History Theatre / Lysistrata

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** It should be noted that unlike in modern culture where size equates to virility, in Ancient Greek culture the size of your member correlates to how much control you have over your sexual urges. You can guess what this implies about the men in the play.

** At one point, Lysistrata admits that [[AllWomenAreLustful the women aren't finding the sex strike any easier than the men are]]. The faithful woman to whom she speaks cries out "Zeus help us!", to which Lysistrata winces and says [[GagPenis there's no need to get HIM involved in this]]. At least one translator has rendered the conversation thusly: "...''We'' want to get laid, too." "By Zeus!" "No, not by ''him!''"

* AllMenArePerverts

* DancePartyEnding
* DirtyOldMan
* DirtyOldWoman

* DoubleEntendre: How many? Why, all of them, of course!

* RagingStiffie: All the guys end up with these.
* SexComedy

* UnresolvedSexualTension: To the ''extreme''.
* VolleyingInsults

A {{comedy}} by the Greek playwright {{Aristophanes}}. It is OlderThanFeudalism, having first been performed in 411 BC, and (as such) is one of the oldest scripts still in use today.

This is the TropeNamer for the LysistrataGambit, a more X-rated version of ExiledToTheCouch. And, if it's performed by a cast with enough balls to do it justice, it is still side-splittingly funny today.

** And this standard persisted to the early modern period of Europe (1400-1800).

And if you think that the previous summary was full of hot and steamy innuendo, you should be aware that the play itself is a hell of a lot raunchier. We're not joking about the burdens: the costumes for male characters include a GagPenis. Oh, and, the vow sworn by the women includes very explicit detail of what they are forswearing, such as agreeing not to "[[HeadTiltinglyKinky crouch like the lioness on the cheese grater]]" ([[ComicSutra No, we don't know what that means either]]. It's been lost to the mists of time. All we have from the historical record is a menu from a Greek brothel, on which this position is [[ComicSutra the most expensive act you can purchase from a prostitute]]. Imaginations, start your engines).

And if you think that the previous summary was full of hot and steamy innuendo, you should be aware that the play itself is a hell of a lot raunchier. We're not joking about the burdens: the costumes for male characters include a GagPenis. Oh, and, the vow sworn by the women includes very explicit detail of what they are forswearing, such as agreeing not to "[[HeadTiltinglyKinky crouch like the lioness on the cheese grater]]" ([[NoodleIncident No, we don't know what that means either]]. It's been lost to the mists of time. All we have from the historical record is a menu from a Greek brothel, on which this position is [[ComicSutra the most expensive act you can purchase from a prostitute]]. Imaginations, start your engines).

The play takes place during UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar, when Athens and Sparta were embroiled in a hard, sweaty, nasty conflict. Lysistrata, an Athenian woman who is sick of all this war nonsense, manages to convince a large group of women from several city-states (including Sparta) to come together for a meeting, wherein she proposes a dramatic tactic: they (the women) should swear a vow to bring about the end of the war by refusing to have sex with their men until there is peace. As a more practical measure they seize hold of the root of the war effort: the Acropolis, which contains Athens' treasury. The menfolk laugh at the absurdity of this idea: in Ancient Greece, AllWomenAreLustful, and indeed Lysistrata and her friend Calonice must constantly prevent their co-conspirators from sneaking out to, shall we say, [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow engage enemy forces]]. With the women's resolve shown to be firm and upstanding, the menfolk, their ability to make war now wilted and slumping, and tormented by [[RagingStiffie enormous, err, burdens]], agree to work out a peace treaty. Celebration ensues.

* LysistrataGambit: TropeNamer

* BatteringRam: The women barricade themselves in the Acropolis and vowed to withhold sex from their husbands. So we get a scene where the much-deprived men of Athens grab a big trunk of wood and ram it against the doors of the Acropolis again and again, desperately trying to force their way inside...

The play takes place during the PeloponnesianWar, when Athens and Sparta were embroiled in a hard, sweaty, nasty conflict. Lysistrata, an Athenian woman who is sick of all this war nonsense, manages to convince a large group of women from several city-states (including Sparta) to come together for a meeting, wherein she proposes a dramatic tactic: they (the women) should swear a vow to bring about the end of the war by refusing to have sex with their men until there is peace. As a more practical measure they seize hold of the root of the war effort: the Acropolis, which contains Athens' treasury. The menfolk laugh at the absurdity of this idea: in Ancient Greece, AllWomenAreLustful, and indeed Lysistrata and her friend Calonice must constantly prevent their co-conspirators from sneaking out to, shall we say, [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow engage enemy forces]]. With the women's resolve shown to be firm and upstanding, the menfolk, their ability to make war now wilted and slumping, and tormented by [[RagingStiffie enormous, err, burdens]], agree to work out a peace treaty. Celebration ensues.

* HighSchoolAU: The Broadway musical comedy ''Lysistrata Jones'' which places the action at "Athens High School" and the conflict surrounding a basketball team.

* {{Tomboy}}: Lampito, the Spartan woman, especially compared her Athenian counterparts. This Troper saw a version where she was played by a man. There were only 2 male actors, and she is played by the Spartan Actor, who is far more masculine.

* MoodWhiplash: Take into consideration why this was considered a comedy in Aristophanes' time: Women weren't considered citizens, coming in after poor citizens and before slaves. Hellenic comedies were meant to display ideas that were ridiculous, and this play's was the idea of a a group of women could take over Greece's government. Women were also basically the property of men--first their fathers, then their husbands.

* {{Tomboy}}: Lampito, the Spartan woman, especially compared her Athenian counterparts.

The play takes place during the PeloponnesianWar, when Athens and Sparta were embroiled in a [[AccidentalInnuendo hard, sweaty, nasty]] conflict. Lysistrata, an Athenian woman who is sick of all this war nonsense, manages to convince a large group of women from several city-states (including Sparta) to come together for a meeting, wherein she proposes a dramatic tactic: they (the women) should swear a vow to bring about the end of the war by refusing to have sex with their men until there is peace. As a more practical measure they seize hold of the root of the war effort: the Acropolis, which contains Athens' treasury. The menfolk laugh at the absurdity of this idea: in Ancient Greece, AllWomenAreLustful, and indeed Lysistrata and her friend Calonice must constantly prevent their co-conspirators from sneaking out to, shall we say, [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow engage enemy forces]]. With the women's resolve shown to be firm and upstanding, the menfolk, their ability to make war now wilted and slumping, and tormented by [[RagingStiffie enormous, err, burdens]], agree to work out a peace treaty. Celebration ensues.

* AccentAdaptation: often necessary when actually producing this play-- and, indeed, many ancient Greek plays, as they frequently include accent-based humor. British English translations tend to use Scots accents for the Spartans; US translations have been known to use Texas accents.

* MoodWhiplash: Take into consideration why this was considered a comedy in Aristophanes' time: Women weren't considered citizens, coming in after poor citizens and before slaves. Hellenic comedies were meant to display ideas that were ridiculous, and this play's was the idea of a a group of women could take over Greece's government. Women were also basically the property of men--first their fathers, then their husbands.)

Because translations often reflect the spirit of their own era, some of them include rather bizarre euphemisms and dated sounded dialogue.

* DistractedByTheSexy (To really thrust the point home, Lysistrata invites a voluptuous woman named "Reconciliation" to the peace negotiations. Then ''maps the territories in dispute on her body.'')
* DoubleEntendre (how many? Why, all of them, of course!)

* GreekChorus (composed primarily of the aformentioned Dirty Old People)

* LysistrataGambit (TropeNamer)

* MoodWhiplash (Take into consideration why this was considered a comedy in Aristophanes' time: Women weren't considered citizens, coming in after poor citizens and before slaves. Hellenic comedies were meant to display ideas that were ridiculous, and this play's was the idea of a a group of women could take over Greece's government. Women were also basically the property of men-- first their fathers, then their husbands.)
** Uber-feminist Germaine Greer's adaptation creates even more mood whiplash by contrasting the silly, child-like Society Women (the group to which Lysistrata belongs) with the poor, working-class Cleaning Women. In particular, the character of Katina has had her husband, father-in-law, and brother (RE: all the men in her life that she relies on and who would normally support her) all taken off to fight in the war, and are probably dead (it's implied that the wealthy men who are serving don't see any fighting-- only the working class men). Then, her mother-in-law dies, leaving Katina by herself on the farm. Unable to run the farm on her own, Katina escapes with a group fleeing the fighting, and along the way, prematurely gives birth, and the baby dies. This is all before the play. During the play, she's nearly raped (with implications that she may have been raped before, prior to leaving the farm). Looking at things realistically, Katina's only option, having no men to support her, is probably to become a prostitute.
* OrAreYouJustHappyToSeeMe (perhaps the UrExample, as said by the Magistrate: "But look, you are hiding a lance under your clothes, surely.")

* SkinshipGrope (Lysistrata uses this to, ahem, "size up" the attractions with which one of the Spartan women will be able to tempt her menfolk)

* UnresolvedSexualTension (to the ''extreme'')

* MoodWhiplash (Take into consideration why this was considered a comedy in Aristophanes' time: Women weren't considered citizens, coming in after poor citizens and before slaves. Hellenic comedies were meant to display ideas that were BeyondTheImpossible ridiculous, and this play's was the idea of a a group of women could take over Greece's government. Women were also basically the property of men-- first their fathers, then their husbands.)

The play takes place during the PeloponnesianWar, when Athens and Sparta were embroiled in a [[AccidentalInnuendo hard, sweaty, nasty]] conflict. Lysistrata, an Athenian woman who is sick of all this war nonsense, manages to convince a large group of women from several city-states (including Sparta) to come together for a meeting, wherein she proposes a dramatic tactic: they (the women) should swear a vow to bring about the end of the war by refusing to have sex with their men until there is peace. As a more practical measure they seize hold of the root of the war effort: the Acropolis, which contains Athens' treasury. The menfolk laugh at the absurdity of this idea: in Ancient Greece, AllWomenAreLustful, and indeed Lysistrata and her friend Calonice must constantly prevent their co-conspirators from sneaking out to, shall we say, [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow engage enemy forces]]. With the women's resolve shown to be firm and upstanding, the menfolk, their ability to make war now wilted and slumping, and tormented by [[RagingStiffie enormous, err, burdens]], agree to work out a peace treaty. Celebration ensues, [[LampshadedDoubleEntendre if you know what I mean]].

The play takes place during the PeloponnesianWar, when Athens and Sparta were embroiled in a [[AccidentalInnuendo hard, sweaty, nasty]] conflict. Lysistrata, an Athenian woman who is sick of all this war nonsense, manages to convince a large group of women from several city-states (including Sparta) to come together for a meeting, wherein she proposes a dramatic tactic: they (the women) should swear a vow to bring about the end of the war by refusing to have sex with their men until there is peace. As a more practical measure they seize hold of the root of the war effort: the Acropolis, which contains Athens' treasury. The menfolk laugh at the absurdity of this idea: in Ancient Greece, AllWomenAreLustful, and indeed Lysistrata and her friend Calonice must constantly prevent their co-conspirators from sneaking out to, shall we say, [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow engage enemy forces]]. With the women's resolve shown to be firm and upstanding, the menfolk, their ability to make war now wilted and slumping, and tormented by [[RagingStiffie enormous, err, burdens]], agree to work out a peace treaty. Celebration ensues.

A comedy by the Greek playwright {{Aristophanes}}. It is OlderThanFeudalism, having first been performed in 411 BC, and (as such) is one of the oldest scripts still in use today.

(Take note though, that different translations include some very bizarre euphemisms, often reflecting the decade in which they were translated, resulting in dated sounded dialogue.).

* ValuesDissonance: A lot of modern readers interpret the play as being feminist and/or pacifist, but it was definitely not the former and only partially the latter. Much of the comedy derives from the total [[RefugeInAudacity absurdity]] of women involving themselves in politics and even taking over the city of Athens, and while the play does support an end to the PeloponnesianWar, Lysistrata at one point chides the men for thinking of allying with barbarians.