This mention of trouble with Cleon over a play indicates that Dikaiopolis represents Aristophanes (or possibly his producer, Callistratus) and maybe the author is in fact the actor behind the mask. After gaining the chorus's permission for an anti-war speech, Dikaiopolis/Aristophanes decides he needs some special help with it and he goes next door to the house of Euripides, an author renowned for his clever arguments. As it turns out, however, he merely goes there to borrow a costume from one of his tragedies, "Telephus", in which the hero disguises himself as a beggar. Thus attired as a tragic hero disguised as a beggar, and with his head on the chopping block, Dikaiopolis/Telephus/the beggar/Aristophanes explains to the Chorus his reasons for opposing the war. The war all started, he argues, because of the abduction of three courtesans and it is continued by profiteers for personal gain. Half the Chorus is won over by this argument, the other half isn't.