Lysistrata is one of the few surviving plays written by
the master of Old Comedy, Aristophanes. Originally
performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic
account of one woman’s extraordinary mission to end
The Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata convinces the women
of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their
husbands as a means of forcing the men to negotiate
peace, a strategy however that inflames the battle
between the sexes. The play is notable for its exposé
of sexual relations in a male-dominated society and for
its use of both double entendre and explicit obscenities.