{"product_id":"2940012417510","title":"THE ACHARNIANS","description":"INTRODUCTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is the first of the series of three Comedies--'The Acharnians,'\u003cbr\u003e'Peace' and 'Lysistrata'--produced at intervals of years, the sixth,\u003cbr\u003etenth and twenty-first of the Peloponnesian War, and impressing on\u003cbr\u003ethe Athenian people the miseries and disasters due to it and to the\u003cbr\u003escoundrels who by their selfish and reckless policy had provoked it, the\u003cbr\u003econsequent ruin of industry and, above all, agriculture, and the urgency\u003cbr\u003eof asking Peace. In date it is the earliest play brought out by the\u003cbr\u003eauthor in his own name and his first work of serious importance. It\u003cbr\u003ewas acted at the Lenaean Festival, in January, 426 B.C., and gained the\u003cbr\u003efirst prize, Cratinus being second.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIts diatribes against the War and fierce criticism of the general\u003cbr\u003epolicy of the War party so enraged Cleon that, as already mentioned,\u003cbr\u003ehe endeavoured to ruin the author, who in 'The Knights' retorted by a\u003cbr\u003edirect and savage personal attack on the leader of the democracy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe plot is of the simplest. Dicaeopolis, an Athenian citizen, but a\u003cbr\u003enative of Acharnae, one of the agricultural demes and one which had\u003cbr\u003eespecially suffered in the Lacedaemonian invasions, sick and tired of\u003cbr\u003ethe ill-success and miseries of the War, makes up his mind, if he fails\u003cbr\u003eto induce the people to adopt his policy of \"peace at any price,\" to\u003cbr\u003econclude a private and particular peace of his own to cover himself, his\u003cbr\u003efamily, and his estate. The Athenians, momentarily elated by victory\u003cbr\u003eand over-persuaded by the demagogues of the day--Cleon and his\u003cbr\u003ehenchmen, refuse to hear of such a thing as coming to terms. Accordingly\u003cbr\u003eDicaeopolis dispatches an envoy to Sparta on his own account, who comes\u003cbr\u003eback presently with a selection of specimen treaties in his pocket.\u003cbr\u003eThe old man tastes and tries, special terms are arranged, and the play\u003cbr\u003econcludes with a riotous and uproarious rustic feast in honour of the\u003cbr\u003eblessings of Peace and Plenty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIncidentally excellent fun is poked at Euripides and his dramatic\u003cbr\u003emethods, which supply matter for so much witty badinage in several\u003cbr\u003eothers of our author's pieces.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOther specially comic incidents are: the scene where the two young\u003cbr\u003edaughters of the famished Megarian are sold in the market at Athens as\u003cbr\u003esuck(l)ing-pigs--a scene in which the convenient similarity of the\u003cbr\u003eGreek words signifying a pig and the 'pudendum muliebre' respectively\u003cbr\u003eis utilized in a whole string of ingenious and suggestive 'double\u003cbr\u003eentendres' and ludicrous jokes; another where the Informer, or\u003cbr\u003eMarket-Spy, is packed up in a crate as crockery and carried off home by\u003cbr\u003ethe Boeotian buyer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe drama takes its title from the Chorus, composed of old men of\u003cbr\u003eAcharnae.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE ACHARNIANS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDRAMATIS PERSONAE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     DICAEOPOLIS\u003cbr\u003e     HERALD\u003cbr\u003e     AMPHITHEUS\u003cbr\u003e     AMBASSADORS\u003cbr\u003e     PSEUDARTABAS\u003cbr\u003e     THEORUS\u003cbr\u003e     WIFE OF DICAEOPOLIS\u003cbr\u003e     DAUGHTER OF DICAEOPOLIS\u003cbr\u003e     EURIPIDES\u003cbr\u003e     CEPHISOPHON, servant of Euripides\u003cbr\u003e     LAMACHUS\u003cbr\u003e     ATTENDANT OF LAMACHUS\u003cbr\u003e     A MEGARIAN\u003cbr\u003e     MAIDENS, daughters of the Megarian\u003cbr\u003e     A BOEOTIAN\u003cbr\u003e     NICARCHUS\u003cbr\u003e     A HUSBANDMAN\u003cbr\u003e     A BRIDESMAID\u003cbr\u003e     AN INFORMER\u003cbr\u003e     MESSENGERS\u003cbr\u003e     CHORUS OF ACHARNIAN ELDERS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCENE: The Athenian Ecclesia on the Pnyx; afterwards Dicaeopolis' house\u003cbr\u003ein the country.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e DICAEOPOLIS(1) (alone)\u003cbr\u003e What cares have not gnawed at my heart and how few have been the\u003cbr\u003e pleasures in my life!  Four, to be exact, while my troubles have been\u003cbr\u003e as countless as the grains of sand on the shore!  Let me see! of what\u003cbr\u003e value to me have been these few pleasures?  Ah! I remember that I was\u003cbr\u003e delighted in soul when Cleon had to disgorge those five talents;(2) I was\u003cbr\u003e in ecstasy and I love the Knights for this deed; 'it is an honour to\u003cbr\u003e Greece.'(3) But the day when I was impatiently awaiting a piece by\u003cbr\u003e Aeschylus,(4) what tragic despair it caused me when the herald called,\u003cbr\u003e \"Theognis,(5) introduce your Chorus!\" Just imagine how this blow struck\u003cbr\u003e straight at my heart!  On the other hand, what joy Dexitheus caused\u003cbr\u003e me at the musical competition, when he played a Boeotian melody\u003cbr\u003e on the lyre!  But this year by contrast! Oh! what deadly torture\u003cbr\u003e to hear Chaeris(6) perform the prelude in the Orthian mode!(7)\u003cbr\u003e --Never, however, since I began to bathe, has the dust hurt my\u003cbr\u003e eyes as it does to-day.  Still it is the day of assembly; all should be\u003cbr\u003e here at daybreak, and yet the Pnyx(8) is still deserted.  They are\u003cbr\u003e gossiping in the marketplace, slipping hither and thither to avoid\u003cbr\u003e the vermilioned rope.(9) The Prytanes(10) even do not come; they will be\u003cbr\u003e late, but when they come they will push and fight each other for a\u003cbr\u003e seat in the front row.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47078810583280,"sku":"2940012417510","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012417510_p0.jpg?v=1763568581","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012417510","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}