How we cite our quotes: Line
Quote #4
Lysistrata: "Meanwhile, let's go inside with the other women on the Acropolis and help bar the gates."
Calonice: "But don't you think the men will quickly launch a concerted counterattack on us?"
Lysistrata: "I'm not worried about them. They can't come against us with enough threats or fire to get these gates open, except on the terms we've agreed on."
Calonice: "No they can't, so help me Aphrodite! Otherwise we women wouldn't deserve to be called rascals you can't win a fight with!" (245-253)
Calonice is agreeing with men's opinion of women; after all, when she suggests that women "deserve to be called rascals," who else but men could be doing the name-calling? But check it out: doesn't it seem like, on both occasions, Calonice takes what men intend as an insult and turns it into a badge of pride. The way she seems to see it, if women are annoying, that's just awesome, because it will enable them to get what they want. Can you think of any other times in history when a group that lacks power has taken a term used to insult them and turned it into a badge of pride?
Quote #5
Magistrate: "So the women's profligacy has flared up again, has it, the tomtoms, the steady chants of 'Sabazios,' this worship of Adonis on the rooftops? I heard it all once before while sitting in Assembly. Demostratus (bad luck to him!) was moving that we send an armada to Sicily, while his wife was dancing and yelling 'Poor young Adonis!' Then Demostratus moved that we sign up some Zakynthian infantry, but his wife up on the roof was getting drunk and crying 'Beat your breast for Adonis!' But he just went on making his motions, that godforsaken, disgusting Baron Bluster! From women, I say, you get this kind of riotous extravagance!" (386-398)
So far we've only been getting women's view of women (or women's view of men's view of women—which makes us dizzy just thinking about). Here we get a man's opinion of women, and it isn't all that flattering. The Magistrate is focusing on one detail of women's lives: the fact that, in Athens in the 5th century BCE, a bunch of weird new religions enjoyed a wave of popularity among the city's women and slaves. Basically, you can think of this as sort of like Beatlemania—except with gods like Sabazios and Adonis instead of John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
Quote #6
Magistrate: "By Poseidon the Salty, it serves us right! When we ourselves abet our wives' misbehavior and teach them profligacy, these are the sort of schemes they bring to flower! Aren't we the ones who go to the shops and say this kind of thing: 'Goldsmith, about that choker you made me: my wife was having a ball the other night, and now the prong's slipped out of the hole. Me, I've got to cruise over to Salamis, so if you've got time, by all means visit her in the evening and fit a prong in the hole.' Another husband says this to a shoemaker, a teenager sporting no boyish cock: 'Shoemaker, about my wife's tootsy: the thong is squeezing her pinky winky, where she's tender. So why don't you drop in on her sometime and loosen it up so there's more play down there?' That's the sort of thing that's led to all this, when I, a Magistrate, have lined up timber for oars and now come to get the necessary funds, and find myself standing at the gates, locked out by women!" (403-430)
These words are the Magistrate's attempt to explain how the women of Athens have suddenly gotten it into their heads to take over the Acropolis. He thinks that men are to blame for encouraging their wives to commit bad behavior. He uses the example of infidelity—his talk about "fitting prongs in holes" is pretty filthy and hilarious—and basically thinks that any female misbehavior must be a dude's idea. So wrong, Magistrate. Dead wrong.