Aristophanes' Portrayal of Greek Life

When Aristophanes' was asked to write a play for the Feast of Dionysus, he decided to use the ongoing war between the Greeks and the Spartans as his theme. He wrote a comedy that also included satire to show how the war could be won if women ran it, a ridiculous notion for that time period. In his play, Lysistrata, Aristophanes portrayed two serious problems of Greek life: how often and long the men were away at war and how their absence affected the women.

The message Lysistrata portrayed was that if the women took matters into their own hands, the war would be over quickly. Lysistrata, who led the Greek and Spartan women on her conquest, gathered all the women together. They seized the Acropolis in order to keep their husbands away from them. They planned to stay there until the men stopped fighting the war. Their hope was that withholding sexual favors from their husbands would cause them to break and give the women what they wanted: an end to the war.

Lysistrata was challenged by the magistrate who thought her idea was ridiculous. In a confrontation between the two, Lysistrata talked about all the times the men came home and wouldn't tell the women what was happening in their own country and that when she questioned her own husband he replied that "war shall be the concern of Men" (480). She said that the women had allowed this to happen long enough and now they've had enough of their men being away, so they are going to take matters into their own hands to stop the war and bring the men home; that "War shall be the concern of Women!" (480).

The magistrate thinks the women were all crazy, but Lysistrata insisted that the women had a plan to end the war. Although the magistrate didn't listen, Lysistrata and the other women continued with their plan. They stayed at the Acropolis during the time that the war continued.

Later on in the play, Myrrhine, one of the Athenian women, spotted her husband, Cinesias, coming towards the Acropolis. Myrrhine went to him, but only to torment him. She teased him by promising to go to bed with him, but she kept disappearing back into the Acropolis for more and more bed items, each time asking him if he will end the war. He promised yes to all but the last of her requests, which is when she disappeared back into the building and didn't come back out. By doing this, Myrrhine showed the men that the women were serious about their claim and that it was up to the men to end the war, which in turn would end the women's seclusion.

Eventually, the Athenian and Spartan men's wants became so great that they began to relent. A Spartan herald was sent to seek help from the magistrate on behalf of the soldiers. The magistrate told him to "send ambassadors here with full powers to arrange a truce. And I'll go tell the council to choose ambassadors from here" (492).

The ambassadors from both sides arrived and sought out Lysistrata. It was obvious to everyone that the men's need for their women was great.

Lysistrata arrived with a statue of a nude female figure (the Reconciliation). Later in the play, the figure was used to divide the land up between the Athenians and the Spartans as each side saw fit in order to uphold the peace. Lysistrata used the statue for this purpose to remind the men of what they were missing and would continue to miss if they did not come up with a plan both sides could agree to and end the war.

When the ambassadors saw the statue, it affected them the way Lysistrata had hoped it would; they were both very taken by it. Lysistrata responded to their reaction, "why then, with these many noble deeds to think of, do you fight each other? Why don't you stop this villainy? Why not make peace? Tell me, what prevents it?" (495). The Spartan replied, "we're willing, if you're willing to give up your position in yonder flank" (495). At this point, they used the statue to choose what territories each side wished to keep.

Once the two sides came to an agreement and the treaty was made, Lysistrata told the men to clean themselves up and then their wives would feast and entertain them in the Acropolis. She told the men, "exchange your oaths and pledges there, and then each of you may take his wife and go home" (496).

At the end of the play, the Spartans and the Athenians attended the feast. As the Athenians prepared to remove their army from the gates so the Spartans could go home, the Spartans began to sing and dance to "a jolly song for the Athenians" (497).

When they were done, Lysistrata ordered them to lead away their wives and ordered the Athenians to do the same. She said, "let every man stand beside his wife, and every wife beside her man, and then, to celebrate our fortune, let's dance. And in the future, let's take care to avoid these misunderstandings" (498). The chorus of Athenians and then the chorus of Spartans each sang a song and danced to celebrate the end of the war.

Through the portrayal of Lysistrata, Aristophanes was hoping to show the Athenians, through satire, just how dumb the ongoing war was. However, the Athenians "were not impressed by its (the play's) serious undertone; the war continued for seven more exhausting years, until Athens's last fleet was defeated, the city laid open to the enemy, the empire lost" (467).