Birds and Other Plays

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Aristophanes Stephen Halliwell (Professor of Greek, Professor of Greek, University of St Andrews)

Birds and Other Plays

Aristophanes, Stephen Halliwell (Professor of Greek, Professor of Greek, University of St Andrews)

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English

Oxford University Press
13 October 2008

Series: Oxford World's Classics

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.

By: Aristophanes
Edited and translated by: Stephen Halliwell (Professor of Greek Professor of Greek University of St Andrews)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 195mm, Width: 128mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 283g
ISBN: 9780199555673
ISBN 10: 0199555672
Series: Oxford World's Classics
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 13 October 2008
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

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

Reviews for Birds and Other Plays

I readily endorse the opinion that the general introduction (ix-lxvi) is 'superb' and the introductions to the individual comedies 'excellent'. The rock-bottom price suggests extensive sales are anticipated and rightly so. * P. Walcot, Greece & Rome *