Eirene- Greek GodDeity"Goddess of Peace"

One of the Horae

Eirene is one of three daughters of Zeus and Themis — the Horae, who together maintained the world's moral order. Her sisters were Eunomia, who kept good governance, and Dike, who held justice. In Homer, the three served as gatekeepers of Olympus, parting the heavy clouds to let the gods and their chariots pass through to earth and back.

Peace and Her Cult

The Athenians built an altar to Eirene in the agora after their naval victory at Naxos in 376 BCE. The sacrifices they offered there drew no blood — no animals were slaughtered — for they would not honor peace with violence. The bronze by Cephisodotus the Elder stood nearby, showing Eirene cradling the infant Plutus in her arms: peace holding wealth like a mother holds a child.

The Imprisoned Goddess

In Aristophanes's Peace, performed in 421 BCE while Athens was exhausted by war, the farmer Trygaeus rides a giant dung beetle up to heaven. He finds that Polemos, the spirit of war, has sealed Eirene in a deep cave and piled heavy stones over her prison. With Hermes's reluctant help, Trygaeus and a chorus of Greek farmers haul on ropes and dig the goddess free. When she emerges, she brings Opora and Theoria — Harvest and Festival — with her. The chorus rejoices: the vine and the fig return, and the countryside comes back to life.

Hesiod's Vision

In the Works and Days, Hesiod draws the world as it looks when the Horae hold sway. Where kings judge rightly and Dike is honored, Eirene settles over the land: crops grow tall in the fields and ewes are heavy with wool. Ships stay in harbor because there is no need for war or raiding. But where Dike is dishonored, famine and plague follow and ships founder at sea.