Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Peace











Peace (Greek: Εἰρήνη, Eirēnē) is an Athenian Old Comedy written and produced by the Greek playwright Aristophanes. It won second prize at the City Dionysia where it was staged just a few days before the Peace of Nicias was validified (421 BC), which promised to end the ten year old Peloponnesian War. 








The play is notable for its joyous anticipation of peace and for its celebration of a return to an idyllic life in the countryside. However, it also sounds a note of caution, there is bitterness in the memory of lost opportunities and the ending is not happy for everyone. As in all Aristophanes' plays, the jokes are numerous, the action is wildly absurd and the satire is savage—Cleon, the pro-war populist leader of Athens, is once again a target for the author's wit even though he had died in battle just a few months earlier.  [ source ]






"Peace" by Aristophanes was presented on July 26th and 27th at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, in the context of Athens & Epidaurus Festival 2013.






 

Vasilis Charalambopoulos and Fanis Mouratidis star in the ever-relevant Peace (421 BC), in which Aristophanes condemns war and extols the virtues of rural life while parodying the theatre of his age.





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