Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The Thesmophoriazusae
The Thesmophoriazusae | Aristophanes
1 post | 3 read
Thesmophoriazusae was performed in Athens in 411 BCE, most likely at the City Dionysia, and is among the most brilliant of Aristophanes' eleven surviving comedies. It is the story of the crucial moment in a quarrel between the tragic playwright Euripides and Athens' women, who accuse him of slandering them in his plays and are holding a meeting at one of their secret festivals to set a penalty for his crimes. Thesmophoriazusae is a brilliantly inventive comedy, full of wild slapstick humour and devastating literary parody, and is a basic source for questions of gender and sexuality in late 5th-century Athens and for the popular reception of Euripidean tragedy.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
review
batsy
The Thesmophoriazusae | Aristophanes
post image
Pickpick

We continue on with more madcap hijinks from the master of Old Comedy. This play, variously known as Women at the Thesmophoria, Thesmophoriazusae, or the easier-on-the-tongue The Poet and the Women, is about a group of women using the Thesmophoria (an annual fertility celebration dedicated to Demeter) to tear apart Euripides for his sexist portrayals of women. Cue the subversive flipping of gender roles & the inevitable lewd sexual jokes.

batsy Without fail, the ancient classical texts will have a moment that seems to come straight out of the present. In this case, in a very Twitter moment, a man disguised as a woman insults women in order to defend a famous man (Euripides), & encounters pushback from the women present. He then retorts that his right to free speech should allow him to present his strawman argument. It's honestly too good; Aristophanes would have loved social media. 2y
batsy The image shows a scene from the play that has a sack of wine disguised as a baby. 2y
vivastory For some reason this one isn't ringing a bell. I recently checked out a vol. of Aristophanes. I'll have to see if it's in there & I totally agree with you -Aristophanes would get a kick out of Twitter, especially considering the discourse on there lately. 2y
See All 6 Comments
batsy @vivastory Feels like I haven't heard of it before, either, which seems weird! Because it's pretty funny and quite pertinent as far as satires go. But it kind of goes off the rails a bit towards the end, but I think that's just how Aristophanes rolls, so... 😆 2y
Bookwomble @batsy I love that you have a feeling for how Aristophanes rolls! 😃 2y
batsy @Bookwomble Read a few plays in close succession and now I feel like I might know him too well 😆 2y
61 likes6 comments