The Songs of Aristophanes

Aristophanes' comedies were as much musical as dramatic performances. The scores from these performances are lost, and the only way of recovering a sense of what the Athenian audience experienced is to study the rhythms of Aristophanes' poetry. His lyric verse covers a wide range of styles—from popular song to parody of tragedy. in this book, L.P.E. Parker provides a full text, with scansion, of the surviving plays' lyrics, and an introduction to the different rhythms used by Aristophanes, their origins, and literary associations. Parker emphasizes the role played by lyric meter in dramatic architecture and distinguishes the different levels of musical style. In this way, Parker illustrates meter's centrality in Aristophanes' dramatic art and satire.