Knights

A comic play by the Athenian poet, Aristophanes, produced in 424 BCE at the Lenaea festival where it won first prize; this was the first play which Aristophanes produced under his own name and is nothing but an attack and belittlement of the presumed Athenian warmonger, Kleon (Cleon).

This play was produced during the early years of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE) and Aristophanes clearly laid the blame for the continuing hostilities on the greedy and egotistical politicians such as Kleon; as to Kleon’s true character, we can only speculate but Aristophanes seems to have truly despised the man.

The play is based on the attempt of two disgruntled slaves to take the power away from an undeserving lout and give the reins of the government of the city of Athens to an even lower and more rapacious lout; the two louts debate one another and are both under the assumption that the more corrupt and dishonest they appear to the public the more they will be loved.

The Knights are the chorus of the play and represent the noble and courageous horsemen who actually have to fight the war the politicians are perpetuating.

One very comic moment of the play is when the existence of the gods is called into question and one of the slaves declares that they surely exist because they obviously hate him.

Aristophanes’ plays are sometimes difficult to appreciate because he was a very contemporary poet, i.e. he was writing for the Athenian audience of his day; he would use puns, parody regional accents and speak directly to the audience in ways that force modern translators to seek out the contextual meaning rather than the literal meaning of the poet’s words; for that reason, I suggest that if you find a translation that is difficult to enjoy, please don’t blame Aristophanes, simply look for a translation that you can enjoy.

When trying to find a readable translator, I suggest Patric Dickinson; you may find his books at your local library in the 882 section but his books are out of print and sometimes difficult to find; I also recommend the Penguin Classics book Lysistrata & Other Plays: The Acharnians, the Clouds, Lysistrata by Aristophanes, Alan H. Sommerstein (Translator), ISBN 0140448144; you can also find this book at your local library or you can purchase it through the Book Shop on this site which is linked to Amazon.com.