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Cover of Lysistrata by Aristophanes

Lysistrata

Aristophanes · -411

The women of Athens withhold sex until their husbands stop the Peloponnesian War. Aristophanes wrote it as a bawdy comedy during an actual war, and the joke is that it almost sounds reasonable. Twenty-four hundred years later, anti-war protesters still invoke Lysistrata, which says something about both the play and the species.

Drama · the Pro canon

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.