Soon after the oath is finished, a cry of triumph is heard from the nearby Acropolis – the old women of Athens have seized control of it at Lysistrata's instigation, since it holds the state treasury, without which the men cannot long continue to fund their war. It is a long and detailed oath, in which the women abjure all their sexual pleasures, including The Lioness on The Cheese Grater (a sexual position). The women are very reluctant but the deal is sealed with a solemn oath around a wine bowl, Lysistrata choosing the words and Calonice repeating them on behalf of the other women. With support from Lampito, the Spartan, Lysistrata persuades the other women to withhold sexual privileges from their menfolk as a means of forcing them to end the interminable Peloponnesian War. She has convened a meeting of women from various city states in Greece (there is no mention of how she managed this feat) and, very soon after confiding in her friend about her concerns for the female sex, the women begin arriving. Lysistrata however is an extraordinary woman with a large sense of individual responsibility. Women, as represented by Calonice, are sly hedonists in need of firm guidance and direction. These lines, spoken by Lysistrata and her friend Calonice at the beginning of the play, set the scene for the action that follows. It was produced in the same year as Thesmophoriazusae, another play with a focus on gender-based issues, just two years after Athens' catastrophic defeat in the Sicilian Expedition. The dramatic structure represents a shift away from the conventions of Old Comedy, a trend typical of the author's career. The play is notable for being an early exposé of sexual relations in a male-dominated society. Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace - a strategy, however, that inflames the battle between the sexes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War.

Lysistrata (/laɪˈsɪstrətə/ or /ˌlɪsəˈstrɑːtə/ Attic Greek: Λυσιστράτη, 'Army-disbander') is one of the few surviving plays written by Aristophanes.

Lysistrata comic