The play opens with Lysistrata expressing deep frustration over the endless Peloponnesian War that drains Greece of its men and leaves women isolated at home. She summons women from Athens, Sparta, and other regions to propose a radical strategy to compel their husbands to make peace. Despite initial resistance and horror at the terms, the women swear a solemn oath over a bowl of wine to withhold all marital intimacy until a treaty is signed. Simultaneously, an older group of women seizes the Acropolis to control the state treasury, cutting off the funds required to continue military campaigns.
A magistrate arrives with Scythian archers to break the blockade, but the women aggressively repel them with insults, water-jars, and physical force. Lysistrata explains to the magistrate that women are taking charge of the exchequer because men have proven utterly incompetent at managing the state, plunging the city into endless ruin through vanity and poor judgment. Household analogies of carding wool and clearing tangled yarn are proposed as the practical method for sorting out complex political entanglements and uniting scattered colonies back into a single fabric of state.
As the strike drags on, the women themselves begin to crack under the strain of separation, inventing absurd excuses to sneak away home and check on their wool or pretend they are going into labor. Lysistrata intercepts them at the gates, rallying their resolve by reminding them of an oracle promising victory if they hold fast and refuse to break unity. Soon, frantic husbands like Cinesias arrive at the citadel walls, overwhelmed by desire and desperate for relief. When Cinesias pleads for affection, his wife Myrrhine tantalizes him with promises and fetches cushions, perfume, and cosmetics, only to repeatedly delay and slip away each time he mentions concluding a treaty, driving him to distraction.
Eventually, the burden of the combined sexual boycott and economic paralysis breaks the resolve of both Athenian and Spartan men. Spartan heralds arrive bearing despatches and struggling to hide their physical distress, admitting that their allies are completely broken by the same domestic strike. Delegations from both sides converge on Athens to negotiate terms, declaring that they can no longer bear the separation.
Lysistrata brings the warring factions together before her, rebuking both Athenians and Spartans for forgetting their shared religious shrines and mutual historical assistance in times of danger. She forces them to confront their stubbornness while dangling territorial demands as bargaining chips until they finally agree to compromise and restore peace. The play concludes with a joyous celebration where Athenian and Spartan couples are reunited, dancing together in mutual harmony while praising the gods and celebrating the restoration of normal life.
