Clouds ; Wasps ; Peace
By: edited and translated by Jeffrey Henderson.
Contributors: Henderson, Jeffrey.; Aristophanes.; Aristophanes.
Series: Loeb classical library -- 488.; Aristophanes -- 2.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng; grc
Number of pages: 606
Subjects: Aristophanes -- Translations into English; Greek drama (Comedy) -- Translations into English
Other titles: Wasps.; Peace.
Work titles: Clouds.
Description: Aristophanes of Athens (ca. 446-386BC), 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.

Three plays are in Volume II of the new edition. Socrates' "Thinkery" is at the center of Clouds, which spoofs untraditional techniques for educating young men. Wasps satirizes Athenian enthusiasm for jury service and the law courts as well as the city's susceptibility to demagogues. In Peace, a rollicking attack on war-makers, the farmer-hero makes his famous trip to heaven on a dung beetle to discuss the issues with Zeus.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 6-7) and index.