Ancient comedies are something that will surprise and even make the modern reader laugh. Comedians generously seasoned their plays with jokes, absurdity, obscenity, grotesque and buffoonery. All this became a weapon of criticism aimed at politicians, military leaders and speakers. With the apparent lightness of the form, serious questions could be raised in comedies. So in Aristophanes' play Lysistrata, the heroine organizes a conspiracy among Athenian women — they will not fulfill their marital duties until their husbands finish fighting.The collection contains the most significant comedies that influenced the work of William Shakespeare, Jean-Baptiste Moliere, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov and other servants of the lyre. It is these plays by Greek and Roman comedians that are included in the program of philological and theatrical universities: Aristophanes "Clouds", "Frogs", "Lysistrata", Menander "The Grouch", Terentius "Mother-in-law", Plautus "Pseudold", "Two Menechmas".The introductory article for this publication was written by Tatyana Borisovna Gvozdeva, Associate Professor of the Department of Foreign Literature at the Gorky Literary Institute, Candidate of Historical Sciences.