Reading Requirement:

Lysistrata – First Half of Play – 1 to 27
Reading Response Prompt for RR #11:

This reading response has 2 components.  You must respond to both in order to get full credit.

1. Provide 3 questions you have for me or your peers in regards to Lysistrata. These questions can be about something maybe you didnt fully understand or an aspect of the play that you want to discuss more.

2. Choose ONE of the questions below and provide one piece of evidence from the story to support your interpretation.

a. At the beginning of the play when Lysistrata is trying to persuade the other women to give up sexual relations with their husbands, many of them are hesitant and unwilling to to do so.  Why do you think thats the case? Also, considering this play is supposed to be a comedy, Aristophanes is really providing a very alternative view on both men and women. So, do you think he meant for this part to be funny?  Do you think he actually believes that women would have difficulty giving up sex with their husbands? Why or why not?

b. Why do Lysistrata and the women shes working with decide to occupy the treasury?  Why is that an important part of making the men listen to their demands? Why does Lysistrata believe that women are more than capable of handling the monies of the treasury? Consider again, that this is a comedy.  What do you think Aristophanes is trying to say about men when Lysistrata knows that simply witholding sex from them wont allow them to listen? Do you think Aristophanes actually believes that this is all that matters to men: sex and money? Why or why not?

c. Towards the end of the section that we read for today, the Magistrate tells Lysistrata that it is men who suffer in war, not women.  Lysistrata responds ardently with various ways in which women suffer even more than men. Discuss those reasons here (in 2 to 3 sentences tops).  What else do you think impacts women and their families when men are always away at war? What do you think Lysistrata is most invested in: seeing her husband come home from war or peace?  Is there a difference to her? Why or why not?

d. Do a close reading of the following passage stated by the Magistrate:

And tis well done too, by Posidon!  We men must share the blame of their ill conduct; it is we who teach them to love riot and dissoluteness and sow the seed of wickedness in their hearts.  You see a husband go into a shop: Look you, jeweller, says he, you remember the necklace you made for my wife. Well, tother evening, when she was dancing, the catch came open.  Now, I am bound to start for Salamis; will you make it convenient to go up to-night to make her fastening secure? Another will go to a cobbler, a great, strong fellow, with a great, long tool, and tell him: The strap of one of my wifes sandals presses her little toe, which is extremely sensitive; come in about midday to supple the thing and stretch it.  Now see the results. Take my own case – as a Magistrate I have enlisted rowers; I want money to pay em and lo! the women clap to the door in my face. But why do we stand here with arms crossed? Bring me a crowbar; Ill chastise their insolence! (19)

What is the Magistrate trying to communicate to us about women in this passage? What do his metaphors of going to the jeweler and cobbler have to do with mens roles in this particular society and the way they relate to women? What does all of this show us about Athens ideas of gender roles and how women should be treated?