Aristophanes and Menander Preoccupations

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The different preoccupations of Aristophanes and Menander may be found through exploring the plays. Aristophanes' main preoccupation was to entertain the people, and then to try to educate them about the politics of Athens at the time. Menander's main preoccupation was, like Aristophanes, to entertain the people, but also to try to teach them some sort of moral that they could hang on to at the end.

The fact that Aristophanes set `Frogs' in `real time' in Athens in 405 BC shows that the play is a political comment on life in the city at that time. In 405 BC Athens was in a sorry state. Athens and her allies have been at war with Sparta and her allies, and in 411 there was in Athens a brief Oligarchic coup, during which the Oligarchs, led by Antiphon, had replaced the Council with a new Council of 400. Theramenes led an uprising against them and in 410 full democracy had finally been restored under Cleophon. In `Frogs' Aristophanes has Dionysus seeking a way to "save the city" and restore Athens to her former glory through a revival of tragedy. After the recent deaths of Euripides and Sophocles, the future of both tragedy and Athens seemed dark.

The plot in `Frogs' is fundamental to the success of the play as a great deal of the humour comes from the situations that the characters are put into. Dionysus appears humorously dressed in a mixture of traditional tragedy costume and a home made Heracles costume. He goes to Heracles house to ask him how to get to the underworld, as he knows that Heracles has been there before when he went to steal Cerberus. He tries to explain his intention of bringing back Euripides, as he feels a longing for "a poet who can write" to Heracles Here we see development of the different characters. ...

... middle of paper ...

...ut a dowry, and swears to Pan and the Nymphs that he has not come there with any criminal purpose in mind. Gorgias response shows an entire change of opinion:

"you've convinced me completely, and I'm on your side."

This moves the action and the plot on quickly.

Aristophanes and Menander had different preoccupations. Menander's comedy has been described as "a serious attempt at light drama". His is a Comedy of Manners, with a great deal of emphasis on morals and also on piety. `Old Cantankerous' is universally accessible, and Menander did not only write for the Athenian audience. Aristophanes, however got caught up in whichever problem Athens was experiencing at the time. This meant that it must have been biting wit , but for anyone who was not an Athenian at that time would need some background knowledge to understand many of the jokes and references.

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