In ancient Greece, the public world could only be defined in terms of war Custom Essay

In ancient Greece, the public world could only be defined in terms of war. Political leaders were military leaders, and political life entailed preservation of the city through war. The heroes of Homeric epics, such as Hector, achieve individual glory not only from their battlefield deeds but also from their service to the community, which their military service represents. They engage in battle to protect the women who are unable to defend themselves or their children. To participate in war is the fullest expression of the warrior’s involvement in political life for it means to sacrifice all — his mind, body, and time with his family for the polis, his civic community. Paradoxically, the defense of the polis (city), which denies the importance of the private and personal, is nevertheless necessary to preserve the private and the personal.
The crisis of the Peloponnesian Wars during the last third of the fifth century BCE forced Athenians and Spartans to confront this conflict between the private and the public. Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Euripides’ Trojan Women were both written during or after these wars. Both plays question the Homeric warrior ideal and suggest how exclusive attention to war has led to the neglect of household and family for whose sake the battles are being fought.

For your essay topic choose one of the following:
1.) In Lysistrata Aristophanes uses the dramatic genre of comedy to describe the Athenian and Spartan women’s invasion of the male public sphere. He obviously intended this sex role reversal would make the audience laugh at the women’s attempts to end the war. Take a position in a thesis statement, backed by evidence in your essay development, whether or not you believe Aristophanes expected the audience to take the women seriously in making war "their business." In other words, was he suggesting that women should take part in the public management of the city by bringing the concerns of the private arena of the family into consideration or not? Hint: think about the arguments that Lysistrata makes throughout the play and how you think the audience would have responded to them.

2.) In Trojan Women Euripides, using the dramatic genre of tragedy, illustrates the clear separation of Greek men and women into their respective public and private roles. Like Lysistrata, the play expresses a strong anti-war attitude, despite the deep Greek tradition of male military honor and civic achievement. In this play the women characters remain within the walls of the city and the domestic sphere, but their men have failed in defending them. Using passages and incidents from the play, take a thesis position arguing what you believe Euripides intended to say about women’s relationship to war in this play. Is he at all suggesting that women should have some say in whether their city goes to war, if only because of the suffering they have to endure in defeat, or not? And if not, what message, if any, do you think he intended the audience to go away with from this play?