Plūtus

Plūtus (Ploutos, ‘wealth’), Greek comedy by Aristophanes produced in 388 BC; at what festival and with what success is not known. It is the last of Aristophanes' extant plays. An earlier play of the same name, now lost, had been produced by him in 408 BC. The lyrics to be sung by the chorus are very scanty in this play, but provision appears to have been made at various places for choral interludes which had no particular connection with the plot (for the diminishing role of the chorus in the latest plays of Aristophanes see COMEDY, GREEK 5).

Chremylus is so indignant at seeing bad men grow rich while honest men like himself remain poor that, accompanied by his slave Carion, he has been to consult the Delphic Oracle as to whether he should bring up his son to be good or bad if the latter is to succeed in life. The god advises Chremylus to accost the first person he meets on leaving the shrine and induce him to enter his house. This is a blind old man; pestered by Chremylus and Carion he reveals that he is Plutus, god of wealth, whom Zeus has blinded out of ill-will to men so that, being unable to distinguish good men from bad, he will reward them indiscriminately, without regard to their virtue. Chremylus decides that the sight of Plutus must be restored so that he may associate only with honest men. Plutus is terrified of the vengeance of Zeus but is persuaded that he himself is more powerful than that god: he can put a stop to Zeus' sacrifices by not providing men with the money to buy them. He therefore consents to be taken to the temple of Asclepius to be cured. The goddess of Poverty intervenes and tries to deter Chremylus, pointing out the disastrous effects of what he proposes to do, for it is Poverty, the source of all virtue and effort, that has made Greece what she is. But Chremylus remains unconvinced, and he and Carion go off to the temple with Plutus. Carion returns to tell Chremylus' wife of the successful cure, with much entertaining detail; presently Plutus returns and enriches Chremylus' house. Then come a series of visitors: an honest man who has long been poor and is now prosperous; an informer, indignant at being impoverished; an old woman who has lost her young lover now he no longer needs her money; the god Hermēs, who is desperately hungry, now no one bothers to sacrifice to the gods, and is looking for a job; and finally the priest of Zeus who is also hungry now he cannot get his share of the sacrifices. Chremylus seems to identify Plutus and Zeus, and suggests that they install Plutus in the Treasury on the Acropolis. A procession for that purpose ensues.