Calonice Timeline and Summary

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• The play starts on a quiet, residential street in ancient Athens. A woman steps onto the stage: it's Lysistrata.
• Lysistrata is frustrated that the streets are deserted. We don't yet know why this makes her angry.
• Just then, out comes another woman: Lysistrata's neighbor, Calonice.
• Lysistrata explains that she's mad because she called all the women of the city to a meeting—but nobody's showed up yet.
• Calonice tells Lysistrata to calm down: the women will be there as soon as they can. Then she asks Lysistrata what the meeting's all about, anyway.
• Instead of giving a direct answer, Lysistrata tells her that the meeting is extremely important: the fate of Greece hangs in the balance, and it's up to the women to make sure things turn out okay.
• Calonice doesn't believe it. She thinks women are more interested in dainty clothes than power.
• But Lysistrata tells her otherwise: not only can women wield power, but dainty clothes will be the key to it. Using makeup and see-through underwear, they can see to it that their men stop the relentless war that is tearing apart Greece.
• Calonice thinks this sounds like a great idea. She predicts that the women will be there soon enough.
• Then, right on cue, some groups of women begin showing up. One of the women, named Myrrhine, apologizes for being late, then asks what's going on. Lysistrata tells her to wait until the women from Boeotia and the Peloponnese show up.
• Just then, some of those women show up: Lampito, from Sparta (the capital of the Peloponnese, and Athens's main enemy); Ismenia, from Thebes (a city in Boeotia allied with Sparta); and another woman from Corinth (a city between Athens and the Peloponnese, allied with Sparta).
• Lysistrata and Calonice are impressed by Lampito's muscular physique. And Calonice thinks the woman from Corinth has a smokin' bod.
• Once the women are all assembled, Lysistrata launches into her speech. She starts by asking the women if they miss their husbands while they're off at war. All the women say they do. Then Lysistrata asks them if they want to end the war. They all say they do.
• Then Lysistrata gets to the point. She says that, if the women want to bring an end to the war, they will all have to give up sex.
• Calonice asks Lysistrata how giving up sex is supposed to end the war.
• The way Lysistrata explains it, it's basically like going on strike: the women will refuse to have sex with their husbands until their husbands bring the war to an end. In the meantime, the women will walk around the house in their most scanty, alluring lingerie, to drive the men wild with desire.
• Now Calonice says she's willing to try it, too.
• Lysistrata suggests that they all swear a formal oath. Just then, in comes a Scythian slave-girl, carrying a shield. It turns out that Lysistrata wants the women to formalize the oath by making a sacrifice over the shield. But Calonice is against this idea—she thinks that, if they're trying to bring about peace, the shield can only bring bad luck.
• Eventually, Lysistrata suggests that they should just crack open a big bottle of wine and celebrate things that way. This suggestion is a winner, and Lysistrata sends off the slave girl to bring back a big jug.
• Before letting the good times flow, Lysistrata leads all the women in solemnly swearing that they (a) won't let their menfolk have any sex, (b) will wear only their sexiest clothing, (c) will use passive resistance if their husbands try to take them by force—no fancy sexual positions allowed!
• Lysistrata and the women exit the stage; they are headed to the Acropolis.