Lysistrata- A Breeding Ground for Archetypes

I’ll be the first to admit that the plot of this play did not meet the standard expectations I have for a class reading assignment. Instead of a stale old play, it was a startling and interesting story. But as far as expectations go, this story definitely delivered when it comes to characters. Character archetypes have always fascinated me, so naturally I pay attention to them while I read. After all, what’s a classic without its archetypal characters to help readers of every generation relate? For those of us who may be a little rusty on our literary terms, an archetype is defined as “an original pattern or model; a perfect example”. You can also think of it is as kind of like a stereotype.

The first archetype I noticed is Lampito the Spartan woman. As soon as she utters her first sentence, it’s blatantly obvious that she is the hick of the story. However, as I kept reading on, this speech pattern keeps reappearing with every other Spartan character. So it brings me to wonder if Aristophanes thought that Spartans were unintelligent. Historically, Spartans were great warriors and this might parallel to the modern day stereotype of a jock.

The next archetype applies to a group of characters as well. The scene where the Commissioner and his precious four Archers try to break into the Akropolis is when it becomes apparent that they are the typical bumbling, goofy cops we all see in TV and movies. Even though each of the four men attempt to go head to head with the women, they fail miserably just like the modern unsuccessful car chases on TV. Specifically, I think of when the protagonist of the story confuses the cops enough to cause them to crash into each other. That’s the imagery we see here except with archers instead of cops in squad cars. Another typical thing we see is when the Commissioner coerces the Archers into doing his bidding while he stands back and watches. This is much like when the typical villain bosses his minions around.