Note 176 — Chapter XV · The Legal Status of Women.

The correctness of this conception may be seen from the comedy by Aristophanes, “The Popular Assembly of Women.” In this comedy Aristophanes depicts how the Athenian state was so mismanaged that no one knew what to do. In the popular assembly of the citizens of Athens the prytanes submit the question how the state is to be saved. A woman, disguised as a man, moves to entrust the government to the women, and this motion is carried without resistance, “because it was the only thing not yet tried in Athens.” The women proceed to steer the ship of state and immediately introduce communism. Of course, Aristophanes ridicules this condition, but the characteristic part of his play is, that he has the women introduce communism as the only rational social organization from their point of view, as soon as they come into power. Aristophanes had no idea of how much truth was in his jest.