War
The Greek city-states and the surrounding areas are engaged in a war, as dramatized by an initial tableau, in which a Spartan and an Athenian get into a brawl. As war breaks out, Lysistrata and the women bemoan the fact that their husbands are away and are risking their lives in war. The entire conceit of the plot—the women's refusal to have sex with their husbands—is based around resistance to the war going on.
War is portrayed as arbitrary aggression and greed rather than legitimate in any way. While the women initially frame their dislike of war as having to do with their own sexual dissatisfaction, they soon reveal that they also resent it because it creates division amongst them and has to do only with the desire for accumulating wealth. Lysistrata characterizes the drive to war thusly: "That’s what every dispute is about, corrupt politicians trying to find a way to steal. Well, they’re not getting a single piece of silver out of here."
Gender
By withholding sex, the women of Greece are able to enact what little power and control they have over their own fates. The women often bemoan their subordinate positions in society, the fact that they have very little control over the actions of the state, even though they also have many wise opinions. When the men question Lysistrata as to why she has staged this coup, she tells them, "All I’ve done recently is to sit at home, listening to my husband and the rest of you make mistakes and mismanage your affairs. When it got too much, when you were about to do something really foolish, I would just say 'How did it go in the Assembly today, dear? Are we any closer to peace?' To which my husband would respond 'What’s it to you? Hold your tongue!...As for me, I held my tongue. Soon you all would do something even more foolish and wrongheaded, and still I would say sweetly 'My dear, don’t you think that last decree was just a little foolhardy?' And, in a vicious, angry mood, my husband would respond 'Just go back to your weaving, if you know what’s good for you. War is for men and men only!'" In this quotation, she suggests that women have important ideas to add to conversations about policy and politics, but are prevented from sharing them or have any impact because men subordinate them.
Sex
Sex is central to Lysistrata's plot, and the play is filled with many bawdy and graphic allusions to sexuality and desire. Lysistrata and the women decide that the only way to get their husbands to stop fighting in useless wars is to tease them and deny them the sex they so desire. In an oath, they promise to make themselves as beautiful and seductive as possible, then abstain from sex as a way of driving their husbands wild. Sex distracts the men for the rest of the play, and nearly every time a man enters the stage, he is sporting an erection that signals his sexual dissatisfaction. Additionally, Aristophanes fills the script with sexual innuendo and references to sex as a way of reminding the audience that, even if the story is a political commentary, it is also a sex comedy at its core.
Resistance & Solidarity
The women plot to withhold sex from the men of the community as a way of resisting a war that they oppose. Seeing no other way to change their husbands' behavior or ideas, they decide to stage an act of political resistance (no sex), but require solidarity in order to do so. The women all work together in order to complete this act of resistance, and its success depends on everyone participating in solidarity and with unity of vision. While the actual action is rather unusual—refusal to have sex—its implementation follows the structure of traditional political protest and resistance.
Peace & Unity
The goal of the women is to bring peace and unity to the land once more. They believe that the men of Greece fight one another for petty reasons, often only for material gain. Peace and unity, they suggest, is simply a matter of the men to decide to stop fighting. As it turns out at the end of the play, this is true. The men agree to stop the war and go to a celebration together, getting drunk and enjoying each other's company. The play ends with an image of peace and unity—suggesting that peace it is much simpler and easier to achieve than we imagine.
Perseverance
While the women reach a consensus that resisting sex is the best way to bring about political change, their implementation of this plan is not always smooth and easy. Indeed, they have some trouble persevering in the face of conflict, and at one point, many of them want to sleep with their husbands. The stout-hearted Lysistrata urges them to stay the course, and control their urges for the good of the nation.
Comedy
While comedy is not a theme within the plot of the play itself, it is an important part of how audiences have understood Aristophanes' satire since it was first written. Aristophanes created a broad and exceedingly ridiculous comedic play in order to deal with the themes of war, patriarchy, and the structure of Athenian politics. By writing a fizzy, raunchy, and outrageous sex comedy, Aristophanes infuses these themes with a levity that makes them even more digestible and pleasurable. One cannot help but notice his political aims by the end of the play, his endorsement of pacifism and peace, but these political points come with the light touch of satire and comedy, rather than in didactic arguments or long-winded narrative. Thus, comedy is an important theme in Lysistrata—the very framework and philosophy through which the plot and the substance of the satire can come to life.
