Amazon.com description: Product Description: Male actors playing women in ancient Greek comedy intended to reveal their nature as actors as part of a cultural identity. The dramatic writings of Aristophanes typify this agenda. "Women in Aristophanic Comedy" examines the representation of women and other female figures in the plays of Aristophanes, focusing mainly on "Lysistrata" , "Thesmophoriazusae" , and "Eccleiazusae". It demonstrates the relationship between ancient and contemporary ideas about theatrical representation and gender identity, and aims to enhance our understanding of the cultural and performance dimensions of Aristophanic comedy. The text fills the gap in both Aristophanic studies and studies of women in literature. Shaped by feminist literary theory and performance theory, this text argues that Aristophanes' representation of women exploits ancient Greek views of femininity as naturally artificial and deceptive. This assessment of femininity is directly related to the convention of male actors playing female roles, which reinforces Greek ideas of femininity as insubstantial and imitative.