“Let’s quickly swear an oath, my friend, and set our concord up unbendable as bronze,” Lysistrata declared, when the other women of Athens and Sparta decided to ban together to with her (Puchner, Akbari, Denecke, and Fuchs 790). The Peloponnesian War had raged on for years and the women of Athens and Sparta were ready for their husbands to come home (Puchner, Akbari, Denecke, and Fuchs 788). Lysistrata assembled all the women to devise a duplicitous disposition to end the war. The women of Athens and Sparta barricaded their selves in a temple and refused to give in to their husbands’ sexual desires (Puchner, Akbari, Denecke, and Fuchs 788). Lysistrata and the women of Athens and Sparta used their sex appeal for to benefit both Athens and Sparta …show more content…
Regardless of the adverse representation of women during Aristophanes time, Lysistrata uses women 's sexuality and their specific societal gender roles to bring harmony amongst Athens and Sparta (Wiederhold and Springer …show more content…
Too often feminists argue that socially acceptable gender roles are negative for women (Wiederhold and Springer 2). Feminists usually have pessimistic views of gender roles causing ignorance towards the power of gender roles (Wiederhold and Springer 2). Gender roles were the number one weapon used to women’s advantage in Lysistrata (Wiederhold and Springer 2). Wiederhold and Springer describe Lysistrata as a “powerful rhetorical tool” for feminist anti-war protestation because it resulted in the private domain of women’s sexuality and the public domain of their gender roles as homemakers, mothers, and commoners developing into one social norm (9). By the women of Athens and Sparta merging, they were able to prove to their husbands that regardless of being women they could be just as influential (Wiederhold and Springer 9). They maximized their gender role of being the fertile, fragile creatures and brought peace while the men could not produce such neighborliness for Athens or Sparta (Wiederhold and Springer
In learning about the feminist movement, we studied the three articles and discussed and reviewed the different authors perspectives on the topic and learned how important the role of woman in Greek Mythology. In presenting the feminist theory to the class we analyzed the three articles, Women in Ancient Greece; Women in Antiquity: New Assessments; and Women in Greek Myth, and discussed how although the three articles provided different views on Feminism in mythology, they all essentially are aiming to teach the same basic concept.
As Lysistrata begins, the women are gathering for their meeting with Lysistrata. They gripe and complain about how late the others are for the meeting, while Lysistrata begins to clue them in on her plan. Once all have arrived who will be arriving, she gives them the details of her plan to stop the war. That plan being that they with hold sexual favors from their husbands or lovers until the war is over. For the most part, only one other woman, Lampito, is in agreement with her. The others cannot fathom doing such a thing. After all, they cannot go without sexual pleasures, could they? Eventually, Lysistrata and Lampito convince the others to go along with the plan. Finally, the women who did not give up and go home manage to seize the acropolis. The elders and magistrates try their best to smoke the women out, but to no avail. The women dump water on the men and stand their ground. Eventually the men of both sides had enough of being denied sexual pleasures and came together to sign the treaty. They were reluctant at first, but they gave way to the women’s wishes and signed the treaty ending the war between Athens and Sparta.
Aristophanes’ Lysistrata is an excellent example of satirical drama in a relatively fantastical comedy. He proceeds to show the absurdity of the Peloponnesian War by staging a battle of the sexes in front of the Acropolis, worshipping place of Athena. Tied into all of this is the role of sex and reason and is evident in the development of some characters and the lack of development in others. Although the play is centered on Lysistrata, the story is truly propelled by the ideas of sex and reason.
In the introduction of the scene, the women are gathering for a meeting which Lysistrata request for and she begins to reveal her plan, as women, we can work together to end the war. At the start, Kalonkie, a friend of Lysistrata initiated “How can women do a thing so austere, so political?”(10), immediately women are questioning what qualification women can do to end a war the only skill comprehend is to be a lovely housewife. The notion of women minds dose not expands and believes that they are capable of doing things beyond. As well in this quote, there is emphasize on the word “political” Kalonkie is demonstrates politics is a difficult aspect to understand and is mainly a man’s job. The questions of women do not have the qualify knowledge of fixing such a complex situation. However, once Lysistrata deliberates her plan on a sex strike unhesitatingly Kalonkie speaks “no! I’d walk through fire for you- you know I would!”(10), this immediate response shows women are not entirely supportive of Lysistrata’s plan, and women will exclusive will do anything else besides supporting the sex strike. As well, a scene in the Akropolis women is infidelity escaping so they can go have sexually contact with their husbands. Lysistrata response on this behave was not positive aspect about women “No wonder poets write tragedies about us.” (12), Lysistrata the protagonist demonstrates responses are actually the behavior of what men consider of women. Women are considered only for their sexual desire, to be pretty and sit all day, while allowing the men achieve all the action and heroic stuff. These impressions of hesitance of women are shown throughout in deliberation and see nothing beyond of
Over the course of history, the societal roles of both men and women have changed with the times. The play Lysistrata, written by Aristophanes, gives the reader a glimpse of what life was like in Ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian war. The war was fought between Athens and Sparta with their respective allies, (however Aristophanes’s play provides humour about gender, sex and war). Throughout the play, women play a unique role in that they are presented as people who are involved with politics and were people who made decisions. Through the use of comedy this play demonstrates the absurdity of women acting like men and the play shows how dangerous situations can get when people change too abruptly. Internal conflict weakens both the city-state and the gender relationships.
The Lysistrata of Aristophanes Aristophanes was a satirist who produced Lysistrata around 413 BC when the news of Athen’s warships had been destroyed near Sicily. For twenty-one years, while Athens was engaged in war, he relentlessly and wittliy attacked the war, the ideals of the war, the war party and the war spirit. This risked his acceptance and his Athenian citizenship. Lysistrata is probably the oldest comedy which has retained a place in modern theatre. It primarily deals with two themes, war and the power of sexuality.. Lysistrata (an invented name meaning, She Who Puts an End to War) has summoned the women of Athens to meet her at the foot of Acropolis. She puts before them the easy invitation that they must never lie again with their husbands until the war is ended. At first, they shudder and withdraw and refuse until, with the help of the women from Sparta and Thebes, they are impelled to agree. The women seize the Acropolis from which Athens is funding the war. After days of sexually depriving their men in order to bring peace to there communities. They defeat back in an attack from the old men who had remained in Athens while the younger men are on their crusade. When their husbands return from battle, the women reject sex and stand guard at Acropolis. The sex strike, portrayed in risqué episodes, finally pressure the men of Athens and Sparta to consent to a peace treaty. Ancient Greece in 431 BC was not a nation.
Slowly we will find that large areas of Athens will alter their opinions, not only because they feel that they are right, but also so that they may fit in with the majority, therefore spreading the idea of peace and retraction from fighting. Then, if the decision is made to withdraw from the battle, the public will agree rather than oppose the idea. Any government, let alone ours, far too seldom achieves such support from a city-state’s citizens. Second, the idea of the women of Athens assembling and planning out schemes on their own would cause alarm amongst the men of our society. Such is the idea of Lysistrata. The women of Athens, along with Sparta and other cities, band together and form a plot to stop the fighting throughout Greece.
First, Lysistrata is clearly identifiable as a leader for Athenian women. In the beginning of the play, Lysistrata secretly organizes a meeting between all the women of Greece to discuss a strategy to end the Peloponnesian War "if the women will meet here - the Spartans, the Boeotians, and we Athenians - then all together we will save Greece" (Page 468, 40-42). During the meeting, which Lysistrata leads, Lysistrata suggests to the women of Greece to withhold sex from their husbands. The women are hesitant and some refuse "I won't do it! Let the war go on" states Myrrhine, an Athenian woman (Page 470, 132). However, with Lysistrata' encouragement, the women swear an oath to withhold sex from their husbands until a treaty of peace is signed. Also, throughout the play, Lysistrata continuously directs, instructs and coaches the women of Athens on how to behave. Furthermore, the men call upon Lysistrata to make the treaty between Sparta and Athens "Only Lysistrata can arrange things for us; shall we summon her?" (Page 494, 1...
In the play Lysistrata, Aristophanes chooses an unconventional medium of protest to symbolize his female characters’ fight for gender equality. The protagonist known as Lysistrata rallies together a group of women in order to stop the ongoing war. In doing so she employs the idea of a ‘sex strike’ which involves the women refusing sexual acts with their husbands until they agree to sign the peace treaty. I will argue that while Lysistrata’s plan to suffocate the men with a sex strike succeeds in ending the war, it fails to invoke a shift in the views the opposing genders have due to sexual desires, a system of patriarchy, and gender stereotypes.
Feminists from various eras have shown moments of resignation, wondering whether they have become masculine in their struggle against male oppression. This struggle does not have an easy answer. One feminist retaliation to Lysistrata’s approach is that the marriage of beauty and submissiveness is a totalitarian quality invented by males to make women feel dependent or incomplete without male affection. At the same time, Lysistrata makes clear that militancy is a decisively male quality, as throughout history men have been the ones to initiate battles. During the Gulf War, it was common to find bumper stickers that said: “If Women Rule the World, There Would Be No
Euripides, one of Ancient Greece’s most famous playwrights, could be considered as one of the earliest supporters of women’s rights. With plays such as Alcestis and Medea, he clearly puts an emphasis on the condition of women, and even integrates them in the Chorus of the latter play, a feat that was not often done in Ancient Greece. Throughout the years, it has been argued that the two central characters in each of those plays offer conflicting representations of women in those times, and I can safely say that I agree with that argument. I will expand on my view by pointing out an important similarity between Alcestis and Medea, followed by a key difference, and will finish it off by contrasting them with the Ancient Greek depiction of an “ideal woman.”
In today’s society, women have overcome many hardships to become able to vote, able to run for public office, and even able to hold high business positions. Some people believe that such accomplishments are because of literary examples that have, over the years, lead women to believe in themselves, motivate them-selves, and stand up for themselves. In Aeschylus’ infamous Greek tragedy, The Oresteia, Clytaemestra, the leading woman, overcomes the Greek society’s slighting attitude towards women, grasping the most powerful position attain-able in Argos. Even after gaining power, Clytaemestra clutches this leadership desperately, unrelenting in her hopes to keep it forever. Although Clytaemestra uses intellect, inner strength, and self-motivation to capture power, she does it evasively and by hurting others. Therefore, Clytaemestra is not a respectable woman role model.
Aristophanes stereotypes women as bickering, self-centered, unintelligent people in the beginning. They are sex driven and selfish. Lysistrata is upset that the women are late for the very important meeting "Here I've called a meeting to discuss a very important matter, and they're all still fast asleep" (180). Calonice sums up what women are thought to do all day, and also what they represent to their households; "The women! What could they ever do that was any use? Sitting at home putting flowers in their hair, putting on cosmetics and saffron gowns and Cimberian see-through shifts, with slippers on our feet?" (181). It is in fact these very frivolous ideas that are used to bring peace to the two cities. Throughout the play Aristophanes begins to knock down ...
Lysistrata is a bawdy play written by the comic playwright from ancient Athens, Aristophanes. This age-old comedy details the quest of one Athenian woman’s crusade to put an end to the incessant Peloponnesian War. As a method of non-violent resistance, Lysistrata, along with other women who hail from Athens and other warring states, capitalize on their sexuality. In a male-dominated society, the deprival of sexual privileges by these women render their husbands and lovers powerless. In an attempt for peace, a comical yet crucial battle of the sexes erupts. It is evident that emphasis is not placed solely on the influence of sex and sexuality, but rather the gender issues in Classical society and the conceptualization of masculinity and femininity. The complexity surrounding the argument as to whether or not Lysistrata is a useful source for women’s history relies heavily upon the authors application of such ideas. After a qualitative analysis of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, Lysistrata and her co-conspirators appear to be dramatizations and not realistic imitations of women in classical Greece, rendering the source highly problematic and unreliable.
As the Peloponnesian war breaks out in ancient Greece, Lysistrata goes to great measures to bring it to a halt. She seeks out the help of the other women of Athens and Sparta. Lysistrata tells them to take an oath to withhold from sex with their husbands. “I will withhold all rights of access or entrance” (Pg. 40) is the promise these women are asked to adhere to. They refuse the idea at first with no hesitation. Lysistrata is quixotic to many and her plan is unexceptable. Soon, after much convincing, the women agree to withhold from any sexual intercourse with their husbands until they sign a peace treaty and end the war. The women are very straight forward with their demands. Consequently, the men become enraged and are even “threatening women with rubbish disposal! How ghastly-how gauche!” (Pg.50).The men were astounded by th...