Peace is an Athenian Old Comedy

Old Comedy

Old Comedy is the first period of the ancient Greek comedy, according to the canonical division by the Alexandrian grammarians. The most important Old Comic playwright is Aristophanes, whose works, with their pungent political satire and abundance of sexual and scatological innuendo, effectively...

 written and produced by the Greek playwright Aristophanes

Aristophanes

Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...

. It won second prize at the City Dionysia where it was staged just a few days before the ratification of the Peace of Nicias

Peace of Nicias

The Peace of Nicias was a peace treaty signed between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta in the March of 421 BC, ending the first half of the Peloponnesian War....

 (421 BC

421 BC

Year 421 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vibulanus and Barbatus...

), which promised to end the ten year old Peloponnesian War

Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases...

. The play is notable for its joyous anticipation of peace and for its celebration of a return to an idyllic life in the countryside. However, it also sounds a note of caution, there is bitterness in the memory of lost opportunities and the ending is not happy for everyone. As in all Aristophanes' plays, the jokes are numerous, the action is wildly absurd and the satire is savage—Cleon

Cleon

Cleon was an Athenian statesman and a Strategos during the Peloponnesian War. He was the first prominent representative of the commercial class in Athenian politics, although he was an aristocrat himself...

, the pro-war populist leader of Athens, is once again a target for the author's wit even though he had died in battle just a few months earlier.

Peace - the plot

Short summary: Trygaeus, a middle-aged Athenian, miraculously brings about a peaceful end to the Peloponnesian War

Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases...

, thereby earning the gratitude of farmers while bankrupting various tradesmen who had profited from the hostilities. He celebrates his triumph by marrying Harvest, a companion of Festival and Peace, all of whom he has liberated from a celestial prison.

Detailed summary: Two slaves are frantically working outside an ordinary house in Athens, kneading unusually large lumps of dough and carrying them one by one into the stable. We soon learn from their banter that it is not dough but excrement gathered from various sources - they are feeding a giant dung beetle that their crazy master has brought home from the Mount Etna region and on which he intends flying to a private audience with the gods. This startling revelation is confirmed moments later by the sudden appearance of Trygaeus on the back of the dung beetle, rising above the house and hovering in an alarmingly unsteady manner. His two slaves, his neighbours and his children take fright and they plead with him to come back down to earth. He steadies the spirited beetle, he shouts comforting words to his children and he appeals to the audience not to distract his mount by farting or shitting any time in the next three days. His mission, he declares, is to reason with the gods about the war or, if they will not listen, he will prosecute the gods for treason against Greece. Then he soars across the stage heavenwards.

Arriving outside the house of the gods, Trygaeus discovers that only Hermes is home. Hermes informs him that the others have packed up and departed for some remote refuge where they hope never to be troubled again by the war or the prayers of humankind. He has stayed back, he says, only to make some final arrangements and meanwhile the new occupant of the house has already moved in - War. War, he says, has imprisoned Peace in a cave nearby. Just then, as chance would have it, War comes grumbling and growling outdoors, carrying a gigantic mortar in which he intends grinding the Greeks to paste. Trygaeus discovers by evesdropping that War no longer has a pestle to use with his gigantic mortar - the pestles he had hoped to use on the Greeks are both dead, for one was Cleon

Cleon

Cleon was an Athenian statesman and a Strategos during the Peloponnesian War. He was the first prominent representative of the commercial class in Athenian politics, although he was an aristocrat himself...

 and the other was Brasidas

Brasidas

Brasidas was a Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War.He was the son of Tellis and Argileonis, and won his first laurels by the relief of Methone, which was besieged by the Athenians . During the following year he seems to have been eponymous ephor Brasidas (died 422...

, the leaders of the pro-war factions in Athens and Sparta respectively, both of whom have recently perished in battle. War goes back indoors to get himself a new one and Trygaeus boldly takes this opportunity to summon Greeks everywhere to come and help him set Peace free while there is still time. A Chorus of excited Greeks from various city-states arrives as prompted but they are so excited they cannot stop dancing at first. Eventually they get to work, pulling boulders from the cave's mouth under supervision by Trygaeus and Hermes. Some of the Greeks are more of a hindrance than a help and real progress is only made by the farmers. At last Peace and her companions, Festival and Harvest, are brought to light, appearing as visions of ineffable beauty. Hermes then tells the gathering why Peace had left them many years earlier - she had been driven away by politicians who were profiting from the war. In fact she had tried to come back several times, he says, but each time the Athenians had voted against her in their Assembly. Trygaeus apologizes to Peace on behalf of his countrymen, he updates her on the latest theatre gossip (Sophocles

Sophocles

Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...

 is now as venal as Simonides

Simonides

* Simonides of Ceos, , a lyric poet* Semonides of Amorgos, an iambic poet* Flavius Simonides Agrippa, son of Roman Jewish Historian Josephus* Constantine Simonides, 19th-century forger of 'ancient' manuscripts...

 and Cratinus

Cratinus

Cratinus , Athenian comic poet of the Old Comedy.-Life:Cratinus was victorious six times at the City Dionysia, first probably in the mid- to late 450s BCE , and three times at the Lenaia, first probably in the early 430s...

 died in a drunken apoplexy) and then he leaves her to enjoy her freedom while he sets off again for Athens, taking Harvest and Festival back with him - Harvest because she is now his betrothed, Festival because she is to be female entertainment for the Boule

Boule (Ancient Greece)

In cities of ancient Greece, the boule meaning to will ) was a council of citizens appointed to run daily affairs of the city...

 or Council. The Chorus then steps forward to address the audience in a conventional parabasis.

The Chorus praises the author for his originality as a dramatist, for his courageous opposition to monsters like Cleon and for his genial disposition. It recommends him especially to bald men. It quotes songs of the seventh century poet Stesichorus

Stesichorus

Stesichorus was the first great poet of the Greek West. He is best known for telling epic stories in lyric metres but he is also famous for some ancient traditions about his life, such as his opposition to the tyrant Phalaris, and the blindness he is said to have incurred and cured by composing...

 and it condemns contemporary dramatists like Carcinus

Carcinus (writer)

Carcinus was an Ancient Greek tragedian, and was a member of a family including Xenocles and his grandfather Carcinus of Agrigentum. He received a prize for only one out of his one hundred and sixty plays, many of them composed at the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse...

, Melanthius and Morsimus. The Chorus resumes its place and Trygaeus returns to the stage. He declares that the audience looked like a bunch of rascals when seen from the heavens and they look even worse when seen up close. He sends Harvest indoors to prepare for their wedding and he delivers Festival to the archon

Archon

Archon is a Greek word that means "ruler" or "lord", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ἀρχ-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy, and anarchy.- Ancient Greece :In ancient Greece the...

 sitting in the front row. He then prepares for a religious service in honour of Peace. A lamb is sacrificed indoors, prayers are offered and Trygaeus starts barbecuing the meat. The fragrance of roast lamb soon attracts an oracle monger who proceeds to hover about the scene in quest of a free meal, as is the custom among oracle-mongers. He is driven off with a good thrashing. Trygaeus goes indoors to prepare for his wedding and the Chorus steps forward again for another parabasis.

The Chorus sings lovingly of winter afternoons spent with friends in front of a kitchen fire in the countryside in times of peace when rain soaks into the newly sowed fields and there is nothing to do but enjoy the good life. The tone soon changes however as the Chorus recalls the regimental drill and the organizational stuff-ups that have been the bane of the ordinary civilian soldier's life until now and it contemplates in bitterness the officers who have been lions at home and mere foxes in the field. The tone brightens again as Trygaeus returns to the stage, dressed for the festivities of a wedding. Tradesmen and merchants begin to arrive singly and in pairs - a sickle-maker and a jar-maker whose businesses are flourishing again now that peace has returned, and others whose businesses are failing. The sickle-maker and jar-maker present Trygaeus with wedding presents and Trygaeus offers suggestions to the others about what they can do with their merchandise: helmet crests can be used as dusters, spears as vine props, breastplates as chamber pots, trumpets as scales for weighing figs, and helmets could serve as mixing bowls for Egyptians in need of emetics or enemas. The sons of wedding guests practise their songs outdoors and one of the boys begins rehearsing Homer

Homer

In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

's epic song of war. Trygaeus sends him back indoors as he cannot stomach any mention of war. Another boy sings a famous song by Archilochus

Archilochus

Archilochus, or, Archilochos While these have been the generally accepted dates since Felix Jacoby, "The Date of Archilochus," Classical Quarterly 35 97-109, some scholars disagree; Robin Lane Fox, for instance, in Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer , p...

 celebrating an act of cowardice and this does not impress Trygaeus either. He announces the commencement of the wedding feast and he opens up the house for celebrations: Hymen Hymenai'O! Hymen Hymenai'O!

Historical background

All the early plays of Aristophanes were written and acted against a background of war. The war between Athens and Sparta had commenced with the Megarian decree

Megarian decree

The Megarian Decree was a set of economic sanctions levied upon Megara circa 432 BC by the Athenian Empire shortly before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. The ostensible reason for the Decree was the Megarians' supposed trespass on land sacred to Demeter and the killing of the Athenian herald...

 in 431 BC and, under the cautious leadership of Archidamus II

Archidamus II

Archidamus II was a king of Sparta who reigned from approximately 476 BC to 427 BC. He was of the Eurypontid dynasty. His father was Zeuxidamus , who died before his father, Leotychidas, after having his son, Archidamus....

 in Sparta and Pericles

Pericles

Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age—specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars...

 in Athens, it developed into a war of slow attrition in which Athens was unchallenged at sea and Sparta was undisputed master of the Greek mainland. Every year, the Spartans and their allies invaded Attica and wreaked havoc on Athenian farms. As soon as they retreated, the Athenians marched out from their city walls to avenge themselves on the farms of their neighbours, the Megarians and Boeotians, allies of Sparta. Till then, most Athenians had lived in rural settlements but now they congregated within the safety of the city walls. In 430 a plague decimated the over-crowded population and it also claimed the life of Pericles, leaving Athens in the control of a more radical leadership, epitomized by Cleon

Cleon

Cleon was an Athenian statesman and a Strategos during the Peloponnesian War. He was the first prominent representative of the commercial class in Athenian politics, although he was an aristocrat himself...

. Cleon was determined to gain absolute victory in the war with Sparta and his aggressive policies seemed to be vindicated in 425 in the Battle of Sphacteria

Battle of Sphacteria

The Battle of Sphacteria was a land battle of the Peloponnesian War, fought in 425 BC between Athens and Sparta. Following the Battle of Pylos and subsequent peace negotiations, which failed, a number of Spartans were stranded on the island of Sphacteria...

, resulting in the capture of Spartan hostages and the establishment of a permanent garrison at Pylos, from where the Athenians and their allies could harass Spartan territory. The Spartans in response to this setback made repeated appeals for peace but these were dismissed by the Athenian Assembly under guidance by Cleon who wished instead to broaden the war with ambitious campaigns against Megara and Boeotia. The Athenians subsequently suffered a major defeat in Boeotia at the Battle of Delion and this was followed by an armistice in 423. By this time, however, the Spartans were increasingly coming under the influence of the pro-war leader Brasidas

Brasidas

Brasidas was a Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War.He was the son of Tellis and Argileonis, and won his first laurels by the relief of Methone, which was besieged by the Athenians . During the following year he seems to have been eponymous ephor Brasidas (died 422...

, a daring general who encouraged and supported revolts among Athenian client states despite the armistice. Athens' client states in Chalcidice

Chalcidice

Chalkidiki, also Halkidiki, Chalcidice or Chalkidike , is a peninsula in northern Greece, and one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Macedonia. The autonomous Mount Athos region is part of the peninsula, but not of the regional unit...

 were especially vulnerable to his intrigues. When the armistice ended, Cleon led a force of Athenians to Chalcidice to repress the revolts. It was there, while manoeuvering outside the city of Amphipolis

Amphipolis

Amphipolis was an ancient Greek city in the region once inhabited by the Edoni people in the present-day region of Central Macedonia. It was built on a raised plateau overlooking the east bank of the river Strymon where it emerged from Lake Cercinitis, about 3 m. from the Aegean Sea. Founded in...

, that he and his men were surprised and defeated by a force led by the Spartan general. Both Cleon and Brasidas died in the battle and their removal opened the way for new peace talks during the winter of 422-21. The Peace of Nicias was ratified soon after the City Dionysia, where Peace was performed, early in the spring of 421 BC.

Places and people mentioned in Peace

According to a character in Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

's Dinner-table Discussion, (written some 500 years after Peace was produced), Old Comedy needs commentators to explain its abstruse references in the same way that a banquet needs wine-waiters. Here is the wine list for Peace as supplied by modern scholars.

Athenian politicians and generals

• Cleon
  Cleon
  Cleon was an Athenian statesman and a Strategos during the Peloponnesian War. He was the first prominent representative of the commercial class in Athenian politics, although he was an aristocrat himself...
  
  : The populist leader of the pro-war faction in Athens, he had recently perished in the battle for Amphipolis
  Amphipolis
  Amphipolis was an ancient Greek city in the region once inhabited by the Edoni people in the present-day region of Central Macedonia. It was built on a raised plateau overlooking the east bank of the river Strymon where it emerged from Lake Cercinitis, about 3 m. from the Aegean Sea. Founded in...
  
  . He is mentioned by name only once in this play (line 47) when a member of the audience is imagined comparing him to a dung beetle on the grounds that he eats dung i.e. he's dead (excrement is a characteristic element of the Aristophanic Underworld, as represented later in The Frogs). He receives several indirect mentions (313, 648, 669, 650-56) as a Cerberus
  Cerberus
  Cerberus , or Kerberos, in Greek and Roman mythology, is a multi-headed hound which guards the gates of the Underworld, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping...
  
   whose seething (paphlagon) and shouting might yet snatch away peace (the seething image was previously developed in The Knights
  The Knights
  The Knights was the fourth play written by Aristophanes, the master of an ancient form of drama known as Old Comedy. The play is a satire on the social and political life of classical Athens during the Peloponnesian War and in this respect it is typical of all the dramatist's early plays...
  
  , where Cleon was represented as 'Paphlagonian'), a leather merchant who had corruptly profited from war, a leather skin that stifled Athenian thoughts of peace, and a rascal, chatterer, sycophant and trouble-maker that Hermes should not revile, since Hermes (as a guide to the Underworld) is now responsible for him.
• Lamachus
  Lamachus
  Lamachus was an Athenian general in the Peloponnesian War. He commanded as early as 435 BCE, and was prominent by the mid 420s. Aristophanes caricatured him in The Acharnians and subsequently honoured his memory in The Frogs...
  
  : He was a fearless general associated with the pro-war faction but he nevertheless ratified the Peace of Nicias. He is described here as an enemy of peace who hinders peace efforts (lines 304, 473). His son is a character who sings war-like songs. Lamachus appears as the antagonist in The Acharnians and he is mentioned in another two plays.
• Phormio
  Phormio
  Phormio , the son of Asopius, was an Athenian general and admiral before and during the Peloponnesian War. A talented naval commander, Phormio commanded at several famous Athenian victories in 428 BC, and was honored after his death with a statue on the acropolis and a state funeral...
  
  : A successful Athenian admiral, he used to sleep rough on a soldier's pallet (line 347). He is mentioned in two other plays.
• Peisander: A prominent politician, he was to become an influential figure in the Athenian coup of 411 BC
  Athenian coup of 411 BC
  The Athenian coup of 411 BC was a revolutionary movement during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta that overthrew the democratic government of ancient Athens by replacing it with a short-lived oligarchy known as The Four Hundred....
  
  . His helmet is a loathsome spectacle (line 395) and there are references to him in other plays.
• Pericles
  Pericles
  Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age—specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars...
  
  : A gifted orator and politician, he provoked the war with Sparta by his Megarian decree
  Megarian decree
  The Megarian Decree was a set of economic sanctions levied upon Megara circa 432 BC by the Athenian Empire shortly before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. The ostensible reason for the Decree was the Megarians' supposed trespass on land sacred to Demeter and the killing of the Athenian herald...
  
  . It is said that he did so in order to avoid being implicated in a corruption scandal involving the sculptor Pheidias (line 606). Pericles is mentioned by name in two other plays and there are also indirect references to him.
• Hyperbolus: Another populist, he succeeded Cleon as the new master of the speaker's stone on the Pnyx (line 681). He was a lampseller by trade and this enabled him to shed light on affairs of state (690). The Chorus would like to celebrate the wedding at the end by driving him out (1319). He is a frequent target in other plays.
• Theogenes
  Theogenes
  Theogenes was an Athenian, who, in 425 BC, was appointed together with Cleon to repair to Pylos, and investigate the truth of the tidings, which had been brought thence, as to the difficulties of the blockade of Sphacteria. Cleon, however, prudently persuaded the people to abandon the proposed...
  
  : Another prominent politician, he associated with swines (line 928). His name recurs in several plays.

Athenian personalities

• Cleonymus
  Cleonymus
  Cleonymus was a political ally of Cleon and an Athenian general. In 424 BC, Cleonymus had dropped his shield in battle and fled and was branded a coward. This act is often used to comic effect by Aristophanes.-References:...
  
  : A frequent butt of jokes in other plays for his gluttony and cowardice, he figures here in a curse as the model of a coward (446), as a man who loves peace for the wrong reasons (673, 675) and as the father of a boy who sings lyrics by Archilochus in celebration of cowardice (1295).
• Cunna: A well-known prostitute, she has eyes that flash like those of Cleon (755). She is mentioned in another two plays.
• Arriphrades: A member of an artistic family and possibly a comic poet himself, he has been immortalized by Aristophanes here (line 883) and in other plays as an exponent of cunnilingus.
• Glaucetes, Morychus and Teleas: Gourmands, they are imagined bustling about the replenished agora in their greedy pursuit of delicacies once peace returns (line 1008). Morychus is mentioned again in The Acharnians and The Wasps, Teleas in The Birds and Glaucetes in Thesmophoriazusae

Poets and other artists

• Euripides
  Euripides
  Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
  
  : A tragic poet renowned for his innovative plays and pathetic heroes, he appears as a ridiculous character in The Acharnians, Thesmophoriazusae and The Frogs and he receives numerous mentions in other plays. Trygaeus is warned not to fall off his beetle or he might end up as the hero of a Euripidean tragedy (line 147) and Peace is said not to like Euripides because of his reliance on legalistic quibbling for dialogue (534). Trygaeus' flight on the dung beetle is a parody of Euripides' play Bellerephon, his daughter's appeal to him is a parody of a speech from Aeolus (114-23) and there is a deliberate misquote from his play Telephus (528). The latter play was a favourite target for parody as for example in The Acharnians
  The Acharnians
  The Acharnians is the third play - and the earliest of the eleven surviving plays - by the great Athenian playwright Aristophanes. It was produced in 425 BCE on behalf of the young dramatist by an associate, Callistratus, and it won first place at the Lenaia festival...
  
   and Thesmophoriazusae
  Thesmophoriazusae
  Thesmophoriazusae is one of eleven surviving plays by the master of Old Comedy, the Athenian playwright Aristophanes. It was first produced in 411 BC, probably at the City Dionysia...
  
  .
• Aesop
  Aesop
  Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...
  
  : A legendary author of fables, he is said to have inspired Trygaeus to ascend to the home of the gods on a dung beetle (line 129). In the original fable, the dung beetle flew up to the home of the gods to punish the eagle for destroying its eggs. Zeus was minding the eagle's own eggs and the dung beetle provoked him into dropping them. There are references to Aesop in two plays.
• Sophocles
  Sophocles
  Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
  
  : A famous tragic poet, he is mentioned here because his verses are evocative of the good times that will come with peace (line 531) even though he has become as greedy as Simonides (695-7). Sophocles is also mentioned in The Birds and The Frogs.
• Pheidias: A renowned sculptor, he is said to have been named in a corruption scandal that was really aimed at his patron Pisistratus (line 605) and Peace is said to be a beautiful relative of his i.e. she is statuesque (616).
• Simonides
  Simonides of Ceos
  Simonides of Ceos was a Greek lyric poet, born at Ioulis on Kea. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets, along with Bacchylides and Pindar...
  
  : A highly respected poet, he was however notorious for demanding high fees - he'd even go to sea in a sieve if the commission was right (line 697-8). There are references to him in two other plays.
• Cratinus
  Cratinus
  Cratinus , Athenian comic poet of the Old Comedy.-Life:Cratinus was victorious six times at the City Dionysia, first probably in the mid- to late 450s BCE , and three times at the Lenaia, first probably in the early 430s...
  
  : A comic poet often ranked with Aristophanes as a playwright, he is said to have died of a drunken apoplexy after witnessing the destruction of wine jars (line 700). He is mentioned with mock-respect in several other plays also.
• Carcinus
  Carcinus (writer)
  Carcinus was an Ancient Greek tragedian, and was a member of a family including Xenocles and his grandfather Carcinus of Agrigentum. He received a prize for only one out of his one hundred and sixty plays, many of them composed at the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse...
  
  : A tragic poet, he is said to have written an unsuccessful comedy about mice (791-5) and the Muse is urged to spurn both him and his sons - his sons, who had danced in the original performance of The Wasps
  The Wasps
  The Wasps is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes, the master of an ancient genre of drama called 'Old Comedy'. It was produced at the Lenaia festival in 422 BC, a time when Athens was enjoying a brief respite from The Peloponnesian War following a one...
  
  , are now reviled as goat-turds devoted to theatrical stunts (lines 781-95) and they are not as fortunate as Trygaeus (864). Carcinus is mentioned in several other plays.
• Morsimus and Melanthius: Two brothers who were related to the great tragic poet Aeschylus
  Aeschylus
  Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...
  
   but who were also known for gluttony (they are called 'Gorgons' and 'Harpies'), they collaborated on a play in which the latter acted stridently and both should be spat upon by the Muse (lines 801-816). Melanthius is imagined quoting melodramatically from his brother's play Medea when he learns that there are no more eels for sale (1009). Morsimus is mentioned in two more plays and Melanthius in one other play.
• Stesichorus
  Stesichorus
  Stesichorus was the first great poet of the Greek West. He is best known for telling epic stories in lyric metres but he is also famous for some ancient traditions about his life, such as his opposition to the tyrant Phalaris, and the blindness he is said to have incurred and cured by composing...
  
  : A famous Sicilian poet, he is quoted invoking the Muse and the Graces in a song that denounces Carcinus, Morsimus and Melanthius as inferior poets (beginning with lines 775 and 796).
• Ion
  Ion of Chios
  Ion of Chios was a Greek writer, dramatist, lyric poet and philosopher. He was a contemporary of Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles. Of his many plays and poems only a few titles and fragments have survived...
  
  : A celebrated Chian poet, he was the author of a popular song The Morning Star. Trygaeus claims to have seen him in the heavens, where he has become the Morning Star (line 835).
• Chairis: A flute player, here (line 951) as elsewhere he is an execrable musician.
• Homer
  Homer
  In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
  
  : The bard of all bards, he is mentioned in this play twice by name (lines 1089, 1096) and there are frequent references to his poetry. He is fancifully misquoted by Trygaeus to prove that oracle mongers are not entitled to free meals (lines 1090-93) and there is an accurate quote from a passage in the Iliad
  Iliad
  The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
  
   arguing in favour of peace (1097-8). The son of Lamachus also concocts some Homer-like verses and he quotes from the introduction to Epigoni
  Epigoni (epic)
  Epigoni was an early Greek epic, a sequel to the Thebaid and therefore grouped in the Theban cycle. Some ancient authors seem to have considered it a part of the Thebaid and not a separate poem....
  
   (1270), an epic sometimes attributed to Homer (now lost). Homer is mentioned by name in three other plays.
• Archilochus
  Archilochus
  Archilochus, or, Archilochos While these have been the generally accepted dates since Felix Jacoby, "The Date of Archilochus," Classical Quarterly 35 97-109, some scholars disagree; Robin Lane Fox, for instance, in Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer , p...
  
  : A renowned poet, he once wrote an elegy making light of his own cowardice on the battle field. The son of Cleonymus quotes from it (lines 1298-99). Archilochus is mentioned by name in two other plays.

Places

• Mount Etna
  Mount Etna
  Mount Etna is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, close to Messina and Catania. It is the tallest active volcano in Europe, currently standing high, though this varies with summit eruptions; the mountain is 21 m higher than it was in 1981.. It is the highest mountain in...
  
  : A region famous for its horses, it is from here that Trygaeus obtained his dung beetle (line 73). The mountain is mentioned again in The Birds.
• Naxos: An island state, it was home to a type of boat known as a 'Naxian beetle' (line 143). The island is referred to again in Wasps.

• Peiraeus: The main port for Athens, it includes a small harbour that takes its name from the Greek for 'beetle' (lines 145) and it is the sort of place where a man might excrete in public view outside a brothel (165). It is mentioned also in Knights.
• Athmonon: A deme
  Deme
  In Ancient Greece, a deme or demos was a subdivision of Attica, the region of Greece surrounding Athens. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, but did not acquire particular significance until the reforms of Cleisthenes in...
  
   within the Cecropides tribe, it is an epithet for Trygaeus since he is enrolled there as a citizen. (lines 190, 919)
• Pylos
  Pylos
  Pylos , historically known under its Italian name Navarino, is a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pylos-Nestoras, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. It was the capital of the former...
  
  : Enemy territory occupied by the Athenians, it is associated with missed opportunities for an end to the war (lines 219, 665).
• Prasiae: A Spartan territory, its name allows for a pun with 'leeks', one of the ingredients that War intends grinding in his mortar (line 242).
• Sicily
  Sicily
  Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
  
  : An island renowned for its wealth and its abundant resources, it was famous also for its cheeses, another ingredient in war's mortar (line 250). The island is mentioned in two other plays.
• Samothrace
  Samothrace
  Samothrace is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is a self-governing municipality within the Evros peripheral unit of Thrace. The island is long and is in size and has a population of 2,723 . Its main industries are fishing and tourism. Resources on the island includes granite and...
  
  : A region associated with religious mysteries, as represented in the worship of the Cabeiri
  Cabeiri
  In Greek mythology, the Cabeiri, were a group of enigmatic chthonic deities. They were worshiped in a mystery cult closely associated with that of Hephaestus, centered in the north Aegean islands of Lemnos and possibly Samothrace —at the Samothrace temple complex— and at Thebes...
  
  , it is regarded by Trygaeus as a possible source of magic spells when all else fails (line 277).
• Thrace
  Thrace
  Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
  
  : The northern battleground of the Peloponnesian War, it is where War lost his Spartan pestle, Brasidas (line 283). The region is also mentioned in other plays.
• Lyceum
  Lyceum
  The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...
  
  : Later famous as the school for Aristotelian philosophy, it was then a parade ground (line 356).
• Pnyx
  Pnyx
  The Pnyx is a hill in central Athens, the capital of Greece. It is located less than west of the Acropolis and 1.6 km south-west of the centre of modern Athens, Syntagma Square.-The site:...
  
  : The hill where the Athenian citizenry convened as a democratic assembly, it was topped by a monolithic rostrum called a 'bema'. Peace wants to know who is now master of the stone (line 680). The hill is mentioned in several plays.
• Brauron
  Brauron
  The sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron is an early sacred site on the eastern coast of Attica near the Aegean Sea in a small inlet. The inlet has silted up since ancient times, pushing the current shoreline farther from the site...
  
  : An Athenian town on the east coast of Attica, it was the site of a sometimes promiscuous quadrennial festival in honour of Artemis
  Artemis
  Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...
  
  . A slave of Trygaeus wonders if Festival is a girl he had once partied with there (line 875). The town is also referred to in Lysistrata
  Lysistrata
  Lysistrata is one of eleven surviving plays written by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War...
  
  .
• Oreus
  Oreus
  Oreus was a town in northern Euboea. Demosthenes describes its conquest by Philip II of Macedon in the Third Philippic....
  
  : A town on the western shore of Euboea
  Euboea
  Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...
  
  , it is the home of the oracle monger and party-pooper, Hierocles (line 1047, 1125). He is associated with another Euboean town Elymnion (1126).
• Lake Copais
  Lake Copais
  Lake Copais, Kopais, or Kopaida used to be in the centre of Boeotia, Greece, west of Thebes until the late 19th century. The area where it was located, though now a plain, is still known as Kopaida.- Drainage :...
  
  : A lake in Boeotia, it is a source of eels much valued by Athenian gourmands (1005). It is mentioned for the same reason in The Acharnians.
• Sardis
  Sardis
  Sardis or Sardes was an ancient city at the location of modern Sart in Turkey's Manisa Province...
  
  : Once the capital of the Lydia
  Lydia
  Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian....
  
  n empire and subsequently of a Persian satrapy, it is a source of scarlet dye used to denote the cloaks of Athenian officers (line 1174). It is mentioned in two other plays.
• Cyzicus
  Cyzicus
  Cyzicus was an ancient town of Mysia in Anatolia in the current Balıkesir Province of Turkey. It was located on the shoreward side of the present Kapıdağ Peninsula , a tombolo which is said to have originally been an island in the Sea of Marmara only to be connected to the mainland in historic...
  
  : A town on the Propontis, it is a source of saffron-coloured (or crap-coloured) dye (1176).
• Pandion's
  Pandion
  Pandion may refer to:* Pandion I and Pandion II, two kings of Athens in Greek mythology* Pandion son of Phineas in Greek mythology* Pandion, a son of Aegyptus, husband and victim of Callidice, daughter of Danaus, in Greek mythology...
  
   statue: A statue of a mythical king of ancient Athens, it was located in the agora as a rallying point for the Pandionid tribe (line 1183). Both Aristophanes and Cleon would have mustered here since both belonged to the Cydathenaeum deme
  Deme
  In Ancient Greece, a deme or demos was a subdivision of Attica, the region of Greece surrounding Athens. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, but did not acquire particular significance until the reforms of Cleisthenes in...
  
  , a branch of the Pandionid tribe.

Foreigners

• Ionians
  Ionians
  The Ionians were one of the four major tribes into which the Classical Greeks considered the population of Hellenes to have been divided...
  
  : Inhabiting region of islands and coastal cities scattered around the Aegean, they formed the core of the Athenian empire. An Ionian in the audience is imagined to say that the beetle represents Cleon since they both eat shit (line 46). The Ionian dialect allows a pun equating 'sheep' with 'oh!' (930-33).
• Medes
  Medes
  The MedesThe Medes...
  
  : Brothers to the Persians and often identified with them as rivals of Greece, they benefit from the ongoing war between Athens and Sparta (line 108). They are mentioned quite often in other plays.
• Chians
  Chios
  Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
  
  : Citizens of the island state of Chios, they seem to have been recent victims of an Athenian law imposing a fine of 30 000 drachmas on any allied state in which an Athenian citizen happened to be killed. They might have to pay such a fine if Trygaeus falls off his dung beetle (line 171). Chios is also the home of a popular poet, Ion (835). The island is referred to in three other plays.
• Megarians
  Megara
  Megara is an ancient city in Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being taken by Athens. Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four mythic sons of King...
  
  : Long-time rivals of Athens and allies of Sparta, they are the garlic in War's mortar (line 246-249), they are a hindrance to peace efforts even though they are starving (481-502) and they were the target of the Megarian decree
  Megarian decree
  The Megarian Decree was a set of economic sanctions levied upon Megara circa 432 BC by the Athenian Empire shortly before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. The ostensible reason for the Decree was the Megarians' supposed trespass on land sacred to Demeter and the killing of the Athenian herald...
  
  , the original cause of the war (609). They are mentioned in other plays, but especially in The Acharnians
  The Acharnians
  The Acharnians is the third play - and the earliest of the eleven surviving plays - by the great Athenian playwright Aristophanes. It was produced in 425 BCE on behalf of the young dramatist by an associate, Callistratus, and it won first place at the Lenaia festival...
  
   where one of the characters is a starving Megarian farmer.
• Brasidas
  Brasidas
  Brasidas was a Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War.He was the son of Tellis and Argileonis, and won his first laurels by the relief of Methone, which was besieged by the Athenians . During the following year he seems to have been eponymous ephor Brasidas (died 422...
  
  : Sparta's leading general, he had recently perished in the battle for Amphipolis. He is mentioned indirectly as one of the pestles that War can no longer use (line 282) and directly as somebody whose name is often brought up by corrupt politicians in accusations of treason (640). He is mentioned also in Wasps.
• Datis
  Datis
  For other uses of the word Dati, see Dati .Datis or Datus was a Median admiral who served the Persian Empire, under Darius the Great...
  
  : A Persian general during the Persian Wars, he is imaginatively quoted as somebody who sings while masturbating (line 289) - meanwhile Trygaeus and his fellow Greeks spring into action.
• Cillicon: A traitor (from Miletus) who famously excused his treachery with the comment that he intended nothing bad. He is quoted by Trygaeus (line 363).
• Boeotia
  Boeotia
  Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...
  
  ns: Northern neighbours of Athens but allies of Sparta, they were hindering peace efforts (line 466) and their banned produce is fondly remembered (1003). They are mentioned in other plays and especially in The Acharnians, where one of the characters is a Boetian merchant.
• Argives
  Argos
  Argos is a city and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour...
  
  : Citizens of Argos and neighbours of the Spartans, they had maintained their neutrality throughout the war and they were not assisting in peace efforts (lines 475, 493). They receive mentions in other plays.
• Thrassa and Syra: Common names for female slaves of Thracian (line 1138) and Syrian origin (1146). Thrassa is a silent character in Thesmophoriazusae
  Thesmophoriazusae
  Thesmophoriazusae is one of eleven surviving plays by the master of Old Comedy, the Athenian playwright Aristophanes. It was first produced in 411 BC, probably at the City Dionysia...
  
   and the name recurs in two other plays.
• Egyptians: An ancient and exotic people whose customs, as described by Herodotus
  Herodotus
  Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
  
  , included the regular use of an emetic syrmaia. They are mentioned in that context here (line 1253) and they receive mentions in other plays.

Religious and cultural identities

• Pegasus
  Pegasus
  Pegasus is one of the best known fantastical as well as mythological creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine horse, usually white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. He was the brother of Chrysaor, born at a single birthing...
  
  : A mythical flying horse, it lends its name to the flying dung beetle (lines 76, 135, 154).
• Dioscuri: Otherwise known as Castor and Pollux
  Castor and Pollux
  In Greek and Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux or Polydeuces were twin brothers, together known as the Dioscuri . Their mother was Leda, but Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, and Pollux the divine son of Zeus, who visited Leda in the guise of a swan...
  
  , they were venerated in particular by Spartans. Trygaeus attributes the death of Brasidas to their intervention (line 285).
• Eleusinian mysteries
  Eleusinian Mysteries
  The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance...
  
  : A mystery religion dedicated to the worship of Demeter and promising immortal life to its initiates, it included the ritual bathing of piglets. Trygaeus asks Hermes for money to buy such a piglet (374-5) and he offers to dedicate the mysteries to Hermes if he helps to secure peace (420).
• Panathenaea: The most important annual festival of Athens, it was dedicated to Athena. Trygaeus offers to dedicate it to Hermes in exchange for his help (line 418). He also offers to celebrate in his honour the Dipolia (festival of Zeus) and the Adonia
  Adonia
  Adonia , or Adonic feasts, was an ancient festival mourning the death of Adonis. The date is uncertain, but may have been early Spring, or summer. It was a private, rather than a state festival, and was celebrated by women exclusively.....
  
   (420). The Panathenaea is mentioned also in The Clouds and The Frogs. Diipoleia is also mentioned in The Clouds and Adonia in Lysistrata.
• Enyalius
  Enyalius
  Enyalius or Enyalio in Greek mythology is generally a byname of Ares the god of war but in Mycenaean times is differentiated as a separate deity...
  
  : An epithet of Ares, it is often used in the Iliad. The Chorus bids Trygaeus not to use this epithet in an invocation to the gods because Ares has nothing to do with peace (line 457).
• Ganymede
  Ganymede (mythology)
  In Greek mythology, Ganymede is a divine hero whose homeland was Troy. Homer describes Ganymede as the most beautiful of mortals. In the best-known myth, he is abducted by Zeus, in the form of an eagle, to serve as cup-bearer in Olympus. Some interpretations of the myth treat it as an allegory of...
  
  : Zeus's cupbearer, he is said to be the future source of the ambrosia
  Ambrosia
  In ancient Greek mythology, ambrosia is sometimes the food or drink of the Greek gods , often depicted as conferring ageless immortality upon whoever consumes it...
  
   on which the dung beetle will feed in future.
• Isthmian Games
  Isthmian Games
  The Isthmian Games or Isthmia were one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece, and were named after the isthmus of Corinth, where they were held...
  
  : One of the great athletic festivals of ancient Greece, it was a venue for camping both by athletes and spectators. A slave of Trygaeus fondly imagine his penis sharing a tent there with Festival (line 879).
• Apaturia
  Apaturia
  Apaturia were Ancient Greek festivals held annually by all the Ionian towns, except Ephesus and Colophon. At Athens the Apaturia took place on the 11th, 12th and 13th days of the month Pyanepsion , on which occasion the various phratries, or clans, of Attica met to discuss their affairs.The name...
  
  : A festival celebrated by Ionian Greeks, it included a day of sacrifice known as Anarrhysisor Drawing back. This word has sexual connotations for members of the Boule (line 890) in anticipation of an orgy with Festival.
• Lysimache: An epithet for Peace and the name of a contemporary priestess of Athena Polias (line 992).
• Stilbades: One of the prophets or oracle mongers that had profited from the war, he is imagined weeping from the smoke that rises from the sacrificial offering to Peace (line 1008).
• Bakis
  Bakis
  Bakis or Bacis is a general name for the inspired prophets and dispensers of oracles who flourished in Greece from the 8th to the 6th century B.C. Suidas mentions three: a Boeotian, an Arcadian and an Athenian....
  
  : A popular prophet and source of oracles, he is mentioned repeatedly by the oracle monger Hierocles (lines 1070-72) and Hierocles is later referred to as Bakis (1119). He is frequently cited in The Knights and he is mentioned also in The Birds
• Sibyl
  Sibyl
  The word Sibyl comes from the Greek word σίβυλλα sibylla, meaning prophetess. The earliest oracular seeresses known as the sibyls of antiquity, "who admittedly are known only through legend" prophesied at certain holy sites, under the divine influence of a deity, originally— at Delphi and...
  
  : A legendary prophetess, she is considered by Hierocles to be a greater authority than Homer (line 1095) and he is told to eat her (1116). She is mentioned also in The Knights.

Discussion

Aristophanes' plays reveal a tender love of rural life and a nostalgia for simpler times and they develop a vision of peace involving a return to the country and its routines. The association of peace with rural revival is expressed in this play in terms of religious imagery: Peace, imprisoned in a cave guarded by a Cerberus figure (lines 313-15), resembles a chthonic fertility goddess in captivity in the underworld, a motif especially familiar to Athenians in the cult of Demeter

Demeter

In Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...

 and her daughter Kore

Kore

Kore is an energy drink distributed by GNC in 250 mL cans.-Ingredients:Water, Sugar, Dextrose, Citric Acid, Taurine, Sodium Citrate, Glucuronolactone, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Caffeine, Sodium Benzoate, Inositol, Caramel Color, Potassium Sorbate, Niacin, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine...

 in the Eleusinian mysteries

Eleusinian Mysteries

The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance...

. The action of the play however also borrows from ancient folklore - the rescue of a maiden or a treasure from the inaccessible stronghold of a giant or monster was already familiar to Athenians in the story of Perseus

Perseus

Perseus ,Perseos and Perseas are not used in English. the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty of Danaans there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths of the Twelve Olympians...

 and Andromeda

Andromeda (mythology)

Andromeda is a princess from Greek mythology who, as divine punishment for her mother's bragging, the Boast of Cassiopeia, was chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster. She was saved from death by Perseus, her future husband. Her name is the Latinized form of the Greek Ἀνδρομέδη...

 and it is still familiar to modern audiences as 'Jack and the Beanstalk' (Trygaeus like Jack magically ascends to the remote stronghold of a giant and plunders its treasure). In spite of these mythical and religious contexts, political action emerges in this play as the decisive factor in human affairs - the gods are shown to be distant figures and mortals must therefore rely on their own initiative, as represented by the Chorus of Greeks working together to release Peace from captivity.

The god Hermes delivers a speech blaming the Peloponnesian War on Pericles and Cleon (lines 603-48) and this was an argument that Aristophanes had already promoted in earlier plays (e.g. The Acharnians 514-40 and The Knights 792-809). The Chorus's joyful celebration of peace is edged with bitter reflections on the mistakes of past leaders (e.g. 1172-90) and Trygaeus expresses anxious fears for the future of the peace (e.g. 313-38) since events are still subject to bad leadership (as symbolized by the new pestle that War goes indoors to fetch).. The bankrupted tradesmen at the end of the play are a reminder that there is still support for war. Moreover the militaristic verses borrowed from Homer by the son of Lamachus are a dramatic indication that war is deeply rooted in culture and that it still commands the imagination of a new generation. Peace in such circumstances requires not only a miracle (such as Trygaeus' flight) but also a combination of good luck and good will on the part of a significant group within the community (such as farmers) - a sober assessment by the poet of Dionysus.

Peace and Old Comedy

Peace is structured according to the conventions of Old Comedy. Variations from those conventions may be due to an historical trend towards New Comedy, corruption of the text and/or a unique dramatic effect that the poet intended. Noteworthy variations in this play are found in the following elements:

• Agon: A conventional agon is a debate that decides or reflects the outcome of the play, comprising a 'symmetrical scene' with a pair of songs and a pair of declaimed or spoken passages, typically in long lines of anapests. There is no such agon in this play nor is there an antagonist to represent a pro-war viewpoint, apart from War, a monstrosity incapable of eloquence. However, Old Comedy is rich in symmetrical scenes and sometimes these can resemble an agon. There is a symmetrical scene in lines 346-425 (song-dialogue-song-dialogue) in which Trygaeus argues with Hermes and eventually wins his support. The dialogue however is in iambic trimeter, conventionally the rhythm of ordinary speech. Moreover, the song's metrical form is repeated much later in a second antistrophe (583-97), indicating that Aristophanes was aiming at something other than an agon.
• Parabasis: A conventional parabasis is an address to the audience by the Chorus and it includes a symmetrical scene (song-speech-song-speech). Typically there are two such addresses, in the middle and near the end of a play. Peace follows convention except that the speeches have been omitted from the symmetrical scene in the first parabasis (lines 729-816) and it includes several lines (752-59) that were copied almost verbatim from the first parabasis in The Wasps
  The Wasps
  The Wasps is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes, the master of an ancient genre of drama called 'Old Comedy'. It was produced at the Lenaia festival in 422 BC, a time when Athens was enjoying a brief respite from The Peloponnesian War following a one...
  
   ( The Wasps 1030-37). The repetition of these lines need not indicate a problem with the text; it could instead indicate the poet's satisfaction with them. They describe Cleon as a disgusting gorgon-like phenomenon in language that matches sound and sense e.g.

(Wasps 1033-4, Peace 756-7):

"a hundred heads of doomed stooges circled and licked around his head"

The sound of something revolting is captured in the original Greek by the repetition of the harsh k sound, including a repetition of the word for 'head'.

• Dactylic rhythm: The metrical rhythms of Old Comedy are typically iambic, trochaic and anapestic. Peace however includes two scenes that are predominantly dactylic in rhythm, one featuring the oracle-monger Hierocles (1052–1126) and the other featuring the epic-singing son of Lamachus (1270–97). In both scenes, the use of dactyls allows for Homer-like utterances generally signifying martial and oracular bombast.
• Parodos: A parodos is the entry of the Chorus, conventionally a spectacular occasion for music and choreography. Often it includes trochaic rhythms to signify the mood of an irascible Chorus in search of trouble (as for example in The Acharnians
  The Acharnians
  The Acharnians is the third play - and the earliest of the eleven surviving plays - by the great Athenian playwright Aristophanes. It was produced in 425 BCE on behalf of the young dramatist by an associate, Callistratus, and it won first place at the Lenaia festival...
  
   and The Knights
  The Knights
  The Knights was the fourth play written by Aristophanes, the master of an ancient form of drama known as Old Comedy. The play is a satire on the social and political life of classical Athens during the Peloponnesian War and in this respect it is typical of all the dramatist's early plays...
  
  ). In Peace the rhythm is trochaic but the Chorus enters joyfully and its only argument with the protagonist is over its inability to stop dancing (299-345), an inventive use of a conventional parados.

Standard Edition

The standard critical edition of the Greek text (with commentary) is:
S. Douglas Olson (ed.), Aristophanes Peace (Oxford University Press, 1998)

Translations

• William James Hickie, 1853 - prose, full text
• Benjamin B. Rogers, 1924 - verse
• Arthur S. Way, 1934 - verse
• Alan Sommerstein, 1978 - prose
• George Theodoridis, 2002 - prose full text: http://bacchicstage.wordpress.com/
• unknown translator - prose: full text