Lysistrata

{{Multiple issues|{{More citations needed|date=November 2024}}

{{essay|date=November 2024}}}}{{short description|Comedy by Aristophanes}}

{{use dmy dates|date=August 2023}}

{{Infobox play

|name = Lysistrata

|image = Lysistrata.jpg

|caption = Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley, 1896

Dramatis Personae in ancient comedy depend on scholars' interpretation of textual evidence. This list is based on Alan Sommerstein's 1973 translation.{{sfn|Sommerstein|1973|p=37}}

|writer = Aristophanes

|chorus = {{plainlist|

  • Old men
  • Old women}}

|characters = {{plainlist|

  • Lysistrata
  • Calonice
  • Myrrhine
  • Lampito
  • Magistrate
  • Cinesias
  • Baby
  • Spartan Herald
  • Spartan Ambassador
  • Athenian Negotiator
  • Athenian Delegates
  • Two Layabouts
  • Doorkeeper
  • Two Diners
  • Stratyllis
  • Five Young Women}}

|mute = {{plainlist|

  • Ismenia
  • Corinthian Woman
  • Reconciliation
  • Four Scythian Policemen
  • Scythian Policewoman
  • Athenian citizens, Spartan envoys, slaves et al.}}

|setting = Before the Propylaea, or gateway to the Acropolis of Athens, 411 BC

}}

Lysistrata ({{IPAc-en|l|aɪ|ˈ|s|ɪ|s|t|r|ə|t|ə}} or {{IPAc-en|ˌ|l|ɪ|s|ə|ˈ|s|t|r|ɑː|t|ə}}; Attic Greek: {{lang|grc|Λυσιστράτη}}, Lysistrátē, {{Lit|army disbander}}) is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's mission to end the Peloponnesian War between Greek city states by denying all the men of the land any sex, which was said to be the only thing they truly and deeply desired. Lysistrata persuades the women of the warring cities to engage in a sex strike as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace – a strategy that inflames the battle between the sexes.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

The play is notable for being an early exposé of sexual relations in a male-dominated society. Its structure represents a shift from the conventions of Old Comedy, a trend typical of the author's career.David Barrett's edition Aristophanes: the Frogs and Other Plays (Penguin Classics, 1964), p. 13 It was produced in the same year as the Thesmophoriazusae, another play with a focus on gender-based issues, just two years after Athens's defeat in the Sicilian Expedition.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Plot

{{quote|

:LYSISTRATA

There are a lot of things about us women

That sadden me, considering how men

See us as rascals.

:CALONICE

As indeed we are!

}}

The play begins with these lines spoken by the Athenian Lysistrata and her friend Calonice.Lysistrata in Aristophanis Comoediae Tomus II, ed. F. Hall and W. Geldart (Oxford University Press, 1907), lines 10–11, Wikisource original Greek {{cite web |url=http://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%9B%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CF%81%CE%AC%CF%84%CE%B7 |title=Λυσιστράτη - Βικιθήκη |access-date=2009-02-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212075927/http://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%9B%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CF%81%CE%AC%CF%84%CE%B7 |archive-date=2009-02-12}} Women, as represented by Calonice, are sly hedonists in need of firm guidance and direction. In contrast, Lysistrata is portrayed to be an extraordinary woman with a large sense of individual and social responsibility. She has convened a meeting of women from various Greek city-states that are at war with each other. Soon after she confides in her friend her concerns for the female sex, the women begin arriving.

With support from the Spartan Lampito, Lysistrata persuades the other women to withhold sexual privileges from their menfolk as a means of forcing them to conclude the Peloponnesian War. The women are reluctant, but the deal is sealed with a solemn oath around a wine bowl in which the women abjure all their sexual pleasures, including the "lioness on the cheese-grater".{{refn|"Lioness" is a sexual position. A scholium on the line says σχῆμα δέ ἐστιν ἀκολάστον καί ἑταιρικόν (it is a licentious and whorish position).{{cite book|last=Dübner|first=Friedrich|title=Scholia Graeca in Aristophanem|location=Paris|publisher=Didot|year=1843|page=251|url=https://archive.org/details/scholiagraecain02dbgoog/page/250/mode/2up}} The ancient cheese-grater "was a knife with a bronze or ivory handle, [on which] it was customary to carve all sorts of animal figures, some indeed couching upon the handle, but others standing upright, and touching the handle only with their feet."{{cite book|last=Rogers|first=Benjamin Bickley|title=The Comedies of Aristophanes|volume=4|location=London|publisher=G. Bell and Sons|year=1902|page=30|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924096975887/page/n85/mode/2up}}}}

Soon after the oath is finished, a cry of triumph is heard from the nearby Acropolis—the old women of Athens have seized control of it at Lysistrata's instigation, since it holds the state treasury, without which the men cannot long continue to fund their war. Lampito goes off to spread the word of revolt, and the other women retreat behind the barred gates of the Acropolis to await the men's response.

A Chorus of Old Men arrives, planning on burning down the gate of the Acropolis if the women do not open up. They are still making preparations to assault the gate when a Chorus of Old Women arrives, bearing pitchers of water. The Old Women complain about the difficulty they had getting the water, but they are ready for a fight in defence of their younger comrades. Threats are exchanged, and the Old Men are defeated with the water.

The magistrate then arrives with some Scythian Archers (the Athenian version of police constables). He reflects on the nature of women, their devotion to wine, promiscuous sex, and exotic cults (such as to Sabazius and Adonis), but above all he blames men for poor supervision of their womenfolk. He has come for silver from the state treasury to buy oars for the fleet and he instructs his Scythians to begin levering open the gate. However, they are quickly overwhelmed by groups of women with long names.Lysistrata Wikisource original Greek {{cite web |url=http://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%9B%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CF%81%CE%AC%CF%84%CE%B7 |title=Λυσιστράτη - Βικιθήκη |access-date=2009-02-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212075927/http://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%9B%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CF%81%CE%AC%CF%84%CE%B7 |archive-date=2009-02-12}} lines 457-58

Lysistrata restores order and allows the magistrate to question her. She explains the frustrations that women feel at a time of war when the men make decisions that affect everyone, and further complains that their wives' opinions are not listened to. She drapes her headdress over him, gives him a basket of wool and tells him that war will be a woman's business from now on. She then explains the pity she feels for young, childless women, aging at home while the men are away on endless campaigns. When the magistrate points out that men also age, she reminds him that men can marry at any age whereas a woman has only a short time before she is considered too old. She then dresses the magistrate like a corpse for laying out, with a wreath and a fillet, and advises him that he's dead. The magistrate storms off to report the incident to his colleagues, while Lysistrata returns to the Acropolis.

The debate is continued between the Chorus of Old Men and the Chorus of Old Women until Lysistrata returns to the stage with the news that her comrades are desperate for sex and they are beginning to desert on the silliest pretexts (for example, one woman says she has to go home to air her fabrics by spreading them on the bed). After rallying her comrades and restoring their discipline, Lysistrata again returns to the Acropolis to continue waiting for the men's surrender.

A man suddenly appears, desperate for sex. It is Kinesias, the husband of Myrrhine. Lysistrata instructs her to torture him. Myrrhine informs Kinesias that she will have sex with him but only if he promises to end the war. He promptly agrees to these terms and the young couple prepares for sex on the spot. Myrrhine fetches a bed, a mattress, a pillow, a blanket, and a flask of oil, and after delaying the act for some time, locks herself in the Acropolis once more.

A Spartan herald then appears with a large burden (an erection) scarcely hidden inside his tunic and he requests to see the ruling council to arrange peace talks. The magistrate laughs at the herald's situation, but agrees that peace talks should begin.

They go off to fetch the delegates. While they are gone, the Old Women make overtures to the Old Men. The two Choruses merge, singing and dancing in unison. Peace talks commence and Lysistrata introduces the Spartan and Athenian delegates to a woman called Reconciliation. The delegates cannot take their eyes off the woman; meanwhile, Lysistrata scolds both sides for past errors of judgment. The delegates briefly squabble over the peace terms, but with Reconciliation before them, they overcome their differences and retire to the Acropolis for celebrations. The war is ended.

Historical background

Some events that are significant for understanding the play:{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

  • 424 BC: The Knights won first prize at the Lenaia. Its protagonist, a sausage-seller named Agoracritus, emerges at the end of the play as the improbable saviour of Athens (Lysistrata is its saviour thirteen years later).
  • 421 BC: Peace was produced. Its protagonist, Trygaeus, emerges as the improbable champion of universal peace (Lysistrata's role 10 years later). The Peace of Nicias was formalised this same year, ending the first half of the Peloponnesian War (referred to in Lysistrata as "The Former War").Lysistrata Wikisource original Greek line 507
  • 413 BC: The Athenians and their allies suffered a catastrophic defeat in the Sicilian Expedition, a turning-point in the long-running Peloponnesian War.
  • 411 BC: Both Thesmophoriazusae and Lysistrata were produced; an oligarchic revolution (one of the consequences of the Sicilian disaster) proved briefly successful.

Old Comedy was a topical genre and the playwright expected his audience to be familiar with local identities and issues. The following list of identities mentioned in the play gives some indication of the difficulty faced by any producer trying to stage Lysistrata for modern audiences:{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Pellene was also the name of a Peloponnesian town resisting Spartan pressure to contribute to naval operations against Athens at this time. It was mentioned earlier in the Birds.Lysistrata Wikisource original Greek line 1421

Writing conventions

Lysistrata belongs to the middle period of Aristophanes's career when he was beginning to diverge significantly from the conventions of Old Comedy. Such variations from convention include:

  • The divided Chorus: The Chorus begins this play being divided (Old Men versus Old Women), and its unification later in the play is meant to exemplify reconciliation. A doubling of the role of the Chorus occurs in two other middle-period plays, The Frogs and Thesmophoriazusae, but in each of those plays the two Choruses appear consecutively rather than simultaneously. The nearest equivalent to Lysistrata's divided Chorus is found in the earliest of the surviving plays, The Acharnians, where the Chorus very briefly divides into factions for and against the protagonist.The Acharnians, Wikisource {{cite web |url=http://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%91%CF%87%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%BD%CE%B5%CE%AF%CF%82 |title=Αχαρνείς - Βικιθήκη |access-date=2009-02-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217212328/http://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%91%CF%87%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%BD%CE%B5%CE%AF%CF%82 |archive-date=2009-02-17}} lines 557-71
  • Parabasis: In Classical Greek comedy, parabasis is 'a speech in which the chorus comes forward and addresses the audience'. A parabasis is not featured in Lysistrata. Most plays have a second parabasis near the end, and a feature akin to a parabasis is used in this play as a replacement, however it comprises exclusively two songs (strophe and antistrophe) which are separated by an episodic scene of dialogue.Lysistrata Wikisource original Greek {{cite web |url=http://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%9B%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CF%81%CE%AC%CF%84%CE%B7 |title=Λυσιστράτη - Βικιθήκη |access-date=2009-02-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212075927/http://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%9B%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CF%81%CE%AC%CF%84%CE%B7 |archive-date=2009-02-12}} lines 1043–71 and 1189–1215
  • Agon: The plays of Aristophanes contain formal disputes or agons that are constructed for rhetorical effect. Lysistrata's debate with the proboulos (magistrate) is an unusual agonLysistrata Wikisource original Greek {{cite web |url=http://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%9B%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CF%81%CE%AC%CF%84%CE%B7 |title=Λυσιστράτη - Βικιθήκη |access-date=2009-02-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212075927/http://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%9B%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CF%81%CE%AC%CF%84%CE%B7 |archive-date=2009-02-12}} lines 476–607 in that one character (Lysistrata) does a majority of the talking, while the antagonist's dialogue (the magistrate) is reserved for questions or expressions of emotion. The informality of the agon draws attention to the absurdity of a classical woman engaging in public debate.{{cite book|last=Pelling|first=C. B. R.|title=Literary texts and the Greek historian|url=https://archive.org/details/literarytextsgre00pell|url-access=limited|year=2000|publisher=Routledge|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/literarytextsgre00pell/page/n221 213]–17}} Like most agons, it is structured symmetrically in two sections, each half comprising long verses of anapests that are introduced by a choral song and that end in a pnigos.

Influence and legacy

Image:LYSISTRATAstaging.jpg Image:Movie1388Hitch netti2.jpg

  • 1982: Utopia's album Swing to the Right featured an anti-war song entitled "Lysistrata" that loosely paraphrases the content of the drama as dialogue between the song's protagonist and his female significant other.
  • 1983: Şalvar Davası, a Turkish movie adaptation based loosely on Lysistrata, directed by Kartal Tibet and starring Müjde Ar.
  • 1984: On the Perimeter by Caroline Blackwood compared activists at Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp to women of Lysistrata.{{cite book |last1=Blackwood |first1=Caroline |title=On the Perimeter |date=1984 |publisher=Pearson Education New Zealand Limited |isbn=978-0-434-07468-6 |pages=108–109 }}
  • 1985: David Brin's post-apocalyptic novel The Postman, which had themes of duty, war, peace, and gender roles, is dedicated: "To Benjamin Franklin, devious genius, and to Lysistrata, who tried".
  • 2001: A titular opera was composed by Mikis Theodorakis. It is dedicated to global peace.
  • 2003: In reaction to the Iraq disarmament crisis, a peace protest initiative, The Lysistrata Project, was based on readings of the play held worldwide on March 3, 2003.{{Cite news

|url = http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/11668

|work = Columbia Daily Spectator

|title = We Can't Make Love if There's War: The Lysistrata Project

|first = Robyn

|last = Schwartz

|date = 2003-02-27

|access-date = 2008-03-08

|archive-date = 2018-05-03

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180503180755/https://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/11668/

|url-status = dead

}}

  • 2004: A 100-person show called Lysistrata 100 was performed in Brooklyn, New York.{{Cite web | url=http://www.untitledtheater.com/Lysistrata.htm | title=Lysistrata 100, by Aristophanes | publisher=Untitled Theater Company | access-date=2007-04-22 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070510234957/http://www.untitledtheater.com/Lysistrata.htm | archive-date=2007-05-10 }} Edward Einhorn wrote the adaptation, which was performed in a pub. The play was set at the Dionysia, much as the original may have been.
  • 2005: An opera, Lysistrata, or The Nude Goddess, composed by Mark Adamo, premiered at the Houston Grand Opera in March.
  • 2011: Lysistrata Jones, a contemporary riff by Douglas Carter Beane (book) and Lewis Flinn (music, lyrics) for the Transport Group Theater Company, starred Patti Murin and Liz Mikel, and opened in New York at the Judson Memorial Church Gymnasium and later transferred to Broadway.
  • 2011: Valerie Schrag adapted and illustrated the play for volume one of the graphic-novel anthology The Graphic Canon, edited by Russ Kick and published by Seven Stories Press.{{cite web|url=http://thegraphiccanon.wordpress.com/contributors/|title=Contributors|work=wordpress.com|date=26 April 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508003753/http://thegraphiccanon.wordpress.com/contributors/|archive-date=2013-05-08}}
  • 2011: Radu Mihăileanu directed The Source ({{langx|fr|La Source des femmes}}) set in a village in North Africa, focusing on a group of women who go on strike against having to fetch water for the village from a distant well.
  • 2012: Isabelle Ameganvi, a civil-rights lawyer in Togo (Africa), called on the women of Togo to deny sexual relations with their men in protest against President Faure Gnassingbé.{{Cite web | url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/09/02/stop-the-presses-no-more-sex-in-togo.html | title='Lysistrata in Togo' under 'The World on a Page' | publisher=Newsweek | access-date=2012-09-10 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120909131207/http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/09/02/stop-the-presses-no-more-sex-in-togo.html | archive-date=2012-09-09 }}
  • 2015: American filmmaker Spike Lee's film Chi-Raq transposes the events of the play into modern-day inner-city Chicago, substituting gun violence among African-Americans for the Peloponnesian War and rhyming rap dialogue for Greek poetry.{{Cite web | url=http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/December-2015/Spike-Lee-Chiraq/ | title=Spike Lee Sounds Off on Chi-Raq, Gun Violence, and Rahm | publisher=Chicago Magazine | access-date=2015-10-23 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151023043003/http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/December-2015/Spike-Lee-Chiraq/ | archive-date=2015-10-23 }}
  • 2016: Animator Richard Williams's Oscar-nominated short film, Prologue, is "the first part of a feature film loosely based on Aristophanes's anti-war play Lysisrata."{{Cite web| url=http://www.cartoonbrew.com/interviews/interview-richard-williams-talks-oscar-bafta-nominated-short-prologue-131008.html| title=Interview: Richard Williams Talks About His Oscar and BAFTA-Nominated Short 'Prologue'| date=15 January 2016| publisher=Cartoon Brew| access-date=2016-02-04| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206004435/http://www.cartoonbrew.com/interviews/interview-richard-williams-talks-oscar-bafta-nominated-short-prologue-131008.html| archive-date=2016-02-06}}
  • 2016: Writer-director Matt Cooper's film comedy Is That a Gun in Your Pocket? is about a Texas town whose women go on a sex strike to make their menfolk abandon their love of guns.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4196832/?ref_=nv_sr_1|title=Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?|date=16 September 2016|via=IMDb|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923221508/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4196832/?ref_=nv_sr_1|archive-date=23 September 2016}}

English translations

{{div col}}

  • 1872, William James Hickie, The Comedies of Aristophanes. A New and Literal Translation, Vol 2 (London: Bohn's Library).
  • 1912, published by the Athenian Society, London; unknown translator rumored to be Oscar Wilde. At Wikisource
  • 1924, Benjamin B. Rogers, verse
  • 1925, Jack Lindsay, verse{{cite web|url=http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=7700|title=Lysistrata|work=upenn.edu|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060504060359/http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=7700|archive-date=2006-05-04}}
  • 1934, Arthur S. Way, verse
  • 1944, Charles T. Murphy, prose and verse
  • 1954, Dudley Fitts, prose and verse
  • 1961, Donald Sutherland, prose and verse{{cite web |url=http://library.auraria.edu/archives/sutherla/main.html |title=The Donald Sutherland Papers |access-date=2007-11-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029075028/http://library.auraria.edu/archives/sutherla/main.html |archive-date=2007-10-29}}
  • 1963, Douglass Parker, verse
  • 1972, Germaine Greer, prose
  • 1973, Alan H. Sommerstein, prose and verse: [https://archive.org/details/acharniansclouds00aris available for digital loan]
  • 1988, Jeffrey Henderson, verse
  • 1991, Nicholas Rudall
  • 2000, George Theodoridis, 2000, prose{{cite web|url=http://bacchicstage.wordpress.com/aristophanes/lysistrata/|title=Lysistrata Λυσιστράτη|work=Bacchicstage|date=25 February 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20140611095724/http://bacchicstage.wordpress.com/aristophanes/lysistrata/|archive-date=2014-06-11}}
  • 2002, David Landon, prose and verse
  • 2003, Sarah Ruden
  • 2004, Paul Roche, verse and prose
  • 2005, Edward Einhorn, prose and verse{{cite web|url=http://www.theater61press.com/excerpts/lysistrata-excerpt.html|title=Lysistrata excerpt - Theater 61 Press|work=theater61press.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022145532/http://www.theater61press.com/excerpts/lysistrata-excerpt.html|archive-date=2013-10-22}}
  • 2003/06, Chris Tilley, musical version with prose and songs
  • 2008, Ian C. Johnston, verse{{Cite web|url=http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/aristophanes/lysistratahtml.html|title=ARISTOPHANES LYSISTRATA (e-text)|website=johnstoniatexts.x10host.com}}
  • 2010, David Stuttard, prose and verseStuttard, David, Looking at Lysistrata: Eight Essays and a New Version of Aristophanes' Provocative Comedy (Duckworth 2010)
  • Anonymous translator, prose{{cite web|url=http://drama.eserver.org/plays/classical/aristophanes/lysistrata.txt|title=Drama: Lysistrata|website=drama.eserver.org|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012062319/http://drama.eserver.org/plays/classical/aristophanes/lysistrata.txt|archive-date=2006-10-12}}

{{div col end}}

See also

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

Sources

  • {{cite book |ref={{sfnref|Sommerstein|1973}} |author=Aristophanes |translator-last1=Sommerstein |translator-first1=Alan H. |title=The Acharnians: And The Clouds and Lysistrata |date=1973 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-044287-8 }}

Further reading

  • {{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100120867 |title=Lysistrata |encyclopedia=Oxford Reference }}
  • {{cite book |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198746676.003.0007 |chapter=Lysistrata: Between Entertainment and Protest |title=Between Jerusalem and Athens |date=2018 |last1=Yaari |first1=Nurit |pages=211–244 |isbn=978-0-19-874667-6 }}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Westlake |first1=H. D. |title=The 'Lysistrata' and the War |journal=Phoenix |date=1980 |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=38–54 |doi=10.2307/1087757 |jstor=1087757 }}
  • {{cite thesis |last1=Severini |first1=Giorgia |date=2010 |title=From elite to exclusive: Lysistrata and gender, democracy, and war |doi=10.7939/R3Z118 }}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Ugolini |first1=Gherardo |title=Women Against War. The Trojan Women, Helen, and Lysistrata at Syracuse |journal=Skenè |date=31 December 2019 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=155–172 |doi=10.13136/sjtds.v5i2.261 }}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Diamantakou-Agathou |first1=Kaiti |date=2020 |title=From Aspasia to Lysistrata. Literary Versions and Intertextual Diffusions of the Feminine Other in Classical Athens |journal=Logeion |volume=10 |pages=238–260 |id={{ProQuest|2900989364}} |url=https://logeion.upatras.gr/node/252 }}