Aristophanes

![Theatre of Dionysus, Athens — in Aristophanes' time, the audience probably sat on wooden benches with earth foundations.[12]](/uploads/202412/21/Ehrentribuene_Dionysostheater_Athen4053.jpg)


Aristophanes (/ˌærᵻˈstɒfəniːz/ or /ˌɛrᵻˈstɒfəniːz/; Greek: Ἀριστοφάνης, pronounced [aristopʰánɛːs]; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion (Latin:Cydathenaeum), 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 they are used to define the genre.