Why was lysistrata written

But the option he has chosen also gives him the opportunity for visually and thematically more impressive clashes between the women and the collective power both of the male sex of civic authority. And he still gets to stage one typical scene later on when Myrrhine leaves the Acropolis ostensibly to satisfy but actually to tease her husband. But by astute use of the stage building he is able to pull together his two plot strands, the seizure of the Acropolis and the sex strike.

Behind the orchestra and facing the audience is a closed gateway held by the women which the men are desperately trying to penetrate. The stage set thus becomes a visual metaphor for the sex strike at the heart of the action. Aristophanes is very fond of this kind of visual metaphor. Part of this is just the comic poet's inventive and witty love of the concrete.

Abstract ideas are turned into objects, people, actions, sometimes with paradoxical, occasionally bizarre, effects. But this process can also be used to simplify the comic world and make the impossible possible. This true of my last instance of effective staging. Peace in the real world comes about by negotiation, a combination of hard bargaining and command of detail. This is fascinating for the diplomat and the historian. But it may not always make for lively comedy, certainly not in a comic theatre which likes grand figures and grand gestures, like this one.

Negotiation also takes time. All of Aristophanes' peace plays offer neat solutions to this problem, all different. In Lysistrata peace is brought about by the figure of Reconciliation, a naked woman that is, a male actor in a costume representing a naked woman.

The Athenian and Spartan negotiators argue over her body, each part of which by the kind of punning Aristophanes loves corresponds to different parts of Greece. It's a metaphor for carving up the map which mimics territorial negotiations in a comically grotesque way. But as well as offering a neat way to move rapidly from war both in Greece and between the sexes to peace this scene also pulls together many of the key elements of the play. The female is Reconciliation; so she embodies the end of the war.

Her gender places her with the victorious females; and her sexuality, together with the desperate yearning of the negotiators, re-enacts the strategy with which the women won the day. The connection between sex and peace is as strong in Aristophanes as that between wine and peace. Both belong to a world of leisure.

Lysistrata was written in BCE — twenty years after the beginning of the Peloponnesian War and ten years before its end.

It is clear that Aristophanes advocated peace for Athens. Women were not involved in the political life of ancient Greece, so the fact that, in the play, women had to intervene is a testament to just how dire Aristophanes thought the situation was. After both sides agree, Lysistrata gives the women back to the men and a great celebration ensues. Drama , Comedy First of all, Aristophanes' Lysistrata is a drama. We're not talking about drama in the sense that made-for-TV movies on serious topics like WWII or forensic science are dramas—Lysistrata is definitely not going to bum you out.

Carlblom proposed directing " Lysistrata " in part because of its contemporary relevance. War is war is war is war. Lysistrata is both acute political satire —the women of Greece are sick and tired of the ongoing Peloponnesian War—and filthy comedic mayhem—these women are so sick of the Peloponnesian War that they refuse to have sex with their hubbies.

Greek Theatre. Theatre buildings were called a theatron. The theaters were large, open-air structures constructed on the slopes of hills. They consisted of three main elements: the orchestra, the skene, and the audience. Peace is the personification of peace , and in the play she takes the form of a beautiful naked girl whom both the Athenian and Spartan men lust after.

Lysistrata definitely stands out as the protagonist of this play. Before the action even starts, she's got her whole plan worked out; as a result, she's basically the one who gets the action going. Lysistrata is a stage play classified as old comedy. There are 3 major themes in the play Lysistrata.

Each theme has a prominent role in relaying the overall message of the play. The three themes are: peace and unity, power and gender, and politics. Lysistrata may have been based on an actual Athenian woman. Lysistrata is both acute political satire—the women of Greece are sick and tired of the ongoing Peloponnesian War—and filthy comedic mayhem—these women are so sick of the Peloponnesian War that they refuse to have sex with their hubbies.

While modern theatre artists have claimed Lysistrata as a feminist icon, citing her strength and resilience, Aristophanes used the format of Old Comedy to create a play filled with humor at the expense of women, built upon the weak and dependent status of women in ancient Athens. The author of Lysistrata was Aristophanes. He was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete.

These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are used to define the genre. According to tradition, in or BC, Thespis astounded audiences by leaping on to the back of a wooden cart and reciting poetry as if he was the characters whose lines he was reading.

Lysistrata is not married, is seemingly less susceptible to erotic desire than the other Athenian women, and wisely works for Peace by masterfully manipulating the men around her. War is war is war is war. Vaughan said the play contains adult content, including sexual innuendo. After both sides agree, Lysistrata gives the women back to the men and a great celebration ensues.