Peace
Peace (Eirēnē; Pax) Author: Aristophanes
First Performance: 421 BC, Athens
First English Translation: 1840
Genre: Greek com. in verse
Setting: Mount Olympus and a farm near Athens, 5th c. bc
Cast: 15m, 5f, extras, chorus (m)
Trygaeus, an Attic farmer, is weary of the war and so resolves to fly up to Mount Olympus on a dung-beetle to plead with the gods to create peace. Hermes comes to the door of heaven and explains that the gods have moved further away from the turmoil on earth, leaving War in charge. War has cast Peace into a deep cave. When Trygaeus calls on his fellow Greeks to release Peace, Hermes intervenes to warn that Zeus will strike dead anyone attempting to open the cave. Trygaeus flatters and cajoles Hermes into letting them release Peace, and she is freed, with her two beautiful maidservants....
[The entire page is 309 words long]
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