Aristophanes
Democracy takes on many forms and continues to be a difficult concept to define accurately. In Aristophanes, The Acharnians, he almost gives the readers immediate insight into the opinion of this comic poet regarding the Greek democratic system and its representatives. Six years after the start of the Peloponnesian Wars in 431 A.D., Aristophanes examines the suffering of his country, Athens, and writes a play. Using his play, he decides to express his strong feelings against this war. By making a mockery of democracy and idiots of those in office, Aristophanes hopes to convince the Athenians of how senseless the war was. The emotions of Aristophanes was directly related to his mistrust of democracy. Furthermore, he has a disgust with the views and actions of the elected officials and had a sincere belief that being honest with the citizens of Athens will bring peace. In order to describe the feelings of Aristophanes about democracy, a short description of Greek democracy needs to be given. What was democracy like during the Golden Age of Athens? Greece was divided into city-states. This
That democracy became financially beneficial only to the officials and not the common honest citizen (Aristophanes 54). Aristophanes also describes the difference of living in peace and the happiness and freedom it brings compared to the life of the warrior in his duel conversation between Dikaiopolis and Lamacus (Aristophanes 99-101). The polis was designed to search for truth and use logic and reasoning. Unfairness was also seen in the judicial system. He feels there was corruption and lying in the assembly (Aristophanes 54-55). There also was a judicial system. Athens had the superior naval fleet. He ridicules the ambassadors for their flamboyant type of dress. Verdicts could not be appealed Aristophanes dislikes democracy for a few reasons. division was caused more by land topography than by government rulers (Chambers 54). Aristophanes thought democracy was not for the good of the people but what type of government was? "He never goes so far to express himself in favor of oligarchy. Civic positions were also filled by lot. Athens was a large polis represented by nine administrators or archons known as the executive committee.
Common topics in this essay:
Athens Greece,
Peloponnesian Wars,
Sparta Aristophanes,
AD Aristophanes,
Megarians Sparta,
Acharnians Aristophanes,
Wars Athenian,
Aristophanes Acharnians,
,
Lamacus Aristophanes,
executive committee,
peloponnesian wars,
war aristophanes,
elected officials,
judicial system,
naval fleet,
living peace,
aristophanes 49,
aristophanes 54,
chambers 61,
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Acceptance Essays
