Lysistrata

To signal their commitment to celibacy in the beginning of the play, the Greek women swear a formal oath on a bowl of wine (lines 181-239). The scene is parody of men’s ceremonial oaths, in which an animal was sacrificed to seal the deal. Lysistrata initially wants to swear on a shield provided by a female Scythian guard (the concept of female law enforcement would have been quite funny to the Greeks), but Lampito rightly points out that a weapon is a strange object to swear on for peace (189-90). Lysistrata’s friend Calonice jokes that they should swear on a white stallion—probably a sex joke—and they finally settle on a “big black drinking bowl,” treating it as a sacrificial animal from which “propitiously the gleaming blood [wine] spurts forth” (line 205).

There are a few levels to the joke. First, women are acting like men (housewives would not normally make pacts like this). Second, women were believed to be especially susceptible to alcohol addiction; the potent unmixed wine they drink here alludes to that idea. Finally, the women seem unaware that peace agreements were celebrated with libations of wine, not sacrificial animals. While joking around, they manage to stumble into proper practice.

In the plays of Aristophanes, wine also often represents the best fruits of civilization: pleasure, partying, and relaxation. He starts the play here with a drink and ends it with Athenians and Spartans getting pleasantly intoxicated (1225-36).