As years pass, people, societies and cultural values change. You interpret things the way you want to and based on your background, gender, ect. Today in society women are equal; years ago it was not like that. Nonetheless, Aristophanes play, Lysistrata, has nothing to do with feminism. The simple message of the play to me was, Lysistrata, a comedy about women’s astonishing mission to end the Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata convinces the women of Greece to deny sexual favors to their husbands and withhold from theirs. Her point in this was to make the men suffer, forcing them to give in to negotiate peace. Aristophanes writes the play as a protest to war in a very sarcastic way. He thinks war is so stupid, and foolish that even women, the “lowest people” living on earth can figure it out and tell men what to do. I will be writing about the duties of women and men then and how they change because of the war in ancient Greece.
In early Greek society, it was hard to be considered an important human being. Felipe Fernandez- Armesto, author of The World, tells us how Greeks counted only privileged males as citizens, and normally only if both their paternal and maternal grandfathers had also been citizens. Women were excluded and so were slaves. Slaves made up forty percent of the population in the fifth century B.C.E. Athens. “In some Greek states, citizens used bits of broken pottery as ballots on which to scrawl their votes to exile unpopular leaders. When we look at them now, we see fragments of an oppressive system that made slaves captive, victims of women, battle fodder of men, and scapegoats of failures.”
Families were the basis of society in Greek communities. “Young girls at the age of fifteen were married to men twice their age.”(Armesto, 132) In today’s society men and women are equal, however, thou shall respect the elders. During the time period of the Peloponnesian war, being a male was an advantage to gaining respect, with the age difference there was, what hope do the females have? Males had complete dominance. Wives and daughters didn’t get any share in the family, nothing was inherited unless the husband said they could himself. Women rarely appeared in public. Have you ever noticed in Greek art of the first half of the millennium men are shown with men and women with women? It’s like women have no rights to hang out with their hubbies in public, all their good for is work in the kitchen and bed.
“A writer of the fourth century said, “The Greeks expect their daughters to keep quiet and do wool-work.”(Armesto, 132) Aristophanes compares wool-work to war in the play. “Lysistrata- It’s rather like yarn. When a hank is in a tangle, we lift it- so – and work out the snarls by winding it up on spindles, now this way, now that way. That’s how we’ll wind up the war if allowed: We’ll work out the snarls by sending Special Commissions back and forth, now this way, now that way, to ravel these tense international kinks.”(Parker, 60) “Commissioner- I lost your thread, but I know there’s a hitch. Spruce up the worlds disasters with spindles, typically wooly female logic.”(Parker, 60) Lysistrata argues with the commissioner in the play about the war and how her plan is to bring peace to the states. Most female readers would interpret this play as being credited for being so bright and being a cause to end the war. What Aristophanes really does, is make fun of women in a very sarcastic way. In a way he is saying women are not intelligent. All women are good for is housework, for example hanging out in the kitchen, cooking, feeding the family, cleaning and raising the children. Women’s hearts were not only broken because their men were gone to war, their young boys as well. He gives women a so called “great idea” and compares it to wool work; because that is the only knowledge they have according to him.
Given that there is not much to know about the women, what is the big deal about men? In early Greek society men were the head of the household no question about it. Today in most cases it is that way, if there is a man in the household. Politicians were men who ran the government, and spent a lot of time away from home. When not involved in politics, men spent time in the fields. Some of the chores men had to do in order to keep their family under a roof and a descent meal were working the crops, hunting, sailing or trade. Men are also the ones with the strength. Strength which was used to construct different buildings, houses, churches and whatever was needed to be built. Men also had their fun with their buddies. They would go out, have a couple beers and have fun. Women were not allowed to attend any of their drunken parties, they had limited freedom outside their homes.
Aristophanes shows us how the Greeks were very open about their sexual feelings. They were humans just like us. The men had three important things on their mind, sex, family and war. They are smart men, they figure they come home and get all the sexual pleasures they want from their wives whenever they want. Therefore, that’s no biggie. However, they screw up. The men begin to put war above their women, so the women then turn on them.
Since men are so important to society, it would be a tragic to have them gone. Aristophanes makes that point in Lysistrata when the men are away from their households and out at war. The Peloponnesian War is between the Athens and the Peloponnesian confederacy, led by Sparta. The men leave their wives and children for months. The roles of the wives change when the men are gone. Not only are they doing wool work, however, also work that use to be the men’s job. Society full of women and old men completely changes things. Buildings are not getting done, there is no new construction being made. Social system is not the same. Also, there is no reproduction or trade getting done. The only thing men and women shared and had in common was the sex. Besides sex they couldn’t take over the roles of the men. And if they tried to do something, they would probably fuck it all up. The city did have the old men that couldn’t go to war. The problem was they were old farts, they couldn’t get shit done. Old men and women walk hand in hand. They have lost the passion and have love for each other.
In Aristophanes play, when all the men are out at war, Lysistrata plans a meeting between all of the women of Greece to discuss the plan to end the Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata asks all the women to refuse sex with their husbands until the treaty of peace has been signed. Lysistrata also involves the older women of Athens by having them seize the Akropolis later that day. The women are emotionally in pain knowing that it means no sex for them either, although, they remain strong and sacrifice a bottle of wine to the Gods in celebration of their oath. This strategy then inflames the battle between the sexes.
Why is it so important for the women to have the men home? Women’s life doesn’t make any sense when the men are gone. First off, they have no pleasure, nobody around to give them sex. Secondly, they miss the old feminine things they did for their hubbies when they were around. For example, they did their hair, put on some make up, dressed more provocative and had their flirty moments. With the men gone, they stop doing all the feminine matters for the reason that they have no one to impress. Women don’t care about the outcome of the war. They don’t understand, if the men come home they are at risk.
Later on in the play, a Spartan Herald enters the stage and covers his own erect penis with his cloak. Herald asks for the Executive Board and tells the men he has brought some news. The Commissioner enters and asks if the Herald is carrying a hidden weapon, referring to the Heralds boner. The Commissioner then throws off the cape and exposes the Heralds erection. Then the Herald explains to the Commissioner that things are not so great in Sparta. Men aren’t capable of thinking with the right head because they desperately need their women. Men are in unpleasant physical sensation, their dicks are so hard it hurts them when they walk. Aristophanes wants us to visualize and feel the pain the men are going thru. Women see their men with erections and get horny as well. Both sexes are losing their minds, although the women try to withhold from the men. Aristophanes shows women not to show passion, men want women to want and desire them. Passion is something everyone wants. Lysistrata asks the women not to fight if the husband is being forceful. She tells them not to show passion. A man doesn’t want to rape his wife, he rather not have it. There are limits, you can only go so far. Rape is never acceptable, don’t acknowledge it is happening to you because you will lose. The men will just soon get tired and give in when it comes to sex.
Lysistrata, the women of wisdom, turns out to be correct. She gets all the men’s attention and walks in with a handmaid Peace of a beautiful naked girl. Lysistrata tells the men that they will come to an agreement soon and call out Peace. The men stare at the naked girl and get their stiffness more uncomfortable. In the end the men agree, however, Lysistrata makes them stand up and convene with their councils and declare a union among allies. What’s the importance of this? The women put themselves more at danger. Men are men and not afraid to go out, women on the other hand can be raped and abused. Finally, they did all that was necessary to bring peace and have their women.
Understanding the play was interesting and complex. However, the real challenge was trying to understand the message Aristophanes was telling and the reason for writing this play. Aristophanes does a good job of giving us imagery while reading the play. I may never know exactly what Aristophanes intended in his drama, but we can see is that he strongly condemns war. Knowing that women were seen as “below everyone” in Greek society, Aristophanes does suggest that women are not that stupid, have some brains and should be heard occasionally.
