Aristophanes

Aristophanes wrote forty plays starting around 446 BC, eleven of which survive as the finest examples of Old Comedy. His second work, The Babylonians, drew a denunciation from the politician Cleon for slandering Athens; Aristophanes responded by savaging Cleon onstage in The Knights and later plays, directing many himself. Performed at Athens's religious festivals — the City Dionysia and Lenaia — his work featured preposterous premises, explicit language, and biting political satire aimed at real figures like Euripides and Alcibiades. Plato would later single out The Clouds as slander that hel…