Famous As: Comic Playwright of Ancient Athens and a Poet of Old Attic Comedy.
Born On: 446 AD
Died On: 386 AD
Born In: Athens, Greece
Died At Age: -60
Aristophanes, also known as the father of comedy, was a Greek playwright, known for his humor which he inculcated in his plays. Only few of his 40 plays have been retrieved which eventually created a genre of its own known as ‘Old Comedy’. His notable works include The Clouds, The Wasps, The Birds, Lysistrata, The Frogs and The Poet and the Women. Compared to his contemporaries, his work depicted the lives of the people of ancient Athens more realistically. Comic Drama was a popular genre during his era but it was only due to Aristophanes that the Old Comedy genre truly bloomed. His criticism for primary figures in Athens in terms of religion, politics and arts, gave an impression of opposition of new radical thoughts which were prevalent in Ancient Greece. In the later years somehow, there seemed a gradual decline in the following of Old Comedy due to advent of New Comedy with realistic plots. We have collected Aristophanes’ most famous quotes from his writings. Browse through some of these quotes from this genius from Ancient Greece.
[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.
Politics, these days, is no occupation
for an educated man, a man of character.
Ignorance and total lousiness are better.
Aristophanes
Lysistrata: "Calonice, it's more than I can bear,
I am hot all over with blushes for our sex.
Men say we're slippery rogues--"
Calonice: "And aren't they right?
Chorus of women: […] Oh! my good, gallant Lysistrata, and all my friends, be ever like a bundle of nettles; never let you anger slacken; the wind of fortune blown our way.