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Lysistrata - Coggle Diagram
Lysistrata
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Simple Summary
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Two choruses face off, stark naked and hurling insults
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Men rejoin their women to feast, dance, and praise the gods
Beginning
opens with exposition of L's plan to save Greece, she waits for other women to join her
Lysistrata fumes that if she would have called an orgy in the name of Bacchos, the women would have been out in the streets with tambourines
The discussion of war, obviously the domain of the male, is not something that females in Greece are accustomed to.
Lysistrata is not only angered because the women won't prioritize war and the peace of their country, but she is ashamed that the women won't stand up to the stereotypes and names that their husband's give them.
Lysistrata tells Kleonike, "I'm positively ashamed to be a woman", and Kleonike proudly admits, "That's us!"
Ironically, by requesting that the women use their attractiveness to make the males want them sexually, Lysistrata encourages the women to play to their stereotype and exploit the sexual, idealized female.
More women join, some spartan. In some versions of the play, Spartans speak with an American dialect to show how Athenians regarded them as backward
When Lampito, Ismenia and the Korinthian Girl enter, Lysistrata scrutinizes the women's bodies, as a male would do.
as Lysistrata and Kleonike look at Lampito, Lampito remarks that she feels like "a heifer come fair-time"; in other words, Lampito feels like a piece of meat.
when Lysistrata finally tells them that she means to end the war through the evocation of chastity, the three women refuse and cry out, "On with the War!"
After more rousing, the women finally agree to Lysistrata's plan.
men away from home would not be affected by a sex-strike staged by their wives. Thus, Aristophanes's fantastic tale is somewhat faulted and inconceivable in real life
specific context
Pericles died two years after the war began, but the fighting continued for eight more years under Cleon, a much less decisive leader. The war abated for several years, but the peace didn't last
In 413 BCE Athens suffered a serious defeat when its navy, the cornerstone of Athenian power, was destroyed
This dark period is the backdrop for Lysistrata. At this time Athens had lost control of its subject states, and one of its most valuable generals, Alcibiades, defected to Sparta
In 405 BCE Sparta allied with its old enemy Persia to defeat Athens once and for all. Athens's democratic system of government was swept away, replaced by oligarchs.
Though democracy would return, Athens would never again hold the monopolistic power in the Aegean it enjoyed during its Golden Age
The name Lysistrata means "the dissolver of armies" in ancient Greek. Some scholars have noted that Lysistrata may have been loosely modeled on an Athenian woman named Lysimache, a name that means "the dissolver of battle".
Lysimache was a priestess of Athena Polias (a religious faction in Athens) at the time Lysistrata was produced, and she was an opponent of the Peloponnesian War.
symbols
acropolis
represents functions of greek society, including trade and commerce
The Acropolis's centerpiece, called the Parthenon served as a vault - the treasury of the Delian League—money collected from Athens's allies and intended for their protection—was stored there.
staffs/spears
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in contrast, the Chorus of Old Men may have used walking sticks to convey their old age and weakness
bowls and wine
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The first time bowls and wine make their appearance, the women are considering sealing their vows of chastity with a blood sacrifice in a shield
What follows is a parody of an ancient oath-taking ceremony, which ordinarily would be an all-male affair. Calonice objects that the blood sacrifice is wrong for an "oath of peace"; instead the women swear on a bowl of wine.
By replacing the shield with a similar but different object, a bowl, the women usurp and transform a symbol of male power
The scene is rife with sensuality; Calonice fondles the wine jug and says, "healthy blood spurts out so beautifully!" as she pours it into a bowl, suggesting menstruation