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    Lysistrata
    Lysistrata
    Lysistrata
    Ebook64 pages44 minutes

    Lysistrata

    By Aristophanes and Mint Editions

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    About this ebook

    Lysistrata and Other Plays centers a disgruntled woman whose attempt to end a war takes the battle from an open field to the soldier’s bedroom. Wives from both camps deny their husbands basic affection in an effort to quell the violence.

    Set during the Peloponnesian War, the women of Greece, led by Lysistrata, create a plan to stifle the conflict between Athens and Sparta. Together, they agree to stage a sex strike, refusing to sleep with their husbands until a resolution is met. The strategy has an undeniable effect on politicians, generals and soldiers eager for a return to normalcy. It dramatically changes the focus of the warring parties, signifying the potential for peace.

    Lysistrata and Other Plays confronts gender norms and empowers those who are often marginalized. It’s a common theme in Aristophanes’ work that is also found in The Assemblywomen and Thesmophoriazusae. This political satire illustrates how fundamental needs always take precedence over superficial wants.

    With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Lysistrata and Other Plays is both modern and readable.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMint Editions
    Release dateDec 1, 2020
    ISBN9781513272948
    Author

    Aristophanes

    Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete.

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      Book preview

      Lysistrata - Aristophanes

      Lysistrata

      Aristophanes

      Lysistrata was first performed in 411 BC.

      This edition published by Mint Editions 2020.

      ISBN 9781513267944 | E-ISBN 9781513272948

      Published by Mint Editions®

      minteditionbooks.com

      Publishing Director: Jennifer Newens

      Design & Production: Rachel Lopez Metzger

      Typesetting: Westchester Publishing Services

      CONTENTS

      BEGIN READING

      THE PERSONS OF THE DRAMA

      LYSISTRATA

      CALONICE

      MYRRHINE

      LAMPITO

      Stratyllis, etc.

      Chorus of Women.

      MAGISTRATE

      CINESIAS

      SPARTAN HERALD

      ENVOYS

      ATHENIANS

      Porter, Market Idlers, etc.

      Chorus of old Men.

      LYSISTRATA stands alone with the Propylaea at her back.

      LYSISTRATA: If they were trysting for a Bacchanal,

      A feast of Pan or Colias or Genetyllis,

      The tambourines would block the rowdy streets,

      But now there’s not a woman to be seen

      Except—ah, yes—this neighbour of mine yonder.

      Enter CALONICE.

      Good day Calonice.

      CALONICE: Good day Lysistrata.

      But what has vexed you so? Tell me, child.

      What are these black looks for? It doesn’t suit you

      To knit your eyebrows up glumly like that.

      LYSISTRATA: Calonice, it’s more than I can bear,

      I am hot all over with blushes for our sex.

      Men say we’re slippery rogues—

      CALONICE: And aren’t they right?

      LYSISTRATA: Yet summoned on the most tremendous business

      For deliberation, still they snuggle in bed.

      CALONICE: My dear, they’ll come. It’s hard for women, you know,

      To get away. There’s so much to do;

      Husbands to be patted and put in good tempers:

      Servants to be poked out: children washed

      Or soothed with lullays or fed with mouthfuls of pap.

      LYSISTRATA: But I tell you, here’s a far more weighty object.

      CALONICE: What is it all about, dear Lysistrata,

      That you’ve called the women hither in a troop?

      What kind of an object is it?

      LYSISTRATA: A tremendous thing!

      CALONICE: And long?

      LYSISTRATA: Indeed, it may be very lengthy.

      CALONICE: Then why aren’t they here?

      LYSISTRATA: No man’s connected with it;

      If that was the case, they’d soon come fluttering along.

      No, no. It concerns an object I’ve felt over

      And turned this way and that for sleepless nights.

      CALONICE: It must be fine to stand such long attention.

      LYSISTRATA: So fine it comes to this—Greece saved by Woman!

      CALONICE: By Woman? Wretched thing, I’m sorry for it.

      LYSISTRATA: Our country’s fate is henceforth in our hands:

      To destroy the Peloponnesians root and branch—

      CALONICE: What could be nobler!

      LYSISTRATA: Wipe out the Boeotians—

      CALONICE: Not utterly. Have mercy on the eels!¹

      LYSISTRATA: But with regard to Athens, note I’m careful

      Not to say any of these nasty things;

      Still, thought is free… But if the women join us

      From Peloponnesus and Boeotia, then

      Hand in hand we’ll rescue Greece.

      CALONICE: How could we do

      Such a big wise deed? We women who dwell

      Quietly adorning ourselves in a back-room

      With gowns of lucid gold and gawdy toilets

      Of stately silk and dainty little slippers…

      LYSISTRATA: These are the very armaments of the rescue.

      These crocus-gowns, this outlay of the best myrrh,

      Slippers, cosmetics dusting beauty, and robes

      With rippling creases of light.

      CALONICE: Yes, but how?

      LYSISTRATA: No man will lift a lance against another—

      CALONICE: I’ll run to have my tunic dyed crocus.

      LYSISTRATA: Or take a shield—

      CALONICE: I’ll get a stately gown.

      LYSISTRATA: Or unscabbard a sword—

      CALONICE: Let me buy a pair of slipper.

      LYSISTRATA: Now, tell me, are the women right to lag?

      CALONICE: They should have turned birds, they should have grown wings and flown.

      LYSISTRATA: My friend, you’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

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