The Trouble With Men

The exasperated women of Athens challenge the men of the City to decide whether women are a blessing or a curse.

410 BC

Introduction

In the Spring of 410 BC, The Women at the Thesmophoria by Aristophanes was produced in Athens at the literary festival named the City Dionysia. The play imagined how Aristophanes’s notoriously misogynist fellow-playwright Euripides might get on at the autumn Thesmophoria, a religious celebration exclusively for women — and the Chorus of Women certainly found his attitude towards them baffling.

by Aristophanes ?445-?386 BC

freely translated, in part by William Lucas Collins

THEY’RE always abusing the women*
As a terrible plague to men:
They say we’re the root of all evil,
And repeat it again and again;

Of war, and quarrels, and bloodshed,
All mischief, be what it may!
And pray, then, why do you marry us,
If we’re all the Plagues you say?

And why do you take such care of us,
And keep us so safe at home,
And are never easy a moment
If ever we chance to roam?

When you ought to be thanking heaven
That your Plague is out of the way,
You all keep fussing and fretting —
“Where is my Plague today?”

If a Plague should dine with strangers,
And wear herself out having fun,
You’ll prowl through all of the bedrooms
Just to check who’s asleep in each one.

If a Plague peeps out of the window.
Up go the eyes of men;
If she blushingly hides, they keep staring
Until she looks out again.

❰

1 2

❱

* This first part of this paraphrase-translation is basically the work of William Lucas Collins (1815-1887), with some alterations to make it match more closely to the original. For Collins’s unadulterated version, see ‘Ancient Classics for English Readers’ (1872). Sadly, Collins did not translate any more of this chorus.

Précis

Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes composed a song for the Chorus of Women in his play The Women at the Thesmophoria in which they lamented the apparently irrational behaviour of their husbands, who endlessly complained about the women in their lives while guarding them jealously, and never letting them out of their sight.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

What was the Chorus of Women singing about?

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Aristophanes wrote a song. The song said that women were better than men. He put it in a play.

See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.

IStage. IISuperiority. IIITheme.

Clay Lane The Copybook