„Războiul îi priveşte pe bărbaţi.” Iliada lui Homer – Troienele lui Euripide – Lysistrata lui Aristofan
“The War Shall Be the Men’s Concern.” Homer’s Iliad – Euripides’ Trojan Women – Aristophanes’ Lysistrate

Summary/Abstract: Having just witnessed the latest developments of the Achaean siege from the great wall of Ilios, a very distressed Andromache meets her husband at the Scaean Gate. Responding to her anguish, Hector says that “the war shall be the men’s concern” (πόλεμος δ' ἄνδρεσσι μελήσει, Iliad 6.492). This statement is usually understood as a (gentle enough) reproach meant to put the errant wife in her place (in the house, busy with “the loom and the distaff ”), as women are not to meddle in military affairs. But what Hector is really telling her at this instance (men should be trusted to do their job, i.e. defending, with all their might, their families and country) becomes clear only in the context of their whole interaction in Book VI. However, when considering this particular scene, the reception of Homer (in ancient, as well as in recent times) has swayed between endorsing and rejecting the ‘obvious’ connection between war and men that implies an ‘automatic’ dismission/exclusion of women as ‘negligible entities’ or even a ‘nuisance’. Figuratively speaking, Euripides and Aristophanes join the debate, too, each with his own point of view and theatrical solutions. Thus, The Trojan Women and, respectively, Lysistrate appear as two very dissimilar takes on the same topic: war, men, and women.

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