Antigone & Lysistrata: Shedding Light on the Ideal Athenian Woman

According to Belloli, the distinct manner in which the female characters Antigone and Lysistrata are portrayed plays a critical role in shedding some light on the fundamental nature of an ideal Athenian woman. Sophocles' Antigone creates a room for the readers to have some scope on how social injustices hindered women against rebelling the authority. At the same time, Aristophanes' Lysistrata shows that only destruction and war can be used as a tool to challenge authority in the Polis. Therefore, Aristophanes and Sophocles apply different methods to emphasize the same idea; that for a complete Athenian woman, loyalty is determined based on allegiance to her Polis.

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Moreover, this concept of a proper Athenian woman is thought to be highly treasured in the Athenian society since both comedy and tragedy relate to this concept. The different roles bestowed to Lysistrata and Antigone by carefully defining how they connected with other women, the society, and their families, played a critical role in modeling a proper Athenian woman.

To begin with, in Sophocles' Antigone, the significant challenges to the central character's role in her family narrows down to the fact that the ultimate loyalty of the Athenian woman belonged to the Polis. Antigone, the primary character in the tragedy of Sophocles, struggles hard to protect the relationship that exists in her family; thus, she can be thought of as a protector in an attempt to match her role, Antigone fearlessly stages a rebellion against her Polis (Belloli, p. 266).

Nonetheless, Antigone breaks the king's command to defend her family and her late brother's honor. Polyneices, having been declared an enemy of the state and condemned to death by King Creon for forcefully trying to take over his Polis, is denied a proper burial, and the king further warns anyone not to bury him or face the same fate. However, Antigone betrays her Polis and pays loyalty to her late brother by burying him to guarantee him an underworld passage.

The protector role eventually leads to Antigone, giving a blind eye to the dire consequences that were posed by her actions (Belloli, p. 264). She adamantly dismisses the king's orders when she says, "The time in which I must please those that are dead is longer than I must please those of this world." Antigone 's misplaced priority of appeasing the underworld gods, made her believe that Polis is less critical.

Furthermore, the statement, "No suffering of mine will be enough to make me die ignobly," reveals that Antigone was continuously denying the adverse consequences resulting from her betrayal to her Polis and king, by justifying her inevitable death to come. Sophocles aims at drawing the audience to the conclusion that Antigone's rebellion was foolish and unmerited hence the notion that an ideal Athenian woman pledged her loyalty to the Polis (Belloli, p. 265).

Sophocles further builds on the idea of a proper Athenian woman observing her loyalty to the Polis through Antigone's relationship with the sister. The tragedy portrays Ismene as the ideal Athenian woman, due to her acknowledgment of the government as being supreme and should be respected to the latter (Belloli, p. 267). Moreover, Ismene unfruitful tries to convince Antigone not to perform Polyneices' burial. However, Antigone fails to heed to her sister's advice and later views her as a traitor for believing that her loyalty belonged to the Polis. Ismene responds to Antigone by terming her actions as "defiance of the citizenry" she further comments by saying, "...my nature does not give me means for that."

Practically, Ismene is trying to convince Antigone that it is futile attempting to go against the Polis, Ismene knows that Antigone "...desire impossibilities." Based on Antigone's arguments with her sister Ismene, it is undebated that Ismene and not Antigone is Sophocles' definition of ultimate Athenian woman since she pledges her full loyalty to her Polis while betraying her dead brother (Belloli, p. 267).

In contrast to Antigone, Lysistrata, the heroine in Aristophanes' play, sacrifices her loyalty to her family for the sake of saving her Polis from the war with Sparta. During her rebel role in her family, Lysistrata decides to "...compel [her] husband to make peace" she emphasize this by denying him sex with an ultimatum of him stopping the harmful behaviors that continuously put Athens at risk. Lysistrata concludes that "...there are a thousand ways of tormenting [him]," leading to the ultimate salvation of Athens.

As opposed to Antigone, Lysistrata takes into consideration the outcome dictated by her actions; she is fully aware that rebellion against her husband could easily lead to dire consequences. Lysistrata downplays the fact that her husband could rape her to attain physical satisfaction by saying he would, "...soon tire of the game there's no satisfaction for a man unless a woman shares it." Through Lysistrata, Aristophane creates a woman who is willing to defy her family for the greater good of Athens (Belloli, p. 265).

Furthermore, in her relationship with various women of Athens, Lysistrata assumes the position of leadership, she inspires those supporting her to unrelentingly fight for the good of their respective Polis (Belloli, p. 264). Nonetheless, Lysistrata leads in founding the Greek women's movement championing for harmony within the Polis. She arranges a meeting involving all the important women of Sparta and Athens. During the meeting, Lysistrata convinces the women by saying, "We must refrain from the male altogether..." she proceeds by saying, "We need only sit indoors...employing all our charms and all our arts...they will be wild to lie with us." All this was in an attempt to push the male into making peace hence saving their Polis.

Through effectively, applying her powerful leadership skills, Lysistrata saves her Polis from the unforgiving terrors of war by fully restoring peace in Athens. Ultimately, Lysistrata lays down an elaborate scheme of denying sexual intercourse to all the men in Greece, forcing them to put an end to the war (Belloli, p. 266). Moreover, Lysistrata takes over the peace talks, both the Spartans and Athenians are left with no option but to agree in ending the war mutually. Centering on her role as a peacemaker, Lysistrata reveals that an ideal Athenian woman should pledge support to her Polis.

In conclusion, the portrayal of Lysistrata and Antigone in the Greece theatre leaves the readers with the notion that her undoubting loyalty to her Polis defines an ideal Athenian woman. Sophocles describes the virtues of a complete Athenian woman via the character Antigone whose ultimate loyalty lies not with her Polis but with her family and dead brother. However, Sophocles, Aristophanes shows a proper Athenian woman by carefully making the character Lysistrata successful in championing for her people's peace, through scheming efficient and elaborate plans like convincing women to fearlessly rebel against their men in an attempt to push for peace within Athenians and Spartans, hence safeguarding her Polis from falling victim of the terrors of war. Aristophanes and Sophocles used female characters with the sole aim of educating the Athenians on the expected essence of an ideal woman. The theatric definitions of Sophocles' and Aristophanes' proper Athenian woman escalated the much-needed spirit of civilization during the chaotic periods. They gave readers a clear scope on the roles of women in the ancient Athens.

Work Cited

Belloli, Jack. "The Cambridge Greek Play: Antigone and Lysistrata." (2017): 164-166. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/09574042.2017.1327753