ARISTOPHANES

The place and exact date of his birth are unknown (perhaps Aegina, sometime around 450 BC).

His obviously high level of literacy suggests that he was from a relatively wealthy family, although not apparently from a theatrical one.

He wrote forty plays, eleven of which survive. He is considered by many to be the Father of Comedy.

Many of Aristophanes' plays were political, and often satirized well-known citizens of Athens and their conduct in the Peloponnesian War.

Aristophanes appears as a character in Plato's Symposium, in which he offers a humorous mythical account of the origin of Love.

The date of his death is unknown.