Download docx Aristophanes and lysistrata

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Aristophanes and lysistrata
Introduction
The play starts on the day of a meeting arranged by Lysistrata. Those present at the meeting
are women from Sparta, Athens, and other neighboring cities. During the meeting, Lysistrata
declares her mission that all the women should deny their husbands their conjugal rights by
refusing to indulge in sex until they strike a deal to end the war. To ensure that the sex-strike is
successfully executed, the women will enhance their beauty with makeup and wear skimpiest
clothes, to arouse their husbands with strong sexual desire (Henderson 29).
Lysistrata states that she has mobilized a contingent of young ladies and women to take
over the Acropolis, which is the government headquarter of Athens. Once they take control of the
Acropolis, they will be in a position to cut off the financial support of the war between men of
Athens and the Sparta. After a heated debate, all women take the oath that they will abide by
Lysistrata’s mission of sex-strike. After the swearing-in ceremony, the Athenian women and
Lysistrata join other women at the Athens government headquarter, Acropolis. The Chorus of men
emerges, which is composed of old Athenian geezers. Their intention is to smoke the striking
women out of Acropolis. Shortly, another chorus, consisting of women, shows up with containers
of water. After a confrontation between the leader of women chorus and that of men chorus, the
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Magistrates from Athens City come to investigate the cause of the dispute. However, the
magistrate falls short of the skills to solve the dispute between the two parties and instead run off
to inform other migrates concerning the case (Henderson 67). The Athenian and Spartan Delegates
shows up to strike the deal. Lysistrata arrives with the intention of helping the delegates to
successfully broker a peaceful deal of ending the war. Eventually, an agreement is reached after
the goddess of Reconciliation lectures the two sides.
According to Freud’s psychological theory, the human personality is made up of three key
elements which are ego, id, and superego. The id represents the biological psyche or drives such
as sex and food. The id is concerned with gratification or sexual pleasure while disregarding the
feelings of other people (Freud 372). In this epic drama, Lysistrata uses the sexual pleasure of men
as a tool of bringing to an end of the war between the Athenian men and the Spartan men. The
sexual strike is intended to cause the strong feeling of sexual deprivation which acts as a driving
force for men to compile with the demands of Lysistrata of striking a peace deal between the
Athenians and the Spartan men. Instead of Lysistrata concentrating on a more straightforward
physical effort, the woman totally depends on sex drive of the women to accomplish her desires.
The leader of the women subtly selects young and hyper-sexualized women to abstain from
having sex with their husbands. On the other side of the strike, Lysistrata mobilizes postproductive old women, who have no sexuality value to occupy the Acropolis. In the modern
perspective, men always lust and pursue women for sexual gratification. However, women are
guilty in returning these sexual affections by wearing dresses to accentuate the body (Freud 380).
As such, the main message of this play is that sexual desires, the main cause of human drive, have
the power to turn the world around. The fact that sex drive can be utilized to change the course of
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history, it can be concluded that sex drive acts as a motivating factor for most of the human
behavior.
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Work Cited
Freud, Sigmund. "Analysis terminable and interminable." The International Journal of PsychoAnalysis 18 (1937): 373.
Henderson, Jeffrey, ed. Lysistrata. Hackett Publishing, 2011.