The Knights
The Knights is the fourth play written by Aristophanes and it won first place at that the Lenaia festival in 424 BC. The play is yet another political satire that was relevant to the people at the time and could be seen as very relevant to people today. It focuses on Paphlagonian, who represented real politician Cleon, and an elderly man named Demos who represented the people of Athens.
Paphlagonian and other rival politicians are made to be literal servants to Demos just as real politicians of the day claimed to be servants of the people. Despite being a servant to Demos, Paphlagonian uses the arts of deception and self-aggrandizement to rob the household and have a very monopolistic amount of control over Demos. The other servants, who were known to also con and deceive Demos, find themselves unable to best Paphlagonian.
The other servants decide that they need to find someone that can lie and deceive as well as Paphlagonian in order to get control of Demos again. They find a sausage seller who they watch lie in order to cheat several of his customers and decide that he is the person they need. They take him home and the Sausage Seller and Paphlagonian engage in a battle royal to convince Demos they are the right man to run the household. This part of the play features absurd wordplay that is as funny as any comedy today.
The Sausage Seller winds up the winner and Demos fires Paphlagonian who ends up a small-time merchant peddling wares in a bad part of town. Once made head of the house the Sausage Seller reveals that he is not really a liar or selfish but he realized that was the only way to win. Now that he has won, he reveals plans that solve the major problems of Athens at the time. Strangely enough, he even boils Demos in a cauldron and transforms the old man into a happy and healthy man rather than the sick and confused man he was at the start of the play.