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Lysistrata takes place in the Ancient Greek city of Athens. The play takes place in 411 BCE. The most important event of the day was the long war between Athens and Sparta, otherwise known as the Peloponnesian War. The play appeared at a time when the war was going especially badly for Athens. This play provides an important part in how people were feeling at this moment in history.
The main character in this play is Lysistrata. She was an extraordinary woman who wanted to make sure that a woman’s voice be heard.
She is a middle-class housewife who spends most of her day doing chores and overseeing the household. Lysistrata has an incredible amount of intelligence, creativity, organizational and leadership skills. She calls women from all over Greece for a meeting and gets them all to agree to her plan.
LYSISTRATA. Then I'll expose my mighty mystery. O women, if we would compel the men To bow to Peace, we must refrain—
MYRRHINE. From what? O tell us!
LYSISTRATA. Will you truly do it then?
MYRRHINE. We will, we will, if we must die for it.
LYSISTRATA. We must refrain from every depth of love....(Aristophanes, 20)
Lysistrata scheduled a meeting for all women of Greece to talk about the plan to end the Peloponnesian War. The women meet and she gets them to swear by oath that they will not give their husbands sex until both sides come to an agreement. The next day, Lysistrata sees Kinesias, who is the husband of Myrrhine.
Kinesias has an erection and desperately wants his wife, but she refuses until there is peace between Athens and Sparta. As Kinesias promises to only think about a treaty of peace for Athens and Sparta, Myrrhine disappears into the Akropolis and leaves her husband in great pain. A Spartan Herald approaches the Akropolis and he, like Kinesias, has an erection. Delegations from both states then meet at the Akropolis to discuss peace. Lysistrata comes out of the Akropolis with her naked handmaid, Peace. While the men are fully distracted by Peace, Lysistrata lectures them on the need for the states of Greece to come together. Lysistrata reasons that because both Athens and Sparta are of a common heritage and because they have previously helped one another and owe a debt to one another, the two sides should not be fighting. After both sides agree, Lysistrata gives the women back to the men and have a big celebration.
Because this is a play, there is no narrator. Each character presents the events from a first perspective point of view. It effects the play by giving the audience a visual and personal feel on what and how each character felt.
In the play, there are some themes that stand out to me, which is power, peace, and unity. In the ancient times, women had no power. They were often seen as being a person to bear children, satisfy their husband, and take care of the home. Women were not allowed to make decisions and were considered unfit to do so.
CALONICE. But if they should force us?
LYSISTRATA. Yield then, but with a sluggish, cold indifference. There is no joy to them in sullen mating. Besides we have other ways to madden them; they cannot stand up long, and they've no delight unless we fit their aim with merry succor (Aristophanes, 23)
In these lines, Calonice worries that they won't have enough willpower to keep up their sex-strike. Lysistrata still believes they have power to resist. The husbands want their wives to want to have sex with them, so if the husband should force the wife, Lysisttrata suggest to lying there with no desire to perform. Another theme of this story would be peace and unity. Peace and unity is needed in relationships, between nations, and people in general to be strong. The women became stronger when they united with one another.
There are a number of symbols in this story that represent certain ideas throughout its entirety. One symbol that sticks out to me is the women’s sexuality. This symbolizes their one and only main power that they are willing to sacrifice for a greater good. Withholding their sexuality was, in their opinion, the best they could do to get their husbands to realize that the war was senseless.
LYSISTRATA. This, as I tell you—First set a great dark bowl upon the ground And disembowel a skin of Thasian wine, Then swear that we'll not add a drop of water. (Aristphanes, 25)
When the women decided to agree to withhold their sexual abilities from their husbands, they performed a sacrifice, sealing their vows, using a bowl and wine. These items symbolized a shield and blood. Usually, during an oath-taking ceremony, the men seal their vows with a blood sacrifice in a shield. The women however, decided that the blood sacrifice was wrong for an oath of peace. By replacing the shield with a bowl and blood with wine, the women have transformed into now having feminine power.
In this story, Aristophanes uses Lysistrata to shift the idea that women can be more than a servant to her family and society, that they can be influential as well. I think the even bigger idea is that instead of assuming battles should be fought by the male gender, women can also contribute. Women are stronger than society believes. Women don’t have the body structure of a man to take on a battle, but they have given beauty features and mental abilities that compensate, making them just as powerful. In today’s time, this would be a great read, encouraging men and women to believe that if we just all come together, what a great outcome we could accomplish.
Women Are Stronger Than We Think. (2021, Dec 03). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/women-are-stronger-than-we-think-essay
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