With or Without Women

I think one of the most important things in the play are the themes. The themes address some important issues that were not only present during the time of this play in Ancient Greece, but the themes are also relevant in today’s society. One of the themes in the play I liked the most is the proverb “life with women is hell, life without women is hell, too” (96). This theme is very true and obviously present throughout the play and this thought raised another question, and that is to whether or not I thought the men truly loved the women. I think at this point in the play the men have realized that they cannot live without the women , not only sexually as they have become frustrated, but also mentally. A scene that exemplifies this is when Kinesias is begging Myrrhine to come down to him and she hesitates and says, “you don’t need me” (82). Kinesias responds to say “I don’t need you? I’m at the end of my rope!” (82). As the women agree to deny their husbands of all sexual favors until the men stop the war, though the men become dismayed, they do realized the cannot mentally, even emotionally, live without the women and that is why they conclude with a truce as they cannot dispute the truth or logic behind this proverb as stated by Koryphaios of Men.