BOOK REVIEW – ARISTOPHANES – LYSISTRATA c.411 BCE Various editions.
A comedy
play of considerable importance by a contemporary of Plato and Socrates. There
is some debate among philosophers as to whether or not the work is to be
considered as a study in feminism or not.
Frustrated
that her husband constantly goes off to war with his friends, and comes home
for a few days of love making to her before going back to battle, Lysistrata
rallies round as many women as she can muster who have similar concerns. Though
many choose not to attend, she has considerable support for a very bold plan.
Her
revolution amounts to strike action in which all the women will refuse to offer
themselves willingly as lovers to their husbands and boyfriends. In effect, the
men will face endless forced abstinence until they stop fighting and risking
their lives.
The
women themselves capture the Acropolis and trick men of both armies into
meeting them there.
The men
are shocked and try everything that they can to stop he women’s crusade. The
soldiers strip naked to show the women their physiques. Several women give up, citing
lame excuses for having to go home. One tells Lysistrata that she is heavily
pregnant and due to go into labour at any time, though she obviously is not
remotely pregnant.
By sheer
will power, Lysistrata gets most of the women to stand firm. If the men resort
to rape, the women are to offer no resistance or sign of liking the experience.
The men will realise that they get sex but no love.
One man
produces his son in a desperately low attempt at emotional blackmail. ,
Lysistrata resorts to extremes herself. She has the women seduce their men, get
them heated up for sex, and then refuse them favours at the very last instant.
Before long, the armies of Greece and Sparta (their opponants0 decide to settle
on peace. Lysistrata has saved the day,
but Aristophanes makes her scheming and manipulative in the extreme. She takes
control of her husband’s purse strings as well as his love life. This is not so
much a feminist polemic, as a way of showing men how dangerous women can
be. It remains however a very exciting,
funny and perceptive political satire.
LINK - The text of the play. http://aristophanes.classicauthors.net/Lysistrata/Lysistrata2.html
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