For then, in wrath, the Olympian Pericles
Thundered and lightened, and confounded Hellas
Enacting laws which ran like drinking songs.

These lines are from Aristophanes’ comedy *Acharnians*, where the poet looks back satirically on the political climate of Athens in the age of Pericles. In the play, Aristophanes evokes Pericles in mock-epic terms (“Olympian”) and portrays him as a thunderous, Zeus-like statesman whose anger and authority could shake the Greek world (“Hellas”). The passage belongs to the play’s broader comic treatment of how Athenian policy and leadership helped drive the city into wider conflict (notably the Peloponnesian War), and it uses exaggerated, poetic imagery to lampoon the speed and force with which Periclean measures were enacted and felt.

Aristophanes compresses political critique into a vivid metaphor: Pericles is “Olympian,” like Zeus, hurling thunder and lightning—an image of overwhelming power and imperious temperament. The phrase about laws running “like drinking songs” suggests measures that spread quickly and catchily through the populace, perhaps implying that policy became a kind of popular refrain—easy to repeat, hard to escape, and not necessarily sober or wise. The humor lies in the mismatch between elevated epic diction and the mundane (even disreputable) comparison to tavern songs, underscoring Aristophanes’ suspicion of charismatic leadership and the volatility of mass political enthusiasm.