Aristophanes

About Aristophanes

Aristophanes, an Athenian comedic playwright from the 5th century BCE, stands as one of history's most significant literary figures, earning the #474 rank in MIT’s Historical Popularity Index. His contribution lies in providing an unparalleled, often satirical, window into the political, social, and intellectual life of Classical Athens, with surviving works like *Lysistrata* and *The Frogs* directly influencing Western comedy and drama for millennia. He remains one of the few ancient figures whose work has been consistently performed and studied across the globe and centuries.

In the modern digital landscape of 2025, Aristophanes receives an estimated 258K annualized Wikipedia views. This level of attention places his web presence right in line with his historical standing, as his Attention Gap is calculated at approximately 1x relative to his importance score. To provide context, this is significantly less attention than Giacomo Casanova (#683 importance), who registers 492K views, suggesting that while Aristophanes is not entirely forgotten, his enduring legacy in literature garners less curiosity online than the lives of some contemporaries with more niche historical impact.

Encouragingly for the ancient writer, the data shows a positive trend: his attention is growing by +8.0% year-over-year, and his recent momentum from Q1 to Q3 of 2025 is a healthy +6%, indicating a slight, but steady, increase in modern engagement.