Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and are used to define it...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPoet
spring evil suffering
Evil events from evil causes spring, And what you suffer flows from what you've done.
knows
You can't have anything else to say: you've poured out every drop of what you know.
kissing eggs shells
I would treat her like an egg, the shell of which we remove before eating it; I would take off her mask and then kiss her pretty face.
believe hands wicked
It is right that the good should be happy, that the wicked and the impious on the other hand, should be miserable; that is a truth, I believe, which no one will gainsay.
law athens idiot
An ancient tradition declares that every idiot blunder we pass into law will sooner or later redound to Athens' profit.
country men able
A man should be able to stand up under any disaster for his country's good.
prayer wine pointless
Prayers without wine are perfectly pointless.
taste poet coarse
It is bad taste for a poet to be coarse and hairy.
home vegetables soup
I saw a cavalry captain buy vegetable soup on horseback. He carried the whole mess home in his helmet.
mind mouths
Open your mind before your mouth
lying justice comedy
Comedy is allied to justice.
winning people promise
To win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them.
wise wisdom enemy
The wise learn many things from their enemies.
eye mouths zeus
Open your mouth and shut your eyes and see what Zeus will send you.