The play “Lysistrata” was a popular comedic play preformed in ancient Greece in 411. Its main character is an Athenian women named Lysistrata, she’s tired of her husband being away at war. She calls together all the women from around the country to create a plan to end the war. They all agree to abstain from sex to manipulate their husbands into signing a peace treaty. The second part of the plan is take over various government buildings to halt the advancement and financing of the war. The men soon realize what the women have done and sent the Magistrate to stop them. After many angry attempts to stop the women, and the magistrate failing to get anything done, the men listen to what the women want. Missing their wives and wanting sex badly, the husbands all agree to sign a peace pact. Spartan and Athenian ambassadors begin to gather and Lysistrata negotiates peace. She reminds them of all the instances Sparta and Athens had helped each other in the past. When Sparta had slaves revolting “We (Athenians) sent you help, four thousand infantry, a force that saved your entire country for you” (1141). When Athens was oppressed “Spartans routed the army of occupation, destroying the tyrant’s men and all his allies” the soldiers begin to see how ludicrous this war has gotten (1154). Spartans and Athenians together pray to the gods that nothing splits the nation again; they celebrate as friends. Aristophanes wrote this play at a very strenuous and politically volatile time in Greek history. Only through comedy could he get a very clear message out that wasn’t tyranny. Through women he got out an anti-war message that is remarkable for the time. It really shows the type of government Ancient Greece had and the freedom Aristophanes had as a writer. In this paper I’m going to highlight the points Lysistrata had for being against the war, as well who in the government dealt with the protest and why Lysistrata was successful.
In this play Lysistrata brings up many valid reasons why the war needed to end and comes up with a plan to solve them. The first is trade restrictions. This being a comedic play Lysistrata brings up that “without imports we can’t even buy a decent 12-inch dildo”, but no imports and limited trade would affect a lot of different aspects of life for all of the women (line 109). Their main job in this society is to run their households, without trade they could not even properly do their job. Another objection the women had was the toll it had in the household with their husbands gone. They leave for months at a time, out risking their lives for their city. That puts a strain on not only families but the community at large. The women chat about how long their husbands have been gone “my husband has been gone for five whole months” “mine has been gone for seven” “mine no sooner he come home from war, he take his shield and mobilize again” (102-105). When Lysistrata tells them they could get their husbands back they say “well do it even if it means our deaths!” and “I would climb the highest mountain in Sparta” (116). While the men are off at war the women have to pick up the slack, it’s clear they want their husbands back. The war was also costing massive amounts of money, a lot of which corrupted politicians would just steal as the chaos continued. Athens at this time was running on a democracy, but to keep getting funding for the war government officials had found a way around the assembly. The prologue states “…fiscal discipline required to do this was facilitated by the appointment of an extraordinary board of ten elderly statesmen who could expedite the war-effort by bypassing the desmos assembly” (asdkfj). They easily did essentially whatever they felt necessary for the war and the general public had no power or say in it. To put a stop to this Lysistrata directs older women, hole up in the citadel to “save money”. They believe they can handle the finances better than the men because of their many years of experience running their respective households’ finances. They’ve kept their families fed and in good standing for years they are “good” at that job. The men in charge of the finances at this war-time are wasting the states money without thinking of the future. The women know what a mess the political system is and continuing a war with their former allies and neighboring cities seemed to continue the cycle of violence plaguing the country at that time. Lysistrata simply addresses these issues with a plan in place to solve them.
The main government official the women deal in this ordeal is the Magistrate who is old, corrupt and very sexist. When he is called to confront the women the first orders he makes are for their attack and arrest. Lysistrata comes out to talk and he says “I’m calling the police arrest this women…go on and grab her…hogtie the women!” (435). He thinks they are silly women trying to handle the money “I’ll put a stop to this female foolery” (425). The Magistrate is set to represent not just himself but all of the statesmen in charge of this war. They make the decision to stay in a war without thought of who the burden falls on. The women of Greece had all been hit hard by this. The unified decision to protest Lysistrata lead them to shocks the men, the Magistrate says “I hear our spoiled wives are out of hand”. He then calls the women “bitches” and refuses to even talk with them. He thinks these women are stupid and utterly incapable of understanding the working of war and how to stop it. He expresses “let me die before this happens” (531) referring to the women handling the polis money. Despite the fact that handling the family finances is a large part of a woman’s’ job, men can’t seem to fathom women helping the state with their money. Once Lysistrata shows her strength and intelligence within her plan the men’s leader gets the Magistrate to calm down and hear the women out. The women protest the men and the Magistrate specifically for how they have handled the war and how they dismiss women. The Magistrate is very rude throughout the conversation and Lysistrata says “You’re dead! Off to the big bureaucracy in the sky”. She believes the women, under her guidance, have done his job better than he has. The magistrate gives in soon after and Lysistrata then focuses her attention to the soldiers. She has already directed their wives to abstain from sex so that problem will soon be solved as well. The women just wait it out until the men break and sign the treaty so they can have finally have sex.
Lysistratas’ protest is successful because the men were always a step behind driven by the need for sex and not using their intellect. To begin with in Greek culture, the women run the house and handle the family finances. This means that the women had the knowledge to confidently take over the citadel, and being women, the men would have never expected they would have the smarts to protest anything. Women gathering did not even set off any alarms for the men, they were just gossiping or getting drunk at a festival for some god. Once they got the word out they had the motivation and the numbers to protest and Lysistrata to lead them. Greek culture also seems to have a large emphasis on marital relations, so when the wives abstained from sex this had a big impact on the soldiers’ big egos. They became very frustrated and angry very quickly. Dramatically they act like they’re dying of hornyness and can think of nothing else. The solders start to say things like “My hard-ons practically killing me” (1136) and getting desperate “they’re always bad and getting badder! Unless we get a treaty pretty quick, we’ll have to start resorting to each other!” (1090-1093). The more they desired their wives the more cooperative they become to their wives’ demands. Lysistrata knew their patience would wear quickly and they’d have their peace treaty. Soldiers from both sides gathered and were so horny they agree to sign the treaty immediately. The women used human reasoning and strategic thought to plan out their victory. They were patient and aware of their place in society giving them leverage to get what they wanted.
If I was a citizen of Athens at this time and I saw this play I would definitely see Aristophanes anti-war stance. He very clearly writes an entire play opposing the government and its choices regarding the war, even making fun of an official (the magistrate). The women are successful and the comedy throughout makes it easy enough not to take seriously. Aristophanes was very smart about writing this, I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if he had written that men had opposed the war. The magistrate as well is a relatively low politician for Aristophanes to make fun of and use as the “enemy” in the plot. If he had written about anyone actually useful to the government concerning the war or finances he certainly would’ve been sued or arrested. That being said, with all of the political corruption and madness around Greece this play would’ve probably opened my eyes to everything and inspired me to think up ways I could make that happen in real life. As a “lowly women” in Athens I would’ve been too scared to actually try anything, but I imagine this probably made other citizens also realize that the war and the sexism that occurs in our culture needs to end. Lysistrata sees what’s wrong with the country and speaks out and takes action, its admirable and very smart of her. She won one for her gender and polis alike.