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I was unprepared for this comedic play which seems impossibly modern and slapstick. I was looking for a copy of The Frogs, attributed to Aristophanes and performed 405 B.C. This particular edition was translated by Richard Lattimore, who translated a popular version of the Iliad, though it seems dated now. This play, on the other hand, virtually jumps off the page with vitality & energy.Lattimore has translated this humor broadly; he says in his introduction to this play that he hates to explain...
Aristophanes is a funny guy and he writes funny plays. Like all the best comedians, he manages to slip some serious stuff into the mirth and merriment (and abundant priapism), as he sharply critiques aspects of his society, his government and his fellow playwrights. I very much enjoyed the 'peace' theme in Lysistrata and The Acharnians - a somewhat daring point of view to take while your country is in the middle of a war. The mix of high and low comedy felt very Shakespearean, although from now
I was introduced to Aristophanes my first year in college (29 years ago – oy!), reading what’s translated here as The Congresswomen. It was hilarious. I read a couple more of his plays a few years ago and found them also very funny, so I figured it was time to revisit the gals and read a couple others I hadn’t read yet. Aristophanes is perfect when your brain’s too tired for really dense stuff and you could use a laugh, but you still want an original, critical thinker giving you something of sub...
Douglass Parker, transThe Congresswomen"political opinion: three obol (paid) assembly transforms polis into something unthinkablewhy then! now anything can happenwhy not have a state takeover masterminded by wild-eyed radical transvestite women who turn the state into fullblown utopian communistic welfare state"Lysistrata"debased mountain dialect Sparta v Athens (city)" excellent translationby what mechanism does the absurd work?what is the difference between the ridiculous which we find dumb an...
Douglass Parker is my favorite translator of Aristophanes; among all of the others I've read, his translations are closest to the spirit of Aristophanes, though not always the most accurate. And 'The Frogs' is just my favorite Aristophanean comedy; to see the the three giants of Greek tragedy brought down to earth, humbled and slightly humiliated is a treat: Euripides gets it the worst, more so than Sophocles (Aristophanes' favorite, if he has one) or Aeschylus. Lattimore as always translates we...
This collection of comedies is fun to read and easy to understand (thanks not only to the translation but also to the detailed notes which are provided at the end of each play and explain references to the classical world. That there is a note corresponding to a line is indicated by a small asterik which does not break up the action of the play for those who do not want to read them). It fascinates me how different yet similar ancient comedy is to our own. Many tropes have remained the same toda...
Only having to read Lysistrata, I found this play a tad dull, yet a theme shown in this play will come back time and time again throughout all histories, and that is the role of women within a society. The play is straightforward and all women practice abstinence until the men make peace and stop the Peloponnese War. Even though Lysistrata is the voice behind the movement, it is the secondary character, Myrrhine's actions that lead the movement.
Never has scatological and prurient humor been so funny, so artistic in composition, or so politically relevant. Hey, scenes blocked out on a chamber pot never get old--even literary critics in the underwold would have to admit that.
Just read Parker's Lysistrata, not the others--what great wit and dialect! Captures Aristophanes's registers and humor better than any other translation I've read, even if it's more liberal and unorthodox.
You can't outdo the classics
Fun.
Light reading, of sorts. This makes me glad I didn't take the classics as my field.
