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Lysistrata
A grand, intelligent, alluring woman, Lysistrata organizes a sex strike not only in her hometown of Athens but in Sparta as well, all in the hope that the men of Greece might peacefully end the…
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Kleonike
The fun-loving Athenian woman Kleonike is the first to respond to her neighbor Lysistrata’s summons at the beginning of the play. However, Kleonike conforms more to Athenian gender stereotypes than her neighbor does. She…
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Myrrhine
The conventional Athenian woman Myrrhine arrives guiltily late to Lysistrata’s summons at the beginning of the play, but once there she promises to do anything to end the war, even to cut herself in…
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The Chorus of Old Women
In Greek drama, a chorus is a homogenous, synchronized group of actors that typically comments on the action of the play and models the ideal audience response in speech, song, and dance; their leader and…
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The Chorus of Old Men
The Chorus of Old Men is composed of weak, shaky, doddering old men who are portrayed as comically inept and impotent. They grouchily complain about women and are furious when the Chorus of Old Women…
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Get the entire Lysistrata LitChart as a printable PDF.
Commissioner of Public Safety
When the Chorus of Old Men fails to secure the Acropolis, the Commissioner of Public Safety comes on the scene to bring Lysistrata and her women to justice. The embodiment of patriarchal authority, law…
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Kinesias
Kinesias is an Athenian citizen, Myrrhine’s husband, and the father of her baby boy. He approaches the Acropolis afflicted by a nasty attack of love (read: a painful erection) and attempts to seduce his…
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Lampito
A brawny representative Spartan, Lampito is the first woman to support Lysistrata’s plot for peace. While the Athenian women seize the Acropolis, Lampito returns to Sparta to organize a sex strike of her…
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Ismenia
Ismenia is a pretty Boiotian girl who comes from an aristocratic family in Thebes, an ally of Sparta in the Peloponnesian League. She accompanies Lampito to Lysistrata’s summons, and remains in Athens as a…
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The Corinthian girl
Like Ismenia, the huge Corinthian girl accompanies Lampito to Lysistrata’s summons, and remains in Athens as a warmly welcome hostage until Athens and Sparta make peace. The Corinthian girl is distinguished by the…
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Peace
Peace is the personification of peace, and in the play she takes the form of a beautiful naked girl whom both the Athenian and Spartan men lust after. Peace accompanies Lysistrata outside the Acropolis while…
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Minor Characters
The Female Koryphaios
The leader and spokesperson of the Chorus of Old Women. The spry Female Koryphaios gives and takes jabs and kicks from her male counterpart during the conflict at the Acropolis, but at the end of the play, the two Choruses are reconciled and unite as one.
The Male Koryphaios
The leader and spokesperson of the Chorus of Old Men, the Male Koryphaios is an especially foul self-proclaimed misogynist, but by the end of the play he breaks down and weeps at all the good the women have done him in brokering Peace.
The Spartan Herald
Toward the end of the play, the Spartan herald enters, bearing a message of Peace from his people. He also bears a painful erection that he desperately but unsuccessfully attempts to hide under his cloak.
