3 Plays: Acharnians / Clouds / Lysistrata

I read this for a history class freshman year of college. Don't remember much now except that it was bawdy and hilarious and sort of shocked me into fascination with the ancient world and the Greeks and how eerily modern they were. I'll re-read it someday and probably get more of the jokes than I did at 18. ( )

I liked these three plays, where each main character takes extreme action, with either brilliant or disastrous results.

Dikaiopolis in The Archanians acts against lazy and corrupt politicians, who prolong war for personal gain and glory, by declaring his own peace;
Strepsiades in The Clouds tries to manipulate the legal system by learning the art of argument from Socrates;
Lysistrata in Lysistrata organises a sex strike to force men to end the war between Athens and Sparta.

The plays abound with jokes about farts, genitals and sex - it's easy to see why Aristophanes is either described as 'bawdy' or 'crude' (sample: Calonice: ... is it a big thing? / Lysistrata: a very big thing. / Calonice: very big and very meaty). Perfect for a bunch o' drunk Ancient Greeks in a theatre somewhere.

While this is frequently funny stuff, I often don't find ancient Greek comedy to be my cup of tea. ( )

Hilarious and bawdy. ( )

Rather free translations that are not for those who want a literal rendering from the Greek, but which communicate the comedy to the modern reader. Frequently the literal Greek is explained in a footnote. This volume contains my favorite translation of the Lysistrata that I ever came across in a Classics course while earning my Latin B.A. ( )