Athenian Documentary Language in Aristophanic Comedy: A Note on Lysistrata 528

In Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, the play’s heroine employs the phrase ἐπανορθώσαιμεν ἂν ὑμᾶς to announce her plan of female interference with male politics. In this note it is argued that Aristophanes used the rare term ἐπανορθοῦν because of its recent usage in Attic inscriptions, where it denoted “corrections” that were to be made in the text of decrees. As similar references in other comedies suggest, Aristophanes expected his audience to recognize such allusions. In Lysistrata, the reference was meant to lend credence to Lysistrata’s radical plan of changing Athenian political practice for the better.