The Rivals of Aristophanes

Due to the scarcity of surviving texts by other poets, it is easy to forget that Aristophanes wrote for competition and that rivalry was an important component in the rhetoric of his comedies, especially Clouds and Knights . This important study, comprising 26 essays by leading international scholars presented at a conference held at the Institute of Classical Studies in London in 1996, aims to promote a better understanding of Aristophanes' work by assessing that of his many rivals, including Cratinus, Hermippus and Eupolis, who regularly triumphed over Aristophanes at major civic festivals. The papers also consider the evidence for Aristophanes' rival poets in other sources, notably painted vases. The chapters are divided into five sections: editing comic fragments, poets of Old Comedy, the transition to Middle Comedy, literary themes and social themes. Contributors: Kenneth Dover, W Geoffrey Arnott, Wolfgang Luppe, Ralph M Rosen, James Davidson, S Douglas Olson, Dwora...

The work of the other comic poets of classical Athens, those who competed with, and some cases defeated, their (eventually) better-known fellow comedian, Aristophanes, has almost eluded the historical record. The poetry of Cratinus, Phrynichus, Eupolis and the rest has survived only in tantalising, often tiny, fragments and citations. Modern studies in this field have themselves often been difficult to access. Here a cast of international scholars provides a set of 28 interpretative essays to cover every poet of Athenian Old Comedy for whom significant evidence survives.