Aristophanes’ plot for Lysistrata would have been hilarious to the Greek audience witnessing it in 411 BC. There was no possible way that the women could have taken power from the males, and Aristophanes voices no doubts that the woman’s place is in the home. A true representation of Old Comedy is the scene where Myrrhine runs away from nursing her baby at home to barricade herself in the Acropolis would have been to Aristophanes and his audience a hilariously goofy idea. Lysistrata’s criticisms of politics represents more than the females ability to cope with political issues and through her handling of the situation Lysistrata belittles the belief that men’s work is so much more difficult and important than women’s. In the reality of daily life however, men believed that they ruled women in every sphere of their lives, and therefore this plot to them would have been a farce for exploring such an outrageous idea.
Because of the short ‘parabis’ and the ‘agon’ that was never developed, the plot has to jump around through its loose structure to develop ideas to prevent them from becoming stale. The reason the plot is able to move so freely between these structures through Aristophanes’ precision of thought. The plot would not function without one important assumption that is continuously made throughout. That is, that sexual satisfaction is a more pressing human need than the lust for power.
The audience would have found this play markedly relevant to their current life situation in the late 5th century BC. Aristophanes managed to convert such a depressing subject as the state of the Peloponnesian War into a farce about the overwhelming human need for sex. The spectators could have taken comfort in the reduction of the Spartan army, to simple men with erections. In addition, the wives of Greece both allies and enemies, cooperate to achieve reconciliation. Thus the audience sees opponents’ whose needs, daily lives, even hopes and dreams are identical to their own.
Thus, the audience are fully able to participate in the subject matter of the play without receiving a moral lecturing about the consequences of entering into such a war and continuing it from Aristophanes. Because of the immediate relevance to the audience with the subject matter they wouldn’t have considered Lysistrata a play with literary depth, rather a buffoonery about their current political situation.
However Lysistrata does not attack leaders or policies. Aristophanes chose women as heroes, probably because they were politically powerless in reality. Thus the possibility of the plot is minute. With this tiny possibility of reality Aristophanes directs the audiences ridicule and hostility away from sensitive areas such as political failure toward the more general humorous excesses of male chauvinism. The most common joke toward the men is their constant sexual urges and their inability to control them nearly as efficiently as the women apparently do. The constant erection jokes represent slapstick in the face of the seriousness of the war, and the men’s lack of focus or eagerness to be at war in the first place.
From this stance we can see Aristophanes not only jokes about the men but also sends up the women’s situation. He parodies the women’s oath, which they perform not over the blood of a sacrificial animal but a jug of red wine. The ‘Pregnant woman’ incident (L. 845) represents physical slapstick against the women and is a subtle juxtaposition of the symbols of Lysistrata, the helmet and the ‘pregnant’ woman which represent love and war. A more satirical view on the jokes could be that the women were right all along in contrast to the men’s vision given by the magistrate and the chorus of old men, demonstrating that there was an alternative to war.
Lysistrata would have been an enthralling dramatic experience in 411 BC.
“In its earliest stages, comedy like tragedy was as much a spectacle of music and dance as of spoken verse, and the chorus was clearly an area in which costume song and gesture could be combined to create a theatrical extravaganza.” Slavitt D. Bovie P.
Though none of the music survives from this period, the comedies were thought to have been very similar to the modern musical. Lysistrata having been performed at such a big holiday festival would have been performed to thousands who would have been relaxing and enjoying the break from the routine of life.
The amphitheatre would have been home to the citizens who experienced a full scale productions for sheer entertainment as we would do the same today, whilst the plot took their minds off the current problems their society faced. Philosophical literature would not have been considered to coalesce with comedy and it is for this reason that Aristophanes would not be considered a poet of technical genius but rather considered more like an exceptional showman.
On the stage during the performances there would have been plenty of lage body movements to demonstrate the characters personalities such as running, jumping, beating, kicking and also inferred from Lysistrata there would have been plenty of inhibited sexual gestures and postures. All of these actions would have added to the theatrical experience for the citizens creating tumultuous excitement. Free from all inhibitions the characters in comedy could say or do what polite society or public decorum would never permit in real life.
How Lysistrata was received would have been very important to consider in regards to its performance. Documentation suggests that Lysistrata was performed at the smaller, more intimate Lenaian festival in January. Lenaian plays such as Acharnias or Knights contrast with the broad themed Dionysian Clouds or Peace. It would be presumed from these categorisations that because of the theatrical grandeur of Lysistrata and the localised plot of Women at the Festival, these two plays by Aristophanes in 411 should have been performed at the opposite locations to what they were. “… Each play was entered at the wrong festival.” (McLeish, 1980 p.29) It’s a shame that Lysistrata wasn’t actually performed at City Dionysia festival because it would have received so much more funding to spend on lavish costumes, musicians and dancers. Although the play may not have been performed at the more superior festival with a greater audience range, its purpose of entertaining both judges and audiences would have still been of crucial importance to Aristophanes.
Lysistrata is typical of Aristophanes’ heroic plays- the theatrical and dramatic was more important because of the simpleness and lack of structure to the plot. Aristophanes was unquestionably obvious in his parodies of both male and female flaws, and he describes human sexual desire with no restraint. The style of Old Comedy allows for the theatrical experience that the audience would have encountered, the impossibility of the plot and Aristophanes longing to win the approval of the audience, allows for the structure to wane. It is for all these reasons that Corrigan’s statement about Lysistrata being more theatrical than literary is accurate.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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WEB
www.theatredatabase.com/ancient/aristophanes_005.html
www.indiana.edu/~thtr/2002/lysistrata/old_comedy.html
www.indiana.edu/~thtr/2002/lysistrata/mcleish.html
www.theatrehistory.com/ancient/comedy001.html
www.theatrehistory.com/ancient/comedy001.html
Slavitt D, Bovie P (Ed). Aristophanes, 2. University of Pennsylvania Press. Pennsylvania, 1999.
McLeish K. The Theatre of Aristophanes. Thames and Hudson. London, 1980.
