Aristophanes was a well-known Greek comedian and poet. Only eleven of the forty plays he initially wrote have survived. These, together with fragments from several of his other plays, are the only surviving examples of the Old Comedy type of comedy-drama. Aristophanes is also known as the Prince of Ancient Comedy and the Father of Comedy. Aristophanes was thought to have recreated the life of ancient Athens better than any other author. Even renowned contemporaries such as Plato recognized his ability to mock. The Acharnians (425 BC), The Knights (424 BC), The Clouds (423 BC), The Wasps (422 BC), Peace (421 BC), The Birds (414 BC), Lysistrata (411 BC), The Frogs (405 BC), and Wealth II are some of his key extant plays (388 BC).
Childhood and Life of Aristophanes
There isn’t a lot of information on Aristophanes. His plays are the most important sources of information on him. Aristophanes was born in 446 BC, the son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus. There’s no way of knowing for sure where he was born. He was a comedic poet in an era when poets were expected to take on the role of ‘teacher.’
Despite the fact that this was a reference to his rehearsal training of the Chorus, it also characterized his relationship with the audience as a commentator on critical subjects.
Aristophanes prided himself on his originality as a playwright, but his plays were always in opposition to radical new influences in Athenian society.
Euripides, Cleon, and Socrates were among the figures he caricatured in the domains of art, politics, and philosophy. According to these caricatures, Aristophanes was a traditional conservative.
According to legend, he mostly composed plays to delight audiences and win major competitions. These plays, which were performed at Athens’ great dramatic festivals, the Lenaia and City Dionysia, were judged and classed alongside other humorous dramatists’ works. For the majority of his career, the Chorus was critical to the success of his plays.
A choregus, a wealthy man appointed to the role by one of the archons, recruited and funded the Chorus. Despite the fact that a choregus considers his personal investment in the Chorus to be a civic duty and a public honor, Aristophanes demonstrated in “The Knights” that affluent persons see civic tasks as a punishment inflicted on them by demagogues and populists such as Cleon.
Athens was an ambitious, imperial empire at the time of his debut play, “The Banqueters,” and the Peloponnesian War was only in its fourth year. His plays were proud of the accomplishments of the previous generation, but they were not jingoistic, and they were adamantly opposed to the conflict with Sparta.
Aristophanes slammed war profiteers, particularly populists like Cleon, in his plays. His debut play, “The Banqueters,” helped him win second place at the City Dionysia in 427 BC. With his next play, The Babylonians, he earned first prize once more (also now lost).
Foreign dignitaries were frequent visitors to the City Dionysia, and his play “The Babylonians,” which depicted the cities of the Athenian League as slaves working at a mill, caused considerable discomfort to the Athenian rulers.
Some powerful people, particularly Cleon, accused the play of slandering the polis, and Aristophanes may have faced legal action as a result. There are no details regarding the trial that have been documented.
In his later plays, Aristophanes regularly attacked Cleon. However, these satirical rants were useless in jeopardizing Cleon’s political career.
Cleon was elected to the famous board of ten generals despite the production of “The Knights,” a play full of anti-Cleon gags.
Cleon, on the other hand, appeared to have no actual power over Aristophanes or his plays. As a result, even after Cleon’s death, the latter continued to caricature him.
According to the materials of the two plays “The Knights” and “The Clouds,” Aristophanes did not direct the first three of his plays, which were instead directed by Callistratus and Philoneides.
According to the statements made by the Chorus on Aristophanes’ behalf in “The Clouds,” he was no more than 18 years old when he wrote his first play, “The Banqueters.” Aristophanes is also thought to have won the Lenaia at least three times, with “Acharnians” in 425, “The Knights” in 424, and “The Frogs” in 405.
“Frogs” even had the distinction of being the only show to be performed twice at the same festival. Athens had been vanquished in war and her empire had been shattered by the time Aristophanes wrote his final play in 386 BC. As a result, Athens shifted from being Greece’s political to being its intellectual capital.
Aristophanes was a key figure in this shift, participating in the intellectual trends of the day. Argos, Aristophanes’ son, was a humorous poet who was significantly involved in the 388 staging of his father’s play “Wealth II.” Argos is also credited with putting on the now-lost dramas “Aeolosicon II” and “Cocalus” after his death.
In 387, the last play most likely won the prize at the City Dionysia. Philippus, Eubulus’ second son, is said to have won the Lenaia twice and directed some of Eubulus’ comedies.
Plato’s “The Symposium” can be a good source of biographical information on Aristophanes, however, its accuracy is debatable. For example, it describes the recorded talks of both Aristophanes and Socrates at a dinner party.
This banquet took place a few years after the production of “The Clouds,” the play in which Socrates was viciously mocked. One of the partygoers, Alcibiades, mocked Socrates about his appearance by quoting lines from the play, but there was no hint of animosity between Socrates and Aristophanes.
Aristophanes was described by Plato as a pleasant person. But, because Plato was a youngster at the time of the events in “The Symposium,” there’s a good probability that his Aristophanes character is based on his reading of the plays.
Aristophanes survived the Peloponnesian War, as well as two oligarchic revolutions and two democratic restorations, implying that, despite his highly political plays, he was not actively involved in politics.
He was allegedly nominated to the Council of Five Hundred for a year around the start of the fourth century, but such appointments were usual in democratic Athens.
There are no solid data about the actual location or time of his death available. However, it was thought that he died around 386 BC.
Estimated Net worth
Aristophanes profited from the Authors niche. Aristophanes made $23 million over his lifetime, as of the year 2021.