Play: Plutus (Wealth)

Overview
Aristophanes' Plutus (Wealth), produced in 388 BCE, stages a satirical fantasy about money, justice, and human folly. A blend of Old Comedy slapstick and moral fable, the play imagines how civic life would change if the distribution of wealth followed virtue rather than favor or accident. Comic episodes and lyrical choral interludes punctuate a serious argument about the social consequences of greed and the possibility of restorative justice.

Plot
Chremylus, a devout but impoverished Athenian, is determined to live rightly despite his poverty. He learns that the god Plutus, who once wandered the world dispensing riches, now lies blind and neglected, so that wealth falls randomly into the hands of the undeserving. Chremylus rescues the blind god and brings him home, resolved to cure his sight so that wealth might be returned to the virtuous.
A series of comic encounters follows as Chremylus, his loyal servant Sosias, and a chorus of poor men press their cause against the complacent rich and the crooked institutions that protect them. Confusion, mistaken identities, and verbal sparring with opportunists drive the action, until a cure restores Plutus's sight. The god, now able to see, begins to reward merit rather than flattery, producing a jubilant finale that imagines a society rebalanced by more just dispositions of wealth.

Themes and Satire
At its core, Plutus interrogates the link between moral desert and material reward. Aristophanes satirizes a society in which money lubricates influence, distorts justice, and rewards vice. Rather than an abstract sermon, the play dramatizes how arbitrary distribution of resources warps relationships and civic institutions and how redirecting wealth could transform public life.
The satire extends to those who profit from inequality: charlatans, litigious elites, and cultural figures who flatter wealth rather than challenge it. Yet the play is also hopeful; it stages a corrective, however comic, that imagines practical remedies and restores social balance, inviting audiences to laugh while also reconsidering values and priorities.

Characters and Tone
Chremylus embodies piety without cynicism, a protagonist whose moral seriousness anchors the farcical action. Sosias supplies the servant's perspective and comic commentary. Plutus himself is a striking figure: a god reduced to vulnerability, whose blindness is both literal and metaphoric. The chorus of poor men gives voice to communal grievances and supplies lyrical commentary that alternates between plaintive appeal and triumphant celebration.
The tone moves between sharp political satire, broad physical comedy, and moments of earnest reflection. Aristophanes mixes bawdy jokes and topical barbs with carefully crafted set pieces, parabasis-like addresses and choral songs, that plead for a kinder, more rational civic order.

Legacy and Interpretation
Plutus stands as a late example of Old Comedy that pushes beyond mere ridicule into social prescription. Its blend of fantasy and morality influenced later readings of comedy as a vehicle for public debate about economics and ethics. Modern audiences and scholars often read the play as both a comic entertainment and a pointed commentary on the inequalities of Athens after long years of war, offering a vivid portrait of how literature can hold wealth, power, and virtue up for examination.