Aristophanes 1: Clouds, Wasps, Birds

by Aristophanes

Book Overview

Originally adapted for the stage, Peter Meineck's revised translations achieve a level of fidelity appropriate for classroom use while managing to preserve the wit and energy that led The New Yorker to judge his CloudsThe best Greek drama we've ever seen anywhere," and The Times Literary Supplement to describe his Wasps as "Hugely enjoyable and very, very funny. A general Introduction, introductions to the plays, and detailed notes...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0872203603
• ISBN13: 9780872203600
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Three early Greek comedies by Aristophanes

"Aristophanes I" brings together three of the Greek comedians earliest extant comedies. The legend is that when Aristophanes' comedy "The Clouds" was first performed in Athens in 423 B.C., his target, Socrates, stood throughout the performance so that everyone in the audience was aware that he was there and hearing what was said of him. The portrait of Socrates clearly satirical and most critics consider it to be inaccurate. But Aristophanes is making fun of Athens' renowned "Think-tank" the "Phrontisterion," the school where the rich young men of Athens were taught the fine art of rhetoric. Instead of anything lofty the comic poet suggests the primary purpose of such an education is to be clever and out-reason greedy creditors. This is an especially good translation of the play, which includes insightful notes and essays on both Old Comedy and the Theater of Dionysus that helps readers understand the conventions of staged comedy at the time of Aristophanes. In this comedy Socrates is consulted by an old rogue, Strepsiades (sometimes translated as "Twisterson"), who is upset with the mountain of debts his playboy son Phidippides, who loves fast horses and fast living. Phidippides agrees to go to Socrates' school of logic where he can learn to make a wrong argument sound right. After graduation is able to use the system of "unjust logic" to outwit his father and kick him out of the family home. The Chorus of Clouds comments on the proceedings and in the end the Phrontisterion is burned to the ground by Strepsiades. The flaw of the play is Aristophanes is trying to satirize the Sophists, who were popularizing a new philosophy that denied the possibility of ever reaching objective truth, he picked the wrong target. The Sophists were mostly teachers who were not native to Athens, such as Isocartes and Gorgias. "Sophist" basically meant teacher, so while Socrates was a "sophist" he was not a "Sophist." Twenty-four years later, when Socrates was condemned to death for "corrupting the youth of Athens," the only accuser he said he could name was a certain "comic poet" who renamed nameless. The version of "The Clouds" that has passed down to us is not the original version, which was defeated by Cratinus' "Wine Flask" at a comedy competition during the Great Dionysia celebrations. We know this is a revised version because the Chorus complains about Aristophanes finishing third in that competition. However, critics assume it is essentially the same play, albeit a more polished version. Once you forgive Aristophanes for his unfair characterization of Socrates, "The Clouds" is a great comedy employing all of his standard tricks of the trade from fantasy and ribaldry to funny songs and obscene words. "Wasps" ("Sphekes") appeals to contemporary audiences because it satirizes the litigiousness of the Athenians. Actually, the play, produced in 422 B.C., is more about the permanent tensions between conservative and liberal politics. Aristophanes is att

Three classic plays translated for performers and students

Better known for translating the great Greek tragedies, Peter Meineck has now turned his pen on the comedies, with generally positive results. Like other translations published by Hackett, this one is aimed squarely at today's college students. It has plenty of historical background for those who want it, or can be read just for the plays.Translating comedy is trickier than tragedy, because jokes are so fickle. What one society finds hilarious, another might find distasteful. Meineck does his best to render the old Greek jokes and still be funny. He doesn't always succeed. His skills at punning are not as great as Aristophanes', nor do the jokes about minor Athenian figures like Theorus and Cardopion add much to a performance text.And these are performance texts. No matter how faithful to the original, no matter how many footnotes and endnotes the translator provides, a student should still be wary of changes made for modern performance. Today's theater operates under an entirely different set of conventions.The plays themselves are three genuine classics, WASPS being less known than CLOUDS and BIRDS, but in this book, perhaps the best. Procleon's obsession with jury service and the headaches it causes his son translates very well, and Meineck is surprisingly adept at rendering the political understory that subliminally critizes the Athenian leader Cleon.BIRDS is the story of two friends who come up with one of the great comic plans: a utopia named Cloudcuckooland where they, with the help of the birds, rule both the gods and men. And it works!CLOUDS is read most often because it features a comic version of Socrates and his 'Pondertorium.' While Meineck and Introduction writer Ian C. Storey conclude the portrayal of Socrates is entirely innaccurate, it sure is funny. CLOUDS is really more of a father-son story, a father convincing his profligate son to get an education in order to argue the father's way out of the accumulating debts. What the father doesn't bank on is his son using new-learned rhetorical skills to argue that a son has the right to beat his father.Meineck is British, so the slang in the plays is full of 'poofters' and 'arses.' I will say this much, only recently have translations of the Greek comic playwrights begun to reflect how genuinely bawdy they were. Some of Meineck's best footnotes let you in on the double-entendres.It's all a lot of silly mischief, and in the final reckoning Aristophanes comes through loud and clear, despite such devices as rhymed doggerel passages (no rhymes in classical Greek) and confusing name translations like Makemedo. The title of this book is ARISTOPHANES I, and let us hope that professor Meineck is at work on an ARISTOPHANES II that will include some of Aristophanes lesser-known works as well as perennial favorite LYSISTRATA.

best translations of Aristophanes available

Although I don't read Greek (yet--I'm working on it) I'm pretty familiar with Latin/Greek classics of all kinds in translation, and when I consider buying something new, I always check with expert classical scholars for advice & discussion--either from my alma mater, or at loxias@classicspage.com, an excellent site for those interested in the subject. The consensus is that Arrowsmith is the best with Aristophanes--he has also highly regarded transl ations of Satyricon (a fascinating and hilarious novel fragment) and several of the Tragedies originally published in the Chicago University Press series, now by Random House. So why only 4 stars? Because, frustratingly, the 3 editions of Aristophanes translated by him duplicate 2 of the plays in another!-Anyhow, others translated by Barrett & Sommerstein are worth looking at. Also "Socrates and Aristophanes" by Leo Strauss, and a book on Aristophanes' Comedy by Kenneth J Dover--and finally the article on A. in the Oxford Classical Dictionary--an indispensable reference book.

Good selections of comedies

Aristophanes is undoubtedly one of the greatest playwrights that has ever walked on the face of this Earth. The 3 comedies presented in this book are The Birds, The Clouds, and The Wasps. Among the best of the comedies is The Clouds, which is pretty much a scathing satire on the philosophical beliefs of Socrates. Not only is it humorous, but also shows the flaws of Socratic ideas. It is interesting to note the comedic devices that are used in the stories. The satire is hilarious!