Name Institution Instructor Date of submission Feminism in Ancient Greek Culture from the Perspective of Lysistrata Lysistrata is portrayed as a hero by Aristophanes and just as Antigone had played a social role in politics, so is Lysistrata portrayed. Most ancient Greek writers were people who had established themselves in the society. They were people of class, and when they wrote about women, they mostly wrote about women from their own social class. Women were shown to participate only in the domestic roles of childbearing and that saw many women confined to their houses. They rarely ventured out of the proximity of their domestic dwellings, let alone participate in manly politics. Lysistrata, however, steps up and take up a political role, an unusual thing in ancient Greek. She empowers women and shows their ability to run the state. Lysistrata is thus shown to be a feminist hero boasting of women empowerment. Many Marxist thinkers would conclude that Lysistrata was nothing more about feminism bout about sex. The women of Greece attempt to end the war using their sexuality, an act that prevails as they see their men return home and agree to sign a peace treaty. There is, however, much more beyond sexuality as the play displays issues of gender, masculinity and femininity. In Lysistrata, the masculine authority that has always prevailed in Ancient Greek is challenged by the women of Greece. The main characters, Lysistrata, Myrrhina and kalonike are all given positive roles that depict women as heroes. Lysistrata, is the one who devices the plan to deny men the sexual pleasure of lying with a woman. Every woman in all the cities of Greece is to follow suit in this action by denying their husbands intimacy, and for those that were unmarried, they prayed vehemently to their gods. The plan was to drive their men to the edge of despair such that they would be willing to do anything the women demand in order to have sex in return. In the meantime, women are supposed to beautify themselves for their men, but not submit to their sexual pleas. She goes on to give a speech in which she explains the plan to the women of Athens, Thebes, and Sparta. The self-confidence that oozes from the speech given by Lysistrata resonates female power, a display of feminism. Kalonike becomes the first woman to swear allegiance to Lysistrata’s plot. She vows that she will remain loyal to the vow and invoked punishment for when she breaks the oath. Myrrhina, who is married is at first reluctant, but sees this as the only resolution to the war. She is intelligent and uses her sexuality to get her husband committed to the signing of the peace treaty. She is seen teasing the husband and them running off only when they are about to become intimate. She also constantly reminds her husband that he needs to sign the treaty a clear display of the female’s persistence. They women of Greece are not deterred by anything while on the quest of achieving their goal. Aristophanes displays these women as being self- determined, strong-willed as they represent all other women of Greece. This female representation is another aspect of feminism brought out in the play. In addition to the recognition and use of their sexuality, Lysistrata is also seen as an assertive person. While being brought to court in front of the magistrate, an order is given to bind her hands, to which she challenges the man that is bold enough to attempt it. She swears vehemently that by the name of Artemis, any man that attempted to tie her hands together would in return be put in his place. Lysistrata has challenged male authority in a bold way. This is a complete turnaround from the place in which Greek women were said to hold in their society. In this case, women stereotypes are proven wrong as women are shown as the opposite of being submissive and flaccid, the opposite is true as women are shown to be defiant. Women in Greece were never allowed to go out into the public and public spaces were often referred to as the male’s domain. Being out in the public was a privilege only delegated to men in ancient Greece. The act of Lysistrata standing out in the open and urging women to denounce their traditions and instead become active politically is in itself an act of defiance. This saw women enter the realm of masculinity, which is the best display of feminism. Lysistrata showed that a woman was worthy of venturing out in the public just as their men did. The public space no longer belonged to the men, but to women as well. Lysistrata even goes as far as holding rallies and performing ritualistic activities out in the open for all to see. Lysistrata formulates a plan in which, women take the Treasury of the city of Athens as hostage. They barricade the gates and bar men from entering the city. Lysistrata claimed that a lot of money is being used to fund the war, but without the money, the men would eventually surrender to their demand to end the war. Women in ancient Greece were not allowed to possess property or take a political stand of any kind. Lysistrata and her fellow women are now the ones in control of the financial reins of Athens. Lysistrata has gone on to make this all possible. The result is the New Greek woman that has a say and control in the political and financial direction of Greece. The women are now the new caretakers of the city as they have both social and economic control over the city of Athens. This, is a display of the Greece woman as being in power and having equal power if not more over her male counterparts. Lysistrata gives a speech on the way in which women are treated as people who cannot give a substantial input in civic and political matters. She opposes this way of life and says that women should not be told to hold their tongues when they actually have valuable and sensible advice to give. Women, she goes on to say, are the people most affected by war. They lose their husbands and sons to the vice and in so doing makes them the only people who understand truly the need for peace. She then goes on to attack the community for refusing the women a say in the military related matters. She claims that women have watched in silence, the faulty ways of the war and have intelligent reforms to give to the men. She reinforces her claims disassociating womanhood to stupidity and on the contrary, claims women do in fact have brains. Again, Lysistrata is shown as trying to get women in the same status as that of the men in the ancient Greek society. While on their quest for ending the war between Greece and Athens, the Greece women take on bolder actions. In Thesmophoiazusae, during a festival the women are offended by a male play writer who displays women in a slanderous manner in his plays. They decide to condemn this man to death. Later on, the women attend an assembly contrary to the duties set aside for women’s roles. Only men were allowed to vote in the assembly. The women, however, put on disguises so as not to be recognized. They in turn vote that all power should be left solely to the women. The quest to have dominion over their male counterparts is a feminist perspective that prevails in the play Lysistrata. The division of labor in ancient Greek was clearly outlined with women being confined to domestic activities. Child bearing and rearing, cooking and minding husbands were duties designated to the women in ancient Greece. The women lived in a realm distinctly different from that of the men. The men were entrusted with managing the military, political, and social aspects of the society. The uniformity in this division is challenged by Lysistrata and eventually disrupted. The women erupt out of their domestic confinement negating the roles accorded to them as women. They seek out other masculine duties that breached the realm of the male domain like politics and finances. One attribute to feminism is women empowerment achieved through the uniformity of roles between different genders. The men’s perception of Lysistrata is one shrouded in feminism. Lysistrata is well recognized by all men in ancient Greece. This serves to show that she stands out from the rest of her kind. The men also fail to refer to her using her husband’s name. This shows that Lysistrata is recognized as a woman free of her husband’s influence: Lysistrata is a woman independent to male dominance. Right from the beginning of the play, to the very end, Lysistrata is not referred to as associating with any man. Lysistrata is this self-willed and is placed as a powerful woman out of her own volition rather than being granted the will of a man. It is through her guidance, that other Greece women begin to do things of their own preference save for that of their husbands. Lysistrata is recognized as being a woman, but Aristophanes has her attributed with male characteristics and roles. She is said to size women up in a manner in which a male person would do when sizing up their female conquests. She is seen to refer to women through vivid descriptions of their bodies. Lysistrata is seen defying tradition in ways more than one. Feminism can be described as the desire for equality between genders. A person that aspires for this equality can be referred to as a feminist. In the play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, women are shown as having no political, social, or economical stand. In the play’s setting, there is a raging war going on between Athens and Greece and the women want to put an end to this it. The matter is of too much importance for the women to sit back in their traditionally-set roles and not take action. Lysistrata champions the long struggle that is supposed to stop the war. She uses unorthodox means that saw men being starved sexually by the women. The quest bestows on women social and political independent will. Women are shown as being of independent minds akin to the masculine gender. The advocacy for equality between genders is achieved in the play, and hence it qualifies as one of a feminism perspective. Lysistrata and the women of Greece through self-affirmation, wit, intelligence, and overall determination accomplish their quest for an end to war.