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Slade Stevenson
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.
Lysistrata takes place in a time of great political turmoil. In 411, Greece was in
the 20th year of the Peloponnesian War and was still working to recover from their failed
invasion of Sicily in 413. Aristophanes’ contemporary audience would have been very
familiar with the ongoing war. Chances are, that many of the spectators had been
personally affected by the failure of the Sicilian Expedition which resulted in the
destruction of almost the entire Athenian army (Trazaskoma 62). When Lysistrata
mentions the Athenian women sacrificing sons in Sicily (Aristophanes 61), the audience
would recognize the gravity of the subject and realize that Aristophanes is addressing
serious subjects. Following the loss in battle, Athens was forced to go on the defensive,
and the people of Athens were anxious to ensure that Greece win the war. The hysteria
and political unrest resulting from the Sicilian Expedition were so great that in the
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summer of 411 a group of men actually overthrew the Athenian democracy and formed a
more oligarchical form of government.
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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Works Cited
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.