Editing Plutus (section)

==In the arts==
[[File:Istanbul - Museo archeol. - Tyche e Plutone - sec. II d.C. - Foto G. Dall'Orto 28-5-2006.jpg|thumb|Polychrome marble statue depicting the goddess [[Tyche]] holding the infant Plutus in her arms, 2nd century AD, [[Istanbul Archaeological Museum]].]]
[[File:S03 06 01 020 image 2538.jpg|thumb| Sencathea [?] [Female figure] feeding infant Plutus from horn of plenty, relief, Rome. [[Brooklyn Museum]] Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection.]]
In the philosophized mythology of the later Classical period, Plutus is envisaged by [[Aristophanes]] as blinded by [[Zeus]], so that he would be able to dispense his gifts without prejudice; he is also lame, as he takes his time arriving, and winged, so he leaves faster than he came.<ref>''[[Plutus (play)|Plutus]]'' (''Wealth'', second version, 388 BC)</ref> When the god's sight is restored, in [[Plutus (play)|Aristophanes' comedy]], he is then able to determine who is deserving of wealth, creating havoc.

[[Phaedrus (fabulist)|Phaedrus]] records a [[fable]] where, after [[Hercules]] is received in Olympus, he greets all the gods but refuses to greet Plutus. When the king of gods [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] asks him why, he replies that he hates the god of riches due to Plutus favouring the wicked and the corrupt.<ref name=":phae"/>

Among the Eleusinian figures painted on [[Pottery of ancient Greece|Greek ceramics]], regardless of whether he is depicted as child or youthful ''[[ephebos|ephebe]]'', Plutus can be identified as the one bearing the [[cornucopia]]—horn of plenty. In later [[allegory|allegorical]] [[bas-reliefs]], Plutus is depicted as a boy in the arms of [[Eirene (Greek goddess)|Eirene]], as Prosperity is the gift of "Peace", or in the arms of [[Tyche]], the Fortune of Cities.

In [[Lucian of Samosata]]'s satirical dialogue ''Timon'', Plutus, the very embodiment of worldly goods written up in a parchment will, says to Hermes:
{{cquote|it is not Zeus who sends me, but Hades, who has his own ways of conferring wealth and making presents; Hades and Plutus are not unconnected, you see. When I am to flit from one house to another, they lay me on parchment, seal me up carefully, make a parcel of me and take me round. The dead man lies in some dark corner, shrouded from the knees upward in an old sheet, with the cats fighting for possession of him, while those who have expectations wait for me in the public place, gaping as wide as young swallows that scream for their mother's return.}}

{{anchor|dante_plutus}}In Canto VII of [[Dante Alighieri|Dante's]] ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', Plutus is a demon of wealth who guards the fourth circle of Hell, "The Hoarders and the Wasters". Dante likely included Plutus to symbolize the evil of hoarding wealth. He is known for saying the famous phrase, "[[Pape Satàn, pape Satàn aleppe]]."

In addition, 
[[Erasmus]] writes in [[The Praise of Folly]] that Folly is the offspring of Plutus. <ref>{{cite web | url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1509erasmus-folly.asp | title=Internet History Sourcebooks: Modern History |website=sourcebooks.fordham.edu}}</ref>