Aristophanes continues to make us laugh, but he is hardly ever "just kidding." The playwright lived through the Peloponnesian War-the nature and scale of which irreparably altered the political and cultural landscape of all of Greece-as well as the subsequent oligarchic revolutions and democratic restorations that followed in the tumultuous aftermath at Athens. All the while, he produced the only plays that substantiate for us the genre of "Old Comedy," replete with scathing political and cultural commentary. Often called the "father of comedy" itself, Aristophanes' political satire never shrinks from launching its barbs at the most powerful contemporary politicians running Athens. Cleon, one of the foremost political figures during the Peloponnesian War, is a routine object of derision and mockery in his plays (especially his Knights and Wasps). Consequently, Cleon was a constant plaintiff against the social impact of Aristophanes' work. But his targets are not merely the military/political elite: perhaps most controversial is Plato's claim that Aristophanes' work, particularly his comedy Clouds, led directly to the prosecution and execution of the philosopher Socrates. Despite the contemporary specificity of Aristophanes' works, his plays remain a persistent source of inspiration for modern reception-Spike Lee's 2015 Chi-Raq, for example, is just one of many instances of modern reception of Aristophanes' Lysistrata. In this course, we will read selections from several of Aristophanes' comedies in Greek and translation, along with contemporary works referencing the people and events central to his works, as well as commentary on Aristophanes himself. Students will continue to hone their skills in translation of Attic Greek while doing a deep dive into the meter, themes, and other generic conventions of Old Comedy. This course aims to use Aristophanes' work along with contemporary comparanda to begin to pick apart the complex and deliberately ambiguous nature of political satire, and to understand why pointed political commentary on specific moments and figures in Athenian history still resonate so strongly with modern audiences. |