Lysistrata

Peloponnese War

• The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC

• Was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against
the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta.
• Spartans were Suspicious and fearful of Athenian power and
wealth.
• The Athenians became chauvinistic and power hungry/ ready to
reassert their power on the mainland of Greece.
• In 431, Sparta and Athens fell into another war which is simply
called, The Peloponnesian War.
• The Spartans wished to fight a land war, which they were very
good at. They outnumbered the Athenians two to one, odds they
believed the Athenians could stand up to only for a very short time.
• At the outbreak of the war, then, they invaded Attica and began
burning crops in order to starve the Athenians into submission.
• The Athenians had a harbor and a powerful navy
• Both sides believed that their strategy would wear down the other
side and force surrender.
• After ten years of fighting and some disastrous events among
allied cities, the situation was no different than it was at the
beginning of the war.
• Both sides had become worn down, so Sparta and Athens signed a
fifty year peace called the Peace of Nicias.
• Athens kept its continental territories and allies, and Sparta got to
keep all the territories it had acquired.
• Philosopher Socrates named Alcibiades/ in 415 BC convinced the
Athenians to attack the Greek city-states on the island of Sicily and
bring them under the glove of the Athenian Empire.
• In 413 BC, the entire army was defeated and captured and a large
part of the great, powerful fleet of the Athenians was destroyed in
the harbor of Syracuse.
• Athenian power since the Persian Wars had rested solely on the
power of the navy; the disastrous Sicilian expedition left Athens
almost completely powerless.
• Knowing a good thing when they saw it, the Spartans soon
attacked Athens and—worse news piled on top of bad news—they
were soon joined by the Persians who were still smarting from the
war Athens had so vigorously prosecuted in the first half of the fifth
century.
 • In 404 BC, the Athenians surrendered totally to the Spartans, who
tore down the walls of the city, barred them from ever having a navy,
and installed their own oligarchic government, the Thirty.

Old Comedy

• Initial phase of ancient Greek comedy (c. 5th century bc),

• Known through the works of Aristophanes.
• Old Comedy plays are characterized by an exuberant and high-
spirited satire of public persons and affairs.
• Composed of song, dance, personal invective, and buffoonery, the
plays also include outspoken political criticism and comment on
literary and philosophical topics.
• The plays, consisting of loosely related episodes, were first
performed in Athens for the religious festival of Dionysus.
• They gradually took on a six-part structure:
- an introduction, in which the basic fantasy is explained and
developed;
- the parodos, entry of the chorus;
- the contest, or agon, a ritualized debate between
opposing principals, usually stock characters;
- the parabasis, in which the chorus addresses the audience
on the topics of the day and hurls scurrilous criticism at
prominent citizens;
- a series of farcical scenes;
- a final banquet or wedding.

• The chorus often were dressed as animals, while the characters

wore street dress and masks with grotesque features.
• Old Comedy sometimes is called Aristophanic comedy, after its
most famous exponent, whose 11 surviving plays. Other Old
Comedy writers include Cratinus, Crates, Pherecrates, and Eupolis.
• Athens’ defeat in the Peloponnesian War signaled the end of Old
Comedy, because a sense of disillusionment with the heroes and
gods who had played a prominent role in Old Comedy became
marked.

Aristophanes

• Born into a reasonably wealthy family which could afford to

educate him well.
 • Deeply interested in Greek philosophy and current events, and he
was one of an illustrious group of Greek playwrights who offered
comedic commentaries on Greek life and society.
• Evidence also suggests that Aristophanes enjoyed some fame
during his lifetime, and that he was probably a celebrated member
of Greek society.
• It is estimated that Aristophanes wrote around 40 plays during his
lifetime, with 11 complete plays surviving to the modern day.
• Some people call Aristophanes the “Father of Comedy” or the
“Prince of Ancient Comedy,” in a reference to the fact that his plays
are some of the earliest surviving examples of comedic writing.
• The work of Aristophanes is marked by a very acerbic wit, a keen
political eye, and a penchant for farce, satire, and physical pratfalls.
• The plots of his plays are not necessarily very involved or
consistent, but the verse is often extremely clear and quite
beautiful, especially in the original Attic Greek.

• The plays of Aristophanes also feature a great deal of obscenity,

and his plays were often edgy and aggressive, pushing people to
respond.
• Aristophanes used his plays to comment on issues like war, the
Greek educational system, and Greek society.
• One of his most famous plays, Lysistrata, has become well-known
as one of the earliest works of anti-war literature, as the play is
about Athenian women who deprive their husbands of marital
privileges until they agree to stop making war.
• It was also a remarkable work because it was the first play to
feature a female protagonist.
• The work of Aristophanes continues to be engaging, dynamic,
interesting, and revealing today, indicating the power which great
literature has to transcend barriers of time, culture, and language.

Greek Theatre

• The theatre of ancient Greece, or

ancient Greek drama, is a
theatrical culture that flourished in
ancient Greece between c. 550
and c. 220 BC.
• The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural,
political and military power during this period, was its centre, where
it was institutionalised as part of a festival called the Dionysia,
which honoured the god Dionysus.
• Tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play were the three dramatic
genres to emerge there.
• The comedies were produced on the final day.
• Western theatre originated in Athens and its drama has had a
significant and sustained impact on Western culture as a whole.
• Greek theatre was performed outside with natural lighting and
minimal sets and props.
• All costumes were rich in color and material and provided most of
the effect of the setting.
• The actors were all male, and wore masks to change characters
and suggest the role of a woman if needed.
• The chorus acts both narrates and converses with characters to
help them make decisions.
• The Ancient Greek term for mask is prosopon and was a
significant element in the worship of Dionysus at Athens, likely used
in ceremonial rites and celebrations.
• The mask is known to have been used since the time of Aeschylus
and considered to be one of the iconic conventions of classical
Greek theatre.
• Masks were also made for members of the chorus, who help the
audience know what a character is thinking.
• Although there are twelve members of the chorus, they all wear
the same mask because they are considered to be representing one
character.
• Illustrations of theatrical masks from 5th century display helmet-
like masks, covering the entire face and head, with holes for the
eyes and a small aperture for the mouth, as well as an integrated
wig
• This demonstrates the way in which the mask was to ‘melt’ into
the face and allow the actor to vanish into the role.
• The masks were most likely made out of light weight, organic
materials like stiffened linen, leather, wood, or cork, with the wig
consisting of human or animal hair.
• Due to the visual restrictions imposed by these masks, it was
imperative that the actors hear in order to orientate and balance
themselves. Thus, it is believed that the ears were covered by
substantial amounts of hair and not the helmet-mask itself. The
mouth opening was relatively small, preventing the mouth to be
seen during performances.
 • In a large open-air theatre, like the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens,
the classical masks were able to bring the characters' face closer to
the audience, especially since they had intensely exaggerated
facial features and expressions.
• They enabled an actor to appear and reappear in several different
roles, thus preventing the audience from identifying the actor to
one specific character.
• Their variations help the audience to distinguish sex, age, and
social status, in addition to revealing a change in a particular
character’s appearance.
• The orchestra is the stage area and the skene was the backdrop
and led to backstage with several entrances, and the actors could
also enter through the parados. The audience sat in the theatron.

Lysistrata it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission

to end The Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata convinces the women of
Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as
a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace, a strategy however
that inflames the battle between the sexes. The play is notable for its
exposé of sexual relations in a male-dominated society and for its use
of both double entendre and explicit obscenities. The dramatic
structure represents a shift away from the conventions of Old Comedy,
a trend typical of the author's career.

Athenian Women

• A respectable woman’s main role in ancient Athens was to stay

home, keep pretty, and bear children.
• Most citizen wives had slaves to do the cooking, cleaning, and
grocery shopping.
• Once she gave birth, her father could not take her back.
• It was difficult, but not impossible, for a woman to divorce her
husband, but easy for her husband to divorce her. With divorce, her
property which was turned over to her husband upon marriage was
returned to her father or male guardian. She would also lose all
rights to her children. Her husband was within his rights to lock her
up in the house if she wasn’t behaving like he thought she should.
Publically she would only be seen at religious events, weddings, and
funerals.
• Childbirth occurred at home, usually without the assistance of a
midwife. Some contraception methods were available but not
readily accessible to most women.
• The mortality rate for both mothers and babies was high.
Infanticide was common as the father of the child decided to keep
the baby or not. Unwanted or deformed newborns were put in pots
 and left out or otherwise exposed, leaving the agent of death to
natural causes (exposure, dehydration, asphyxiation, etc.).

Other Classes of Women

There were other classes of women who were less respectable than a
citizen wife. These included hetaera, pornoi, poor women, and slaves.

- If there was a woman in the middle of an intellectual debate in

public park, she was a hetaera (courtesan). Courtesans had the ability
to go where they wanted, when they wanted. They were normally
educated in dancing, singing, music, conversation, and other ways of
pleasing men. Most were intelligent women, well-educated and able to
intellectually entertain their guests. These women were not as
respected as wives, but the benefit was a much greater freedom.

- Pornoi (prostitutes) were much less respected and either plied

their wears on the street or in a brothel. Many brothels were owned by
the state. Poor women might be forced to take a job in the
marketplace, the fields, or in an inn. They were valued even lower than
prostitutes but not as low as slaves.

- Slaves were common in ancient Athens and performed much of

the domestic work needed in the household. With no rights
whatsoever, slaves were at the mercies of their masters and
mistresses with no legal recourse available.

- Priestesses were necessary to conduct and organize the over

100 annual religious events that occurred yearly in Athens. These
women had high status, relative freedom, and remained unmarried.
And as true today, most events would have fallen apart without their
organization by women.

Spartan Women

• As part of a Spartan girl's education, she would have been

permitted to exercise outdoors, unclothed, like the Spartan boys.
• This was absolutely unheard of in the rest of the Greek world.
• Not only would men and women not have been naked in public
together, but a proper Greek woman would not usually set foot out
of doors, other than to perhaps collect water from the cistern!
• But Spartan women not only exercised, they also participated in
athletics, competing in events like footraces.
• The allowance of exercise and athletics for Spartan women,
though highly looked down on by the rest of the Greek world
(particularly Athens), was not seen as a freedom per se by the
 Spartans. This was seen as a guarantee that the strong and fit
Spartan women would reproduce, and when they had babies, those
babies would be strong warriors in the making.
• Even though Spartan women were allowed to mingle amongst the
Spartan men, they were still seen as little more than baby-makers.
Their methods and motives were just slightly different than the rest
of the Greeks!
• Yet another freedom that Spartan women had over other Greek
women was their ability to fraternize in public with Spartan men.
• Along with exercising with the opposite sex came the ability to
trade conversation and political witticisms with them.
• In fact, Spartan women were notoriously known for their razor-
sharp wit and outspoken natures.
• This freedom turned heads amongst the other Greeks poleis, and
they, of course, disapproved greatly.
• But, if the physical health of a Spartan woman was seen as vital to
her ability to produce strong Spartan boys, then her mental and
intellectual might have been seen as just as important.