Lysistrata

Lysistrata is not what I expected from my first thoughts of a Greek play. I have only ever been exposed to Greek tragedies. Despite the fact that I knew it was a comedy, because of its classical nature, I still expected some type of formal tone. I was very surprised with the casual and almost crude nature of much of the dialogue and events. The introduction indicated that this is typical of Greek comedies, which I find very interesting. I also noticed their portrayal of women. Though Lysistrata is a strong character for the most part the women come of as rather silly. Knowing that male actors played these roles I can’t help but wonder if this reflects the Greek view of women and their status in any way.

Another detail I noticed was the voice of Lampito. I assume her accent indicated in the dialogue is due to the fact that she is Spartan whereas Lysistrata is from Athens.  I though it was very curious that the translators seemed to give her something like an American southern accent. Perhaps, I was just reading incorrectly but this does seem like an interesting decision that couldn’t have directly come from the Greek text.