Reading Classics, Chronologically Through the Ages discussion

The Birds by Aristophanes was a comedy, first performed in 414 BCE at the Festival of Dionysus. It won 2nd place.

I have just downloaded a free version of this and am looking forward to it!

How is everyone coming along with Aristophanes's Birds?

I just finished it yesterday...and I have to say, the sexual innuendos and language makes me realize how much humanity has not changed. It seems even comedy is pretty universal.

I couldn't help think, as I read, that this seemed like The 3 Stooges meets SNL, from ancient Greece. Then I thought: would SNL scripts in the year 4500 be considered "literary"? What if that's all that's really going on here? Is it wrong if I don't take Aristophanes so seriously because it's comedy, rather than tragedy?

I read a little bit of The Frogs earlier this year and I had the same exact thought about SNL! Isn't it crazy?

I think out of all the plays we've read so far, this is my least favorite. I can't say I laughed much - although when I began to describe the plot to my roommate who asked what it was about, explaining it was funnier than reading it. The best part, in my opinion, was when one of the characters came in trying to sell laws to the birds.

My copy is of the complete plays of Aristophanes but I honestly don't think I'll be reading many more of them.

I can't believe Prometheus didn't ask the birds to stop helping the Gods to punish him!

Have any of you read Waiting for Godot by Beckett? We got two "exiles" going nowhere (at least at first,) having absurd dialogue, some "informant" showed up and got whipped, and a "useless tree" -- I think I know where Beckett inherited that stage set from!