Thesmophoriazusae and Thesmophoria

Ritual

If Lysistrata represented an ‘illegal’ seizure of control by the women of the city, Thesmophoriazusae makes use of a particular festival which officially ‘dramatised’ female control for the benefit of the city. The Thesmophoria, dedicated to Demeter and Persephone, was one of the most widespread festivals of the Greek world. Although it was celebrated in secret by the women, it would be wrong to think that no man knew anything about what happened or that we cannot meaningfully discuss the play in terms of the festival, because of an inability to reconstruct its ritual and significance. It was financed by the men and its smooth running was guaranteed by them, and those aspects that were truly secret were presumably, as at the Eleusinian Mysteries, not necessarily sensational actions, knowledge of which is essential to the understanding of the whole festival, but rather revelations of certain objects or gestures. There is in fact a good deal of circumstantial evidence about the festival, and anything that was truly secret and unknown to Aristophanes and the men is naturally irrelevant to the reading of the play.

We have already seen that, in contrast to the general restrictions on women's activities in Athenian society, at the Thesmophoria their role as guarantors of the continuity of oikos and polis was formally recognised and celebrated.