Synopses & Reviews
Aristophanes of Athens (ca. 446386 BCE), one of the world's greatest comic dramatists, has been admired since antiquity for his iridescent wit and beguiling fantasy, exuberant language, and brilliant satire of the social, intellectual, and political life of Athens at its height. He wrote at least forty plays, of which eleven have survived complete. In this new Loeb Classical Library edition of Aristophanes, Jeffrey Henderson presents a freshly edited Greek text and a lively, unexpurgated translation with full explanatory notes.
The general introduction that begins Volume I reviews Aristophanes' career and brings current scholarly insights to bear on the intriguing question of the comic poet as a political force. In Acharnians a small landowner, tired of the Peloponnesian War, magically arranges a personal peace treaty and, borrowing a disguise from Euripides, demonstrates the injustice of the war in a contest with the bellicose Acharnians. Also in this volume is Knights, perhaps the most biting satire of a political figure (Cleon) ever written.
Review
It is accordingly a pleasure to note the appearance of the first of what will be four new Loeb volumes of Aristophanes
this is an important edition of a major Greek author and an absolute "must-buy" for all college and university libraries. Stephen Halliwell - Greece and Rome
Review
Henderson's sound texts and plain translations give us exactly the Aristophanes we need: a reliable prose waiting to be quickened into poetic life by the reader's imagination, laughter, and amazement. Donald Lyons
Review
Henderson, who may fairly be considered the leading Aristophanic scholar in North America, has now...provided us with both a useful text and idiomatic...translation. It is certainly a work that scholars may use with confidence and may recommend to their students. New Criterion
Review
Henderson's translation keeps close to the Greek, but successfully manages to indicate something of Aristophanes' linguistic diversity; it has been carried off with admirable crispness...A highly welcome addition to the Loeb Library. Ian C. Storey - Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Synopsis
Aristophanes (ca. 446-386 < font="" size="-1">
Synopsis
Aristophanes (c. 450-c. 386 BCE) has been admired since antiquity for his wit, fantasy, language, and satire. In Acharnians a small landowner, tired of the Peloponnesian War, magically arranges a personal peace treaty; and Knights, perhaps the most biting satire of a political figure (Cleon) ever written.
Synopsis
Winner of the 2001 Charles J. Goodwin Award of Merit
About the Author
Jeffrey Henderson is William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of Greek Language and Literature at Boston University. He is General Editor of the Loeb Classical Library®.
Boston University
Table of Contents
Introduction
Select Bibliography
Acharnians
Knights
Index