The Birds (Annotated)

by Aristophanes

Overview

The Birds is a comedic work by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed in 414 BC at the City Dionysia where it won second prize. It has been acclaimed by modern critics as a perfectly realized fantasy remarkable for its mimicry of birds and for the gaiety of its songs. Unlike the author's other early plays, it includes no direct mention of the Peloponnesian War and there are few references to Athenian politics, and yet it was staged not long after the commencement of the Sicilian Expedition, an ambitious military campaign that had greatly increased Athenian commitment to the war effort. In spite of that, the play has many indirect references to Athenian political and social life. It is the longest of Aristophanes' surviving plays and yet it is a fairly conventional example of Old Comedy.

This edition has formatted for your NOOK, with an active table of contents. It has also been extensively illustrated and annotated, with additional information about the play and its author, including an overview, plot, background, discussion, relation to old comedy, influence, legacy, biographical and bibliographical information.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940150914957
Publisher:	Bronson Tweed Publishing
Publication date:	08/13/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	158 KB

About the Author

Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaeum, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his thirty dramas survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are used to define the genre. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy, Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher. His second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court but details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights, the first of many plays that he directed himself. "In my opinion," he says through the Chorus in that play, "the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all."