In no time, however, the Chorus of Women shows up carrying buckets of water. They have come with fire to smoke the women out of the Acropolis. The Chorus of Men shows up basically this is a bunch of old Athenian geezers. The foreign women go back to their home cities. Lysistrata and the Athenian women go to join the other women on the Acropolis. After some debate, the women swear an oath that they will follow Lysistrata's plan. Once they've seized control of the treasury, the women will be able to cut off the money supply for the war. Lysistrata also explains that she's sent a contingent of women to occupy the Acropolis (the government center) of Athens. To make sure the sex-strike is effective, they will doll themselves up with makeup and put on their skimpiest clothes, to drive their husbands wild with desire. At the meeting, Lysistrata announces her plan: the women should all refuse to have sex with their husbands until their husbands end the war. In attendance at the meeting are women from Athens and other cities, including Sparta. The play begins on the day of a meeting organized by Lysistrata. That, at least, is the opinion of Lysistrata, a middle-class housewife from Athens. Although the war has been going on for years, things have recently taken a bad turn for Athens: they suffered a serious defeat in Sicily just two years before. It's 411BCE and Athens is locked in the grip of a terrible war with Sparta.

Lysistrata play