By Alyssa Mawussi
Read the play here: The Battle of Dendron-on-on-on-on
Eirene is shorter than the comedies traditionally showcased at the festival of Dionysia. Regardless, it brings together the theatrical conventions of old comedy and the events of the Pelopponesian war to discuss the ethos of Greek warfare, breakdown significant historical events and shed light on the Athenian’s response to war and peace. This play is a pastiche of Aristophanes’ comedies and follows the conventions of old comedy and includes a chorus, parados, agon and parabasis. In the opening scene the Earth Chorus steps on stage to deliver an account of the war between the Earth Spirits and the Athenian troops (parados). It describes the trade embargo on salt imposed on the stone people, the eruption of war and the subsequent resolution. However, continuing hostilities ultimately resumes the fighting as Athenians struggle to defeat the Earth Spirit coalition. In a final effort to save the Athenians from assured defeat, the heroine Eirene, who in an attempt to reason with the men’s insatiable urge to fight, pretends to be a man, proposes an anti-sex strike. She convinces the soldiers to dress up as women and seduce the Earth Spirit, but when they become suspicious of the soldiers lack of ‘feminine charm’ Eirene quickly retreats. The embarrassing series of the defeat of the Athenians announces their impending loss and spurs a conversation on the opposing principles of war and peace. Eirene and Polemos discuss their grievances, both making their case for continuing to fight or surrendering to the Earth Spirits (agon). The Athenians’ surrender (which deviates from the historical accounts of the end of the war) marks an end to the hostilities with the Earth Spirits. The ‘peace’ is punctuated by a wedding between a soldier whose stint as a woman made him fall in love with a tree (Earth Spirit soldier). The ending symbolizes a realignment between the Athenians and their environment- an ecocritical narrative that, although tangential, offers an interesting commentary on Greek dramas potential as early pro-ecological texts.