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
truth-is foe
The truth is forced upon us, very quickly, by a foe.
children childhood age
Old age is but a second childhood.
ifs
Even if you persuade me, you won’t persuade me.
clouds centaurs bulls
Have you ever, looking up, seen a cloud like to a Centaur, a Part, or a Wolf, or a Bull?
children men way
Full of wiles, full of guile, at all times, in all ways, are the children of Men.
men slavery half
A slave is but half a man.
poverty monsters fearful
Poverty, the most fearful monster that ever drew breath.
life long long-life
What unlooked-for things do happen, to be sure, in a long life!
leadership army skills
It often happens that less depends upon the valor of an army than the skill of the leader.
blessing watches extravagance
Does it seem that everything is extravagance in the world, or rather madness, when you watch the way things go? A crowd of rogues enjoy blessings they have won by sheer injustice, while more honest folks are miserable and die of hunger.
children men humanity
Ye Children of Man! whose life is a span, Protracted with sorrow from day to day, Naked and featherless, feeble and querulous, Sickly, calamitous creatures of clay!
men gold honest
There is no honest man! not one, that can resist the attraction of gold!
god simple expression
The gods, my dear simple fellow, are a mere expression coined by vulgar superstition. We frown upon such coinage here.
two thieves theft
One bush, they say, can never hide two thieves.