These three plays by the great comic playwright Aristophanes (c. 446-386 BCE), the well-known Lysistrata, and the less familiar Women at the Thesmophoria and Assemblywomen, are the earliest surviving portrayals of contemporary women in the European literary tradition. These plays provide a unique glimpse of women not only in their familiar domestic roles but also in relation to household and city, religion and government, war and peace, theater and festival, and, of course, to men.

Jeffrey Henderson is Professor of Classical Studies at Boston University. He is the author of The Maculate Muse:Obscene Language in Attic Comedy and a critical edition, with commentary, of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, as well as numerous essays and articles on Aristophanes, Old Comedy and its social and historical background.

Introduction I. Aristophanes II. Old Comedy: Production and Competition III. Performance IV. Women in Aristophanic Comedy V. Notes on the Translation Lysistrata Introduction 1. The Historical Context 2. The Play Women at the Thesmophoria Introduction 1. The Play 2. Gender Transgression and Thesmophoria 3. Genre Transgression and the Theater Assemblywomen Introduction 1. The Historical Context 2. The Women Take Power Appendix: Selected Fragments of Lost Plays Notes Bibliography