"Lysistrata" is funny, but it makes a point. Women have brains, too, and want to be included in important decisions by the government. Pushing women aside, as the men of Athens and Rome did, can only lead to trouble in the end, as these two works clearly indicate.
If Aristophanes is biased, it seems he favors the women's demands for peace. He makes the Commissioner look ridiculous by having the women turn him into a woman, and he makes the women much more quick-witted and funny. It seems he designed the play to highlight women and their powers, while Livy showed real history with a decidedly male-oriented bias. He presents both arguments in his essay, but he uses words that indicate he thinks the women should stay where they are and stop running around outside their homes, making demands and causing trouble. In addition, Livy does not give any of the women a voice, they still stay in the background while the men debate, and because of this, the women's demands are all fought for by men. Thus, Livy is more biased against women that Aristophanes and it shows in his essay quite clearly.
Comparing the women of Athens and Rome indicates that the women of Athens enjoyed a better position in society than Roman women did. It is clear they were opinionated and wanted a role in government. They also were tired of being treated as second-class citizens, just as Roman women were. However, they had more power, because they speak out and say some outrageous things to the men, such as calling one a "miserable misfit" and accusing them of "fumbling the City away in the Senate" (Aristophanes 175). They already have more power than the Roman women, who do not get a voice in the essay at all.
The women of Athens also seem more organized than those of Rome. They meet in secret to form a plan, and their plan is well organized and simple. In addition, the women of Athens are not demanding any personal changes, instead, they demand "safety and Peace in Greece" (Aristophanes...
Aristophanic invective against a rival dramatist: the fragment from the lost Lemnian Women included in Henderson's edition as number 382, attested to in two separate ancient sources (suggesting it was considered a particularly choice joke): Because it is a pun made on the name of the tragedian Dorillus or Dorilaos -- we are not sure of the spelling, since none of his work survives and the pun in Aristophanes' fragment
97). The women are not happy with their role, but they have little say in the matter. This is the reason they use their sexual favors (or lack of them) against their husbands - they have little else to bargain with that means anything to the men. Women may have shared in the spoils of victory and the general air of democracy in Greece, but they certainly did not
Women in the Ancient World: Witches, Wives, And Whores One of the paradoxes of the ancient and medieval world is that although women were often discriminated against and treated as second class citizens (or not allowed to be citizens at all); they had an extremely central role in literature of the period. Women fulfilled a symbolic function in literature, representing foreignness, danger, and sexuality. Occasionally, when women's virtue surpassed that of
Lysistrata Of Aristophanes' 11 plays that are still extant, Lysistrata is perhaps his most famous. Certainly the play's contemporary popularity stems not a little from the fact that it resonates sympathetically with many of the scholarly concerns that have increased in importance since the rise of the feminist and post-feminist critical movements. The basic dramatic action of the play is quite simple. In response to the ongoing Peloponnesian war between Athens
Lysistrata, Oedipus Rex, And a Raisin in the Sun on the Issue of Social Influence This is an illustration of the role of social, family and individual influence in the three plays, focusing on how influence changed the lives of the protagonists of Aristophranes' Lysistrata, Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. It uses 7 sources and is in MLA format. Every individual is at some point of his
"The world is full of foreigners you could fight, / but it's Greek men and cities you destroy!" she cries, to inspire the Spartans and Athenians to fight the barbarians at the gate, not one another. (1112) Lysistrata also reminds both Athenians and Spartans how both sides have helped one another -- the Athenians from a slave rebellion, and the Athenians saved the Spartans although democrats were oppressed by the
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