Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Acknowledgements Introduction ACHARNIANS KNIGHTS CLOUDS WASPS PEACE BIRDS LYSISTRATA WOMEN AT THESMOPHORIA FESTIVAL - Thesmophoriazusae FROGS A PARLIAMENT OF WOMEN - (Ecclesiazusae) PLUTUS (WEALTH) The first ten lines of Clouds as they would have appeared on a fourth century B.C. ms. New American Library Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4V 3B2, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England First published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. First New American Library Printing, February 2005 Copyright © Paul Roche, 2005 All rights reserved (See page 716 for permissions information.) NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY and logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Aristophanes. [Works. English. 2005] The complete plays / Aristophanes ; translated by Paul Roche. p. cm. eISBN: 9781101378717 1. Aristophanes—Translations into English. 2. Athens (Greece)—Drama. I. Roche, Paul, 1927-II. Title. PA3877.A1R57 2005 882’.01—dc22 2004056681 Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. http://us.penguingroup.com TO PATRICK HORSBRUGH ὃ ἃλς τoυ κoσμoυ Acknowledgments My debt to Jeffrey Henderson, editor of the Loeb Classical Library and Professor of Classical Studies at Boston University, knows no bounds. His translations of Aristophanes in the Loeb series with accompanying Greek text is scrupulously faithful and expressed in language that is wholly contemporary. I was guided and steadied by him throughout and I found his footnotes invaluable. I should also like to express my gratitude to Mrs. Pat Gilbert-Read, who trawled through all eleven of these plays and rescued me from many an infelicity.