No More Learning

[247] A hero, much honoured in Thebes; nephew of Heracles.

[248] A form of bread peculiar to Boeotia.

[249] A lake in Boeotia.

[250] He was the Lucullus of Athens.

[251] This again fixes the date of the presentation of the 'Acharnians'
to 426 B. C. , the sixth year of the War, since the beginning of which
Boeotia had been closed to the Athenians.

[252] An Informer.

[253] The second day of the Dionysia or feasts of Bacchus, kept in the
month Anthesterion (February), and called the Anthesteria. They lasted
three days; the second being the Feast of Cups, a description of which is
to be found at the end of this comedy, the third the Feast of Pans.
Vases, filled with grain of all kinds, were borne in procession and
dedicated to Hermes.

[254] A parody of some verses from a lost poet.

[255] A feasting song in honour of Harmodius, the assassin of Hipparchus
the Tyrant, son of Pisistratus.

[256] The celebrated painter, born at Heraclea, a contemporary of
Aristophanes.

[257] A deme and frontier fortress of Attica, near the Boeotian border.
[258] An Athenian physician of the day.

[259] An allusion to the paroxysms of rage, as represented in many
tragedies familiar to an Athenian audience, of Orestes, the son of
Agamemnon, after he had killed his mother.

[260] No doubt the comic poet, rival of Aristophanes.

[261] Unexpected wind-up of the story. Aristophanes intends to deride the
boasting of Lamachus, who was always ascribing to himself most unlikely
exploits.





PEACE




INTRODUCTION

The 'Peace' was brought out four years after 'The Acharnians' (422 B. C. ),
when the War had already lasted ten years. The leading motive is the same
as in the former play--the intense desire of the less excitable and more
moderate-minded citizens for relief from the miseries of war.

Trygaeus, a rustic patriot, finding no help in men, resolves to ascend to
heaven to expostulate personally with Zeus for allowing this wretched
state of things to continue. With this object he has fed and trained a
gigantic dung-beetle, which he mounts, and is carried, like Bellerophon
on Pegasus, on an aerial journey. Eventually he reaches Olympus, only to
find that the gods have gone elsewhere, and that the heavenly abode is
occupied solely by the demon of War, who is busy pounding up the Greek
States in a huge mortar. However, his benevolent purpose is not in vain;
for learning from Hermes that the goddess Peace has been cast into a pit,
where she is kept a fast prisoner, he calls upon the different peoples of
Hellas to make a united effort and rescue her, and with their help drags
her out and brings her back in triumph to earth. The play concludes with
the restoration of the goddess to her ancient honours, the festivities of
the rustic population and the nuptials of Trygaeus with Opora (Harvest),
handmaiden of Peace, represented as a pretty courtesan.

Such references as there are to Cleon in this play are noteworthy. The
great Demagogue was now dead, having fallen in the same action as the
rival Spartan general, the renowned Brasidas, before Amphipolis, and
whatever Aristophanes says here of his old enemy is conceived in the
spirit of 'de mortuis nil nisi bonum.