Back in 411 BC, the Greek poet and playwright, Aristophanes, wrote Lysistrata , a comedy about a woman who rallies others in a unique plan to end the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. She proposes that all of them deny sex to their husbands and lovers, to force them to negotiate peace. She says: By the two Goddesses, now can't you see All we have to do is idly sit indoors With smooth roses powdered on our cheeks, Our bodies burning naked through the folds Of shining Amorgos' silk, and meet the men With our dear Venus-plats plucked trim and neat.
Their stirring love will rise up furiously, They'll beg our arms to open. That's our time! We'll disregard their knocking, beat them off – And they will soon be rabid for a Peace. I'm sure of it.
Of course, there is furious debate and the women, so used to being subservient to the men, are fearful of the consequences of this provocative act. What if they are forced, one of the women asks. To which Lysistrata replies: Yield then, but with a sluggish, cold indifference.
There is no joy to them in sullen mating. Besides we have other ways to madden them; They cannot stand up long, and they've no delight Unless we fit their aim with merry succour. It is not as easy as all that, but in the author's imagination, anything is possible — the desperate men eventually end the war.
A feminist much before the word was coined, Aristophanes wrote another play, Thesmophoriazusae , in which women angry about the way Euripedes (of Medea .
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