20 October 2013 The Politics of

ENGL 3323

Dr. Dumas

20 October 2013

The Politics of Lysistrata and the Coup of 411

Aristophanes’s Lysistrata (411 BCE) offers a rich social commentary on Ancient Greece. Scholars love the play because underneath its almost slapstick style of comedy lies numerous ideas about war, peace, politics, and gender. Academia primarily focuses on the play’s anti-war message or its call for gender equality. Few scholars, though, analyze the work as a criticism of Athenian politics in general. Aristophanes uses Lysistrata and her band of women to reveal numerous shortcomings of Athens’s political leaders.

The Coup of 411, as the events would later become known, occurred in June of 411, and the oligarchy it created held power into early 410 when it too was overthrown and replaced by a democracy (Martin). Parker states that Lysistrata was probably first performed at the Greek Lenaia festival, which would have been held sometime around December of 411. Aristophanes’s contemporary audience, then, had just seen the democracy overthrown and was on the verge of overthrowing the oligarchy. They would have been very perceptive to any critiques the playwright might make about Athenian politics.

To point out the absurdity of a government failing, Aristophanes uses Lysistrata and the women who follow her in order to show that running a government is not difficult. First, the leader of the unlikely group successfully forms a plan, musters a sizable group of women, and carries out her plan even though the text offers little evidence that she had any formal training or education. Lysistrata does not say anything which makes the audience think that she has been properly prepared to lead or run a government. Instead, she simply possesses a passion and determination that sets her “on fire right down to the bone” (Aristophanes 16). Even her plan lacks a strategic luster which one would expect from an educated leader. Lysistrata takes something relatively simple, the domestic act of sex, and forms her plan accordingly. She does not have much to work with, but she uses what she knows.

In the same manner, the women who assist Lysistrata are far from perfect. Like their leader, they lack any formal education and are versed only in domestic affairs. Unlike their leader, though, they lack determination and are often fickle. When they hear of a possible way to end the war, everyone is on board. One woman even says that she is “ready to split [herself] right up the middle” (24) if only it would end the war. As soon as Lysistrata tells them her plan, though, the women have a change of heart and would “rather walk through fire barefoot” then give up sex (26). Even after the plan is well underway and on the verge of success, the women lack determination and constantly try to sneak off to appease their desires (69-73). In spite of all these obstacles, Lysistrata and the women successfully run the government and achieve their goal.

Aristophanes uses the character of the commissioner to directly criticize the oligarchy. A group of four hundred elite leaders overthrew the democracy, believing that they were better fit to rule. A board of Preliminary Councilors played a central role in the new government. The commissioner in Lysistrata is one of the few instances in Greek texts where a member of the board appears (Blackwell). After Lysistrata and the women attack him, the commissioner actually mentions the board: “I must repair directly to the Board of Commissioners, and present my colleagues concrete evidence of the sorry specifics of this shocking attack!” (Aristophanes 63). If the commissioner represents the board of Preliminary Councilors in the new oligarchy, then Aristophanes reveals that the members of the board are not fit to lead. After discovering that women have taken over the Akropolis, the commissioner leads a group of policemen in an attempt to reclaim the buildings. The effort, though, is an utter failure. The archers do not listen to the commissioner or follow his orders. Though he is their leader, they do not advance until he literally shoves them towards the women (50). Under the commissioner’s leadership, the police force of Athens retreats from a band of unarmed, untrained women.

Just in case the audience is still unsure of Aristophanes opinion of the oligarchy, the playwright has Lysistrata and her women attack the commissioner, pour human waste on his head, and expel him from the Akropolis (63). The commissioner embodies the ineptitude of the oligarchy. He cannot lead a small police force against a group of women, much less the Athenian army against Sparta. Aristophanes shows that commissioner and his colleagues have no place in the Akropolis.

The Greek audience would see the irony of Lysistrata and her band of women’s success in contrast with their democratic council’s failure and oligarchy’s pending demise. Many Greeks might be left wondering what direction their government should go. Aristophanes hints that Athens should turn to a true democracy that grants suffrage to more people. Throughout the entire story, the playwright has shown that women are capable of running a government. After actually controlling the Akropolis, surely women are capable of voting. Aristphanes’s democracy would also extend suffrage and citizenship to a few other groups of people. When speaking to the commissioner about the analogy of the wool, Lysistrata states that Athens needs to include the disenfranchised, the allies, and the friendly aliens in the “Cloak of the State” (61). Aristophanes realizes that, in order to keep the city from making the same mistakes in the future, the city must rely on its everyday occupants instead of elite governing officials.

Without recognizing the play’s proximity to the Coup of 411, Lysistrata loses much of Aristophanes’s political meaning. The playwright, though, understands the current political turmoil in Athens and sees the shortcomings of the newly founded oligarchy. Lysistrata and her follower’s success proves that anyone with the right motives should be able to run the government, and the commissioner shows that the oligarchy is not at all capable. Aristophanes realizes that, to be successful, the city must stop relying on the traditional leaders of the past and embrace a true democracy that offers power to all loyal Athenians.

Aristophanes. Lysistrata. Trans. Douglass Parker. New York: Signet Classic, 2001. Print.

Blackwell, Christopher. “The History of the Council.” The Stoa: A Consortium of

Electronic Publication in the Humanities. Web. 18 October 2013.

Martin. Thomas. Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times. New Haven:

Yale University Press, 1996. Web.

Trzaskoma, Stephen M. "Echoes Of Thucydides' Sicilian Expedition In Three Greek

Novels." Classical Philology 106.1 (2011): 61-66. Academic Search Complete.

Web. 21 Oct. 2013.