It can be tempting to view the Greek tragedies as simply domestic melodramas, ancient "soap operas" dealing with wives who hate their husbands and children who murder their parents. This is certainly one aspect of Athenian tragic drama (Aristotle recommended that tragedies should deal with family relationships, since they are the closest and therefore the most potentially 'tragic' relationships we experience), but it is often overlooked that these plays were public, civic performances,...

PROPOSITION: The comedies of Aristophanes constitute the greatest surviving cultural treasures of Classical Athens.


Off the bat it seems like an odd choice, I know. When surveying the embarrassment of riches that is the Athenian legacy, it might seem curious that I should choose to single out the work of a man most famous for telling bad jokes about faeces and genitalia. There are other problems with Aristophanes too. In order to understand many of his references, you need...