Aristophanes Plays: 2: Wasps; Clouds; Birds; Festival Time; Frogs (Classical Dramatists)

Aristophanes is the oldest comedic writer in Western literature. Although only eleven of the some forty plays he wrote survive, his unique blend of slapstick, fantasy, bawy and political satire provide us with a vivid picture of the ancient Athenians their social mores, their beliefs and their exuberant sense of occasion. Wasps is a lawcourt satire, Clouds a lighthearted look at education, Birds a search for the perfect society, Festival Time a feminist trial of Euripides and Frogs a celebration of and debate around the theatre. Aristophanes was a unique writer for the comic stage as well as one of the most revealing about the society for which he wrote.