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ASPECTS OF ARISTOPHANES’ WOMEN IN LYSISTRATA
Early Drama and Comedy rarely casts a woman in the lead role of a play. Aristophanes gets away with it only because he uses what every Greek would have considered to be farcical ideas about women waging war, performing in aggressive roles, taking over the treasury, and ending the war by withholding sex from their men until they agree to stop fighting.
Aristophanes sticks closely to tradition, playing up to the real male viewpoint of women in ancient Greece. The majority of Greek men felt well above the level of women and slaves. A woman had no power or rights. They were not citizens and they didn’t vote. Those were issues belonging to men.
Domestic violence and brutality were the expected norm in the life and of a Greek woman, unless you had status as a vestal virgin or priestess. Lysistrata wants the women to withhold sex and comments on what could be perceived as her personal experience when she responds to Kalinike’s comment : “What if they slap us?” (prologue. 133) by saying: “If they do, you better give in. But be sulky about it. Do I have to teach you how?” (prologue.134).
A person reading the play might get the idea that she was being sarcastic; that this experience was common and most women knew how to handle it. Tavrysistrata is the straight or serious character in the play because she has the lead position…
