Author
Aristophanes
Classical Athenian comic playwright (c. 446 – c. 386 BC), born at Classical Athens. From Wikidata; Wikipedia.
- Lived
- 5th–4th c. BC
- Kinds of writing
- Comedy (11)
- Dialect
- Attic
- In the library
- 11 works, 2 with an English translation; 114,709 words analysed
Where to begin
The works here with a translation and the most familiar vocabulary: the fewest rare words to look up. That is vocabulary only; grammar, dialect and ideas may still be demanding.
What Aristophanes wrote
In The Painted Stoa
Entries that quote or point to Aristophanes's Greek.
416 BC: an island asks for justice, and an empire answersThe Melian DialogueIn the summer of 416 BC an Athenian fleet of thirty-eight ships anchored off Melos, a small island that wanted no part in the war between Athens and Sparta.The aristocrat who led the Athenian democracy for a generationPericlesFor about thirty years in the middle of the fifth century BC, the most powerful man in Athens held only an office the Assembly filled by vote every year: general.Three teachers, a slave to walk you there, and Homer by heartGoing to school in AthensThere were no state schools in classical Athens.Wine, water, song and argument: the Greek drinking partyThe symposiumA symposion means "drinking together".Where Greeks went when doctors failed: a night in the god's hallAsclepius and the healing sleepA sick Greek who could afford the journey might go to a sanctuary of Asclepius, the god of healing, wash, make an offering, and lie down for the night in a special hall, hoping the god would come in a dream and cure him.
More
- The most mentioned words in Aristophanes (the Census)
- Your own notes on Aristophanes (the Treasury)