Women of the Assembly by Aristophenes- 392 BCE -Translated by Aaron Poochigian-2021

 

Born: 445 BC, Athens 

Died: 386 BC, Delphi

Last month I read his Lysistrata 

Lysistrata is by far the most famous ancient comedy. The central theme is that the women of Greece ban together refuse to have sex with their husbands or lovers unless the men restrain from all forms of warfare. There is very explicit sexual language. Some of the women complain that they cannot go without sex and talk about dildos. The husbands are very upset, they walk around with huge erections protruding from their tunics.

Women of the Assembly opens during a festival only for Women.  The women there agree to disguise them selves as men.  The plan is they will go to the Assembly and vote to turn the government of Athens over to Women.  They also want to do away with the notion of property, with marriages, nuclear families.  Sex is not confined to marriage.  If  a man wants to have sex with an attractive woman he must first have xex with an ugly one.  This way old or unattractive Women are not deprived of sex.

There are lengthy arguments about the soundness of these ideas.  Children will not have a designated father but will be a community responsibility.  There is debate about motivation for working if everything is owned in common.  Everyone is guaranteed an equal subsistence, no rich no poor. Slaves, not being citizens, are owned in common.

As in Poochigian's translation of Lysistrata, there is very  explicit language, that now would make the work at least R rated.  As I read this I wondered if this language was meant to shock the audience or was it just how people  in Athens in 351 BCE  talked?. Women are depicted as craving sex but tired of just being a vehicle for the penises of men. Older women resent younger women getting all the sex.

I found the debates interesting.  The depiction of women is kind of amusing.

A blog I have followed for many years, Wuthering Expectations, is doing a read through of all the surviving Greek Plays, a marvelous endeavor I wish I could have emulated.

If you are new to Aristophenes first read Lysistrata. I will in December read his Birds

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR Aaron Poochigian earned a PhD in classics from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in poetry from Columbia University. He is the translator of, among other classical works, Sappho’s poetry (published under the title Stung with Love), Apollonius’s Jason and the Argonauts, and Euripides’s Bacchae, and has published two books of poetry—The Cosmic Purr and Manhattanite—and a novel-in-verse, Mr. Either/Or. His poems have appeared in such publications as Best American Poetry, the Paris Review, and Poetry. He lives in New York.