This new verse translation of Aristophanes' comedies offers one of the world's great comic dramatists in a form that is both historically faithful and theatrically vigorous. Aristophanes' plays were produced for the festival theater of classical Athens in the fifth century BC and encompass the whole gamut of humor, from brilliantly inventive fantasy to obscene vulgarity. This edition includes a substantial general introduction and introductory essays for each of the plays, as well as full explanatory notes and an index of names.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
ISBN-13: 9780199555673
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: 01-15-2009
Pages: 384
Product Dimensions: 5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.00(d)
Series: Oxford World's Classics
Aristophanes was born, probably in Athens, c. 449 BC and died between 386 and 380 BC. Little is known about his life, but there is a portrait of him in Plato's Symposium. He was twice threatened with prosecution in the 420s for his outspoken attacks on the prominent politician Cleon, but in 405 he was publicly honored and crowned for promoting Athenian civic unity in The Frogs. Aristophanes had his first comedy produced when he was about twenty-one, and wrote forty plays in all. The eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes are published in the Penguin Classics series as The Birds and Other Plays, Lysistrata and Other Plays, and The Wasps/The Poet and the Women/The Frogs.
David Barrett has translated a number of ancient Greek texts for Penguin Classics.
Table of Contents
|
About the Author |
7 |
|
Aristophanes in Antiquity |
9 |
|
Aristophanes, Comedian and Poet |
21 |
|
The Knights |
29 |
|
Peace |
91 |
|
The Birds |
147 |
|
The Assemblywomen |
215 |
|
Wealth |
265 |
|
Notes |
313 |
|
Select Bibliography |
336 |
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