History Creator / Aristophanes

* AffectionateNickname: Grandpa Aristophanes by younger greek children thanks to a book telling his plays as in fairytales. and in general, the man is quite popular with children as his plays are adapted by pre-schools and middle schools as well.

** Socrates is a close second -- Theatre/TheClouds is all about what a sleazy fellow Socrates is, and there are various references to him in other plays, none at all flattering. It's often argued that Aristophanes' daemon-ization of Socrates was one reason the Athenians eventually condemned the philosopher to death. At least one critic holds that the Socrates of The Clouds and the Socrates of Plato are ''so'' incompatible that he is using a famous local philosopher to critique the Sophists rather than Socrates in particular, whether he was a Sophist or not. The ''real'' Socrates, with whom Aristophanes apparently hands out and is friends with in many Platonic dialogues, is merely unfortunate collateral damage toward that end.[[note]]For the record, the Socrates of Plato denies being a Sophist and frequently critiques them.[[/note]]

* CorruptPolitician: Several of his contemporaries are depicted in this way by Aristophanes. Most notably the populist leader Cleon, whose period in power featured the rise of a new breed of public informants. They were supposed to keep a watchful eye on the city and find out any anti-democratic conspiracies, leading the perpetrators to trial. Aristophanes repeatedly depicts both the informants and their master as corrupt people making absurd accusations against innocent targets.

%%* DirtyOldWoman

%%* GreekChorus: Necessarily, for an Ancient Greek playwright.

%%** Creator/{{Euripides}} is one of the most frequent targets.

** Cleon, though an important figure in his own right, is well-known for being a target of Aristophanes' plays. This is partially due to Cleon being NouveauRiche, coming from a tanner's family. However Cleon was well-known for being very supportive of continuing the war with Sparta, even convincing the Athenians to turn down the possibility of a very beneficial peace, to say nothing of undermining the city's civil rights with secret police and informers. Legend has it that in his first major success, ''The Knights'', he played Cleon himself (who is never directly named, but the chorus assures the audience they'll know who it is) on the stage, because he didn't want any other actor to risk their lives being the man under the mask after the play was finished.

%%* WarIsHell

* GenderBender: Mnesilochus in ''The Poet And The Women''.
* GreekChorus: Necessarily, for an Ancient Greek playwright.

* BlackComedyRape
* BreakingTheFourthWall: ''Clouds'', ''Frogs'', ''The Wasps'' -- if not the UrExample, he may yet be the oldest surviving.

* DirtyOldWoman

* HaveYouSeenMyGod
* HilarityEnsues: Duh.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall

* NoFourthWall

* RuleOfFunny

** Creator/{{Euripides}} is one of the most frequent targets.

* WarIsHell

* ToiletHumor: A [[{{Pun}} shitload]]. A few examples (but there are many, many more) are the opening of ''The Peace'' where two servants are kneading dung cakes for their master's [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext giant dung beetle]]. And a classic line from ''The Knights'', a play that lampoons politicians: "To steal, perjure yourself and make your arse receptive are three essentials for climbing high."

-->The familiar chant from ''The Frogs''

* ''Theatre/TheFrogs''[[note]]The wiki entry is about the 20th century adaptation of the original play[[/note]]

* [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Arson, Murder, and Quoting Morsimus]]: Two of the three extant jabs at the no-talent playwright Morsimus were of this sort:

* GagPenis: Rather memorably, he mocks the practice of having actors parade around in leather phalli during comedic performances in Theatre/{{Lysistrata}} - a few scenes before [[RagingStiffie the fact that every man in Greece has an erection]] [[HypocriticalHumor is the core of a joke]]. (We don't ''know'' that the cast members were performing in phalli, since the plays don't come with stage directions, but it seems rather likely.)

* OverlyLongName: An object example: ''Assemblywomen'' contains the word "Lopado­temacho­selacho­galeo­kranio­leipsano­drim­hypo­trimmato­silphio­karabo­melito­katakechy­meno­kichl­epi­kossypho­phatto­perister­alektryon­opte­kephallio­kigklo­peleio­lagoio­siraio­baphe­tragano­pterygon", as the name of a fictional dish. At 183 letters, it currently has the record for longest made-up word used in a work of fiction. While we don't get a recipe for it, the name itself explains what some of the ingredients are, and it apparently is [[NoodleImplements some kind of fricassee containing a bunch of birds and fishes.]]

* TakeThat: Creator/{{Euripides}} is one of the most frequent targets. Socrates is a close second - Theatre/TheClouds is all about what a sleazy fellow Socrates is, and there are various references to him in other plays, none at all flattering. It's often argued that Aristophanes' daemon-ization of Socrates was one reason the Athenians eventually condemned the philosopher to death. At least one critic holds that the Socrates of The Clouds and the Socrates of Plato are ''so'' incompatible that he is using a famous local philosopher to critique the Sophists rather than Socrates in particular, whether he was a Sophist or not. The ''real'' Socrates, with whom Aristophanes apparently hands out and is friends with in many Platonic dialogues, is merely unfortunate collateral damage toward that end. (For the record, the Socrates of Plato denies being a Sophist and frequently critiques them.)

* ToiletHumor: A [[IncrediblyLamePun shitload.]] A few examples (but there are many, many more) are the opening of ''The Peace'' where two servants are kneading dung cakes for their master's [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext giant dung beetle.]] And a classic line from ''The Knights'', a play that lampoons politicians: "To steal, perjure yourself and make your arse receptive are three essentials for climbing high."

** {{Cloudcuckooland}}
** {{Cloudcuckoolander}}
** CloudcuckoolandersMinder
** {{Cloudcuckoolanguage}}
** LysistrataGambit

* OverlyLongName: An object example: ''Assemblywomen'' by ''Creator/{{Aristophanes}}'' contains the word "Lopado­temacho­selacho­galeo­kranio­leipsano­drim­hypo­trimmato­silphio­karabo­melito­katakechy­meno­kichl­epi­kossypho­phatto­perister­alektryon­opte­kephallio­kigklo­peleio­lagoio­siraio­baphe­tragano­pterygon", as the name of a fictional dish. At 183 letters, it currently has the record for longest made-up word used in a work of fiction. While we don't get a recipe for it, the name itself explains what some of the ingredients are, and it apparently is [[NoodleImplements some kind of fricassee containing a bunch of birds and fishes.]]

* OverlyLongName: * An object example: ''Assemblywomen'' by ''Creator/{{Aristophanes}}'' contains the word "Lopado­temacho­selacho­galeo­kranio­leipsano­drim­hypo­trimmato­silphio­karabo­melito­katakechy­meno­kichl­epi­kossypho­phatto­perister­alektryon­opte­kephallio­kigklo­peleio­lagoio­siraio­baphe­tragano­pterygon", as the name of a fictional dish. At 183 letters, it currently has the record for longest made-up word used in a work of fiction. While we don't get a recipe for it, the name itself explains what some of the ingredients are, and it apparently is [[NoodleImplements some kind of fricassee containing a bunch of birds and fishes.]]

* {{Cloudcuckooland}}
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}
* LysistrataGambit

!!Works by Aristophanes with their own trope pages include:

** Cleon, though an important figure in his own right, is well-known for being a target of Aristophanes' plays. This is partially due to Cleon being NouveauRiche, coming from a tanner's family. However Cleon was well-known for being very supportive of continuing the war with Sparta, even convincing the Athenians to turn down the possibility of a very beneficial peace.

* TakeThat: Creator/{{Euripides}} is one of the most frequent targets. Socrates is a close second - Theatre/TheClouds is all about what a sleazy fellow Socrates is, and there are various references to him in other plays, none at all flattering. It's often argued that Aristophanes' daemon-ization of Socrates was one reason the Athenians eventually condemned the philosopher to death. At least one critic holds that the Socrates of The Clouds and the Socrates of Plato are ''so'' incompatible that he is using a famous local philosopher to critique the Sophists rather than Socrates in particular, whether he was a Sophist or not. (He wasn't.) The REAL Socrates, with whom Aristophanes apparently hands out and is friends with in many Platonic dialogues, is merely unfortunate collateral damage toward that end.

* ''Theatre/TheFrogs''

''Theatre/TheFrogs'' was loosely adapted into a musical by Creator/StephenSondheim ''et al''., with Creator/WilliamShakespeare and Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw as the contentious dramatists, and a much-expanded role for the frogs.

''Theatre/TheFrogs'' was loosely adapted into a musical by StephenSondheim ''et al''., with Creator/WilliamShakespeare and Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw as the contentious dramatists, and a much-expanded role for the frogs.

* ToiletHumor: A [[IncrediblyLamePun shitload.]] A few examples (but there are many, many more) are the opening of ''The Peace'' where two servent are kneading dung cakes for their master's [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext giant dung beetle.]] And a classic line from ''The Knights'', a play that lampoons politicians: "To steal, perjure yourself and make your arse receptive are three essentials for climbing high."

* MissingEpisode: Not all his plays survived the fall of the Roman Empire.
** Though also something of an inversion- virtually all other examples of Athenian Old Comedy are lost to us, the surviving Aristophanic plays being the only ones remaining.
** Also, ''The Frogs'' gives us excerpts of some missing Aeschylus and Euripides plays.

* HilarityEnsues: Duh

* UnreliableNarrator: Aristophanes himself when mentioning contemporary events. Along with the historian Thucydides, the playwright is one of our main sources of information on several key figures of the UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar. But the views of both men were oligarchic. They were, for example, both harsh critics of various policies which placed the Athenian nobility at a disadvantage. These same policies were very popular with the Athenian citizens.

* ''Theatre/TheFrogs'' was loosely adapted into a musical by StephenSondheim ''et al''., with Creator/WilliamShakespeare and Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw as the contentious dramatists, and a much-expanded role for the frogs.

-->The familiar chant from ''Theatre/TheFrogs''

''The Frogs'' was loosely adapted into a musical by StephenSondheim ''et al''., with Creator/WilliamShakespeare and Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw as the contentious dramatists, and a much-expanded role for the frogs.

* ''Theatre/TheFrogs''

* ``Theatre/TheFrogs