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
division was caused more by land topography than by government rulers
(Chambers 54). Each was a polis run by elected officials after many political
reforms. The polis was designed to search for truth and use logic and reasoning.
Athens was a large polis represented by nine administrators or archons known as
the executive committee. Each was elected by lot. Civic positions were also filled
by lot. This system was thought to prevent corruption ( Chambers 61). However,
these executive positions or generals, became elected positions and the same
occupants could retain a job and a salary (Chambers 61). There also was a
judicial system. Less than organized, it consisted of...