CLST 283-WI: Classical Comedy and Satire
Spring Semester 2003
Dr. Jacqueline Long
Eleven plays by Aristophanes survive from antiquity; ancient scholars had heard of at least fourty-four that were attributed to him. Not all the attributions were necessarily correct, and we don't know even know the names of all the plays, but the number gives some idea of what Aristophanes' output was believed to have been.
For the plays of Aristophanes we do know of by name, we don't always know which year they were performed in, or at which festival, or whether or not they won. But here are some of the important ones scholars feel relatively certain about:
| performance | festival | title | chorus-instructor of record | success |
| 427 | ? | Banqueters | Callistratus | 2nd prize? |
| 426 March/April | City Dionysia | Babylonians | Callistratus | 1st prize |
| 425 January/February | Lenaia | Acharnians* | Callistratus | 1st prize |
| 424 January/February | Lenaia | Knights* | Aristophanes | 1st prize |
| 423 January/February | Lenaia | ? | (Aristophanes)† | ? |
| 423 March/April | City Dionysia | original Clouds | (Aristophanes)† | 3rd prize |
| 422 January/February | Lenaia | Wasps* | Aristophanes‡ | 2nd prize |
| 422 January/February | Lenaia | Preview | Philonides‡ | 1st prize |
| 421 March/April | City Dionysia | Peace* | (Aristophanes)† | 2nd prize |
| c 418 - not produced | --- | revised Clouds* | --- | --- |
| 414 January/February | Lenaia | Amphiaraus | Philonides | ? |
| 414 March/April | City Dionysia | Birds* | Callistratus | 2nd prize |
| 411 January/February (?) | Lenaia (?) | Lysistrata* | Callistratus | ? |
| 411 March/April (?) | City Dionysia (?) | Thesmophoriazusae* | (Aristophanes)† | ? |
| 408 | ? | Wealth | (Aristophanes)† | ? |
| 405 January/February | Lenaia | Frogs* | (Aristophanes)† | 1st prize |
| between 393-391 | ? | Ecclesiazusae* | (Aristophanes)† | ? |
| 388 | ? | Wealth* | (Aristophanes)† | ? |
| after 388 | ? | Cocalus | Araros | ? |
| after 388 | ? | Aiolosikon | Araros | ? |
† Presumably produced by Aristophanes under his own name.
‡ To have two plays written by Aristophanes competing at the same festival, technically Aristophanes should have had somebody stand in as chorus-instructor of record, and some evidence indicates that Philonides may have taken Preview as he later did Amphiaraus. But it might have been the other way around. Certainly at some point it became known that Aristophanes wrote both.
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This file last updated 13 January 2003 by
jlong1@orion.it.luc.edu.
http://www.luc.edu/depts/classics/