Lysistrata, Part 3 Summary

(p. 156 - 169) A Magistrate comes, accompanied by four police officers and determined to end the situation. He talks about how men have always been inconveniently governed by the whims of their women (most of which, according to the apparently unwitting double entendres in the speech, involve sex - see "Quotes," p. 157). He also talks about how inconvenient the situation is and resolves to end it. Before he can take action, however, Lysistrata leads a group of angry old women from inside the temple, and subdues both the Magistrate and the police. She and the Magistrate then engage in a lengthy, pointed debate over whether women have any right at all to take any kind of political, social, or military control over the functioning of the city state. This leads Lysistrata first into a lengthy speech in which she tells the Magistrate...