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REVISION: Aristophanes/ Biography

See also: Old Comedy, Dionysia, and Lenaia

Earlier years

Aristophanes was an Athenian citizen from the deme of Kydathenaion. His father, Philippus, came from the Attic phyle (clan) of Pandionis and his mother was Zenodora. His family is believed to have owned property on the island of Aegina.

Little is known about Aristophanes' personal life. Most biographical information comes from his plays. He was likely born around the middle of the 5th century BC, as he referred to himself as "a virgin, not having the legal age for maternity" when reflecting on his stage debut in 427 BC. This suggests he was very young at the time⁵. Aristophanes debuted on stage almost simultaneously with Eupolis, who remained his fiercest competitor for years. The rivalry was intense enough that they accused each other of plagiarism at least once.

From debut to the Peace of Nicias (427 BC - 421 BC)

In 427 BC, Aristophanes presented his first play, Banqueters, directed by Callistratus.The play won first prize. Its chorus comprised participants in a festival at Heracles' sanctuary, and the plot contrasted two sons: one raised according to traditional customs, and the other corrupted by Sophist teachings.

In 426 BC, Aristophanes’ play Babylonians was performed at the Dionysia, probably winning second prize. This marked his first major attack on the demagogue Cleon, who accused Aristophanes of insulting Athens and its officials. The Babylonians chorus was made up of foreign slaves. Dionysus himself appeared in the play, caught up into troubles by Athenian demagogues. Despite Cleon’s lawsuit, Aristophanes remained undeterred and continued to attack him in future plays. Unfortunately, Banqueters and Babylonians survive only in fragments.

In 425 BC, Aristophanes achieved his first victory at the Lenaia with Acharnians, the oldest of his surviving plays. The hero Dikaiopolis ("the rightful city") expressed the widespread Athenian longing for an end to the Peloponnesian War. In the play he makes a private peace with the Spartans; this create a contest between the pacific hero and the Acharnians, veterans of war. Other comic scene follows, in which the Athenian general Lamachus appears. However, at the end this last is ordered to go back to war, while Dikaiopolis exits drunk with a beautiful dancing girl on each arm.

In 424 BC, Aristophanes won again at the Lenaia with Knights, his sharpest satire against Cleon. In the play, Cleon is represented as Paphlagon, a loud-mouthed slave who loses the favour of his master Demos, representing the people, to an even more unscrupulous Sausage-Seller. In the end, the Sausage-Seller wins and restores Demos to youthful vigor.

Men celebrating a ceremony for grape harvesting

The following year, in 423 BC, Aristophanes staged Clouds, in which Socrates is depicted as a a man of corrupting influence, associated with the new Sophist education. Despite its boldness, Clouds only placed third at the Dionysia. Though Aristophanes attempted to revise the play, this second version was never performed. The revised text, however, is the only one that survives today.

In 422 BC, Aristophanes presented two plays at the Lenaia: Proagon and Wasps. Proagon, staged under the name of Philonides, brought a mock to Euripides on the stage and won first prize. Wasps took second prize, satirizing the overly litigious Athenian society. The play contrasts a Cleon-supporting father, Philocleon, with his Cleon-despising son, Bdelicleon. In the end, Philocleon is defeated and, humorously, drunkenly dances with the chorus. Aristophanes’ feud with Cleon ended after Cleon’s death in the Battle of Amphipolis in 422 BC.

Mid-years of the Peloponnesian War (421 BC - 411 BC)

In 421 BC, shortly before the Peace of Nicias, Aristophanes earned second place at the Dionysia with Peace. In this play, the protagonist, Trygaios, rides a giant beetle to the heavens, frees the goddess Eirene (Peace) from captivity by the war god Polemos, and brings her back to Earth.

Several lost plays likely belong to this period, among which Georgoi ("Peasants") (424–422 BC) and Holkades (Lenaia 423 BC) dealt with the rural Athenian longing for peace, much like Acharnians and Peace. Holkades ("Cargo Ships") possibly depicted Athenians and Spartans lamenting their suffering from the war.

Women at the fountainhouse

Between 420 BC and 412 BC, Aristophanes likely produced more lost plays: Anagyros may have parodied Euripides' Hippolytus, while Horai ridiculed foreign gods’ cults, possibly depicting their expulsion from Athens. Heroes, probably represented in 414 BC, featured a chorus of local Attic heroes urging a return to traditional religious practices.

In 414 BC Birds won second prize at the Dionysia. This surviving play, one of Aristophanes' most fantastical works, tells the story of Peisetairos, who creates a powerful bird kingdom that subjugates both humans and gods. In difficult times for Athens, the positive hero Peisetairos ("who does not betray his fellows") tries to build a world without betraying informers; the chorus also warns the citizens to stay away from delators. That same year Amphiaraos was performed at the Lenaia, satirizing the religious practices of the Amphiaraus sanctuary in Oropos.

By 411 BC, Aristophanes had two surviving plays. Lysistrata, likely performed at the Dionysia, continues the political theme of Acharnians and Peace. This time, the protagonist is a woman—Lysistrata ("Army-Disbanding")—who leads a sex strike to force Spartan and Athenian men to make peace. The other surviving play from this year, Thesmophoriazusae, is a purely humorous farce. Euripides, who had been a frequent target of Aristophanes’ satire, attempts to spy a meeting of women during the festival of Thesmophoria. During the secret meeting, women accuse Euripides of continuously disparaging them in his tragedies. One of Euripides' relatives, dressed as a woman, tries to defend him but fails and risks to be sentenced to death. At the end, Euripides, with parodies of his tragedies (Telephus, Palamedes, Helena and Andromeda), succeeds in escaping the risky situation for the relative and for himself.

The war's last years (410 BC - 405 BC)

Between 410 BC and 406 BC, Aristophanes likely staged other lost comedies, but their dates remain unclear. Among them we can remember Triphales, performed shortly after 411 BC and Geras, likely staged after 409 BC, may have dealt with contemporary Athenian social issues, including rejuvenation of elderly men who then overstep social boundaries. In 408 BC the first version of Plutus was performed addressing the healing of the blind god of wealth, Plutus. Around 408 or 407 BC Gerytades was produced, which involved a delegation of Athenian poets sent to the underworld. Perhaps in 407 BC or 406 BC the second version of Thesmophoriazusae was performed; it was in many respects different from the extant first version.

Aeschylus,Euripides and Sophokles

In 405 BC, Aristophanes achieved his greatest success with Frogs. In this play, Dionysus and his slave Xanthias travel to the underworld to bring back Euripides on earth. The chorus emphasizes the civil message about restoring traditional Athenian values. Hades announces the challenge between Euripides and the old master Aeschlyus. Dionysus is selected as the judge of it. After a fierce contest, fighting each other with citations from their own tragedies, Aeschylus emerges victorious, because Dionysus judges that he gave Athens the best recommendations. Thus, Dionysus returns to the upper world, bringing Aeschylus solemnly with a parade.

The play was so well-received by the public, that Aristophanes was awarded the highest civic honor in Athens — a bough from the sacred olive tree, the equivalent of a gold crown for high merits towards the city of Athens.

A new phase (393 BC - 387 BC)

A tribune of Dyonisos' theatre in Athens.

After Athens' defeat by Sparta, Aristophanes' later plays took on a different structure and tone. With the city in crisis, the link between Aristophanes and Athenian political life shifted. His surviving plays from this period no longer include the parabasis or direct dialogue between the poet and the audience. Several of his lost plays probably belong to this period; however, we have to wait more than a decade later than Frogs to have the next extant play. Between 393 BC and 391 BC, Aristophanes produced Ecclesiazusae, his last major "women’s play." In this comedy, the protagonist, Praxagora, leads a coup d'état, giving power to the women of Athens. They attempt to implement a form of material and sexual communism, but the final scenes hint at its inevitable failure.

In 388 BC, Aristophanes directed the second version of Plutus, which imagined that wealth could be more fairly distributed if the blind god of wealth could see and reward deserving people. In 387 BC, Aristophanes’ son Araros staged Kokalos at the Dionysia. The play’s plot revolves around Minos pursuing Daedalus, only to meet his death in the Sicilian kingdom of Kokalos. Araros won first prize for this play. The following year, in 386 BC, Araros staged the second version of Aiolosikon, a parody of Euripides' Aiolos. The lyrical choral verses preserved in the fragments probably belong to the first version of this play, which can no longer be precisely dated.

In the early 4th century BC Aristophanes held the office of prytanis for his tribe Pandionis. He likely died in the early 380s BC, at over seventy years old. Aristophanes had at least two sons: Araros, who also wrote comedies, and Philippus, who became a comic poet and directed Eubulus. The name of a third son remains uncertain. Throughout his career, Aristophanes often had his plays directed by others, especially in his early years. Callistratus directed five of his plays (Banqueters, Babylonians, Acharnians, Birds and Lysistrata), while Philonides directed four (Proagon, Wasps, Amphiaraos and Frogs).

References

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