Aristophane
Comic poet of Athens; in Plato's Symposium he tells of double humans cut in two, and of love as the desire to find one's other half.
Life
Athenian comic poet whose comedies mock the political and intellectual life of his time. In The Clouds (423 BC) he stages a ridiculous Socrates who teaches that the clouds and the Vortex replace Zeus: a vivid witness to the distrust of philosophers and to the criticism of religion in Athens.
Main works
A debt-ridden farmer goes to Socrates' school to learn to cheat his creditors; the play caricatures philosophy.
Two Athenians found a city of birds in the sky that challenges the gods.
Women go on a sex strike to force peace.
Dionysus goes down to Hades to bring back the best tragic poet.
In his own words
« Zeus does not exist: in his place the Vortex now reigns. »
ὁ Ζεὺς οὐκ ὤν, ἀλλʼ ἀντʼ αὐτοῦ Δῖνος νυνὶ βασιλεύων.