The Assembly of Women: Ecclesiazusae | 
so-soSomething that sounds great in theory—a matriarchal commune with private wealth & property banished—becomes a toxic, sexist mess in the hands of Aristophanes in this "comedy". Written towards the latter part of his life, this has all the signs of "old man yells at cloud" (i.e. mocks Plato's ideas). The bit about sexual egalitarianism & sex freed from desire for beauty ran into some ugly problems in his depiction. Barmy in a patriarchal way.
batsy This isn't a total pan because it starts out strongly, with the potential to be quite subversive, before petering out into an incoherent locker-room-joke taken too far. (I read the translation by David Barrett. Random image stolen from a website.) 1y
Leftcoastzen Love your review!😂 1y
batsy @Leftcoastzen Thank you! 😆 1y
Angeles Any ancient Greek or Roman dude writing about women is in my experience an angering dumpster fire of misogyny and/or unrealistic weird ideal woman worship. 1y
batsy @Angeles LOL yes they had some issues, to put it lightly 😆 1y
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