Lysistrata

original read: 2010

Whether it's the original version or a modern adaptation, you need to see this play live to appreciate its transcending humor.

Hyper sexual satire of war where the ladies of Athens and Sparta refuse to have sex until peace between the two nations is negotiated. Unfortunately in real life the Peloponnesian War kept going on for years longer and ended in disaster for Athens.

The Acharnians

No idea what I was expecting from my first venture into Classical Greek comedy, but it wasn't the crude, lewd, verbal and physical humour coupled with puns and political and personal satire that I got! The Introduction and notes were extremely useful for setting the historical and cultural scene, explaining how the Comedy of the day worked and elucidating obscure references and jokes. This made me wonder how well it would go on the modern stage, where one would surely expect most of the audience to be oblivious to everything explained in the apparatus. A lot of the humour would translate and the general message of peace vs. war might come through, but all the cultural and historical references would be lost, I think.

Tremendous fun from the page, though.

The Clouds

This time Aristophanes turns his satirical wit on the Sophists, as exemplified by none other than Socrates himself! The new education, based on - sophistry! - and the lack of belief in the traditional pantheon of gods are the prime targets.

It turns out that the surviving text is an unfinished revision of the play. This may be a factor in why I didn't like it as much as The Archarnians, or it might be that it's simply because I have a lot of sympathy for the Sophists' viewpoint on several matters. Either way, I didn't think it was as funny...

Lysistrata

For me the least funny but most interesting of the three plays in this volume. It's full of the same sexual humour as the others and equally preposterous. It's examination of sexual politics is more interesting than its plea for peace with Sparta (perhaps partly because the latter is treated more thoroughly in The Archanians, anyway). It seems that many things have not changes in nearly 2,500 years... One of them appears to be that perceived hairlessness (of women's bodies) was considered more attractive, then as now. I've often wondered if that has been a pan-cultural, pan-historical trend and, if so, whether it is a deep-rooted instinct that has led to evolution away from other, full-on furry, primate species? Odd thing to end up thinking about because of an old Greek drama, but there you go!

#readathonclassics - 02
Lysistrata, with the support of other women, forces men to stop war by sex strike!
An oath is pledged among women— as long as the men from both sides do not agree to peace terms, henceforth no women shall permit sex previllege to their husbands or lovers.

The men are baffled, women are persistent. Soon an enmity rises among the two sexes. But it is no wonder that after a while the menfolk from both Athens and Sparta, with phallus under their swollen tunic, are happy to strike a peace treaty, thus ending the peloponnesian war.

This comedy play had some discourses on women’s condition in a male dominated society and indeed the women in it turns the tide and brings peace and normality about. That is why it is often seen as a feminist play through modern adaptations. However, the translator of the work, Jack Lidsay, with references to some other critics, argues that—lewdness, lust or phallus in this play shouldn’t be cast aside as mere comedic means, rather a force of utmost importance. Not bestial, but essential to life. As plato stated, he argues on, ‘fornication is something immortal in mortality.’
Aristophanes, the writer of the play, did not want to reshape the society as many critics assume (according to Lindsay)—he wanted to promote individual freedoms, laughter and joy.

I wanted to keep a play in my readathonclassic but didn’t suspect I’d so much like the one I’d choose. This morsel of a tale kept me searching under the hood long enough.

TV Commercial: Does your husband and the men of Athens just want to wage war? Do they ignore your pleas for peace no matter how long the Peloponnesian War has been going on? Tired of your men's stupid decisions in such a trying time? Do you wish to end it? Well women of Athens, you are in luck, we have the solution for you, withhold sex from your husbands and lovers, that will bring them back with their tails between their feet and a signed peace document.
Women of Athens: Would that not just create divisions between the sexes and a sort of war between the citizens?
TV Commercial: ehhhh, most likely. But, their idiocy must be stopped.
Lysistrata: You have got a deal! I am starting now. Women let us meet! My time has come to convince you to withhold sex so we can have peace. This cannot possibly backfire.

Now that that is aside, THIS IS NEITHER A FEMINIST PLAY, NOR A PACIFIST ONE. I understand why modern readers might interpret it as such, but at the time it was written,and many years after, it was clear that the view was that women were a nuisance that needed to be protected from themselves. It basically begins with these lines:
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!

Not the greatest sentence for a supposedly feminist play.

Now this is also quite a crude play, maybe even more so than the Bard himself. In it men walk about with erect penises for no other reason that them being denied sex and unable to control erections. We have a woman that sort of teases her lover by saying she will do him and them promptly bringing a bed, a mattress, a pillow, a blanket, some oil, and then ends up running back up to the Acropolis where the women are holding out. Their oath to not have sex tells them not to do a certain sexual pose that apparently was popular back then.
I would say this play is a bit offensive to men, not as much as women, but it does dictate that men cannot function unless their penis is inside someone's vagina. That kind of does them a disservice.
Here's a few reasons why it is not feminist:
-The first lines of the play as written above.
-Majority of women, except Lysistrata, are presented as voluptuaries.
-A magistrate arrives and starts spouting about how women are hysterical and that men should keep better hold of them.
-He proceeds to also claim they have too much of a liking to wine, promiscuous sex, and for some weird reasons, exotic cults.
-There are two women with these names: "seed-market-porridge-vegetable-sellers" and "garlic-innkeeping-bread-sellers".
-Lysistrata uses a woman for her beauty to distract the men enough to have them sign peace.

I did laugh nonetheless, I prefer to read it as satire, it makes the funny and cringe worthy moments all the more fun.

I wouldn't be surprised if Lysistrata was the first sex comedy (that's a genre, right?). Sex (or lack there of ) drives the plot and innuendos abound:

Lysistrata: But I tell you, here's a far more weighty object.
Calonice: What is it all about, dear Lysistrata, that you've called the women hither in a troop? What kind of object is it?
Lysistrata: A tremendous one!
Calonice: And long?
Lysistrata: Indeed, it may be very lengthy.
Calonice: Then why aren't they here?
Lysistrata: No Man's connected with it; if that was the case, they'd soon come fluttering along. No, no. It concerns an object I've felt over and turned this way and that for sleepless nights.
Calonice: I must be fine to stand such long attention.

On its surface this play is about the women of Greece withholding sex from the men to force them to make peace during the destructive Peloponnesian War. In truth I am pretty sure Aristophanes just wanted an excuse to make as many sexual innuendos and gender stereotypes as possibly.

Lysistrata: We must refrain from every depth of love... Why do you turn your backs? Where are you going? Why do you bite your lips and shake your heads? Why are your faces blanched? Why do you weep? Will you or won't you [join me in the sex strike]...
Myrrhine: No I won't. Let the war proceed.

~~~

Cinesias: Don't go, please don't go, Myrrhine [his wife and a sex striker]. At least hear our child... don't you feel pity for the child? He's not been fed or washed now for six days.
Myrrhine: I certainly pity him with so heartless a father...
...
Cinesias: You love me! Then dear girl, let me also love you.
Myrrhine: You must be joking. The boy's looking on.
Cinesias: Here, Manes, take the child home! ... There, he's gone. There's nothing in the way now.

The women fret about their homes going to ruin while they are away. One even tries to fake a pregnancy:

Lysistrata: What nonsense is this?
Woman: I'll drop any minute
Lysistrata: Yesterday you weren't with child.
Woman: But I am today. O let me find a midwife Lysistrata. O Quickly!
Lysistrata: Now what story is this you tell? What is this hard lump here?
Woman: It's a male child.
Lysistrata: By Aphrodite, it isn't. Your belly's hollow, and it has the feel of metal... Well, I soon can see. You hussy, it's Athene's scared helm, and you said you were with child.

Some, however, are pretty damn good at messing with the mind's of their men:

Myrrhine: But how can I break my oath?
Cinesias: Leave that to me, I'll take all the risk
Myrrhine: Well, I'll make you comfortable
Cinesias: Don't worry. I'd as soon lie on the grass
Myrrhine: No, by Apollo, in spite of all your faults I won't have you lying on the nasty earth... Rest here on the bench, while I arrange my clothes. O what a nuisance, I must find some cushions first.
Cinesias: Why some cushions? Please don't get them!
Myrrhine: What? Plain, hard wood? Never, by Artemis! That would be too vulgar
Cinesias: Open your arms!
Myrrhine:...Here the cushions are. Lie down while I - O dear! but what a shame, you need more pillows.
Cinesias: I don't want them dear.
Myrrhine: But I do... Why, you've no blanket.
Cinesias: It's not the silly blanket's warmth but yours I want.
Myrrhine: Never mind. You'll soon have both. I'll come right back... Would you like me to perfume you?
Cinesias: By Apollo, no!
Myrrhine: By Aphrodite, I'll do it anyway!

etc etc etc

(Sufficed to say, the oath was not broken, though I think the poor man's will was)

Aristophanes also takes plenty of opportunities to insert sexual innuendo because he can:

[after peace has been agreed upon]
Athenians: I want to strip at once and plow my land.
Spartans: And mine I want to fertilize at once.

~~~

Men's chorus: We must take a stand and keep to it, for if we yield the smallest bit to their importunity then nowhere from their inroads will be left to us immunity...And if they mount, the Knights they'll rob of a job, for everyone knows how talented they all are in the saddle, having long practiced how to straddle...

In spite of all the sex and joking, the play does have a few good messages:

Lysistrata: You [men] wrack hellenic cities, bloody Hellas with deaths of her own sons, while yonder clangs the gathering menace of barbarians.

~~~

Lysistrata: It should not prejudice my voice that I'm not born a man, if I say something advantageous to the present situation. For I'm taxed too, and as a toll provide men for the nation while, miserable greybeards... contribute nothing of any importance whatever to our needs.

But mostly this was a play about sex and sex jokes that were shockingly modern in their convention (might have just been the translation). This was a quick and enjoyable read, just remember this was meant to be a bit of an absurdist satire so don't take the actions and decisions of the characters very seriously.

LYSISTRATA
It's settled. For the future you'll take
up our old occupation.
Now in turn you're to hold tongue, as we did, and listen while we show
the way to recover the nation.

MAGISTRATE
You talk to us! Why, you're mad. I'll not stand it.

LYSISTRATA
Cease babbling, you fool; till I end, hold your tongue.

MAGISTRATE
If I should take orders from one who wears veils, may my
neck straightaway be deservedly wrung.

LYSISTRATA
O if that keeps pestering you,
I've a veil here for your hair,
I'll fit you out in everything
As is only fair.

CALONICE
Here's a spindle that will do.

MYRRHINE
I'll add a wool-basket too.

LYSISTRATA
Girdled now sit humbly at home,
Munching beans, while you card wool and comb. For war from now on
is the Women's affair.

Lysistrata is basically Greek's way of saying: Make Love, not War. Well, in that dirty, wanton kind of way.
Ancient Greeks were passionate, tragic, and intelligent, generous, petty and cruel. But, Aristophanes shows us they can also be funny, ridiculous, vulgar and deep, and knew life enough to remember not to take themselves too seriously.



.

This was…weird…and kind of hilarious…and sometimes a bit crude. It’s an Ancient Greek work about these women getting tired of their men going off to war (they were really just fighting for the fun and sport of it) so they decided to withhold sex until the men made a treaty and stopped fighting. And with this book I finished the Lit Life 2021 challenge!