About the work
Peace was performed at the City Dionysia in March 421 BC and won second prize, just days before the Peace of Nicias ended the ten-year war between Athens and Sparta; Spartan envoys are said to have been in the audience.
Plot
The farmer Trygaeus flies to Olympus on a giant dung beetle to confront the gods, who have abandoned Greece over its endless war. He finds the goddess Peace, Eirene, shut in a pit by War, and frees her with the help of a pan-Hellenic chorus of farmers. Back on earth, Trygaeus marries Harvest, Opora, and celebrates the return of peace with all the Greeks.
Cultural significance
As one of the three peace comedies, alongside The Acharnians and Lysistrata, Peace stands out for its closeness to the real political event it accompanied – a rare case of an Aristophanes comedy unfolding almost simultaneously with the history it comments on.