In the play, Lysistrata, the women of Athens learn of Lysistrata’s plan to withhold sex in an effort to bring her husband back from war. The Athenian women decide to unite and implement Lysistrata’s plan in an effort to regain their own husbands and sons. In Aristophanes’ work he demonstrates his view of women as being cunning and resourceful beings yet at the same time comedic without even trying: The women make meeting to conspire plans, the women make themselves luscious to attract the males of the community, and the women work together as one to achieve a common goal. The Athenian women are seen by the males of the Greek society as stay at home mothers: cooking, cleaning, and offering sex. The stay at home mother is not considered to possess the…
Firstly, in Lysistrata the male characters do not play a significant role, and rarely appear. But in the scenes that involves the male characters, they are either seen discussing political issues, or desperate for sex. For example: the scene of Myrrhine’s seduction. Cinesias is seen as desperate for sex as he is “stiff with desire”. The word stiff is used to describe Cinesias’s penis, which shows his sexual desires and how desperate he is for sex. This also shows that he is unable to control his sexual temptations, while Myrrhine is able to; further revealing that men were weak. The quote: “won’t you please come?” proves this as Cinesias is shown pleading for sex.…
Recently I had the opportunity to attend to a Greek comedy called the lysistrata at Whatcom Community College. The show really connected to similar themes in our curicculum of IDS 161. In the opening scene of Lysistrata, it enacts the stereotypical and traditional characterization of women in Greece and also distances Lysistrata from this clichéd, housewife character. Lysistrata is not only angered because the women won't prioritize war and the peace of their country, but she is ashamed that the women won't stand up to the stereotypes and names that their husband's give them. Lysistrata tells Kleonike, "I'm positively ashamed to be a woman", and Kleonike proudly admits, "That's us!" As the play procedes and lysistrata puts her mind to work, she requests that the women use their attractiveness to make the males want them sexually, Lysistrata encourages the women to play to their stereotype and exploit the sexual, idealized female. Like a man, with her plan for a sex strike in mind, Lysistrata examines women for their sexual potential.Therefore, women not only begin to see each other with male…
A big part of democracy is the freedom of speech and at this point in time of history, women stand in the shadows of their husbands especially when political discussions arise. In Lysistrata the main character, Lysistrata is all for democracy and the defense of democracy. The Greek culture was very focused on war and a lot of the economy was focused solely on producing resources for the war, all the revenue it would receive from the war and many even many of the Greek gods were related to war. Soldiers would pray to their gods during, before, and after and a victory was a gift from the gods and a loss was a punishment from the gods. War seemed to be the only thing that had any intention of the husbands and men of Greece, and Lysistrata along with her colleagues had enough of that. Although Aristophanes was secretly undermining the minds of high officials in Greece, he got away with it by incorporating his ideas for change with short…
This means we have a slightly skewed view on gender coming from upper class male citizens. This must be taken into account when discussing how characters conform to these views, as they may not give us the full picture. Women and men in Classical Athens had vastly different expectations and purposes placed upon them. The ideal woman was modest, chaste, willingly submissive to the male…
Greek theater served as an important aspect in history, this is because of the views of culture which were explained in it. Plays commonly referenced important cultural views such as; political, social, and religious themes. They offered new ways to view things, and helped to form what we have come to know as the base of Greek culture. Athens a city-state in Greece began a long on-going war with Sparta, the powerful city-state of southern Greece’s Peloponnesian Peninsula. Religion, politics and popular culture all play a part in understanding Lysistrata, a play that was written to explain the ending of this war. In the play, gods and goddesses are referenced constantly and the people did what they had to do to make the gods happy. In Athens;…
"Woman is the most shameless beast of all the beasts that be" (Aristophanes). This is a direct correlation of how a woman was thought of in Ancient Greece. In its simplest terms, the Lysistrata is a tale that centers around an Athenian woman named Lysistrata and her comrades who have taken control of the Acropolis in Athens. They are protesting against the endless wars that men are fighting and refuse their husbands sex unless they cease their battles. This revolutionary due to the views of women at the time and how little dominance women had. The woman faced a lot of tyranny in order to weep the benefit of peace. This play by Aristophanes is a comedy and exaggerated in order to show the power of sexual desires that Lysistrata manipulates,…
Lysistrata - Lysistrata is an Athenian woman who is sick and tired of war and the treatment of women in Athens. Lysistrata gathers the women of Sparta and Athens together to solve these social ills and finds success and power in her quest. Lysistrata is the least feminine of the women from either Athens or Sparta, and her masculinity helps her gain respect among the men.…
Counter examples are used throughout this play, and is a key role in the parody of the play. On both male and female sides of the dynamics in the play the first one is right from the start. “the streets are absolutely clogged with frantic females banging on tambourines. No urging for an orgy!” (727) In the “Classical Age” of Athens upperclass women assumed the role of a housewife, where their duties were to either clean up the house or organize the slaves of the house to do it for them. It was unheard of for women to be out in the streets like this period much less at night. The women of Athens formed together to plot against the men to bring them home from the war. As the women were gathering to plan against the men, Lysistrata said, “I'm on fire right down to the bone. I'm positively ashamed to be a woman—a member of a sex which can't even live up to male slanders! To hear our husbands talk, we're sly: deceitful, always plotting, monsters of intrigue...”(728) this quote makes me laugh, because while she is saying this her and multiple women are plotting a way to get back at the men. This quote plays off the stereotype that a woman is always out to make a mans life miserable in everything they do, but this is exactly the thing they are trying to do. While the women are out in the streets they continue to show how ridiculous they are when they are complaining on how much they do for their men. This quote by Kleonike is a prime example, “They'll be here. You know a woman's way is hard mainly the way out of the house: fuss over hubby, wake the maid up, put the baby down, bathe him, feed him...” (728) Kleonike goes on and on about how much work they have to do, but she mentions that she gets up the maid, which does the work for her. This quote plays of the stereotype that women do a lot of house work, but in the play they have maids so obviously they are not doing too much.…
Despite how sublime men tried to act back then during the Peloponnesian War fighting for greed and ambition, being withdrawn from their animalistic desires instantly popped off everything they had fought in the past. Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (411 B.C.) ended the Peloponnesian War in his own comedic way with women seducing men to stop the war. The demand for animalistic desires of us, humans, is emphasized in the play becoming the only method women could use to influence the outcome of war. While living in an environment with such a significant amount of discrimination against themselves, women attempted a sex strike hoping to gain enough attention from men for the purpose of ending war. Although being a successful strike, we do not see, in…
It is important to note the lack of feminism in Lysistrata because it can alter the entire meaning of the book. Instead of empowering women, Aristophanes probably used women as characters in a degrading way. Lysistrata was written as a satirical response to the war. He obviously opposed it was trying to convince others to also oppose it. He used women protagonists to show that even uneducated inferior people can see that the war needs to be…
Although some humorists attempt to convey a message about society at large, the main focus of most humorists is to entertain and not effect societal change. The…
Aristotle's Poetics: Comedy and Epic and Tragedy comments on the reflection of reality by it's very imitation. As with comedy being an imitation of the inferior and ugly, the role of the epic and tragedy follow the roles of characters of great importance. The idea being that only those of importance are even noticeable in the eyes of the gods, since mankind is relatively insignificant and are nothing more than an amusement to the gods.…
In the Ancient City of Athens women were very undervalued and treated poorly. It was very unfair, and unkind. Women in Athens were treated unfairly because men controlled their lives, they did not go to school, and they did not have the same opportunities as…
Throughout Greek tragedies, there is a well-defined line between male and female gender roles. The men are seen as money makers, punishers, and protectors; whereas women are seen as caregivers, peacekeepers, and nurturers. A man’s job held more importance than a woman’s. In the patriarchal society seen in Greek culture, women were expected to follow orders and adhere to men . Defying men would cause consequences because in ancient times reputation was everything; being defied by a woman would ultimately destroy a man’s reputation. Due to this factor, women have been oppressed throughout history by men attempting to solidify their status in society. Influential women that resisted objectification and the patriarchal society caused such a drastic change that women today are now able to vote, work, and step away from traditional gender roles.…