Ancient Greece
Read this if you…
- want the oldest political satirical comedy
- want to see an ancient comedian do an anti-war crusade
Skip this if you…
- haven't read Lysistrata or Clouds or Frogs to decide if you even like Aristophanes
The 
Take
His first play, very funny to see how hard he pushes for peace and how comedians fighting against the politicians. Hilarious display of the peace for just that one guy
Connections
The lineage through The Acharnians
- The Histories by Herodotus. The Acharnians built on it. - Dikaiopolis's big speech is a direct send-up of the proem to Herodotus's *Histories* - Where Herodotus blames the war between Greeks and Persians on abducted women — Io, Europa, Medea, Helen — Aristophanes blames the Peloponnesian War on a stolen prostitute and two of Aspasia's girls - The joke only fully lands if you've read the solemn original it's mocking — go meet Herodotus first
Gallery
Depicted in Art
Engraved portrait of the comic poet Aristophanes
Pieter van Senus
Engraved marble bust of the comic poet Aristophanes
Editions
Recommended Editions
#1Top Pick$34.50
Jeffrey Henderson
Harvard University Press · 1998
Henderson's Loeb doesn't sanitize the dick jokes or the partisan bile, which matters because the Acharnians is Aristophanes calling Cleon out by name. Facing-page Greek, generous notes on what every Athenian in the audience would have caught.
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Notable Quotes
Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right. I shall not please, but I shall say what is true.
AcclaimPraised by 3 notable voices
- August Wilhelm Schlegel, critic & translator, 1767–1845: "The comedies of Aristophanes … were the seal of Athenian freedom."
- K. J. Dover, classicist, University of St Andrews, 1920–2010: Dover reads the Acharnians as the model text for how Old Comedy stages its hero — Dikaiopolis's private peace against Athens's war fever.
- Harold Bloom, literary critic, 1930–2019: "I tend to agree with Heinrich Heine that “There is a God, and his name is Aristophanes.”"
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