Reviews for Three Plays by Aristophanes: Staging Women

The average rating for Three Plays by Aristophanes: Staging Women based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-02-28 00:00:00 Scott Warren Women strike: beautiful theme, wonderfully and very realistically worked out, particularly vile language. Quite amusing, but weak ending. Women's Party: dark, complex and inimitable piece full of references to pieces of Euripides; not enjoyable. Women politics: fresh and funny piece, strongly similar to Women Strik, but weakening towards the end. Notable satire on aspects of the democratic system: the chitchat-retoric, the people just attend the meetings to gather their fees, etc.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-09-07 00:00:00 Judith Thatch I have to admit that I didn't just whip this off the shelf, thinking, "Boy, it's been a long time since I read any good Attic comedy... ooh, and here's a new translation." No, this was assigned reading for one of my few college courses that had no equations. These three plays of Aristophanes all prominently feature women. "Lysistrata" deals with a sexual strike coordinated by the women of Athens and Sparta to make their men forge a peace treaty and end the war. "Women at the Thesmophoria" is about an all-female festival invaded by a man who wishes to convince the women of Athens that his kinsman, Euripedes, is not, in fact, a misogynist. And "Assemblywomen" is about a takeover of the Athenian democracy by women and the resulting communistic (except for slaves, women, and foreigners) state that arises. Of the three, "Lysistrata" is the best. They're all *very* broad and vulgar comedies, but "Lysistrata" is the wittiest and most appealing to the modern reader. They're all very worth reading to get insight into the classical Greek (man's) mind, but they're really a bit silly otherwise.