We have been instructed to read the essay, "Athenian Women" by Sarah Ruden that is found at the end of Lysistrata.
- deals with the overturning of the typical laws
- The Dead Day or the Saturnalia: women have power, a day of license with no repercussions
- tragedy and comedy are the two sides of a coin
Lysistrata
-pg. 32: The women dress the councilor up like a woman (the most humiliating thing to happen to a man, ex. Hercules). He is used as a scapegoat because he is ritualistically expelled from the community, takes all of the sins away. This is probably unconsciously done by Aristophanes. The women then dress the councilor up like a corpse.
Aristophanes was making fun of the phallus
- attacking it as a symbol of the male aggression
- deflation of male authority
- making fun of phallocentricsm
The point of comedy is reconciliation, merriment: feasting and dancing.
Bacchantes were the women who danced for Dionysus: one day to be without oppression.
The point of Dionysus was to drive you out of your mind: the first deconstructor but also a liberator.
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