Lysistrata

 

Sexual themes are incredibly common in ancient Greek plays, whether it be in the form of verbal jokes or the use of explicit props to get a laugh out of the audience. With that in mind, these sexual tones are typically focused on men, their bodies, and their desires. Lysistrata seemingly turns this idea on its head with its depiction of desirous women and their bodily agency, but what does it really imply?

The play begins with Lysistrata announcing that “today there will be a feast for Bacchic orgy or a feast for Genetyllus,” celebrations for the gods of sex and fertility respectively (1). Such events were not uncommon in ancient Greece, in fact plays like Lysistrata would often be performed publicly at celebrations for aforementioned Bachis (also known as Dionysus). Such productions would include “Satyr Plays,” shorter stories featuring actors dressed as half-goat half-human hybrids with a raging sexual appetite and enormous prosthetic phalluses. Aristophanes, the author of Lysistrata, wrote a fair number of these, and their influence on Lysistrata is clear, like when the Chorus men enter carrying logs “stenciled with Greek letters that suggest phallic euphemisms,” (20). Sexuality was prominent in ancient Greek theater, so what makes Lysistrata different.

It is difficult to express just how incredibly misogynistic Greece was during the time of Lysistrata. Women were not allowed to participate in politics, domestic or foreign, and their sole role in the eyes of the patriarchy was to produce and raise offspring. These societal pressures, combined with the high infant mortality rate of the time, led to women spending the vast majority of their time in the household and nowhere else. This is what makes the sex strike in Lysistrata so impactful; the women involved are refusing to perform their duty in this society for their caus

Despite this, Lysistrata is still a play written and performed by men in a patriarchal society. The purpose of their strike is not to demand a place in the government, nor better treatment, but to benefit the men. While proposing the plan, Lysistrata proclaims that the women, “live like widows-whether our husbands are alive or dead,” and that she “can’t even speak of the sons we [the Athenian women] have lost,” (11). The men in their lives are their motivation. Women saving men is a relatively common theme in ancient Greek myth, like how Penelope saves Odysseus in The Odyssey, Medea saves Jason in The Argonautica, and the list goes on. These women are not depicted as masculine soldiers or politicians, but instead as wives. While at first glance this may look like feminine power and agency, the intended ancient audience probably viewed this as wives performing their maternal duties in a patriarchal society. 

Lysistrata uses sexual themes to explore, but not criticize, a patriarchal society. The women sacrifice their own sexual pleasures to save the men in their lives. While they reject the patriarchal norms for their agenda, said agenda only benefits their sons and husbands. No societal change comes in the wake the events in the play, and while the women have a brief place in political positions, there is no notion of revisions to Athenian government.