“I will not do it, let the war go on.”
This sentence by Cleonice is very interesting and intriguing as the moment Lysistrata suggested to other women to go on a ‘sex-strike’ to force the men to stop the war, they immediately walked away in disapproval as if she had said something that is unimaginable to them. Cleonice even mentioned how she is willing to do anything in the world but go on a sex-strike.
In this sense, women had been depicted to place the highest importance on their sexual desires rather than having the desire to stop the war and have a peaceful society. This is something that is very intriguing as it feels very bizarre to imagine one to find one’s own sexual desires to be more important than anything else in the world. Therefore, this sentence has demonstrated a very unusual characteristic and role of women in the society of ancient Greece, depicted by a man (Aristophanes) in this same era.