How we cite our quotes: Line
Quote #1
Calonice: "Well, Lysistrata dear, what exactly is this business you're calling us women together for? What's the deal? Is it a big one?"
Lysistrata: "It's big."
Calonice: "Not juicy as well?"
Lysistrata: "Oh yes, it's big and juicy."
Calonice: "Then how come we're not all here?"
Lysistrata: "That's not what I meant! If it were, we'd all have shown up quickly enough. No, it's something I've been thinking hard about, tossing it around night after sleepless night."
Calonice: "After all that tossing it must be limp by now." (21-28)
These lines come from near the beginning of the play. And, in every sense, this is just the beginning. The play is simply packed with sexual references, many of them in the form of double-entendres like these lines here. One thing that shows up loud and clear in these lines is that it isn't only the men of the play who are portrayed as sex-mad; in fact, the women of Aristophanes' might even have the edge on them.
Quote #2
Lysistrata: "Here goes, then; no need to beat around the bush. Ladies, if we're going to force the men to make peace, we're going to have to give up—"
Calonice: "Give up what? Tell us."
Lysistrata: "You'll do it, then?"
Calonice: "We'll do it, even if it means our death!"
Lysistrata: "All right. We're going to have to give up—the prick. Why are you turning away from me? Where are you going? Why are you all pursing your lips and shaking your heads? What means your altered color and tearful droppings? Will you do it or not? What are you waiting for?"
Calonice: "Count me out; let the war drag on."
Myrrhine: "Me too, by Zeus; let the war drag on." (119-130)
In case you didn't believe us the first time, these lines prove that Aristophanes' play shows that women are just as crazy-horny as men are. And Lysistrata knows it. Just look how she tries to trap the women into siding with her by getting them on board before they know all the details. But her plan doesn't work: apparently, these women would rather have war than go without sex.
Quote #3
Calonice: "Well, what if we did abstain from, uh, what you say, which heaven forbid: would peace be likelier to come on that account?"
Lysistrata: "Absolutely, by the Two Goddesses. If we sat around at home all made up, and walked past them wearing only our diaphanous underwear, with our pubes all plucked in a neat triangle, and our husbands got hard and hankered to ball us, but we didn't go near them and kept away, they'd sue for peace, and pretty quick, you can count on that!"
Lampito: "Like Menelaus! As soon as he peeked at bare Helen's melons, he threw his sword away, I reckon." (146-156)
In these lines, Lysistrata reveals that sex isn't all fun and games: it can also be used for political purposes. The way she sees it, if women want to get men to listen to them, they shouldn't stop being sexy—far from it. Instead, they should make themselves as sexy as possible, and then refuse to sleep with their husbands. That way, the poor saps won't have any other choice than making peace. Lampito, the Spartan, backs up Lysistrata's argument with an example from mythology.