AcharniansAkharnians

A comic play by the Athenian poet, Aristophanes, which was produced in the first years of the Peloponnesian War (425 BCE).

The play was an undisguised plea for peace between the cities of Athens and Sparta but despite the potentially unpopular theme of the play, it was well received in Athens.

The main character of the play, Dikaiopolis (Dicaiopolis), served as the voice of peace but regardless of the passion demonstrated by the play’s characters, no one could foresee that the war would drag on for twenty eight years.

The setting of the story is the market in Athens where Dikaiopolis is confronted by an angry group of Akharnians who want to kill him because he has tried to negotiate a private peace with Sparta; the Akharnians want to stone and then decapitate Dikaiopolis but he persuades them to hear his reasoning for wanting peace with Sparta before they kill him.

Dikaiopolis harangues a variety of people including the poet Euripides, the government of Athens, the Athenian military, farmers, merchants and even participants in a wedding.

At the end of the play, the comic lampoons of Dikaiopolis are juxtaposed against the mournful laments of a wounded soldier.

This play is somewhat difficult to read but worth the effort; there is one particularly enjoyable scene where Dikaiopolis is arguing with a desperate Megarian farmer who is trying to raise money by disguising his daughters as pigs and offering them for sale; the underlying message of the scene is that the farmer has been brought to ruin by the war but his destitution is comically relieved by the farcical hoax he’s trying to foist on Dikaiopolis.

Aristophanes’ plays are sometimes difficult to appreciate because he was a very contemporary poet, i.e. he was writing for the Athenian audience of his day; he would use puns, parody regional accents and speak directly to the audience in ways that force modern translators to seek out the contextual meaning rather than the literal meaning of the poet’s words; for that reason, I suggest that if you find a translation that is difficult to enjoy, please don’t blame Aristophanes, simply look for a translation that you can enjoy; when trying to find a readable translator, I suggest Patric Dickinson; you may find his books at your local library in the 882 section but his books are out of print and sometimes difficult to find; I also recommend the Penguin Classics book Lysistrata & Other Plays: The Acharnians, the Clouds, Lysistrata by Aristophanes, Alan H. Sommerstein (Translator), ISBN 0140448144; you can also find this book at your local library or you can purchase it through the Book Shop on this site which is linked to Amazon.com.