Aristophanes' Lysistrata

The Acropolis, where the action happens, because it's hard to find appropriate images for this play.

Lysistrata, a play by Aristophanes, is a Greek comedy set during the Peloponnesian War.  It tells the tale of a Greek woman, Lysistrata, who brought  the men of the main warring parties (Athens and Greece) to their knees by organizing a sex strike by the women.  Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to forgo sex with their men until hostilities have ended.  They also take the Acropolis, which serves as the Athenian treasury, in an end to cut of funding for the Athenian war effort.  Without money for weapons or comfort from their wives, the Athenians try to persuade Lysistrata and the women to end their efforts but Lysistrata refuses.  Sparta sends an envoy begging Lysistrata to end the sex strike, but she orders them to seek peace with the Athenians.  The Spartans and Athenians broker a peace deal (with Lysistrata admonishing both groups of delegates) and celebrate with feasting (and sex with their lovers and wives afterwards).

Despite the story of a woman taking charge in a male-dominated society and standing up to a patriarchal social structure, Lysistrata is pretty dang far from a feminist tale of gender equality.  The women are portrayed as weak-willed, foolish, and as having a voracious sexual appetite.  Lysistrata's sex strike is the worst possible thing for the women as well as the men, and we are reminded of this not only when Lysistrata reveals her plan but also at the Acropolis when she catches women escaping home. The women themselves acknowledge that they need men to keep them in line.  Lysistrata seems to be the exception rather than the rule for how Athenian women behave.

The play may not even be for acknowledging that peace is desirable over war.  Lysistrata waited years before putting her plan into action, and only after it became obvious that the war had reached a stalemate with neither side being any closer to victory, despite the losses of husbands and sons that women were giving up to the war effort.  It may be this last effect of the war that eventually drives Lysistrata to do the sex strike. Peace may not be preferred to war, but it certainly is preferred over a stale mate.