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Lysistrata

Aristophanes

50,685 ratings
Lysistrata | Aristophanes

Lysistrata

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Aristophanes’ Lysistrata is the original battle of the sexes. One woman, Lysistrata, brings together the women of all Greece, exhorting them to withhold sexual contact from all men in order that they negotiate a treaty. Double entendres abound as men of Greece attempt to keep Lysistrata and her prurient gang from putting an end to the Peloponnesian war. Notably risqué, this comic drama sheds light on gender relations in ancient Athens.
'll see that they are true Athenians:
Always too late. Why, there's not a woman
From the shoreward demes arrived, not one from Salamis.


CALONICE

I know for certain they awoke at dawn,
And got their husbands up if not their boat sails.


LYSISTRATA

And I'd have staked my life the Acharnian dames
Would be here first, yet they haven't come either!


CALONICE

Well anyhow there is Theagenes' wife
We can expect--she consulted Hecate.
But look, here are some at last, and more behind them.
See ... where are they from?


CALONICE

From Anagyra they come.


LYSISTRATA

Yes, they generally manage to come first.

Enter MYRRHINE.


MYRRHINE

Are we late, Lysistrata? ... What is that?
Nothing to say?


LYSISTRATA

I've not much to say for you,
Myrrhine, dawdling on so vast an affair.


MYRRHINE

I couldn't find my girdle in the dark.
But if the affair's so wonderful, tell us, what is it?


LYSISTRATA

No, let us stay a little longer till
The Peloponnesian girls and the girls of Bocotia
Are here to listen.


MYRRHINE

That's the best advice.
Ah, there comes Lampito.

Enter LAMPITO.


LYSISTRATA

Welcome Lampito!
Dear Spartan girl with a delightful face,
Washed with the rosy spring, how fresh you look
In the easy stride of your sleek slenderness,
Why you could strangle a bull!


LAMPITO

I think I could.
It's frae exercise and kicking high behint.

[Footnote: The translator has put the speech of the Spartan characters
in Scotch dialect which is related to English about as was the Spartan
dialect to the speech of Athens. The Spartans, in their character,
anticipated the shrewd, canny, un

Calista 12/16/2020
Love this book second time around.

This is one of my favorite stories out there. I first read this in high school or college, I don't remember. I then bought the book. It's such a great idea.

Women are unhappy with how things are going in their town, so they come together and decide to withhold sex f
Alex 05/11/2019
Today Alyssa Milano called for a sex strike in response to Georgia's abortion ban, which raises two questions: 1) Alyssa Milano is still a thing?! and 2) Haven't I heard this before? I can help with the second thing. Milano got it from Aristophanes, who in 411 BC invented the sex strike and, for all

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