Aristophanes, in his clever bit of satire, presents of
the women of his day is an exceedingly repulsive one. They are
represented as profligate, licentious, stupid, fond of drink, thieves
and liars. No other Greek writer has given them so base a character. But
we must remember that we are reading comedy. "The point of the
_Thesmophoriazusae_, so far as the women are concerned, is that, while
Aristophanes pretends to pillory Euripides for his abuse of them, his
own satire is far more searching and penetrates more deeply into the
secrets of domestic life."

The grotesque distortion by Aristophanes of the character of the
philosopher Socrates is sufficiently well known; the contrast between
the sentiments which he attributes to Euripides and the tragic poet's
own views as presented in his plays is very striking; hence the pictures
that he draws of the life and manners of women must not be accepted
without important allowances. Aristophanes was writing to make people
laugh, not to reveal the secrets of the household, and his plays were
exclusively for an audience of men. Hence coarseness and buffoonery, as
elements of comic effect, are continually availed of, and Aristophanes
considered that he was witty in maligning the female sex. It would
clearly be unfair and even absurd to regard Aristophanes as an accurate
expositor of feminine life in Athens. But it is a noticeable fact that,
from B. C. 411 onward, there is, as seen in the extant plays of
Aristophanes, a marked prominence given to the female sex. Women, who
heretofore have played but a subordinate role in comedy, now frequently
have the principal parts. Comedy, more truly than any other department
of literature, reflects the current thought; and while the characters of
comedy play a role that is the reverse of actuality, comic invention
deals with real movements, and this intentional prominence of the
usually neglected sex can have but one interpretation: the Woman
Question had become a problem which profoundly engaged the attention of
the society of the time.

It is a difficult task to attempt to trace in the comedies of
Aristophanes the thread of a social movement. He utilized the events and
opinions of the day for fun making, and did not greatly concern himself
with the serious aspects of social problems. He was an
ultra-conservative, and desired to bring the new thought of the day into
disrepute by exhibiting its ludicrous side. Hence he makes use of the
woman