The Cult of Peace on the Athenian Stage during the Peloponnesian War: From Euripides’s Cresphontes to Aristophanes’s Peace and Beyond
Athanassaki, Lucia. 2018. in Illinois Classical Studies, 43 (1): 1–24
Athanassaki explores Athenian drama’s depiction of the Goddess, Peace, during a period of peace in the Peloponnesian war. The Greek’s personification of peace in the form of a god and subsequential cult worship of her gives a very interesting depiction of how the concept of peace can be perceived. Athanassaki draws particular notice to how Peace’s presentation in these dramas reflect a period of peace amongst war, as well as the desire for peace (those wishing for the Peace cult to be officially established in Athens) and opposing desire for victory (those who went against the instigation of the cult and supported the eventual failing of peace treaties). This reading is something that helps to break the idea that Ancient Mediterranean societies were strictly war-loving with an overwhelming history of violence but instead paints the nuances of the period.