The Group of Women
The first scene stages a group of all the women of Greece gathering to discuss their ability as a group to stop the war using their sexuality. It is a striking image in that the women who arrive to discuss the issue are representative of the many city-states contained within Greece. This first scene presents the audience with an image of an all-female foreign policy meeting, an astounding gathering of all the women of Greece in one place.
Choruses of Fire and Water
In Chorus 1, the male chorus and the female chorus meet. The male chorus-members are all carrying torches and they are ready to burn down the gate to the Acropolis in order to gain access. Meanwhile, the women carry buckets of cold water, which they use to throw on the men. This image theatricalizes and literalizes the struggle between the men and the women. While the men want to fight with fire, which represents their lust, the women want to put that fire out, which symbolizes their refusal to succumb to sexual desire.
"Peace"
At the end of the play, Lysistrata enters for the peace talks accompanied by a naked, walking statue that she refers to as "Peace." During the talks, the men ogle at Peace, seemingly motivated not by their desire for peace in Greece, but by their desire to have sex with this woman named Peace. The concept of peace is brought to life by this image of the naked woman, as indeed, sex has been the women's main bargaining tool.
Erection
After being denied sex, the men begin to become sexually frustrated and this is signaled by the description of various men walking around the city with erections and looking for their wives to provide them with relief. Both Cinesias and the Spartan herald enter the stage with large and noticeable erections which represent their overwhelming lust.
