During the Greek civil war, Aristophanes wrote the comedy Lysistrata which, behind its Battle-of-the-Sexes plotline, critiques the war between the Spartans and Athenians. Like Confucius who used the private family to dictate how a king should govern his country, Aristophanes used the private disputes between husband and wife to reflect the causes and effects of the Peloponnesian war. Suspicion and distrust - responsible for arguments between husband and wife - also instigated the war between the Athenians and Spartans. Likewise, where home disputes cause emptiness and disorder in the house while leaving the children uncared for, the Peloponnesian war created loneliness and chaos within the city leaving Greece open to enemy attack.

In the beginning, the text hints at the possibility that Aristophanes is comparing the two battles by comparing Kleonike putting on her "armor" to a man gearing up for battle. As Kleonike "squeezes into that darling negligee" (pg 19), the man is drawing out his sword for battle; and when she is adorning her kimono, he is putting on his shield. Like a man drawing upon his ultimate weapon, the sword, Kleonike dr

Like Myhrrine's absence creating a hollow emptiness in the household, the Greek war left many women lonely at night. The absences of their husbands from the war are so unbearable that the women were willing to split themselves down like a mackerel or climb the highest mountain to bring them home. (pg 24) This loneliness is reflected in Myhrrine's household where without her, the food is tasteless and happiness has left to be replaced with pain. (pg 81) Like the intense void that has befallen all of the women in Athens, the food becomes empty to the point where it is tasteless.

This tastelessness of the food and the lonely declarations of the women illustrate the general dislike for either war. Neither party is happy because they are fighting. In the husband and wife conflict, the men are left with tasteless food and a lonely home and with the Athenian-Spartan war, the women are left at home to rot in loneliness and to pass their beauty away. As Lysistrata declares in her exchange with the Commissioner, the war has left the women to sleep alone yet "it not the matrons like us who matter. I mourn for the virgins" who will grow old with nothing to do but to see their beauty fade away.

By drawing parallels between the battle of the sexes and the Greek civil war, Aristophanes addressed his views on the Peloponnesian war; and how like a husband and wife squabbling because of unwarranted paranoia and distrust, the Peloponnesian war started creating chaos and pain within the city. Using the private matters of the home, he effectively reveals the public affairs of the state. Within his lifetime, the Peloponnesian War affected all of Athens and caused many problems for its populace. These problems are reflected in the Lysistrata and with the Lysistrata, readers can experience the raw power of war and its ill effects on its inhabitants. Thus, by comparing war to something that can be easily related to - a family dispute - Aristophanes showed how like a husband and wife squabble, the Greek civil war was nasty and unwanted, an episode that only initiated problems not solutions.

If the Athenians trusted the Spartans initially then they would not have had suspicions and if the men believed in their women, they would not have suspected the women of working against them. While the women captured the Acropolis, the men declared this a plan "masterminded" by the Spartans to destroy the city. (pg 64) Yet, the plan actually emerges from Athens and then spreads to Sparta. Therefore, by assigning the blame to the Spartans, the Athenian men reveal their paranoia and their distrust of n

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Approximate Word count = 1745
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)