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Introduction
In the Spring of 410 BC, The Women at the Thesmophoria by Aristophanes was produced in Athens at the literary festival named the City Dionysia. The play imagined how Aristophanes’s notoriously misogynist fellow-playwright Euripides might get on at the autumn Thesmophoria, a religious celebration exclusively for women — and the Chorus of Women certainly found his attitude towards them baffling.
THEY’RE always abusing the women*
As a terrible plague to men:
They say we’re the root of all evil,
And repeat it again and again;
Of war, and quarrels, and bloodshed,
All mischief, be what it may!
And pray, then, why do you marry us,
If we’re all the Plagues you say?
And why do you take such care of us,
And keep us so safe at home,
And are never easy a moment
If ever we chance to roam?
When you ought to be thanking heaven
That your Plague is out of the way,
You all keep fussing and fretting —
“Where is my Plague today?”
If a Plague should dine with strangers,
And wear herself out having fun,
You’ll prowl through all of the bedrooms
Just to check who’s asleep in each one.
If a Plague peeps out of the window.
Up go the eyes of men;
If she blushingly hides, they keep staring
Until she looks out again.
* This first part of this paraphrase-translation is basically the work of William Lucas Collins (1815-1887), with some alterations to make it match more closely to the original. For Collins’s unadulterated version, see ‘Ancient Classics for English Readers’ (1872). Sadly, Collins did not translate any more of this chorus.
Précis
Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes composed a song for the Chorus of Women in his play The Women at the Thesmophoria in which they lamented the apparently irrational behaviour of their husbands, who endlessly complained about the women in their lives while guarding them jealously, and never letting them out of their sight. (52 / 60 words)
Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes composed a song for the Chorus of Women in his play The Women at the Thesmophoria in which they lamented the apparently irrational behaviour of their husbands, who endlessly complained about the women in their lives while guarding them jealously, and never letting them out of their sight.
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Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 45 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, if, or, otherwise, ought, since, until, whether.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
What was the Chorus of Women singing about?
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Aristophanes wrote a song. The song said that women were better than men. He put it in a play.
Variation: Try rewriting your sentence so that it uses one or more of these words: 1. Stage 2. Superiority 3. Theme