“I will abstain from Love and Love’s delights. \ And take no pleasure though my lord invites. \ And sleep a vestal all alone at nights. \ And live a stranger to all nuptial rites. \ I will abjure the very name of Love. \ So help me Zeus, and all the Powers above. \ If I do this, my cup be filled with wine. \ But if I fail, a water draught be mine.”
~ ‘The Lysistrata’ by Aristophanes (Benjamin B. Rogers translation. GB5 - p. 585)
Lysistrata, a strong-willed Athenian woman frustrated with the never-ending war, calls women from various Greek city-states, including Sparta (the enemy that Athens is fighting against). They come late, but many arrive, and Lysistrata puts forth an idea that she has to end the war - that all women should go on a sex strike till the men relent and end the war. The women are initially reluctant but finally agree and take an oath. Lysistrata also reveals the second part of her plan - she has convinced the older women to seize the Acropolis and take control of the treasury so that there is no funding for the war.
When they hear of the news, a group of elderly men (Men’s Chorus) walk up the hill with logs and fire to burn the women who have seized the Acropolis to punish them for their impudence. But a group of women (Women’s Chorus) carrying jugs of water intercept them and spoil the plans. A magistrate arrives with archers to restore order. Lysistrata defends the women’s actions and says that women endure all the negative effects of men going to war. They manage their homes and raise the children, only to have their sons taken to war after they grow up. When asked how they would manage the city without men, she says they could apply their household management skills to manage the city also. The magistrate loses the argument, but when he tries to arrest her, the women overpower the archers and send the magistrate back dressed up as a woman.