Demos

Although Demos only makes an appearance in a couple of Aristophanes' plays; it is really a character in the background of most of his works. In Athens, the Demos were a named that referred to the "people" or at least the voting population. Athens, being a democracy was ultimately ruled by the will of the Demos. This is the symbolism in Knights of two Athenian generals and Cleon being portrayed as slaves of Demos. Regardless of their power in Athenian society, all public figures owed their power and allegiance to the will of the people. In many ways this is an inspiring ideal, an ideal that our society has also, to a more limited degree, adopted but there is also a dark side, often the side Aristophanes focuses on in his plays.

Athenian democracy, unlike our own, was not representative but rather was a form of direct democracy...