Symbolism Of Birds By Aristophanes

Alcibiades’ speech changes the direction of the conversation from praising Agathon to praising Socrates. It might be the reason why Plato ends symposium in this way and also highlights “Platonic Philosophy of love ”.

Theater in ancient Greece was considered the climax of the days long cultural festival of The City Dionysia. At the festival, various types of plays were shown but one of the most popular was tragedy. These tragedies show the main character, usually a god or person of myth, going through human suffering and the terrible sequence of events that followed; and were produced in 472- 401 BCE. In order for a play to be performed at The City Dionysia festival; tragic playwrights would first have to appeal to the state official that was organizing the festival by submitting ideas to him and his committee. The ideas submitted were outlines of main themes and points of interest to be performed in the play. If a playwright was selected by the state official and his committee, then they received a financial backer and a chance to compete in the drama competition of the festival. The state official, or his committee, was likely pushing their own agenda and choose playwrights that matched their ideals. This is just one example of how theater in ancient Greece was used to influence the morality of Greek culture by using the stories of tragedies, like those of Euripides.

This radically affects how the people are voting in the ekklesia because they cannot properly vote if they have been fed lies and no longer know what is true. As the story continues Aristophanes continues to show the audience these problems and introduces them to one more big problem. When the audience is introduced to Lamachus they are also introduced to how money is playing a huge role in governmental decisions . People will do more if they are being paid and that has clearly become a huge part of why people are partaking in their governmental duties. After identifying all these problems Aristophanes has caused the audience is to begin to questioning if Athenian Democracy could ever really work, just as he was feeling when he was inspired to write the novel. Aristophanes gives his opinion on the answer towards the end of the book when his main character runs his own Polis. He uses Dikiaopolis to show the audience what Athens’s needs in order to save the democracy they used to find great pride in being a part of.

Lysistrata by Aristophanes is seen to be a comical play used to show the impact of war not only on the ones physically in the war, but the ones mentally involved also. This play was written to help express the feeling the author had about the war occurring during the time the work was written. Lysistrata, the main character, is a strong woman who decides to become as what could be said as being “rebellious”. She does this by refusing to have sexual relations with the men in the city until it was agreed that peace would be declared between the two troops. She calls a meeting with the women in the city and include them in her vindictive ideas to bring the war to an end. This play is sure to bring a smile to the readers face due to the comical events that occur. However, comedy is not the only thing that becomes apparent within the play. Throughout the work of Lysistrata there are three themes that become apparent during this play: peace and harmony, control by gender, and politics.

Theatre became important to Greek cultures when it became a part of the festival honoring the god Dionysus (The god of wine and fertility).”( Greek Mythology in Theater by Bruce Tucker October 27, 2016) The theater festival was founded to bring unity among the Attican tribes.( Greek Mythology in Theater by Bruce Tucker October 27, 2016) Athens was the main center of these traditions. Everyone came to sing and dance in hope for a good harvest. At one point, a Greek named Thespis began to sing praises to the god, with others responding, which led to the actor and chorus. During the festival everyone would dance and sing in a circle, in the middle of which was the altar to Dionysus. Over time the festivals started giving thanks to other themes, and eventually had nothing to do with Dionysus or any god, but began to turn into classical Greek plays. (First Ancient History, Oxford University Press 2000 pg.166)

Throughout Aristophanes’ “Clouds” there is a constant battle between old and new. It makes itself apparent in the Just and Unjust speech as well as between father and son. Ultimately, Pheidippides, whom would be considered ‘new’, triumphs over the old Strepsiades, his father. This is analogous to the Just and Unjust speech. In this debate, Just speech represents the old traditions and mores of Greece while the contrasting Unjust speech is considered to be newfangled and cynical towards the old. While the defeat of Just speech by Unjust speech does not render Pheidippides the ability to overcome Strepsiades, it is a parallel that may be compared with many other instances in Mythology and real life.

Theatre flourished in Greece, particularly in Athens, between c. 550 BC and c. 220 BC. During its beginnings theatrical performances were part of Dionysia, a festival held in honour of the god Dionysus. The plot of the plays was always inspired by Greek mythology, a theme that is still common today. Many modern plays and movies have been directly based on or incorporated elements of Greek mythology or simply mythology in general. Every play had a chorus, though the size and importance of it varied. The

Socrates’ second argument is an attempt to show that Callicles admiration of courageous men is inconsistent with the view that all pleasures are good regardless of their source or the character of those who experience them. Socrates provides the example of cowards in war, who are pained by the advance of the enemy and rejoice upon their retreat by at least as much as the courageous (498a5-ca). Therefore if pleasure is good then the coward who is happy by the enemy’s retreat is as good as the courageous, something which Callicles doesn’t want to portray as he believes the cowardly and foolish are bad. In the end Callicles is forced to admit a distinction between good and bad pleasures and this distinction in turn allows Socrates to condemn contemporary Athenian politicians for ministering to the pleasures rather than the welfare of their people. From that point on Callicles so disgusted by the outcome only replies to Socrates in a formal manner thereby allowing Socrates to engage in a lengthy monologue in which the choice between philosophy and a public life is examined in the light of conclusions already established.9 Socrates argues that contemporary statesman are like poets pandering to the pleasures of the masses however Callicles thinks this only sensible for the ‘”leviathan” will kill you if you don’t humour it.’10 Callicles may well have been right in asserting that Socrates would be at the mercy of anyone who chooses to kill or injure him however immunity from

"The Clouds" by Aristophanes - Relevant in Today's World "The Clouds" by Aristophanes, is a play centrally concerned with education. Aristophanes employs satire to illustrate his conservative beliefs. It is intended to show readers that in the tendency to philosophical subtleties lies the neglection of the real needs of the Athenians. According to Aristophanes, philosophical speculation only acts to shake the established foundations of accepted religion, gods, and ideals of morality.

Ignorance: the condition of being uninformed or uneducated; this basic definition is crucial to understanding one of the most controversial figures in ancient Athenian society: the philosopher Socrates. The man’s entire life was devoted to proving the fact that no one actually knew what they thought they did; that everyone lived in ignorance. This viewpoint earned Socrates many enemies, so many that even a renowned playwright, Aristophanes, decided to exploit the situation. He wrote his critiquing play of Socrates called The Clouds; a scathing criticism that the philosopher would partially attribute to his future indictment on charges of impiety and corrupting the

The birds also provide a symbol for the uneducated men of Athens that were easily persuaded and susceptible to the well-spoken aristocrats. They too fall to the manipulations of Makemedo. When Makemedo and Goodhope first encounter Hoopoe and his army of birds, they scramble into the formation of a phalanx and approach their enemies. Hoopoe however, tells them to stand down, because Makemedo has just convinced him that they should create a realm for the birds. When the other birds are then convinced too, they easily fall to the orders of Makemedo. The phalanx formation the birds conducted themselves into is a tactic most notable of the Spartans. In addition, their lack of rationale to jump into battle before understanding completely the issue at hand, illustrates how Sparta’s concerns with war obstructed their ability to use logic to discern whether war was indeed necessary. So with the foolishness of the birds, Aristophanes is poking fun at the enemy state. There is symbolism even in his choice to make the Spartans resemble birds. It was commonplace to associate birds with lunacy and by creating Spartan-like birds, Aristophanes is thus mocking the enemy as being propsetreous. When the birds are asked to think of a name for the new polis, they suggest, “What about a strong laconic name like Sparta?’” (line 814, pg. 321) and Makemedo sternly replies with, “By Heracles! I am not naming it Sparta. I hate them so much…” (line 815, pg. 321). The birds’ praise of Sparta is thought

The kinsman in the play makes comments to the character Agathon of ultimate disrespect, such as, "I’ll get behind you with my hard on and show you" (line 178, Women at the Thesmophoria). Aristophanes’ is using Agathon as a punch line, costuming him in dresses, letting him offer up his own high heels, giving him a wig, "Even better, this wig I wear at night!" (line 310, Women at the Thesmophoria). Aristophanes’ portrayal of Agathon as a passive, effeminate man would be highly comedic. In Ancient Greece, although homoeroticism was accepted, it was seen as a disgrace and a joke to be a passive male in a homoerotic relationship after one is considered a man. Therefore, this portrayal of Agathon as a lady-like homosexual is one that presents Agathon as a character to be lampooned and satirized. The question arises as to whether Agathon was actually this way and viewed in this ludicrous manner, or if this was just Aristophanes’ comic usage of Agathon, a known homosexual, which can be answered after exploring all lenses available to the modern reader.

“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).

In this paper, I will discuss a play by Athenian playwright Aristophanes, The Wasps. First, I shall give a brief overview of the The Wasps. Then, I will examine the courtroom scene of the play and argue that Philocleon is not an impartial juror. Next, I will discuss generational gap in Athens. Finally, I will conclude the paper with my outcome of the investigation of the conflict between Misocleon and Philocleon.

Aristophanes’ Clouds, if read hastily, can be interpreted as a mindless satyr play written in 419 BCE. Yet the chorus warns the reader not to expect the play to have farcical ploys like “a hanging phallus stitched on” the actors to evoke a laugh, but has underlying seriousness as “she [the play] comes in trusting only her words” (Clouds 538-44). Even if the play does use some low devices, the play’s message is sophisticated and can be read as a warning to Socrates. Aristophanes is a “friendly critic” of Socrates and warns Socrates to change his ways for Athens and for the good of himself (Whidden). Plato’s Symposium and especially his Apology of Socrates justify the claims made in Clouds about the dangers of philosophy and Socrates to