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Plutus ( / Ploutos, meaning "wealth")is an Ancient Greek comedy
Ancient Greek comedy

Comedy was one of two principal dramatic forms in ancient Greece, the other being tragedy. Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy....
 by the playwright Aristophanes
Aristophanes

Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a prolific and much acclaimed comedy playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays have come down to us virtually complete....
, first produced c. 388 BC. A political satire on contemporary Athens, it features the personified god of wealth Plutus
Plutus

In Greek mythology, Ploutos , usually Romanized as Plutus, was equally a son of the pre-Hellenic Cretan Demeter? and the demigod Iasion, with whom she lay in a thrice-ploughed field? and, in the mythic context of Eleusinian Mysteries, also the divine child, the issue of the ravisher, the child and boy-double of the "wealthy" Hades ....
. Reflecting the development of Old Comedy towards New Comedy, it uses such familiar character types as the stupid master and the insubordinate slave to attack the morals of the time.

play features an elderly Athenian citizen, Chremylos, and his slave Cario.






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Plutus ( / Ploutos, meaning "wealth")is an Ancient Greek comedy
Ancient Greek comedy

Comedy was one of two principal dramatic forms in ancient Greece, the other being tragedy. Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy....
 by the playwright Aristophanes
Aristophanes

Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a prolific and much acclaimed comedy playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays have come down to us virtually complete....
, first produced c. 388 BC. A political satire on contemporary Athens, it features the personified god of wealth Plutus
Plutus

In Greek mythology, Ploutos , usually Romanized as Plutus, was equally a son of the pre-Hellenic Cretan Demeter? and the demigod Iasion, with whom she lay in a thrice-ploughed field? and, in the mythic context of Eleusinian Mysteries, also the divine child, the issue of the ravisher, the child and boy-double of the "wealthy" Hades ....
. Reflecting the development of Old Comedy towards New Comedy, it uses such familiar character types as the stupid master and the insubordinate slave to attack the morals of the time.

Plot

The play features an elderly Athenian citizen, Chremylos, and his slave Cario. Chremylos presents himself and his family as virtuous but poor, and has accordingly gone to seek advice from an oracle
Oracle

An oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophecy opinion; an infallible authority, usually Spirituality in nature....
. The play begin as he returns to Athens from Delphi, having been instructed by Apollo to follow the first man he meets and persuade him to come home with him. That man turns out to be the god Plutus -- who is, contrary to all expectation, a blind beggar. After much argument, Plutus is convinced to enter Chremylus' house, where he will have his vision restored, meaning that "wealth" will now go only to those who deserve it in one way or another.

The first part of the play examines the idea that wealth is not distributed to the virtuous, or necessarily to the non-virtuous, but instead it is distributed randomly. Chremylos is convinced that if Plutus' eyesight can be restored, these wrongs can be righted, making the world a better place.

The second part introduces the goddess Poverty. She counters Chremylos' arguments that it is better to be rich by arguing that without poverty there would be no slaves (as every slave would buy his freedom) and no fine goods or luxury foods (as nobody would work if everyone were rich).

After Plutus' eyesight is restored at the Temple of Asclepius
Asclepius

Asclepius is the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology. Asclepius represents the healing aspect of the medical arts, while his daughters Hygieia, Meditrina, Iaso, Aceso, Aglaea and Panacea symbolize the forces of cleanliness, medicine, and healing, respectively....
, he formally becomes a member of Chremylus' household. At the same time, the entire world is turned upside-down economically and socially. Unsurprisingly, this gives rise to rancorous comments and claims of unfairness from those who have been deprived of their riches.

In the end, the messenger god Hermes
Hermes

Hermes is the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology. An Twelve Olympians, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of general commerce, and of the cunni...
 arrives to inform Chremylus and his family of the gods' anger. As in Aristophanes' The Birds
The Birds (play)

The Birds is a Greek comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes in 414 BC, and performed that year for the Dionysia....
, the gods have been starved of sacrifices, since human beings have all directed their attention to Plutus, and they no longer pay homage to the traditional Olympian gods. Hermes, worried about his own predicament, actually offers to work for the mortals and enters Chremylus' house as a servant on those conditions.

Translations

  • William Charles Green, 1892 - verse:
  • Benjamin B. Rogers, 1924 - verse
  • Arthur S. Way
    Arthur S. Way

    Arthur Sanders Way was an English people classical scholar and poet, born at Dorking. He was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, Somerset, and at Queen's College , Melbourne, where he was afterward fellow....
    , 1934 - verse
  • unknown translator - prose:
  • George Theodoridis, 2008 - prose: