The Birds and Other Plays

The Knights/Peace/The Birds/The Assemblywomen/Wealth

‘Oh wings are splendid things, make no mistake: they really help you rise in the world’

The plays collected in this volume, written at different times in Aristophanes’ forty-year career as a dramatist, all contain his trademark bawdy comedy and dazzling verbal agility. In The Birds, two frustrated Athenians join with the birds to build the utopian city of ‘Much Cuckoo in the Clouds’. The Knights is a venomous satire on Cleon, the prominent Athenian demagogue, while The Assemblywomen considers the war of the sexes, as the women of Athens infiltrate the all-male Assembly in disguise. The lengthy conflict with Sparta is the subject of Peace, inspired by the hope of a settlement in 421 BC, and Wealth reflects the economic catastrophe that hit Athens after the war, as the god of riches is depicted as a ragged, blind old man.

The lively translations by David Barrett and Alan H. Sommerstein capture the full humour of the plays. The introduction examines Aristophanes’ life and times, and the comedy and poetry of his works. This volume also includes an introductory note for each play.

Aristophanes in Antiquity 9

Aristophanes, Comedian and Poet 21

The Knights 29

Peace 91

The Birds 147

The Assemblywoman 215

Wealth 265

Notes 313

Select Bibliography 336