Aristophanic Comedies: Creating Social Bonds with Humor

The plays of Aristophanes are the only examples of ancient Greek comedy that we have, but his comedies are an excellent example of the genre and how the style of comedic plays changed throughout Athens’ rise and decline. Aristophanes’ plays performed well in general and he wrote over a span of many years. His comedies addressed political and social issues that Athenians faced and he offered advice to the audience concerning them. Comedy has been used as a mechanism for creating social cohesion in audiences throughout time. In this thesis, I argue that based on how well the play ranked in competition social bonds were created amongst members of the audience. I look at three of Aristophanes’ plays: The Clouds, Thesmophoriazusae, and The Frogs. I analyzed and compared the plots and methods for achieving laughter in each play in order to assess their effectiveness as a comedy. I argue that each play served to bring the audience closer together through their enjoyment or hatred of Aristophanes' work.