How Lysistrata drew on The Iliad
A documented line of influence: Aristophanes demonstrably engaged Homer’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Iliad
Homer · c. 750 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
Lysistrata
Aristophanes · 411 BCE
Ancient GreeceRelevance
7/10
On Lysistrata’s page
- When Lysistrata recalls her husband telling her "war shall be the business of menfolk," she's echoing Hector's farewell to Andromache in Iliad 6
- Aristophanes takes Homer's most famous statement of separate spheres and detonates it — the women make war their business and end it
- Knowing the original line lands the joke: he's quoting the canon to overturn it
On The Iliad’s page
- Hector's farewell to Andromache — "war will be the concern of men" — became a line Aristophanes couldn't resist turning inside out
- In Lysistrata, the husbands quote that very sentiment to silence their wives; the women then seize the war anyway
- The most tender, domestic moment in the Iliad gets recast as the punchline of an anti-war sex comedy