14. Study Questions

1. Identify the main targets of Aristophanic comedy.1. Sexual relationships (and between the genders more generally), politics, religion, politicians, the law system, well-known public figures.

Sexual relationships (and between the genders more generally), politics, religion, politicians, the law system, well-known public figures.

2. How do you think some of these themes may have been seen to help the functioning of democracy?

Satire (and the ridiculing of politicians and offices) forced the democracy to face up to criticism, and to either justify the way things were, or be forced to make changes.

3. Find out how Cleon reacted to these comic attacks. Do you think this type of reaction would have hindered the writing process of the playwrights or fuelled it?

Cleon actually took Aristophanes to court over these jokes. I suspect that far from putting off other such attacks, it may have encouraged them. Certainly, the historian Thucydides was not kind to Cleon either.

14. Study Questions

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