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Home , Lysistrata

Aristophanes, Part I Sandrine Bertaux Assistant Professor of Humanities The Political Context of Lysistrata

• 421 of Nicias • 415 Expedition of Sicily– destroyed (413) • seizes and fortifies a permanent base a few miles from Athens (Athenian general Alcibiades advising the Spartans). • 411 Lysistrata first performed • Summer 411: a coup: Oligarchy of the Four Hundred, then Five Thousand. • Darius II backs Sparta- 404 Athens surrenders. (446-386), Lysistrata

Lysistrata (“disbander of armies”), an Athenian woman, organizes a secret conference at which she persuades, not only other wives of Athens, but representatives from the wives of the other belligerent cities of the , including one from Sparta, to swear an oath that they will deny sexual intercourse to their husbands and lovers until the men agree to end the war and make peace. In the meantime, some Athenian women occupy the where the treasury is, and block its access to men who need it to continue the war. Lysistrata’s plan succeeds: Athenian and Spartan men (desperate to have sex) agree to make peace. Is Lysistrata an anti-war play? Is it a feminist play? Does it give women a voice?

And what is so comic anyway??

A man asks, “God, why did you Q: Is Google male or female? make woman so beautiful?” God A: Female, because it doesn't let responded, ”So you would love you finish a sentence before her.” The man asks, “But God, making a suggestion. why did you make her so dumb?” God replied, “So she would love you.” Can a comic character be a hero? Is Lysistrata a heroine? Aristotle on Tragedy and Comedy as genres (Poetics)

Tragedy Comedy • About serious, important and Lost part of the manuscript but: virtuous characters; About weaknesses, human beings • To arouse emotions of pity and worst than ourselves; fear; Festive and sexual jokes and • tragedy’s aim is the catharsis display (phallus) effect (tragic pleasure) of such emotions on the audience

Theatre: A Political Institution

• Theatre, encounter of epic and • Importance of speech in Athens tragedy, “revolutionary • Influence on public opinion invention” of Athens

Dionysos, God of Theatre and…wine City and Lenaia (Dionysos Lenaios) • theatre: a public affair, state-sponsored. • Performance of Athenian plays: over several days at annual religious festivals. • Lysistrata performed in 411 at the Lenaia festival. Lysistrata: “Just think if it had been a Bacchic celebration they’d been asked to attend… You wouldn’t have been able to move for all the tambourines.” (1) • A contest.. of Choruses: Lysistrata: 2 choruses (exceptional): they become one, dances and sings on stage. • First-rate actors were assigned by lottery to playwrights; limits of the number of actors to 4 in comedies; • Prizes awarded to authors, actors, and producers modest; but it does bring enormous fame; • Actors, and chorus, are only male; audience: women, men, slaves… Grotesque costumes, paunches, large leather phallus(male characters) .. Save for women and some male characters (the Magistrate; Scythian policemen) Lysistrata: Welcome, Lampito, my beloved Spartan friend! Sweetheart, how absolutely ravishing you look! Such beautıful colour, such rippling muscles! Why, I bet you could throttle a bull. (79-82) Rigid masks: Calonice to L: Don’t screw your face like that (7) Theatre of Dionysos War and Women

War Prizes (, The ) Pericles (Funeral Oration) “The girl- I won’t give up the girl. “All the same, those of you who Long before that, are of the right age must bear up and take comfort in the thought Old age will overtake her in my of having more children. In your house, in Argos, own homes these new children Far from her fatherland, slaving will prevent you from brooding back and forth at the loom, over those who are no more, and forced to share my they will be a help to the city, too, both in filling the empty bed.” (Agamemnon ) places, and in assuring her security.” (44) A Dangerous Community to be Silenced? Lysistrata Pericles …Always till now we have controlled our feelings and uncomplainingly • “Perhaps I should say a word or endured whatever you men did two on the duties of women to -and in any case you wouldn’t let us those among you who are now say a word. But don’t think we approved! We know everything you widowed. I can say all I have to say were up to. in a short word of advice. Your …we’d be inwardly in great distress great glory is not to be inferior to but we’d have to put a smile and ask what God has made you, and the you: ‘In the Assembly today, what did greatest glory of a woman is to be you decide to inscribe on the stone underneath the ?’ And least talked about by men, what did my husband always say? whether they are praising you or ‘shut up and mind your own criticizing you.” (46) business!’ And I did. The Polis and the Oikos

The Acropolis Penelope A political satire; A reversal of social order

• The Polis • The Oikos • Space of free men • Space of women: family, family’s • Equality of citizens property, house • Political decisions • Servants and slaves Chorus of old men: • Textile production “They’ve seized our own Lysistrata: Acropolis” (263) The Citadel of Athena is now in the women’s hands. (242)

Magistrate: Anyway, how do you come to have taken an interest in matters of war and peace? (506-507)

Lysistrata: … ‘Back to your spinning, woman, or you’ll have a headache for a month. Let war be the care of the menfolk’ (507-521) The Oikos

“Her voice rang out in tears, but the wife of Hector Had not heard a thing. No messenger brought the truth Of how her husband made his stand outside the gates. She was weaving at her loom, deep in high hall, Working flowered braiding into a dark red folding robe. And she called her well-kempt women through the house To set a large three-legged cauldron over the fire So Hector could have his steaming hot bath When he came home from battle—poor woman” (The Iliad, B.22; line 514-522) The oath: Who is depicted? I will not allow either lover or husband To approach me ‘n a state of erection And I will live at home in unsullied chastity Wearing my saffron gown and my sexiest make-up To inflame my husband’s ardour But I will never willingly yield myself to him And should he rape me by force against my will I will submit passively and will not thrust back. I will not raise my slippers towards the ceiling. I will not adopt the lioness-on-a-cheesegrater position. If I abide by this oath, my I drink from this cup. But if I break it, may the cup be filled with water. Hetairai: courtesans; educated; symposium Peace? Who is the real Enemy?

• “You worship the same gods at the same shrines, Use the same lustral water, just as if You were a single family- at Olympia, Delphi, - how many more And yet, though threatened by barbarian foes, You ruin Greece’s towns and slay her men.” Questions:

• Are the other women easily convinced to engage in a ? Do they abide to the oath? • What is the basis of Lysistrata’s knowledge of politics? Can the oikos serve as a resource in formulating a political vision? • What kind of sexist stereotypes are men voicing?