Πλοῦτος
Wealth
Aristophanes · first staged 388 BC · festival and result unknown
Chremylus, an honest poor man, finds the god Wealth blind and beggared, and has him cured, so that money at last goes to the honest.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Κα.Cario
- Χρ.Chremylus
- Πλ.Wealth
- Χο.Chorus
- Βλ.Blepsidemus
- Πε.Poverty
- Γυ.Wife
- Δι.Just Man
- Συ.Informer
- Γρ.Old Woman
- Νε.Young Man
- Ερ.Hermes
- Ιε.Priest
Translations
- The Eleven Comediesprose · 1912 · aligned by speech · with Coulon's Greek
- W. J. Hickieprose · 1853 · aligned by speech · with Coulon's Greek
- B. B. Rogersverse · 1924 · aligned by speech · with Coulon's Greek
Greek texts
- Coulon & van Daele, Aristophane, vol. 51930
- F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart, Aristophanis Comoediae, vol. 21907
Cite as Ar. Plut. 1–1209
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
Chremylus, an honest poor man, asks the oracle how his son should live and is told to follow the first man he meets. The man is a blind beggar who turns out to be Wealth himself, blinded by Zeus so that he cannot find the good. Chremylus means to take him to the temple of Asclepius to be cured. The goddess Poverty comes first to argue that it is a mistake, and loses. Wealth's sight is restored and the honest grow rich. An informer complains that his trade is ruined, and the priest of Zeus and Hermes himself, with no one left sacrificing, come asking to serve the new master.
Drawing: Line drawing after the 1858 plate of a red-figure vase (Lenormant and de Witte, Élite des monuments céramographiques III, pl. LVIII); cut out and retraced.