Lysistrata Metaphors

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. It is also something women can clearly

He thinks she is talking about actual wool initially. Because the domestic context is used, it allows for men to more easily dismiss the argument as well, since women were only in the house and did not really grasp what was going on in their world; all they knew was the home, so the wool metaphor falls short in the eyes of men. However, the analogy of wool to society is still a powerful metaphor. As with wool, the women believe they need to straighten out society. Women carded wool and got rid of all the burrs and other unnecessary parts; in society, they felt they needed to get rid of any undesirable people and any troublemakers. By getting rid of any problems, they would be left with the “basket of good wool”. According to Lysistrata, the good wool would consist of Athenians, metics or those living in Athens who were not Athenians, and anyone who owed anything to Athens. By doing this, Athens would be able to regroup and piece together those who would be useful in its society. Lysistrata also suggests using ambassadors to help sort out the matter of the war, using them like spindles to assist in the metaphorical carding of the