When Women Revolt, Aristophanes' Lysistrata

We now explore the madness of Cambyses, the Samian tyrant Polykrates, and good old Periander, the tyrant of Corinth. It's a tyrant heavy episode y'all but perhaps Herodotus is asking us to consider power and how it affects people? That doesn't seem relevant in any way whatsoever ...  Show more

Liv reads Books 20 and 21 of Homer's Odyssey, translated by Ian Johnston. It's time for Odysseus and Penelope to have a little chat, before things really kick off. This modern translation is used with immense gratitude to translator Ian Johnston and Vancouver Island University. S ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristophanes' comedy in which the women of Athens and Sparta, led by Lysistrata, secure peace in the long-running war between them by staging a sex strike. To the men in the audience in 411BC, the idea that peace in the Peloponnesian War could be w ...  Show more

The PEL Players return to perform a "cold read" of Aristophanes's play about using a sex strike to end war, first performed in 411 BCE. Jeffrey Henderson's translation makes this very accessible, and it's still really damn funny. Your hosts are joined by five real actors from TV, ...  Show more

Concluding our discussion of Aristophanes's play with Lucy Lawless and Emily Perkins. We focus on trying to connect its lessons to the here and now: Is Lysistrata's victory properly described as the ascension of some kind of "feminine spirit" over warlike values, and how does tha ...  Show more

Tickle your funny bone! In this unique episode, the girls talk about the viral youtube series that features women reading books while being stimulated under a table. They also browse the historical section of the library to dig up the truth about vibrators as a cure for "hysteria ...  Show more