LOVED THIS. After reading all of the tragedies I wanted to continue on into the comedies. This was one of the most enjoyable I have read of the ancient writings

I just can't believe these plays are as old as they are. Aristophanes persistently engages directly with his audience on contemporary political, moral, and social issues in a way that really surprised me. Some of the characters he lampoons are instantly recognizable and most of the topics he treats remain relevant. Best of all, it's actually still funny in a low-brow, "laugh before you think about it" sort of way. I'd so go to see one of these plays.

I read these back in school and liked them on a surface level only. Was nice to now dig a little deeper.

Aristophanes demonstrates clear mastery of the Comedy genre with both Frogs and Women at the Thesmophoria, though I get the impression with both of these plays that he feels a little jaded by all the attention Tragedy receives over Comedy. Nonetheless, his texts are witty and engaging to this day, and present intriguing insight into the political landscape of Ancient Greece.

Frogs has Dionysus, God of revelry and wine, descending into the Underworld with the intention of reviving Euripides because the whole world's falling apart. Along the way, he and his slave Xanthias share much witty banter, and a lengthy agon between Aeschylus and Euripides as each attempts to convince Dionysus of their worth. Ironically - and perhaps deliberately - Dionysus does end up opting for Aeschylus; while I expect this was done humorously, it nonetheless demonstrates the competitive nature of the Dionysia, and how well each poet was received by Athens as a whole.

Women at the Thesmophoria depicts Euripides convincing his father-in-law to dress up as a woman and attend a women-only festival in order to save his good name, in a complete 180 in contrast with Frogs. Thesmophoriazusae (it's Greek transliteration) also utilises Aristophanes' go-to technique of pinching classic lines from Euripides and playing them off ironically - here, Euripides pretends to be Menelaus to his father's Helen in order to break him out of foreign territory. Complex in thought, yet engagingly written, Thesmophoriazusae perhaps takes the spot as my favourite Aristophanic text, simply for its ingenuity, if not its originality.

Interesting but hard going!

A chorus of singing frogs has kept me awake several nights running and this book from high school came to mind one sleepless night.
I found my scribbled and dog eared paperback, and found not only did the play take me back to my teenage self in all the best ways, it also helped me find humor in my current predicament. Aristophanes is brilliant and i feel this translation does a great job of making the plays accessible to a modern audience. Rereading The Frogs in particular makes me wonder what poet could be called upon now to save our city... truly timeless themes.

3 stars for frogs, -2 stars because I do not have any lust for soup.

I couldn't finish. It is unreadable

Sommerstein raises an interesting point in his introduction to the following volume in this series: Aristophanes as – in the broadest possible terms – a right-wing comic. Insofar as Wasps – which reads to me as an incisive anti-establismentarian piece of absurdity – is communicated wholly in the negative. We are to bemoan and ridicule a system that is structured in such a corruptible fashion, and one that ennobles the least noble. That second point becomes the shade itself: in lieu of this pseudo-democracy (so far as Aristophanes is concerned) would be a system governed wholly by the idle rich; by those who could afford to sit on juries and muse upon righteous judgement. The poor wallops like Philocleon would be cleaned out, and no man of little means would have his say. Certain comments in Frogs, where the chorus wish for good blood in good standing, buttress this sense. Aristophanes, himself caught up in the politicking of his age, might prefer to remove populist candidates by disfranchising their populace (or at least, in effect); there is an aristocratic tendency to this suggestion that potentially overwhelms all others. But even acknowledging this potential, there is much else to be gleaned from these plays, whose political outlook can be at once truthful and suspect. It sexual humour is no doubt the more discomfiting: sometimes a bawdy Carry On (though the more surreal), other times violent and distinctly misogynistic. It comes with the territory; but an unfortunate particle in comedies that otherwise (through Bennet’s wily translation) survive in all mirth.

A hale lungful from the marble past!

Aristophanes' plays gain their momentum from exuberance rather than formal qualities. They scorn (anachronistically) Aristotelian poetics with wild verve by tarrying and meandering whenever they list, and they are absolutely packed with all types of humour from literary criticism and subtle, periodic allusion to arse volleys dwarfing the Last Trump. They are wildly inventive in the sense that they defy structure (though, as in the introduction to the Penguin edition shows, there is a flimsy framework to the plays), and so they refuse to sit still in any straight-forward manner: sometimes the characters break the fourth wall, sometimes they crack meta jokes, sometimes they lampoon people (dead or alive) directly, sometimes they launch on interminable ritual poems and so forth. Pythonesque would serve as a good synonym.

I've noticed that with Aristophanes, I did not so much laugh out loud as I felt a mirthful expansion within me—a wholesome, ad-hoc disposition to take in the world in one grand gesture of jest. The gall he had would definitely be frowned in today's artists, but with the millennia between me and him, I cannot help but admire his temerity. He would call living politicians catamites, and he would have the chorus berate the audience for not appreciating Clouds enough for the first prize! The carnival atmosphere of his plays simply smacks of Mardi Gras, and so Aristophanes could easily be considered a forerunner to the likes of Rabelais and Sterne, the liberated humourists par excellence.

I read The Wasps, a surprising blend of bawdy jokes and political satire. I know little about Ancient Greece. Much of the comedy was lost on me. But an interesting and enjoyable play nonetheless, and one that’s probably more fun if seen performed on stage.

Wasps: 3/5
Women at the Thesmophoria: 4/5
Frogs: 5/5

Overall a good collection, I had a good time reading it!