This new translation (the first complete verse translation of Aristophanes' comedies to appear for more than twenty-five years) makes freshly available one of the most remarkable comic playwrights in the entire Western tradition. Aristophanes is the only surviving representative of Greek Old Comedy, which flourished during the heyday of classical Athenian culture in the fifth century BC, and his plays are characterized by extraordinary combinations of fantasy and
satire, sophistication and vulgarity, formality and freedom. This special mixture of qualities calls for a range and flexibility of linguistic resources which only a verse translation can supply. The present translation balances historical fidelity with literary and dramatic vigour, and conveys some
of the unique variety of Aristophanic comic theatre. There is a substantial general introduction to the author and introductory essays to each of the plays, as well as full explanatory notes and an index of names.
- ISBN10 019814993X
- ISBN13 9780198149934
- Publish Date 18 September 1997
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Oxford University Press
- Imprint Clarendon Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 378
- Language English