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Since the eighteenth century, classical scholars have generally agreed that the Greek playwright Aristophanes did not as a matter of course write "political" plays. Yet, according to an anonymous Life of Aristophanes, when Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse wanted to know about the government of Athens, Plato sent him a copy of Aristophanes' Clouds.
In this boldly revisionist work, Michael Vickers convincingly argues that in his earlier plays, Aristophanes in fact used allegory to comment on the day-to-day political concerns of Athenians. Vickers reads the first six of Aristophanes' eleven extant plays in a way that reveals the principal characters to be based in large part on Pericles, the Athenian statesman of the fifth century B.C., and his extended family - particularly his ward Alcibiades.
According to Vickers, the plays of Aristophanes - far from being nonpolitical - actually allow us to gauge the reaction of the Athenian public to the events which occured in the years following Pericles' death in 429 B.C., to the struggle for the political succession, and to the problems presented by Alcibiades' gradual emergence as one of the most powerful figures in the state.
This view of Aristophanes reaffirms the central role of allegory in his work and challenges all students of ancient Greece to rethink long-held assumptions about this important playwright.
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Subjects
History and criticism, Politics and government, Politics and literature, Political and social views, Greek Political plays, In literature, Greek drama (Comedy), Aristophanes, Pericles, approximately 495 b.c.-429 b.c., Greek drama, history and criticism, Athens (greece), politics and governmentPlaces
Athens (Greece), Athens, GreeceShowing 3 featured editions. View all 3 editions?
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1
Pericles on Stage: Political Comedy in Aristophanes' Early Plays
Aug 17, 2011, University of Texas Press
paperback
029273493X 9780292734937
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2
Pericles on Stage: Political Comedy in Aristophanes' Early Plays
2000, de Gruyter GmbH, Walter
in English
0292799926 9780292799929
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3
Pericles on stage: political comedy in Aristophanes' early plays
1997, University of Texas Press
in English
- 1st ed.
0292787278 9780292787278
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-220) and indexes.
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