Women in Athens

Lysistrata portrays the temporary imposition of a gynaecocracy on the city of Athens. Impossible as this was in practical terms, it was a concept frequently found in mythology and ritual. For the Athenians, the story of the Amazons was the best known local example, but they were also well acquainted with other famous versions, such as that of the Lemnian Women. Elements from these tales, along with others from a further, more historical example of the seizure of control by one who has no legitimate claim, are used in Lysistrata to present the women's actions in a negative light, but at the same time, there is a counterbalance of other, more positive models, such as the Thesmophoria, of times when women acted alone to the benefit of the city. This is a double presentation of events which we have seen in other plays.

This ambivalence in the play's representation of women reflects a similar ambivalence in their place in Greek ideology. In law, they were defined as ‘incapable of a self-determined act, as almost … an un-person, outside the limits of those who constitute society's responsible and representative agents’. They had no formal political representation and were for a great part of the time confined to the gunaikeion, the women's quarters of the house.