Lysistrata, written by Aristophanes, is an example of what is known as Old Attic Comedy. It was first produced in 411 BCE for an Athenian festival called the Lenaia. The version of the play you are reading was translated by Jeffrey Henderson, who has tried to preserved the tone of the original Greek. The sexual innuendos and coarse language may seem crude, but as Henderson argues, "we should bear in mind (1) that Aristophanes was writing not for us but for contemporaries living in a society at once very sophisticated and very different from our own, and (2) that outrageousness was a traditional ingredient of Old Comedy and one fully in keeping with comedy's tendency to expose, deflate and provoke."
Introduction What is this play about? Sex? Power? War? Money? Peace? The easy (and correct) answer, of course, is “all of the above” (and more besides), but if we can come up with compelling arguments for each distinct proposition separately our treatment is bound to be fairly exhaustive, and thus will form the basis for a solid interpretation of the play. In the process of exhausting each possibility by analysis and discussion, we are also more likely to discover the relationship among these themes and thus to comprehend the complexity of Aristophanic comedy. Most importantly of all however—in the context of World Views—a close and careful reading of Lysistrata reveals much about Athenian society as a whole, and the issues introduced for the first time here will resurface continually over the course of the semester.
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2. This play has two concurrent plots. What are they? How do they organize the play? What type of characters take part in each? Is one plot more important than the other for the outcome of the play? Is one more important for the onstage action?
3. Does the sexual content of this play stand for something larger than
itself, or is it simply gratuitous, pure comic relief?
Are the sexual references used perhaps as a means of addressing some other
issue indirectly? If so, what? Does the notion of love or affection ever
enter into the discussion?
4. What is the significance of Lysistrata's wool-working speech on pp. 62-63 (lines 602-13)? Who are singled out for inclusion in the polis? Who are not mentioned as forming part of this fabric? Is the omission significant? How so?
5. Why do you think the men carry fire and logs and the women carry water? What, if anything, do these symbolize? Are there other examples of "symbolism" in the play?
6. What do you make of the scene in which the Lysistrata dresses up the Magistrate (pp. 60-61), first as a woman, and then as a corpse. Given the context and content of their exchange, does this have any special significance?
7. At several places in the play, Lysistrata and the women boast of their credentials; in the episode on pp. 66-69 they are full of excuses.Are the credentials and excuses related in anyway. If so, how? How do the similarities or differences reflect on the women? Do they reveal anything about the national male audience and the male playwright, Aristophanes?
8. Two of the leading women characters, Lysisistrata and Myrrhine, seem
to refer to real women ---both priestesses of Athena---alive at the time
the play was performed (see Lysistrata Introduction p. 41 [and n. 13], and
notes 79 and 170).
Does this fact add a further dimension to the play? What might the reference
to/inclusion of real persons in Athenian comedy tell us about Athenian democracy?
9. What are the closest modern analogues to features found in Aristophanic comedy? How much of this is essentially the same? What is different? In what circles or under what circumstances does one encounter these features in the modern world? How is this similar to or different from the conventions and performance of comedy in ancient Athens?
Videos - on reserve at Hatfield
Library
Full text of Lysistrata - from Project Perseus.The Lysistrata of Aristophanes - from Thomas Martin's Overview of Archaic and Classical Greek History from Project Perseus.
Study Guide For Aristophanes' Lysistrata - from Temple University
Lysistrata -- another study guide by Roger Dunkle of Brooklyn College.
More Internet Resources for World Views
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Comments to: Doreen Simonsen
Last update: 9-8-02