Plot Summary of Lysistrata Part I - Part IV

Plot Summary of Lysistrata by Aristophanes : Scene IV

The Magistrate and the Spartan Herald meet onstage. The Magistrate is puzzled about why the Herald walks funny and holds his cloak out in front of his body. As it turns out, the Herald is suffering from the same affliction as Cinesias. All the men in Sparta have been in such a state since Lampito led all the Spartan women in their revolt. None of the men can walk or ride correctly, and they are desperate. The Magistrate tells the Herald to send for ambassadors, who will deliberate the peace talks.

Plot Summary of Lysistrata by Aristophanes : Choral Episode

The chorus of men denounce the women as cold and ruthless, and the women retort by saying if that be the case, the men are fools to try and fight with them when they could be allies. The men are at first, still enraged. But as the women begin to tease the men, their will finally begins to crack. The men and women join in song, singing to celebrate the end of the wars, between the Greek cities and between the men and women.

Plot Summary of Lysistrata by Aristophanes : Scene V

The Spartans enter, again flying their manly colors at full mast. Both the Athenians and Spartans dress and prepare to write up a peace treaty, complaining about their lack of relief. Lysistrata enters, prepared to broker the truce. She brings out her handmaid, naked, and names her Reconciliation. She warns both sides that while she is a woman, she is well-schooled in politics despite all the men denying her the right to discuss it publicly all these years. She then likens both the Athenians and Spartans to barbarians for killing one another- that is, Greeks killing Greeks. She admonishes the Spartans for warring with the Athenians when Athens had saved Sparta when they were at war in Messenia.

She also points out to the Athenians that Sparta had freed them once when they had been a captive city. The Spartans and Athenians start discussing how they will split up the territories in question, using Reconciliation’s body as a map to point out their interests. Finally, an accord is agreed upon. Lysistrata instructs all the men to wash before entering the Acropolis, where the women have prepared a great feast. So long as the men swear to behave peacefully from now on, the women will return home with their husbands. The men scurry off to finalize the treaty and gather provisions for the feast.

Plot Summary of Lysistrata by Aristophanes : Exodos

At this point in the plot of Lysistrata, the feast begins, a couple of market-loungers, who had no part in the war or the peace, try to enter the feast. A porter blocks them and threatens them if they don’t leave. Just then, the Athenian and Spartan men exit, singing praises for the feast. They realize that when sober, they are so jittery that they misinterpret what the other side says. But when drunk, the ambassadors are always able to leave negotiations on pleasant terms. Music starts, and the Spartans and Athenians begin to sing. The Athenians sing a song in praise of Sparta, and the Spartans one in praise of Athens.