The Wasps is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes

Aristophanes

Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...

, the master of an ancient genre of drama called 'Old Comedy'. It was produced at the Lenaia

Lenaia

The Lenaia was an annual festival with a dramatic competition. It was one of the lesser festivals of Athens and Ionia in ancient Greece. The Lenaia took place in Athens in the month of Gamelion, roughly corresponding to January. The festival was in honour of Dionysos Lenaios...

 festival in 422 BC

422 BC

Year 422 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Capitolinus, Mugillanus and Merenda...

, a time when Athens was enjoying a brief respite from The Peloponnesian War following a one year truce with Sparta

Sparta

Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...

. As in his other early plays, Aristophanes pokes satirical fun at the demagogue Cleon

Cleon

Cleon was an Athenian statesman and a Strategos during the Peloponnesian War. He was the first prominent representative of the commercial class in Athenian politics, although he was an aristocrat himself...

 but in The Wasps he also ridicules one of the Athenian institutions that provided Cleon with his power-base: the law courts. The play has been thought to exemplify the conventions of Old Comedy better than any other play and it has been considered to be one of the world's greatest comedies.

The Wasps – the plot

The play begins with a strange scene—a large net has been spread over a house, the entry is barricaded and two slaves are sleeping in the street outside. A third man is positioned at the top of an exterior wall with a view into the inner courtyard but he too is asleep. The two slaves wake and we learn from their banter that they are keeping guard over a 'monster'. The man asleep above them is their master and the monster is his father—he has an unusual disease. The two slaves challenge the audience to guess the nature of the disease. Addictions to gambling, drink and good times are suggested but they are all wrong—the father is addicted to the law court: he is a phileliastes or a "trialophile." We are then told that his name is Philocleon (which suggests that he might be addicted to Cleon

Cleon

Cleon was an Athenian statesman and a Strategos during the Peloponnesian War. He was the first prominent representative of the commercial class in Athenian politics, although he was an aristocrat himself...

) and his son's name is the very opposite of this—Bdelycleon. The symptoms of the old man's addiction are described for us and they include irregular sleep, obsessional thinking, paranoia, poor hygiene and hoarding. We are told that counselling, medical treatment and travel have all failed to solve the problem and now his son has turned the house into a prison to keep the old man away from the law courts. Bdelycleon wakes and he shouts to the two slaves to be on their guard—his father is moving about. He tells them to watch the drains, for the old man can move like a mouse, but Philocleon surprises them all by emerging instead from the chimney disguised as smoke. Bdelycleon is luckily on hand to push him back inside. Other attempts at escape are also barely defeated. The household settles down for some more sleep and then the Chorus arrives—old jurors who move warily (the roads are muddy), they are escorted by boys with lamps (it is still dark). Learning of their old comrade's imprisonment, they leap to his defense and swarm around Bdelycleon and his slaves like wasps. At the end of this fray, Philocleon is still barely in his son's custody and both sides are willing to settle the issue peacefully through debate.

The debate is between the father and the son and it focuses on the advantages that the old man personally derives from voluntary jury service. Philocleon says he enjoys the flattering attentions of rich and powerful men who appeal to him for a favourable verdict, he enjoys the freedom to interpret the law as he pleases since his decisions are not subject to review, and his juror's pay gives him independence and authority within his own household. Bdelycleon responds to these points with the argument that jurors are in fact subject to the demands of petty officials and they get paid less than they deserve—revenues from the empire go mostly into the private treasuries of men like Cleon. These arguments have a paralysing effect on Philocleon. The Chorus is won over. Philocleon however is still not able to give up his old ways just yet so Bdelycleon offers to turn the house into a courtroom and to pay him a juror's fee to judge domestic disputes. Philocleon agrees and a case is soon brought before him—a dispute between the household dogs. One dog (who looks like Cleon) accuses the other dog (who looks like Laches

Laches

* Laches : an equitable principle in Anglo-American law* Laches : an Athenian aristocrat * Laches : a Socratic dialogue of Plato-See also:* Lache...

) of stealing a Sicilian cheese and not sharing it. Witnesses for the defense include a bowl, a pestle, a cheese-grater, a brazier and a pot. As these are unable to speak, Bdelycleon says a few words for them on behalf of the accused and then some puppies (the children of the accused) are ushered in to soften the heart of the old juror with their plaintive cries. Philocleon is not softened but his son easily fools him into putting his vote into the urn for acquittal. The old juror is deeply shocked by the outcome of the trial—he is used to convictions—but his son promises him a good time and they exit the stage to prepare for some entertainment.

While the actors are offstage, the Chorus addresses the audience in a conventional parabasis

Parabasis

In Greek comedy, the parabasis is a point in the play when all of the actors leave the stage and the chorus is left to address the audience directly...

. It praises the author for standing up to monsters like Cleon and it chastises the audience for its failure to appreciate the merits of the author's previous play (The Clouds

The Clouds

The Clouds is a comedy written by the celebrated playwright Aristophanes lampooning intellectual fashions in classical Athens. It was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC and it was not well received, coming last of the three plays competing at the festival that year. It was revised...

). It praises the older generation, evokes memories of the victory at Marathon

Battle of Marathon

The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. It was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate...

 and it bitterly deplores the gobbling up of imperial revenues by unworthy men. Father and son then return to the stage, now arguing with each other over the old man's choice of attire. He is addicted to his old juryman's cloak and his old shoes and he is suspicious of the fancy woollen garment and the fashionable Spartan footwear that Bdelycleon wants him to wear that evening to a sophisticated dinner party. The fancy clothes are forced upon him and then he is instructed in the kind of manners and conversation that the other guests will expect of him. Philocleon declares his reluctance to drink any wine—it causes trouble, he says—but Bdelycleon assures him that sophisticated men of the world can easily talk their way out of trouble and so they depart optimistically for the evening's entertainment. There is then a second parabasis (see Note at end of this section), in which the Chorus touches briefly on a conflict between Cleon and the author, after which a household slave arrives with news for the audience about the old man's appalling behaviour at the dinner party: Philocleon has got himself abusively drunk, he has insulted all his son's fashionable friends and now he is assaulting anyone he meets on the way home. The slave departs as Philocleon arrives, now with aggrieved victims on his heels and a pretty flute girl on his arm. Bdelycleon appears moments later and angrily remonstrates with his father for kidnapping the flute girl from the party. Philocleon pretends that she is in fact a torch. His son isn't fooled and he tries to take the girl back to the party by force but his father knocks him down. Other people with grievances against Philocleon continue to arrive, demanding compensation and threatening legal action. He makes an ironic attempt to talk his way out of trouble like a sophisticated man of the world but it inflames the situation further and finally his alarmed son drags him indoors. The Chorus sings briefly about how difficult it is for men to change their habits and it commends the son for filial devotion, after which the entire cast returns to the stage for some spirited dancing by Philocleon in a contest with the sons of Carcinus

Carcinus (writer)

Carcinus was an Ancient Greek tragedian, and was a member of a family including Xenocles and his grandfather Carcinus of Agrigentum. He received a prize for only one out of his one hundred and sixty plays, many of them composed at the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse...

.

Note: Some editors (such as Barrett) exchange the second parabasis (lines 1265–91) with the song (lines 1450–73) in which Bdelycleon is commended for filial devotion.

Historical background

Cleon and the Athenian jury system: About two years before the performance of The Wasps, Athens had obtained a significant victory against its rival, Sparta, in the Battle of Sphacteria

Battle of Sphacteria

The Battle of Sphacteria was a land battle of the Peloponnesian War, fought in 425 BC between Athens and Sparta. Following the Battle of Pylos and subsequent peace negotiations, which failed, a number of Spartans were stranded on the island of Sphacteria...

. Rightly or wrongly, most Athenians credited Cleon with this victory and he was then at the height of his power. Constitutionally, supreme power lay with the People as voters in the assembly and as jurors in the courts but they could be manipulated by demagogues skilled in oratory and supported by networks of satellites and informers. Cleon had succeeded Pericles

Pericles

Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age—specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars...

 as the dominant speaker in the assembly and increasingly he was able to manipulate the courts for political and personal ends, especially in the prosecution of public officials for mismanagement of their duties. Jurors had to be citizens over the age of thirty and a corps of six thousand was enrolled at the beginning of each year, forming a conspicuous presence about town in their short brown cloaks, with wooden staves in their hands. The work was voluntary but time-consuming and they were paid a small fee - three obols per day at the time of The Wasps. For many jurors, this was their major source of income and it was virtually an old-age pension. There were no judges to provide juries with legal guidance and there was no legal appeal against a jury's verdict. Jurors came under the sway of litigious politicians like Cleon who provided them with cases to try and who were influential in persuading the assembly to keep up their pay. However it is not necessarily true that Cleon was exploiting the system for venal or corrupt reasons, as argued in The Wasps. Aristophanes' plays promote conservative values and they support an honourable peace with Sparta whereas Cleon was a radical democrat and a leader of the pro-war faction. Misunderstandings were inevitable. Cleon had previously attempted to prosecute Aristophanes for slandering the polis with his second play The Babylonians and, though the legal result of these efforts is unknown, they appear to have sharpened the poet's satirical edge, as evidenced later in the unrelenting attack on Cleon in The Knights. The second parabasis in The Wasps implies that Cleon retaliated for his drubbing in The Knights with yet further efforts to intimidate or prosecute Aristophanes and it is possible that the poet publicly yielded to this pressure for a short time. Whatever agreement was reached with Cleon, Aristophanes gleefully reneged on it in The Wasps, presenting Cleon as a treacherous dog manipulating a corrupted legal process for personal gain.

Some events that influenced The Wasps

• 431 BC
  431 BC
  Year 431 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Cincinnatus and Mento...
  
  : The Peloponnesian War commenced.
• 426 BC
  426 BC
  Year 426 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Cincinnatus, Albinus, Fusus and Cossus...
  
  : Aristophanes won first prize at the City Dionysia with his second play, The Babylonians (now lost), and he was subsequently prosecuted by Cleon for being the author of slanders against the polis
  Polis
  Polis , plural poleis , literally means city in Greek. It could also mean citizenship and body of citizens. In modern historiography "polis" is normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, so polis is often translated as "city-state."The...
  
  .
• 425 BC
  425 BC
  Year 425 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Atratinus, Medullinus, Cincinnatus and Barbatus...
  
  : Athens obtained a significant victory against Sparta in the Battle of Sphacteria
  Battle of Sphacteria
  The Battle of Sphacteria was a land battle of the Peloponnesian War, fought in 425 BC between Athens and Sparta. Following the Battle of Pylos and subsequent peace negotiations, which failed, a number of Spartans were stranded on the island of Sphacteria...
  
   and Cleon successfully claimed responsibility for it.
• 424 BC
  424 BC
  Year 424 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Crassus, Fidenas, Rutilus and Iullus...
  
  : Aristophanes won first prize at the Lenaia
  Lenaia
  The Lenaia was an annual festival with a dramatic competition. It was one of the lesser festivals of Athens and Ionia in ancient Greece. The Lenaia took place in Athens in the month of Gamelion, roughly corresponding to January. The festival was in honour of Dionysos Lenaios...
  
   with The Knights
  The Knights
  The Knights was the fourth play written by Aristophanes, the master of an ancient form of drama known as Old Comedy. The play is a satire on the social and political life of classical Athens during the Peloponnesian War and in this respect it is typical of all the dramatist's early plays...
  
   in which he lampooned Cleon mercilessly.
• 423 BC
  423 BC
  Year 423 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Atratinus and Ambustus...
  
  : Athens and Sparta agreed to a one year truce. Aristophanes' play The Clouds
  The Clouds
  The Clouds is a comedy written by the celebrated playwright Aristophanes lampooning intellectual fashions in classical Athens. It was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC and it was not well received, coming last of the three plays competing at the festival that year. It was revised...
  
   came third (i.e. last).
• 422 BC
  422 BC
  Year 422 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Capitolinus, Mugillanus and Merenda...
  
  : The Wasps was performed at the Lenaia, winning second place.

Places and people mentioned in The Wasps

According to a character in Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

's Dinner-table Discussion, (written some 500 years after The Wasps was produced), Old Comedy needs commentators to explain its abstruse references in the same way that a banquet needs wine-waiters. Here is the wine list for 'The Wasps' as supplied by modern scholars.

Places

• Megara
  Megara
  Megara is an ancient city in Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being taken by Athens. Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four mythic sons of King...
  
  : a neighbour and historically a rival to Athens, it is mentioned in line 57 as the reputed origin of comic drama.
• Law Courts: Athens had ten law courts in 422BC, of which these three are mentioned here by name - The New Court in line 120, The Court at Lykos in line 389 and The Odeion in line 1109.
• Asclepieia
  Asclepieion
  In ancient Greece and Rome, an asclepeion was a healing temple, sacred to the god Asclepius....
  
  : Temples dedicated to the god of healing, the one mentioned in line 123 was located near Athens on the island of Aegina
  Aegina
  Aegina is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of Aeacus, who was born in and ruled the island. During ancient times, Aegina was a rival to Athens, the great sea power of the era.-Municipality:The municipality...
  
  .
• Delphi
  Delphi
  Delphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...
  
  : One of the most sacred sites in Greece, it is said by Philocleon in line 159 to be the source of a fearful prophecy concerning himself.
• Scione: A city on the promontory of Chalcidice
  Chalcidice
  Chalkidiki, also Halkidiki, Chalcidice or Chalkidike , is a peninsula in northern Greece, and one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Macedonia. The autonomous Mount Athos region is part of the peninsula, but not of the regional unit...
  
  , it revolted from Athenian rule two days after the Athenian truce with Sparta and it was now under siege - the only fighting Athenians were engaged in at this time. Bdelycleon says in line 210 that he would rather serve there than guard his father.
• Byzantium
  Byzantium
  Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
  
  : Originally captured from Persian forces by the Greeks in 478 BC, and subsequently taken from the control of Pausanias
  Pausanias (general)
  Pausanias was a Spartan general of the 5th century BC. He was the son of Cleombrotus and nephew of Leonidas I, serving as regent after the latter's death, since Leonidas' son Pleistarchus was still under-age. Pausanias was also the father of Pleistoanax, who later became king, and Cleomenes...
  
   by the Athenians in 476, a garrison had been stationed there ever since its revolt from Athenian rule in 440-439 BC. The Chorus of old jurors mention it in line 236 while reminiscing about their time as soldiers there.
• Samos
  Samoš
  Samoš is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Kovačica municipality, in the South Banat District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 1,247 people .-See also:...
  
  : An island that had revolted from Athenian rule in 440 BC, it is mentioned in line 238 in reference to a Samian (possibly a man named Carystion) who had betrayed his own polis out of his reputed love for Athens and who had recently been acquitted of some charge.
• Thrace
  Thrace
  Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
  
  : A region that had strategic significance in the Peloponnesian War, the Chorus mentions it in line 288 in relation to the impending trial of one of the 'traitors' there (possibly a reference to Thucydides
  Thucydides
  Thucydides was a Greek historian and author from Alimos. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC...
  
  , who had been prosecuted by Cleon the previous year after the Athenian defeat at Amphipolis
  Amphipolis
  Amphipolis was an ancient Greek city in the region once inhabited by the Edoni people in the present-day region of Central Macedonia. It was built on a raised plateau overlooking the east bank of the river Strymon where it emerged from Lake Cercinitis, about 3 m. from the Aegean Sea. Founded in...
  
  .
• Naxos
  Naxos
  -Places:*Naxos , an island in the Cyclades group**Naxos , a town and former municipality on the island of Naxos**Naxos , a Greek government division created from the former Cyclades Prefecture in 2011...
  
  : Subjugated by the Athenians around 470 BC, the Chorus mentions it in line 355 while recalling a soldier's prank perpetrated there by Philocleon.
• Pontus
  Pontus
  Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...
  
   and Sardinia
  Sardinia
  Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
  
  : Mentioned in line 700 by Bdelycleon as the eastern and western limits of the Athenian empire.
• Marathon
  Battle of Marathon
  The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. It was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate...
  
  : The site of the celebrated Athenian victory against Persia, it is mentioned in line 711 by Bdelycleon in reference to what is owed to Athenians by other Greeks.
• Euboia Settled by Athenians through a cleruchy
  Cleruchy
  A cleruchy in Hellenic Greece, was a specialized type of colony established by Athens. The term comes from the Greek word , klērouchos, literally "lot-holder"....
  
  , it was a key source of grain and it is mentioned in line 715 by Bdelycleon as a synonym for vote-buying.
• Sicily
  Sicily
  Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
  
  : The island was famous for its cheeses and its mention in line 838 helps to identity the cheese-stealing dog Labes as a comic representation of the Athenian general Laches
  Laches
  * Laches : an equitable principle in Anglo-American law* Laches : an Athenian aristocrat * Laches : a Socratic dialogue of Plato-See also:* Lache...
  
  , who led an Athenian force there in 427 BC.
• Kudathenaion and Aixone: Respectively the deme of Cylon and the accusing dog (located in Athens) and the deme of Laches and the accused dog (located on the coast about eight miles south of Athens) - both demes are mentioned in line 895.
• Thymaitadoi: A village near the Piraeus
  Piraeus
  Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
  
  , it was a source of rough cloaks that the unsophisticated Philocleon is unable to distinguish from the expensive cloaks worn in Sardis
  Sardis
  Sardis or Sardes was an ancient city at the location of modern Sart in Turkey's Manisa Province...
  
   and woven in Ecbatana
  Ecbatana
  Ecbatana is supposed to be the capital of Astyages , which was taken by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the sixth year of Nabonidus...
  
   (common destinations for Athenian diplomats), as stated in lines 1138-43.
• Paros
  Paros
  Paros is an island of Greece in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of Piraeus. The Municipality of Paros includes numerous uninhabited offshore islets...
  
  : An island that Philocleon once visited for two obols a day (i.e. as a rower in the Athenian navy) - which was as close to becoming a diplomat as he ever got (line 1189).

Poets and other artists

• Euripides
  Euripides
  Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
  
  : Frequently a target of Aristophanes' plays, the tragic poet is mentioned in line 61 as the butt of tired, old jokes that are made by other comic poets. There are also mock-heroic references to his plays Bellerophon, Cretan Women and Ino in lines 757, 763, 1414.
• Ecphantides: A comic poet of a previous generation known for his obscurity, he is referred to in line 151 by his nickname Capnias (Smokey).
• Phrynichus: A celebrated tragic poet of an earlier generation, he is mentioned favourably several times by Philocleon and the jurors in lines 220, 269, 1490, 1524. The first mention is in a comic, compound word which includes a reference to a popular song about Sidon
  Sidon
  Sidon or Saïda is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut. In Genesis, Sidon is the son of Canaan the grandson of Noah...
  
   written by Phrynichus. The tragic poet is mentioned in three other plays.
• Pindar
  Pindar
  Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...
  
  : The great lyrical poet of Boeotia
  Boeotia
  Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...
  
   is not mentioned here by name but one of his famous verses is absurdly quoted out of context in line 308
• Philocles: A tragic poet (good enough to win first prize when Sophocles
  Sophocles
  Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
  
   competed with Oedipus Rex), yet satirized by comic poets for a harsh style, he is said in line 462 to have an embittering influence on old men . He is mentioned again in Thesmophoriazusae
  Thesmophoriazusae
  Thesmophoriazusae is one of eleven surviving plays by the master of Old Comedy, the Athenian playwright Aristophanes. It was first produced in 411 BC, probably at the City Dionysia...
  
   and The Birds
  The Birds (play)
  The Birds is a comedy by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed in 414 BCE at the City Dionysia where it won second prize. It has been acclaimed by modern critics as a perfectly realized fantasy remarkable for its mimicry of birds and for the gaiety of its songs...
  
  .
• Aesop
  Aesop
  Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...
  
  : Then as now, a source of instructive fables, he receives four mentions in lines 566, 1259, 1401, 1446 and he is later mentioned in two other plays.
• Oiagros: A tragic actor, he is said in line 579 to have been acquitted in a trial after reciting verses from a play titled 'Niobe'. 'Niobe' was possibly a play by Sophocles that was performed shortly before Wasps. Alternatively 'Niobe' was a play written by Aeschylus, mentioned again later in The Frogs
  The Frogs
  The Frogs is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus, in 405 BC, and received first place.-Plot:...
  
  .
• Acestor Sacas
  Acestor
  Acestor was the name of several figures in Classical mythology and history:*Apollo Acestor, an epithet of the god Apollo in his role as healer or averter of evil....
  
  : A tragic poet of foreign birth and a frequent target of comic poets, he is mentioned in line 1221 as the father of one of Cleon's circle. He is mentioned also in The Birds
  The Birds (play)
  The Birds is a comedy by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed in 414 BCE at the City Dionysia where it won second prize. It has been acclaimed by modern critics as a perfectly realized fantasy remarkable for its mimicry of birds and for the gaiety of its songs...
  
  .
• Alcaeus: The great lyric poet of Mytilene
  Mytilene
  Mytilene is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lesbos, of which it is a municipal unit. It is the capital of the island of Lesbos. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is built on the...
  
  , he is not mentioned by name but he is the author of some well-known verses that Philocleon adapts to a scolion directed against Cleon in lines 1232-35.
• Ariphrades: Possibly a comic dramatist and a student of Anaxagoras
  Anaxagoras
  Anaxagoras was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae in Asia Minor, Anaxagoras was the first philosopher to bring philosophy from Ionia to Athens. He attempted to give a scientific account of eclipses, meteors, rainbows, and the sun, which he described as a fiery mass larger than...
  
  , he is mocked in this play in line 1280 and in other plays for sexual eccentricities. His musician brother, Arignotus, is mentioned with him but not by name in The Wasps.
• Sthenelus: A tragic poet, whose verse was later considered by Aristotle to be lucid but undignified, he is mentioned in line 1313 as the epitome of a man who is lacking something.
• Lasus
  Lasus
  Lasus of Hermione was a Greek lyric poet of the 6th century BC from the city of Hermione in the Argolid. He is known to have been active at Athens under the reign of the Peisistratids. Pseudo-Plutarch's De Musica credits him with innovations in the dithyramb hymn. According to Herodotus, Lasus...
  
  : A poet from Hermione
  Ermioni
  Ermioni is a small town and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Ermionida, of which it is a municipal unit. It is a popular tourist resort. It is on a very small out-cropping of the land facing the island of...
  
   who lived in the latter half of the 6th Century, associated with the establishment of dithyrambic contests in Athens and credited with writing the first book on music, he is quoted in line 1410 as the author of a banal statement: "It means little to me".
• Simonides
  Simonides
  * Simonides of Ceos, , a lyric poet* Semonides of Amorgos, an iambic poet* Flavius Simonides Agrippa, son of Roman Jewish Historian Josephus* Constantine Simonides, 19th-century forger of 'ancient' manuscripts...
  
  : The famous lyric poet from Ceos, he is said by Philocles to have been the man to whom the above statement was addressed. He is mentioned in three other plays.
• Thespis
  Thespis
  Thespis of Icaria , according to certain Ancient Greek sources and especially Aristotle, was the first person ever to appear on stage as an actor playing a character in a play...
  
  : According to Athenian tradition, he was the first dramatist to write for an actor separate from the Chorus. He is mentioned in line 1479 as typical of Philocleon's old-fashioned tastes.
• Carcinus
  Carcinus (writer)
  Carcinus was an Ancient Greek tragedian, and was a member of a family including Xenocles and his grandfather Carcinus of Agrigentum. He received a prize for only one out of his one hundred and sixty plays, many of them composed at the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse...
  
  : An Athenian general in 431, he was also a dramatist and a dancer. He is mentioned with his sons here in line 1501 and in other plays. His sons (or dancers masquerading as his sons) danced in the exodos in this play in competition with Philocleon. Their performance is mocked by Philocleon and it is even mocked by the Chorus of a later play (Peace lines 781-6). One son, Xenocles, was a tragedian who later defeated Euripides at the City Dionysia in 415 but his abilities as a dramatist are ridiculed by Aristophanes in Thesmophoriazusae and The Frogs.

Athenian politicians and generals

• Cleon
  Cleon
  Cleon was an Athenian statesman and a Strategos during the Peloponnesian War. He was the first prominent representative of the commercial class in Athenian politics, although he was an aristocrat himself...
  
  : The populist leader of the pro-war faction in Athens, he is the arch-villain in all of Aristophanes' early plays. We are assured in lines 62-3 that Aristophanes won't make mincemeat of him again but promises mean nothing in a comedy and he receives more treatment in lines 197, 242, 409, 596, 759, 1220, 1224, 1237, 1285 as well as numerous indirect mentions, notably as an untrustworthy dog.
• Theorus: An associate of Cleon, he is presented in lines 42, 47, 418, 599, 1220, 1236 as an ignoble flatterer. He is a target also in earlier plays.
• Alcibiades
  Alcibiades
  Alcibiades, son of Clinias, from the deme of Scambonidae , was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last famous member of his mother's aristocratic family, the Alcmaeonidae, which fell from prominence after the Peloponnesian War...
  
  : Later known as a dashing general and a winning aristocrat, he was not yet a major public figure and here he is mentioned in line 44 only for his lisp. He was mentioned earlier in The Acharnians
  The Acharnians
  The Acharnians is the third play - and the earliest of the eleven surviving plays - by the great Athenian playwright Aristophanes. It was produced in 425 BCE on behalf of the young dramatist by an associate, Callistratus, and it won first place at the Lenaia festival...
  
   as the son of Cleinias and he is mentioned later in The Frogs
  The Frogs
  The Frogs is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus, in 405 BC, and received first place.-Plot:...
  
  .
• Amynias: A general this year (423/2), he was satirized by comic dramatists as effeminate and pretentious. Here he is mocked for gambling habits, long hair and his role in a diplomatic mission to Thessaly in lines 74, 466, 1267. He is mentioned also in The Clouds
  The Clouds
  The Clouds is a comedy written by the celebrated playwright Aristophanes lampooning intellectual fashions in classical Athens. It was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC and it was not well received, coming last of the three plays competing at the festival that year. It was revised...
  
  .
• Nicostratus: Possibly the son of Dieitrephes and a skilful general mentioned by Thucydides, he is said in line 81 to call out from the audience about Philocleon's disease, identifying it as a form of 'hospitality'.
• Laches
  Laches (person)
  Laches was an Athenian aristocrat and general during the Peloponnesian War. His date of birth is unknown, but Plato asserts, not implausibly, that he was distinctly older than Socrates, who was born around 470 BC.In 427 BCE, Laches and Charoeades were sent to Sicily with a fleet of 20 ships in...
  
  : A general who had led a small Athenian force to Sicily in 427 and who had proposed the one year truce in 423, he is mentioned in line 240 and he appears as the good watchdog accused of stealing a Sicilian cheese, suggesting that Cleon was in fact intending to prosecute him for corruption.
• Thucydides
  Thucydides (politician)
  Thucydides was a prominent politician of ancient Athens and the leader for a number of years of the powerful conservative faction. While it is likely he is related to the later historian Thucydides son of Olorus, the details are uncertain; maternal grandfather and grandson fits the available...
  
  : The political rival of Pericles, he is mentioned in line 947 and earlier in The Acharnians
  The Acharnians
  The Acharnians is the third play - and the earliest of the eleven surviving plays - by the great Athenian playwright Aristophanes. It was produced in 425 BCE on behalf of the young dramatist by an associate, Callistratus, and it won first place at the Lenaia festival...
  
   in relation to a trial in which slick lawyers took full advantage of his old age.
• Hyperbolus: A populist and eventually Cleon's successor, he is named in line 1007 as an example of someone who cynically manipulates juries. He receives numerous mentions in other plays.
• Theogenes: A prominent politician often satirized by comic poets as a fat, greedy braggart, he is quoted in line 1183 as somebody who abuses dung-collectors . He is also mentioned in later plays.
• Androcles: Another populist, often satirized in Old Comedy as poor and immoral, he was later influential in exiling Alcibiades
  Alcibiades
  Alcibiades, son of Clinias, from the deme of Scambonidae , was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last famous member of his mother's aristocratic family, the Alcmaeonidae, which fell from prominence after the Peloponnesian War...
  
  . He is mentioned ironically in line 1187 as an example of the kind of man who represents Athens on sacred, diplomatic missions.
• Antiphon
  Antiphon (person)
  Antiphon the Sophist lived in Athens probably in the last two decades of the 5th century BC. There is an ongoing controversy over whether he is one and the same with Antiphon of the Athenian deme Rhamnus in Attica , the earliest of the ten Attic orators...
  
  : An orator and later a leader of the oligarchic government in 411 BC
  411 BC
  Year 411 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Mugillanus and Rutilus...
  
  , he is named in line 1270, 1301 as a hungry kind of man and as one of the sophisticated dinner guests abused by Philocleon.
• Phrynichus
  Phrynichus
  Phrynichus may refer to:*Phrynichus, a genus in the Amblypygi, an order of arachnids-People:*There are two dramatic poets named Phrynicus whose plays only survive in fragments:...
  
  : A politician and later a leader of the oligarchy of The Four Hundred
  Athenian coup of 411 BC
  The Athenian coup of 411 BC was a revolutionary movement during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta that overthrew the democratic government of ancient Athens by replacing it with a short-lived oligarchy known as The Four Hundred....
  
  , he is a central figure at the sophisticated dinner party attended by Antiphon, Theophrastos Lykon, Lysistratus, Bdelycleon, Philocleon et al., as stated in line 1302.
• Lycon: A little-known politician who later assisted in the prosecution of Socrates and whose wife Rhodia was often a target of comic poets (as for example in Lysistrata
  Lysistrata
  Lysistrata is one of eleven surviving plays written by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War...
  
  ), he is named here merely as another dinner guest with Phrynichus.

Athenian personalities

• Cleonymus
  Cleonymus
  Cleonymus was a political ally of Cleon and an Athenian general. In 424 BC, Cleonymus had dropped his shield in battle and fled and was branded a coward. This act is often used to comic effect by Aristophanes.-References:...
  
  : An associate of Cleon and frequently a target in other plays, he is mentioned in lines 19, 592, 822 as the figment of a slave's dream, as a flattering patron of jurors and as the image of the image of the image of the hero Lycus
  Lycus (mythology)
  Lycus or Lykos is the name of multiple people in Greek mythology:* Lycus , a Libyan king who sacrificed strangers to his father. He was the father of Callirhoê, who rescued Diomedes from being sacrificed, and committed suicide upon his departure.* Lycus , a son of Hyrieus and Clonia. He became...
  
  , and each mention is in relation to a notorious incident in which he threw away his shield.
• Sosias: Unknown otherwise, he is mentioned in line 78 as a well-known tippler. However this could simply be the name of a character in the play accidentally transposed into the dialogue by an ancient scribe).
• Philoxenus: A notoriously effete catamite, he becomes the source of a misunderstanding in line 84 because his name is a pun for 'hospitable'.
• Pyrilampes: Plato's stepfather and a prominent personality in Periclean Athens, he is mentioned in line 98 as the father of Demus, a handsome young man whose name appears around Athens in amorous graffiti.
• Dracontides: He is named in line 157 as somebody awaiting trial and because his name is a pun for 'serpent'. Modern scholars have various theories about his identity and speculation has even been used to date a treaty between Athens and Chalcis
  Chalcis
  Chalcis or Chalkida , the chief town of the island of Euboea in Greece, is situated on the strait of the Evripos at its narrowest point. The name is preserved from antiquity and is derived from the Greek χαλκός , though there is no trace of any mines in the area...
  
  .
• Proxenides: Philocleon would rather be Proxenides or smoke or the victim of a thunderbolt than be imprisoned at home any longer, as asserted in line 325. He is mentioned as a braggart in The Birds.
• Gorgias
  Gorgias
  Gorgias ,Greek sophist, pre-socratic philosopher and rhetorician, was a native of Leontini in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophists. Several doxographers report that he was a pupil of Empedocles, although he would only have been a few years younger...
  
  : The famous teacher of rhetoric, he is named in line 421 as the father or teacher of Phillipus, a recent victim of irate jurors.
• Aischines: He is mentioned as an associate of Cleon, a synonym for smoke and a braggart in lines 459, 1220, 1242. He is mentioned also in The Birds.
• Euathlus: An associate of Cleon and a prosecutor of the aged Thucydides
  Thucydides (politician)
  Thucydides was a prominent politician of ancient Athens and the leader for a number of years of the powerful conservative faction. While it is likely he is related to the later historian Thucydides son of Olorus, the details are uncertain; maternal grandfather and grandson fits the available...
  
   (for which he was mentioned in The Acharnians), he is said by Philocleon in line 592 to be a patron of jurors. Other less well-known prosecutors (Smicythion, Teisiades, Chremon ('Needy'), Pheredeipnus ('Waiter') and the son of Chaireas) are named in lines 401, 687.
• Eucharides: A greengrocer immortalized with a brief mention in line 680.
• Lysistratus: A high-society man-about-town who participated in the mutilation of the herma
  Herma
  A Herma, commonly in English herm is a sculpture with a head, and perhaps a torso, above a plain, usually squared lower section, on which male genitals may also be carved at the appropriate height...
  
  i in 415, he is mentioned in lines 787 and 1302 as a practical joker who passes off fish scales as coins and who also happens to be a sophisticated dinner guest. He receives mentions also in other plays.
• Cynna: A prostitute, her flashing eyes are said to be evocative of Cleon in line 1032.
• Morychus: A notorious gourmand who was possibly also a tragic poet, he is named in lines 506 and 1142 as emblematic of a pampered life and because his soldier's kit resembles a Persian gown. He is mentioned also in two other plays.
• Cleisthenes: A byword for effeminacy, he is frequently a target for jokes in other plays and appears as a character in Thesmophoriazusae. He is mentioned ironically in line 1187 as another dignitary sent by Athens on a sacred diplomatic mission.
• Leogoras: The father of the orator Andocides, he was lampooned by comic poets for his wealth and his luxurious lifestyle. He is mentioned in line 1269 as someone whose dinners are a benchmark of culinary opulence.
• Chaerephon
  Chaerephon
  Chaerephon , of the Athenian deme Sphettus, was a loyal friend and follower of Socrates. He is known only through brief descriptions by classical writers and was "an unusual man by all accounts", though a man of loyal democratic values.-Life:...
  
  : The loyal friend and disciple of Socrates, he appears as the summons witness for a female bread vendor and he is compared in lines 1408-12 to a sallow Ino
  Ino
  -Arts and music:*"I'm Not Okay" , a 2004 song by American alternative rock band My Chemical Romance*I-No, a character in the Guilty Gear series of video games*Ino , a queen of Thebes in Greek mythology...
  
   clinging to the feet of Euripides. He receives mentions also in two other surviving plays.
• Pittalus: A doctor who is mentioned also in Acharnians, he is recommended by Philocleon in line 1432 to one of the victims of his own drunken outrages.

Religious and historical identities

• Korybantes
  Korybantes
  The Corybantes were the armed and crested dancers who worshipped the Phrygian goddess Cybele with drumming and dancing. They are also called the Kurbantes in Phrygia, and Corybants in an older English transcription. The Kuretes were the nine dancers who venerate Rhea, the Cretan counterpart of...
  
  : Associated with ecstatic dancing in the worship of the Phrygian goddessCybele
  Cybele
  Cybele , was a Phrygian form of the Earth Mother or Great Mother. As with Greek Gaia , her Minoan equivalent Rhea and some aspects of Demeter, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth...
  
  , they are referred to in lines 8 and 119 as examples of manic behaviour. They are mentioned also in later plays.
• Sabazius: Another Phrygian divinity associated with manic behaviour, mentioned here in line 9 and also in later plays.
• Heracles
  Heracles
  Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
  
  : A hero in myth, he is a stock joke for gluttony in comedy. He is mentioned in that capacity here in line 60 and he even appears as a gluttonous buffoon in two later plays, The Birds and The Frogs.
• Odysseus
  Odysseus
  Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
  
  : A hero in myth, he is a proverb for cunning subterfuge, as indicated in lines 181 and 351.
• Dictynna: Originally a Cretan goddess of hunting, associated with Mount Dicte, she is evoked by Philocleon in line 368 as he chews on a net (dictuon), possibly as a pun though she was in fact identified with Artemis, the goddess of hunting nets.
• Diopeithes: A religious zealot who once proposed a decree for the impeachment of atheists and astronomers, his name appears in line 380 as an ironic synonym for Zeus. He receives mentions also in two other plays.
• Lycus: An Athenian hero, possibly the son of Pandion
  Pandion II
  In Greek mythology, Pandion II was son and heir of Cecrops II, King of Athens. and his wife Metiadusa. He was exiled from Athens by the sons of his uncle Metion who sought to put Metion on the throne. Pandion fled to Megara where he married Pylia, daughter of King Pylas. Later, Pylas went into...
  
  , he is mentioned in lines 389 and 819 because his shrine is adjacent to the court named after him.
• Cecrops
  Cecrops
  This name may refer to two legendary kings of Athens:* Cecrops I* Cecrops IIIt more often refers to Cecrops I, who was the better known....
  
  : The mythical first king of Athens, he is invoked by Philocleon in line 438 as his defender against his son's slaves because they are foreigners. He is mentioned also in two other surviving plays.
• Hippias
  Hippias
  Hippias of Elis was a Greek Sophist, and a contemporary of Socrates. With an assurance characteristic of the later sophists, he claimed to be regarded as an authority on all subjects, and lectured on poetry, grammar, history, politics, mathematics, and much else...
  
  : A byword in Athens for tyranny, he is mentioned in that capacity here in line 502 and also in other plays.
• Eurycles: A prophet with abilities as a ventriloquist, he is mentioned in line 1019 as the metaphor of a comic poet whose plays are produced in somebody else's name.
• Harmodius
  Harmodius and Aristogeiton
  Harmodius and Aristogeiton were two men from ancient Athens...
  
  : A famous tyrannicide, he was a favourite theme for scolia, as here in line 1225. He is named also in three other surviving plays.
• Admetus
  Admetus
  In Greek mythology, Admetus was a king of Pherae in Thessaly, succeeding his father Pheres after whom the city was named. Admetus was one of the Argonauts and took part in the Calydonian Boar hunt. His wife Alcestis offered to substitute her own death for his.-Mythology:Admetus was famed for his...
  
  : A legendary Thessalian king and the husband of Alcestis
  Alcestis
  Alcestis is a princess in Greek mythology, known for her love of her husband. Her story was popularised in Euripides's tragedy Alcestis. She was the daughter of Pelias, king of Iolcus, and either Anaxibia or Phylomache....
  
  , he was the subject of a popular scolion, as in line 1238.

Foreign identities

• Brasidas
  Brasidas
  Brasidas was a Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War.He was the son of Tellis and Argileonis, and won his first laurels by the relief of Methone, which was besieged by the Athenians . During the following year he seems to have been eponymous ephor Brasidas (died 422...
  
  : The leading Spartan general of the time, he is mentioned by the Chorus in line 475 as one of Bdelycleon's associates.
• Ephoudion: an athlete from Arcadia and a victor at the Olympics in 464 BC, he is said to have performed well in a recent contest against a much younger opponent, Ascondas, as mentioned in lines 1191 and 1383.
• Phaullus: A famous athlete who once commanded the only Italian ship at the Battle of Salamis
  Battle of Salamis
  The Battle of Salamis was fought between an Alliance of Greek city-states and the Persian Empire in September 480 BCE, in the straits between the mainland and Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens...
  
   in 480 BC, he is said by Philocles in lines 1206-7 to have lost to him in court on a charge of abusive language.
• Penestes: Thessalian serfs, they are the benchmark of poverty, as indicated in line 1273.

Discussion

As mentioned in the introduction, The Wasps can be considered one of the world's great comedies. Various factors contribute to its appeal, as for example:

• The central figure, Philocleon, is a 'triumph of characterization';
• The jurors are the most vividly realized Chorus in Old Comedy;
• The juror's son is the most lifelike child in Greek drama.

Philocleon is a complex character whose actions have comic significance, psychological significance and allegorical significance. When, for example, he strikes his son for taking the dancing girl away, the violence is comic because it is unexpected of an old man yet it is psychologically appropriate because he is struggling to overcome an addiction and it represents in allegorical form the theme expressed by the Chorus in the parabasis: the old customs are better and more manly than the new fashions. When the play opens, Philocleon is a prisoner of his son and, when the Chorus enters, the old jurors are found to be virtual prisoners of their sons too - they rely on the boys to help them through the dark, muddy streets. The Chorus leader

Coryphaeus

Coryphaeus, or Koryphaios , and often corypheus in English. In Attic drama, the coryphaeus was the leader of the chorus. Hence the term is used for the chief or leader of any company or movement...

's boy takes full advantage of the situation, threatening to abandon his elderly father if he won't buy him some figs. The debilitating effects of old age and the dehumanizing effects of an addiction (Philocleon is said to resemble a jackdaw, a mouse, a limpet, smoke, a donkey's foal, a cut of meat, Odysseus and Nobody) are somber themes that lift the action beyond the scope of a mere farce.

The Wasps and Old Comedy

The Wasps has been thought to exemplify all the conventions of Old Comedy at their best - structural elements that are common to most of Aristophanes' plays are all found in this play in a complete and readily identifiable form. The table below is based on one scholar's interpretation of the play's structural elements and the poetic meters associated with them.

Dramatic and Metrical Structure
Key: Brackets [ ] enclose metrons comprising long syllables (-), short syllables (.) and long/short syllables (o). The metrical scheme thus depicted is idealized and does not include substitutions such as a tribrach (...) for an iamb (.-).

Elements	Lines	Metres	Summary	Comments
prologue	1-229	iambic trimeter	dialogue setting the scene	conventional opening [o-.-][o-.-][o-.-] line 1
parados	230-47	iambic tetrameter catalectic	Chorus enters escorted by boys	[o-.-][o-.-][o-.-][o--](trochees are more usual in early plays e.g. Acharnians, Knights, Peace) line 230
	248-72	Euripidean 14 syllables/line	dialogue between juror and boy	a quicker form of iambic rhythm [o-.-][o-.-][-.-.--] line 248
	273-89	complex meter	Chorus wonders about Philocleon	a strophe/antistrophe pair based on ionic metron [..--] but with many variations line 273
	290-316	as before but simpler	dialogue between juror and boy	strophe/antistrophe, ionic [..--] but with fewer variations. line 290
song	317-33	complex	solo lament by Philocleon	mainly choriamb [-..-] to 323 then anapests [..-], reflecting a change in mood. line 317
symmetrical scene (possibly an agon)	334-64 & 365-402	trochaic and anapestic tetrameter catalectic	angry dialogue between actors and chorus	each half beginning with trochaic tetrameter [-.-o][-.-o][-.-o][-.-] e.g.334-45 and ending with anapestic tetrameter [..-..-][..-..-][..-..-][..--] e.g. 346-57 but with 1 anapestic pnigos added (358-64) line 334
symmetrical scene	403-460 & 461-525	mainly trochaic tetrameter catalectic	denunciations and skirmish	trochaic tetrameters [-.-o][-.-o][-.-o][-.-] but with trochaic dimeters or 'runs' added. line 403
agon	526-630 & 631-724	songs and anapestic tetrameter catalectic	debate between father and son	strophe (526-45) and antistrophe (631-47) with iambic [.-] and choriambic [-..-] metra; spoken sections in anapestic tetrameter ending in anapestic pnigoi (546-630 and 648-724) line 526
song	725-59	anapests, iambs and dochmiacs	reflections on debate	anapestic lines 725-8, 736-42, 750-9, other lines in iambs and dochmiacs [o--.-] or [o..-.-] line 725
episode	760-862	iambic trimeter	setting up a court at home	dialogue in iambic trimeter [o-.-][o-.-][o-.-] line 760
song	863-90	mostly anapests	prayer consecrating the new court	iambic trimeter in 868-9 and 885-6; short strophe (870-4) and antistrophe (887-90) largely in iambs; anapests in 863-7 and 875-84 line 863
episode	891-1008	iambic trimeter	the dog's trial	dialogue in iambic trimeter [o-.-][o-.-][o-.-] line 890
parabasis	1009-14	mixed	kommation	anapestic (1009–10), iambic (1011–12) and trochaic (1013–14) - an unusual lead into a parabasis line 1009
	1015-59	anapests	parabasis proper with pnigos	anapestic tetrameter catalectic [..-..-][..-..-][..-..-][..--] ending in anapestic pnigos line 1015
	1060–1121	trochees	symmetrical scene	trochaic strophe (1060–70) and antistrophe (1091–1101); epirrhema (1071–90) and antepirrhema (1102–21) in trochaic tetrameter catalectic [-.-o][-.-o][-.-o][-.-] line 1060
episode	1122–1264	iambic trimeter	preparations for dinner party	dialogue between actors in iambic trimeter [o-.-][o-.-][o-.-] line 1120
second parabasis	1265–1291	trochaic	symmetrical scene	trochaic strophe(1265–74) but missing an antistrophe; epirrhema (1275–83) and antepirrhema (1284–91) featuring variation on trochaic tetrameter catalectic [-...][-...][-...][-.-] (paeonic tetrameter) line 1265
episode	1292–1449	mostly iambic trimeter	farcical consequences of the dinner party	dialogue in iambic trimeter but with trochaic passages (1326–31, 1335–40) spoken by the drunken Philocleon line 1292
song	1450-73	mostly iambs and choriambs	Chorus congratulates father and son	first half of strophe and antistrophe iambo-choriamb Choriamb In Greek and Latin poetry, a choriamb is a metron consisting of four syllables in the pattern long-short-short-long , that is, a trochee alternating with an iamb. Choriambs are one of the two basic metra that do not occur in spoken verse, as distinguished from true lyric or sung verse... ic lines [o-.-][-..-] (1450–56, 1462–68), the second half more complex line 1450
exodos	1474–1537	iambic and archilochean	Philocleon in dancing mode	dialogue in iambic trimeter ending in a dance (1518–37) in archilocheans ([o-..-..-o][-.-.--]) line 1470

Miscellaneous

• In 1909, the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams
  Ralph Vaughan Williams
  Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
  
   created popular incidental music
  Incidental music
  Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
  
   for the play - see The Wasps (Vaughan Williams)
  The Wasps (Vaughan Williams)
  The Wasps is incidental music composed by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1909. It was written for a production of Aristophanes' The Wasps at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was Vaughan Williams' first of only two forays into incidental music...
  
  .

Translations

• William James Hickie, 1853 - prose, full text
• Benjamin B. Rogers, 1924 - verse
• Arthur S. Way, 1934 - verse
• Douglass Parker
  Douglass Parker
  Douglass Stott Parker, Sr. was an American classicist, academic, and translator.Born in LaPorte, Indiana, the son of Cyril Rodney Parker and Isobel Parker, Douglass received an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and a doctorate from Princeton University...
  
  , 1962 - verse
• Alan H. Sommerstein - prose and verse
• unknown translator - prose: full text
• Peter Meineck
  Peter Meineck
  Peter Meineck is the Artistic Director and founder of Aquila Theatre. Peter is also a clinical professor of Classics at New York University...
  
  , 1998 - prose
• George Theodoridis - 2007, prose