Aristophanes Research Paper

Aristophanes was not a proponent of the majority of Athenian culture, as well as other aspects of Greek life as whole. He despised the political, educational, and societal views that remained persistent throughout Athens. While his plays may be comedies, he uses them in an assortment of ways. His plays are used to demonstrate a purpose far beyond that of entertainment. He uses his writing for voicing the problems that lie in Ancient culture.

Sophocles was a greek poet known for his greek tragedies, stories and plays popular all across Greece, and even have a strong influence on today’s culture. Tragedies, which was such a large form of amusement that men who were actors could get out of military service at the time. Sophocles is prominent for his plays: Ajax, Antigone, The Women of Trachis, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. Despite the many plays he has made, the ones being distinguish here are Antigone and Oedipus the King. Antigone and Oedipus were tragic heroes. It is beneficial to know that Oedipus is Antigone’s father and sibling due to him unknowingly marrying his mother, Jocasta, and killing his own father Laius, committing

Drama played a major role in the life of classical Athens. Tragedies and comedies were performed in the city as part of an important religious festival, the Festival of Dionysia. A large proportion of the plays were about the City of Dionysia. During the sixth century BCE, the tyrant Pisistratus established the festival called the City of Dionysia. It took place in Elaphebolion, a month to the last half of March and the first half of April. During the classical period, this festival lasted several days and included several types of performances, which were also competitions for important honour and prizes as many aspects of Athenian society were highly competitive. Plays were only presented at City Dionysia festival. The festivals were attended

Sophocles wrote one hundred and twenty-three plays, but only 7 have survived in their entirety. “Nobody likes the man who brings bad news” is a famous quote by Sophocles relating to one of his greatest works. He, a great Greek tragedian, wrote Oedipus Rex in 430 B.C. The story of King Oedipus showcases just how there is no blindness like that of ignorance.

Aristophanes wrote The Acharnians at a time where the world he saw around him was changing. Athens had been at war for six years with no end in sight, the leader who started the war has been killed by a plague, and just three years prior Athens almost voted to kill off one of its allies for trying to leave the Delian League. He was seeing a whole new side of Athens. A side in which the concept of an independent polis has been lost and Athens is at war with its former allies. These are the things that inspire Aristophanes’ Greek comedy to be born. He uses the theater to address the questions he has about what is

Aristophanes writes comedic playwrights regarding Athenian democracy. It appears that Aristophanes hates the way Athens is run, as every play somehow jabs the ignorance of those apart of, criticizing and ruling the democracy.

There are thousands of spectacular tragedies in literature and in life, but none have quite the same impact that Greek tragedies do. In Sophocles’s first Theban play, King Oedipus, the Creon’s character makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with being king because he already has all of the benefits without any of the responsibilities. In Oedipus at Colonus, Creon is in a struggle for power, and the audience sees that his previously carefree and rational approach towards being king changes slightly when he goes as far as taking Oedipus’s daughters hostage for his own personal gain. Finally, in Sophocles’s last play, Antigone, Creon’s character undergoes a drastic transformation. After Oedipus’s sons Polynices and Eteocles die and Creon

A man called Sophocles which his life spanned almost the entire fifth century, and as a young man, he lived through the extraordinary growth of Athenian power and culture that followed upon the Persian Wars; he was able to witnessed both the rise and the fall of Athens. Sophocles was know as ambassador, dramatist, general, priest, and treasure. He was a man who not only was gifted with good looks, great wealth, and even greater talent, but who also made the most of those gifts in his public life, his religious duties, and his artistic career. Although his life was very occupied, full of obligations and responsibilities as everyone else, he somehow managed to write more than 120 plays. He used to write with great care, and his carefully wrought

Euripides was born in Salmis in 480 B.C. He was the son of Mnesarchus or Mnesarchides. According to the legend, his father was a tradesman or tavern-keeper. His mother, Cleito, is said to be a seller of herbs in a marketplace (Kitto). Europides was raised in a cultured family. He got to witness the rebuilding of the Athenian walls after the Persian war (Encyclopedia). Overall, he belonged to the Pelopnessian War period. Euripides is thought to have come from a well- being, family since they gave him a gymnastic education that prepared him for the athletic contests. Euripides married twice to Melito and Cloirile and had three sons named Mnesarchides, Mnesilochus, and Euripides.

“Since his [Aristophanes’] plays were often sharply critical of Athenian policies, his ability to make people laugh was essential to conveying his message. He was a practitioner of what we now call Old Comedy, an irreverent form that ridiculed and insulted prominent people and important institutions” (80).

Sophocles was born about 496 BC in Colonus Hippius which is now a part of Athens, Greece, he was to become one of the great playwrights of the golden age. Sophocles was the son of Laius and Jocasta, both wealthy in the city that Sophocles grew up in. Luckily, He was the son of a wealthy merchant, he would enjoy all the perks of a successful Greek empire. Sophocles was provided with the best education which would help him in many ways in the future of his life.

Considered one of the greatest dramas of all time, Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King follows the tragic life of Oedipus, king of Thebes. Considered a Satyr play, the Oedipus trilogy is perhaps the most famous of Sophocles’ plays. Oedipus the King, is an Athenian tragedy that was first performed somewhere around 429 BC in Athens, Greece. Originally, the Greeks referred to the play as simply “Oedipus,” as that was what Aristotle referred to it as in the Poetics. Perhaps what makes this play so memorable, is Sophocles’ uses of the tragic hero as the main theme. Sophocles uses characterization and conflict to portray Oedipus as an Aristotelian tragic hero.

In the play Oedipus the King, took place around 429 BC in a place called the royal house of Thebes. However, “many years have passed by since Oedipus solved the riddle of the sphinx and now a plague has struck the city.” it’s Oedipus fate that encourage him to make bad decisions. In the play Lysistrata, was introduced around 411 BC, during a war comedy by the ancient Greeks in a city called Athens. The annual theatre festivals started in Athens, which gave birth to democracy. Over a period of time, Athens was known as a city-state that was divided among four different tribes. Both plays were a part of the festivals, which were produced by the people and citizens. It was a gift for the entire city and they enjoyed it.

The son of Aglaos, Eratosthenes was born in 276 BC, in Cyrene. Now part of Eratosthenes was a Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist. modern-day Libya. Cyrene became a place of cultivation, where knowledge blossomed. Eratosthenes would have studied in the local gymnasium, where he would have learned physical skills and social discourse as well as reading, writing, arithmetic, poetry, and music.[ Eratosthenes went to Athens to further his studies. There he was taught Stoicism by its founder, Zeno of Citium, in philosophical lectures on living a virtuous life. [9] He then studied under Ariston of Chios, who led a more cynical school of philosophy. He also studied under the head of the Platonic Academy, who was Arcesilaus

Following the victories of the Greeks invading the Persians at Marathon in 490 B.C. and Salamis in 480 B.C., Athens experienced a period of social optimism and period expansion during the first half of the fifth century B.C. The second half of the fifth century B.C. was also very successful in that Athenians tremendously developed culturally and intellectually. This was the era of Sophocles and a period where everything and anything seemed possible through man effort and reason. Sophocles wrote a trilogy of tragedies, which contained of 3 Theban plays. Oedipus Rex, the first play in the trilogy, was written during a period of political instability and plague. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, many themes such as the quest for identity, the nature of innocence and guilt, and the abuse of power are portrayed and are pivotal for the play to build up to the tragic ending.