Aristophanes

Plays in the time of Aristophanes were put on at two festivals, in the City Dionysia and the Lenaea. There were also plays at local festivals, but little is known about them. The plays for the town of Dionysia were played at the theatre of Dionysus next to the Akropolis, but it is unclear where the plays of Lenaea were staged. The plays at the festival were always performed as a sort of competition and there was great rivalry between playwrights to take first prize.

Many of Aristophanes’ plays offer social satire or commentary. Little is known about his life beyond the work that he produced, though Plato did include Aristophanes as a character in his Symposium.