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Aristophanes I: Clouds/Wasps/Birds

aristophanes peter meineck ian c. storey

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Originally adapted for the stage, Peter Meineck's revised translations achieve a level of fidelity appropriate for classroom use while managing to preserve the wit and energy that led The New Yorker to judge his Clouds The best Greek drama we've ever seen anywhere," and The Times Literary Supplement to describe his Wasps as "Hugely enjoyable and very, very funny. A general Introduction, introductions to the plays, and detailed notes on staging, history, religious practice and myth combine to make this a remarkably useful teaching text.

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,-0414

This edition

Format
480 pages, Paperback
Published
September 1, 1998 by Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. (USA)
ISBN
9780872203600
ASIN
0872203603
Language
English

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aristophanes

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Aristophanes (Greek: Αριστοφάνης; c. 446 – c. 386 BC) was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are used to define it, along with fragments from dozens of lost plays by Aristophanes and his contemporaries.
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.
Aristophanes' second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by 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 that play's Chorus, "the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all."

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.8 / 5.0, 15 votes)
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5(33%)
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15 reviews All reviews
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nightfault
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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Enjoyed Clouds the most and a lot of the humor holds up, but this translation updates a lot of jokes for a 20th century British audience, so it's tough to know what I'm reading. I think I prefer a translation somewhat closer to the original text.
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Chupacabra-Food
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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A good reading translation of The Clouds in this volume - Arrowsmith definitely renders the play readable and makes several of the more topical jokes relevant to modern audiences. However, there are several liberties taken at points which can alter the reader's understanding of the subtleties of the play's critique of Socrates. If one were seriously studying this play, it would be worthwhile to cross-reference several editions.

The Frogs and the Wasps are also readable translations, but based on my experience with the rendition of The Clouds, I would be similarly careful were I to examine either play critically.
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PunchyZ
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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These are adequate translations of notoriously difficult Greek to English works. They work by changing topical Greek subjects tackled by Aristophanes into rough American mid-20th-century analogs. The humor is still comprehensible and quite funny in places, though scholars won't like their lack of exactitude in matters of translation. Good for modern performances, though.
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Nevann
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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Great translations. These aren't the historical versions, however; all have been somewhat tampered with in an attempt to make them acting versions. Strangely, however, it seems that the translator's ad libs and changes in a way DO make it more historical- they're hilarious. Even the Wasps, one of Aristophanes' least enticing plays becomes great! The translators have a great knack for bringing the playwright's absurdity to life.
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figuregure11
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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My review is on Birds. I'm no Greek scholar and I'm sure a lot went over my head. I did enjoy the play for the humor. I thought at times I was reading a Monty Python script or even at times, a Marx Brothers version of banter. The puns were great as were all things relating to birds. Reading the notes I saw how raunchy most of it was. I would love to see this acted out.
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voxvoelz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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I don't think anybody cares how I rate Aristophanes: people have been enjoying his plays for two millennia, so it's safe to say the verdict is in. Instead I'm going to rate the modern Aristophanes translations, the quality of which is highly variable. Slang and bawdry seem to be the hardest things to translate, more on account of the people who tend to become translators, I think -- especially translators of ancient Greek -- than of the difficulties inherent in approximating lively foulness. In English Aristophanes has suffered pretty badly; you have to really dig for a translation that conveys why the ancients enjoyed this guy so much.

Disclaimer: I don't know Greek, so I can only judge how these translations read in English - and make no mistake, these are all in English English: it's 'bloody' this and 'bugger' that, with 'poofters' and 'bumboys' galore, which sound to this American like the sort of imprecations you let fly when the waitstaff at Gordon Ramsay serves you some ill-blackened swordfish. But I didn't deduct points for Britishness -- not even for all the 'arses', which I have no idea what to do with -- only for stuff that'd be lousy in any dialect.

Meineck: A
Bartlett & Sommerstein: B
Theodoridis: B
Einhorn (Lysistrata): C+ (his Lampito is straight out of 'Bamboozled')
Halliwell: C
Arrowsmith, Parker, and Lattimore: D-
Henderson: F
Ruden: Oof. In the words of Dean Vernon Wormer - "Zero point zero."

Meineck only did these three plays, so until he gives us an "Aristophanes II" we're stuck with the OK Bartlett & Sommerstein and the slightly unhinged Theodoridis ("Because, by Salty Poseidon, we are so piss-weak ourselves!"). Feel free to take a crayon and a sense of humor to their pages, however: I've found that if you tune up the B&S or give the Theodoridis some Ritalin, they both read decently well. And they are worth reading: Aristophanes is great!
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Biller3d
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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I really like this translation for a modern reader. It’s very accessible and also includes excellent footnotes and endnotes.
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WavyBunny
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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Although Clouds is always presented as a satire about Socrates, I found it much more a satire about the main character Strepsiades, his son Pheidippides and sophist reasoning. Actually it's probably a satire about all and everything and probably about Athenian life in general. Most of the dialogue between Socrates and Strepsiades is Socrates making fun of the "fossilized, forgetful old fool."

It was more or less fun to read, and gives some feeling about what comedy must have been in 5th century Athens.
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