Comparing Aristotle And Aristophanes

1T Aristotle and Aristophanes, in their respective works “Types of States” and “The Birds” both wrote about government and its effects on society in order to persuade others of their views about government in turn hopefully influencing governments themselves.

1 Aristotle wrote about tyrannical governments not because he wanted others to adopt this system but rather he wanted it to be abolished entirely believing tyranny was the most corrupt form of government.

2 While Aristotle directly states his views outright on tyranny in “Types of States” Aristophanes is more subtle, by concealing his views behind comedy within “The Birds” but still allowing the audience to recognize them. Aristophanes, like Aristotle, attempts to show how tyrannical governments

can bring downfall throughout society.
2 One of the other forms of government Aristotle discussed in “Types of States” was an aristocratic government or a mix of oligarchy and democracy. Aristotle believed the aristocratic governments were the perfect form of government allowing for balance amongst the people of society.
1 Much of the comedy found in the birds is making jests at certain customs or beliefs the ancient Greeks had as well as displaying Aristophanes opinions on many things.
2 While having the correct form of government in place is important, without order and law there might as well not even be any government. Even with a good government a society will be thrown into anarchy if it doesn’t have any laws to abide by.
1 Aristophanes shows how important laws are to society by showing what happens when laws are not properly followed in “The Birds”.