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    The Ecclesiazusae
    The Ecclesiazusae
    The Ecclesiazusae
    Ebook52 pages44 minutes

    The Ecclesiazusae

    By Aristophanes

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    About this ebook

    Aristophanes' "Esslesiazusae", written in the early 4th Century BC, marks a crossroads in his career. Post-dating the Peloponnesian War, it reflects a late change in his writing and a much changed society. This edition includes the complete text.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStart Publishing LLC
    Release dateNov 1, 2012
    ISBN9781625580733
    The Ecclesiazusae
    Author

    Aristophanes

    Often referred to as the father of comedy, Aristophanes was an ancient Greek comedic playwright who was active in ancient Athens during the fourth century BCE, both during and after the Peloponnesian War. His surviving plays collectively represent most of the extant examples of the genre known as Old Comedy and serve as a foundation for future dramatic comedy in Western dramatic literature. Aristophanes’ works are most notable for their political satire, and he often ridiculed public figures, including, most famously, Socrates, in his play The Clouds. Aristophanes is also recognized for his realistic representations of daily life in Athens, and his works provide an important source to understand the social reality of life in Ancient Greece. Aristophanes died sometime after 386 BCE of unknown causes.

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    • 4/5
      "The Assembly of Women," or, "Ecclesiazusae," reminded me very strongly of my favorite Aristophanes, "Lysistrata." If you loved that play like I did, you will enjoy this one as well.The first scene starts off with a group of wives in Ancient Athens stealing their husband's clothes and setting off to speak at the male-only Assembly. Their novel ideas, which concern land ownership, equality, and even sex, are met with a mixture of both outraged indignation and curious popularity. This play was very fun, and I loved the spirited, mischievously intelligent women. I cannot leave our their husbands - exaggeratedly slow witted, they were hilarious. Aristophanes is perhaps the world's first champion of women's rights, and he puts his ideas into comedy very well.

    Book preview

    The Ecclesiazusae - Aristophanes

    The Ecclesiazusae

    -0r- Women in Council

    By Aristophanes

    Start Publishing LLC

    Copyright © 2012 by Start Publishing LLC

    All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

    First Start Publishing eBook edition October 2012

    Start Publishing is a registered trademark of Start Publishing LLC

    Manufactured in the United States of America

    10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

    ISBN 978-1-62558-073-3

    Table of Contents

    Introduction

    The Ecclesiazusae

    The Ecclesiazusae

    or

    Women in Council

    Introduction

    The ‘Ecclesiazusae, or Women in Council,’ was not produced till twenty years after the preceding play, the ‘Thesmophoriazusae’ (at the Great Dionysia of 392 B.C.), but is conveniently classed with it as being also largely levelled against the fair sex. It is a broad, but very amusing, satire upon those ideal republics, founded upon communistic principles, of which Plato’s well-known treatise is the best example. His ‘Republic’ had been written, and probably delivered in the form of oral lectures at Athens, only two or three years before, and had no doubt excited a considerable sensation. But many of its most startling principles had long ago been ventilated in the Schools.

    Like the ‘Lysistrata,’ the play is a picture of woman’s ascendancy in the State, and the topsy-turvy consequences resulting from such a reversal of ordinary conditions. The women of Athens, under the leadership of the wise Praxagora, resolve to reform the constitution. To this end they don men’s clothes, and taking seats in the Assembly on the Pnyx, command a majority of votes and carry a series of revolutionary proposals—that the government be vested in a committee of women, and further, that property and women be henceforth held in common. The main part of the comedy deals with the many amusing difficulties that arise inevitably from this new state of affairs, the community of women above all necessitating special safeguarding clauses to secure the rights of the less attractive members of the sex to the service of the younger and handsomer men. Community of goods again, private property being abolished, calls for a regulation whereby all citizens are to dine at the public expense in the various public halls of the city, the particular place of each being determined by lot; and the drama winds up with one of these feasts, the elaborate menu of which is given in burlesque, and with the jubilations of the women over their triumph.

    This comedy appears to labour under the very same faults as the ‘Peace.’ The introduction, the secret assembly of the women, their rehearsal of their parts as men, the description of the popular assembly, are all handled in the most masterly manner; but towards the middle the action stands still. Nothing remains but the representation of the perplexities and confusion which arise from the new arrangements, especially in connection with the community of women, and from the prescribed equality of rights in love both for the old and ugly and for the young and beautiful. These perplexities are pleasant enough, but they turn too much on a repetition of the same joke.

    We learn from the text of the play itself that the ‘Ecclesiazusae’ was drawn by lot for first representation among the comedies offered for competition at the Festival, the Author making a special appeal to his audience not to let themselves be influenced unfavourably by the circumstance; but whether the play was successful in gaining a prize is not recorded.

    The Ecclesiazusae

    or

    Women In Council

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    PRAXAGORA.

    BLEPYRUS, husband of Praxagora.

    WOMEN.

    A MAN.

    CHREMES.

    TWO CITIZENS.

    HERALD.

    AN OLD MAN.

    A GIRL.

    A YOUNG MAN.

    THREE OLD WOMEN.

    A SERVANT MAID.

    HER MASTER.

    CHORUS OF WOMEN.

    SCENE: Before a

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