Lysastrata’s enduring appeal is simple: sex and politics. The eponymous heroine and her militant sisterhood take two actions to make their men stop fighting: first, they stage a sex strike until peace is declared; second, they occupy the Acropolis, freezing the funds necessary to keep the war going. Similar tactics have been used by women since before Aristophone’s play written 2,500 years ago and are still used today. Women have staged sex strikes in recent years in Colombia, Turkey, Poland, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Sudan, seeking variously to stop drug wars, combat repressive legislation, conserve their environment and turn their carnivorous partners into vegans. As for women entering a male sanctum and seizing power, this too has a famous modern parallel: Greenham Common, in 1981, when a group of women took up residence around an American military base in protest against Cruise missiles. Since then, several other such demonstrations - against war, global capitalism and pollution - have been led by women. One would think that by now men would have figured out that it is better to make love not war.