Peace: War

The chapter deals with the central themes of Aristophanes’ Peace, a drama that examines the dissonance between values and economic interests on the eve of the Peace of Nicias (421 BCE), highlighting the complexities and contradictions of this historical and social context. Like a theomachos, a man who fights against the gods, the protagonist of the play, Trygaeus, flies to the heavens to call Zeus to account for the war: this lonely endeavour physically represents the metaphysical distance between man and the gods, and is in the end partly frustrated by the absence of the gods themselves, who have left Mount Olympus and gone into exile because of their powerlessness to save mortals from themselves. The heroic efforts of the Panhellenes, gathered in the chorus, to bring the Goddess of Peace back into the light also fail because of the persistence of divisions and particularism between cities and peoples throughout Greece. In the face of these problems and the corruption of politicians, only the peasants can promote a sense of civil solidarity, in harmony with the natural environment. The symbolism of pleasure, represented by the desire for the products of the earth and formally reinterpreted in the language of erotic poetry, finds its final triumph in the marriage of the victorious protagonist, Trygaeus – the wedding party that follows is a symbol of the goods of peace, from which Trygaeus alone has the power to exclude those who have not contributed to the efforts to achieve peace. The dichotomy between peace and war is emphasized by the exclusion of two groups who had the upper hand during the war: the arms dealers and the oracle mongers. Aristophanes thus reinforces his argument that profit is the primary motive for all social action, including war. In the end, the chorus includes the entire audience, i.e. the Athenian citizens, in a collective desire to share in the joys of the protagonist’s wedding feast. The restoration of peace, which required the prioritisation of the common good by all citizens, is now visually represented as a shared celebration.