Myrrhine pretends to give in, and Cinesias sends the baby home. After some coaxing, Myrrhine agrees to go down and see her husband.Ĭinesias complains that the house is a wreck and he doesn't know how to take care of the baby (which he is carrying). It's Cinesias, the husband of Myrrhine, one of the women on the sex-strike. Goodness! We're clutching our pearls over here.Īfter another bout of conflict between the Men's Chorus and the Women's Chorus, the women see a man approaching the Acropolis, visibly aroused. Then Lysistrata reemerges from the Acropolis to complain that the women are all trying to run off and have sex with their husbands we see her catch three women in the act. Lysistrata and the women go back into the Acropolis, leaving the Men's Chorus and Women's Chorus to annoy and insult each other through song and dance. After a testy exchange, the humiliated Magistrate runs off to complain to the other magistrates. Lysistrata comes out of the Acropolis and explains what she's doing. After the Women's Leader drenches the Men's Leader, the city's Magistrate shows up to investigate. In no time, however, the Chorus of Women shows up carrying buckets of water.
They have come with fire to smoke the women out of the Acropolis. The Chorus of Men shows up basically this is a bunch of old Athenian geezers. The foreign women go back to their home cities. Lysistrata and the Athenian women go to join the other women on the Acropolis.
After some debate, the women swear an oath that they will follow Lysistrata's plan. Once they've seized control of the treasury, the women will be able to cut off the money supply for the war. Lysistrata also explains that she's sent a contingent of women to occupy the Acropolis (the government center) of Athens. To make sure the sex-strike is effective, they will doll themselves up with makeup and put on their skimpiest clothes, to drive their husbands wild with desire. At the meeting, Lysistrata announces her plan: the women should all refuse to have sex with their husbands until their husbands end the war. In attendance at the meeting are women from Athens and other cities, including Sparta. The play begins on the day of a meeting organized by Lysistrata. That, at least, is the opinion of Lysistrata, a middle-class housewife from Athens. Although the war has been going on for years, things have recently taken a bad turn for Athens: they suffered a serious defeat in Sicily just two years before. It's 411BCE and Athens is locked in the grip of a terrible war with Sparta.
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