Lysistrata
Lysistrata Aristophanes - Greek playwright, Aristophanes, lived during the 5th and 4th century BC and is considered one of the principal authors of the Greek classical period. Of the nearly thirty plays he wrote during his career, eleven are extant. Amongst the most famous of these is Lysistrata, a comedy which focuses on the women of Greece whose husbands have left for the Peloponnesian War. The women do not care about the conflict as much as they care about missing their husbands. Its titular character, Lysistrata, insists that men rarely listen to womens reasoning and exclude their opinions on matters of state. In retaliation she convinces the women of Greece to organize a strike, refusing to have sex with their husbands until both sides agree to cease fighting. The irony of this is that the men become more upset with their wives than they do with their enemies of war. Notable for its positive portrayal of womens rationality in a male-dominated society, Lysistrata stands as one the most popular and frequently performed plays from classical antiquity
Tartuffe
Brimming with lively humor and satirical plot devices, this timeless comedy concerns the outrageous activities of a penniless scoundrel and religious pretender as he wreaks havoc among members of his benefactor's household.
Lysistrata and Other Plays
The Acharnians/The Clouds/Lysistrata 'We women have the salvation of Greece in our hands' Writing at a time of political and social crisis in Athens, the ancient Greek comic playwright Aristophanes was an eloquent, yet bawdy, challenger to the demagogue and the sophist. In Lysistrata and The Acharnians, two pleas for an end to the long war between Athens and Sparta, a band of women on a sex strike and a lone peasant respectively defeat the political establishment. The darker comedy of The Clouds satirizes Athenian philosophers, Socrates in particular, and reflects the uncertainties of a generation in which all traditional religious and ethical beliefs were being challenged. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Alan H. Sommerstein
Lysistrata
A Classic Available Again Aristophanes was the greatest writer of ancient Athenian "old comedy," known for its satires of contemporary life and for its broad, often obscene humor. "Lysistrata" was first produced in 411 BC, when the Peloponnesian War had been devastating Greece for 20 years. Most people know the plot: Lysistrata assembles women from all of Greece, and they agree that they will not have sex until the men make peace. Aubrey Beardsley was the greatest and the most controversial Art Nouveau illustrator in England, famous for his illustrations of Mallory's "Morte d'Arthur," Oscar Wilde's "Salome," Pope's "The Rape of the Lock," and for several magazines. Because he was associated with Oscar Wilde, Beardsley lost his job as art editor of a magazine named "The Yellow Book" in 1895, soon after Wilde was arrested for homosexuality. He was approached by Leonard Smithers, a publisher of erotic books, who asked him to illustrate "Lysistrata." His illustrations are very much in the spirit of Aristophanes, as funny as they are obscene. Beardsley converted to Catholicism in 1897, and soon after, he asked Smithers to "destroy all copies of "Lysistrata"" with its "obscene drawings," but Smithers refused. Beardsley died of tuberculosis in 1898, at the age of 26. Smithers initially published "Lysistrata" in a limited edition of one hundred copies. It was reprinted in the 1960s and 1970s, but copies have long been scarce and expensive. Though some may find it offensive, we believe it is valuable to reprint this book, so all the books illustrated by this great artist are readily available.
Lysistrata
Aristophanes helped shape comedy.... despite their often fantasical premises, were fairly consistently concerned with contemporary politics and social institutions. ... mildly aristocratic... patriotic ... suspicious of social innovation.... sympathetic to the struggles of the common people.... unrestrained in insult...exuberantly bawdy.
