Lysistrata and Other Plays by Aristophanes

The translation I read, by Jack Lindsay, was too academic, archaic, and sterile. I imagine part of the fun for ancient Greek audiences derived from the playwright’s mastery of different Greek dialects and accents. Because the plot is so simple, the enjoyment of the play must come from the caliber of the dialog. Aristophanes introduces some bawdy levity in that the peace talks between the contestants are conducted by men who have constant erections.

The play consists primarily of dialog among the women in organizing their movement, and later discussions between choruses of women and men justifying their positions. But for some minor scuffling for control of the Acropolis between the women and the men of Athens who are too old to be fighting the Spartans, very little action takes place. She gathers representative women from all the city-states engaged in the war and persuades them to withhold sex from their husbands and lovers until peace is concluded. Seeing no likely prospect of an end to the war, Lysistrata, an Athenian woman, takes matters into her own hands and proposes desperate measures. Last summer I was assigned, for a yearly symposium I attend at Notre Dame, the reading of Lysistrata, authored by the Greek playwright Aristophanes and first performed in 411 BCE.As the play begins, the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta (431–404 BC) has been going on interminably, with nearly all the young men away from home or otherwise engaged in the conflict. Translation of comedy is always a challenge, particularly when the jokes are 25 centuries old.

Lysistrata and Other Plays by Aristophanes