Sexual Tension In Lysistrata

The passage is a good viewpoint into the mindset of the viewer ship at that time. It makes outlandish remarks about both genders, while backing the statement up with a little explanation. The theme that is developed is sexual tension. A thematic question that is raised would be, are men only interested in going to war and them coming home and bedding a woman no matter who she is, almost like it’s a right he gained. Another thematic question would be; a woman is only desirable when she is young rather, not when she sets older; but on the other hand a man can age all he wants and pick any woman he wants. The point of this brief passage from Lysistrata between the Commissioner and Lysistrata is to show the different ways that men and women viewed reproduction at that time.
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That if a woman does not become a wife within her “season” then she would turn to the gods for a sign and place all her trust in that. This is highlighted with the line, “... sit out her life groping at omens - and finding no men”, saying that the omen of not being picked by a man is a sign of something possible evil in them, or even that not being picked at all is that there is something evil in them. Since during this time, omens were used to tell the eventual outcomes of wars, life decision and even elections that they must have done something wrong.
This passage helps us put the time frame into a snapshot. It calls attention to sex, which is a taboo thing to outright talk about now, yet back then was a major topic. It helps to set a framework for why Lysistrata and the other women thought that abstaining from sex would bring the men home and stop the war. Seeing that sex, and procreation, is a major driving factor of men back then, the women used it in a way that wasn’t thought about prior. It helps to drive home the message that the women have the power in the long run; men may rule the lands yet women rule the