By 411 B.C., the Peloponnesian War had lasted twenty years, and Athens was in a state of turmoil. The plague of a few years earlier had decimated the population, killing anywhere from one-third to twothirds of the people. At the time of the initial presentation of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, probably in January of 411 B.C., the political atmosphere of Athens was one of unrest. Within months, extremists would overthrow the democracy of Athens, and engage in open negotiations with Sparta. Although these extremists would soon be overthrown, their initial success indicates how unstable the atmosphere of Athens was at the time. But those events were still six months away at the time of Aristophanes’ play, and there were other events that revealed how difficult life had become for Athenians. Athens had only recently suffered a significant and disastrous military loss in the attempted invasion of Sicily. With the destruction of their navy, the importation of food became a pressing concern for Athens, and serious food shortages and hunger were the result. Although there are many comedic moments in Lysistrata, there are many serious moments, such as when Lysistrata tells the magistrate that many of Athens’ young men had died, and so, many of the city’s young women will never have the chance to marry and have families. Lysistrata’s actions will end the war, something that men had not been able to do in the past twenty years. Aristophanes gives important lines to his heroine, a woman, to point out to the audience just how inept their government had become. The Greek audience knew of women’s weaknesses, but Lysistrata’s strengths illustrate that one weak women can accomplish what men cannot. In Aristophanes’ play, women are strong, and they are a force that can end a war.

Since there are no records of how this play was received, and since Aristophanes won no prize for its writing, it is difficult to reconstruct how the audience reacted to this depiction of women as heroic. However, it is possible to examine how well Lysistrata has endured by focusing on the play as source material for modern productions. It should not be surprising, given its antiwar motif and the depiction of women as strong movers of social change, that Lysistrata’s story has continued to be a popular play in modern productions. Although Lysistrata was originally produced as musical comedy, most modern productions either eliminate the music or severely reduce its presence. Although there have been many productions of Aristophanes’ play during the past one hundred years, there are two New York productions that offer contrasting views of this play’s applicability to modern life. In 1930, Lysistrata enjoyed a successful and commercially profitable run on the New York stage. In an evaluation of the reviews from the period, critic Clive Barnes quotes 1930 reviews as pronouncing the play ‘‘a smash.’’ Some of these earlier Broadway critics noted that this Greek comedy contained set designs that offered a ‘‘rich-hued, towering Acropolis,’’ and that the actors helped to make the play ‘‘a delectable desert for Broadway palates.’’ Subsequent productions have not fared so well, with a 1959 Broadway production earning mostly negative reviews. Among the reviewers, none were enthusiastic, but most simply found this new production of Lysistrata either dated or offensive. Robert Coleman described the play as ‘‘a bit shopworn,’’ while John McClain labeled the play, ‘‘tasteless and revolting.’’ Much of McClain’s ire was directed toward an attempt to modernize the play through revealing costumes and an emphasis on eroticism.

Aristophanes’ audience was committed to the theatre, which was not a daily or...