Citizens on Stage

Ancient Greek comedy did more than raise a laugh, it was also a social and political comment on Athenian life. McGlew's study examines the ways in which political ambitions and the hopes and expectations of ordinary people were played out on stage. Through plays such as Assemblywomen, Wealth, Lysistrata, Frogs and the Acharnians, he looks at how they promoted collective, democratic identity, and demonstrates how the plays make sense of rules of citizenship and people's civic responsibilities which are not fully revealed in other sources such as legal texts.