Lampito goes off to spread the word of revolt, and the other women retreat behind the barred gates of the Acropolis to await the men's response.Ī Chorus of Old Men arrives, intent on burning down the gate of the Acropolis if the women do not open up. Soon after the oath is finished, a cry of triumph is heard from the nearby Acropolis-the old women of Athens have seized control of it at Lysistrata's instigation, since it holds the state treasury, without which the men cannot long continue to fund their war.
It is a long and detailed oath, in which the women abjure all their sexual pleasures, including the "lioness on the cheese-grater". The women are very reluctant, but the deal is sealed with a solemn oath around a wine bowl, Lysistrata choosing the words and Calonice repeating them on behalf of the other women. With support from the Spartan Lampito, Lysistrata persuades the other women to withhold sexual privileges from their menfolk as a means of forcing them to conclude the Peloponnesian War. (There is no explanation of how she manages this, but the satirical nature of the play makes this unimportant.) Soon after she confides in her friend her concerns for the female sex, the women begin arriving.
She has convened a meeting of women from various Greek city-states that are at war with each other. Lysistrata, however, is an extraordinary woman with a large sense of individual and social responsibility. Women, as represented by Calonice, are sly hedonists in need of firm guidance and direction. These lines, spoken by the Athenian Lysistrata and her friend Calonice at the beginning of the play, set the scene for the action that follows. It was produced in the same year as the Thesmophoriazusae, another play with a focus on gender-based issues, just two years after Athens' catastrophic defeat in the Sicilian Expedition. Additionally, its dramatic structure represents a shift from the conventions of Old Comedy, a trend typical of the author's career.
The play is notable for being an early exposé of sexual relations in a male-dominated society. Lysistrata persuades the women of the warring cities to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace-a strategy, however, that inflames the battle between the sexes. It is a comic account of a woman's extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War between Greek city states by denying all the men of the land any sex, which was the only thing they truly and deeply desired. Lysistrata ( / l aɪ ˈ s ɪ s t r ə t ə/ or / ˌ l ɪ s ə ˈ s t r ɑː t ə/ Attic Greek: Λυσιστράτη, Lysistrátē, "Army Disbander") is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. Athenian citizens, Spartan envoys, slaves et al.īefore the Propylaea, or gateway to the Acropolis of Athens, 411 BC.