Peace

Not to be confused with Eirene, the goddess of peace.

Aristophanes’ Peace is a surviving Athenian comedy, staged at the City Dionysia of 421 BC according to its ancient hypothesis, shortly before the treaty that ended the first ten years of the Peloponnesian War. Its protagonist is a countryman named Trygaeus of Athmonon, a vine-dresser (line 190), who is angered by the long war and decides to ask Zeus what he intends to do with all the Greeks (lines 104–106). In a manner that parodies the hero Bellerophon on Pegasus, he flies up to the heavens on a gigantic dung-beetle (lines 73–77, 135–148). To his surprise, he finds that the gods, annoyed with the Greeks for refusing to make peace, have moved to the top of the sky, leaving Hermes to look after the household goods and handing the house over to War (lines 200–209). War has thrown Peace into a deep cave and closed it with stones (lines 223–226). With the help of Hermes, whom he bribes with a golden cup, and of a Chorus of farmers and other Greeks, Trygaeus pulls Peace out of the cave and so puts an end to War’s reign (lines 296–519). He returns to earth with Peace’s two companions, Harvest (Opora) and Festival (Theoria), gives Festival to the Athenian Council, and marries Harvest (lines 706–715, 871–908, 1329–1357). In the meantime he has to deal with a few people who profit from war, a well-known oracle-monger named Hierocles and several makers of arms (lines 1043–1126, 1197–1264). At his wedding two boys sing, one a war song from the epic tradition, the other a song of Archilochus about throwing away a shield; Trygaeus likes neither (lines 1265–1304).

Date and Historical Background

In the spring of 423 BC Athens and Sparta agreed to a truce for a year (Thucydides 4.117–119). It did not hold. In the winter before it, the Spartan general Brasidas had taken Amphipolis from the Athenians (Thucydides 4.102–106). In 422 BC Cleon led an Athenian force to recover the city (Thucydides 5.2). In the battle at Amphipolis about six hundred Athenians were killed, and only seven of the enemy (Thucydides 5.11.2). Among the dead on each side were the two men who had been most opposed to peace: Brasidas, who had won the victory, and Cleon, whom Aristophanes had attacked in his earlier comedies and attacks again in this play (Thucydides 5.10, 5.16.1; Peace 751–760). After Amphipolis neither side was eager to go on with the war (Thucydides 5.14–15).

The negotiations between Athens and Sparta were far advanced when Peace was performed at the City Dionysia of 421 BC. Thucydides says that the treaty was concluded at the end of winter, “immediately after the City Dionysia,” ten years and a few days after the first invasion of Attica (Thucydides 5.20.1); it was concluded in the archonship of Alcaeus (Thucydides 5.19.1, 5.25.1). Thucydides names Nicias at Athens and King Pleistoanax at Sparta as the men who pressed hardest for it (Thucydides 5.16.1), and most people, Plutarch says, called it the Peace of Nicias (Plutarch, Nicias 9.7). The treaty provided that it should be in force for fifty years and that neither side should take the field to injure the other (Thucydides 5.18.3–4). In fact the two sides abstained from marching against each other’s territory for only six years and ten months, and in the meantime did each other the greatest possible damage elsewhere (Thucydides 5.25.3).

According to the ancient hypothesis (introduction) to the play, Peace was produced at the City Dionysia in the archonship of Alcaeus and won the second prize. The victory went to Eupolis for his play The Flatterers, and Leucon finished third with The Phratry Members.

Characters and Setting

Characters

• Trygaeus, a countryman, a vine-dresser of Athmonon
• Two slaves of Trygaeus
• A daughter of Trygaeus (lines 114–148)
• Hermes, the messenger of the gods
• War, a personification
• Uproar (Cydoimos), slave to War, also a personification
• Peace, Harvest (Opora) and Festival (Theoria), silent characters
• Hierocles, an oracle-monger from Oreus
• A sickle-maker, a crest-maker, a breastplate-seller, a trumpet-maker, a helmet-maker and a spear-maker
• First boy, son of Lamachus
• Second boy, son of Cleonymus
• Chorus of farmers and other Greeks

Setting

Aristophanes’ Peace is set first outside the house of Trygaeus in the country, then in the heavens before the house of Zeus (lines 177–180), then again before Trygaeus’ house (line 819 on).

Summary of Peace

Prologue

In front of the stable of an Athenian farmer, two slaves are breathlessly kneading cakes of excrement and feeding them to a gigantic dung-beetle that their master keeps inside (lines 1–19). One of them turns to the audience and tells them that the scene is about his master’s strange madness: a spectator from Ionia has guessed that it is an allusion to Cleon, who “shamelessly eats dung” (lines 43–48), but it is not. Apparently, the master spends the day staring at the sky, with his mouth open, and rebukes Zeus: “What are you planning to do? Put down your broom; do not sweep Greece bare!” (lines 54–59). He tried to climb to heaven on ladders, and fell and cracked his head; yesterday he brought in an Etna beetle, and now strokes it like a colt, saying, “Pegasus, my noble wing, fly straight to Zeus” (lines 62–77).

Trygaeus then appears, mounted on the dung-beetle as if on horseback. “Where are you going?” asks one of the slaves. To Zeus, answers Trygaeus, to ask what he intends to do with all the Greeks (lines 104–106). “And if he doesn’t tell you?” “I shall sue him for betraying Greece to the Medes” (lines 107–108). The slaves call out to the children to see their father leave. A little girl asks whether it is true that he is going off among the birds, and why he has chosen a dung-beetle (lines 114–134). Trygaeus answers that it was found in Aesop’s fables that the beetle alone of winged creatures has reached the gods (lines 129–134), and that it costs him nothing to feed it with what he would eat himself (lines 137–139). The child objects that he ought to have harnessed Pegasus, to look more tragic before the gods (lines 135–136), and warns him not to fall and become lame, which would give Euripides a plot for a tragedy (lines 146–148). Trygaeus prays to the audience not to relieve themselves for three days, lest the beetle smell it and throw him down (lines 150–153), and flies off, calling to the machinist to take care (lines 154–176).

He arrives at the house of Zeus and knocks (line 177 on). Hermes comes to the door, shocked at what he sees (lines 180–182), and Trygaeus gives his name and calling: “Trygaeus of Athmonon, a skilled vine-dresser” (line 190). Hermes tells him that the gods have gone away, and that he has stayed to look after the little pots, the boards and the wine-jars that remain (lines 200–202). The reason is that the gods are angry with the Greeks, who have repeatedly chosen war when the Spartans proposed a truce (lines 203–219). They have settled War in their house and handed the Greeks over to him, and have moved as high as possible so as not to see the Greeks fighting or hear their prayers (lines 205–209). War, Hermes says, has thrown Peace into a deep cave and piled stones over her, so that the Greeks can never get her out, and last evening he brought in a huge mortar in which he plans to grind the cities (lines 223–231).

Hermes goes in; Trygaeus hides; and War arrives with the mortar (lines 232–236). “Oh, mortals, mortals, wretched mortals,” he cries, “how soon your jaws will ache!” (lines 236–237). He throws the cities into the mortar one after another: Prasiae, with leeks (lines 242–243); Megara, with garlic (lines 246–249); Sicily (line 250); and for Athens, Attic honey (line 252). He sends his slave Uproar for a pestle. Uproar says that the Athenian pestle, the tanner who “stirred up Greece,” is dead, and when he is sent to Sparta, that the Spartans have lost theirs too, having lent it to others and lost it (lines 259–284). The two pestles are, in the play’s world, Cleon and Brasidas, who had died at Amphipolis (compare Thucydides 5.16.1). War goes in to make a pestle himself (lines 287–288). Trygaeus, coming out of hiding, calls on all Greeks, farmers, merchants, craftsmen, foreigners and islanders, to come with levers and ropes and drag Peace out of the pit “before War makes another pestle” (lines 289–300).

Parodos (Entrance Song)

A Chorus of farmers and workmen from various Greek states now enters (lines 301–345). They are so elated that they cannot get to work, and sing and dance, saying that this is a day that hates Lamachus (line 304). They ask Trygaeus to direct them, since they will not give up until they have hauled the greatest of goddesses into the light with levers and machines (lines 305–308). Trygaeus restrains them from shouting so loudly that they rouse War from within (lines 309–310), but they go on dancing for joy (lines 311–360).

Episodes

Hermes returns, furious at what Trygaeus is doing (lines 361–362). He reminds Trygaeus that Zeus has proclaimed death for anyone found digging up Peace, and threatens to tell on them (lines 371–381). Trygaeus begs him by the meat he once brought him, and the Chorus pleads too (lines 374–399); then he tells Hermes that the Sun and the Moon have long plotted to betray Greece to the barbarians, because the barbarians sacrifice to them while the Greeks sacrifice to the gods (lines 406–413). Hermes, fearing that the gods would lose the Greeks’ festivals, agrees to help (lines 414–417). Trygaeus promises him the Panathenaea and all the other feasts of the gods, and gives him a golden cup for libations (lines 418–424). “How easily I am moved to pity by gold cups!” says Hermes (line 425), and he tells the Chorus how to set to work (lines 426–433).

The task proves difficult, because the Chorus consists of citizens of many Greek states, and not all of them pull in the same direction (lines 459–519). The Boeotians are told they will be sorry (line 466). Lamachus sits in the way (line 473). The Argives, says Hermes, only laughed at the others and took pay from both sides (lines 475–477), the Spartans pull manfully, though a smith hinders them (lines 478–480), and the Megarians pull weakly because they are half-starved (lines 481–483). Hermes tells the Megarians to be gone, for the goddess hates them as the first to smear her with garlic (lines 500–502), and tells the Athenians to stop, since they do nothing but go to court (lines 503–505). The farmers, Trygaeus says, are the ones doing the work (lines 508–511). At last Peace is dragged out, together with Harvest (Opora) and Festival (Theoria) (lines 513–523). Trygaeus greets them in a long speech, praising the fragrance of Peace, of the vintage, of the Dionysia, of flutes and tragedies, of the songs of Sophocles and the verses of Euripides, in contrast with the smell of onion and the soldier’s knapsack (lines 520–538). Hermes points out the effect on the audience, and the crest-maker is shown tearing his hair out, the sickle-maker delighted (lines 543–549). The farmers are sent home to their fields without spear, sword or javelin (lines 550–555).

The Chorus greets the day it has longed for, and the vines and fig trees it planted when young (lines 556–600). Trygaeus then asks why Peace has been away for so long, and Hermes explains, since Peace herself, who is angry at the audience, says nothing (lines 603–604, 658–660). “The start of our misfortunes,” says Hermes, was the trouble of Phidias; Pericles, afraid of sharing his fate and mistrusting the Athenians’ nature, “threw in a small spark of the Megarian decree and blew up so great a war that the smoke made all the Greeks weep” (lines 605–611). When the cities saw the Greeks at one another’s throats they plotted against the Athenians, and the Spartan leaders were bribed and threw Peace out (lines 619–624). Whenever Peace appeared, the Athenians drove her back with their shouting (lines 636–638), and the allies were accused of favoring Brasidas (lines 639–640). The people were frightened into believing every slander, while those who profited stopped the mouths of the accusers with gold (lines 641–646). “It was the tanner who did all this” (lines 647–648). Trygaeus asks Hermes to leave the dead man alone (lines 649–656).

Trygaeus asks Peace, through Hermes, what has been going on in Athens (lines 657–705). Sophocles is prospering and has become a Simonides, since he will sail on a reed mat for profit (lines 695–699). Cratinus, when the Spartans invaded, died of a swoon at the sight of a jar of wine broken (lines 700–703). Hermes gives Harvest to Trygaeus as his wife, so that he may grow grapes in the fields with her, and tells him to take Festival back to the Council, whose she once was (lines 706–714). Trygaeus is delighted by the prospect of what the Council will be able to eat (lines 715–717). Hermes sees him off on a descent beside the goddess, and Trygaeus leaves with the two girls (lines 718–728). The Chorus, left alone, steps forward to address the audience in the parabasis.

First Parabasis

As usual, the parabasis begins with praises of the poet by himself (lines 729–774). The Chorus says that the attendants ought to beat any comic poet who praises himself in the parabasis, but that if any poet deserves honor, it is theirs (lines 734–738). He did not mock private persons or women, but like Heracles took on the biggest monsters, braving the stench of hides: the jag-toothed monster with eyes flashing like Cynna’s, a hundred heads of flatterers licking around its head, the voice of a torrent and the smell of a seal, and he did not fear it (lines 739–760). They ask the bald men to take his side in the contest (lines 767–774). Then the Chorus asks the Muse to drive away wars and to join the dance, and bids her not to let the tragic poets Morsimus and Melanthius have a chorus, describing them as Gorgons, Harpies and fish-gluttons (lines 775–818).

Lines 752–759 of this parabasis repeat, almost word for word, the parabasis of Aristophanes’ earlier comedy The Wasps (Wasps 1030–1036).

Episodes

Trygaeus comes back to the stage, tired and lame, with Harvest and Festival (lines 819–823). “How hard it was to go right to the gods! My legs are quite worn out. And you looked so small from above! You seemed bad enough from heaven, but seen close, you look even worse” (lines 819–823). He was met in the sky, he tells his slave, by two or three souls of dithyramb-composers (lines 827–829). He sends Harvest into his house to be bathed and prepared for the wedding (lines 868–870), and takes Festival to the Athenian Council, whose prytaneis receive her with eagerness (lines 871–909). The Chorus praises him (lines 910–921). A sheep is brought for the sacrifice. They explain why a sheep is chosen: when someone says, “We must fight,” the men who sit by cry out in fear in the Ionic fashion, “oi,” the Ionic word for sheep, so that from now on they “shall be lambs to one another” in character, and gentler with the allies (lines 922–936). Trygaeus has the sheep brought and prepares an altar (lines 937–1042).

Hierocles, a well-known oracle-monger from Oreus, arrives, crowned with laurel, smelling the roast (lines 1043–1052). He demands a share of the sacrificial meat, quotes oracles of Bakis about the impossibility of ending the war, and is laughed off by Trygaeus (lines 1052–1119). He is driven off with blows, and the slaves take his sheepskins, for the god cannot be cheated of the first-fruits (lines 1119–1126).

Second Parabasis

After Hierocles is driven off, the Chorus is left alone for a short second parabasis (lines 1127–1190). It sings how glad it is to be free of the helmet, of cheese and onions, and of fighting, of sitting by the fire in winter with friends roasting chick-peas and acorns, and kissing the Thracian slave-girl while the wife is in the bath (lines 1127–1139), and in summer of listening to the cicada and walking among the vineyards (lines 1159–1170). It ends with a curse on the officer with three crests and a crimson cloak (lines 1172–1173).

Episodes

Trygaeus comes out of his house to greet the guests at his wedding feast (lines 1191–1196). The sickle-maker comes first, rejoicing, because before peace nobody would buy a sickle, and now he sells them for fifty drachmas; he offers Trygaeus sickles and jars as a wedding present (lines 1197–1209). He is followed by a group of arms-makers who have been ruined: the crest-maker, the breastplate-seller, the trumpet-maker, the helmet-maker and the spear-maker (lines 1210–1264). Trygaeus gives them ideas for turning their wares to domestic uses, that crests be used as dusters, breastplates as chamber-pots, and the trumpet as the scale of a fig-weigher, but refuses to buy (lines 1210–1264).

Some boys then come out, the sons of Lamachus and Cleonymus, the first the son of a famous soldier, the second of a man known for throwing away his shield (lines 1265–1304). Lamachus’ son begins an epic song of war, “Let us begin with younger men” and the verses about warriors clashing with shield and spear (lines 1270–1287). Trygaeus stops him: it is peace, and he sings of arms and battles, as befits the son of a man who loves fighting (lines 1271–1294). He asks for the son of Cleonymus, who sings the verses of Archilochus: “Some Saian exults in my shield, which I left against my will beside a bush; but I saved my life” (lines 1298–1301). Trygaeus tells him that he has shamed his parents, and takes them in (lines 1301–1304).

Exodos (Exit Song)

Trygaeus invites the guests to eat and drink (lines 1305–1315). The Chorus calls for the bride to be brought out, with torches, and asks the gods to give the Greeks wealth, barley, wine, figs and children, and to recover all the good things they lost, and to put an end to iron (lines 1316–1328). Trygaeus calls Harvest to go with him to the country (lines 1329–1332). The play ends with the wedding song to Hymenaeus, sung by the Chorus in two halves, and with Trygaeus bidding the audience farewell and inviting those who follow him to eat cakes (lines 1333–1357).

A Brief Analysis

Peace is a simple and loosely structured comedy. When it was performed, the peace was already being arranged (Thucydides 5.20.1), and the play celebrates the end of the war rather than arguing for it. There is no formal contest of speeches, because no character stands for the war, and the enemies in the play, War and Uproar, are personifications who disappear without a fight (lines 236–288). The real-life enemies are named in the text, but they are dead: the tanner (lines 269–270, 647–648) and Brasidas (line 640).

The scenes of the first half follow a clear order: the journey, the discovery that the gods have left Greece to War, the rescue of Peace by the farmers, and Hermes’ account of how the war began. The explanation Hermes gives, that the trouble began with Phidias, that Pericles, afraid for himself, passed the Megarian decree and set the city alight, that Greek leaders were bribed, and that the tanner profited, is spoken by a comic character, and should be read as comedy rather than as a historian’s account (lines 603–648). Aristophanes also settles scores with a few rivals: tragic poets, dithyramb-composers, and the general Lamachus (lines 304, 473, 801–813, 829).

The picture of Peace that the play draws is a rural one. Her presence is shown by smell: the beetle’s dung at the opening, the fragrance of the goddess and her companions, of vintage and festival (lines 524–538), and of the cooking of the sacrifice (lines 1043–1053). The Chorus’s songs link peace with the country: vines and fig trees (lines 556–559), the winter fire (lines 1127–1139), the summer cicada (lines 1159–1170). The wedding of Trygaeus and Harvest, ending in the song to Hymenaeus, is the play’s resolution (lines 1329–1357). The ancient hypothesis also records that Aristophanes staged a second play called Peace; only fragments of it survive, and it is unknown whether it was a revision of this play or a new one.

Sources

Aristophanes, Peace, lines 1–1357 (Greek text at the Perseus Digital Library), with its ancient hypothesis (date, archon, prizes, the second Peace); Aristophanes, Wasps 1030–1036; Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 4.102–106, 4.117–119, 5.2, 5.10–11, 5.14–16, 5.18–20, 5.25; Plutarch, Nicias 9.7.

See Also: Aristophanes, Sparta, The Acharnians, Lysistrata