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Birds and Other Plays (Oxford World's Classics)
 
 

Birds and Other Plays (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

by Aristophanes (Author), Stephen Halliwell (Editor) "Birds, produced for Aristophanes by Kallistratos at the City Dionysia in 414, is by some way the longest surviving Aristophanic comedy ..." (more)
4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks; New edition edition (10 Sep 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0192824082
  • ISBN-13: 978-0192824080
  • Product Dimensions: 19 x 13 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 289,755 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #17 in  Books > Languages > A & AS Level > Other European Languages
    #33 in  Books > Languages > A & AS Level > Ancient Languages
    #78 in  Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > Drama > By Period > Classical, Early & Medieval
  • See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

Product Description
Aristophanes is the only surviving representative of Greek Old Comedy, the exuberant, satirical form of festival drama which flourished during the heyday of classical Athenian culture in the fifth century BC. His plays are characterized by extraordinary combinations of fantasy and satire, sophistication and vulgarity, formality and freedom. Birds is an escapist fantasy in which two dissatisfied Athenians, in defiance of men and gods, bring about a city of birds, the eponymous Cloudcuckooland. In Lysistrata the heroine of the play organizes a sex-strike and the wives of Athens occupy the Akropolis in an attempt to restore peace to the city. The main source of comedy in the Assembly-Women is a similar usurpation of male power as the women attempt to reform Athenian society along utopian-communist lines. Finally, Wealth is Aristophanes' last surviving comedy, in which Ploutos, the god of wealth is cured of his blindness and the remarkable social consequences of his new discrimination are exemplified. This is the first complete verse translation of Aristophanes' comedies to appear for more than twenty-five years and makes freshly available one of the most remarkable comic playwrights in the entire Western tradition, complete with an illuminating introduction including play by play analysis and detailed notes.

About the Author
Stephen Halliwell is Professor of Greek at the University of St Andrews.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
Birds, produced for Aristophanes by Kallistratos at the City Dionysia in 414, is by some way the longest surviving Aristophanic comedy. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic translations of a comic genius, 11 May 2008
By Jon Chambers (Birmingham, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Few comic writers pre-date Aristophanes. But few resonate more strongly with us. His comic traits - wit, absurd, satire - are precisely those features that prove popular today.

One reason why this Penguin edition excels is that its English catches the mischievous and fantastic spirit of the originals so unfailingly. Although this edition first appeared as long ago as 1978 and despite lacking Greek-alphabet annotation - an absence that may deter the more classical Classicist - it more than compensates with its inspired translations and illuminating introductions and commentaries.

There are actually two translators at work in this volume - AH Sommerstein and David Barrett. The first's strength is putting the comedies in their social-historical context. The latter's forte is a no-nonsense, pragmatic approach best exemplified, perhaps, in his excellent prefatory essay. He acknowledges that we'll probably never fully understand several of Aristophanes' jokes made at the expense of lesser-known named individuals (like Smicythion in The Assemblywomen). But rather than despair, he prefers to see these ancient joke-butts as allegorical and representing 'facets of ourselves, isolated expressly to be ridiculed'.

And what of the plays on offer? The best known, The Birds, is in several ways the least typical: it is apolitical; there's no Cleon-baiting; there's very little that's topical. But alongside the odd groan-inducing pun, there's even some lyric poetry from the chorus - the very core (caw caw) of these Old Comedy competition plays: 'Set free the notes of the hallowed songs/That pour divinely from you, lamenting/Itys, our dead son,/Your tawny throat throbbing with liquid music...'. It isn't really lyric verse that Aristophanes is renowned for so much as comic invention, of course. Although, in Barrett's opinion, The Assemblywomen is structurally the weakest of these plays, it is probably the most effective and the funniest in performance. And like the others, it illuminates aspects of ordinary Athenian life otherwise unrecorded for posterity. We learn that pole-cats, rather than modern, domesticated cats, were given the job of catching mice around the house; that chick-peas were served as 'nibbles' with wine; and much else.

At its best, the Penguin Classics imprint brings what could be arcane and scholarly material to a wider audience. Aristophanes, a comic genius for anyone who knows how to laugh, deserves such an audience. Here is comedy in all its variety - wit, wordplay, slapstick, visual and bawdy humour - conveyed with a freshness and vigour in translations that transcend the millennia.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Humerous and Crude, 31 Mar 2009
By C. Valcin "Crystal" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
In this collection of Aristophanes' plays there are some great crude and hilarious parodies. Most of Aristophanes work is concerning some political event and from this you are given a bit of insight into the Greek way of life. Also, his love for poking fun at the Gods really shines through. There are a range of quite unusual characters that are present in his plays. Sometimes the chorus lines are rather bothersome but the translator has done a great job of translating the comedic elements in the play. I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys ancient Greek literature.
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0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Classics Must Buy, 21 Jan 2002
By A Customer
For any one studying Classical Civilisations, this book is an excellent example of a Greek comedy works by Aristophanes. Beware the comedy in this play is very difficult to understand, it no bedtime read. I look forward to reading his other books.
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