The play opens with its protagonist, Lysistrata, at the Propylaea, the ceremonial gates at the base of the Acropolis. She is waiting impatiently for other women to arrive, supposing that if she had invited them for a wilder religious rite like those of Dionysus or Pan (the gods of wine and revelry), they would have shown up long ago (1-5).

Her neighbor Calonice tries to mollify her, but Lysistrata wonders if men are right to suggest women are “cunning to the point / Of—well—depravity.” Her invitees seem to be at home hooking up with their husbands when Lysistrata has something of great importance to share (11-2). Calonice takes the opportunity to make the first of the play’s many dirty jokes (23-5), which Lysistrata shuts down: she has her sights set on saving all of Greece by ending the Peloponnesian War, and believes this power is in women’s hands (29-41). Calonice jokes that all women do is lounge around decked out in fancy lingerie (42-5). To her surprise, Lysistrata agrees, cryptically suggesting this allure is exactly why men will not be able to “lift up / Their spears” (49-50) any longer.

Women from different parts of Greece start to filter in: more Athenians (like Myrrhine, who will star in a major scene later, lines 830-958), but also Boetians, Corinthians, and even Spartans, the Athenians’ primary opponents in the war.