Lysistrata, a play that has oodles of bonafide Ancient Greek credentials (including geezers with beards wearing tunics, yes) also has something else to recommend it. You thought the Ancient Greeks were just a bunch of dull geezers in sandals and bed-sheets who walked around stroking their beards, right? What is Lysistrata About and Why Should I Care? This non-stop onslaught of sex jokes and screwball comedy made even the stodgiest pro-War Athenian shed tears of laughter, and we bet you won't be immune to its charms either. This play is practically bursting at the seams with sexual innuendo… sort of like the characters of the Lysistrata are practically bursting at the seams with sexual desire.

As far as modern scholars can tell, this may have been the first time that a female character had ever been the hero of a comedy. Not only that, but he portrayed a single housewife (Lysistrata herself) as displaying far more intelligence, courage, and passion than the average male politician. With Lysistrata, Aristophanes outraged traditional male-dominated Athens: he depicted the salvation of all Greece as lying in the hands of the women. Lysistrata is more than just dirty, dirty hilarious fun. Lysistrata is both acute political satire-the women of Greece are sick and tired of the ongoing Peloponnesian War-and filthy comedic mayhem-these women are so sick of the Peloponnesian War that they refuse to have sex with their hubbies.

In Lysistrata, Aristophanes combines these two styles for the best of both worlds. Then, in middle age he mellowed out a bit and tried his hand at bizarre-o comedy, like his famous The Birds and The Frogs. If Aristophanes didn't like you, you'd better grow some thicker skin nobody was safe from this guy's pen. In his youth, Aristophanes wrote satirical plays ( The Knights, The Clouds) that didn't hesitate to criticize government policies, or prominent government figures. That's a pretty solid track record-though hardly a surprise, given that the play was written by the one and only Aristophanes, when this master of Ancient Greek comedy was at the height of his powers. The comedy Lysistrata was first performed in Athens in 411 BCE, and is still performed today to laughs, tears, and applause. And those 'Spartan walking sticks' are not well hidden. It goes so far beyond innuendo that there are multiple dude characters walking around on stage with what are politely referred to as 'Spartan walking sticks.' Yup.

Lysistrata is a nonstop smutfest that goes way beyond innuendo. We're not being deliberately provocative here… at least no more than Aristophanes was when he wrote this play. Lysistrata is, in a nutshell, the dirtiest double-entendre you can think of for 'nutshell.'