Notes on Religion in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata
D. B. Levine
Lysistrata complains in the play’s prologue that the women would have rushed to gather if a festival of procreative gods with erotic associations were underway: for Bacchos, Pan, or Genetyllis at Coliae (1-2). This is a comic implication that women worshipped them for carnal reasons.
The magistrate implies that women are addicted to the worship of Sabazios and Adonis, eastern gods popular with women and (388-389), associated with Dionysos and Aphrodite, respectively.
Cult Place Reference: Pan’s Cave: Lysistrata: “First I caught one of them picking open the hole where the cave of Pan is.” (720)
Religious References: Pan’s Cave and the Acropolis (sex taboo)
Myrrhine and Kinesias 911-914:
- So where would one do this thing, you naughty man?
- Where? The Cave of Pan is fine!
- And how then would I enter into the citadel purified? (καὶ πῶς ἔθ᾽ἁγνὴ δῆτ᾽ἔλθοιμ᾽ἐς πόλιν;)
- I suppose you would best do it by washing (λουσαμένη) first in the Klepsydra Spring [nearby].
- You naughty man, then would I break the oath that I have just made?
Topical Reference to holy things on the Acropolis: Athena Parthenos’ Helmet. 743-755:
- O lady Eileithuia, hold back the birth, until I can come to a place that is ritually acceptable (ὅσιον χωρίον)!
- What are you babbling about?
- I am about to give birth right now.
- But you weren’t pregnant yesterday.
- But I am today. Please send me back home as quickly as possible, Lysistrata, to the midwife.
- What is this all about? What is this hard thing you have?
- I have a boy child.
- By Aphrodite, you do not. But you do seem to have something bronze and Let me take a look. O you ridiculous thing, did you say that you are pregnant — while having the sacred helmet (τὴν ἱερὰν κυνῆν / κυεῖν φασκες)?
- And I am pregnant, by Zeus.
- Why then did you take this?
- So that if my baby’s birth should overtake me in the citadel, I would give birth into the helmet, like the doves.
Old men on the Acropolis say they have come to prevent the women from seizing the “holy image” of Athena (ἅγιον βρέτας hagion bretas, 262). This is the ancient olive wood statue (ξόανον) of Athena Polias (of the city), later kept in the Erechtheion, for which Athenian girls wove a peplos (robe) each year, presented at the Panathenaia festival.
The Old men pray to Athena Nike, whose temple is beside the Acropolis entrance:
“Victory Goddess (δέσποινα Νίκη), lend assistance, Help us beat these mutinous wives!” (317) [Literally: “Help us to set up a trophy (τροπαῖον) over the women” – a military phrase.]
The women, through Lysistrata, argue that they are part of city because theytake part in its religious rites (638-658):
“As soon as I turned seven I was an Arrephoros; Then when I was ten I was a Grinder for the Foundress; And shedding my saffron robe I was a Bear at the Brauronia; And once, when I was a fair girl, I carried the Basket Wearing a necklace of dried figs.” [Henderson, Loeb tr.]
- Arrephoros: Helper of embroidery of peplos for Athena (Mikalson pp. 73, 136-137)
- Grinder (ἀλητρίς)/Foundress (τἀρχηγέτι): for Demeter (or Athena)
- Brauronian Bear (ἄρκτος): for Artemis at Brauron
- Basket Carrying (kanephoros): a feature for many processions, perhaps here the Panathenaia.
Lysistrata as “representative of traditional religion” Theory: Characters Lysistrata and Myrrhine modeled on real-life priestesses of Athena Polias (Lysimache) and Athena Nike (Myrrhine).
— Helps to explain how Lysistrata has power to get women to follow her lead.
— The women make the Acropolis their HQ; it is the priestess’ area of authority.
— Symbols of Athena (owl, helmet, snake) are prominent.
— Myrrhine has easy access to a bed and other equipment, while she is right beside “her” building.
Lysistrata and supporters, as supporters of traditional Athenian religion, are opposed to “newer religious rituals which had recently become popular. They were mostly of Foreign origin, and involved emotional songs or cries and ecstatic dancing to the accompaniment of drums or tambourines” (MacDowell, 242).
1-4 Bakkhic revel, Pan’s Shrine, Kolias, Genetyllis (drums)
387-389: Proboulos (Magistrate) thinks — falsely — that the women are worshipping Sabazios (Phrygian wine god) and Adonis (Semitic hero) with drums and cries. To the contrary, the women are only interested in upholding Athena worship: the status quo.
Kind RELIGIOUS Thoughts About The Spartan Enemy: Lysistrata reminds women of how Spartans and Athenians share worship at Panhellenic shrines in Olympia, Delphi, Thermopylae, and elsewhere (1130).
Final scene of play: Spartan sings two songs “about Spartan religious dancing and about the days when the Athenians and the Spartans fought against the Persians at Artemision and Thermopylai (1247-72, 1296-1321).” (MacDowell 246)
Kind Religious Thoughts About Spartan Enemy (continued)
“The Audience is left with more favorable thoughts about Sparta than are to be found in any other play of Aristophanes. There can be no doubt that he wishes that the hostilities would come to an end, but he has no practical suggestion for bringing it about” (MacDowell 246).
The last lines of the play are in Spartan Doric Dialect, referring to the Spartan countryside, and praise Spartan Athena: τὰν δ᾿ αὖ σιὰν (= θεὰν) τὰν παμμάχον, τὰν Χαλκίοικον ὕμνη. “…sing a song of joyous praise for Spartan Athena of the House of Bronze!”
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