{"product_id":"9781350065680","title":"Aristophanes: Cavalry by Professor Robert Tordoff","description":"Offering for the first time a student introduction to Aristophanes' most explosive political satire, this volume is an essential guide to the context, themes and later reception of Cavalry. The ancient comedy is a fascinating insight into power  relations between slaves and slaveholders and the upper and lower  classes in classical Athens, and its political and social themes  resonate with a modern audience more now than ever before.   Originally performed in 424 BCE, Cavalry targets the Athenian demagogue Cleon, who had risen to  prominence since the death of Pericles and to pre-eminence after an  audacious victory over Sparta in 425. In Cavalry, Aristophanes attacks Cleon's popularity with the urban  underclass, but also targets democracy itself as guilty of gullibility,  self-interest, and political short-sightedness. As the play shows, the  only hope of escape from this crisis is for  Athens to find a leader even more foul-mouthed, depraved, and shameless  than Cleon himself. And who better than a sausage-seller, if only  because he turns out in the end to have a good heart and a true love of  traditional Athenian values?\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56419787637109,"sku":"9781350065680","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781350065680.jpg?v=1764601682","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/9781350065680","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}