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
running courses prompts
Tis not for us to warn a wilful sinner; We stay him not, but let him run his course, Till by misfortunes rous'd, his conscience wakes, And prompts him to appease th' offended gods.
yesterday today
Today things are better than yesterday.
country men able
A man should be able to stand up under any disaster for his country's good.
crabs walks
You will never make the crab walk straight.
prayer wine pointless
Prayers without wine are perfectly pointless.
art triumph argument
To invoke solely the weaker arguments and yet triumph is an art worth more than a hundred thousand drachmae.
summer husband war
When the soldier returns from the wars, even though he has white hair, he very soon finds a young wife. But a woman has only one summer; if she does not make hay while the sun shines, no one will afterwards have anything to say to her, and she spends her days consulting oracles that never send her a husband.
taste poet coarse
It is bad taste for a poet to be coarse and hairy.
women fire would-be
There is no beast, no rush of fire, like woman so untamed. She calmly goes her way where even panthers would be shamed.
home vegetables soup
I saw a cavalry captain buy vegetable soup on horseback. He carried the whole mess home in his helmet.
men rogues honest
A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a rogue.
deceit get-money deceived
Woman is adept at getting money for herself and will not easily let herself be deceived; she understands deceit too well herself.
winning people together
Mix and knead together all the state business as you do for your sausages. To win the people, always cook them some savory that pleases them.
honesty men gains
No man is really honest; none of us is above the influence of gain.