The Ecclesiazusae and the Republic
by HUNTER ELLIS
In the end of the fourth book of Plato’s Republic, Socrates completes the task that Glaucon had given him at the beginning of Book II. He defines justice by examining an Ideal State, and shows that a well-ordered state, like a well-ordered soul, is preferable to one in disarray. He defines the Ideal State in specific terms: its citizens are to hold property in common; they are to abide by the sexual “lottery” implemented by the State; and able women are not to be dissuaded from holding offices normally reserved for men.
Around the same time, Aristophanes produced a play depicting his own ideal state with provisions similar to those we find in Plato. Since both authors proposed constitutions that differ greatly from the existing Athenian constitution, and since the two proposals resemble each other so closely, scholars have given the relevant parallels between the two works considerable attention.
Ellis-The-Ecclesiazusae-and-the-Republic
Aristophanes’ comedy tells the story of a group of women led by Praxagora (“Woman Effective in Public”)4 that infiltrates the Athenian assembly one day and passes sweeping legislative changes designed to save the city. The women’s proposals call for city-wide abolishment of private property, communal housing, and sexual equality—for example, Praxagora decrees that good-looking young men and women must have sex with ugly older partners before they can have sex with attractive younger partners (Ecc. 591-2, 674, 614-618).5 This decree by Praxagora parallels Plato’s suggestion that women
participate in government, that goods be held in common, and that the state mandate sexual practices.
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Praxagora is in favor of equal-opportunity sex—the least “fit” are forced to mate with the “fittest,” which would beget a homogenous “average” race, were it presented as a reproductive program.
But Plato’s scheme, elaborated in Book V, entails the opposite of this scheme. For Plato, the State is in charge of who mates with whom (Rep., 460a). Unlike Praxagora, Plato does not care about the feelings or reproductive rights of the ugly, less fit members of his State. Instead, his breeding program is instituted with the aim of producing a highly differentiated citizen body, with the best people mating with the other best people to create more of the best people.
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In addition, Aristotle makes the possibility of a common source difficult when he claims that no one before Plato, philosopher or statesman, had ever proposed a state that held women and children in common (Pol. 1273b).