The women in Lysistrata seem to always have excuses for not being fully into Lysistrata plan other than the fact that can’t seem to function without sex. They fall back on excuses revolving around their stereotypical gender roles, such as Cleonice’s response to Lysistrata’s small showing at the beginning when she says, “Oh! They will come, my dear; but it’s not easy, you know, 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.” With all these duties, how are women expected to have time for politics (which is supposedly the argument put forth here by Cleonice). Still, while these are excuses made for the women’s lack of a political role, there is yet another inherent gender and power dichotomy to address here: The men are busy too, they’re off fighting wars, which one could imagine is taking up more time than child-rearing. This being the case, it is curious that Aristophanes never addresses this point. The only issue involved with men is the lack of sex and its comical and exaggerated effect on politics.

The leader of the Chorus of Women speaks one of the most timeless and stirring passages for the modern reader. She boldly proclaims, “What would you have? You should never have laid rash hands on us. If you start afresh, I’ll knock your eyes out. My delight is to stay at home as coy as a young maid, without hurting anybody or moving any more than a milestone; but ‘ware the wasps, if you go stirring up the wasps’ nest!” This passage is without subtlety and reflects the anger that women of the time were capable of feeling. Again, there is the feeling of “playing to both sides” in the sense that the joy of being “coy as a young maid” is very appealing, yet on the other hand, there is the potential for great injury if one provokes a woman. This passage, above all others relates the true power of women both in this text and in the 21stcentury as it conveys the true power of women without it being entirely based on sexual appeal or coercion, but rather, anger, emotion, and intelligence.

Though it seems that Lysistrata is the only truly strong female character is the play, this part spoken by the chorus of women is important because it is just that—a chorus. It is a group of women rather than just one headstrong leader, making it less “comical” that a woman has such power to change events (even if she does it by exploiting others of her kind).“Women have always done a lot for the world, although not necessarily as part of any formal or self-conscious feminism. We do not need to go back to Greece andLysistrata for models of how women have taken the lead in moral issues across history as citizens” (Kaplan 50). If all the inspiration we need from Lysistrata is here today then it is a wonder why this play is not seen as strictly comedy, but as something that has deeper connotations.

Perhaps what makes this a difficult book at times is the fact that so many of these issues of power and gender seem hugely antiquated and not based in any kind of modern reality as we know it. However, on closer inspection, there are several themes throughout the text that are just as persistent today as they were when this play was first staged for an audience that was more likely to laugh out loud at the idea of powerful women (that weren’t goddesses) than to think critically about it. For instance, there is a particularly striking passage that involves the thoughts of the women in Lysistrata that is not as far removed from our modern society, as we might like to think. “All the long time the war has lasted, we have endured in modest silence all you men did; you never allowed us to open our lips. We were far from satisfied, for we knew how things were going; often in our homes we would hear you discussing, upside down and inside out, some important turn of affairs.” This, which is one of the important quotes fromLysistrata by Aristophanes,  says a lot about the current lack of a meaningful majority (or even equality) in American politics. Women are told that it isn’t there business to meddle in the affairs of wars and this persists, even when we see that women aren’t given positions of command in the military.

Although changes have been quick in coming within the past century, there is still a great deal of truth in the lines that continue that above passage, “Then with sad hearts, but smiling lips, we would ask you: Well, in today’s Assembly did they vote peace? -But, “Mind your own business!” the husband would growl, “Hold your tongue, please!” And we would say no more.” The modern counterpart of this would be the housewife inquiring about her husband’s day at the office, only to be met with scorn and the attitude of, “my affairs are far too important for a dainty woman like you to understand.” This is reminiscent of what one critic calls “patriotic motherhood” which is a concept “dating at least as far back as the Greek’s Lysistrata and in the United States the concept of Republican Motherhood in the Post-War of Independence era, when the chief rationale for educating girls was to rpoduce mothers who could raise good republican sons” (Alonso 576). It is amazing how little has changed in the many centuries but at least Lysistrata provides an example of strong women in a state dominated by men in which even the play itself—one about the lives of women—was performed by male actors.

Other essays and articles in the Literature Archives related to this topic include: Powerful Women in Lysistrata and Agamemnon

Need a Refresher? Click Here for a Detailed Plot Summary & Analysis of Lysistrata

Works Cited

Alonso, H. H. “Playing with the big boys.” Reviews in American History 28 (2000): 576

Evans. “Introduction” Social Identities 7.1 (2001): 9

Kaplan, EA. “Feminist futures: Trauma, the post 9/11 world and a fourth feminism?” Journal of International Women’s Studies 4.2 (2003): 46

Stroup, S.C. “Designing Women: Aristophenes, Sysistrata and the Hetairization of the Greek Wife.”Arethusa 37 (2004): 37

Tzanetou, A. “Something to do with Demeter: Ritual and Performance in Aristophane’s Women at the Thesmophoria.” American Journal of Philology 123 (2002): 329