Aristophanes: Acharnians. Knights. (Loeb Classical Library No. 178) - Hardcover

Aristophanes

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674995678 ISBN 13: 9780674995673

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1998

Synopsis

Aristophanes of Athens (ca. 446–386 BCE), one of the world's greatest comic dramatists, has been admired since antiquity for his iridescent wit and beguiling fantasy, exuberant language, and brilliant satire of the social, intellectual, and political life of Athens at its height. He wrote at least forty plays, of which eleven have survived complete. In this new Loeb Classical Library edition of Aristophanes, Jeffrey Henderson presents a freshly edited Greek text and a lively, unexpurgated translation with full explanatory notes.

The general introduction that begins Volume I reviews Aristophanes' career and brings current scholarly insights to bear on the intriguing question of the comic poet as a political force. In Acharnians a small landowner, tired of the Peloponnesian War, magically arranges a personal peace treaty and, borrowing a disguise from Euripides, demonstrates the injustice of the war in a contest with the bellicose Acharnians. Also in this volume is Knights, perhaps the most biting satire of a political figure (Cleon) ever written.

About this title

From the Publisher

Acharnians, first performed in 425 BC, is a comedy about the ordinary farmer Dicaeopolis, evacuated from his land and pressed into service in the Peloponnesian War. Failing to interest his fellow Athenians in seeking peace, he arranges a magical private peace for himself. On the the way back to the good life in the countryside, he is confornted by a crowd of patriotic charcoal-burners from Acharnae who want to stone him as traitor. But by restaging himself as a tragic hero, Diaeopolis convinces the Acharnains of the justice of his actions and proceeds to expose the corruption of the politicians and generals, especially Genereal Lamachus. After establishing his own free-trade zone and collecting food for a sumptuous banquet, Dicaeoplis wins the national drinking contest, while General Lamachus suffers from ignominious wounds.

About the Author

Jeffrey Henderson is William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of Greek Language and Literature at Boston University. He is General Editor of the Loeb Classical Library®.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0674995678
• ISBN 13: 9780674995673
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 416