Aristophanes' Acharnians

The Acharnians by Aristophanes

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This is a book I read for the Online Great Books reading program. Again, I have to say that I am very pleased that I was exposed to it now, in my 60s, although I wish I'd read it in college.

The thing that struck me about this book is that the humor is so modern. It reminded me of the movie “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum.” The main character is Dikaiopolous, who is not very happy about the current war with Sparta. So, not having any luck getting action from the Athenian council, he “buys” a 30 year peace with Sparta for himself and opens a market, allowing Spartan allies to bring their wares to market.

In truth, this book reads like an “anti-war” book we might have seen in the '60s or '70s.

The plot is, frankly, absurd, but that is not the point. The point is that Dikaiopolous lampoons everyone in Athens - the ruling council, the military, and other Athenians. There are even two scenes based on ethnic stereotyping of Thebans and Megarians. The former ruler of Athens, Cleon, takes a beating.

We can see in this play and in the Clouds that Aristophanes was well-versed in the plays of other authors and parodied lines from those other plays.

As an amateur historian, I appreciate how we get a behind-the-scenes look in these plays at ancient Greece and what mattered to the Greeks when they let their hair down. There are points where they are aliens - joking about rape - and times when they look very modern.