Greco-Roman Culture: Lysistrata

A detailed Summary of Greco-Roman Culture: Lysistrata

Aristophanes was a "craft" comedy poet in the fourth century B.C. during the time of the Peloponnesian War. Aristophanes' usual style was to be too satirical, and suggesting the outlandish. He shows little mercy when mocking Socrates and his "new-fangled ideas" which were most likely designed to destroy the cohesiveness of society and lead to anarchy, in his play The Clouds.

The most absurd and humorous of Aristophanes' comedies are those in which the main characters, the heroes of the story, are women. Smart women.

One of the most famous of Aristophanes' comedies depicting powerfully effectual women is the Lysistrata, named after the female lead character of the play. It portrays Athenian Lysistrata and the women of Athens teaming up with the women of Sparta to force their husbands to end the Peloponnesian War.

To make the men agree to a peace treaty, the women seized the Acropolis, where Athens' financial reserves are kept, and prevented the men from squandering them further on the war. They then beat back an attack on their position by the old men who have remained in Athens while the younger men are out on campaign. When their husbands return from battle, the women refuse to have sex with t

Again this is illustrated at the start of Act Two. Holding-out started to become a serious internal conflict. The women started to mutiny. They started making up all sorts of reasons and excuses to leave the Acropolis. All through the play there is a heavy sexual connotation, but here the excuses are as phony as any pick up line in any modern singles social scene.

The women challenge the masculine role model to preserve the traditional way of life of the community. When the women become challenged themselves, they take on the masculine characteristics and attitudes and defeat the men physically, mentally but most of all strategically. Proving that neither side benefits from it, just that one side loses more than the other side.

Lysistrata was schooled in the traditional fashion, by learning from older men. Her old-fashioned training and good sense allowed her to see what needed to be done to protect the community. Like the heroines of tragedy, Lysistrata wants to put things back to the way they were. To do that, however, she has to become a revolutionary.

The underlining notion of returning home is also not specifically because of their "sex-starvation," but from the burden of guilt for being away from their family, their chores and their domestic responsibilities. They are after all not just defying their husbands but ultimately the whole Greek culture of the times in which they lived. They had a place, and status-quo demanded they assume it.

Woman #2 I need to go home, I forgot to strip (my bark from the flax!)

The Lysistrata shows women acting bravely and even aggressively against men who seem resolved on ruining the city-state by prolonging a pointless war and excessively expending reserves stored in the Acropolis. This in turn added to the

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Category: History