Aristophanes invented political comedy — and practiced it with a freedom that now seems impossible. He lampooned Socrates ("The Clouds"), Cleon ("The Knights"), and war itself ("Lysistrata"). Some historians believe it was his caricature of Socrates that helped shape the mood of the Athenians before the trial.
He was born around 446 BC in Athens. Of his life almost nothing is known. Eleven plays survive of the thirty-odd he wrote.
His comedies are masks, choruses, obscene jokes, a flight to heaven on the back of a beetle, a peace treaty concluded right there on stage. But behind the absurdity stand serious questions: is this war worth it? Does Athens judge rightly? Which matters more — victory or peace?
"The Birds," "The Frogs," and "The Clouds" have reached us whole and are performed to this day. He died around 386 BC — the exact date is unknown. In the "Symposium" Plato seats him at the same table as Socrates, deep in conversation — a pleasing image, whether or not it is true.