Aristophanes significant contributions in the development of the theater arts and his standing in the

Athenian community are well documented. It is ripe with sexual innuendo and provides much insight into
the timeliness of human sexuality, desire, and the war of the sexes, yet it was intended to make a political
statement regarding the folly of Athenian military aggression. Aristophanes was not suggesting that a sex
strike might be an effective means of ending the Peloponnesian War, more likely that the reasons for the
war itself were suspect.Lysistratas scheme to force the men of Greece to the peace table could never
have been successful. Property concerns, gender roles, and the sexuality of Athenian men
prevented Athenian women from exerting the necessarypolitical influence.
Greek society imposed standards of decorum that restricted a womans freedom of movement and
required her to be escorted by a slave woman or an elderly relative when in public (Gulick 54
Since, as Charles Gulick writes, "every woman of good family was under the guardianship of a man" (56),
it seems unlikely that Lysistrata could managed such a feat. Wives, in ancient Greece, were strategically
selected for the purpose of producing legitimate heirs and maintaining control of property (Gulick 57).
They were typically not the objects of their husbands sexual desire. "Marriage was a matter of good
family, good dowry, and good health. Given the differences in ages, education and experience, there were
no real grounds for companionship. Bearing children and managing a household were all that would
ordinarily have been asked of a wife" (Hooper 254
Athenian men, unlike women, had opportunities for sex outside marriage that carried no penalties.
The seizure of the Acropolis is an excellent military tactic and the more realistic aspect of Lysistratas plot.
Technically, it was indeed treason and crimes against the state, as in Socrates case, carried the most
severe penalties. Though Aristophanes effectively communicates the power of the purse and its
relationship to the ability to wage war, an attack on the Acropolis would surely result in much bloodshed.
Concern for the welfare of the state and the financial benefits of a wealthy, powerful Athens were
paramount. These were their wives and mothers. No one would want to repeat Orestes folly and bring
down the wrath of the Furys, but mans sense of honor and ego has resulted in worse
Although many Athenians believed that women were potentially capable of intellectual and philosophical
thought, the exclusion of women from the polis and the need to keep the mothers of their heirs safe at
home kept women ignorant of affairs of state. Even Aristotle remarked that "the female indeed posses [the
faculty of deliberation], but in a form which remains inconclusive" (Austin 182). Womens views of political
affairs were not taken very seriously and the attitude of the commissioner was probably typical of the
Athenian citizen. Women should attend to their carding and weaving. "Wars a mans affair."
Her proposals are that the women hold a sexual strike against the men. She urged the women to dress in
sexy clothing but refuse sexual activity with the men. The second part of her proposal is that the women
take over the acropolis. The old women are to do this first, while the younger women are having the
strike. In order to accomplish this, the women challenge the masculine role model. They take on
masculine characteristics and attitudes and defeat their men physically, mentally and above all
strategically. By portraying theopposite sex, the men are better able to view themselves, To think of a
woman as multi-dimensional was absurd, which made the act of role reversal so comical. Lysistrata
"Come, now that all the rest has been so well arranged, you Spartans take these women home; these

others, you. Let husbands stand beside his wife, and let each wife stand by her husband: then, when we
have danced a dance to thank the gods for our good fortune, let's take care hereafter not to make the
same mistakes again" This final quote points out that sometimes women are needed to make men think in
a different way and provide a reality check. The women had to negotiate between the cities so that the
issues could be resolved and the war ended. The play is a comedy, which appears to be written for the
amusement of men. If women were such beasts as Euripides stated then would women have managed to
seize the Acropolis, and prevented the men from squandering them further on the war. Euripides might
have referred to the vulgarity of the women’s thoughts and language:
“It’s a sair thing, the dear knows, for a woman
tae sleep alone wi’oot a prick – but we maun do
it, for the sake of peace';
The language of the women is, as mentioned earlier, strictly for the humor. To start a war against your
family in order to stop a civil war may not be the wisest choice according to Euripides.
The underlining notion, however, of returning home is also not specifically due to their “sexstarvation'; but from guilt for being away from their family, their chores and other domestic responsibilities.
The aim from the beginning was after all to stop a senseless war not to spite their husbands. This in turn
makes what they did even nobler, in the end they suffered as much as the men, which does not make
them beasts, simply the absolute opposite. In the opening scene, Lysistra tells her plan to Calonice
saying that Greece will "be saved by women." Ironically, Calonice, a woman, wittily comments that "its
[Greece] salvation hangs on a poor thread" implying that women cannot end the war. Aristophanes uses
irony to convey his feelings about the war and get his audience to change. In the opening scene, Lysistra
tells her plan to Calonice saying that Greece will "be saved by women." Ironically, Calonice, a woman,
wittily comments that "its [Greece] salvation hangs on a poor thread" implying that women cannot end the
war

Lysistrata insists that women have the intelligence and judgment to

make political decisions. She came by her knowledge, she says, in
the traditional way:

"I am a woman, and, yes, I have brains. And I'm not badly off for
judgment. Nor has my education been bad, coming as it has from
my listening often to the conversations of my father and the elders
among the men." In the opening scenes of the play Lysistrata says
"I'm furious with women and womankind. Don't all of our husbands
say we are not to be relied upon... Don't they think we are such
clever villains?" The women don't like the fact that the only power
women have had over men from the dawn of time (and until the end
of time) is to withhold sex. By some accounts, women seemed little
more than walking sperm receptacles. That is their one-dimensional
world, to please men, no more or less. Lysistrata, an Athenian woman is the play's
heroine; her name is significant in itself, as it means "she who disbands the armies" "if the women will
meet here - the Spartans, the Boeotians, and we Athenians - then all together we will save Greece" the
characters of Penelope in the epic, The Odyssey, Lysistrata in the comedy, Lysistrata, and Medea in the
tragedy, Medea. Penelope and Lysistrata possessed powers too but they never used their power to harm
anyone. They used their power to achieve good. Penelope used her power to guarantee her husband's
victory over the suitors while Lysistrata used hers to achieve peace in Greece. Both Homer's Iliad and
Aristophanes' Lysistrata explore the nature and character of men. In their respective portrayals of male
characters, both works reveal a fundamental flaw in that nature. This underlying flaw, immaturity, results in
a variety of childish behaviors that are not only inappropriate but potentially quite dangerous and
destructive. Reliance on women, inability to exert self-control, and resorting to violence as an easy
solution to any problem or perceived threat are typical traits of young boys. Readers of the Iliad and

Lysistrata are confronted with grown men consistently exhibiting exactly these behaviors and witness the
adverse consequences to society.
Throughout the Iliad Achilles operates like a spiteful child empowered with the body and strength of a
man. He is stubborn and unreasonable, sullen and resentful when he cannot have his way, and, much like
a playground bully, he uses his unusual strength to intimidate anyone who might challenge him. When in
book one Achilles loses a battle of wills with Agam...
In Antigone and Lysistrata the tension between the polis and oikos is reflected in different ways. Antigone
prioritizes oikos over polis, while Creon prioritizes polis over oikos. The men in Lysistrata favor fighting for
the state over being at home while the women want their husbands with them instead of being at the war.
We find ample evidence of different conflicts and similarities in both plays, but the male's prioritizing polis
over oikos and the female's prioritizing oikos over polis causes the central tension in Antigone and
LysistrataThe construction of women in male literature is extremely important. Peter Barry, in his chapter
on feminist literary criticism in his book Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory,
asserts that observing the female characters in works by men is important because it provides role
models which indicated
Lysistrata is a play of an early feminism movement because it empowered women, created future
movements, and left a legacy of its own. In literature, these individuals, their goals, and how they attained
their position make a statement about the society they represent. In "Saint Joan," by Bernard Shaw, and
"Lysistrata," by Aristophanes, the governing individuals, although their positions and goals are very
similar, have extremely differing personalities. The reason for this difference lies in the goals that each
author has for these rulers, and the points the author wishes to convey.