Similarities Between Aristophanes' Lysistrata and Euripides' Medea

More importantly, she seems to be able to identify the flaws that lead her astray. The first mistake Medea traces her current predicament back to is her vulnerability to be manipulated when thinking with her emotions instead of her better sense. On first falling in love with Jason, she recalls "I was ensnared, girl that I was, by your/words" (86), words tapping into her emotions. This of course inspired the all the more magnanimous goof of replacing her family with her husband who as the queen describes "alone...took the place of/ all!" (164-165). For the Queen of Colchis, bad decisions have been her major shortcoming, a fact that she both realizes and takes responsibility for. Thus acknowledgment is the first step towards her redemption. Evidence for this can be seen through her pathological appeals to Jason which illustrate how the Queen has used her emotional mind-set as a strength instead of a weakness. Medea "betrayed [her] sire" (109), "lost [her] throne" (163), and killed her own brother for Jason. She reminds him that, in addition to all the sacrifices she made for him, her devotion has not faltered when she says, "At your bidding I have withdraw from/ your palace...and --/ what follows me evermore -- my love for you" (140-143). After winning Jason's sympathy, the humble woman concludes "by my favours to you...restore me to the bed

Ancient expectations for women include always putting the responsibilities of being a mother above all else, as shown in Euripides’ Medea and Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, as well as Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis. Both Clytemnestra and Medea exhibit motherly love and tend to those responsibilities, but commit atrocious, unladylike acts, which jeopardize the sympathy felt for them by an audience. The respective playwrights of each story use their character’s motivations and how they align with their roles as mothers first and women second to ultimately characterize each in either a negative or positive light. The motherly motivation that Clytemnestra and Medea exhibit excuses their vengeful and deceitful actions, however Medea’s final action,

Peace and Harmony is the central theme in the play. Lysistrata is out to end the prolonged war. After consideration on how to accomplish her wishes, and idea finally arises. Lysistrata holds a meeting with all the women to become rebellious and refuse to have sexual relations with the men. During this meeting between all the women, Lysistrata states, “From now on, no more penises for you” (Line 124). The women first do not know how to react as they have not seen their husbands in months. However,

In Medea, a play by Euripides, Jason possesses many traits that lead to his downfall. After Medea assists Jason in his quest to get the Golden Fleece, killing her brother and disgracing her father and her native land in the process, Jason finds a new bride despite swearing an oath of fidelity to Medea. Medea is devastated when she finds out that Jason left her for another woman after two children and now wants to banish her. Medea plots revenge on Jason after he gives her one day to leave. Medea later acts peculiarly as a subservient woman to Jason who is oblivious to the evil that will be unleashed and lets the children remain in Corinth. The children later deliver a poisoned gown to Jason’s new bride that also kills the King of Corinth.

Once she learns that Jason has married another woman, Medea's personality turns completely around. The strong loving wife turns into a barbarian huntress in search of revenge. After plotting and changing the course of her revenge a few times, she perpetrates an attack that will certainly kill the new bride. Her method is focused on the woman, but it may or may not affect others around her target. Medea knows that the poisoned dress and head adornment will be lethal to Jason's bride, but she cannot possibly know what will come of Jason, their children, or the king. Her rage knows no bounds and she sends Antigone and Ismene on with the poisoned gifts. Weigel describes the revenge of Medea in his critique of the writing: "Jason becomes entangled with a force that crushes his dignity and detachment, that tears his successes to tatters. At the end he is in exactly the same position as Medea. Both are bereaved of mate, children, and friends. Both are free to grow old without comfort. And both are utterly empty inside, except that Jason is now filled with the same burning hatred that possessed Medea" (Weigel 1391).

Ever since she found out she had been betrayed by Jason, she has had “no pleasure left” in living. The only purpose left in her “cruel” and “accursed” life is to “strike dead” Jason, Creon and Glauce. Medea ends up killing Creon and his daughter but doesn’t make any attempt to kill Jason. To “perish his whole house” and “work revenge on Jason for his wrongs to [Medea]”, Medea plans to kill her two son as “it is the supreme way to hurt [her] husband”. Although Medea feels sad as shown by her “dewy eyes” and “these tears”, the audience are positioned to feel less sympathetic towards Medea due to her murderous actions towards her “own little

Euripides and Sophocles wrote powerful tragedies that remain influential to this day. The vast majority of work recovered from this time is by male authorship. What remains about women of this time is written through the lens of male authors’ perspective and beliefs about the role of women in Greek culture. The works of these two playwrights frequently characterize women as unstable and dangerous. Agave, Antigone, and Medea are all undoubtedly the driving force behind the tragic action in these plays. It is their choices that lead to the pain and death of the people around them. Through an examination of the evidence from three separate works, Antigone, The Bacchae, and The Medea, the role of women in ancient Greek tragedy becomes clear. The actions of Agave, Antigone, and Medea repeatedly prove their characters instability and danger.

Lysistrata comes to the conclusion that the only way to save Athens from destruction in war comes with defiance of her husband. In her role of rebel within the family, Lysistrata decides to "...compel [her] husband to make peace" by withholding sex from him until he stops his disastrous warring behavior (Lysistrata, 7). She concludes, "...there are a thousand ways of tormenting [him]" that will lead to the ultimate safety of Athens (Lysistrata, 9). Unlike Antigone, Lysistrata realistically considers the possible consequences of her actions. She understands that the consequences of rebellion against her husband could be dire. Lysistrata recognizes that her husband might beat her or even rape her in order to get physical satisfaction, but she also realizes that her husband would, "...soon tire of the game there's no satisfaction for a man, unless a woman shares it" (Lysistrata, 9). Lysistrata acknowledges that defying her husband will have consequences, but she chooses to realistically face those possible consequences, and continues knowing that her actions will benefit Athens. Aristophanes' reveals that a woman's greatest allegiance lies with her polis through Lysistrata's role of rebel within her family to save Athens.

Medea is left by her husband because of another woman and does not want to be made a fool; “The laughter of my enemies I will not endure” (727). Because Jason breaks his oath of marriage, Medea refuses to be humiliated and discarded in such a way, so she strategically contemplates a plan for revenge. Medea knows that it would be too easy to just kill Jason so she devises a plan to destroy everything he cares about. She inadvertently finds a way to poison his new wife, which in turn also poisons his father in law, the King of Creon. The ultimate demise of her plan is to take away the only bond left that connects Jason to Medea which is their children, so she goes to extreme measures “to deal Jason the deepest wound” (746). This results in murdering their children leaving Jason with nothing but great suffering. The action of killing her own children is the only real power that Medea has. She became lulled into believing that Jason loved her and ends up being victimized by his ego. This emerged jealousy and a vengeful rage to pursue after Jason and everything close to

Moreover, Euripides incorporates Medea into the relationship to convey the idea that females also possess power in an alliance, but the form of their authority is different compared to that of a male’s. Medea elucidates that even in arduous times, she assists Jason and supports their marriage. In a direct conversation with Jason, she tells him, “…after I’ve done all this to help you, you brute, you betray me…” (27). She explains that although she took care of Jason and supported him whenever he needed her help, he disabuses his power to overpower her and abandon her. Even after Jason abandons Medea, she thinks day and night of him. Medea demonstrates that the power females possess is not physical and totalitarian like the males, but rather is emotional and mental. She tries to keep the family together and in trying to do so, she does whatever Jason asks her to do. She is the important woman behind every successful man. Without her command, Jason would not be the person he is. Therefore, she can destroy Jason whenever she desires with her power. She can be a femme fatale and reduce Jason’s life to rubbles. Similarly, after Medea finds out that she is being cheated on, she quickly creates a malicious plan to obliterate Jason. She assassinates his new wife and his heirs. Although her love is “greater than

The satirical comedy known as Lysistrata was written in 411 B.C.E. by Aristophanes, an Athenian who “held the leaders of his city-state responsible for starting the Peloponnesian War” (75). This raunchy play depicts a group of women from all over Greece who come together to try to force their husbands to make peace. The group is led by the main character and namesake of the play, Lysistrata, who suggests abstaining from “cock and balls,” that is to refuse to have sex with their lovers or husbands, as well as seizing the Acropolis to gain control of the finances of Athens (80-81). The passage ends with the women swearing an oath to carry out their plan and immediately moving on to start the process with the taking over the Citadel.

“She asked him if he was going to be a decent husband or a bad one (Medea pg. 792)”. She left her family and went to be with him. On the way to Jason’s home Medea killed her brother and disposed of him overboard in the Mediterranean. The betrayal of Medea by Jason through his marriage to another woman enrages Medea. “Jason said that it wasn’t for the woman’s sake that he married into a king family (Medea pg. 801)”. Medea was devastated and wanted to prove Jason wrong. Well she did a terrible thing to get back at him and killed their children because of him going to be with that other women. She watched him suffer as she told him what she had done. She begins to question the role and position of women in society after her ex husband got a new wife. She was unable to stop her husband Jason and she completely lost her mind. “Medea said that do you think I ever could have fawned on him like that without some gain in mind, some ruse? I never would have spoken to him, or touched him with my hands (Medea pg. 795)”. She was not as strong as him she. “Medea said that first of all the women had to buy a husband: spend a vast amounts of money, just to get a master for our body (Medea pg. 792).” She definitely did not think that the women needed a husband to live on their

Amongst Euripides' most famous plays, Medea went against the audience's expectations at his time. Indeed, the main character of the play is Medea, a strong independent female who neglected moral and . She was therefore in all ways different to how women were perceived in Ancient Greece. This essay will explore how Euripides' controversial characters demonstrate that his views were ahead of his time.

“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

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