Aristophanes' Politics

Being the greatest comedist in Athens, Aristophanes described Athenian society and politics in his comedies, which contained contemporary social and political problems in the development of democratic system in Athens. Therefore, it is important to probe the political meaning contained in Aristophanes comedies.Knights and Wasps assaulted Kleon and satirized the non-democratic system of the dikasteria, which expressed the Athenian desire to the traditional democratic system and animadverted on the one in existence. Clouds expatiated the relations between the civic virtues and politics. By discussing the virtues included in politics and sophists' education, we can feel the poet's attack on the sophists' education and affirmation of the traditional education. Akharnians and Peace analyzed the causes of the peasants' opposition to the Peloponnesian War and the origin of the war. Then we can know that the poet yearned for rustication and revolted against the war. When we comprehend the poet's politics, we will draw the outline of the picture of Athenian democratic politics in the 5th century B. C. With the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War and the exposure of Athenian various social problems, the Athenian democracy really suffered certain challenges. According to Aristophanes' comedies, we can comprehend why democracy was overthrown twice at the end of 5th century B. C. But the Athenian democracy's rapid recovery shows that Aristophanes' comedies reflected Athenian society untruthfully. He only represented few persons, especially the old and some of the peasants.