al Disaster!The first semichorus of men adds, What a catastrophe---MATRIARCHY!They’ve brought Athene’s statue to heel, they’ve put the Akropolis under a seal,They’ve copped the whole dammed commonweal . . . What is left for them to steal? (Norton p684.280-291)This shows us the men’s attitudes about women in charge. They apparently believe it would be the downfall of the state to have women in charge. However, one must ask this question: Without women, how would men survive? More than likely, these men did not clean, cook, help with raising children (except training the boys), or wash clothes. How ever would these men be able to live without women to take care of all they did? These men just did not realize how much their women did for them. In the beginning, some of the women are late because they are taking care of their husbands and children. The men go off to war leaving the women alone with the children at home to take care of everything that needs to be done.During Lysistrata, it is very clearly shown that the men believe they are superior to the women, and that the women believe themselves to be subservient to men. The Peloponnesian War was important in Lysistrata in that it enabled Aristophanes to have a context within which to describe the attitudes and personalities of men and women of this time period. People are not always as they seem. The men of Athens and Sparta knew their women were bothers at home, but they found out that their actions at home were nothing compared to what could happen when a whole group got together and decided to accomplish something. Lysistrata show’s us all the value of working together as a team to accomplish a goal. As it was put by Magill Book Reviews, “LYSISTRATA is high comedy, as popular and timely today as it was when it was written. The humor is broad and bawdy. Like much good comedy, the play holds up to ridicule contemporary conditions...
