The great classic comedian ARISTOPHANES
the son of Philippus.
Several Critics guess the particular year in which Aristophanes was born, ranging over the decade from 454 to 444 B. c., but Muller in his History of Greek Literature places the birth of Aristophanes at 452 B. c. or thereabouts, a date which chimes in very well with what Bergk said, in his preliminary note to the Fragments of Aristophanes. According to the indications that have reached us, he can hardly have been born before, though he may very well have been born after, the year 452 B.C.
Aristophanes, we are told, composed forty Comedies. He was indeed credited with forty-four, but four of these were by the ancient critics pronounced to be spurious.
Scholars have transcribed the eleven Comedies which have come down to us, in MSS (handwritten documents) which, or copies or partial transcripts of which, have alone had the good fortune to survive the general wreck of ancient literature. Lots of admirable wit and humour, triumphs of expression and fine portraiture of social types in the Aristophanic dramas extant.
Plays of Aristophanes
The Acharnians
Written 425 B.C.E
The Birds
Written 414 B.C.E
The Clouds
Written 419 B.C.E
The Ecclesiazusae
Written 390 B.C.E
The Frogs
Written 405 B.C.E
The Knights
Written 424 B.C.E
Peace
Written 421 B.C.E
Plutus
Written 380 B.C.E
The Thesmophoriazusae
Written 411 B.C.E
The Wasps
Written 422 B.C.E
It seems that the original transcription of these eleven Plays is due to Suidas, who claims saving certain dramas of Aristophanes of the eleven surviving Comedies. The actual date of Suidas is uncertain; and it is perhaps not impossible that the great Ravenna MS. is really the original transcript in the handwriting of Suidas and his assistants. But we are not to suppose that his selection of these eleven Plays met with any general acceptance as the "Select Plays of Aristophanes"; not one of the Byzantine critics draws any distinction between these and the remaining twenty-nine.
