Lysistrata

This portion of the play gives us a good cross-section of comic techniques in Old Comedy. First, Lysistrata tries to stop various sex-crazed women from leaving the Acropolis, each presenting a more ridiculous excuse than the last. Besides the physical comedy of the women rushing about and Lysistrata losing control, their verbal exchanges are a great example of Aristophanic puns and plays on words. Bawdy connections are drawn between innocent tasks like wool and flax preparation and explicit sex acts, which the translator Sarah Ruden captures as neatly as possible in English (e.g. “I only need to spread [wool] on the bed,” line 732; “No shucking way,” line 740). The scene culminates with a moment of high physical comedy: a woman inserts a helmet—perhaps the sacred one from Athena’s statue in the Parthenon—under her dress, feigning pregnancy. This use of props is common in Aristophanes’ works.

The playwright also takes a moment to make a jibe at a public figure, another important feature of Old Comedy. The name of Myrrhine’s husband, the hapless Cinesias, may be a reference to a contemporary poet in Athens at the time. Aristophanes mocked him before in his Birds (414 BCE), where another “Cinesias” tries to borrow the birds’ wings to improve his bad poetry. This sort of fourth wall-breaking was an expected feature for the ancient audience. The figure under attack may even have been sitting in the crowd themselves, as dramatic festivals were important social occasions—the actor could have aimed the joke directly at his target. Aristophanes makes similar name drops elsewhere in the play, most notably against the notoriously effeminate Cleisthenes, whom he teases at lines 621 and 1092.

The Cinesias/Myrrhine scene also utilizes a common visual gag: Cinesias wears a comically over-sized erection, simulated with props. This brand of humor was apparently highly effective for the ancient audience; Aristophanes will use it again in the final negotiation scene between the Athenians and Spartans. The comedy of these sorts of interactions—particularly between male and female characters—is enhanced by the fact that in ancient theater, all the actors were men. Lysistrata particularly benefits from this type of metatheatrical joke, as it pivots heavily on themes of gender-bending and comic role reversal.