ipl-logo

Lysistrata In Greek History

1226 Words5 Pages

Women makeup just over 50 percent of the world’s population and they always have, yet throughout almost all of history, women, their contributions, and their achievements have been downplayed, mocked, and even ignored. That is why it is so crucial when studying any kind of history to make a conscious effort to include women and to analyze not only their contributions but the society that they were a part of in regards to its treatment of women. This is especially true in theatre history, particularly early theatre history, where women were not allowed onstage, syllabi are composed almost entirely of male playwrights, and female characters are often written as nothing more than props or plot devices. Just because they are not well known does …show more content…

One of the most interesting women from theatre history is the character Lysistrata, from Aristophanes’s Lysistrata. First performed in 411 BCE, Lysistrata is a comedy set during civil war between the Greek city-states (a reference to the ongoing Peloponnesian War) (Gainor 308). The war has been long and difficult for everyone in Greece, so Lysistrata unites the women from all the city-states in order to put an end to the war. Lysistrata and the women give their husbands a choice - they can either make peace and end the war or they can keep fighting and never have sex with their wives again. The play is an outrageous, pure comedy with its double entendres and use of multiple, very large fake phalluses. However, Lysistrata is not quite the feminist comedy it appears to …show more content…

One of the most important woman in theatre history, who admittedly was not directly involved in making theatre, lived in England from 1533 until 1603, during which time theatre flourished and branded London as a global center for theatrical excellence. With Queen Elizabeth’s expansion of the university system, playwrights studied the classic Greek and Roman texts and developed blank verse in an effort to preserve the natural rhythm of Latin as much as possible. It was under Queen Elizabeth that Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, two of the most well respected English playwrights, wrote the majority of their plays. And it was under Queen Elizabeth that elaborate costuming, perspective scenery, the proscenium arch, and more found a place in the theatre, in part thanks to Inigo Jones (17th Century), who also collaborated with Ben Jonson to create extraordinarily lavish spectacles known as masques. Much of what is now almost taken for granted in theatre only came to exist because of Queen Elizabeth’s tireless dedication to advancing the

Show More
Related
1005 Words | 5 Pages

Aristophanes Lysistrata and Homer’s Odyssey both show how women can thrive in their society and fight for what they believe in, even if that goes against the gender roles portrayed in Greek Civilization. In Aristophanes Lysistrata, the author portrays how one woman can fight for what she believes in and make a difference in society. Lysistrata ultimately wanted to end the Peloponnesian War, she knew the only way to do so was to take advantage of the Men. Men were dying day after day because of this war and Lysistrata had enough, she wanted to end it. Lysistrata decided to take a stand; she voiced her plan to

Read More
556 Words | 3 Pages

Lines 565-585 of Lysistrata written by Aristophanes demonstrates elements of historical context, uses elaborate metaphors, and shows evidence of what life was like in ancient Greek society. In these lines, Lysistrata uses wool as a metaphor for what the women plan to do fix their society. She relates the situation the Greeks are in with the war to what women do with wool in order to make it useful for them. By doing this, it places the conversation Lysistrata is having with the probulos in a domestic context. Much of this is because women stayed within the house the majority of the time; therefore women generally only had knowledge of the home, and the play is playing on that aspect of Greek culture.

Read More
374 Words | 2 Pages

Aristophanes begins the first scene of Lysistrata with a bang by giving the reader a taste of what he or she should expect throughout the rest of the play. On page 24, Lysistrata speaks to Kleonike and several words are mentioned that imply alternate sexual meanings such as “teeny” “immense” “tense” “seconding motions” “kneading it, mulling it, filing it down” and “lies.” This clever word choice presents alternate meaning that can be closely associated with sex while carrying on an otherwise normal conversation about the meeting that is about to happen. This scene is also important because it presents all the women of Lysistrata as having sex at the forefronts of their minds, which is typically male stereotype. To Lysistrata,

Read More
873 Words | 4 Pages

The Women of Troy is a play constructed by Euripides that primarily focuses on the loss and pain of the Trojan civilians that survived the war, who are sieged in the city after the war and are eventually either killed or enslaved after the fall of Troy. Euripides is constantly unforgiving in his portrayal of the victims suffering in the midst of male warfare, except for the women. Euripides is continually reminding of the fact that the women are now left in this dark and hopeless world. He also utilizes the victim’s new grief and trauma they face to add to the cruel representation of their suffering. However, Euripides also displays the strength and resilience of the women who don’t always see themselves as victims.

Read More
809 Words | 4 Pages

Aristophanes uses satire to covey his message that war was an entire waste. The women used the sexualized image of their bodies as women as a means of fighting back. When the men were sent out for war the women were left back at home to suffer the maximum amount. They were left without manpower and currency to take care of their homes. As a result, Lysistrata took a stand and called out to all of the women for help.

Read More
455 Words | 2 Pages

Lysistrata is a play that empowers women because it acknowledges women's power. Even if it is supposed to be a comedy, it has the female characters organizing, emphasizing their strengths, and in a number of places, getting concessions from the male characters. As an example, when Lysistrata says the women intend to control the treasury, and argues that they have the skills to do it based on their ability to manage household budgets, the Magistrate does not argue with their ability to manage money, he only argues that the Treasury is “different” because it pays for national defense. Many of the arguments against the women being able to manage are based on their gender alone. There are also quite a few clever insults toward men, like when

Read More
1883 Words | 8 Pages

Known as the “Father of Comedy”, the ancient Athenian playwright Aristophanes wrote forty plays between 427 B.C. and 386 B.C. Of those forty, only eleven plays survive in their entirety. His most well-known and anthologized play is Lysistrata. First performed in 411 B.C., the comedy is a political satire meant to criticize the Peloponnesian War raging between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta at the time. The plot of the play revolves around a sex strike that was organized by the women of the two city-states as a ploy to get the men to end their fighting. Amid the comedic, suggestive scenes and jokes, Aristophanes manages to include some very serious and important themes.

Read More
279 Words | 2 Pages

Lysistrata written by Aristophanes tells the story of a revolutionary woman, who finds a way to lead the women of Greece and achieve peace between Athens and Sparta. With the comedic note of the play, Aristophanes brings out the stereotypical features of both men and women. However, his main idea is through laughter to highlight the truth and to reveal to his audience the heroic features of the women of Greece. Lysistrata is not a typical Athenian woman. To some extent she possesses male features, but her masculinity and intelligence helps her to gain respect among the men.

Read More
853 Words | 4 Pages

Aristophanes’ comic playwright Lysistrata delves into this issue of feminism. The main character, Lysistrata, convinces women from both sides to boycott sex

Read More
1080 Words | 5 Pages

It was written and staged during the peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta. The war has been going on for many years, and at that time no solution seemed to be emerging. This is emphasized by the name of the main character, and title of the play, Lysistrata, which means “army-disbander.” Intertwined with this theme are sex, gender roles, and women’s place in athenian society. Together these ideas reveal

Read More
706 Words | 3 Pages

Even though the play expresses female power, Lysistrata is not a feminist play because the women are not fighting for women’s rights; they are fighting for attention. Lysistrata puts on a charade to cover her actual goal. She and the other women give up their desires for their families. They have come together as one to restore the peace. With their leader, Lysistrata they have a plan to end the Peloponnesian War: abstinence the men must agree to their terms before they break the

Read More
1568 Words | 7 Pages

Introduction The purpose of this essay is to investigate the women’s role in Classical Greece society and literature (5th/4th century b.C.). Therefore, I decided to discuss and analyse one of the most controversial comedies of that time, “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. This text shows how women, sick of their submissive and powerless position in the political scenario of Athens and Sparta, come on the scene and, through a smart stratagem, achieve their expected result.

Read More
1521 Words | 7 Pages

Feminist theatre was a voice raised against this perspective. It was the construction of a counter cultural politics where women pushed themselves towards the subject position. Feminist theatre argues in favour of the potential of theatre to revise representations of gender differences on the

Read More
1360 Words | 6 Pages

A Modern View of Feminist Criticism William Shakespeare 's "Othello” can be analyzed from a feminist perspective. This criticism focuses on relationships between genders, like the patterns of thoughts, behavior, values, enfranchisement, and power in relations between and within sexes. A feminist examination of the play enables us to judge the distinctive social esteems and status of women and proposes that the male-female power connections that become an integral factor in scenes of Othello impact its comprehension. I believe that the critical lens that provides modern society with the most compelling view of literature is Feminist Criticism because it analyzes distrust and disloyalty among relationships, women being treated as possessions

Read More
1000 Words | 4 Pages

Feminist literary criticism’s primary argument is that female characters have always been presented from a male’s viewpoint. According to Connell, in most literary works, female characters often play minor roles which emphasize their domestic roles, subservience and physical beauty while males are always the protagonists who are strong, heroic and dominant (qtd. in Woloshyn et al.150). This means that the women are perceived as weak and are supposed to be under the control of men. Gill and Sellers say that feminist literary criticism’s approach involves identifying with female characters in order to challenge any male centred outlook.

Read More

More about Lysistrata In Greek History

Related Topics

Open Document