PEACE was written by Aristophanes and performed at the Great Dionysia in 421 BCE.
This ancient comedy strongly criticizes and satirizes the Peloponnesian War between Athenians and Spartans.
The play tells the story of Trygaeus of Athmonon, a Greek farmer weary of the war, who decides to fly to Mount Olympus riding a giant beetle, in order to seek an explanation from Zeus. But the gods, too, were tired of the war between men and ran away to a remote place in space. When Trygaeus arrives at the Olympus, he learns about the gods’ departure and also that the goddess Peace is held captive in a cave by the personification of War and Disorder…
Any resemblance to actual events is purely coincidental.
