Lysistrata: "Love is simply the name for the desire and the pursuit of the whole"

By Aristophanes .

The reality is that little is known of Aristophanes actual life but eleven of his forty plays survive intact and upon those rest his deserved reputation as the Father of Comedy or, The Prince of Ancient Comedy. Accounts agree that he was born sometime between 456BC and 446 BC. Many cities claim the honor of his birthplace and the most probable story makes him the son of Philippus of Ægina, and therefore only an adopted citizen of Athens, a distinction which, at times could be cruel, though he was raised and educated in Athens. His plays are said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more realistically than any other author could. Intellectually his powers of ridicule were feared by his influential contemporaries; Plato himself singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as a slander that contributed to the trial and condemning to death of Socrates and although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher his carried the most weight. His now lost play, The Babylonians, was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. Aristophanes seems to have taken this criticism to heart and thereafter caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights. His life and playwriting years were undoubtedly long though again accounts as to the year of his death vary quite widely. What can be certain is that his legacy of surviving plays is in effect both a treasured legacy but also in itself the only surviving texts of Ancient Greek comedy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scribe Publishing
• Release date: Mar 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781787371316

Book preview

Lysistrata by Aristophanes

Translated from the Greek.

The reality is that little is known of Aristophanes actual life but eleven of his forty plays survive intact and upon those rest his deserved reputation as the Father of Comedy or, The Prince of Ancient Comedy.

Accounts agree that he was born sometime between 456BC and 446 BC. Many cities claim the honor of his birthplace and the most probable story makes him the son of Philippus of Ægina, and therefore only an adopted citizen of Athens, a distinction which, at times could be cruel, though he was raised and educated in Athens.

His plays are said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more realistically than any other author could. Intellectually his powers of ridicule were feared by his influential contemporaries; Plato himself singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as a slander that contributed to the trial and condemning to death of Socrates and although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher his carried the most weight.

His now lost play, The Babylonians, was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. Aristophanes seems to have taken this criticism to heart and thereafter caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights.

His life and playwriting years were undoubtedly long though again accounts as to the year of his death vary quite widely.  What can be certain is that his legacy of surviving plays is in effect both a treasured legacy but also in itself the only surviving texts of Ancient Greek comedy.

Index of Contents

Introduction

The Persons

LYSISTRATA

Aristophanes – A Short Biography

Aristophanes – A Concise Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

Lysistrata is the greatest work by Aristophanes. This blank and rash statement is made that it may be rejected. But first let it be understood that I do not mean it is a better written work than the Birds or the Frogs, or that (to descend to the scale of values that will be naturally imputed to me) it has any more appeal to the collectors of curious literature than the Ecclesiazusae or the Thesmophoriazusae. On the mere grounds of taste I can see an at least equally good case made out for the Birds. That brightly plumaged fantasy has an aerial wit and colour all its own. But there are certain works in which a man finds himself at an angle of vision where there is an especially felicitous union of the aesthetic and emotional elements which constitute the basic qualities of his uniqueness. We recognize these works as being welded into a strange unity, as having a homogeneous texture of ecstasy over them that surpasses any aesthetic surface of harmonic colour, though that harmony also is understood by the deeper welling of imagery from the core of creative exaltation. And I think that this occurs in Lysistrata. The intellectual and spiritual tendrils of the poem are more truly interwoven, the operation of their centres more nearly unified; and so the work goes deeper into life. It is his greatest play because of this, because it holds an intimate perfume of femininity and gives the finest sense of the charm of a cluster of girls, the sweet sense of their chatter, and the contact of their bodies, that is to be found before Shakespeare, because that mocking gaiety we call Aristophanies reaches here its most positive acclamation of life, vitalizing sex with a deep delight, a rare happiness of the spirit.

Indeed it is precisely for these reasons that it is not considered Aristophanes' greatest play.

To take a case which is sufficiently near to the point in question, to make clear what I mean: the supremacy of Antony and Cleopatra in the Shakespearean aesthetic is yet jealously disputed, and it seems silly to the academic to put it up against a work like Hamlet. But it is the comparatively more obvious achievement of Hamlet, its surface intellectuality, which made it the favourite of actors and critics. It is much more difficult to realize the complex and delicately passionate edge of the former play's rhythm, its tides of hugely wandering emotion, the restless, proud, gay, and agonized reaction from life, of the blood, of the mind, of the heart, which is its unity, than to follow the relatively straightforward definition of Hamlet's nerves. Not that anything derogatory to Hamlet or the Birds is intended; but the value of such works is not enhanced by forcing them into contrast with other works which cover deeper and wider nexus of aesthetic and spiritual material. It is the very subtlety of the vitality of such works as Antony and Cleopatra and Lysistrata that makes it so easy to undervalue them, to see only a phallic play and political pamphlet in one, only a chronicle play in a grandiose method in the other. For we have to be in a highly sensitized condition before we can get to that subtle point where life and the image mix, and so really perceive the work at all; whereas we can command the response to a lesser work which does not call so finely on the full breadth and depth of our spiritual resources.

I amuse myself at times with the fancy that Homer,

Reviews for Lysistrata

[thedivineoomba · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This play is funny! Its about a bunch of women who are pissed about the war, so the decide to withhold sex from their husbands... And this translation, probably faithful to the original feel of the play, probably not faithful to the actual words.There are culture and language specific double entendres, puns, cultural references that don't make sense when translated directly to English. The translator is very clear what changes she made, and why. Her introduction introduces the play nicely, while the commentaries at the end of the book explains Athens life, with a emphasis on women's roles (very restricted).

[maowangvater · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First produced in 411 BCE in the midst of the Peloponnesian War, Aristophanes’s raunchy comedy depicts an end to the conflict when the women of both sides, led by the Athenian Lysistrata. Having persuaded the Spartan women that they both would act in solidarity, the women barricade themselves inside the Acropolis thus cutting off access to the treasury for the Athenians and their allies. But what really ends the war is their refusal to let their husbands have access to their bodies. They tease, flirt and dress seductively until the frustrated men, crippled by their own passions, surrender, and end the war.Alas, that history didn’t turn out as well for Athens as depicted in this play. They were defeated by Sparta and its allies seven years later ending the twenty-seven-year war.

[scott_hercher · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A rollicking good story about a clever route to world peace. Puns and euphemisms galore.

[sephoferebus · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Need the man in your life to do something and he won't? Lysistrata has a few pointer for you. She will have him bending to your will in no time.

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This play from ancient Greece still is an amusing look at male-female relations & has some slyly witty pokes at the causes of war. In the play, Athens is at war with Sparta. Lysistrata convinces women from both city-states that together they can bring peace by denying the men sex until the men agree to a peace treaty! And of course, it doesn't hurt that the women also seize control over the war treasury.

[wonderperson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I want to read all of Aristophanes.
Evidently the Victorians read the Greeks and that was their normal Literature so no reason why moi ought not to follow suit.

[kassilem · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked the play well enough. I haven't read many Greek comedies so it was a nice shift. I was also impressed with Aristophanes because he was not writing about a myth which he could pull from. He pulled it all from his own imagination. And he was a young writer. I read somewhere that he was writing in his teens, which always receives props from me. However, I didn't like the Henderson's translation. (For that matter neither did my English teacher). I didn't think it was very authentic and sometimes it took away from what could have been a more serious image. The play is fun but there are also serious issues portrayed as well. Someday I will have to go read another translation of this because the play itself is worth reading.

[zohrab_5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is skech illustrated by Pablo Picasso. A beautifull edition.

[dgrayson_16 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A hysterical play about how women from 2 cities decide to end their husbands' war by withholding sex till the war ends.

[9days_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Just the worst translation of anything I've ever read.Let's take a classic and turn it into a horrible, late 60's slang-ridden monstrosity. Who thought this was a good idea? I am shocked that the term "jive turkey" didn't make an appearance.The Torah as read in Klingon is less painful.

[opinion8dsngr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I never thought I would laugh out loud to an Ancient Greek play, but I guess Lysistrata proves that some [edited] jokes are funny in any era. Clever, a fascinating look at ancient feminism, and witty this play was a quick and very well worth it read, even if the only premise for it is a bunch of crude sex jokes. My only major complaint is that in the translation I read (Sutherland's in Wadworth's) he tried to contemporize it by giving the Spartans almost unreadable Southern drawls and the women modern clothes. It didn't work. Aristophenes writing, however, clearly shines through.

[beau0p0laurence · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story is great -- if you have an opportunity to see it performed, GO! Men refuse to stop making war, so women refuse to sleep with them. Guess which side can hold out longer?

[wishanem · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The best part of this play is its premise. It is occasionally funny, but most of the humor falls flat in a modern context.

[meditationesmartini · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this! For the first time a modish modern translation works--for about two pages it's jarring for characters in Aristophanes to call each other "baby" and whatnot, and then you're like, oh yeah, this is the only way it could have been. The only way to get across the rollicking hilarity. I esteem a play that can treat love like war and put on a gay show for Athenians desperate for something to cheer about, and still raise spirits two thousand years later. And yeah, yeah, women and men, and women have to be the men because there are no real men that can end the war, and feminist readings and pacifism v. good and bad wars, I get all that. But I don't have anything profound to say about it really--just that I loved every moment and want to see it performed super bad. "It's not the heat, it's the tumidity." Good lord.

[tiffanyak_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I actually read an online version of this text provided by my teacher as part of my Introduction to Drama course, so this is not the same translation I'm writing about, but is the same work. While I cannot be sure about this exact translation, I do know that the play itself is an excellent example of ancient Greek comedy, and with a strong female lead to boot. If you are interested in drama at all, it is almost certainly a good idea to read some of the earliest examples, including this one. There are lots of good translations online, as well as in collections of dramas from ancient Greece and elsewhere, in addition to the stand-alone versions. In good translations, such as the one I was provided with, it is easy enough to read and follow so as not to be intimidating, so there's no reason not to give it a shot. As someone who has read many ancient Greek dramas from several different genres, it's certainly one that I highly recommend. One note that I would add is that the best humor in the play, the turns of phrase and such, seem to be especially prone to multiple different translations, some of which seem to get the humor across better than others. So, you may need to hunt around to find the version that suits you best, since it does add a great deal to the show once you find that "right" one for you.

[fouroffivewits · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The innuendo is hilarious.

[joririchardson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This short, comical play written in Ancient Greece is one of the first comedies ever written. I would advise seeing the play in accompaniment to reading it, because it is much funnier if you are able to visualize it.The play is basically about women who use the only power they possess in Ancient times - their beauty and sexuality, to dominate men. Until their husbands agree to make peace and end the war in their country, the women decide to deny their husbands sex.It is a witty, funny play that is quite brief and easy to read as well.

[jasmyn9 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A humorus tale of how the women of the Greek world unite to try and stop the war that is keeping their husbands away. I'm very glad that I read this, I neve realized that the humor they used would still be fitting for today's society. While some of the context was difficult to understand, such as the references to other writers and historical events, the footnotes provided in the version I read were helpful enough to help me move past it.4/5

[booklovers2 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I hated it. Mandatory read for college. Also hated the movie which I forced my husband (then boyfriend) to attend with me at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. Ughhhh... what a waste, I did not enjoy either book or play(movie).

[cmbohn · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The basic plot behind this book is pretty well known. The Greek women get tired of war and decide force a peace treaty. Their weapon of choice is sex - they will withhold intimacy from their men until the men agree to call off the war.As might be expected, the dialogue is pretty full of innuendo and at time explicit reference to sex. There are lots of jokes about it. I'm not sure how this would be staged in today's world.I was fine with that. What bothered me was the translation. For instance, apparently the Spartans had an accent that marked them out from the Athenians. The translator chose to interpret that as a country hick accent. Then there was the attempt to make the dialogue modern and hip, which is of course, at least 20 years out of date.Not a bad play, although the whole idea shouldn't have taken as long as it did to stage. One act would have been enough. But if you want to read it, find a different translation. This one was done by William Arrowsmith and it is really jarring to read.

[nbmars · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Translation of comedy is always a challenge, particularly when the jokes are 25 centuries old. Last summer I was assigned, for a yearly symposium I attend at Notre Dame, the reading of Lysistrata, authored by the Greek playwright Aristophanes and first performed in 411 BCE.As the play begins, the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta (431–404 BC) has been going on interminably, with nearly all the young men away from home or otherwise engaged in the conflict. Seeing no likely prospect of an end to the war, Lysistrata, an Athenian woman, takes matters into her own hands and proposes desperate measures. She gathers representative women from all the city-states engaged in the war [how this could have been accomplished is not treated, nor is it important to the story] and persuades them to withhold sex from their husbands and lovers [when they actually saw them] until peace is concluded. But for some minor scuffling for control of the Acropolis between the women and the men of Athens who are too old to be fighting the Spartans, very little action takes place. [The Acropolis of Athens was an ancient citadel located above the city of Athens and was home to several ancient buildings of great architectural and historic significance, the most famous being the Parthenon.] The play consists primarily of dialog among the women in organizing their movement, and later discussions between choruses of women and men justifying their positions. Aristophanes introduces some bawdy levity in that the peace talks between the contestants are conducted by men who have constant erections. Because the plot is so simple, the enjoyment of the play must come from the caliber of the dialog. I imagine part of the fun for ancient Greek audiences derived from the playwright’s mastery of different Greek dialects and accents. The translation I read, by Jack Lindsay, was too academic, archaic, and sterile. He attempted to create authenticity by having some of the interlocutors speak in what seemed like a Scottish accent. The effect is a bit off-putting because Lindsay’s pseudo-Scotsmen are barely understandable. Although Aristophanes is known as a comic playwright and this play contains some comic scenes, the overall message is rather sad; i.e., there may be no rational or practical solution to the problems presented by war. In the case of the Peloponnesian War, he may have been quite correct: although the war had been going on for twenty years when the play was first staged, it still had another seven years to run. Moreover, Athens, the strongest city-state in Greece prior to the war's beginning, was reduced to a state of near-complete subjection, while Sparta became established as the leading power of Greece.Evaluation: Scholars maintain that each era has a unique spirit that sets it apart from all other epochs. In German, such a spirit is known as “Zeitgeist,” from the German words Zeit, meaning “time,” and Geist, meaning “spirit” or “ghost.” But some works remain in the cultural Zeitgeist in successive eras, even if somewhat transmogrified. Lysistrata is one of those. Because the theme of Lysistrata has endured over centuries, I would recommend reading the original play, but trying a different translation if one is available.(JAB)

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This comedy, originally written in 411 BC, was banned in 1967 in Greece because of its anti-war message. This modern translation by Douglass Parker breathes new life into the story and makes it accessible for all audiences. The women in Greece decide that they are tired of their men always being away fighting the Peloponnesian War. One woman, Lysistrata, comes up with a brilliant idea and recruits the rest of the women to take part in her plan. They decide as a group to withhold sex from the men until they make peace. They lock themselves in the Acropolis and resist all temptation to give in to their husband’s demands. I loved the fact that the women don’t deny their own sexual desires and they have to fight both their urges and their husbands’ desires to make the plan work. One of the funniest scenes includes a woman desperate to go back home to her husband. She announces she much leave and find a midwife because she’s about to deliver her baby… even though she wasn’t pregnant the day before. The women quickly call her on it and make her remove the metal helmet from under her dress where it was being smuggled to make her look pregnant. BOTTOM LINE: The humor definitely plays better on the stage than the page, but I’ve found that to be true with all comedic plays. The premise is clever and fun and though it may be a bit silly, the message of encouraging peace is a good one.  

[chwiggy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lysistrate ist ein Werk voller sexueller Spannungen und voller Politik. Sogar soweit, dass die sexuellen Spannungen die Politik bestimmen. Und wer hätte gedacht, dass schon in der Antike die Frauen die Oberhand gewinnen?!