Antigone and Lysistrata

The Portrayal of the Main Characters in Antigone and Lysistrata Illustrate the Athenian Ideal of the Proper Woman Throughout history, across the world, women have not had the same political or civil rights as men; as a result of this inequality, women have had little representation in the literary world. Ancient Greece, specifically ancient Athens, exists as one of the few literary exceptions to the centuries long, worldwide disregard of women. Realistically, women in ancient …

…rebel against their husbands in order to force a peace thereby protecting her city-state from destruction. Sophocles and Aristophanes made use of their female characters to illustrate to the Athenian public just what the essence of the proper woman is. Through their theatric examples of the ideal woman Sophocles and Aristophanes manage to help their civilizations through times of chaos and provide contemporary readers a window into women’s roles in the ancient Athenian world.