Aristophanes’ Comedy on the Peace of Nicias, Peloponnesian Wars

Today we will learn and reflect on the play by
Aristophanes, Peace, written during the time of the
Peace of Nicias, and was first performed while the
treaty was being ratified.
The Platonic dialogues were written soon after the
Peloponnesian Wars, so you cannot understand the
dialogues without understanding the history of these
wars.

Aristophanes was consistently against the war, and
this play may reflect the antiwar sentiment in Athens.
This video is a continuation of the video on the Peace
of Nicias, you may wish to watch this video first.

At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources used for this
video. Please feel free to follow along our PowerPoint script
posted to SlideShare. Please, we welcome interesting questions
in the comments. Let us learn and reflect together!

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This is one of many videos where we examine the
history of the Peloponnesian Wars.
Sparta and her allies became concerned and
suspicious as the Athenian Empire grew in power and
influence. Conflicts between Athens and the Spartan
allies led to the start of the Peloponnesian Wars
under the Athenian general and statesman Pericles.

https://youtu.be/QabwtFANCDc
https://youtu.be/uhtGzfxVdzk
https://youtu.be/1ra58mg33nM
Aristides and Cimon were two Athenian generals who were
asked by the Ionic Greek colonies to lead the defensive Delian
League against Persia, that evolved into the Athenian Empire.
The rise of Pericles and the reforms leading to
the Radical Democracy of Athens.
Pericles as general and statesman before and
at the start of the Peloponnesian Wars.

Both Sparta and Athens tired of the constant warfare. After the leaders
who were eager to continue the war, the Demagogue Cleon of Athens
and general Brasidas of Sparta, both died in the Battle of Amphipolis,
Nicias was able to negotiate a peace that held for six years between
Athens and Sparta, called the Peace of Nicias. This is the second of two
videos on the Peace of Nicias.

https://youtu.be/1ra58mg33nM
The play by Aristophanes on the Peace of Nicias,
showing popular opinion of the war. We ponder
whether Pericles started the war needlessly.
The Peace of Nicias, and why it was not so
peaceful, ending the Archidamian War,
the first phase of the Peloponnesian Wars.
Comparing and contrasting:
Pericles’ Funeral Oration
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
Churchill’s speech, Battle of Britain
CURRENT VIDEO

Many Athenians and Spartans were weary of war, so the peace
did somewhat hold for almost seven years. The play “Peace” by
Aristophanes won second prize at the Dionysian Festival just a
few days before the ratification of the Peace of Nicias, it
celebrates the peace and a return to the idyllic life in the
countryside. This play, the Peace, reflects the yearning of many
Greeks for peace at last. We will excerpt the most humorous and
revealing lines from this play:

Thalia & Aristophanes, by Antonio Canova, 1799

This Peace opens with the servants kneading
what appears to be dough for bread, but no,
this is not dough, but rather, as the servants
of Trygaeus complain,
“There’s no more loathly miserable task,
Than to be mashing dung to feed a beetle.”
Which beetle is this? The giant dung-beetle
on which Trygaeus enters the stage, with
wings spread. One of his daughters asks him:
“O father, can it be true,
The tale that is come to our ears about you,
That along with the birds you are going to go,
And to leave us alone and be off to the
crow?”

Trygaeus seeks to fly to Olympus to entreat the gods to
end this terrible war. His daughter asks him,
“Girl: What will be your method of passage?
Ships will not do: they cannot go this journey.
Trygaeus: I will ride a steed with wings: no ships for me.
Girl: But what’s the wit of harnessing a beetle
To ride on it to heaven, papa, papa?
Trygaeus: It is the only living this with wings,
So, Aesop says, that ever reached the gods.
Girl: O father, father, that’s too good a story
That such a stinking brute should enter heaven.
Should you not have harnessed Pegasus, the flying
horse,
And so, in tragic style, approach the gods?
Trygaeus: Nay, then I must have had supplies for two,
But now the very food I eat myself,
All this will presently be food for him.”
A scarab, depicted on the walls of
Tomb KV6 in the Valley of the Kings

Aristophanes was known for his clever and scatological bathroom humor, both are
in full play here, because many Greeks would know that the scarab, or amulet of a
dung beetle, is quite popular in Egypt, and perhaps some scarab seals or amulets
found their way to Greece. In Egyptian mythology, the dung beetle, or Khepri,
represented the god Ra, who everyday pushed the newly created sun across the sky,
in the same way that scarabs, or dung beetles, push large balls of dung across the
ground. So, it is not too far-fetched to ride on the back of dung beetles to heaven.
Our hero Trygaeus flies to heaven, or Mount Olympus, on the back of his dung
beetle, but the only god he finds at first is Hermes. The Greek audience would also
remember that Hermes makes an appearance in the Odyssey, where he sends a
message from the gods to Calypso that she allow Odysseus to return home to his
wife, Penelope. Here Hermes is delivering a message from the gods to Trygaeus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khepri

Hermes entertained
by Calypso, by Jacob
Jordaens, circa 1635

“Trygaeus: What is the reason the gods went away?
Hermes: They were so vexed with Hellas: therefore here,
Where they were dwelling, they’ve established War,
And given you up entirely to his will.
But the gods themselves have settled up aloft,
As high as they can go; that they no more
May see your fighting or hear your prayers.”
Trygaeus inquires of Hermes: “Where has Peace gone to?
Hermes: War has blockades her in a deep, deep pit.
Trygaeus: Where?
Hermes: Here, beneath our feet. And you may see
The heavy stones he piled up about its mouth,
That none should take her out.”
Allegory of Peace and War, by
Pompeo Batoni, 1776

There is a reference to a lady Peace in
Plutarch’s Life of Nicias: “When an
oracle commanded them to fetch the
priestess of Athena from
Clazomenae, they sent for the
woman, and her name was Peace!
This was apparently the god’s way of
advising the city to keep the peace
for the time being.”
Allegory of Peace and War, by
Pompeo Batoni, 1776

The Greeks and Romans had dozens and hundreds of gods for rivers and mountains
and other aspects of life, so there likely was a minor god or goddess of peace, but
none of the major gods on Mount Olympus were concerned with peace. Among the
major gods, the god of war was the Greek god Ares, Mars was his Roman name, and
the protectress of Athens, Athena, aka Minerva, was also a goddess of war.
This painting by Rubens is an allegory. According to the description in the British
National Galley, the nude woman in the center represents both Pax (Peace) and
Ceres, goddess of the earth, and she is sharing her bounty with a group of children
in the foreground. Just behind Pax, Athena, or Minerva, goddess of wisdom, is
protecting the group from Ares, or Mars, god of war. The overall message is clear:
rejecting war and embracing peace will bring prosperity and plenty.
Ruben was acting as an envoy to Spain in 1630, and this painting celebrates the
peace treaty he was able to negotiate.
Continuing with the play:

Minerva protects Peace from Mars, using Greek Names,
Athena protects Peace from Ares, by Peter Paul Rubens, circa 1630
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/peter-paul-rubens-minerva-protects-pax-from-mars-peace-and-war
The painting is an
allegory.
Among the key figures,
the woman in the
center represents both
Pax (Peace) and Ceres,
goddess of the earth.
Just behind Pax,
Minerva, goddess of
wisdom, is protecting
the group from Mars,
god of war. The overall
message is clear:
rejecting war and
embracing peace will
bring prosperity and
plenty.

National Gallery
Description:
This picture was
made for King
Charles I of
England and given
to him by Rubens,
who was acting as
an envoy of Philip
IV of Spain, in
1630. Rubens’s
mission bore fruit:
a peace treaty
between England
and Spain was
signed in
November 1630.

Peace is sharing
her bounty with
a group of
children in the
foreground. The
little children
represent future
generations but
are also portraits
of the children
of Sir Balthasar
Gerbier,
Rubens’s host.

Then War enters, bearing a gigantic mortar, in
which he is about to mix a salad, followed by Riot.
War asks Riot: “Run in and get a pestle.”
Riot cannot find a pestle, and after looking, Riot
answers War:
The pestle the Athenians had is lost,
The tanner fellow who disturbed all Hellas,”
And Aristophanes is referring to Cleon, the
Athenian demagogue and incompetent general
who recently died on the battlefield.
“Ludovisi Ares”, god of war, Roman
copy of Greek original, circa 320 BC.
Mortar and Pestel

“War: Then run away and fetch from Lacedaemon,
another pestle.
Riot: O, Sir, the Spartans too have lost their pestle.
War: How so, you rascal?
Riot: Why, they lent it out,
To friends Thrace-ward, and they lost it there.”
And Aristophanes is referring to Brasidas, the
Spartan general who had recently died on the same
battlefield.
“War: Pick up the things, and carry them away,
I will go and make myself a pestle.” And War and Riot
exit the stage.
Ares, god of war, Hadrian’s villa

A few pages later, Trygaeus, Hermes, and the Chorus
help pull Peace, and her two attendants out of their
pit. With peace released, the Spartans no longer
annually ravish the fields and crops of Athens, no
longer do they destroy the houses and olive trees.

Peace and Plenty binding Arrows of War, by Abraham Janssens I, 1614

Trygaeus sings: “Comrades, which to
Peace we owe,
All the life of ease and comfort
Which she gave us long ago:
Figs and olives, wine and myrtles,
Luscious fruits preserved and dried,
Banks of fragrant violets, blowing
By the crystal fountain’s side;
Scenes for which our hearts are
yearning,
Joys that we have missed so long,
Comrades, here is Peace returning,
Greet her back with dance and song!

Chorus: Welcome, welcome, best and
dearest,
Welcome, welcome, welcome home,
Peace,
We have looked and longed for thee,
Looking, longing, wondrously,
Once again for our farms to see.
O the joy, the bliss, the rapture,
really to behold thee come.
Peace was our chief enjoyment,
Peace was our greatest gain.”

The chorus asks Hermes, “Where has
Peace been hiding?”
Hermes responds,
“Phidias began the mischief,
having come to grief and shame.”
The Phidias who rebuilt the Acropolis
and Parthenon?
Which was built from tribute paid by
the Athenian allies.
“Pericles was next in order,
fearing he might share the blame,”
“By his Megara enactment,
setting all the war ablaze.
Such a bitter smoke ascended,
setting all the world ablaze.”
Allegory of Peace, by Jean Baptiste de Champaigne, 1668

The Persians had torn down and burnt the many
temples and statues on the Acropolis in Athens in the
Greco-Persian wars. Phidias was an architect and
friend of Pericles who rebuilt the Acropolis and
Parthenon, these marvels that thrill tourists today
were paid for by tribute paid by the Athenian allies.

Pericles and Aspasia in the studio of Phidias, by Louis Hector Leroux, 1800's

Many of Pericles’ enemies were critical of
the exorbitant costs of this building
program, Plutarch quotes them, “The
Greek regard it as outrageously arrogant
treatment, as blatant tyranny, when they
can see that we are using the funds they
were forced to contribute for the military
defense of Greece to gild and embellish
our city, as if she were a vain woman
adorning herself with costly marble,
statues, and temples at a thousand
talents at a time.” For comparison, one
talent was months pay for the hundreds
of rowers needed to man a trireme.

This tribute was paid to Athens by the members of
the Delian League, who were mostly Greek city-states
on the islands and the coasts of the Aegean Sea, to
pay for the common defense against the Persian
Empire. The Delian League evolved into the Athenian
Empire after Pericles moved the League treasury
from the island of Delos to Athens, so the Athenians
could more readily access these funds for their
building programs.

Pericles strategy to avoid open contest between Spartan and
Athenian hoplites in front of the walls of Attica, opting to instead
to take to the ships and fight a war of attrition with Sparta and
her allies, in turn raiding their fields and towns, and interfering
with their trade and food supplies, truly deepened the hatred
that Greeks felt towards their enemies, on both the Athenian and
Spartan sides. This was not noble Homeric combat of the epics;
this was endless pillage and slaughter. Add to that the suffering
the Athenians endured crowed behind their Long Walls during
the Plague, and you can easily understand why Pericles was
blamed for the outbreak of war.

Plague of Athens, by Michiel Sweerts, circa 1654

The Peace of Nicias would not hold for long, the
Peace would be shattered by the Athenian aggression
and disastrous defeat in Syracuse, Sicily, followed by
many more years of war that would end in the
destruction of the Athenian fleet and the
unconditional surrender of Athens to the Spartan
commander Lysander.

Moral lessons, Thucydides History:
Revolt at Mytilene
Revolution at Corcyra
Melian Dialogue
Plutarch and Thucydides on the role of
Alcibiades in the Peloponnesian Wars,
History of the Wars after Syracuse
Disastrous Defeat of Athens at Syracuse,
much of the Athenian fleet were slaughtered,
leading to revolts of allies and her eventual
defeat in the Peloponnesian Wars.

Later antiwar plays by Aristophanes on the role
of women in Greek society, we will reflect
whether these plays influence Plato’s Republic.
Plutarch’s Life of Lysander, why he showed mercy
on Athens when she lost the Peloponnesian Wars,
consulting Xenophon’s History
Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus,
Lawgiver of Sparta,
The Unique Warrior Culture of Sparta

DISCUSSING THE SOURCES
Since all of our videos on the Peloponnesian War
access many of the same multiple sources, we cut
another video reviewing these sources.

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Aristophanes’ Comedy on the Peace of Nicias, Peloponnesian Wars

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Aristophanes’ Comedy on the Peace of Nicias, Peloponnesian Wars