Aristophanés Quotes

Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion , was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and are used to define it.

Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy, Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher.

His second play, The Babylonians , was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court but details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights, the first of many plays that he directed himself. "In my opinion," he says through the Chorus in that play, "the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all."

✵ 448 BC – 386 BC
Aristophanés photo

Works

The Birds
Aristophanés
The Clouds
The Clouds
Aristophanés
The Knights
Aristophanés
Lysistrata
Aristophanés
Plutus
Aristophanés
The Acharnians
Aristophanés
The Wasps
Aristophanés
Thesmophoriazusae
Aristophanés
The Frogs
Aristophanés
Peace
Aristophanés
Aristophanés: 56   quotes 16   likes

Famous Aristophanés Quotes

“Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever.”

Fictional attribution in the movie The Emperor's Club (2002), given by Kevin Kline (as William Hundert); also attributed to Diogenes, without sources; no published occurrences of this statement prior to the movie have been located in any of the Aristophanes Plays or Fragments.
Misattributed
Source: IMDb, "Memorable quotes for The Emperor's Club" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283530/quotes, Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com
Source: Two pages attributing it to Diogenes: http://www.prohibitionists.org/Background/Party_Platform/quickquotes/QQ-education.htm http://www.ryanbalton.com/funstuff/forb_seniorquotes.htm

“By words the mind is winged.”

Birds (414 BC)
Context: Informer: My friend, I am asking you for wings, not for words.
Pisthetaerus: It's just my words that gives you wings.
Informer: And how can you give a man wings with your words?
Pisthetaerus: They all start this way. [... ]
Informer: So that words give wings?
Pisthetaerus: Undoubtedly; words give wings to the mind and make a man soar to heaven. Thus I hope that my wise words will give you wings to fly to some less degrading trade.
(tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Birds+1436)

“Demosthenes: A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a rogue.”

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Kn.+191
Knights, line 191-193
Knights (424 BC)

“Unjust Cause: This art is worth more than ten thousand staters, that one should choose the worse cause, and nevertheless be victorious.”

tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Cl.+1041
Clouds (423 BC)

“Unjust Discourse: To invoke solely the weaker arguments and yet triumph is a talent worth more than a hundred thousand drachmae.”

tr. Athen. 1912, vol. 1, p. 361 http://books.google.com/books?id=9vpxAAAAIAAJ&q=%22To+invoke+solely+the+weaker+arguments+and+yet+triumph+is+a+talent+worth+more+than+a+hundred+thousand+drachmae%22
Clouds, line 1041-1042
Clouds (423 BC)

Aristophanés Quotes about men

“Chorus [of Birds]: Full of wiles, full of guile, at all times, in all ways, are the children of Men.”

tr. in Bartlett 1968, p. 91 http://books.google.com/books?q=inauthor%3A%22John+Bartlett%22+date%3A1968-1968+%22Full+of+wiles%2C+full+of+guile%2C+at+all+times%2C+in+all+ways%2C+are+the+children+of+Men%22 or Archive.org http://www.archive.org/stream/familiarquotatio017007mbp/familiarquotatio017007mbp_djvu.txt
Birds, line 451-452
Compare the earlier-written but later-known: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked", Jeremiah, 17:9 KJV Bible http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+17:9&version=9.
Birds (414 BC)

“[Choir of] Men: O botheration take you all! How you cajole and flatter.
A hell it is to live with you; to live without, a hell:”

tr. Lindsay 1925, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Lys.+1014
Lysistrata, line 1038-1039
Lysistrata (411 BC)

“Chremylus: And what good thing can [Poverty] give us, unless it be burns in the bath, and swarms of brats and old women who cry with hunger, and clouds uncountable of lice, gnats and flies, which hover about the wretch's head, trouble him, awake him and say, “You will be hungry, but get up!” […]
Poverty: It's not my life that you describe; you are attacking the existence beggars lead. […] The beggar, whom you have depicted to us, never possesses anything. The poor man lives thriftily and attentive to his work; he has not got too much, but he does not lack what he really needs. […] But what you don't know is this, that men with me are worth more, both in mind and body, than with [Wealth]. With him they are gouty, big-bellied, heavy of limb and scandalously stout; with me they are thin, wasp-waisted, and terrible to the foe. […] As for behavior, I will prove to you that modesty dwells with me and insolence with [Wealth]. […] Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy. […]
Chremylus: Then tell me this, why does all mankind flee from you?
Poverty: Because I make them better. Children do the very same; they flee from the wise counsels of their fathers. So difficult is it to see one's true interest.”

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Pl.+535
Plutus, line 535-539 & 548 & 552-554 & 558-561 & 563-564 & 567-570 & 575-578
Plutus (388 BC)

“[Choir of] Women: It should not prejudice my voice that I'm not born a man, if I say something advantageous to the present situation. For I'm taxed too, and as a toll provide men for the nation.”

tr. Lindsay 1925, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Lys.+649
Lysistrata, line 649-651
Lysistrata (411 BC)

Aristophanés Quotes about age

“Just Discourse: Do not bandy words with your father, nor treat him as a dotard, nor reproach the old man, who has cherished you, with his age.”

tr. Athen. 1912, vol. 1, p. 359 http://books.google.com/books?id=9vpxAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Do+not+bandy+words+with+your+father%2C+nor+treat+him+as+a+dotard%2C+nor+reproach+the+old+man%2C+who+has+cherished+you%2C+with+his+age%22
Clouds, line 998-999
Clouds (423 BC)

“Old age is second childhood.”

Clouds, line 1417
Clouds (423 BC)

“Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.”

William Arrowsmith (tr.) after Aristophanes, in Clouds, line 914 (our emphasis, citing 909-914)
This apocryphal line is found quoted only from the Arrowsmith translation.
Misattributed
Context: [909] Philosophy: Why, you Precocious Pederast! You Palpable Pervert!
[910] Sophistry: Pelt me with roses!
[910] Philosophy: You Toadstool! O Cesspool!
[911] Sophistry: Wreath my hairs with lilies!
[911] Philosophy: Why, you Parricide!
[912] Sophistry: Shower me with gold! Look, don't you see I welcome your abuse?
[913] Philosophy: Welcome it, monster? In my day we would have cringed with shame.
[914] Sophistry: Whereas now we're flattered. Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.
(heavily rewritten and embellished tr. Arrowsmith 1962, p. 70 http://books.google.com/books?id=UNlxAAAAIAAJ&q;=%22Times+change.+The+vices+of+your+age+are+stylish+today%22)

“Just Cause: [Learn] not to contradict your father in anything; nor by calling him Iapetus, to reproach him with the ills of age, by which you were reared in your infancy.”

tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Cl.+998
Clouds (423 BC)

Aristophanés: Trending quotes

“Lamachus: Ah! the Generals! they are numerous, but not good for much!”

tr. Athen. 1912, vol. 1, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Ach.+1078
Acharnians, line 1078
Acharnians (425 BC)

“I pained folk but little and caused them much amusement; my conscience rebuked me for nothing.”

Peace, line 762-773 (our emphasis on 764)
Aristophanes was bald.
Peace (421 BC)
Context: Chorus [speaking for Aristophanes]: Yet I have not been seen frequenting the wrestling school intoxicated with success and trying to seduce young boys; but I took all my theatrical gear and returned straight home. I pained folk but little and caused them much amusement; my conscience rebuked me for nothing. Hence both grown men and youths should be on my side and I likewise invite the bald to give me their votes; for, if I triumph, everyone will say, both at table and at festivals, “Carry this to the bald man, give these cakes to the bald one, do not grudge the poet whose talent shines as bright as his own bare skull the share he deserves.”
(tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Peace+762)

“Epops: A man may learn wisdom even from a foe.”

tr. in Goldstein-Jackson 1983, p. 163 http://books.google.com/books?q=isbn%3A9780389203933+%22A+man+may+learn+wisdom+even+from+a+foe%22+Aristophanes
Birds, line 375-382 (our emphasis on 375 and 378-379 and 382)
Compare the later: "We can learn even from our enemies", Ovid, Metamorphoses, IV, 428.
Birds (414 BC)

Aristophanés Quotes

“The wise can often profit by the lessons of a foe,”

Birds (414 BC)
Context: Epops: The wise can often profit by the lessons of a foe, for caution is the mother of safety. It is just such a thing as one will not learn from a friend and which an enemy compels you to know. To begin with, it's the foe and not the friend that taught cities to build high walls, to equip long vessels of war; and it's this knowledge that protects our children, our slaves and our wealth.
Leader of the Chorus [leader]: Well then, I agree, let us first hear them, for that is best; one can even learn something in an enemy's school.
(tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Birds+375)

“Come, bring hither quick a flagon of wine, that I may soak my brain and get an ingenious idea.”

Knights, line 90-96 (our emphasis on 95-96)
Knights (424 BC)
Context: Demosthenes: Do you dare to accuse wine of clouding the reason? Quote me more marvellous effects than those of wine. Look! when a man drinks, he is rich, everything he touches succeeds, he gains lawsuits, is happy and helps his friends. Come, bring hither quick a flagon of wine, that I may soak my brain and get an ingenious idea.
(tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Kn.+90)

“Philokleon: Let each man exercise the art he knows.”

tr. Rogers 1909, p. 110 http://books.google.com/books?id=vptfAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Let+each+man+exercise+the+art+he+knows%22
Anonymous ancient proverb, quoted by Aristophanes in Wasps, line 1431
Also later found in Plato (Republic 4.423d, 4.433a-d) and Cicero (Tusc. I.18.41)
Misattributed

“Sausage-Seller: You [demagogues] are like the fishers for eels; in still waters they catch nothing, but if they thoroughly stir up the slime, their fishing is good; in the same way it's only in troublous times that you line your pockets.”

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Kn.+864
ὅπερ γὰρ οἱ τὰς ἐγχέλεις θηρώμενοι πέπονθας.
ὅταν μὲν ἡ λίμνη καταστῇ, λαμβάνουσιν οὐδέν·
ἐὰν δ᾽ ἄνω τε καὶ κάτω τὸν βόρβορον κυκῶσιν,
αἱροῦσι· καὶ σὺ λαμβάνεις, ἢν τὴν πόλιν ταράττῃς.
Knights, line 864-867
Dialog aimed at the politician Cleon, symbolizing demagogues for the author.
Knights (424 BC)
Source: The Knights

“Æschylus: High thoughts must have high language.”

rewritten and embellished tr. Fitts 1955, p. 108 http://books.google.com/books?id=CdZxAAAAIAAJ&q=%22High+thoughts+must+have+high+language%22
Frogs (405 BC)
Source: Frogs and Other Plays

“It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war.”

Birds (414 BC)
Context: Epops: You're mistaken: men of sense often learn from their enemies. Prudence is the best safeguard. This principle cannot be learned from a friend, but an enemy extorts it immediately. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war. And this lesson saves their children, their homes, and their properties.
Chorus [leader]: It appears then that it will be better for us to hear what they have to say first; for one may learn something at times even from one's enemies.
(tr. Anon. 1812 rev. in Ramage 1864, p. 45 http://books.google.com/books?id=AoUCAAAAQAAJ&pg;=PA45)

“Praxagora: Woman is adept at getting money for herself and will not easily let herself be deceived; she understands deceit too well herself.”

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Eccl.+236
Ecclesiazusae, line 236-238
Ecclesiazusae (392 BC)

“Leader of the Chorus: An insult directed at the wicked is not to be censured; on the contrary, the honest man, if he has sense, can only applaud.”

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Kn.+1274
Knights, line 1274-1275
Knights (424 BC)

“Man is naturally deceitful ever, in every way! ”

(tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, p. 326 http://books.google.com/books?id=Cm4NAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA326)
Birds (414 BC)
Variant: Man naturally is deceitful, ever indeed, and always, in every one thing.

“Dicaepolis: Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right. I shall not please, but I shall say what is true.”

tr. Athen. 1912, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Ach.+500
Acharnians, line 500-501
Acharnians (425 BC)

“Hierocles: You will never make the crab walk straight.”

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Peace+1083
Peace, line 1083
Peace (421 BC)

“Sosias: The love of wine is a good man's failing.”

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Wasps+80
Wasps, line 80
Wasps (422 BC)

“Chorus: Under every stone lurks a politician.”

tr. in Bartlett 1968, p. 91 http://books.google.com/books?q=inauthor%3A%22John+Bartlett%22+date%3A1968-1968+%22Under+every+stone+lurks+a+politician%22 or Archive.org http://www.archive.org/stream/familiarquotatio017007mbp/familiarquotatio017007mbp_djvu.txt
Thesmophoriazusae, line 529-530
A play on the Greek proverb "Under every stone lurks a scorpion". In context, "orator" was a synonym for "politician".
Thesmophoriazusae (411 BC)

“Agathon: One must not try to trick misfortune, but resign oneself to it with good grace.”

tr. Athen. 1912, vol. 2, p. 278 http://books.google.com/books?id=6fxxAAAAIAAJ&q=%22one+must+not+try+to+trick+misfortune,+but+resign+oneself+to+it+with+good+grace%22
tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Thes.+198
Thesmophoriazusae, line 198-199
Thesmophoriazusae (411 BC)

“Strepsiades: Whirl is King, having driven out Zeus.”

tr. in Lippmann 1929, p. 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=-E4WFG-G30sC&pg=PA1 and 4 http://books.google.com/books?id=-E4WFG-G30sC&pg=PA4
Clouds, line 828
Clouds (423 BC)

“Man is a truly cunning creature.”

(abridged tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Birds+451)
Birds (414 BC)

“Bdelycleon: It is so that you may know only those who nourish you”

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Wasps+704
Wasps (422 BC)

“Phobokleon: Hunger knows no friend but its feeder.”

embellished tr. Parker 1962, p. 55 http://books.google.com/books?id=EdpxAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Hunger+knows+no+friend+but+its+feeder%22
Wasps, line 704
Wasps (422 BC)

“Chorus: [We] must look beneath every stone, lest it conceal some orator ready to sting us.”

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Thes.+529
Thesmophoriazusae (411 BC)

“Blepsidemus: There is no honest man! not one, that can resist the attraction of gold!”

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Pl.+362
Plutus, line 362-363
Plutus (388 BC)

“Strepsiades: But come, by the Earth, is not Zeus, the Olympian, a god?
Socrates: What Zeus? Do not trifle. There is no Zeus.”

tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristoph.+Cl.+366
Clouds, line 366-367 (our emphasis on 367)
The Greek-mythology equivalent of "There is no God."
Clouds (423 BC)

“Chremylus: [Wealth], the most excellent of all the gods.”

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Pl.+230
Plutus, line 230
Plutus (388 BC)

“Strepsiades: ‘Tis the Whirlwind, that has driven out Zeus and is King now.”

tr. Athen. 1912, vol. 1, p. 350 http://books.google.com/books?id=9vpxAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Tis+the+Whirlwind%2C+that+has+driven+out+Jupiter+and+is+King+now%22
Clouds (423 BC)

“Strepsiades: Vortex reigns, having expelled Zeus.”

tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Cl.+828
Clouds (423 BC)

“Chorus [leader]: Ye Children of Man! whose life is a span, / Protracted with sorrow from day to day, / Naked and featherless, feeble and querulous, / Sickly, calamitous creatures of clay!”

heavily rewritten tr. Frere 1839, p. 38 http://books.google.com/books?id=Bk8JAAAAQAAJ&q=%22Sickly%2C+calamitous+creatures+of+clay%22
Birds (414 BC)

“Leader of the Chorus: Let's see. What shall our city be called? […]
Euelpides: Some name borrowed from the clouds, from these lofty regions in which we dwell — in short, some well-known name.
Pisthetaerus: Do you like Nephelococcygia?”

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Birds+812
Birds, line 812 & 817-819 (our emphasis on 819)
Birds (414 BC)

“Aeschylus: It is the compelling power of great thoughts and ideas to engender phrases of equal size.”

tr. Dillon 1995, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Frogs+1058
Frogs, line 1058-1059
Frogs (405 BC)

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