The Acharnians

While reading the Acharnians there were a few things that appeared to be too contemporary for the time of Aristophanes. In the play I noticed that they talked about graffiti and how somebody had scribbled "Athen's is sexy". And also on lines 1015-1016 when the chorus say "He's as skilled as any professional cook- a cordon bleu DIY-er". To make sure I did a little research on wikipedia and found that Le Cordon Bleu was invented 1578 by a group of French knights. While the concept of DIY was not introduced until around the 1960's. Both long after Aristophanes wrote the plays, I think that this has something to do with the way the play has been translated and I think it is really interesting how the translator has involved some contemporary concepts into the translation. I think that possibly there were elements similar to this in the original version, but the translator may have chosen to interpret it in a much more modern way, maybe to help the reader understand the text a little better.

Also, toward the end of the play I found that Dikaiopolis mocking Lamachus to be very interesting. I think that the contrast between them emphasizes the difference in nature of war and peace through a more material means. With Dikaipolis coming to represent peace and Lamachus war. For each thing that Lamachus gets together for war such as his ration bag, salt fish and shield. Dikaipolis gets together something for the feast such as pigeon meat and cheese-faced flat cake. Then in the end while Dikaipolis returns drunk and with two dancers, Lamachus returns with a broken foot and is supported by two friends. Here Lamachus's injury from war is directly mocked by being contrasted with Dikaipolis happiness from the feast he's been to. I think that this direct contrast, contrast the nature of war and peace. In one simple scene Aristophanes has been able to emphasize the negative nature of war compared