Similarities Between Antigone And Lysistrata

Antigone, by Sophocles and, Lysistrata by Aristophanes are both pieces of art studied and fascinated within the time frame they were made and still are to this day. The tragedy, Antigone, and the comedy, Lysistrata, both encompass women who go against their customs and laws; but what sets these two so widely apart, is the outcome in which each women face in result of their actions. Antigone is told and begins with the assumption that readers know the background and characters within it, this is vital to understand and appreciate the story itself. Within a few short words, Antigone’s two brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, received the power as King’s of Thebes to share from their father Oedipus. This grew into conflict as Polyneices sought
The Peloponnesian War was going on twenty years prior to the plays creation and continued for another seven years after its performance. Athens, where Lysistrata took place, was the “wealthiest of the city-states [. . .] and had tried to dominate all of Greece.” (Lysistrata Characters-2 Pg. 1). Its greatest enemy and competition was Sparta, a city-state that represented the free states in war and was “known for its fierce soldiers and strict laws.” (Lysistrata Characters-2 Pg. 1). The main character of the play, Lysistrata, gathers women from all corners of Greece to discuss her perfect solution to end this horrible and gruesome war. She believes that if all the women refuse to have sex with their man, the war will come to a quick halt and the men will finally come running home to their wives. The women, not only of Athens, but of Greece entirely, had no rights and “were almost entirely powerless;” the sad but blunt fact was that women were mainly seen as sexual objects for mens pleasure. (Lysistrata Characters-2 2 Pg. 2). To enhance her solution, Lysistrata states that they’re, in reference to women, “good for nothing but screwing Poseidon in the bath tub.” (Lysistrata Uncensored Pg. 8). This clearly exemplifies what little say women had within their society and their true roles men saw them as, as Females. Once the women came to an agreement and swore to oath that they would not “have sex with their husbands until the war [came] to an end”, the leaders of both Athens and Sparta come together immediately upon notice of this protest to seek peace. (Lysistrata Uncensored Pg. 1). These men, rather than defy or penalize Lysistrata for her actions to stop the war in such a manner, praise her and explain that she is “the bravest women of them all, [. . .] resilient-stern but yielding, with a good heart but mean, stately but down to earth.” (Lysistrata Uncensored