Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

1Lysistrata

By Aristophanes

Lysistrata read by a group of college students.<br><br> First performed in classical Athens c. 411 B.C.E., Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata” is the original battle of the sexes. One woman, Lysistrata, brings together the women of all Greece, exhorting them to withhold sexual contact from all men in order that they negotiate a treaty. Double entendres abound as men of Greece attempt to keep Lysistrata and her prurient gang from putting an end to the Peloponnesian war. Notably risqué, this comic drama sheds light on gender relations in ancient Athens <br><br> Translator is not named, but Jack Lindsay is commentator and Norman Lindsay is the illustrator.

2Chorus of Women

By Aristophanes

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of Chorus of Women by Aristophanes. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 21, 2012.<br><br>Aristophanes was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. This poem is from the Thesmophoriazusae; meaning Women Celebrating the Festival of the Thesmophoria, sometimes also called The Poet and the Women) (Summary from Wikipedia )

3Frogs

By Aristophanes

Athens is in a sorry state of affairs. The great tragedian, Euripides, is dead, and Dionysus, the god of the theater, has to listen to third-rate poetry. So, he determines to pack his belongings onto his trusty slave, Xanthias, and journey to the underworld to bring back Euripides! Hi-jinks ensue. (Summary by Libby Gohn)<br /><br /><strong>Cast</strong><br />Dionysus: <a href="http://librivox.org/reader/7848">bala</a><br />Xanthias/Narrator: <a href="http://librivox.org/reader/1259">Elizabeth Klett</a><br />Aeschylus: <a href="http://librivox.org/reader/8487">Abe Nemon</a><br />Euripides: <a href="http://librivox.org/reader/7679">Libby Gohn</a><br />Heracles: <a href="http://librivox.org/reader/4705">Algy Pug</a><br />Pluto: <a href="http://librivox.org/reader/7170">Alan Mapstone</a><br />Charon: <a href="http://librivox.org/reader/8291">Eliot Gage</a><br />Aeacus: <a href="http://librivox.org/reader/26">Denny Sayers</a><br />Corpse: <a href="http://librivox.org/reader/6754">Todd</a><br />Maidservant: <a href="http://librivox.org/reader/6544">Amanda Friday</a><br />Landlady: <a href="http://librivox.org/reader/4174">Availle</a><br />Plathane: <a href="http://librivox.org/reader/7846">Marmalade Hanna</a><br />Chorus of Frogs: <a href="http://librivox.org/reader/8447">Anastasiia Solokha</a><br />Chorus of Initiates: <a href="">mb</a><br /><br /><strong>Audio edited by Libby Gohn</strong>

4Clouds

By Aristophanes

Strepsiades is an Athenian burdened with debt from a bad marriage and a spendthrift son. He resolves to go to the Thinking Shop, where he can purchase lessons from the famous Socrates in ways to manipulate language in order to outwit his creditors in court. Socrates, represented as a cunning, manipulative, irreverent sophist, has little success with the dull-witted Strepsiades, but is able to teach the old man's son Phidippides a few tricks. In the end, the play is a cynical, clever commentary on Old Ways vs. New Ways, to the disparagement of the former. - Summary by Expatriate

Loaded with cryptic, nearly indecipherable inside jokes and double entendres, this early comedy of Aristophanes has a simple, anti-war premise that resounds down the centuries. On flimsy pretexts, greedy politicians have embroiled the nation of Athens in war after war after war. Dicæopolis is Everyman, an ordinary, plain-speaking citizen fed up with the bumbling, belligerence, and insincerity of the professional leaders. He decides on a whim to make a separate peace with Sparta all by himself, returning with a treaty good for thirty years. Envious of the good deal he has made and of the profit he sees from it, other Athenians try to buy packets of his peace from him, with no success. Puffed up with his own cleverness, Dicæopolis spends the final scenes of the play ridiculing the muscle-brained neanderthal General Lamachus for faux patriotism and comic chest-beating heroism.<br /><br /> This translation is by Charles James Billson, who admits in his preface with obvious regret that the chilling effect of “modern Protestantism” had forced him to prune out the more risque and bawdy bits of Aristophanes’s lines, particularly most of the “Phallic Hymn.” He tries to make up for this unfortunate lack, however, by filling the play with rhyme patterns and slang borrowed from the “burlesque” halls of the 1880s, hoping to render the difficult Greek humor into the form of “a lively acting play.” ( Expatriate)

6Lysistrata (version 2)

By Aristophanes

Lysistrata has had enough. She is tired of the constant war that is ravaging Greece and has come up with a solution: Together with female friends from other Greek cities, she persuades all women of Greece to pledge an oath and refrain from all sexual contact with their husbands and lovers. The idea is that what men really want is sex, and that they are willing to do anything to get it - even abandoning their pride and make peace. And while the Athenian women retreat into the sacred Acropolis, the men gather outside and debate what is to be done... <br><br> This famous play by Aristophanes, first staged in 411 BCE, sheds a light on the relation of the sexes in Ancient Greece, and is probably the first instance of a <em>War of the Sexes</em>. <br><br> The translator of this version is unknown, but it is rumored to have been Oscar Wilde. (Summary by Availlle). <br><br> <b>Cast List:</b><br><br> Lysistrata: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/4174">Availle</a><br> Calonice: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10614">leanneyauyau</a><br> Myrrhine: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10763">lian2902952</a><br> Lampito: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10515">clarinetcarrot</a><br> Stratyllis: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8883">LydiaCW</a><br> First woman: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10614">leanneyauyau</a><br> Second woman: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11341">DaMa</a><br> Third woman: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10179">Kitty</a><br> Fourth woman: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10466">sawasawaya</a><br> A woman & Old Woman: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10087">catharmaiden</a><br> Chorus of Women: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11417">bluechien</a><br> Slave: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11543">StarFire</a><br> Child: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8883">LydiaCW</a><br> Magistrate: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8164">RobBoard</a><br> Cinesias: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/9929">ZamesCurran</a><br> Old Man: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7170">alanmapstone</a><br> Chorus of Old Men: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8799">unreadpages</a><br> Herald: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11676">Fiindil</a><br> Laconian: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10463">VfkaBT</a><br> Chorus of Laconians: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7170">alanmapstone</a><br> Athenian: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11535">NemoR</a><br> Chorus of Athenians: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10789">WiltedScribe</a><br> Market lounger: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11053">Mratthew</a><br> Narrator: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8677">MrsHand</a><br><br> <b>Audio editing:</b> <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/4174">Availle</a>

7Ecclesiazusae

By Aristophanes

Στην αρχαια Αθηνα οι γυναικες αποφασισαν να παρουν την εξουσια απο τους αντρες για να λυσουν τα προβληματα του κρατους και των πολιτων. Λεγεται οτι ο Αριστοφανης θελει να κανει μια κριτικη στο καθεστως της σοσιαλιστικης μητριαρχιας και του κοινωνισμου-σοσιαλισμου.Τελικα ο Αριστοφανης ηταν αριστοκρατικος και ολιγαρχικος ή αναρχικος και κρυπτοκομμουνιστης; - Summary by karampas1968

8Lysistrata (version 3)

By Aristophanes

The women of Athens are sick of the Peloponnesian war that has dragged on for year after year after year, causing great hardship to everyone. They decide to deny the men sex until they agree to make peace, using the one thing that perhaps men enjoy more than killing each other. Does it work? Listen and find out. This comedy by Aristophanes was first performed in 411 BC

9Peace

By Aristophanes

The 'Peace' was brought out four years after 'The Acharnians' (422 B.C.), when the War had already lasted ten years. The leading motive is the same as in the former play—the intense desire of the less excitable and more moderate-minded citizens for relief from the miseries of war.<br><br> Trygaeus, a rustic patriot, finding no help in men, resolves to ascend to heaven to expostulate personally with Zeus for allowing this wretched state of things to continue. With this object he has fed and trained a gigantic dung-beetle, which he mounts, and is carried, like Bellerophon on Pegasus, on an aerial journey. Eventually he reaches Olympus, only to find that the gods have gone elsewhere, and that the heavenly abode is occupied solely by the demon of War, who is busy pounding up the Greek States in a huge mortar. However, his benevolent purpose is not in vain; for learning from Hermes that the goddess Peace has been cast into a pit, where she is kept a fast prisoner, he calls upon the different peoples of Hellas to make a united effort and rescue her, and with their help drags her out and brings her back in triumph to earth. The play concludes with the restoration of the goddess to her ancient honours, the festivities of the rustic population and the nuptials of Trygaeus with Opora (Harvest), handmaiden of Peace, represented as a pretty courtesan.<br><br> Such references as there are to Cleon in this play are noteworthy. The great Demagogue was now dead, having fallen in the same action as the rival Spartan general, the renowned Brasidas, before Amphipolis, and whatever Aristophanes says here of his old enemy is conceived in the spirit of 'de mortuis nil nisi bonum.' In one scene Hermes is descanting on the evils which had nearly ruined Athens and declares that 'The Tanner' was the cause of them all. But Trygaeus interrupts him with the words:<br><br> "Hold-say not so, good master Hermes; Let the man rest in peace where now he lies. He is no longer of our world, but yours."<br><br> Here surely we have a trait of magnanimity on the author's part as admirable in its way as the wit and boldness of his former attacks had been in theirs. - Summary by publisher

"The Birds' differs markedly from all the other Comedies of Aristophanes which have come down to us in subject and general conception. It is just an extravaganza pure and simple—a graceful, whimsical theme chosen expressly for the sake of the opportunities it afforded of bright, amusing dialogue, pleasing lyrical interludes, and charming displays of brilliant stage effects and pretty dresses." As you listen, imagine that the actors wear masks and outfits so that they look like the birds they are named for. <BR><BR>Cast list:<BR> Euelpides: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/9642">Chris Pyle</a><br> Peithetaerus: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13094">Ariphron</a><br> Hoopoe: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7170">Alan Mapstone</a><br> Herald: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/16240">HelloCentral</a><br> A Priest: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/17662">Inkell</a><br> A Poet: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/17752">redrun</a><br> A Soothsayer: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13075">Rita Boutros</a><br> Meton, a Geometrician: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/4174">Availle</a><br> An Inspector: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13257">Elsie Selwyn</a><br> A Plebiscite-Vendor: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/17576">Beeswaxcandle</a><br> Iris: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/4174">Availle</a><br> A Would-Be Parracide: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/15932">Andrea Atwood</a><br> Kinesias: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7170">Alan Mapstone</a><br> An Informer: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/14309">Cavaet</a><br> Prometheus: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8011">Greg Giordano</a><br> Poseidon: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13851">Ethan Hurst</a><br> Triballion: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/17662">Inkell</a><br> Herakles: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13075">Rita Boutros</a><br> First Messenger: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/18051">De Anna Lee</a><br> Second Messenger: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10542">David Purdy</a><br> Third Messenger: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10179">Sonia</a><br> Runner-Bird: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10542">David Purdy</a><br> Chorus of Birds: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6754">ToddHW</a><br> Stage Directions: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8677">KHand</a><br> Editing: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6754">ToddHW</a><br> - Summary by Translator