Biography
Aristophanes was born around 450 BC in Athens, probably in the deme of Kydathenaion, the son of Philippus, and died around 388 BC. His first play, The Banqueters, was staged in 427 BC still under another man's name; with The Knights (424 BC) he directed one of his own comedies under his own name for the first time. Of more than 40 plays, eleven survive complete, including The Acharnians, The Knights, The Clouds, The Birds, The Frogs and Wealth – making him the only Old Comedy poet whose work survives in the original. His plays combined broad physical comedy and elaborate choral lyric with sharp political and literary satire, targeting figures such as the demagogue Cleon, the philosopher Socrates and the tragedian Euripides. After 400 BC he held the Athenian office of prytanis and ranked among the city's respected citizens.
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