Volume I. Acharnians. Knights.

The general introduction that begins Volume I brings current scholarly insights to bear on the intriguing question of the comic poet as a political force. In Acharnians a small landowner, tired of the Peloponnesian War, magically arranges a personal peace treaty and demonstrates the injustice of war in a contest with the bellicose Acharnians. Also in this volume is Knights, perhaps the most biting satire of a political figure.

Series No. 178 / 416 pages / ISBN 0-674-99567-8
  Volume II. Clouds. Wasps. Peace.

Socrates' "Thinkery" is at the center of Clouds, which spoofs untraditional techniques for educating young men. Wasps satirizes Athenian enthusiasm for jury service and the law courts as well as the city's susceptibility to demagogues. And Peace, celebrating the end of hostilities between Athens and Sparta, is a rollicking attack on the war-makers.

Series No. 488 / 614 pages / ISBN 0-674-99537-6
  Volume III. Birds. Lysistrata. Women at the Thesmophoria.
In Birds Aristophanes turns from the pointed political satire characteristic of earlier plays to a fantasy that soars literally into the air and creates a utopian counter-Athens, called Cloudcuckooland, ruled by birds. Lysistrata blends rambunctious comedy and an earnest call for peace. Lysistrata, our first comic heroine, organizes a panhellenic conjugal strike of young wives until their husbands end the war between Athens and Sparta. Athenian women again take center stage in Women at the Thesmophoria, this time to punish Euripides for portraying them as wicked. Parody of Euripides' plots enlivens this witty confrontation of the sexes.

Series No. 179N / 624 pages/ ISBN 0-674-99587-2
  Volume IV. Frogs. Assemblywomen. Wealth

Frogswas produced in 405 B.C., shortly after the deaths of Sophocles and Euripides. Dionysus, on a journey to the underworld to retrieve Euripides, is recruited to judge a contest between the traditional Aeschylus and the modern Euripides, a contest that yields both comedy and insight on ancient literary taste. In Assemblywomen Athenian women plot to save Athens from male misgovernance. They institute a new social order in which all inequalities based on wealth, age, and beauty are eliminated--with raucously comical results. The gentle humor and straightforward morality of Wealth made it the most popular of Aristophanes' plays from classical times to the Renaissance. Here the god Wealth, cured of his blindness, is newly able to distinguish good people from bad.

Series No. 180N / 608 pages/ ISBN 0-674-99596-1