Lysistrata

Acts

• Prologue

  Lysistrata summons the women of Greece. Her plan: refuse sex until the men make peace. The oath is sworn.

  296 lines
• Parodos

  The old women seize the Acropolis. The old men arrive with torches. A battle of the sexes erupts.

  137 lines
• First Episode

  The women defend the Acropolis. The magistrate arrives with archers. The women drive them back.

  83 lines
• First Parabasis

  The choruses of old men and old women exchange insults. The women drench the men with water.

  173 lines
• Second Episode

  The sex-strike hurts. Several women try to desert. Lysistrata catches one faking pregnancy with a helmet.

  6 lines
• First Stasimon

  The women argue they have paid — their sons die while the men grow old debating.

  77 lines
• Third Episode

  Cinesias arrives, visibly aroused. His wife leads him on elaborately — then leaves at the last moment.

  90 lines
• Second Stasimon

  The chorus sympathises with Cinesias's predicament.

  39 lines
• Fourth Episode

  A Spartan herald arrives in obvious distress — the Spartan women have joined the strike. Both sides agree to negotiate.

  227 lines
• The Reconciliation

  Lysistrata brokers peace using Reconciliation personified — a naked woman — while the men assign territories with anatomical metaphors.

  31 lines
• Second Parabasis

  The old men and women reconcile, sharing cloaks.

  182 lines
• Exodos

  Spartans and Athenians feast and dance together. The play ends imagining a world without war.

  99 lines