172 Aristophanes
women make love and as long as human beings try
to kill one another, and thus, sex and war remain
fundamental to human existence.
Ben Fisler
Gender in Lysistrata
If sex is the fuel Lysistrata and her confederates use
to transform the world, gender is the world that
they set ablaze, by turning the Athenian status quo
on its head. Aristophanes sets the scene by refer-
encing Athenian gender standards, combining the
Greek perception that women are driven by their
appetites, particularly sexual desire, with the ancient
reality of extreme patriarchy. In the text, Athenian
women have no virtually no political power, and they
acknowledge that; Athenian men perceive women as
being controlled by their passions, and the women
recognize that. Thus, the play creates a fantasy where
women have the support of both Aphrodite (to drive
the men into a sexual frenzy first) and Athena (the
virgin goddess who contains the women’s needs as
they stage their sex strike/sit-in at her sacred Acrop-
olis). Within what the primarily male Greek audi-
ence would have seen as a fantasy, women achieve
considerable power and restraint, allowing them to
act with surprising agency.
Calonice both bespeaks and personifies the
idea that women are driven by their sexuality, when
Lysistrata begins to suggest the plan. First, she
doubts that women can help the war effort, given
their inability to do anything “but sit at home look-
ing pretty, wearing saffron gowns” (l. 47). Then, she
becomes entirely distracted by her own fantasies of
saffron gowns and slippers (ll. 51–53). Later, the
entire gathering of women hears Lysistrata’s plan
and proceeds to exit the stage. Myrrhine proclaims
that she would be cut in half or “walk through fire,
or anything else... but renounce sex, never” (ll.
133–135). It takes much convincing for the women
to accept the strategy, given that “there’s nothing like
[sex]” (l. 136). It is the shield oath that gives women
the power to renounce their passions, drawing on
the power of the virgin goddess, Athena, to control
their normally uncontrollable sex drives.
Lysistrata has a direct confrontation with the
representative of Athenian law, the Magistrate, in
which she recognizes the status quo.
Lysistrata: Always till now we have...
uncomplainingly endured whatever you men
did... And what did [our husbands] always
say? “Shut up and mind your own business!”
And I did.
Magistrate: You’d have been for it if you
hadn’t.
Lysistrata: Exactly—so I kept quiet. (ll.
508–518)In the same argument, however, Lysistrata justifies
the women’s power to affect the present revolt.Magistrate: You in charge of state money?
Lysistrata: We’ve always been in charge of all
your household finances. (ll. 494–496)Thus, even as Aristophanes allows his characters to
articulate the imbalance between male and female
power in Athens, he identifies the possibility that
women might be trained to affect action.
Though they are the most obvious examples, it is
not the sex strike nor the occupation of the Acropo-
lis that constitute the most aggressive reversal of
patriarchy in Lysistrata. The conflict between the
old women and old men of Athens, which occurs
between lines 254 and 463, is a far more direct dis-
ruption of the status quo. The men approach with
torches to burn out the feud and are met by women
who use water to quench their flames. This incident
is enhanced by references to the soaking as a “wed-
ding bath” and to the discomforts of age: “[O]ur
clothes are wringing wet as if we were incontinent”
(ll. 403–404). These comments affirm the metaphor
of the conflict; the sexual center of womanhood
(characterized by liquidity) defeating the sexual cen-
ter of manhood (characterized by a phallic-shaped
flame). The metaphorical defeat gives way to an
even more direct reversal of the power structure, as
the women achieve victory in an unrestrained brawl.
While the entire play is an example of the world
turned upside down, this centerpiece scene crosses
into the realm of civil unrest.
The play reverses the ancient status quo to
such an extent that it is often interpreted as proto-
feminist. There is no question that Aristophanes was
progressive in his views of women, at least in so far