Wasps, Women and Frogs by Aristophanes
*contains spoilers* For my latest venture back into the days of Ancient Greek theatre, I decided to change it up a little and opted for the comic plays of Aristophanes. Of the supposedly forty-or-so written and performed works of his, eleven remain in textual form, and three of these were included in the Penguin Classics Edition I was lucky enough to find in Heffer’s in Cambridge. First up is ‘Wasps’, performed in 422BC, which is a combined force of politically motivated slapstick that takes aim at the prominent public figure, Cleon, during his tenure at the top. Bdelycleon (literally meaning “Cleon-loather”) is very keen to stop his father, Philocleon (literally meaning “Cleon-lover”) from attending his beloved jury service, and so he goes all out to teach his father just how manipulated he is by the state. Bdelycleon sets up his own court-case outside their house, mocking both the jury system of the time and the watching Athenian audience in their support of it, alongside the buzzing...