Aristophanes: Clouds - Softcover

Aristophanes

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1453683941 ISBN 13: 9781453683941

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2010

Synopsis

"The Clouds" is a comedy written by the celebrated playwright Aristophanes lampooning intellectual fashions in classical Athens. "The Clouds" was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC and it was not well received, coming last of the three plays competing at the festival that year. It was revised between 420-417 BC and thereafter it was circulated in manuscript form. "The Clouds" can be considered not only the world's first extant 'comedy of ideas' but also a brilliant and successful example of that genre. The play gained notoriety for its caricature of the philosopher Socrates ever since its mention in Plato's Apology as a factor contributing to the old man's trial and execution. The most controversial of Aristophanes' plays, "The Clouds" it is a brilliant caricature of the philosopher Socrates, seen as a wily sophist who teaches men to cheat through cunning argument.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The career of Aristophanes as a writer of comedies lasted forty years, from 427 to c. 386. At least forty plays were attributed to him in antiquity, eleven of which survived into the Middle Ages and thus to our own day: the earliest of these eleven is Acharnians(425) and the last Wealth(388). Clouds was produced in 423, and was placed by the judges third of the three plays competing at the City Dionysia that year.

About the Author

Aristophanes (ca. 446-ca. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a prolific and much acclaimed comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are in fact used to define the genre. 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 contributing to the trial and execution of Socrates although other satirical playwrights had caricatured the philosopher. His second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by the demagogue 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. "In my opinion," he says through the Chorus in that play, "the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all." He is also known for some famous sayings, such as "By words the mind is winged."

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1453683941
• ISBN 13: 9781453683941
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 62