Gender In Lysistrata

Aristophanes paved the way for comedy and how it would be viewed by citizens in ancient Greece. By incorporating satire and comedy, Aristophanes portrayed the social and political climate of the time. More specifically, Lysistrata, a play by Aristophanes, gives insight into the role women have in the Athenian society. The theme of gender roles in the play, Lysistrata, has evolved to parallel the social norm of feminism by women today. Lysistrata is a satirical comedy and portrays the women are at odds with man regarding several different matters, most notably the waging war on itself. The role Aristophanes embellishes within the characters are reversed between man and woman. The women, who were largely subservient to the needs and whims of

The comedy, Lysistrata, is based almost entirely around the theme of lust. The story tells of a war among the Greeks. Lysistrata, whose name means "she who dissolves armies," is the wife of one of the soldiers. She, along with the other wives, is sick and tired of her

Many comedies of this time period explore issues that were of importance to those people. Lysistrata is no different. It explores issues relevant to the time period in which it was written. Aristophanes uses the Peloponnesian War to illustrate the differences between the men and women of the time period.

Lysistrata is portrayed as a hero by Aristophanes and just as Antigone had played a social role in politics, so is Lysistrata portrayed. Most ancient Greek writers were people who had established themselves in the society. They were people of class, and when they wrote about women, they mostly wrote about women from their own social class. Women were shown to participate only in the domestic roles of childbearing and that saw many women confined to their houses. They rarely ventured out of the proximity of their domestic dwellings, let alone participate in manly politics. Lysistrata,

The different portrayals of female characters Antigone and Lysistrata illustrate the fundamental nature of the proper Athenian woman. Sophocles' Antigone allows the reader to see that outrage over social injustices does not give women the excuse to rebel against authority, while Aristophanes' Lysistrata reveals that challenging authority in the polis becomes acceptable only when it's faced with destruction through war. Sophocles and Aristophanes use different means to illustrate the same idea; the ideal Athenian woman's ultimate loyalty lies with her polis. This Greek concept of the proper woman seems so vital when considering Athenian society because both a tragedy and comedy revolve around this concept. The differing roles accorded to

Traditionally in ancient studies of various civilizations, women assume a submissive role as caretaker of the house and family. Generally, this trend continues throughout early organized society until around the time of sixty four A.D. with the rapid spread and judgment of the new religious dynamic of Christianity. The novel faith becomes notorious for the strong ties and companionship between members of the community as well as the appealing views of a compassionate deity and rewarding afterlife. These characteristics attracted women and impoverished peoples of Rome in particular. As the belief system caught on in the Empire many pagans and Emperors such as Nero rejected the faith and began to persecute these people for their beliefs. The

Lysistrata is a play written by a man named Aristophanes around 400 B.C.E. in Athens Greece. Aristophanes, a contemporary of the Greek philosopher Socrates, was the last and greatest of the Old Attic comedians. He wrote many plays, however, only eleven of his plays have survived until today. Lysistrata, being one of these plays, is a is an extremely bawdy anti-war fantasy. Aristophanes wrote this play during a time when Athens was undergoing a crisis with its social attitudes. Therefor, this comedy shows sympathy and longing for the return of peace. Lysistrata is all about the women of Athens and Sparta, led by a woman named Lysistrata, coming together and trying to force the men at war against each other to return to peace by

Lysistrata by Aristophanes is seen to be a comical play used to show the impact of war not only on the ones physically in the war, but the ones mentally involved also. This play was written to help express the feeling the author had about the war occurring during the time the work was written. Lysistrata, the main character, is a strong woman who decides to become as what could be said as being “rebellious”. She does this by refusing to have sexual relations with the men in the city until it was agreed that peace would be declared between the two troops. She calls a meeting with the women in the city and include them in her vindictive ideas to bring the war to an end. This play is sure to bring a smile to the readers face due to the comical events that occur. However, comedy is not the only thing that becomes apparent within the play. Throughout the work of Lysistrata there are three themes that become apparent during this play: peace and harmony, control by gender, and politics.

Throughout history, the roles of women and men have always differed to some degree. In ancient Greece, the traditional roles were clear-cut and defined. Women stayed home to care for children and do housework while men left to work. This system of society was not too far off the hunter gatherer concept where women cared for the house and the men hunted. Intriguingly enough, despite the customary submissive role, women had a more multifaceted role and image in society as juxtaposed with the rather simple role men played. Morals for the two were also different. Men obviously had the upper hand with women being the traditional passive.

The poetic tone of Aristophanes' Lysistrata differs greatly from the poetic tone of the Greek tragedies we have read in class. However, after analyzing this Greek comedy, it seems to share some of the main characteristics of Euripides' Medea. Within these plays, we meet shrewd, powerful masculine women who use the art of manipulation to get what they want from others and to accomplish their goals. This theme of manipulation is employed through various means and techniques. The women of these plays also seem to contradict the stereotypical woman and have characteristics similar to the Homeric Greek warrior.

Lysistrata is shown to be a very clever and cunning woman as she is able to use emotive language in order to persuade the women into listening to her

Aristophanes’s play Lysistrata is about a sex strike and describes women working around their inferior status in society to fulfill their primary duty to their country by putting other duties to the side to persuade men to end the war. This illustrates the duties of both women and men with an emphasis on the duties of the woman while also detailing a few key differences between genders. While these duties and differences are described throughout the entirety of the play, the interactions of Lysistrata, Myrrhine, and Kinesias in scene five illustrate them with clearer detail. This implies that while women may be inferior citizens in a society, they have loyalties and responsibilities, and they prove to be intellectual, rational equals to male citizens.

“Lysistrata” is a tale which is centered around an Athenian woman named Lysistrata and her comrades who have taken control of the Acropolis in Athens. Lysistrata explains to the old men how the women have seized the Acropolis to keep men from using the money to make war and to keep dishonest officials from stealing the money. The opening scene of “Lysistrata” enacts the stereotypical and traditional characterization of women in Greece and also distances Lysistrata from this overused expression, housewife character. The audience is met with a woman, Lysistrata, who is furious with the other women from her country because they have not come to discuss war with her. The basic premise of the play is, Lysistrata coming up with a plan to put an

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 Lysistrata.

Consistent with the textbook, The Compact Bedford Introduction to Drama, the play Lysistrata by Aristophanes contains the elements of satire with its notable humors that ridicule his contemporary time’s politicians. Simply, he used his contemporary political figures, who caused the war and unable to stop the war, and the situation in war of his time as important factors for his humors that he is famous for. Consequently, his play Lysistrata aims to mock satirically his contemporary public figures, many of whom people in modern era do not recognize but contemporary Athenians know. That is, Lysistrata actually tries to make fun of the politicians by women, who were not even humans in eyes of Athenians, win over them in the play, describing their incompetence even below women who were thought to be unable to politically rule. Yet, do the men in the play signify all men in Athene? Simply, the textbook explains, “[t]he men encountered by the heroine Lysistrata (whose name means ‘disband the army’) on the Acropolis—men who guard the national security and the national treasury—are old and decrepit. The young men are in the field” (p.81). That is, the powerless men in the play