The Ecclesiazusae

Women take the vote in costume and found a commune of goods and husbands. Aristophanes’ Ecclesiazusae is utopian farce: equality tried on like a beard, and the city as a punchline. Athens, sex, and the joke of a perfect law. Praxagora’s laws, a young man hunted by old women, property as a punchline. The same city as the Assemblywomen, another angle on a joke that still lands: be careful what you equalise. Praxagora’s commune trips on desire standing in a queue.