- The Men's Chorus seriously does not like what they just saw happen. They think that the women's behavior must be part of a Spartan plot to take over Athens and replace its democracy with a tyranny.
- The Men's Leader echoes the feelings of the Men's Chorus; he marches up to the Women's Leader and prepares to do battle with her.
- But the Women's Leader promises to give back exactly as good as she gets. The Women's Chorus shows its support by chanting about how its members are all prominent women of Athens, who are entitled to give the city advice on such an important matter.
- The Women's Leader rounds off this chant by saying that the old farts of the Men's Chorus are a useless burden on the community.
- The Men's Chorus doesn't like this at all. They take off their jackets and prepare to do battle. But then the women of the Women's Chorus take off their jackets and prepare to do battle as well.
- Just when things are about to get ugly, Lysistrata shows up; she has just come back from the Acropolis. The Men's Leader says, "Hey! Lysistrata! What's up?"
- Lysistrata is troubled. She has a big problem. She sums up the problem as follows: "Sex: the women can't go without it." It turns out that all of the women are trying to weasel out on the plan—because they want to sneak off and have sex.
- Just then, a woman runs by. She claims that she has to go home and spread out some wool, before the moths get it. Lysistrata tells her she isn't "spreading" anything. Badoom-ching.
- Then another woman runs by. She claims that she has to go home and shuck some flax. Lysistrata tells her she isn't "shucking" anything. Double badoom-ching.
- Then another woman runs by. She claims that she has to go give birth. When Lysistrata points out that she wasn't pregnant the day before, the woman is unfazed. But Lysistrata quickly gets to the bottom of the matter: instead of a baby bump, the woman has hidden the sacred helmet from the statue of Athena under her clothing.
- After hearing some more complaining along these lines from yet another woman, Lysistrata decides that enough is enough. She pulls out a scroll of paper and reads an oracle.
- The oracle boils down to this: if the women hold their own and don't give up their strike, they will always get to be on top (yes, you got that). If their strike falls apart, though, the whole world will view them as a bunch of sex-mad hussies.
- In response, the Men's Chorus sings a song about how the only sensible thing for a man to do is hate women. Shortly afterwards, the Women's Chorus follows this up with a song about how the only sensible thing is to hate men.