c. 445 B.C.E.–c. 385 B.C.E.

Comic playwright

Famous Comedian.

Unfortunately, there are very few details about the life of Aristophanes other then the fact that he was born around 445 B.C.E. He began writing for the comic stage as a very young man, and submitted his first play, Banqueters, to the competition at the City Dionysia in 427 B.C.E. when he was only eighteen years old. The titles of 54 of his comedies are known, but unfortunately only eleven of those plays exist today. In fact, Aristophanes is the only Greek comic playwright of the fifth century B.C.E. whose works have survived even in part from this time period. Yet through literary sources, it is clear that Aristophanes was not the only comedic playwright at the time; his most famous contemporaries were Eupolis and Cratinus. Yet Aristophanes' inventive use of language and...