LYSISTRATA
April 14, 2008 Antiquarian No Comments
Lysistrata
Translated From The Greek Of
ARISTOPHANES
Illustrations By Norman Lindsay
Jack Lindsay Foreword
Published by Illustrated Editions Company circa/somewhere around the 1930’s
Historical play Led by the title character, Lysistrata, the story’s female characters barricade the public funds building and withhold sex from their husbands to end the Peloponnesian War and secure peace. In doing so, Lysistrata engages the support of women from Sparta, Boeotia, and Corinth. All of the other women are first against Lysistrata’s suggestion to withhold sex. Finally, they agree to swearing an oath of allegiance by drinking wine from a shield. This action is ironic and therefore comical, because Greek men believed women had no self-restraint, a lack displayed in their alleged fondness for wine as well as for sex.
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