Final answer:
Antigone's defiance of Creon in Sophocles' play represents a challenge to the confined roles of women in Ancient Greece. Aristophanes' Lysistrata further shows women asserting power within their limited societal scope. These works suggest a complex dynamic where women, despite legal and societal restrictions, exhibit resilience and strategize within their roles.
Step-by-step explanation:
From reading Sophocles' Antigone, we might infer that the position of women in Ancient Greece was significantly subservient and constrained by societal expectations and legal restrictions. Women were not considered citizens and could not own property or hold public office independently - they were seen as legal minors under the guardianship of their fathers or husbands. However, Antigone's actions in the play defy these norms and reflect a resistance to prescribed gender roles. She chooses moral law over Creon's edict, illustrating a form of empowerment and individual will that is at odds with traditional female roles in Ancient Greece.
Furthermore, plays like Lysistrata by Aristophanes, which feature women using their limited power to effect change, suggest that while the societal norm was to seclude and silence women, they still found ways to assert influence. In both Lysistrata and Antigone, women are depicted as having strong wills and the intellectual capacity to strategize, even as they operate within a society that enforces their subservience.
Despite the restrictive gender roles, we also see some exceptions to the general rules of female seclusion, such as the role of women in religious practices, where they could serve as priestesses and might have more social freedom and authority. These plays shed light on the complexities and nuances of the societal roles that women navigated in Ancient Greece.