ARISTOPHANES
Aristophanes (445-386)
• By his time, the comic theater is
already in an independent
institution yet still very close to
its origins
• Aristophanes’ laughter bears
traces of the instinctive
aggression of iambic poetry.
• His comedy is a ritualized form
of insult, rooted in the cults of
Demeter and Dionysos.
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Carnival utopia
• Comedy envisions most fantastic scenarios:
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Women may decide to govern the city (Ekklesiazousai)
Women can decide to go on sex strike (Lysistrata)
An individual citizen can decide to chose peace or war for
themselves (Acharnians)
People could decide to create a new city in the heaven (Birds)
One can travel to the underworld (Frogs)
No aspect of human life is spared
•
Politicians are ridiculed mercilessly (Kleon, Perikles,
Alkibiades, Lamachos)
• Philosophers are mocked as fools (Socrates)
• Gods are portrayed as grotesque figures (Zeus the Master
of Thunder becomes “the master of Fart” Dionysos in the
Frogs)
• There are no limits to obscenity or scatology
Lesson in humility
• All human actions are represented as deeply
rooted in the lowest instincts.
• The action of the plays is frenetic and
unpredictable.
• Its savage poetry is the very opposite of the
monotonous rhythm of daily life.
• But it is far from pure enjoyment.
The City
• Concern for the welfare of his POLIS, the
city-state dominates all comedies by
Aristophanes.
• Sexual metaphors and obscenities are
primarily a means for denouncing the
degradation of political life.
The laughter that
• Aristophanes seeks to arouse is still deeply
rooted in the festive humor.
• His carnival representations mock a world
upside-down, thus reinforcing the preexisting order.
• This type of laughter tends to be reactionary
rather than revolutionary.
Lysistrata
Fantasy, utopia & political
engagement
The historical background
• The Peloponnesian War between Athens and
Sparta began in 431
• (following wars with Persia earlier in the
5th century)
• The main issue was the rivalry between
democratic Athens and oligarchic Sparta
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Outline of the Peloponnesian War
• The First ten Years (431-421)
– End with Sparta’s surrender
• Peace of Nicias 421-414 (BCE)
• Last Ten-Years of War
– Disaster in Sicily 415-413
– Alcybiades’ plan to return
• 404: Athens surrenders
Sicilian Expedition
• The Athenians respond to a ‘request for
help’ issued by the city of Segesta in Sicily
at war with the city of Selinunt.
• This is an opportunity to gain influence in
Sicily; they decide to attack (or ‘help’) the
Sicilians.
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Sicily
• Athenians at first defeat the Syracusans
• Spartans help Syracuse and declare war on
Athens in 413
• In the same year the Athenian siege of
Syracuse ends as their fleet is trapped in the
harbor of this city and must surrender.
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411 BCE
• Aristophanes fantasizes about of an
honorable way of bringing war to an end.
• Lysistrata was first performed in Athens in
probably during the Lenaia.
Illusion of similarity
• Among Aristophanes’ plays Lysistrata is most
comprehensible to the modern reader/viewer,
because of its preoccupation with sex.
• If the presentation of this topic is more explicit
than what we usually expect on stage, we can still
accept it and conclude with the soothing illusion
that the ancient Greeks were not unlike ourselves.
PLOT
• Women go on strike and occupy the Acropolis
• Old men try to defeat them, with no success, but
as the two choruses quarrel, the restoration of
Love is achieved.
• The play is far from nihilistic or anarchic;
Aristophanes’ hedonism is constructive.
• The play ends with the restoration of love and
marriage rather than with an orgy of blind sexual
gratification; it is a plea for Panhellenic peace;
Eros is joined by the civilizing power of Sophia.
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GENDER
• Athenian theater was
created by men and for
men, yet it is generally
believed to contain some
of the best female roles in
the world repertory.
• It was state-sponsored and
men attended as the only
voting members of the
Athenian society.
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Athenian women
• Although the city’s
patron was Athena the
Maiden, its society
was ruled by men and
the sculptures explore
the ambivalence of the
goddess who
transcends gender.
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Athenian Women…
• were legal non-entities.
• Religious activities were
the only public occasions
on which their presence
was allowed.
• E.g., during the
Thesmophoria women
took over the Pnyx, the
male assembly place and
camped there, eating only
raw food; much obscenity
was involved.
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In Greek Theater…
• All actors are men.
• Young chorus men
representing both old
men and women, esp.
in the Lysistrata seem
to engage in a rite of
passage acquiring
virility through
impersonating those
who lacked virility.
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