What are the main themes in Lysistrata by Aristophanes?

Answer 1

Lysistrata (Attic: Λυσιστράτη, Doric: Λυσιστράτα), Aristophanes' anti-war comedy, written in 411 BC, has female characters, led by the eponymous Lysistrata, barricading the public funds building and withholding sex from their husbands to secure peace and end the Peloponnesian War. In doing so, Lysistrata engages the support of women from Sparta, Boeotia, and Corinth. All of them are at first aghast at the suggestion of withholding sex, but they finally agree and swear an oath to support each other. The woman from Sparta, Lampito, returns home to spread the word there.

The play was originally performed at either the Dionysia or a smaller Festival of Dionysus, called the Lenaia festival. A different comedy by Aristophanes, Women at the Thesmophoria, was also produced that year, and it is not clear which play was produced at which festival.

The play also addresses the contribution that women could make to society and to policy making, but cannot because their views are ignored: All such questions are considered the purview of men only. See the exchange between Lysistrata and the Magistrate who comes to try to browbeat the women into giving up their plans.

Lysistrata touches upon the poignancy of young women left with no eligible young men to marry because of deaths in the wars: "Nay, but it isn't the same with a man/Grey though he be when he comes from the battlefield/still if he wishes to marry he can/Brief is the spring and the flower of our womanhood/once let slip, and it comes not again/Sit as we may with our spells and our auguries/never a husband shall marry us then."

One of the humorous aspects of the play was that the main actors portraying male characters wore phalluses.

Answer 2

Lysistrata Themes

Answer 3

Lysistrata (Attic: Λυσιστράτη, Doric: Λυσιστράτα), Aristophanes' anti-war comedy, written in 411 BC, has female characters, led by the eponymous Lysistrata, barricading the public funds building and withholding sex from their husbands to secure peace and end the Peloponnesian War. In doing so, Lysistrata engages the support of women from Sparta, Boeotia, and Corinth. All of them are at first aghast at the suggestion of withholding sex, but they finally agree and swear an oath to support each other. The woman from Sparta, Lampito, returns home to spread the word there.

The play was originally performed at either the Dionysia or a smaller Festival of Dionysus, called the Lenaia festival. A different comedy by Aristophanes, Women at the Thesmophoria, was also produced that year, and it is not clear which play was produced at which festival.

The play also addresses the contribution that women could make to society and to policy making, but cannot because their views are ignored: All such questions are considered the purview of men only. See the exchange between Lysistrata and the Magistrate who comes to try to browbeat the women into giving up their plans.

Lysistrata touches upon the poignancy of young women left with no eligible young men to marry because of deaths in the wars: "Nay, but it isn't the same with a man/Grey though he be when he comes from the battlefield/still if he wishes to marry he can/Brief is the spring and the flower of our womanhood/once let slip, and it comes not again/Sit as we may with our spells and our auguries/never a husband shall marry us then."

One of the humorous aspects of the play was that the main actors portraying male characters wore phalluses.

Answer 4

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What are the main themes in Lysistrata by Aristophanes?

Answer 5

Lysistrata Summary

Answer 6

Because so many different human beings authored the various books and portions of the Bible, the Bible cannot truly be described as having a single over-riding theme. Especially as the Old Testament is so driven by masculine "judgement, command, and control" issues, whereas the New Testament is much more of a feminine appeal to the soul, a "calling out" to the heart, an offering to those who suffer. But if I had to pick a few themes above all others, here are a few: * Treat others as you wish to be treated. * Practice simplicity and humility. * Lay up your treasure in the form of spiritual virtues rather than excessive material wealth. * Ask and it shall be answered, knock and the door shall be opened. * If you don't know what to do or where to go, fast, pray, meditate. * Your are an immortal soul having a human experience in a mortal body. * The body should be treated as the vessel of the soul. * But, the needs of the soul outrank the needs of the body. * An early, courageous death of the body is better than a long life that starves, neglects, or denies the soul. In any case, death is in a lesser sense an ending, and in a greater sense, a beginning. * The truth shall set you free. * There will be a happily ever after, even if most of us delay or resist it's arrival. Here is the hardest but the most important theme for most of us -- this theme raises the question of whether most individuals or nations who call themselves Christians are actually Christian -- *** Meet ignorance, fear, hatred and violence, with truth, love, compassion and kindness. *** *** Meet the negative with the positive. *** This is primarily what earth's greatest souls are remembered for. [Footnote: I decided that I did not need to use the word dog spelled backwards to give a *good* answer to this question.]

Answer 7

Well, there's really only the one MAJOR theme, which is: War is insane and destructive, and men can't be trusted to end it, so it's up to women to restore some sanity to society. Which they accomplish, of course, by withholding sex from their men until a truce is accomplished.