Study Guide for “Knights”
Know that the “Knights” (aka Hippeis, or Equites) was the first play attributed to
Aristophanes alone.
Know that the “Knights” won first prize in 424 BCE at the Dionysia, a spring
festival for Dionysius, the god of wine. Remember that Athens had been at
war with Sparta since 431, and had suffered two bouts with plague because
so many people were shut up in the city walls during the hot summers.
Know that the character “Demos” represents the citizens of Athens, “Cleon” the
demagogue of the same name, and “Sausage-Seller” is an imagined champion
of the people who turns Cleon’s invective against him.
Know that according to K. J. Dover in Fifty Years (and Twelve) of Classical
Scholarship (1968, p. 129) Aristophanes is often seen as a conservative who
opposed all new things “in politics, literature, and philosophy.”
Know that Dover says (p. 130) that this estimate forgets that Aristophanes was also
a great comic author, and that he often displayed the tendency of characters
like Socrates and Cleon to make themselves “asses.” He simply put them in
situations where this could be exaggerated, and lets the comic events work
themselves out from there.
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K. J. Dover, “Greek Comedy” in Classical Association, Fifty Years (and Twelve) of
Classical Scholarship, New York:Barnes & Noble, 1968.