Cuttle-Fish - Simile
One of the women of the Chorus states that their beards look like broiled cuttle-fish. This is a simile which makes it clear that their disguises are quite terrible.
Drunken Men - Simile
The Assemblymen are described as abusing each other like drunken men. This simile describes the reality that the Assembly is not a place of politics and health, but one of anger acted out without thought of the consequences of their actions.
Assembly Approval
The approval of the Assemblymen to approve that women should be in power is a metaphor for how anyone with public cheering support would be able to gain power. Praxagora has this in the Chorus of women who dress up as men and cheer her on in the Assembly.
Aristophanes
Aristophanes' play is in itself a metaphor for the Republic in which he lived. He believed that the true men of the Assembly were being replaced by those that had no quality of strength nor leadership. Thus, he wrote this play to speak out against such a trend.
Elderly
An old woman sets her sights on a young man at the very end of the play, not allowing him to be with the young girl he loves until he sleeps with her. This is a metaphor for the fact that the statutes that have been passed in order to bring order to the city have actually brought about an unforeseen chaos.
