During the Greek civil war, Aristophanes wrote the comedy Lysistrata which, behind its Battle-of-the-Sexes plotline, critiques the war between the Spartans and Athenians. Like Confucius, who used the private family to dictate how a king should govern his country, Aristophanes used the private disputes between husband and wife to reflect the causes and effects of the Peloponnesian war. Suspicion and distrust – responsible for arguments between husband and wife – also instigated the war between the Athenians and Spartans. Likewise, where home disputes cause emptiness and disorder in the house while leaving the children uncared for, the Peloponnesian war created loneliness and chaos within the city, leaving Greece open to enemy attack.
             In the beginning, the text hints at the possibility that Aristophanes is comparing the two battles by comparing Kleonike putting on her "armor" to a man gearing up for battle. As Klondike "squeezes into that darling negligee" (pg 19), the man is drawing out his sword for battle; and when she is adorning her kimono, he is putting on his shield. Like a man drawing upon his ultimate weapon, the sword, Kleonike draws upon her most effective weapon, her darling negligee, to entice her lover. As she stops her foe dead with her skimpy dress, the man stops his foe with the power of his sword. Similarly, where Kleonike calls upon her kimono to shield her from any unwanted penetrations, the men protects himself from the danger of any sword with his shield. Thus, Aristophanes parallels a woman steeling herself to fight in the battle of the sexes to a man preparing to fight in the Peloponnesian War. Through these parallels, Aristophanes reflects the causes of the wars, the most prominent, being suspicion.
             Like the suspicion that exists between the men and women, Athenians and Spartans also suspected each other of ulterior motives. During the pre-war era, Athenian troops, wary of their Spartan neighbors, repo...