The Acharnians - by Aristophanes

A highly satirical play that appeals for the end of The Peloponnesian War. From phallic speeches to a woman trying to sell her daughters off as pigs, the story provides an imaginative and absurd humour that entertain from start to finish. A must read !

Short plot

Dicaeopolis, an Athenian citizen living during the Peloponnesian War with Sparta, publicly denounces the absurdity and sheer stupidity of war. Sarcastic and critical towards the 'demagogic' politicians and the military, Aristophanes puts in the main character's mouth the wanting for the simple liberties and happiness that come with peace. The author's piercing and crude attacks mainly aim at Cleon, head of the democratic state, who is accused by Aristophanes of plunging Athens into continuous and senseless armed campaigns that lead his city to defeat and decline.

In an absurd twist of the play, an ordinary Greek farmer succeeds where all the politicians could not: he personally travels to Sparta and signs a private peace treaty with the enemy.

Written and performed in 425 BC, The Acharninas won first place at the Lenaia Festival, probably the most famous play-contest of ancient Greece.

A detailed setting of the play

The long struggle (25+ years) between Athens and Sparta - best known as 'The Peloponnesian War' - broke out early in 431 B.C. Athens kept for a considerable time the command of the sea, but was unable to resist in the field the overwhelming forces of Sparta and her allies. Early in the first year of  the war, Archidamus, one of the kings of Sparta, entered the Athenian territory at the head of an army of eighty thousand men. Pericles, who was then the leading statesman of Athens, had persuaded his countrymen to dismantle their country-houses and farms, and bring all their movable property within the walls of the fortressed city. Still the sight of the ravages of the invading host, which, of course, could be plainly seen from the walls, roused the people almost to madness. The Athenians, though excelling in maritime pursuits, were passionately fond of a country life, and it was almost more than they could bear to see their farms and orchards and olive-yards wasted with fire. Inferior as they were in numbers, they loudly demanded to be led out against the invaders, and it was as much as Pericles could do to keep them within the walls.

The inhabitants of Acharnia, a town in the north of Athens,  were prominent among the malcontents. The area was one of the richest and most populous of the townships of Attica, well known for his charcoal-burning; no place was more interested in the question of peace and war, as it was here that the Spartan king pitched his camp.

The invasion was repeated year after year, though on some few occasions various things happened to prevent it. Not only did Athenians lose greatly by the desolation of their country, but they suffered much by being cooped up within the walls of the city. And it was but a small satisfaction to retaliate by ravaging the coasts of the Peloponnesians, and by annually invading the territory of Megara, a city which had concluded an alliance with Sparta.

There had always been a peace party in the state, and when Pericles died, early in the third year of the war, this party became more powerful. At the same time the war party conducted affairs less prudently. The cautious policy of Pericles was discarded for remote expeditions and out-of-the-way schemes.

Aristophanes sets forth the views of the advocates of peace. He expresses the feeling of distress caused by the desolation of the country, and also the dislike felt by prudent politicians for the extravagant ideas of the war party.

Note: this is my simplified and revised version of an introduction made by Alfred Church for "The Baldwin Project".