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Women In Lysistrata

675 Words3 Pages

Aristophanes, an amazing playwright, often depicted Athens as behind times and war stricken but, in several of his plays, Aristophanes portrayed women in positive light. He was on of the first to do so in European literature. In his play ‘Lysistrata’, Aristophanes is advocating against the Peloponnesian War. He shows a humorous way to end the war, but, as history has shown, his advice was not taken. ‘Lysistrata’ is set during the 21st year of the Peloponnesian War. As the play goes, women of Athens, Sparta, Bœotia, and Corinth meet in streets to discuss what they must do to end the war. The women decide they must force the men to sign a peace treaty by any means necessary. And so, reluctantly, the women vow to refuse sex to their husbands …show more content…

The men are now seeking out the women, who refuse to break their vow, thus, forcing the men into the peace treaty. Soon, the peace is made and the people celebrate. The women of Athens had little to no political impact or influence. Though the women portrayed in ‘Lysistrata’ are deemed as persuasive and intelligent, this idea was purely a man’s fanciful creation of female representation.(Wilcox 2) Aristophanes did challenge the roles of Athenian women in this play, although little came from it. He took the women’s role as head of the household and used it to describe how someone in such a position could adequately run a city. One such analogy compares how a women spins wool and how a city should be run. “First we wash the yarn to separate the grease and filth;do the same with all bad citizens, sort them out and drive them forth with rods - ‘tis the refuse of the city. Then for all such as come crowding up for search of employments and offices, we must card through them thoroughly; then, to bring them all to the same standard, pitch them pell mell into the same basket, resident aliens or no, allies, debtors to the State, all mixed up together. Then as for our Colonies, you must think as so many isolated hanks,; find the ends of the separate thread, draw them to the centre here, wind them into one, make on great hank out of the lot, out of which the Public can weave itself a good, …show more content…

At the very beginning, Aristophanes introduces the idea that “[...] Greece by women.”(Lysistrata 2) The idea itself may bring to mind a fight, and surely the women did fight; not with spears and swords but with psychology. Although the women took over the Acropolis and in a few instances offered threats( insert quote from book here), they did not physically fight. The movement itself was based off of lust and how it filled the men with need, causing them to do whatever the women asked of

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