Female Parrhesiastes in the Political Life of Polis (Aristophanes’ Comedies: “Lysistrata”, “Thesmophoriazusae” and “Ecclesiazusae”)

Abstract

 The paper addresses the problem of female exercise of parrhesia (freedom of speech) in democratic life of Athens, where comedy was a kind of a “truth-telling tool” that was aimed at revealing and influencing socio-political state of being. Ridiculous speeches and plots were employed to advocate particular political policies. Aristophanes perfectly used his words portraying reality in a funny way, sometimes using αἰσχρολογία - shameful speech. In his comedies “Lysistrata”, “Thesmophoriazusae” and “Ecclesiazusae” females are obsessed with the idea of making political life of polis more peaceful and human-oriented. Female-centered comedies reveal socio-political issues in various ways through showing how οἶκος and πόλις are or should be interrelated, fight for democracy, gender equality in the frameworks of oppression and stereotyping, the first female mass strike, communism etc. Being parrhesiastes is rather hard for women but they are capable of overthrowing the androcentric government through a peaceful coup d’état, establishing total gynecocracy. The process of breaking long-held silence is rather painful and is not free of emotions at all, especially, in the world where females are opposed with δείνωση (hate speech), are brutally silenced and threatened by males in order to suppress female-dominated political “dreams”. Athenian democracy was defined very explicitly as a constitution (πολιτεία) in which people enjoyed δημοκρατία, ἰσηγορία (the equal right of speech), ἰσονομία (the equal participation of all citizens in the exercise of power), and parrhesia. Males used parrhesia with ease compared to females, whose rights were restricted only to religious rites. Comedies echo Athenian women’s voices who find hard to speak fluently against men without expecting humiliation, danger, but general prosperity and well-being of the polis is above emotions, anger, fear or shame: Praxagora: It's difficult; yet it must be done, and the arm shown naked to the shoulder in order to vote (Aristopn. Eccl. 265-66).