The Birds. This comedy ridicules the disastrous Greek expedition to Sicily in 413 BC. More generally, The Birds is a rollicking commentary on man's eternal dissatisfaction with his lot; his habit of ignoring the divinities which shape his ends; is crowded, evil-breading cities; and his tendency to disturb the equilibrium of the universe, Pisthetaerus, with his irresistible rhetoric, is a forebear of the men who sell salvation or the world's goods with equal glibness and ease.

The thing which most impressed me about this book was that the plays are dialectically translated: that is, Roche not only follows the originals as literally as possible, he uses modern slang to capture the cultural connotations, double entendres, and dirty jokes of the Ancients in all their accurate glory. Bet you hadn’t realized that we’ve been making strap-on jibes for a long, long time, huh?

Of course, Lysistrata was my favorite play, and not just because it gives power to women in a way you don’t often see in literature. It’s sincere, hilarious, and bizarre. It captures the essence of human nature and the often precarious dealings between the sexes.

Second-favorite would be the last of the plays in the book, Plutus. The dichotomy of wealth and poverty is as ancient as humans itself, and I think it’s that very fact which makes this play, like Lysistrata, particularly accessible to modern readers.

The Frogs is too topical, I think. Just like watching an episode of the Daily Show probably wouldn’t be funny to someone 2,500 years from now, a play which deals this heavily with the politics and culture of Ancient Greece is unlikely to resonate strongly with a reader of our time. However, I concede that once I’ve read more Euripides and Aeschylus, this one will likely be more amusing to me.

If Frogs is hard to read, Parliament of Women (Ecclesiazusae) may be even worse. While it, too, can be applied to 20th-century social structures (Feminism and Communism, respectively), the jokes just aren’t that great. It tries too hard to be crass and shocking, and ends up just seeming silly. Overall, I’d say that the idea is sound, but the execution is lacking. This play could be really cool, were it remixed for a modern audience.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. It’s a quick read, and offers a very fresh take on the Classics. Aristophanes could easily be called the Matt Groening or Seth MacFarlane of his generation, and while the politics may have changed, much of the humor has not.

Reading Greek tragedy and then reading Greek comedy is quite the experience. It's sort of like attending a symphony and then half way through being magically transported to a middle school boys' locker room where scatological humor and sexual jokes run wild. Some of it is so over the top (incessant farting and fart jokes in The Clouds) but other jokes are pretty dang funny. For example, The Lysistrata, where the Greek women go to heroic lengths to successfully end the Peloponnesian War by withholding all sexual favors from their Athenian or Spartan husbands, who hobble around with painful erections from not having had sex for so long.

The Clouds is interesting in its depiction of Socrates as the worst kind of sophist imaginable. Of course, this is a comedic roast of Socrates, but it does make you wonder--and there is scholarly debate about this--what role The Clouds might have played in the public's misperception of Socrates "making the worse argument appear better" and his subsequent trial and execution.

Read 'The Frogs' for Fiction class

Aunque he leído la mayoría de sus obras... Lisístrata es la neta!!!

I only read "Lysistrata," but it was unforgettable!

Editors / translators did a great job with the reading order - after going thru, I'd recommend them in the same order of funniest / most philosophical

Pussy and fart jokes from thousands of years ago. Thank god things don't change.

Okay you guys, you can call it dorky, and that's fine, but I really love Aristophanes. And not because I get to say things like "oh I really love Aristophanes," but admittedly, that is part of the fun. Because I feel like when you find a good translation of anything (in this case William Arrowsmith knocks it out of the park all the way around on the first two plays), you feel like you've learned a magic trick. Greek plays from 400 BC are supposed to be hard, right? Turns out when you have somebody giving you a good run down of what was said, and why, and who should care, they really are funny, and entertaining, and a good way to spend some time.

I didn't read the Lysistrata in this volume, having read it in another anthology awhile back, but I will absolutely vouch for the other three plays ("The Frogs" is translated by Richard Lattimore). These guys know their Greek well enough to make the jokes pertinent and timely, despite the historical gap. They help you understand what the play is about, without necessarily bogging you down in a word for word translation. And a younger me would've balked at this, but for an average person like myself, this volume is perfect. I don't need to know every single declension, every single obscure reference to one of Aristophanes' friends who weren't ever famous anyway. I'm not gonna get a lot of the jokes, or the word plays, because I'm way out of the time period and language. What I do get is the feeling, the goal, the story, and I can't stress this enough, the laughs. I rarely laugh at books but I sent at least four picture messages to people about these plays. (Which is probably something I shouldn't brag about.)

But rather than belabor the obvious point, I'd just say go pick this up. It's gotta be at every college bookstore anywhere. There are a few of the notes that aren't 100 percent useful; the kind that go "readers of Aristophanes' play 'Knights' will be familiar with this." But by faaaaar, these are the very tiny little Minderheit.

So, go get it. And remember, they're plays! They're supposed to be taken in in a couple hours. Enjoy them.

Did anyone else feel like these plays were really all over the place? I mean Cloudcuckoland? A bunch of women who withhold sex in an effort to take the city? The clouds vs/as the gods? Some parts were very amusing. I guess you can see where people get their appreciation for random humor after reading this. But honestly I really was not terribly impressed. Many of the jokes were frankly just confusing by the end of it all. Boloney anyone? Really how did that get in there? I also think perhaps the translator added a few things as (and pardon me for assuming to know) but it seems like some of the sayings were not very greek in style. They seemed a bit too modern to make sense with the work. Overall not what I was expecting from a series of plays that are so well referenced in literature. And this after reading the great Prometheus Bound. Aye! Not my style I am afraid.

The Clouds: 5/5
The Birds: 5/5
Lysistrata: 4/5
The Frogs: 4/5

it loses a star for the euripides slander