Summary Aristophanes


Aristophanes (other Greek, Greek) (444 BC – between 387 and 380, Athens) is an ancient Greek comedian, “the father of comedy.”
Aristophanes put his first comedy in 427, but under a different name. When a year later (426) he ridiculed in his “Babylonians” a powerful demagogue, Cleon’s tanner, the latter accused him before the council that he, in the presence of the commissioners from the allied states, censured and put ridiculously the policy of Athens. Later, Cleon raised against him a rather common in Athens charge of misappropriating the title of an Athenian citizen. Aristophanes, as they say, defended himself before the court in Homer’s poems:
Mother assures me that I am his son, but I myself do not know:
To know who our father is probably is impossible for us.
Aristophanes avenged Cleon, brutally attacking him in the comedy “Horsemen.” The fear of a strong demagogue seemed to be so great that the actors abandoned this role. Nobody even agreed to make a mask that resembled Cleon, and Aristophanes himself played this role, coloring his face. But this story is probably made up on the basis of some misunderstood verses of the comedy.


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Summary Aristophanes