Four Greek Comedies: 'The Birds', 'The Frogs', 'The Clouds' and 'The Peace'

by Aristophanes, Flo Gibson

These four plays, translated into blank verse by C.A. Wheelwright, exemplify the wide range of this playwright's imagination. From war and peace to politics and society to the relationships between men and women, no topic is off-limits.

Genres: Fiction, Classics

Audio CD

First published August 6, 2009

About the author

Aristophanes (Greek: Αριστοφάνης; c. 446 – c. 386 BC) was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are used to define it, along with fragments from dozens of lost plays by Aristophanes and his contemporaries.
Also known as "The Father of Comedy" and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy", Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato singled out Aristophanes' 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.
Aristophanes' second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court, but details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights, the first of many plays that he directed himself. "In my opinion," he says through that play's Chorus, "the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all."

Reviews

[Ewere Owaka · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a reasonable effort and clearly elocuted by the reader.

The thought that Aristophanes could be produced with a single actor is laughable in its sheer audacity.

Having struggled my way through the whole recording, I recommend the would-be purchaser of this production look elsewhere. This recording will leave you with more disdain than the pleasure a Greek comedy is intended to provide.