Chorus of old men: If we give them the least hold over us, 'tis all up! their audacity will know no bounds! We shall see them building ships, and fighting sea-fights like Artemisia; nay if they want to mount and ride as cavalry, we had best cashier the knights, for indeed women excel in riding, and have a fine, firm seat for the gallop. Just think of all those squadrons of Amazons Micon has painted for us engaged in hand-to-hand combat with men.

Thus the political conservatism of the plays might reflect the views of the wealthiest section of society on whose generosity comic dramatists depended for the success of their plays. The conservative views expressed in the plays might therefore reflect the attitudes of a dominant group in an unrepresentative audience.

These together with fragments of some of his other plays provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and they are used to define the genre. 446 BC – ca. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author.