Aristophanes’ Agora

Abstract

The article explores the urban landscape of the Agora of Kerameikos during the time of Aristophanes, starting from the formative process that, between the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE, led to the radical transformation of this space following the fall of the tyrants and the reforms of Cleisthenes. The Agora of Athens, however, was never a space dedicated exclusively to political functions: from an examination of literary sources and archaeological evidence, the political, economic, and social center of the Athenian polis appears to have been characterized, before other centres of Greek culture, by a predominantly commercial function. This is clearly evident in Aristophanes’ comedies through the semantic shift of the term agora from a place of political assembly to a marketplace.