Back More
Salem Press

Table of Contents

Masterplots, Fourth Edition

Plutus

by John M. Lawless

First produced: Ploutos, 388 b.c.e. (English translation, 1651)

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Satire

Time of plot: Fifth century b.c.e.

Locale: Athens

The Story:

Chremylus, a Greek farmer, goes to the temple of Apollo in Athens and asks the oracle there how his son might attain affluence without having to resort to knavery. The oracle directs Chremylus to follow the first man he encounters as he emerges from the temple and to take the stranger home with him. The first man Chremylus sees is a blind beggar, whom he follows impatiently. At first the beggar refuses to reveal his identity to Chremylus, but when Cario, Chremylus’s servant, threatens to push the blind man over a cliff, he fearfully reveals that he is Plutus, the god of riches, blinded by Zeus for telling the god that he will favor only good men. Zeus does not want Plutus to discriminate among men. The unhappy Plutus declares to Chremylus that if he had his sight back again he would favor only the good and shun the wicked.

When Chremylus offers to restore his sight to him, Plutus expresses fear of the wrath of Zeus. Chremylus declares that if Plutus were to get his sight back, even for a moment, Zeus would be superseded, because the dispensation of all wealth, upon which Zeus is dependent for his authority, would be in the power of Plutus; money, after all, pays even for sacrifices offered up to Zeus. It would then be Plutus, according to Chremylus, not Zeus, who would be all things to all men. Plutus is delighted to hear these words.

Chremylus, after sending Cario to summon the neighboring farmers, ushers Plutus into his house. When Cario tells the farmers that Plutus is at Chremylus’s house and that he will lift them out of their poverty, they are delirious with joy. Chremylus, welcoming them, notices that his friend Blepsidemus is skeptical of Cario’s report; Blepsidemus suspects that Chremylus has stolen a treasure. Chremylus declares that Plutus is truly in his house and that all good and deserving people will soon be rich. Even Blepsidemus becomes convinced, and he agrees that it is essential to restore Plutus’s eyesight.

As Chremylus prepares to take Plutus to the temple of Asclepius to have his sight restored, the goddess of poverty, a hideous old woman, appears and objects to the prospect of being cast out of Chremylus’s house after having lived with him for many years. Blepsidemus and Chremylus are terrified at the sight of the goddess, but Chremylus quickly regains his composure and engages her in a debate over which deity, the god of riches or the goddess of poverty, is more beneficial to humanity. Chremylus declares that with Plutus once again able to see, those who deserve it will receive money; thus society will be benefited. The goddess of poverty answers that progress will come to a halt because Plutus will distribute wealth equally. The two then argue the difference between beggary and poverty, with the goddess maintaining that men who entertain her are brave, alert, and strong, whereas those who entertain Plutus are soft, fat, and cowardly. She declares that men are virtuous when she is their guest but are corrupted when Plutus is their guest.

Chremylus is not convinced by her arguments, and the goddess, having been defeated, departs in sorrow and anger. Chremylus now takes Plutus to the temple of Asclepius, the god of healing. He observes every detail of the required ritual and lays Plutus on a couch. A priest tells them to sleep. Plutus’s eyes are wiped with a cloth, and then a purple mantle is placed over his head. At a signal from Asclepius, two serpents come forth from the sanctuary and slither under the mantle. In a short time, Plutus, his sight restored, arises from the couch.

Now those people who have acquired their wealth by unfair means look with fear upon Plutus, but the poor rejoice in their new good fortune. Plutus is happy, and he vows to correct all of the mistakes he made when he was blind. Chremylus is rewarded with great wealth for his service to the god.

Later, while Plutus is a guest in the house of Chremylus, a just man comes to petition the god. In the past he helped his friends when they were in need, but they did not respond in kind when he himself became indigent. The man becomes wealthy again through the power of Plutus. He offers an old cloak and a worn-out pair of sandals as tribute to the god.

Soon afterward, an informer comes to the house and complains that he has been ruined by the change wrought in Plutus. Cario strips the informer of his fine coat and bedecks him in the just man’s threadbare cloak. An old woman, presuming to be a young one, comes to see the god. She is distressed because her young lover, who previously had flattered her in order to get money from her, has deserted her now that Plutus has made him independent. The youth appears with a wreath to give to Plutus in appreciation.

Hermes, the messenger of the gods, appears and reports that Zeus and the other gods are furious because human beings no longer make oblations to them. He declares that he himself is actually starving, as he is receiving no offerings in the form of cakes or figs or honey, and he urges Cario to succor him. Cario condescends to retain Hermes to preside at the games that Plutus surely will sponsor. A priest of Zeus also arrives and complains of hunger; when everyone is rich, there are no more offerings to the gods. Chremylus, calling attention to the fact that Plutus has now taken the place of Zeus in human fortunes, hints that the priest of Zeus would do well to become the priest of Plutus. Zeus having been deposed, Plutus is installed as the supreme god.

Critical Evaluation:

If Plutus had not survived, a vital link in the history of Greek comedy would have been lost. So different is this play from the other surviving works of Aristophanes, one might suppose it to be an aberration or to have been written by a different author. In fact, evidence suggests that Aristophanes wrote other works similar to Plutus, which was presented in 388 b.c.e. The unusual features of this play are also not explained away by the fact that the work was written when Aristophanes was approximately sixty. The poet went on to write two more plays, now lost. Plutus may be regarded as the sole surviving example of the new comic genre referred to as Middle Comedy. The term distinguishes this play from the other surviving plays of Aristophanes, all of which are representative of the style and concerns of Old Attic Comedy. On the other hand, Plutus is not to be classed with New Comedy, which is best represented by Menander (c. 342-291 b.c.e.).

What distinguishes Plutus—and thus the genre of Middle Comedy—from other plays of Aristophanes is a general retreat from direct political or personal satire, an absence of crude obscenity, and a curtailing or complete omission of some of the traditional elements of Old Comedy, such as choral lyrics. The beginnings of some of these changes are apparent in Ekklesiazousai (392 b.c.e.?; Ecclesiazusae, 1837). Other features of Plutus are not so common in Aristophanes’ earlier work, such as the use of moral allegory with personified abstractions (the Greek word ploutos means “wealth”), the focus on social interaction that suggests the comedy of manners, which would develop later, and passionate, unapologetic idealism. Also different from Aristophanes’ earlier plays is the lack of topical controversy in Plutus: Virtually no person could object to the central concept of Plutus, that Wealth is a blind god and therefore may favor scoundrels and abandon good people to the misery of poverty.

Plutus is not devoid of humor. Although verbal jesting is reduced in the play in comparison to earlier works, it contains some of the irrelevancy and situational humor of the earlier plays. For example, the antics that Cario reports from the temple of Asclepius, where Plutus’s sight is restored, are mildly amusing as a parody of ancient techniques of healing. Cario’s wife is interesting as a comic character who happens to be female. Her reception of her husband’s news adds significantly to the humor of the scene. When the god Hermes comes seeking employment, there is some amusement in the fact that despite his varied skills a suitable position for him is discovered only with considerable difficulty: Finally it is decided that he is to take charge of games that Plutus will soon celebrate.

The reader will detect some of the typical structure of Aristophanic comedy in Plutus, especially observable in the contest between Plutus and Penia (poverty) and in the series of episodes that follow the restoration of Plutus’s sight. The various individuals who appear before him serve to underscore the consequences of his regaining his sight. In form, at least, this design is paralleled in earlier plays of Aristophanes in which the protagonist realizes a plan and then contemplates the positive and negative results.

A diminished role for the chorus is the most outstanding characteristic of Plutus. Despite some traces of lost choral lyrics, in most of the text the presence of the chorus is indicated merely by the Greek word chorou. It is doubtful that the chorus sang a composition relevant to the action of the play. More likely, the notation indicates some kind of interlude during which the chorus danced and played music before the next scene took place.

Many of the characteristics of Plutus prefigure developments in later Greek and Roman comedy. The reduction of the role of the chorus, for example, has the effect of placing more emphasis on the episodes that were originally seen as insertions between choral songs. The consequent development of a play in five acts, which is typical of New Comedy and becomes the established pattern for all later drama, is already seen in this play.

The move away from topicality—that is, specific references to actual individuals and events—naturally results in a preference for types who exemplify common human traits. Cario, for example, is a prototype of the wily slave who will have a role to play in nearly every subsequent Greco-Roman comedy. Misers, shrewish wives, young men in love, and other types common to European drama may have their origins in the works of Greek Middle Comedy, of which Plutus is the one surviving example. The play’s turning away from politics and toward larger aspects of the human condition must have acted to release comedy from the close link to the city of Athens and to the worship of Dionysus, the god of drama. The gradual freeing of drama from the context of Athenian political life and the specific sacred festivals gave birth to a wide range of new dramatic plots and characters.

Some political satire at the expense of specific individuals is still to be found in Plutus, and the reduced economic circumstances of Athens in the fourth century leave a direct mark on the play, because economic conditions may no longer have permitted the provision and training of an expensive chorus. The play is much more concerned, however, with the moral metaphysical aspects of wealth and poverty than with specific economic, social, or political conditions that created the distribution of wealth.

Some of the features of Old Comedy that Plutus lacks worked to ensure its survival in later times. The play is virtually free of topical references that need explanation to all but ancient Athenians and offers an edifying moral message, so Plutus became the most popular work of Aristophanes in later centuries, especially during the Byzantine period.

Further Reading

1 

Dover, K. J. Aristophanic Comedy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972. Authoritative study is an essential starting point for students of Aristophanes’ work. Chapter 16 gives a synopsis of Plutus, discusses the role of slaves in this new genre of comedy, and comments on the connection between wealth and morality that is made in the play.

2 

Harriott, Rosemary M. Aristophanes: Poet and Dramatist. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986. Examination of the works of Aristophanes focuses on the central themes of the works and the techniques of the author. Includes discussion of Plutus.

3 

McLeish, Kenneth. The Theatre of Aristophanes. New York: Taplinger, 1980. Provides an overview of the dramatic technique of Aristophanes. Useful for understanding the magnitude of the change from Old to Middle Comedy.

4 

Murray, Gilbert. Aristophanes: A Study. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1933. Classic work offers valuable insights into all the plays of Aristophanes. Chapter 10 presents an excellent discussion of Plutus.

5 

Silk, M. S. Aristophanes and the Definition of Comedy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Looks at Aristophanes as one of the world’s great poets as well as an important dramatist. Analyzes Plutus and other plays to examine their language, style, lyric poetry, character, and structure.

6 

Spatz, Lois. Aristophanes. Boston: Twayne, 1978. Provides a reliable introduction to the comedy of Aristophanes for the general reader. Chapter 9 discusses the themes of Plutus and emphasizes its differences from earlier Aristophanic comedy.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Lawless, John M. "Plutus." Masterplots, Fourth Edition, edited by Laurence W. Mazzeno, Salem Press, 2010. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=MP4_25499560000590.
APA 7th
Lawless, J. M. (2010). Plutus. In L. W. Mazzeno (Ed.), Masterplots, Fourth Edition. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Lawless, John M. "Plutus." Edited by Laurence W. Mazzeno. Masterplots, Fourth Edition. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2010. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.