Lysistrata's View Of Greek Women During The Classical Era

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.

Lysistrata, visibly upset that the women have not appeared, turns to her friend Cleonice, who reassures her that everyone will come, but “it’s not easy...for women to leave the house. One is busy pottering about her husband; another is getting the servant up; a third is putting her child asleep or washing the brat or feeding it” (Lysistrata). The exposition to the drama therefore tells us everything we need to know: women are trying and failing to remove themselves from their traditional housekeeping role. This is in part forced upon them by men, but also in part by their own will: throughout the play, the women place themselves in a lesser role and act unable to control themselves.  When Lysistrata explains her plan to Cleonice, Cleonice responds that “salvation hangs on a poor thread” if women are in charge. It is therefore not only men who enforce the anti-feminist view that women cannot “perform so wise and glorious an achievement” as ending the

The women in Lysistrata are portrayed as strong and confident. This is seen in the form of the main character of the play, Lysistrata; who is the first one to propose the idea of withholding sex as a measure to stop the war. She demonstrates the qualities of a true leader as she has a well-planned strategy to get her way: “if we would compel our husbands to make peace, we must refrain”. At first this idea is instantly rejected by the women, but Lysistrata manages to convince them with her words of wisdom. This indicates how strong and perseverant Lysistrata is, and this is displayed by her idea of giving up sex. This is likely to be appreciated by the contemporary Greek audiences, as sex is described as the “most beautiful thing in the world” and Lysistrata is giving it up.

Studies concerning the lives of women in classical Athens have sparked much controversy because, despite the apparent fascination with femininity manifested in art and drama, we have no evidence voicing the opinions of the actual women themselves. This presents a

In the Land of Ancient Greece, one of power Gods and Legendary hero’s. Two men wrote two extraordinary plays about the lives of the Greek people. The first was written by the author Sophocles, and his work Antigone is a play about a young girl who goes against the wishes of her king to abided by the will of the Gods. The second was written by Aristophanes and this piece of work was called Lysistrata. This play told the tale of the women of Greece as they try and find a way to end the Peloponnesian War. These two tales both revolve around the women of Greece however, these two tales show us that both what traditional life was like for the women of Greece and how those same beliefs were at times challenged. In this essay, I will explore how both

In “The Trojan Women,” there are four enduring women who dominate the play and only two men who say anything at all. Moving us with their rants and dramatic reactions, these women engulf the audience in overwhelming grief and irresistible pride. Euripides emphasizes these four women to help us understand one of his main themes. Hecuba with her pride, Cassandra with her virginity and uncanny wisdom, Andromache with her misery and heartache, and Helen with her powerful, seductive reasoning all represent superior illustrations of feminism throughout the play.

In the ancient world, views of women were often derogatory, yet some viewed women as intelligent and powerful. The Epic of Gilgamesh and Lysistrata both display the complex opinions towards women of the time. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the characters Shamhat and Ishtar provide the audience with a biased view towards women, but this work also provides a more positive opinion of women through Siduri, Utnapishtim's wife, and Aruru. As paralleled in Aristophanes’s Lysistrata, Calonice and Peace represent negative perspectives of women, but this play also portrays women positively with Lysistrata and Myrrhine. The ancient texts of The Epic of Gilgamesh and Lysistrata simultaneously depict women as inferior, equal to, and superior to men to represent the complex views of women that were present during ancient times.

Lysisitrata is a powerful play about women in Ancient Greece who are trying to find a way to get their husbands to end the Peloponnesian War and live in a time of peace. The way these women intend to get the desired outcome is by withholding any sexual activity from the husbands until the war is ended. Medea is another powerful play in which a smart and cunning woman, Medea, plans her revenge on her husband. The reason she is planning to get revenge is because her husband had been unfaithful and has intentions of marrying another woman, Creon’s daughter, which leads Medea to be distraught and outraged by this betrayal. Lysisitrata gives women more agency to act because throughout the play, more and more women are partaking in the refusal of sex with their husbands, though many of them are struggling with it and want to give in, they manage to stand strong and hold true to the oath that they had made.

Since the beginning of time, women have always been looked down upon mentally. During the time period of The Odyssey and Lysistrata, women were known as less powerful gender. They have never had much say about what goes on around them. Some women were recognized as a sex symbol. In The Odyssey, some women were goddesses that just wanted sex and other women had to stay at home to help raise their kids and do all of the feminine work. Compared to The Odyssey, in Lysistrata, women denied sex against their men to get what they want. In addition, they did not have many political rights and a say so on what goes on in their country. In comparing both of these stories, women show similarities toward each other.

“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

Fascinatingly, two dramas can be so diverse all because of one aspect they both contain but differ in. Written during the 5th century in ancient Athens. Antigone and Lysistrata both are two important, popular plays that contain a main character that was female. Although they can both be seen as very similar, they do differ in many ways. The most important difference between Antigone and Lysistrata is that Antigone has a community that does not approve of the main character’s plans and although they feel sympathy for her, they take the opposing side, while Lysistrata has a society of people that come together to help the main character achieve her goal. This difference is important because the community’s actions play a tremendous role in the overall outcome of the play and the way the original viewers, who were only men, felt when the play finished. The conclusions and the feelings brought forth by the drama indicate the style it was written in, tragedy or comedy. An ending with a death, leaving an audience feeling sorry creates a tragedy, as an accomplishment from something completely unrealistic would create a comedy. Antigone’s community does not involve themselves with her decisions which leaves her to fight by herself. Furthermore, this influences her tragic fate and leads the male Athenians watching to feel sorry for Antigone but unresponsive of her personal choices. In Lysistrata, the community joins Lysistrata and accomplishes to stop a war that was going on during

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

The concept of conversations within a play that is all dialogue allows you to hear the plan that Lysistrata had created for the women in her society. Her solution in trying to prevent war and losing more people to the war. Many of the women that Lysistrata had gotten to side with her are very hesitant towards the idea of giving up sex because they also enjoy sex as much as the men do. Giving the sense that you as a reader knowing that this idea is hard for both sides of the argument is not happy with the solution given to them. You hear the characters express their distaste for the subject but the women know this is one of the only ways to get their point across. The dialogue between characters in the poem let the reader discover than solution was not the best nor is it a reasonable solution, but allowed the audience to think about having a better solution to war than a sex

Lysistrata has challenged male authority in a bold way. This is a complete turnaround from the place in which Greek women were said to hold in their society. In this case, women stereotypes are proven wrong as women are shown as the opposite of being submissive and flaccid, the opposite is true as women are shown to be defiant.

A. Based on the context of the play, how women are depicted and displayed shows a little bit of contrast. The stereotypes of women being only good for beauty, deception, being submissive and so on holds in stark contrast to Lysistrata. She was made not to fit the mold and societal norms by displaying strong character traits that men were dominantly giving. The use of sex, conflict, and war being all mixed in this comedy leads to a strong plot in the play to be able to influence the audience for sure. I highly doubt Aristophanes is for women having equal treatment and high political power in the Greek society, but that doesn't mean he is saying it is impossible for certain women to gain control over certain aspect in every day life or even certain