Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion, was a 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 are used to define it...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPoet
greek-poet until
You should not decide until you have heard what both have to say.
believe greek-poet surely
Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?
eye mouths zeus
Open your mouth and shut your eyes and see what Zeus will send you.
desire greek-poet love name pursuit simply
Love is simply the name for the desire and the pursuit of the whole.
voice politician breeding
Characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
childhood aging
The old are in a second childhood.
soon-enough matter stout
Calonice: My dear Lysistrata, just what is this matter you've summoned us women to consider.What's up? Something big? Lysistrata: Very big. Calonice: (interested) Is it stout too? Lysistrata: (smiling) Yes, indeed -- both big and stout. Calonice: What? And the women still haven't come? Lysistrata: It's not what you suppose; they'd come soon enough for that.
dream race darkness
Weak mortals, chained to the earth, creatures of clay as frail as the foliage of the woods, you unfortunate race, whose life is but darkness, as unreal as a shadow, the illusion of a dream.
atheist believe religion
Surely you do not believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?
mind mouths
Open your mind before your mouth
war winning men
[Y]ou [man] are fool enough, it seems, to dare to war with [woman=] me, when for your faithful ally you might win me easily.
voice language attributes
[Y]ou possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, crossgrained nature and the language of the market-place. In you all is united which is needful for governing.