Lysistratra
Post a reflection on the clever proposal to end war. Talk about the characters,language, and the situation that led to such "drastic measures." Who is the writer and what are the modern parallels?
Reflect on the sharing of the play in class. How was it for you?
Post a reflection on the clever proposal to end war. Talk about the characters,language, and the situation that led to such "drastic measures." Who is the writer and what are the modern parallels?
Reflect on the sharing of the play in class. How was it for you?
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 8:45 AM
3 Comments:
Rebecca Evans 3/24/09 eng 1a 9-10
Lysistrata is a Greek play written by Aristophanes in 411 B.C. The synopsis of the play describes Lysistrata attempting an end to the Peloponnesian War. She suggests all women of Athens come together and hold back sex and intimate love from their significant others until the war is ceased.
In ancient Greece woman were treated close to equals than that of their counterpart countries. Women with the intense gumption of Lysistrata were however uncommon, she led her friends and compannions: Cleonice and myrrhine, “. . . We need only sit indoors with painted cheeks, and meet our mates lightly clad in transparent gowns . . . they will get their tools up and be wild to lie with us. That will be the time to refuse, and they will hasten to make peace, I am convinced of that” (pg.
The magistrate and men of the city protested against the idea. They did not believe it nor see its result as feasible. They attempt burn the woman out of the Acropolis, feeling they have gained to much power but, the women succeed in extinguishing the fire and continue the strike.
Men are suffering from erections and lust, the women continue to refuse. Lysistrata lures then men with, Peace, her handmaiden. She then lectures them on the need of peace and the facts of equal landownership and allied forces. She uses Peace’s body as a map and marks the proper boundary lines. The men are so infatuated by Peace’s naked body hey consent to peace, barely recognizing the democratic lecture from Lysistrata.
My analysis of the play focuses on the struggle for woman power.
There is a shortage of men in Athens due to the war and hence necessitating the empowerment of women.
Lysistrata's exhibits many male qualities such as leadership and force. Lysistrata herself commands respect throughout the play from both females and males she is called upon by the males to forge a truce between the two sides, a show that she has gained great support and respect from the males of both camps.
Lysistrata talks explicitly about what the men should do, but the play focus on what men will do to appease their sexual desires which seem to run their brains and functioning skills.
Lysistrata is a play perhaps based on more documented realities. The Amazons are known as a tribe of women who excelled in war craft and lived near the southeastern coast of the Black Sea. The Amazons rejected all men from their tribe. After getting pregnant, women would kill their mates and only keep female children. Many critics have pointed out how women like the Amazons are used as the representative female threat to male power. Like the myth of the Amazons, the women of Lysistrata refuse sexual relations with the men and occupy the Akropolis.
In other great dramas, Lemnian women, from Lemnos wore an odor to repel their husbands and strive for female domination. Thracian woman from Bulgaria , captured their men and tempted them.
The similarity between these mythic tribes and the women of Lysistrata symbolically equates the women with their threatening ancestors. The women pose a great threat to the men of Athens; the similarity of the women of Lysistrata to the actual mythological women who defeated men make the women's threats more potent. It is interesting, however, that in the mythology of the Amazons and the women of Lemnos the women control their own governments. For a while this is somewhat true in Lysistrata, but ultimately the women do not include themselves in the future social and political scheme of Athens.
Today there are few documented matriarchal societies. Even though it appears we have moved mountain on this topic women are still considered the lesser if the human species. In the past 233 years of the United States and 44 presidents we have never had a female executor in chief. Most large corporations are owned by men. When Martha Stewart was sentenced to prison I believe the underlying current was a fear, from men, of her intelligence, successes, and entrepreneurship. Greeks were polytheistic and had many female gods held equal to that of male gods including: Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, Artimes, goddess of the hut, and Hestia goddess of the hearth and home.
Today “One year out of college, women working full time earn 80% percent of what men earn. Ten years later, women earn 69% percent as much as men.” Women in turn receive smaller social security and retirement benefits, making it difficult to remain unmarried and survive without a male dose of gross income.
Women are intelligent beyond belief they hold within them an internal sense of guidance, a gut reaction. The U.S. is currently in the midst of a treaty for equal rights of women along with other U.N. countries. Lysistrata demands and receives respect, that of which so many have seemed to have forgotten. In “Dreams from my Father” Auma is upset by her women relatives in Kenya. Customs in Kenya have for long delegated the women to serving their husbands and sons. Auma had been influenced by America and recognizes these actions as unjust. While in tradition her family is comfortable they are not happy per say. The women are forced to share their husbands and stifle their dreams, ambitions and education.
Today many women are victims of rape, and abuse. They hence lose their self respect and self validity. It is up to every woman and man to stand up for women and as Queen Latifia so aptly put it
“ ladies first.”
"Lysistrata." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 21 Mar 2009, 23:52 UTC. 25 Mar 2009 en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lysistrata&oldid=278838017.
What a great reflection Rebecca. I like the comparison between societies, ours, the Athenian or Grecian, even Obama's Kenyan society, matriarchal vs. patriarchal. You give great examples of powerful women, on earth and in the heavens.
The social element: less men is something that is also true today, yet the worship of the goddess is absent. I wonder if this is a reason why it is so easy to malign the female? Is this how women moved from first place to the end of the line?
W.Sabir
Nely Ruiz
March 24, 2009
English 1 A
Lysistratra
The days that we read aloud in class, were some of my favorite so far. I love reading aloud in class. It really brings the Greek play to life. Please continue reading assignments aloud, Prof. Sabir. It also forces students who do not participate in class to read or at least listen to what is being said. You picked a good play, it even kept the boys interested because the subject was sex. I definitely want to read other literature in the future.
I think the play is amply named for the main character is the leader of women, Lysistratra. The language of the play is very easy to read compared to English plays of Shakespeare. The only difficulty I had was reading the names and the locations, or places that were mentioned. For example I pronounced my character Myrrhine (morphine). I found the play’s subject refreshing; it was a pleasant surprise. All the other Greek plays that I have read, such as Antigone, Edephus and others always have numerous deaths that do not solve or do anything for the story. I do not like reading any tragedies; I like educational, beneficial, or happy endings. I feel that if I am going to spend time to read something, it should either benefit me or entertain me.
This story is very interesting; it is an historical play that is still revalent in today’s modern world. I was surprised that no one was killed, I mean it is a Greek play. I thought that the idea of depriving men of sex was an interesting idea. I could never do that, it would be to hard. I know that it would not work in reality but it was neat to see it play out in a story.
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