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Lysistrata In Greek History

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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

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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.

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How Does Aristophanes Use Sex In Lysistrata

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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,

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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.

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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.

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