Aristophanes (Greek: 螒蚁喂蟽蟿慰蠁维谓畏蟼; c.鈥�446 鈥� c.鈥�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."
Trygaeus, a middle-aged Athenian, miraculously brings about a peaceful end to the Peloponnesian War,thereby earning the gratitude of farmers He celebrates his triumph by marrying Harvest, a companion of Festival and Peace.....
Troppo lungo e contorto, peccato per alcune delle scene pi霉 semplici che ho trovato molto interessanti e divertenti (a tratti da 5 stelle). Ho apprezzato il lavoro di Aristofane su un'ironia che riesce a variare destinatari e registri linguistici, ma soprattutto il forte simbolismo della storia. Alla luce delle mie considerazioni oserei dire che 猫 un 3 tendente al 4 e che, con una serie di tagli, sarebbe tranquillamente arrivato a 5 pieno馃憤 "Dalla al calvo!"
Have you ever heard one of those jokes which are funny but that don't make you laugh? The joke remains funny on hearing it a second, third, fourth, etc, time. That usually doesn't happen with one-liner knee-slapper jokes. Well, this book is kind of like that.
篓Guy flies to heaven on a dung beetle, the Gods aren't at home篓
This was hilarious. I didn't expect "breaking the fourth wall" to be such an old humor technique. Aristophanes used it quite well. I was also impressed with the opening. He managed to create interest in the story and questions in the mind of the reader by focusing on peripheral concerns rather than the main steps of the plot and even the main statements Aristophanes was making. Peace just became one of my new favorite plays and I haven't even seen it performed.
So weird. So crude. Full of scatological humor, and Aristophanes ripping on Euripides, making fun of the gods, raising up wine and sex and other such fun as antidotes or alternatives to war. I can respect the pacifist angle, and there were some funny lines, but this one mostly just seemed silly.
So concludes December of Drama, week 1: the Greeks! Watch this space.
De las mejores de Arist贸fanes. El aspecto que la Paz est茅 encerrada, que Polemos ocasione disputas, que Hermes participe hacen ya de la obra una maravilla. El aspecto estructural del texto est谩 bien ensamblado y las menciones pol铆ticas atinadas. El h茅roe es c贸mico como tal y su prop贸sito se adhiere al beneficio colectivo.
This was a cute, but rather insubstantial, play about the achievement of peace during the Peloponnesian War.
In the late 420s BC, the Athenian pro-war statesman, Cleon, is dead, and so is Brasidas, the major Spartan commander, with both having died at the Battle of Amphipolis. There is no longer any obvious obstacle in the way of peace, and so a treaty is signed (the so-called Peace of Nicias). The Peloponnesian War and a strong anti-Cleon sentiment had dominated Aristophanes' career up until this point, and this play represents a celebration of the return of peace to Greece.
The play involves a man, Trygaeus, flying up to the gods on a dung beetle and rescuing Peace, who had been replaced by Zeus with War as being in charge of the Greeks. Trygaeus is successful, and celebrations ensue. The major comedic element comes from the usual Aristophanic "unexpected visitors" towards the end, as various people drop in to complain about the return of Peace, such as arms-dealers. And there is a sense that the Athenians have lost so many worthwhile opportunities due to the war that peace will be kind of sad, now that they have to confront the reality of what they lost.
It's fun to read a play about such an important moment in Athenian history, after having read so many plays from Aristophanes about the damage of the war (such as *Lysistrata*) but frankly, it just isn't that great; there isn't really much here. But it's nice and fun.
Another play by Aristophanes, which is almost always a torture to read. He can't focus on just writing about the main plot, but insists on talking non-sense the whole play, yet again.
The play is about rescuing the statue of Peace, after Cleon and Brassidas dies in battle. Too much reference to unknown and not fun stuff here, as usual. Only ok part is Trygaeus mocking those who wants to sell him used war weapons/armors. Plot ends on a huge fest.
The majestic farmer rides a dung beetle to the heavens, matches wits with the gods, and, for good measure, puts all of the war mongers in their place. Uproariously funny in places.
The Peace is about a man called Trygaeus who ends a war by talking to the gods, who bring out Peace; upon ending the war, the gods reward him by letting him marry Harvest, who will bring prosperity to farmers such as himself. The plot is really just that simple.
Now, a lot of other elements make this play really good instead of just a typical play. Firstly, a lot of Aristophanes' bitterness towards politics always seem to shine through, no matter what the play is about. This play is no exception. I can see why people would start to tire of the playwright crap-talking Cleon, but I think it's pretty funny to read about, as well as reflective of the time period. But as I said, disliking this is completely understandable.
Secondly, Aristophanes was really an ancient absurdist in my eyes. Seriously, what's up with riding the giant dung beetle to the palace of Zeus? And what's up with all those damn beetle jokes at the beginning? I also really was amused by the image of War and Riot making a salad, then disappearing from the play, never to be seen or heard from again. I'm not sure that I ever see that much of an explanation for the whole beetle thing or the salad-making, but I assume that Aristophanes just puts it there and expects the reader to accept it (yeah, Trygaeus riding a giant dung beetle totally fits in...). I like his attitude if that's the case. But once again, I can see why this can throw readers off.
This actually is the strangest paly I have read by Aristophanes, but I can't say that I didn't expect it.
It's been a while since I've read some Aristophanes, and god... what a play to read after such a hiatus.
Peace tell the story of a lowly master, Trygaeus, as he ascends to heaven on a massive beetle and gets Hermes to help him free Peace, to unknown consequences.
Beyond the slightly decent commentary on peace versus war and the importance of both in a nation, the play's story just meanders everywhere without any drive for me to hang onto in order to stay invested. That, and the characters are just bland. Even Trygaeus' wife-to-be has no development. And this is the playwright who wrote Lysistrata, for Christ's sake!
A lot of it is played on local Grecian humor during Aristophanes' time, such as jokes about the different Grecians of different nationalities, all of which fall flat. There's even one portion where the Chorus talks about how Aristophanes struggled to write this play, which feels as out of place as a rock in the middle of a birthday cake. It breaks the flow of the play and makes Aristophanes come across as far more self-inflated than he actually is (but don't get me wrong, he does have a bit of an ego problem).
Beyond that, Peace has nothing really good in it. It was dull for me to read, and only a remarkably talented cast and crew could make this play an actually decent experience. But this is definitely one of Aristophanes' weakest plays.
Translated, introduced and annotated by Alan H. Somerstein. I must allow for how dated the play is; although I did enjoy the play's pacing and comedy, many of the jokes were, of course, topical and specific --- implicating certain playwrights, etc. --- and thus incomprehensible without explanatory notes. Still, the comedy's ribald, scatological nature was shocking and amusing; while the theme, peace after the long years of the Peloponnesian War, is universal. The satirical execration of warmongers, arms-sellers, and oracles therefore remains forceful. I strongly admire Somerstein's translation, which manages to insert uncontrived English puns in place of the originals, such as "Zeus shitting enthroned in Heaven" responsible for slaves working in dung; or Trygaeus' remark that his "beetleship" (the beetle he is riding) will save him from drowning if he falls to the sea. A good play to read in this edition, all things considered.
It's incredible that as recently as 1960 the comedian Peter Cook could cause a stir by publicly ridiculing the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan as he sat in the audience of the Beyond the Fringe show when you consider what Aristophanes, fully two thousand years beforehand, used to do to the great and good of Athenian society in his astonishingly caustic and pointed plays.
In Peace, as elsewhere, his main target is the autocratic Cleon, who he insults mercilessly throughout here, first obliquely, then flagrantly, in a coarse and pun-filled riot of a play condemning the war between Athens and Sparta and celebrating a break in the hostilities.
Variously, Cleon gets called a
(notes, review to follow when get a chance to reread)
Not quite as good as other works from Aristophanes. It seems he foolishly pushes the value of a peace built upon carousing and letchery over the often important causes that drive wars. This is similar to the stupid pacifist arguments commonly encountered today. "Why fight when there is so much physical pleasure to be had." This view is childish. We all love pleasure, but sometimes innocent people need to be defended from the excessive, self-centered pleasures of others.
Divertid铆sima (y a la vez muy did谩ctica, sobre todo si das con una buena edici贸n) comedia de Arist贸fanes. Tiene puntazos de humor muy buenos (y muy 'verdes' en ocasiones) y es m谩s f谩cil de seguir (o a m铆 me result贸 m谩s f谩cil) que, por ejemplo, 'Las avispas', otra de las comedias de este autor. Me puedo imaginar a los espectadores griegos en su momento parti茅ndose de risa con la interpretaci贸n de esta obra.
Las m煤ltiples referencias de Arist贸fanes a la situaci贸n pol铆tica de ese momento, las burlas hacia otros dramaturgos y los juegos de palabras (que pierden un poco el significado tras los siglos y las diversas traducciones), creo que quedan bastante obsoletas en el presente siglo. En mi opini贸n, la tragedia griega ha evolucionado bastante mejor que la comedia.
I'm quite a fan of Aristophanes, but this one is just a big failure. Begining seems promising, fly on the big beetle to meet gods.... but some promises aren't fulfilled, such as this one. Soon after nice begining, this play becomes just a mess created out of loosely connected scenes that lacks humour and are filled with wierd allusions and references so their often unreadable.
Thank goodness the free e-book is annotated! A lot of the comedy is lost in time and translation - and due to my ignorance. (Note to self: must learn more about Ancient Greece.)