Comparison of Aristophanes' Lysistrata and Homer's Odyssey

¶ … Aristophone's "Lysistrata" and Homer's "The Odyssey

Both Lysistrata and the Odyssey are relaying on two of the features characteristic to human nature that sets things in motion. The Odyssey presents the adventures Odysseus and his people are going through in order to learn how to resist temptation and to remember that duty will help them acquire victory along with self-respect. Lysistrata is a pamphlet whose central character is a woman as clever and ready to use her intelligence as Odysseus who will prove that duty can be overcome by personal satisfaction as long as the final result will be peace, the supreme dream of humanity.

Lysistrata knows human nature well and uses it to convince the wives of Athens and Sparta to manipulate their husbands into putting an end to the war and give a chance to their families to live in a united Greece instead of constantly fighting for a piece of it. Lysistrata is also using manipulative techniques into persuading the women that her plan is the right way to deal with their husbands. She is clever enough to know that thy will not be easily convinced by ideals like a greater destiny for their united peaceful country, so she is emphasizing the influence war has on the period of time their husbands are spending with them at home instead of fighting in a battlefield elsewhere. Both plays are showing the importance of using one's brains and knowledge over physical strength. Duty is something that will eventually overcome any other temptation, but only when fought against and wit ha certain price to pay.

While the Odyssey is an epic telling the stories of a hero who travelled oversees and return home in glory, Lysistrata is the story of a woman whose intelligence matches that of Homer's hero, but who acquires a glorious deed from home. Odysseus' travels will help him gain knowledge and wisdom and will teach him valuable lessons that will form his character and eventually bring him home safe. Lysistrata is already a wise woman who knows enough about men and women and the things that motivate them in order to make them act for the well being of the entire nation, thinking they did it because their personal satisfaction was more important than any war. One of the drives of human action, sexuality, is the center of Lysistrata. The husbands of the Spartan and Athenian women will eventually give up to their blackmail not because their sense of duty but because they want their women back in bed. The sense of duty is overcome by the sexual urge, but on top of all, the supreme ideal of peace and unity is what motivated Lysistrata to act as the leader who put the interests of the country above her own immediate personal satisfaction.

Although the wives have committed to jeep their husbands from getting physical love from them, the temptation seems to be stronger than their duty and they are kept prisoners at the Akropolis. Like Odysseus who knows that once the sirens will start singing, he will not be able to refrain from listening to them and decides to let himself be tight to the mast of the ship, Lysistrata knows that the women will be too much tempted by their immediate desire and makes them prisoners at Akropolis, while having the older women overtake the treasury and thus any material means to keep to war going.

Lysistrata is depicted by Aristophane as the only character who will act above all temptation and whose sense of duty overpowers anything and anyone. She acts more like a supernatural creature who cannot be tempted by anything. The loss of her husband and son give her the power to resist the weaknesses of human nature. Lysistrata is the expression of duty to ones family and above it, to one's country. Aristophane created the perfect character who is flawless and who acts only out of love for her country. Odysseus is far from perfection. He will gain wisdom and eventually come home to his wife only after he went through ten years of experiences that contributed to his formation.

Odysseus' crew on the ship and the women kept prisoners at the Akropolis are equally blinded by their own desires and ready to give up their sense of duty or responsibility to those they made a commitment.

Another striking difference between the two plays when it comes to sense of duty compared to personal satisfaction or love comes from the fact that the characters in the Lysistrata have to fight only their own urges and they are led by someone who is above all temptation, while those who are fighting to return home in the Odyssey are fighting not only their own weaknesses but also all the obstacles thrown before them by the immortals. Moreover, their leader, the man they look up to is as weak as they are, up to a point.

Minerva's characterization about Odysseus when encouraging his son, Telemachus, to embark on a journey to set his father free is also showing how good ends excuse the means. Although she is aware of the sense of duty to his own family and especially to his father, she also uses techniques of manipulation in order to get him convinced. The goddess is using Telemachus' sense of pride to reinforce his sense of duty and set things in motion for god: "if you are made of the same stuff as your father you will be neither fool nor coward henceforward, for Ulysses never broke his word nor left his work half done. if, then, you take after him, your voyage will not be fruitless, but unless you have the blood of Ulysses and of Penelope in your veins I see no likelihood of your succeeding. Sons are seldom as good men as their fathers; they are generally worse, not better; still, as you are not going to be either fool or coward henceforward, and are not entirely without some share of your father's wise discernment, I look with hope upon your undertaking" (Homer).

What appears to be the only thing equally motivating men and women to act in Lysistrata, the sexual need, is a symbol for the constant fight between personal satisfaction vs. sense of duty that goes on in the human mind. The victory of one ever another is what actually differentiates the human from the animal kind. The same urge to act in favor of getting a personal satisfaction is speculated in the Odyssey, but the comical accents are much scarce. The common message in both plays is the motif of restraint, control, the necessity to control one's urges in order to overcome one's nature and thus gain a place above the animal kingdom.