Lysistrata

     A main aspect of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, and the crux of the comedy's humor, lies within the many ways in which the body betrays the minds and wishes of people. In the context of this play, this is mostly with regard to the men. 

    The driving force of the plot is that the men of Athens are constantly at war, and they only act in ways that continue to propagate more war because it leads to an accumulation of land, wealth, and dominance for Athens as a whole--at least, in their minds it benefits Athens as a whole; the women of Athens, however, make it explicitly clear that they are not benefited at all by the constant warmongering. Lysistrata laments how it is Athenian women who, despite not being on the frontlines of the war, are the ones who bear the brunt of the tragedy: "Nothing! We live like widows—whether our husbands are alive or dead! This war without-end makes widows of us all—proud Grecian women! I can’t even speak of the sons that we have lost. Well, I’ve had enough of widowhood! Women of Greece, who among you is willing to join me and make the sacrifice that will bring this war to an end!" (Aristophanes 11). Lysistrata articulates that the women of Athens are caught in a horrendous double standard: they are not treated as full citizens, yet they are expected to give themselves freely to their husbands, produce sons for the military, and then are forced to watch their sons be brutally slaughtered. This is what prompts Lysistrata and the Athenian women to stage their sex strike in protest of the war and of the patriarchal grip of Athenian society.

    The sex strike provides Aristophanes with the perfect opportunity for much physical humor, and he often makes the men of Athens (especially the famous figures of Socrates, Homer, Kleisthenes, etc.) the butts of the joke. Aristophanes captures how insatiable Athenian men are for sex and how accustomed they are to always having access to it, be that through their wives or through prostitution. Constantly the men are complaining about their unsatisfied sexual ardor, and in scenes like the one between Myrrhine and Kinesias where she intentionally keeps Kinesias on the brink of sexual satisfaction but continually withholds sex from him (ff. 66-73), Aristophanes is openly mocking the Athenian male ethos. This continues throughout the play, often depicting the men as constantly erect and consumed with lust, which, for Aristophanes' Greek audience, denotes a lack of sophrosyne, or a sense of proper moderation of all mental and bodily desires. Aristophanes, though employing bawdy humor at every step of his play, delivers a sharp and scathing critique of Athenian patriarchy and Athenian misogyny.

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