21. The San Antonio College LitWeb Aristophanes Page aristophanes is available in the following collections Four Plays by aristophanes. Translated by William Arrowsmith, Richmond Lattimore, and Douglass http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/BAILEY/aristoph.htm

The Aristophanes Page ( c. 448-c. 380 B.C. ) Surviving Works Aristophanes is available in the following collections: Lysistrata/ The Acharnians/ The Clouds . Translated with an introduction by Alan Sommerstein. Penguin,1973. The Knights/ Peace/ The Birds/ The Assemblywomen/ Wealth . Translated by Alan H. Sommerstein and David Barrett. Penguin, 1978. The Wasps/ The Poet and the Women/ The Frogs . Translated with an introduction by David Barrett. Penguin, 1964. Four Plays by Aristophanes . Translated by William Arrowsmith, Richmond Lattimore, and Douglass Parker. Meridian, 1994. Acharnians . Translated in 1 above. Knights . Translated in 2 above. Clouds . Translated in 4 above. Wasps . Translated in 3 above. Peace . Translated in 2 above. Birds . Translated in 2 and 4 above. Frogs . Translated in 3 and 4 above. Lysistrata . Translated in 1 and 4 above. On Line Thesmophoriazusae . Translated in 3 above as The Poet and the Women Ecclesizusae . Translated in 2 above as The Assemblywomen Plutus . Translated in 2 above as Wealth Ten surviving plays On Line from M.I.T.

22. Aristophanes Collection At Bartleby.com Includes etext from the Harvard Classics and a brief biographical note. http://www.bartleby.com/people/Aristph.html

Select Search All Bartleby.com All Reference Columbia Encyclopedia World History Encyclopedia Cultural Literacy World Factbook Columbia Gazetteer American Heritage Coll. Dictionary Roget's Thesauri Roget's II: Thesaurus Roget's Int'l Thesaurus Quotations Bartlett's Quotations Columbia Quotations Simpson's Quotations Respectfully Quoted English Usage Modern Usage American English Fowler's King's English Strunk's Style Mencken's Language Cambridge History The King James Bible Oxford Shakespeare Gray's Anatomy Farmer's Cookbook Post's Etiquette Bulfinch's Mythology Frazer's Golden Bough All Verse Anthologies Dickinson, E. Eliot, T.S. Frost, R. Hopkins, G.M. Keats, J. Lawrence, D.H. Masters, E.L. Sandburg, C. Sassoon, S. Whitman, W. Wordsworth, W. Yeats, W.B. All Nonfiction Harvard Classics American Essays Einstein's Relativity Grant, U.S. Roosevelt, T. Wells's History Presidential Inaugurals All Fiction Shelf of Fiction Ghost Stories Short Stories Shaw, G.B. Stein, G. Stevenson, R.L. Wells, H.G. Authors Fiction Harvard Classics And tell me this: of all the roads you know, / Which is the quickest way to get to Hades? / I want one not too warm, nor yet too cold. Frogs,

23. New Page 2 The text which survives is the revised version, which was apparently not performed in aristophanes’ time but which circulated in manuscript form. http://www.mala.bc.ca/~Johnstoi/aristophanes/clouds.htm

Aristophanes Clouds 423 BC Translator’s Note . For comments or question please contact Ian Johnston This text is available in the form of a Publisher file for those who would like to print it off as a small book. There is no charge for these files. For details, please use the following link: Publisher files This translation is also available in book form from Richer Resources Publications In the text below the numbers in square brackets refer to the Greek text. The asterisks (*) indicate links to explanatory notes, which appear together at the end. The translator would like to acknowledge the valuable help provided by K. J. Dover’s commentary on the play (Oxford University Press, 1968) and by Alan H. Sommerstein’s notes in his edition of Clouds For questions, comments, corrections, suggestions for improvement, and so on, please contact Ian Johnston at Malaspina University-College, 900 Fifth Street, Nanaimo, BC, Canada, or at johnstoi@mala.bc.ca Other Links of Interest Introductory lecture on Aristophanes' Clouds Frogs (e-text) Birds (e-text) johnstonia home page Historical Note Clouds was first produced in the drama festival in Athens the City Dionysia in 423 BC, where it placed third. Subsequently the play was revised, but the revisions were never completed. The text which survives is the revised version, which was apparently not performed in Aristophanes’ time but which circulated in manuscript form. This revised version does contain some anomalies which have not been fully sorted out (e.g., the treatment of Cleon, who died between the original text and the revisions). At the time of the first production, the Athenians had been at war with the Spartans, off and on, for a number of years.

24. Aristophanes Scarcely anything is known of aristophanes life apart from some few facts concerning his comedies. He was born about 445 BC in Attica. http://madeinatlantis.com/athens/aristophanes.htm

var TlxPgNm='aristophanes'; Back to Homepage Modern Athens Climate of Athens The Sunlight in Athens ... Mycenae Aristophanes In all, then, we possess eleven comedies, from the forty or forty-four which he is said to have written. Of these the best is the Birds, next to which come the Frogs, Clouds, and Thesmophoriazusae. But it would serve no purpose to set out in full the plot of these or any; for, strictly speaking, the 'story of the play' is unimportant. What matters is the one great explosive idea and its brilliant treatment in small scenes and lyrics beautiful or witty. Most of the eleven follow the same scheme. First is propounded a fantastic but highly desirable project, which is carried through by the chief character despite immense difficulties. Then comes the parabasis or address by the chorus to the audience in the poet's name. Finally we have a series of little scenes depicting the beneficent working of the accomplished object, ending with a kind of apotheosis of the hero. Home This website is created and designed by Atlantis International, 2006

25. Alice In Theaterland - Chronobiography Of Aristophan Life and works of aristophanes, the wellknown comedy writer of 5th century BC. Also related links and images. http://www.aliceintheaterland.info/aristophan_en.html

Alice in Theaterland Theatre and acting resources Aristophanes Aristophanes is a Comedy Writer of 5th century BC. He is the only representative of Ancient Attik Comedy , that we have from him whole plays saved. By that we make the conclusion that he must have been the most popular of all the comedy writers not only of his time but of Hellenistic and Byzantine Times (when the greatest literature and plays of all times were transcripted and maintained). Father of comedy that brought to us, through Plauto, Terentio, Moliere and Shakespeare until now. Chronobiographie Aristophanes was born in 450 b.C. or a few years later. We make the conclusion for the year since in "Nefeles"- ("The Clouds") (528-533) the writer leaves us to think that he was extremely young and he didn't have self-confidence when the play "Thetalis" (his first play) was staged. Pelloponesian war starts, between Athens and Sparta. Pestilence in Athens.

26. Aristophanes Plays - Texts Of The Comedies By Aristophanes aristophanes plays. English translations of the comedies by aristophanes. http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_aristophanes.htm

zGCID=" test0" zGCID+=" test14" zJs=10 zJs=11 zJs=12 zJs=13 zc(5,'jsc',zJs,9999999,'') You are here: About Education Ancient / Classical History Greece ... Aristophanes - Comedies Aristophanes Plays - Texts of the Comedies by Aristophanes Ancient / Classical History Education Ancient History Essentials ... Help Aristophanes Texts of the Comedies by Aristophanes Related Resources Texts and Translations Index Peloponnesian War Aristophanes Aristophanes - The Acharnians ... Aristophanes - The Wasps From N.S. Gill Your Guide to Ancient / Classical History FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now! Related Articles Drama (Comedy and Tragedy) by Sophocles, Aeschylus, Eur... Aristophanes Old Comedy - Acharnians Knights Clouds Was... Aristophanes - Greek Writer Aristophanes zSB(4,3);var zIc3gg=1; Preventing Diabetes Diabetes Warning Signs Keep Kids Diabetes-Free What is Diabetes? What is Pre-diabetes? ... Diabetes and Pregnancy What's Hot Mediterranean War for Helen Greek Goddesses Greek Theater ... Iraq - Ancient Mesopotamia Advertisement Email to a friend Print this Page Submit to Digg Most Popular Major Gods and Goddesses of the World Fall of Rome Attila the Hun I.E. vs. E.G.

27. Aristophanes He had aristophanes in mind, and no better description could be given of the Old Comedy of Athens. To read aristophanes is in some sort like reading an http://english.emory.edu/DRAMA/Aristophanes.html

Aristophanes and the Old Comedy from The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton "TRUE COMEDY," said Voltaire, "is the speaking picture of the Follies and Foibles of a Nation." He had Aristophanes in mind, and no better description could be given of the Old Comedy of Athens. To read Aristophanes is in some sort like reading an Athenian comic paper. All the life of Athens is there: the politics of the day and the politicians; the war party and the anti-war party; pacifism, votes for women, free trade, fiscal reform, complaining taxpayers, educational theories, the current religious and literary talk everything, in short, that interested the average citizen. All was food for his mockery. He was the speaking picture of the follies and foibles of his day. The mirror he holds up to the age is a different one from that held up by Socrates. To turn to the Old Comedy from Plato is a singular experience. What has become of that company of courteous gentlemen with their pleasant ways and sensitive feelings and fastidious tastes? Not a trace of them is to be found in these boisterous plays, each coarser and more riotous than the last. To place them in the audience is much more difficult than to imagine Spenser or Sir Philip Sidney listening to Pistol and Doll Tearsheet, just to the degree that Elizabeth's court was on a lower level of civilization than the circle around Pericles, and Aristophanes capable of more kinds of vulgarity and indecency than Shakespeare ever dreamed of.

28. Aristophanes — Infoplease.com aristophanes was conservative in all things, hence he distrusted sophistry and Socrates alike, satirized Euripides art as degenerate, and deplored the http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0804707.html

Site Map FAQ in All Infoplease Almanacs Biographies Dictionary Encyclopedia Spelling Checker Daily Almanac for Apr 4, 2008 Search White Pages Skip Navigation Home Almanacs ... Word of the Day Editor's Favorites National Poetry Month Women's History Month Kosovo Country Profile School Shootings Timeline ... 2008 Calendar Search: Infoplease Info search tips Search: Biographies Bio search tips google_ad_client = 'pub-1894504138907931'; google_ad_width = 120; google_ad_height = 240; google_ad_format = '120x240_as'; google_ad_type = 'text'; google_ad_channel =''; google_color_border = ['336699','B4D0DC','DFF2FD','B0E0E6']; google_color_bg = ['FFFFFF','ECF8FF','DFF2FD','FFFFFF']; google_color_link = ['0000FF','0000CC','0000CC','000000']; google_color_url = ['008000','008000','008000','336699']; google_color_text = ['000000','6F6F6F','000000','333333']; Encyclopedia Aristophanes Aristophanes u key , c.448 B.C. B.C. , Greek playwright, Athenian comic poet, greatest of the ancient writers of comedy The Acharnians B.C. ), an attack on the Peloponnesian War;

29. Aristophanes, Greece, Ancient Greece aristophanes was a conservative, favoring aristocratic to democratic rule, and was against reform and novelty. He preferred philosophy and theology in http://www.in2greece.com/english/historymyth/history/ancient/aristophanes.htm

Aristophanes (c. 448 - 385) One of history's greatest comedy writers, Aristophanes is still a major source of inspiration to many modern writers. He was born in Athens and his fathers name was Philippos. He was well educated and is believed to have owned property on the island Aegina. His three sons, Philippos, Araros and Nikostratos, were all to be comic poets. Aristophanes was a conservative, favoring aristocratic to democratic rule, and was against reform and novelty. He preferred philosophy and theology in opposition to the new ideas of the Sophists. Eleven of his works have survived, but he is believed to have written over 40 plays. The three first plays he wrote were written under a pseudonym. One was The Achamians (425 BC) where he begs for an end of the war against Sparta. The first work under his real name was The Knights (424 BC), a satire of the Athenian politician and military leader Cleon. The Clouds (423 BC) was a satire about Socrates, whose ideas, he believed, where against the interests of the state. The Wasps (422 BC) was a satire of the justice courts, The Peace (421 BC) was another plea for peace with Sparta and The Birds (414 BC) was a satire on the Athenian fondness of litigation.

30. Aristophanes' Clouds Study guide for aristophanes comedy The Clouds . http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/dunkle/studyguide/clouds.htm

The Classical Origins of Western Culture The Core Studies 1 Study Guide by Roger Dunkle Brooklyn College Core Curriculum Series CLOUDS Production The setting of the Clouds requires two doors in the skene, one representing Strepsiades's house and the other, the Thinkery, both in the city of Athens. The play begins with Strepsiades and Pheidippides sleeping in their beds. Since the ancient Greek theater had no curtain, these two men in their beds had to be carried out in full view of the audience by stagehands (probably slaves) and placed in front of one of the doors of the skene representing Strepsiades's house. The audience was no doubt expected to imagine that this was an indoor scene, because it was not usual for Greeks to sleep outside. This assumption is strengthened by the fact that, since Pheidippides is sleeping under five blankets, the weather is cool, which would make it even less likely that this was intended as an outdoor scene. The method of presenting the scholarly activities that go on inside the Thinkery is by no means certain. K. J. Dover ( Aristophanic Comedy , Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1972, 107) suggests two possibilities. The students could come out of the door of the skene carrying their apparatus with them, which they could leave behind when they go back inside. Another possibility is that a screen made of canvas and wood with a door, held from behind by stagehands, could conceal the students until Strepsiades asks that the door be opened. The stagehands then could remove this screen revealing the students and their equipment. When the students are ordered to go back inside, they could go through a door of the skene which then would become the door of the Thinkery for the rest of the play.

31. Harvard University Press: Aristophanes, I, Acharnians. Knights By Aristophanes aristophanes, I, Acharnians. Knights by aristophanes, published by Harvard University Press. http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/L178.html

Home Ordering Search/Browse Contact ... HUP Aristophanes, I, Acharnians. Knights Aristophanes Edited and translated by Jeffrey Henderson Winner of the 2001 Charles J. Goodwin Award of Merit BCE ), one of the world's greatest comic dramatists, has been admired since antiquity for his iridescent wit and beguiling fantasy, exuberant language, and brilliant satire of the social, intellectual, and political life of Athens at its height. He wrote at least forty plays, of which eleven have survived complete. In this new Loeb Classical Library edition of Aristophanes, Jeffrey Henderson presents a freshly edited Greek text and a lively, unexpurgated translation with full explanatory notes. The general introduction that begins Volume I reviews Aristophanes' career and brings current scholarly insights to bear on the intriguing question of the comic poet as a political force. In Acharnians a small landowner, tired of the Peloponnesian War, magically arranges a personal peace treaty and, borrowing a disguise from Euripides, demonstrates the injustice of the war in a contest with the bellicose Acharnians. Also in this volume is Knights

32. Roger L. Simon: Not Shakespeare... Aristophanes! aristophanes! Only the Greek playwright s manic disposition could correctly .. Every time I see aristophanes I automatically think Ridiculous! http://www.rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2006/10/not_shakespeare.php

document.write(''); Click here to view/purchase all Roger L. Simon novels. Main Index October 4, 2006: Not Shakespeare... Aristophanes! Only the Greek playwright's manic disposition could correctly characterize the times in which we live when the semi-sex life of an obscure congressman leads to the downfall of an administration and the rise of Nancy Pelosi (!) as Speaker of the House followed by... what... impeachment hearings? Lysistrata anyone? Meanwhile, does anyone think it is ironic that so-called progressives who excoriated eavesdropping on terrorists are feasting on the publication of supposedly confidential email and IMs? You can forget about privacy. It no longer exists, if it ever did. The Patriot Act, if you think about it, is on some levels a joke, the Constitution a sideshow. The craven and rapacious stalk the corridors of power egged on by a loathesome media as hypocrisy rules and child abuse rears its ugly head with the age of consent debated by people whose only interest is their own ambitions. Meanwhile, lost in the shadows, an enemy whose "Messenger" married a nine -year old watches and waits. UPDATE: Meanwhile, it's a bi-partisan

33. Aristophanes Biography And Analysis aristophanes biography with 36 pages of profile on aristophanes sourced from encyclopedias, critical essays, summaries, and research journals. http://www.bookrags.com/Aristophanes

Literature Guides Criticism/Essays Biographies Research Anything: All BookRags Literature Guides Teacher Products Essays Criticism Biographies Encyclopedias News History Encyclopedias Films News ... Amazon.com Aristophanes Summary Order the Aristophanes Study Pack Aristophanes About 36 pages (10,749 words) in 4 products "Aristophanes" Search Results Contents: Biographies Works by Author Summaries News Biography Name: Aristophanes Birth Date: 448 B.C. Death Date: 385 B.C. Place of Birth: Athens, Greece Nationality: Greek Gender: Male Occupations: writer summary from source: Biography of Aristophanes 1,477 words, approx. 5 pages Aristophanes (448-after 385 BC) was the greatest of the writers of the Old Comedy, which flourished in Athens in the 5th century BC, and the only one with any complete plays surviving. He wrote at least 36 comedies, of which 11 are extant. The Old... summary from source: Biography of Aristophanes 4,332 words, approx. 14 pages summary from source: Biography of Aristophanes 3,788 words, approx. 13 pages Aristophanes of Athens was judged in antiquity to be the foremost poet of Old Attic Comedy, a theatrical genre of which he was one of the last practitioners and of which his eleven surviving plays are the only complete examples. His plays are valued... Encyclopedia and Summary Information summary from source: Aristophanes Information 1,152 words, approx. 4 pages

34. Great Books And Classics - Aristophanes Great Books and Classics aristophanes (c. 448-380 BC) http://www.grtbooks.com/aristophanes.asp?idx=0&sub=0

35. Drama: Aristophanes aristophanes The Wasps The purpose of this play was to satirize the love of litigation common to the Athenians, whose delight it was to spend their time in http://drama.eserver.org/plays/classical/aristophanes

@import url(http://drama.eserver.org/ploneColumns.css); @import url(http://drama.eserver.org/plone.css); @import url(http://drama.eserver.org/ploneCustom.css); Skip to content. EServer Drama Home Plays ... Classical Aristophanes Drama Search Sections Home Criticism Journals Links ... SiteMap Navigation Home Criticism Journals Links Plays Classical Aeschylus Aristophanes Ecclesiazusae Lysistrata Peace Plutus The Acharnians The Birds The Clouds The Frogs The Knights The Thesmophoriazusae The Wasps Sophocles Medieval Renaissance/Early Modern Seventeenth Century Eighteenth Century Nineteenth Century Modern Drama Contemporary Drama Aristophanes Up one level Plays by Aristophanes, the classical Greek dramatist. Ecclesiazusae Lysistrata Peace Plutus ... The Clouds Aristophanes's depiction of Socrates in the Clouds is in good part a comic distortion. The Frogs The Frogs turns upon the decline of tragic art. The Knights The Knights may be reckoned the Aristophanes's masterpiece, a direct personal attack on the then all-powerful Cleon. The Thesmophoriazusae Following Lysistrata during the reign of terror established by oligarchist conspirators, this play has a proper intrigue, a knot which is not untied till quite the end.

36. Aristophanes' Lysistrata:  Sex Strike - Never Happen aristophanes’ significant contributions in the development of the theater arts and his standing in the Athenian community are well documented. http://www.pillowrock.com/ronnie/lysistrata.htm

Research Papers and Essays Ronnie Oldham Aristophanes' Lysistrata: Sex Strike - Never Happen Lysistrata Wives, in ancient Greece, were strategically selected for the purpose of producing legitimate heirs and maintaining control of property (Gulick 57). They were typically not the objects of their husband’s sexual desire. "Marriage was a matter of good family, good dowry, and good health. Given the differences in ages, education and experience, there were no real grounds for companionship. Bearing children and managing a household were all that would ordinarily have been asked of a wife" (Hooper 254). Athenian men, unlike women, had opportunities for sex outside marriage that carried no penalties. Besides sex with female slaves, who could not refuse their masters, men could choose between various classes of prostitutes and hetaera. Reay Tannahill noted in her book, Sex in History , "What Athenian men liked about the hetairai was that they excelled at all the things those same men prevented their wives from learning" (101). Though the primary motivation for the women of Lysistrata Although many Athenians believed that women were potentially capable of intellectual and philosophical thought, the exclusion of women from the polis and the need to keep the mothers of their heirs safe at home kept women ignorant of affairs of state. Even Aristotle remarked that "the female indeed posses [the faculty of deliberation], but in a form which remains inconclusive" (Austin 182). Women’s views of political affairs were not taken very seriously and the attitude of the commissioner was probably typical of the Athenian citizen. Women should attend to their carding and weaving. "War’s a man’s affair."

37. Aristophanes And Greek Old Comedy, U. Of Sask. The latter could at times serve as a useful prop (aristophanes Lysistrata, for example, involves a sexstrike by the women of Greece the males who come on http://homepage.usask.ca/~jrp638/CourseNotes/Aristophanes.html

To Home Page To Course Notes Menu Aristophanes and Greek Old Comedy by John Porter, University of Saskatchewan Notice: Suggested Background Reading Aristophanes, Lysistrata and Other Plays (A. H. Sommerstein transl.), pp. 9-38 World of Athens, Items to note: *Old Comedy , typical structural elements of Old Comedy, *parabasis Greek Old Comedy Aristophanes: Works Greek Old Comedy. The historical origins of tragedy and comedy are often sought in Greek religious ritual. A ritual origin for tragedy is difficult to establish, but there are several elements in the so-called *Old Comedy that can be employed to make a good prima facie case for the development of 5th-century Athenian comedy out of Dionysiac rites. The Greek komoidia means "the song of the komos." A komos komos often involved masks and costumes, as does Mardi gras, but was marked by another practice foreign to most festivals in modern North America: aischrologia or the ritual abuse of individuals. Another distinctive feature, found in many Dionysiac rites and no doubt in some komoi

38. Strauss, Leo: Socrates And Aristophanes Strauss, Leo Socrates and aristophanes, university press books, shopping cart, new release notification. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/2307.ctl

Search: The University of Chicago Press Home Shopping Cart Our books: New general books New releases by subject Subject catalogs Complete index ... More search options News: Publicity blog Email notification RSS feeds Also @ Chicago: Information pages Distributed publishers Chicago Manual of Style Web site ... Chicago Digital Distribution Center or Print an order form Strauss, Leo Socrates and Aristophanes . 332 p. 6 x 9 1966, 1980 Paper $29.00sp ISBN: 978-0-226-77719-1 (ISBN-10: 0-226-77719-7) Fall 1996 In one of his last books, Socrates and Aristophanes, Leo Strauss's examines the confrontation between Socrates and Aristophanes in Aristophanes' comedies. Looking at eleven plays, Strauss shows that this confrontation is essentially one between poetry and philosophy, and that poetry emerges as an autonomous wisdom capable of rivaling philosophy. recovery of the Great Tradition in political philosophy. The problem the book proposes centers formally upon Socrates. As is typical of Strauss, he raises profound issues with great courage. . . . [He addresses] a problem that has been inherent in Western life ever since [Socrates'] execution: the tension between reason and religion. . . . Thus, we come

39. Excerpt From "The Frogs" By Aristophanes What follows are some choice excerpts from The Frogs, by aristophanes. The scene is the underworld, where the God Dionysius and his slave Xanthias are http://members.aol.com/abelard2/frogs.htm

Excerpt from Aristophanes' "The Frogs" Today's intellectual landscape in the U.S. is a barren place, dominated by the static epistemology of Aristotle, a place where Thomas Hobbes demands that metaphor be outlawed, and Lord Bertrand Russell insists that science be banned, and replaced with mathematical formalisms. To top it all off, Time magazine would have us believe that computers can mimic human reason. The poets of Greek antiquity understood something about what the human mind really can do, including the employment of humor and irony. What follows are some choice excerpts from The Frogs , by Aristophanes. The scene is the underworld, where the God Dionysius and his slave Xanthias are visitors, and Aeacus is the house porter to Pluto. I hope this motivates you to seek out and read the entire play. XAN. ... Tell me by Zeus, our rascaldom's own god, What's all that noise within? What means this hubbub And row? AEAC. That's Aeschylus and Euripides. XAN. Eh? AEAC. Wonderful, wonderful things are going on. The dead are rioting, taking different sides.

40. Lysistrata Guide But aristophanes is not content to turn the tables and present purely Note how aristophanes blends the slapstick scene of the women chasing of old men http://www.temple.edu/classics/lysistrata.html

Study Guide For Aristophanes' Lysistrata To help with the usual barrage of people, places and things, use the Glossary which begins on page 599. The plot is about as simple as it gets: Athenian women, fed up with the Peloponnesian War, barricade themselves in the Acropolis and go on a sex strike to force their husbands to vote for peace with Sparta. This plot demonstrates that the overriding mode of Aristophanic comedy is fantasy. In the Congresswomen women take over the assembly to save Athens from corrupt politicians. So consider that, while in tragedy assertive women cause catastrophe, in comedy they bring joy and harmony. But Aristophanes is not content to turn the tables and present purely virtuous women and venal men; consider why, exactly, they are so upset about the duration of the war. To paraphrase Freud, what do these women really want? Note in the first scene how difficult Lysistrata finds it to interest other women in her plan. Part of the original humorous effect derives from Greek staging practice. Remember that all the actors are male. Also, a prominent part of the comic costume was a large leather phallus. The male characters in this play would walk around the stage with huge erections. This is not a comedy that for prudes. Most of the sexual innuendo that you see in virtually every line is actually there. The name of the play's heroine, Lysistrata, means "releaser of war," which typifies the Aristophanic tendency for an "outsider" hero whose indicates his or her function. Interestingly, there was an important priestess in Athens at that time whose name, Lysimache, meant "releaser of the battle." However, it is impossible to say this significance of this possible coincidence. Think about the character of Lysistrata and how the audience might have viewed her. What figure in mythology or tragedy does she most resemble?

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