The Complete Plays of Aristophanes
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Complete Plays of Aristophanes
| Full title | Aristophanes: The Complete Plays |
|---|---|
| Author | Aristophanes |
| Pages | 736 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | The eleven surviving comedies of the only Old Comedy playwright whose work came down whole — Lysistrata, The Clouds, The Frogs, The Birds, The Wasps and the rest. Topical, obscene and merciless, they are the earliest surviving evidence of what a democracy that tolerates being mocked to its face actually looks like. |
The Complete Plays of Aristophanes
Where I heard about it
- Dissident Teacher — on A Library to Build Great Americans, a 468-title curriculum published on Substack in December 2025, in the Ages 13–99+ band under Drama, at Lexile 1470 — the highest reading level on the entire list.
About this edition
Paul Roche’s single-hand verse translation. Living Athenians are named and ridiculed on stage, Socrates is put in a basket, and the war policy of the city is attacked in front of the citizens prosecuting it. That is why a comic playwright dead for 2,400 years sits on a list about citizenship — and Plato’s Apology has Socrates blame that comic caricature for part of the prejudice that convicted him.
Connections
- A Library to Build Great Americans — the list this came from.
- Aristophanes — the playwright.
- Free Speech — the practice the plays document by exercising it.
- Democracy — the Athenian version, satirised from inside.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.