Language, Individual & Society, Volume 19, 2025

Abstract: The 5th-century dramatic poet Aristophanes turns against Athenian Democracy, striving to bring about profound upheavals in the political life of a country trapped in the nightmare of war. Exhausted by the shameless political machinations of his time, he composes a trilogy—"The Acharnians”, “Peace”, and “Lysistrata”—aiming to introduce a different way of thinking to the people. Through examples, he highlights the incompetence of the men in power, afflicted by the syndrome of hybris [1], as the true culprits behind the suffering brought by war. Centuries later, Giraudoux, in his play “The Trojan War Will Not Take Place”, appears to endorse Aristophanes' views, crafting a work aimed at convincing his people that the best defense against tragedy is to refuse to believe in its inevitability. He introduces the technique of reverse thinking, bringing contemporary tragedy to the stage, much like Edward Bond and Howard Barker [2]. The internal didascalies of both works, enhanced by interartiality, seem to resonate with the soul of the composer Leonard Cohen, awakening his hidden self and the painful childhood he endured during the German occupation, inspiring him to compose “Dance Me to the End of Love.” Similarly, they act as an all-seeing eye, a sun, inspiring the painter Yves Tang to stage-design the brutality of war through his work “Multiplication of the Arcs” (1954). Playwrights and artists alike seek to demonstrate that the antidote to egocentrism, which undermines peaceful coexistence, is the strengthening of love within society—one that transcends borders and prejudices.