Aristophanes
Writing
Biography
Aristophanes Ancient Greek: Ἀριστοφάνης, c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion (Latin: Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. 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."
Known For
An anthology of single plays offering up adaptations of either of prominent stage plays or novels.
Festival
An anthology of erotic stories by famous writers like Guy de Maupassant, Nicolas Edme Restif de La Bretonne, Marquis de Sade, Giovanni Boccaccio, Marquis de Foudras, Daniel Defoe, Anton Tchekov, Jin Ping Mei, and Aristophanes.
Softly from Paris
Greek television series
Monday's Theater
A modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago.
Chi-Raq
411 BC, Sparta and Athens are in a endless war, but Lisistrata, a beautiful woman has an idea to stop the fight, and convinces all the women to do it: no sex until there is peace.
Lisístrata
A comedy/drama set in a village and centered on a battle of the sexes, where women threaten to withhold sexual favours as long as the men refuse to install a water pipe.
The Source
Three stories, very different in space and time. Lysistrata, a dancer from ancient times, Jeanne d'Arc, medieval warrior and Elisabeth, American war widow who comes on pilgrimage in Italy.
Daughters of Destiny
A group of women in a small village get organized against the macho men of the town.
The Baggy Trousers Case
In 1880, Osawkie, Kansas is feuding with rival town Mandaroon over which will be county seat, keeping the town's men away from home most of the time. The last straw is when Matt Davis feels compelled to go on a new foray on his wedding night; his bride Liza (just call her Lysistrata) takes teacher Cassie's advice and organizes a marital strike to make the men-folk stop their nonsense.
The Second Greatest Sex
Prologue depicts Spartan and Athenian warriors locked in a gory battle to the death.
Prologue
Based on Aristophanes's play, Athenian women band together to encourage their men to stop fighting the Spartans by withholding sex from them when they return from the front.
Lysistrata
Lysistrata led the women of ancient Greece in forcing men to stop the war, that was devastating the land for 21 years. At secret assembly of the women delegates from both sides of the conflict, Lysistrata declared: "We must refrain from the male altogether - till the men come to terms of peace". Her instruction to every wife or mistress was to refuse all sexual favors whatsoever, and sit prettily dressed in best transparent silks, till the men yield to peace.
Comedy of Lysistrata
No description available.
O Gesto, a Festa, a Mensagem - Dois Mil Anos de Teatro
Persuaded by Lysistrata, the women of Athens agree to withdraw all sexual favours from the men until the men agree to end to war with Sparta.
Die Sendung der Lysistrata
No description available.
Lysistrata
No description available.
Lysistrata or The Kissing Strike
Three friends in love, are ignored because of their lack of gift to conquer. After learning of the existence of a school of seduction, are enrolled as students.
School of Seductresses
In ancient Athens, a son is forced to parent his crazy, conservative father-but things get complicated when dad's drunk war buddies come a-knocking.
The Wasps
The comedy was written and played at the end of the 5th century BC, at the end of the Peloponnesian War, a time of decline of the Athenian Republic. Aristophanes, on the occasion of the political situation in his country, tries to help his fellow citizens by presenting this comedy. Dionysus and his slave Xanthias, with the instructions of Hercules, go down to Hades looking for a poet, who will bring his city out of the impasse in which it has reached. After the poetic struggle between Euripides and Aeschylus, Dionysus chooses the latter to save Athens and they leave Hades together.
The frogs
The women of Athens plotting to end the war with Sparta by refusing to have sex until there is peace.