Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons^™

America And Athens As Seen Through South Park And Aristophanes, James F. Neyer

Honors Bachelor of Arts

When Dionysius the tyrant wished to be educated on the polity of Athens, Plato was said to have sent him the poetry of Aristophanes. It was through the works of Aristophanes that foreigners could learn how Athens functioned. The works of Aristophanes span 37 years, and won him multiple awards in this time. If Dionysius wished to learn about modern day America, then I think it would be best to give him the corpus of South Park. Over the course of two decades, this series has aired 267 episodes and has been consistently renewed. Though South Park does not …