March 29th, 2010 Lecture Notes LYSISTRATA BYARISTOPHANES!

Aristophanes (450 385 BCE) Lysistrata (411 BCE) Sicilian Expedition ends in 413 BCE

Allison Nguyen HUM 1114 (Olson)

Lysistratas House - Lysistrata proposes for the women of Greece to boycott sex until husbands agree to sign a peace treaty and seizing hold of the acropolis/having the old women to guard the treasury, which contains money from the Delian League. - Caloniche cares not for the war, only has sex and vanity on the brain. - Women make an oath not to raise their slippers to the ceiling or engage in the lion on a cheese grater position men now subject to a sex boycott. The Acropolis - Chorus of old men struggling to carry logs, trying to smoke out the old women. - Unable to keep their wooden erections + fire of passion constantly doused by the old women. - Old women threatening to castrate the old men, who also threaten to beat the old women nothing more than empty threats in actuality. - Young women arrive to quench the flames. - Enters the magistrate, who is highly conservative and condescending to women. - Woe to Adonis strapping young men going off to fight in the wars the death of all the young men and eventual destruction of Athens prophesied by the old woman. - Women should not have so m33uch power by nature according to the magistrate. - War is very often in the economic interest of the country, though it is not fought for that reason. - Lysistrata proposes diplomacy rather than killing one another + paying attention to the problems of the community (clean-up the city by banishing the bad people [dung]) before pursuing international matters. - Alcibiades and others concerned for their own agendas rather than the good of the polis. - Three women trying to back out of their oath care for the fleeces, strip the flax, and pregnant. - Women are just as active about sex as the men are boycott is in jeopardy. - Women gather their clothing alongside the mens, which represents the women expressing their victory. - Both choruses retreat while Lysistrata encounters Cinesias, the husband of Myrrhine. - Reconciliation, a beautiful naked woman, is used by Lysistrata to help point out the problem of the Spartans as the Spartans are busy admiring Reconciliation while Athenians pay attention point also made in reverse for the Athenians. - Lysistrata works as a mediator, mollifying both sides while neither becomes too defensive. Themes of unity: Lysistrata attempts to unite the Greeks by pointing out their common religion, equal responsibility for the persistence of war, language, history/mythology, involvement in the Olympics, a respect for Delphi, and recognition of Thermopylae where both defeated the Persians. Historical Context - Sparta defeats Athens, tears down the Athenian walls, and sets up an oligarchy (404 BCE).

- Athenian democracy is restored (403 BCE). - Only men were permitted to act on stage nude women represented by men by naked suits (able to exaggerate parts of the body). - Spartan women exercise naked, but not Athenian women.