The Wasps; The Poet And The Women; The Frogs (Classics) - Softcover

The master of ancient Greek drama, Aristophanes combined slapstick humour & cheerful vulgarity with acute political observations. In THE FROGS, Dionysus descends into the Underworld to bring back a poet who can help Athens in its darkest hour, & stages a great debate to help him decide between the traditional wisdom of Aeschylus & the brilliant modernity of Euripides. This clash of generations & values is also the subject of THE WASPS, in which an old-fashioned father and his loose-living son come to blows & end up in court. Meanwhile in THE POET & THE WOMEN, Euripides - who stands accused of misogyny - persuades a relative to infiltrate an all-women festival to find out if revenge is being plotted against him.

Little is known about Aristophanes' life (c.445BC-c.386BC) but there is a portrait of him in Plato's SYMPOSIUM. He had his first comedy produced when he was about 20, & wrote 40 plays in all. David Barrett translated a number of ancient Greek texts, including Aristophanes' THE BIRDS & OTHER PLAYS.