow when defeated in Syracuse with the loss of her navy. While they were recovering from that disaster the war continued with no end in sight (did I mention that these plays address very contemporary issues for those of us living in twenty-first century America?).
The play is famous for the roles given to women, particularly noteworthy since there is no evidence for women attending Athenian theater, and since it entailed the somewhat comic difficulty of having men, already in their phallic-oriented costumes, play the roles of the women. It is much more bawdy and extreme in its humor than The Archanians with the focus on the "battle of the sexes" centered at the Acropolis as a means used by the women, led by Lysistrata, to bring the men to their senses. The humor is magnified in the opening sections as the men who oppose them are old and perhaps a bit senile since the young men are all at war.
The pride of the old men is deeply wounded when Lysistrata declares that the women have assumed all civil authority and will henceforth provide for the safety and welfare of Athens. The magistrate cannot believe his ears when he hears Lysistrata say that the women have grown impatient with the incompetence of their husbands in matters that concern the commonweal. For rebuking the women, the magistrate receives potfuls of water poured on his head. When the ineffectual old men declare that they will never submit, the women answer that the old men are worthless and that all they have been able to do is legislate the city into trouble.
The women do have difficulties maintaining order within their ranks, but that just adds to the comedy. The result of this and further comic moments, including a riot surrounding the birth of a baby to one of the women, is a delight that transcends the centuries and overcomes many of the difficulties of translation. This has become my favorite play by Aristophanes.
While also a comedy critical of aspects of culture, in The Clouds Aristophanes takes as his theme the contrast between an older educational mode and the new interrogative style, associated with the name of Socrates. He begins with a prologue (lines 1-262), which introduces the two principal characters, Strepsiades (“Twister”), worried by the debts accumulating because of the propensity for chariot racing of his long-haired son, Pheidippides (“Sparer of Horses,” or “Horsey”). The idea occurs, with the assistance of “a student,” to have the son enter the school, the "Thinkery" next door, operated by Socrates, wherein by the logic of the sophists one should be able to learn how to talk so as to evade one’s debts. Not unlike sons in our culture, Pheidippides son refuses to attend, lest his suntan be ruined, and his father goes instead. He finds Socrates suspended in a basket from the roof, wherein rarefied thinking can be more appropriately done in the atmosphere of the clouds.
What follows is the entrance of the chorus of “clouds” singing and dancing (lines 263-509), following the incantations and chanted prayers of Socrates, to the alarm of Strepsiades. In brilliant repartee, the chorus is introduced as the goddesses, who, with wind, lightning, and thunder, patronize intellectual development. Yet the buffoonery that follows indicates that it is some weird intellect, for Socrates, in answer to questions about rain and thunder, assures Strepsiades that there is no Zeus but only clouds displaying analogies to the human bodily functions of passing water or gas. Strepsiades is convinced and agrees to become a student. He proves to be incompetent as a student, for he cannot memorize what is required but only wants to learn how to outwit his creditors. Subsequent to his own dismissal, he forces Pheidippides to enroll under threat of expulsion from home. It here that he is exposed to the debate between “Right” (“Just Logic”) and “Wrong” (“Unjust Logic”), from which it is obvious that the argument of the latter will prevail.
Aristophanes is successful in parading buffooneries and a satiric presentation of his son's great success, he discovers that success means that his son now knows how to whip him. Along with a commentary on the ancient tragedians there are amusing anecdotes concerning child development in Strepsiades’ argument to Pheidippides, but Strepsiades has been defeated by his own intentions.
I found Aristophanes somewhat more cerebral and obscure in this play when compared to Lysistrata, but the caricature of Socrates is enough to make the play worth while for anyone who is interested in the golden age of Athens. -
“If once we let these women get the semblance of a start,
Before we know, they'll be adept at every manly art.
They'll turn their hands to building ships, and then they'll make a bid
To fight our fleet and ram us, just like Artemisia did."”
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WHY are the Antic Greeks so damn bawdy?!
For a book that I first read in high school for my English class, Lysistrata has left quite a weird impression in my head. Imagine confidently assigning a group of 16 year olds to read about a play, which was written almost 2500 years ago. Now imagine if this play was about a bunch of women refusing to have sex with any man in Greece as long as the men insist on making war with each other. Now, imagine that it was filled with embarrassingly explicit puns, political satire, and very specific digs at Aristophanes's contemporaries. It seems unlikely, but reader, I had quite a few laughs out of it.
Just take a look at what the 16 year-old me thought worth highlighting for literary analysis:
That being said, I think that this absurd collection of comedies are only really worth reading if you are interested in Ancient Greek culture / history, and that only when it's backed with the very useful introduction and footnotes in this edition that make this challenging read a little bit more comprehensible.
2.5/5 -
Aristophanes
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I read Lysistrata because I want to teach something besides Oedipus. It is hilarious and vulgar but sadly I think my students would run to the dean if they had to read it. Back to the drawing board…
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Эрчүүд нь үгэнд нь орохгүй байлдаад болохгүй болохоор Лисистрата гэдэг бүсгүй бүх эмэгтэйчүүдийн сексийн суулт зохион байгуулдаг кк, аймаар инээдтэй. Lysistrata, Clouds, Acharnians гурван жүжиг бга.
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In The Acharnians a crafty, homely farmer makes a separate peace because he is tired of doing without. In Lysistrata the women of the city-states at war decided they’ve had enough and begin a boycott of sex to compel their husbands and lovers to make peace. In Clouds, a man near financial ruin because of his no-good son’s fondness for luxury decides that a good education by the sophists will help him escape his debts by giving him the power to win any lawsuit. The humor is broad, bawdy to the point of pornographic, explicit where Shakespeare’s bawdiness is suggestive, and filled with fart jokes and the occasional shitting joke. Near the end of Lysistrata, Athenian and Spartan males are walking around with super-sized erections, bent-backed in pain over toting their throbbing phalli about without relief. In other words, what the boys of South Park have come up with is actually several thousand years old.
Contemporary folks appear in the plays to be skewered---another commonality with South Park—Cleon, Euripides, and many others whose fame has been made obscure by history. Clouds features an unflattering appearance by Socrates, erroneously included with the sophists as a man arguing for argument’s sake, reminding us that satire is often a blunt instrument. If the father and son in the play weren’t so ridiculous you might view Clouds as an anti-intellectual assault on education and change, but the father and son are squarely in Aristophanes’s sights along with the sophists so it’s not hard to see it as a more embracing social satire. While the father sees the lack of intellectual merit in the sophist approach he delights in its potential benefit, a perpetual get out of jail card for any malfeasance. He is greedy, selfish and cynical, not an innocent led astray by new fangled assaults on the old and traditional.
Aristophanes is an equal opportunity satirist and like most comedians, if the joke doesn’t fit the crime or the truth of the circumstances but is funny, the joke wins. Purpose takes a back seat to laughs. To that point, much of Aristophanes is very funny; but to be fair, no matter how funny you were at the moment, give or take 2500 years, some jokes lose their freshness and even their meaning—and word to the wise to the translator and editor: explaining jokes, not funny.
What works best here is that, tossing aside the topical, Aristophanes’s big themes are as immortal as Zeus, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Themes like war, sex, hypocrisy and human nature are timeless because one indelible characteristic of human nature apparently is we are slow learners. It’s what comedy has in common with tragedy. In the end, we laugh, we cry, but we don’t fully get it until it’s too late. Then comes the pie in the face or the news that our hubris has led to the slaughter of half our family. -
In the wake of the Supreme Court's disastrous Roe decision in which our highest court saw fit to take away women's bodily autonomy, I reread Lysistrata as at least a hopeful, if temporary, balm to my rage. The theme is serious, that women have genuine leverage potential against male tyranny, if they will just organize and use it.
The play itself is all raunchy fun: the chorus never subducts the players into dark, painful, portentous dialectics. The fun has no limits -- at one point the stage directions are for a group of taunting females to take off the rest of their clothes -- but the point is held firm and the men must capitulate.
Our "Supreme" magistrates hope their Roe decision will scoot us back to tranquilized 1950s where women are forced to marry early, devote themselves to kitchen arts, adopt a missionary pose and learn to love and embrace subordinacy.
But what if women refuse to go along? Apparently as many Gen-Z women are talking among themselves they're reaching the conclusion that collectively saying No is an option. Hopefully this dialogue will expand to include their elder generations. -
So *surprise* this is another book that I had to read for class (I'm drowning in them, it's fine). This was actually the best one I've gotten to read for my minor--at least for this semester.
Despite the plays being like 2500 years old, the translation was awesome and easy to read, and it was actually SO FUNNY. There were 3 plays in here, and my least favorite to favorite were The Clouds (2/5), The Archarnians (3/5), and Lysistrata (4/5). Of course the humor is also absurd because that's how Ancient Greek humor worked, but honestly it was just super fun to read this honestly. A much needed break from all my other grueling reading in this freaking classssss. -
Quite bawdy in the manner of the Elizabethans, humorous and graphic, these plays are a marked divergence from the Greek drama. One wonders if he knew Socrates? There are shades of the Symposium in Lysistrata. Good fun to read, they would make great theatre.
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We only read Lysistrata in clubbe, but 1-star for the translator of this Penguin edition, who indicates the Spartans as foreign through dialect... that was maybe Rastafarian?
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This review is only for Lysistrata:
Lysistrata is an ancient Greek comedy written by Aristophanes in the fifth century BCE. It is a comedy about Lysistrata, a woman who organises a sex strike to end the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. The play is still produced and read frequently because it is a timeless and astute commentary on the nature of war and the position of women in society.
One of the reasons why Lysistrata is an excellent play is that it is sarcastic and utilises comedy and absurdity to remark on serious subjects. In the play, Lysistrata and the other female characters utilise their sexual power to bring about peace, which is a hilarious and unorthodox method of settling conflict. This sarcastic strategy enables Aristophanes to make his argument about the futility and folly of war in an amusing and thought-provoking manner.
Lastly, Lysistrata is a wonderful play because it conveys a timeless lesson about the price of violence and the necessity of pursuing peaceful resolutions to conflict. The drama emphasises the agony and damage that war causes and indicates that there are alternatives to aggressiveness and violence. This message is as pertinent now as it was when the play was written.
It is fascinating to view Lysistrata from a contemporary perspective, where both feminism and sexism may be detected in the play. Women are often stereotyped, which we, of course, despise. However, they are often given powerful and dominant roles that we admire—though it was not intended to have this impact at the time. The women utilise the only instrument they had at the time, which was their bodies, to fight for social and political reform, which will irk modern readers and raise the question: how did men genuinely "value" women in ancient times (and perhaps modern), and what did they want out of them? Despite the continual sexualization of women, the play reminds us of their true strength and leadership potential, with their distinct wit, intelligence, and capacity to lead. In face of the change of perspective modern readers will have towards the play it has still stood the test of time. It is a brilliant and thought-provoking piece that continues to resonate with contemporary audiences. -
It may be because of the translation but these three of Aristophanes plays are definitely funnier than his other works. Both the Acharnians and Lysistrata advocate peace (not pacifism), while the Clouds decry sophistry (although unfairly classifying Socrates as one). It is refreshing to see (if the
term is not too anachronistic), a conservative mentality in this comedy, mainly exhibited through a lack of faith in the intelligence of man (and with that a distrust of Athenian democracy altogether). Aristophanes is capable of mature political reference (with a cynical attitude best represented in South Park today), but more than anything else bombards the audience with endless sexual humour. There is no contemporary rival to the crassness of Aristophanes. -
After reading two of the three plays contained within, I think it's fairly clear that Aristophanes (and likely any Greek play in general) is not for me. These are too reliant on knowledge of contemporaries in Ancient Greece and the placement of footnotes at the end of the book rather than near the play itself disrupts the flow. Not to mention, I find the plays themselves to be absurd.
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thank you, Lysistrata, darling, for getting me an A on my history paper
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Aristophanes pushed for peace between Athens and Sparta and this permeates all three poems, in spite of his undying courage he was never taken seriously. These plays showcase his noble intentions.
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The Acharneans - 3.5/5
The Clouds - 5/5
Lysistrata - 5/5
'Lysistrata' is a bawdy, sexual comedy, and it was hilarious; however, my favourite in this collection was definitely "The Clouds" (which bombed when it was first performed, which goes to show that even in olden times, underrated pieces are usually more genius than the mass-loved ones). It was a laugh riot. "The Acharneans" (which was a hit, hence proving my previous assertion) was alright; it did have its moments but overall, pretty forgettable.
The translation is wonderful, and the notes at the back were so helpful in explaining some of the puns used in the original Greek text by Aristophanes, which led to a greater appreciation of the plays. -
The book contains three plays by Aristophanes. I read only “The Clouds,” which is a play that pokes some fun at Socrates.
Strepsiades goes to the Thinkery, a place where Sophist characters meet to discuss big issues. There he meets Socrates and engages him in a conversation. From it, Strepsiades concludes that Zeus has been driven into exile by ‘Awhirl,” based on a statement from Socrates that the celestial clouds were “a whirl in the sky.” Also from Socrates, Strepsiades learns that a chicken is not a chicken but, rather, that a female is a “chickeness” and a male is a “chicker.”
The play features Wrong (as in Wrong Argument). The people at the Thinkery calls him Wrong because he “invented ways of proving anything wrong, laws, prosecutors, anything.” In the end, Strepsiades gets upset with what he regards as the wrong-headedness of the Thinkery and, standing on the roof, “torches” the place. Socrates asks what he is doing, and Strepsiades mimics Socrates by saying that he is “walking upon air and attacking the mystery of the sun.” A philosophic associate of Socrates, still inside the Thinkery, yells out, “Help, I’m being prematurely cremated.” They all escape with Strepsiades and his slaves pursing the thinkers “with a volley of stones.” The play ends.
The introduction refers to this play as a tragedy. I don’t know why. It was entertaining and funny. The play is referred to by some as critical of Socrates. If Socrates is regarded as a sacrosanct figure, I suppose it is critical. Otherwise, the play is a great caricature of what can happen with sophisticated minds that go south. -
Lysistrata and Other Plays by Aristophanes
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I have reviewed the Acharnians and the Clouds separately, so this review will be on this text and Lysistrata.
Lysistrata is fairly famous. It has repeatedly been made into movies, including a Spike Lee movie called "Chi-Raq." The trope of war-weary women refusing to engage in sex with their husbands until the men call off a war, in this case, the Peloponnesian War, hits a few buttons including, ironically, both anti-war and the war between the sexes.
The play is funny. A modern reader could see this making a revival on the Catskill circuit. It has a vaudevillian quality. The jokes are in no way sophisticated. I would be censored by Amazon if I were to share some of them. Let's just say that "Spartan Walking Stick" is the punchline to one.
The translation in this text is excellent. The translator has done a lot to liven up the play by making it current and relatable. A cook is a cordon bleu and Spartans have a surprising Scottish accent.
I read this for the Online Great Book program. I am glad I did. I got a different view of Athenian society from these plays. Aristophanes was not afraid to slander other Athenians. He appears to have been a member of the "peace faction." His plays also feature the technique of "breaking the fourth wall." I wouldn't have expected any of these things, which goes to show how things really haven't change so much over the millenia.
