YESTERDAY, BBC WORLD SERVICE GOT US STARTED with the Four B’s, a 21st-century movement inspired by Aristophanes’ play Lysistrata, wherein she and her pals swear off sex until their husbands and lovers give up war. Today in Part 2, we enjoy the intricacies of this ancient Greek comedy and see what it inspired in 1955 and 2016.
Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley, 1896, from Wikipedia.
An Innovative Playwright. Ancient Greek theatrics had a Chorus supplementing the actors dialogue. By contrast, Aristophanes employed two choruses, Old Men versus Old Women. It’s only late in the play they come together in reconciliation.
Who’s Who, 411 B.C. Wikipedia recounts, “Old Comedy was a topical genre and the playwright expected his audience to be familiar with local identities and issues. The following list of identities mentioned in the play gives some indication of the difficulty faced by any producer trying to stage Lysistrata for modern audiences.”
Here are three of the 24 mini-bios as described in Wikipedia:
“Korybantes: Devotees of the Asiatic goddess Cybele—Lysistrata says that Athenian men resemble them when they do their shopping in full armour, a habit she and the other women deplore.”
Kinda like January 6’s “tourists” in camo running around the Capitol Building.
“Cleisthenes: A notoriously effete homosexual and the butt of many jokes in Old Comedy, he receives two mentions here, firstly as a suspected mediator between the Spartans and the Athenian women and secondly as someone that sex-starved Athenian men are beginning to consider a viable proposition.”
“Artemisia: A female ruler of Ionia, famous for her participation in the naval Battle of Salamis, she is mentioned by the Old Men with awe as a kind of Amazon.”
Aremisia firing arrows during the Battle of Salamis. Painting, 1868, by Wilhelm von Kaulbach from Wikipedia.
Jump to the 20th Century A.D. Wikipedia writes, “The Second Greatest Sex is a 1955 American western musical comedy film… a Western version of the play Lysistrata by Aristophanes.”
It’s 1880, and the men of three Kansas towns are feuding over which should be the county seat, with a safe containing important documents being the prize. (Remember that Acropolis treasury?)
Wikipedia describes, “To the frustration of the women back home, the men go away for long periods of time to fight over this safe, and then return home exhausted. Matt Davis wants to marry Sheriff McClure’s attractive daughter Liza, but neither McClure is sure if Matt’s more interested in the town or romance.”
Sounds like Matt is one of them gun-totin’ Korybantes.
Wikipedia continues, “Taking their cue from the play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, all of the women, including young Birdie and spinster Cassie, decide to join Liza in going ‘on strike’ against the men, holing up in a fort and locking them out.”
Eventually (spoiler alert!), the safe disappears into quicksand, the women force the men into a truce, and a completely new county seat is chosen.
Jump to 2016 A.D. Wikipedia cites that Is That a Gun in Your Pocket? is a 2016 American comedy film. It also notes that the flick has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The title is a paraphrase of a classic Mae West ad lib: “Lieutenant, is that a sword or are you just glad to see me?” Or so says the Quote Investigator.
I recognize two cast members in the flick: Cloris Leachman (Young Frankenstein’s Frau Blücher—neigh!!). And John Michael Higgins (Best in Show’s campy pal of Shih Tzu Miss Agnes).
To think all this started with BBC World Service at 6:00 a.m. Pacific. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com. 2025