410 BC
                                   LYSISTRATA
                                by Aristophanes
                              anonymous translator

                        CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY

    LYSISTRATA
    CLEONICE
    MYRRHINE
    LAMPITO
    MAGISTRATES
    CINESIAS
    CHILD OF CINESIAS
    HERALD OF THE LACEDAEMONIANS
    ENVOYS OF THE LACEDAEMONIANS
    AN ATHENIAN CITIZEN
    CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    CHORUS OF WOMEN


LYSISTRATA
LYSISTRATA


    (SCENE:-At the base of the Orchestra are two buildings, the house
of LYSISTRATA and the entrance to the Acropolis; a winding and
narrow path leads up to the latter. Between the two buildings is the
opening of the Cave of Pan. LYSISTRATA is pacing up and down in
front of her house.)

  LYSISTRATA
    Ah! if only they had been invited to a Bacchic revelling, or a
feast of Pan or Aphrodite or Genetyllis, why! the streets would have
been impassable for the thronging tambourines! Now there's never a
woman here-ah! except my neighbour Cleonice, whom I see approaching
yonder.... Good day, Cleonice.
  CLEONICE
    Good day, Lysistrata; but pray, why this dark, forbidding face, my
dear? Believe me, you don't look a bit pretty with those black
lowering brows.
  LYSISTRATA
    Oh, Cleonice, my heart is on fire; I blush for our sex. Men will
have it we are tricky and sly....
  CLEONICE
    And they are quite right, upon my word!
  LYSISTRATA
    Yet, look you, when the women are summoned to meet for a matter of
the greatest importance, they lie in bed instead of coming.
  CLEONICE
    Oh! they will come, my dear; but it's not easy, you know, for
women to leave the house. One is busy pottering about her husband;
another is getting the servant up; a third is putting her child asleep
or washing the brat or feeding it.
  LYSISTRATA
    But I tell you, the business that calls them here is far and
away more urgent.
  CLEONICE
    And why do you summon us, dear Lysistrata? What is it all about?
  LYSISTRATA
    About a big thing.
  CLEONICE  (taking this in a different sense; with great interest)
    And is it thick too?
  LYSISTRATA
    Yes, very thick.
  CLEONICE
    And we are not all on the spot! Imagine!
  LYSISTRATA  (wearily)
    Oh! if it were what you suppose, there would be never an absentee.
No, no, it concerns a thing I have turned about and about this way and
that so many sleepless nights.
  CLEONICE  (still unable to be serious)
    It must be something mighty fine and subtle for you to have turned
it about so!
  LYSISTRATA
    So fine, it means just this, Greece saved by the women!
  CLEONICE
    By the women! Why, its salvation hangs on a poor thread then!
  LYSISTRATA
    Our country's fortunes depend on us-it is with us to undo
utterly the Peloponnesians.
  CLEONICE
    That would be a noble deed truly!
  LYSISTRATA
    To exterminate the Boeotians to a man!
  CLEONICE
    But surely you would spare the eels.
  LYSISTRATA
    For Athens' sake I will never threaten so fell a doom; trust me
for that. However, if the Boeotian and Peloponnesian women join us,
Greece is saved.
  CLEONICE
    But how should women perform so wise and glorious an
achievement, we women who dwell in the retirement of the household,
clad in diaphanous garments of yellow silk and long flowing gowns,
decked out with flowers and shod with dainty little slippers?
  LYSISTRATA
    Ah, but those are the very sheet-anchors of our salvation-those
yellow tunics, those scents and slippers, those cosmetics and
transparent robes.
  CLEONICE
    How so, pray?
  LYSISTRATA
    There is not a man will wield a lance against another...
  CLEONICE
    Quick, I will get me a yellow tunic from the dyer's.
  LYSISTRATA
    ...or want a shield.
  CLEONICE
    I'll run and put on a flowing gown.
  LYSISTRATA
    ...or draw a sword.
  CLEONICE
    I'll haste and buy a pair of slippers this instant.
  LYSISTRATA
    Now tell me, would not the women have done best to come?
  CLEONICE
    Why, they should have flown here!
  LYSISTRATA
    Ah! my dear, you'll see that like true Athenians, they will do
everything too late.... Why, there's not a woman come from the
shore, not one from Salamis.
  CLEONICE
    But I know for certain they embarked at daybreak.
  LYSISTRATA
    And the dames from Acharnae! why, I thought they would have been
the very first to arrive.
    CLEONICE
    Theagenes' wife at any rate is sure to come; she has actually been
to consult Hecate.... But look! here are some arrivals-and there are
more behind. Ah! ha! now what countrywomen may they be?
  LYSISTRATA
    They are from Anagyra.
  CLEONICE
    Yes! upon my  word, 'tis a levy en masse of all the female
population of Anagyra!
                           (MYRRHINE enters, followed by other women.)
  MYRRHINE
    Are we late, Lysistrata? Tell us, pray; what, not a word?
  LYSISTRATA
    I cannot say much for you, Myrrhine! you have not bestirred
yourself overmuch for an affair of such urgency.
  MYRRHINE
    I could not find my girdle in the dark. However, if the matter
is so pressing, here we are; so speak.
  CLEONICE
    No, let's wait a moment more, till the women of Boeotia arrive and
those from the Peloponnese.
  LYSISTRATA
    Yes, that is best.... Ah! here comes Lampito.  (LAMPITO, a husky
Spartan damsel, enters with three others, two from Boeotia and one
from Corinth.)  Good day, Lampito, dear friend from Lacedaemon. How
well and handsome you look! what a rosy complexion! and how strong you
seem; why, you could strangle a bull surely!
  LAMPITO
    Yes, indeed, I really think I could. It's because I do
gymnastics and practise the bottom-kicking dance.
  CLEONICE  (opening LAMPITO'S robe and baring her bosom)
    And what superb breasts!
  LAMPITO
    La! you are feeling me as if I were a beast for sacrifice.
  LYSISTRATA
    And this young woman, where is she from?
  LAMPITO
    She is a noble lady from Boeotia.
  LYSISTRATA
    Ah! my pretty Boeotian friend, you are as blooming as a garden.
  CLEONICE  (making another inspection)
    Yes, on my word! and her "garden" is so thoroughly weeded too!
  LYSISTRATA (pointing to the Corinthian)
    And who is this?
  LAMPITO
    'Tis an honest woman, by my faith! she comes from Corinth.
  CLEONICE
    Oh! honest, no doubt then-as honesty goes at Corinth.
  LAMPITO
    But who has called together this council of women, pray?
  LYSISTRATA
    I have.
  LAMPITO
    Well then, tell us what you want of us.
  CLEONICE
    Yes, please tell us! What is this very important business you wish
to inform us about?
  LYSISTRATA
    I will tell you. But first answer me one question.
  CLEONICE
    Anything you wish.
  LYSISTRATA
    Don't you feel sad and sorry because the fathers of your
children are far away from you with the army? For I'll wager there
is not one of you whose husband is not abroad at this moment.
  CLEONICE
    Mine has been the last five months in Thrace-looking after
Eucrates.
  MYRRHINE
    It's seven long months since mine left for Pylos.
  LAMPITO
    As for mine, if he ever does return from service, he's no sooner
home than he takes down his shield again and flies back to the wars.
  LYSISTRATA
    And not so much as the shadow of a lover! Since the day the
Milesians betrayed us, I have never once seen an eight-inch gadget
even, to be a leathern consolation to us poor widows.... Now tell
me, if I have discovered a means of ending the war, will you all
second me?
  CLEONICE
    Yes verily, by all the goddesses, I swear I will, though I have to
put my gown in pawn, and drink the money the same day.
  MYRRHINE
    And so will I, though I must be split in two like a flat-fish, and
have half myself removed.
  LAMPITO
    And I too; why to secure peace, I would climb to the top of
Mount Taygetus.
  LYSISTRATA
    Then I will out with it at last, my mighty secret! Oh! sister
women, if we would compel our husbands to make peace, we must
refrain...
  CLEONICE
    Refrain from what? tell us, tell us!
  LYSISTRATA
    But will you do it?
  MYRRHINE
    We will, we will, though we should die of it.
  LYSISTRATA
    We must refrain from the male altogether.... Nay, why do you
turn your backs on me? Where are you going? So, you bite your lips,
and shake your heads, eh? Why these pale, sad looks? why these
tears? Come, will you do it-yes or no? Do you hesitate?
  CLEONICE
    I will not do it, let the war go on.
  MYRRHINE
    Nor will I; let the war go on.
  LYSISTRATA  (to MYRRHINE)
    And you say this, my pretty flat-fish, who declared just now
they might split you in two?
  CLEONICE
    Anything, anything but that! Bid me go through the fire, if you
will,-but to rob us of the sweetest thing in all the world, Lysistrata
darling!
  LYSISTRATA  (to MYRRHINE)
    And you?
  MYRRHINE
    Yes, I agree with the others; I too would sooner go through the
fire.
  LYSISTRATA
    Oh, wanton, vicious sex! the poets have done well to make
tragedies upon us; we are good for nothing then but love and lewdness!
But you, my dear, you from hardy Sparta, if you join me, all may yet
be well; help me, second me, I beg you.
  LAMPITO
    'Tis a hard thing, by the two goddesses it is! for a woman to
sleep alone without ever a strong male in her bed. But there, peace
must come first.
  LYSISTRATA
    Oh, my darling, my dearest, best friend, you are the only one
deserving the name of woman!
  CLEONICE
    But if-which the gods forbid-we do refrain altogether from what
you say, should we get peace any sooner?
  LYSISTRATA
    Of course we should, by the goddesses twain! We need only sit
indoors with painted cheeks, and meet our mates lightly clad in
transparent gowns of Amorgos silk, and perfectly depilated; they
will get their tools up and be wild to lie with us. That will be the
time to refuse, and they will hasten to make peace, I am convinced
of that!
  LAMPITO
    Yes, just as Menelaus, when he saw Helen's naked bosom, threw away
his sword, they say.
  CLEONICE
    But, oh dear, suppose our husbands go away and leave us.
  LYSISTRATA
    Then, as Pherecrates says, we must "flay a skinned dog," that's
all.
  CLEONICE
    Fiddlesticks! these proverbs are all idle talk.... But if our
husbands drag us by main force into the bedchamber?
  LYSISTRATA
    Hold on to the door posts.
  CLEONICE
    But if they beat us?
  LYSISTRATA
    Then yield to their wishes, but with a bad grace; there is no
pleasure in it for them, when they do it by force. Besides, there
are a thousand ways of tormenting them. Never fear, they'll soon
tire of the game; there's no satisfaction for a man, unless the
woman shares it.
  CLEONICE
    Very well, if you must have it so, we agree.
  LAMPITO
    For ourselves, no doubt we shall persuade our husbands to conclude
a fair and honest peace; but there is the Athenian populace, how are
we to cure these folk of their warlike frenzy?
  LYSISTRATA
    Have no fear; we undertake to make our own people listen to
reason.
  LAMPITO
    That's impossible, so long as they have their trusty ships and the
vast treasures stored in the temple of Athene.
  LYSISTRATA
    Ah! but we have seen to that; this very day the Acropolis will
be in our hands. That is the task assigned to the older women; while
we are here in council, they are going, under pretence of offering
sacrifice, to seize the citadel.
  LAMPITO
    Well said indeed! everything is going for the best.
  LYSISTRATA
    Come, quick, Lampito, and let us bind ourselves by an inviolable
oath.
  LAMPITO
    Recite the terms; we will swear to them.
  LYSISTRATA
    With pleasure. Where is our Scythian policewoman? Now, what are
you staring at, pray? Lay this shield on the earth before us, its
hollow upwards, and someone bring me the victim's inwards.
  CLEONICE
    Lysistrata, say, what oath are we to swear?
  LYSISTRATA
    What oath? Why, in Aeschylus, they sacrifice a sheep, and swear
over a buckler; we will do the same.
  CLEONICE
    No, Lysistrata, one cannot swear peace over a buckler, surely.
  LYSISTRATA
    What other oath do you prefer?
  CLEONICE
    Let's take a white horse, and sacrifice it, and swear on its
entrails.
  LYSISTRATA
    But where shall we get a white horse?
  CLEONICE
    Well, what oath shall we take then?
  LYSISTRATA
    Listen to me. Let's set a great black bowl on the ground; let's
sacrifice a skin of Thasian wine into it, and take oath not to add one
single drop of water.
  LAMPITO
    Ah! that's an oath pleases me more than I can say.
  LYSISTRATA
    Let them bring me a bowl and a skin of wine.
  CLEONICE
    Ah! my dears, what a noble big bowl! what fun it will be to
empty it
  LYSISTRATA
    Set the bowl down on the ground, and lay your hands on the victim.
....Almighty goddess, Persuasion, and thou, bowl, boon comrade of joy
and merriment, receive this our sacrifice, and be propitious to us
poor women!
  CLEONICE  (as LYSISTRATA pours the wine into the bowl)
    Oh! the fine red blood! how well it flows!
  LAMPITO
    And what a delicious bouquet, by Castor!
  CLEONICE
    Now, my dears, let me swear first, if you please.
  LYSISTRATA
    No, by Aphrodite, unless it's decided by lot. But come, then,
Lampito, and all of you, put your hands to the bowl; and do you,
Cleonice, repeat for all the rest the solemn terms I am going to
recite. Then you must all swear, and pledge yourselves by the same
promises,-I will have naught to do whether with lover or husband...
  CLEONICE  (faintly)
    I will have naught to do whether with lover or husband...
  LYSISTRATA
    Albeit he come to me with an erection...
  CLEONICE  (her voice quavering)
    Albeit he come to me with an erection...  (in despair)  Oh!
Lysistrata, I cannot bear it!
  LYSISTRATA  (ignoring this outburst)
    I will live at home unbulled...
  CLEONICE
    I will live at home unbulled...
  LYSISTRATA
    Beautifully dressed and wearing a saffron-coloured gown
  CLEONICE
    Beautifully dressed and wearing a saffron-coloured gown...
  LYSISTRATA
    To the end I may inspire my husband with the most ardent longings.
  CLEONICE
    To the end I may inspire my husband with the most ardent longings.
  LYSISTRATA
    Never will I give myself voluntarily...
  CLEONICE
    Never will I give myself voluntarily...
  LYSISTRATA
    And if he has me by force...
  CLEONICE
    And if he has me by force...
  LYSISTRATA
    I will be cold as ice, and never stir a limb...
  CLEONICE
    I will be cold as ice, and never stir a limb...
  LYSISTRATA
    I will neither extend my Persian slippers toward the ceiling...
  CLEONICE
    I will neither extend my Persian slippers toward the ceiling...
  LYSISTRATA
    Nor will I crouch like the carven lions on a knife-handle.
  CLEONICE
    Nor will I crouch like the carven lions on a knife-handle.
  LYSISTRATA
    And if I keep my oath, may I be suffered to drink of this wine.
  CLEONICE  (more courageously)
    And if I keep my oath, may I be suffered to drink of this wine.
  LYSISTRATA
    But if I break it, let my bowl be filled with water.
  CLEONICE
    But if I break it, let my bowl be filled with water.
  LYSISTRATA
    Will you all take this oath?
  ALL
    We do.
  LYSISTRATA
    Then I'll now consume this remnant.
                                                        (She drinks.)
  CLEONICE  (reaching for the cup)
    Enough, enough, my dear; now let us all drink in turn to cement
our friendship.
    (They pass the cup around and all drink. A great commotion is
      heard off stage.)
  LAMPITO
    Listen! what do those cries mean?
  LYSISTRATA
    It's what I was telling you; the women have just occupied the
Acropolis. So now, Lampito, you return to Sparta to organize the plot,
while your comrades here remain as hostages. For ourselves, let us
go and join the rest in the citadel, and let us push the bolts well
home.
  CLEONICE
    But don't you think the men will march up against us?
  LYSISTRATA
    I laugh at them. Neither threats nor flames shall force our doors;
they shall open only on the conditions I have named.
  CLEONICE
    Yes, yes, by Aphrodite; otherwise we should be called cowardly and
wretched women.
                                         (She follows LYSISTRATA out.)

    (The scene shifts to the entrance of the Acropolis. The CHORUS
     OF OLD MEN slowly enters, carrying faggots and pots of fire.)

  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Go easy, Draces, go easy; why, your shoulder is all chafed by
these damned heavy olive stocks. But forward still, forward, man, as
needs must.
  FIRST SEMI-CHORUS OF OLD MEN  (singing)
    What unlooked-for things do happen, to be sure, in a long life!
Ah! Strymodorus, who would ever have thought it? Here we have the
women, who used, for our misfortune, to eat our bread and live in
our houses, daring nowadays to lay hands on the holy image of the
goddess, to seize the Acropolis and draw bars and bolts to keep any
from entering!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Come, Philurgus, man, let's hurry there; let's lay our faggots all
about the citadel, and on the blazing pile burn with our hands these
vile conspiratresses, one and all-and Lycon's wife first and foremost!
  SECOND SEMI-CHORUS OF OLD MEN  (singing)
    Nay, by Demeter, never will I let them laugh at me, whiles I
have a breath left in my body. Cleomenes himself, the first who ever
seized our citadel, had to quit it to his sore dishonour; spite his
Lacedaemonian pride, he had to deliver me up his arms and slink off
with a single garment to his back. My word! but he was filthy and
ragged! and what an unkempt beard, to be sure! He had not had a bath
for six long years!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Oh! but that was a mighty siege! Our men were ranged seventeen
deep before the gate, and never left their posts, even to sleep. These
women, these enemies of Euripides and all the gods, shall I do nothing
to hinder their inordinate insolence? else let them tear down my
trophies of Marathon.
  FIRST SEMI-CHORUS OF OLD MEN  (singing)
    But look, to finish this toilsome climb only this last steep bit
is left to mount. Truly, it's no easy job without beasts of burden,
and how these logs do bruise my shoulder! Still let us carry on, and
blow up our fire and see it does not go out just as we reach our
destination. Phew! phew!  (Blowing the fire)  Oh! dear! what a
dreadful smoke!
  SECOND SEMI-CHORUS OF OLD MEN  (singing)
    It bites my eyes like a mad dog. It is Lemnian fire for sure, or
it would never devour my eyelids like this. Come on, Laches, let's
hurry, let's bring succour to the goddess; it's now or never! Phew!
phew!  (Blowing the fire)  Oh dear! what a confounded smoke!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    There now, there's our fire all bright and burning, thank the
gods! Now, why not first put down our loads here, then take a
vine-branch, light it at the brazier and hurl it at the gate by way of
battering-ram? If they don't answer our summons by pulling back the
bolts, then we set fire to the woodwork, and the smoke will choke
them. Ye gods! what a smoke! Pfaugh! Is there never a Samian general
will help me unload my burden?-Ah! it shall not gall my shoulder any
more.  (Setting down the wood)  Come, brazier, do your duty, make
the embers flare, that I may kindle a brand; I want to be the first to
hurl one. Aid me, heavenly Victory; let us punish for their insolent
audacity the women who have seized our citadel, and may we raise a
trophy of triumph for success!

           (They begin to build a fire. The CHORUS OF WOMEN
                 now enters, carrying pots of water.)

  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Oh!  my dears, methinks I see fire and smoke; can it be a
conflagration? Let us hurry all we can.
  FIRST SEMI-CHORUS OF WOMEN  (singing)
    Fly, fly, Nicodice, ere Calyce and Critylle perish in the fire, or
are stifled in the smoke raised by these accursed old men and their
pitiless laws. But, great gods, can it be I come too late? Rising at
dawn, I had the utmost trouble to fill this vessel at the fountain.
Oh! what a crowd there was, and what a din! What a rattling of
water-pots! Servants and slave-girls pushed and thronged me!
However, here I have it full at last; and I am running to carry the
water to my fellow-townswomen, whom our foes are plotting to burn
alive.
  SECOND SEMI-CHORUS OF WOMEN  (singing)
    News has been brought us that a company of old, doddering
grey-beards, loaded with enormous faggots, as if they wanted to heat a
furnace, have taken the field, vomiting dreadful threats, crying
that they must reduce to ashes these horrible women. Suffer them
not, oh! goddess, but, of thy grace, may I see Athens and Greece cured
of their warlike folly. 'Tis to this end, oh! thou guardian deity of
our city, goddess of the golden crest, that they have seized thy
sanctuary. Be their friend and ally, Athene, and if any man hurl
against them lighted firebrands, aid us to carry water to extinguish
them.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    What is this I see, ye wretched old men? Honest and pious folk
ye cannot be who act so vilely.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Ah, ha! here's something new! a swarm of women stand posted
outside to defend the gates!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Fart at us, would you? we seem a mighty host, yet you do not see
the ten-thousandth part of our sex.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Ho, Phaedrias! shall we stop their cackle? Suppose one of us
were to break a stick across their backs, eh?
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Let us set down our water-pots on the ground, to be out of the
way, if they should dare to offer us violence.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Let someone knock out two or three teeth for them, as they did
to Bupalus; they won't talk so loud then.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Come on then; I wait you with unflinching foot, and no other bitch
will ever grab your balls.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Silence! or my stick will cut short your days.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Now, just you dare to touch Stratyllis with the tip of your
finger!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    And if I batter you to pieces with my fists, what will you do?
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    I will tear out your lungs and entrails with my teeth.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Oh! what a clever poet is Euripides! how well he says that woman
is the most shameless of animals.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Let's pick up our water-jars again, Rhodippe.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    You damned women, what do you mean to do here with your water?
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    And you, old death-in-life, with your fire? Is it to cremate
yourself?
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    I am going to build you a pyre to roast your female friends upon.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    And I,-I am going to put out your fire.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    You put out my fire-you?
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Yes, you shall soon see.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    I don't know what prevents me from roasting you with this torch.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    I am getting you a bath ready to clean off the filth.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    A bath for me, you dirty slut?
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Yes, indeed, a nuptial bath-tee heel
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN  (turning to his followers)
    Do you hear that? What insolence!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    I am a free woman, I tell you.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    I will make you hold your tongue, never fear!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Ah ha! you shall never sit any more amongst the Heliasts.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN  (to his torch)
    Burn off her hair for her!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN  (to her pot)
    Achelous, do your duty!

                (The women pitch the water in their
                   water-pots over the old men.)

  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Oh, dear! oh, dear! oh, dear!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Was it hot?
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Hot, great gods! Enough, enough!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    I'm watering you, to make you bloom afresh.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Alas! I am too dry! Ah, me how! how I am trembling with cold!
                 (A MAGISTRATE enters, with a few Scythian policemen.)
  MAGISTRATE
    These women, have they made din enough, I wonder, with their
tambourines? bewept Adonis enough upon their terraces? I was listening
to the speeches last assembly day, and Demostratus, whom heaven
confound! was saying we must all go over to Sicily-and lo! his wife
was dancing round repeating: "Alas! alas! Adonis, woe is me for
Adonis!" Demostratus was saying we must levy hoplites at Zacynthus-and
there was his wife, more than half drunk, screaming on the house-roof:
"Weep, weep for Adonis!"-while that infamous Mad Ox was bellowing away
on his side.-Do you not blush, you women, for your wild and uproarious
doings?
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    But you don't know all their effrontery yet! They abused and
insulted us; then soused us with the water in their water-pots, and
have set us wringing out our clothes, for all the world as if we had
bepissed ourselves.
  MAGISTRATE
    And well done too, by Posidon! We men must share the blame of
their ill conduct; it is we who teach them to love riot and
dissoluteness and sow the seeds of wickedness in their hearts. You see
a husband go into a shop: "Look you, jeweller," says he, "you remember
the necklace you made for my wife. Well, the other evening, when she
was dancing, the catch came open. Now, I am bound to start for
Salamis; will you make it convenient to go up to-night to make her
fastening secure?" Another will go to the cobbler, a great, strong
fellow, with a great, long tool, and tell him: "The strap of one of my
wife's sandals presses her little toe, which is extremely sensitive;
come in about midday to supple the thing and stretch it." Now see
the results. Take my own case-as a Magistrate I have enlisted
rowers; I want money to pay them, and the women slam the door in my
face. But why do we stand here with arms crossed? Bring me a
crowbar; I'll chastise their insolence!-Ho! there, my fine fellow!
(to one of the Scythians)  what are, you gaping at the crows for?
looking for a tavern, I suppose, eh? Come on, bring crowbars here, and
force open the gates. I will put a hand to the work myself.
  LYSISTRATA  (opening the gate and walking out)
    No need to force the gates; I am coming out-here I am. And why
bolts and bars? What we want here is not bolts and bars and locks, but
common sense.
  MAGISTRATE  (jumping nervously, then striving manfully to regain his
               dignity)
    Really, my fine lady! Where is my officer? I want him to tie
that woman's hands behind her back.
  LYSISTRATA
    By Artemis, the virgin goddess! if he touches me with the tip of
his finger, officer of the public peace though he be, let him look out
for himself!
                             (The first Scythian defecates in terror.)
  MAGISTRATE  (to another officer)
    How now, are you afraid? Seize her, I tell you, round the body.
Two of you at her, and have done with it!
  CLEONICE
    By Pandrosos! if you lay a hand on her, Ill trample you
underfoot till the crap comes out of you!
                            (The second Scythian defecates in terror.)
  MAGISTRATE
    Look at the mess you've made! Where is there another officer?  (To
the third Scythian)  Bind that minx first, the one who speaks so
prettily!
  MYRRHINE
    By Phoebe, if you touch her with one finger, you'd better call
quick for a surgeon!
                             (The third Scythian defecates in terror.)
  MAGISTRATE
    What's that? Where's the officer?  (To the fourth Scythian)  Lay
hold of her. Oh! but I'm going to stop your foolishness for you all
  CLEONICE
    By the Tauric Artemis, if you go near her, I'll pull out your
hair, scream as you like.
                            (The fourth Scythian defecates in terror.)
  MAGISTRATE
    Ah! miserable man that I am! My own officers desert me. What ho!
are we to let ourselves be bested by a mob of women? Ho! Scythians
mine, close up your ranks, and forward!
  LYSISTRATA
    By the holy goddesses! you'll have to make acquaintance with
four companies of women, ready for the fray and well armed to boot.
  MAGISTRATE
    Forward, Scythians, and bind them!
                                  (The Scythians advance reluctantly.)
  LYSISTRATA
    Forward, my gallant companions; march forth, ye vendors of grain
and eggs, garlic and vegetables, keepers of taverns and bakeries,
wrench and strike and tear; come, a torrent of invective and insult!
 (They beat the Scythians who retire in haste.)  Enough, enough now
retire, never rob the vanquished!
                                                 (The women withdraw.)
  MAGISTRATE
    How unfortunate for my officers!
  LYSISTRATA
    Ah, ha! so you thought you had only to do with a set of
slave-women! you did not know the ardour that fills the bosom of
free-born dames.
  MAGISTRATE
    Ardour! yes, by Apollo, ardour enough-especially for the wine-cup!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Sir, sir what good are words? they are of no avail with wild
beasts of this sort. Don't you know how they have just washed us
down-and with no very fragrant soap!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    What would you have? You should never have laid rash hands on
us. If you start afresh, I'll knock your eyes out. My delight is to
stay at home as coy as a young maid, without hurting anybody or moving
any more than a milestone; but 'ware the wasps, if you go stirring
up the wasps' nest!
  CHORUS OF OLD MEN  (singing)
    Ah! great gods! how get the better of these ferocious creatures?
'tis past all bearing! But come, let us try to find out the reason
of the dreadful scourge. With what end in view have they seized the
citadel of Cranaus, the sacred shrine that is raised upon the
inaccessible rock of the Acropolis?
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN  (to the MAGISTRATE)
    Question them; be cautious and not too credulous. It would be
culpable negligence not to pierce the mystery, if we may.
  MAGISTRATE  (addressing the women)
    I would ask you first why you have barred our gates.
  LYSISTRATA
    To seize the treasury; no more money, no more war.
  MAGISTRATE
    Then money is the cause of the war?
  LYSISTRATA
    And of all our troubles. It was to find occasion to steal that
Pisander and all the other agitators were forever raising revolutions.
Well and good! but they'll never get another drachma here.
  MAGISTRATE
    What do you propose to do then, pray?
  LYSISTRATA
    You ask me that! Why, we propose to administer the treasury
ourselves.
  MAGISTRATE
    You do?
  LYSISTRATA
    What is there in that to surprise you? Do we not administer the
budget of household expenses?
  MAGISTRATE
    But that is not the same thing.
  LYSISTRATA
    How so-not the same thing?
  MAGISTRATE
    It is the treasury supplies the expenses of the war.
  LYSISTRATA
    That's our first principle-no war!
  MAGISTRATE
    What! and the safety of the city?
  LYSISTRATA
    We will provide for that.
  MAGISTRATE
    You?
  LYSISTRATA
    Yes, we!
  MAGISTRATE
    What a sorry business!
  LYSISTRATA
    Yes, we're going to save you, whether you like it or not.
  MAGISTRATE
    Oh! the impudence of the creatures!
  LYSISTRATA
    You seem annoyed! but it has to be done, nevertheless.
  MAGISTRATE
    But it's the very height of iniquity!
  LYSISTRATA  (testily)
    We're going to save you, my good man.
  MAGISTRATE
    But if I don't want to be saved?
  LYSISTRATA
    Why, all the more reason!
  MAGISTRATE
    But what a notion, to concern yourselves with questions of peace
and war!
  LYSISTRATA
    We will explain our idea.
  MAGISTRATE
    Out with it then; quick, or... (threatening her).
  LYSISTRATA  (sternly)
    Listen, and never a movement, please!
  MAGISTRATE  (in impotent rage)
    Oh! it is too much for me! I cannot keep my temper!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Then look out for yourself; you have more to fear than we have.
  MAGISTRATE
    Stop your croaking, you old crow!  (To LYSISTRATA)  Now you, say
what you have to say.
  LYSISTRATA
    Willingly. All the long time the war has lasted, we have endured
in modest silence all you men did; you never allowed us to open our
lips. We were far from satisfied, for we knew how things were going;
often in our homes we would hear you discussing, upside down and
inside out, some important turn of affairs. Then with sad hearts,
but smiling lips, we would ask you: Well, in today's Assembly did they
vote peace?-But, "Mind your own business!" the husband would growl,
"Hold your tongue, please!" And we would say no more.
  CLEONICE
    I would not have held my tongue though, not I!
  MAGISTRATE
    You would have been reduced to silence by blows then.
  LYSISTRATA
    Well, for my part, I would say no more. But presently I would come
to know you had arrived at some fresh decision more fatally foolish
than ever. "Ah! my dear man," I would say, "what madness next!" But he
would only look at me askance and say: "Just weave your web, please;
else your cheeks will smart for hours. War is men's business!"
  MAGISTRATE
    Bravo! well said indeed!
  LYSISTRATA
    How now, wretched man? not to let us contend against your
follies was bad enough! But presently we heard you asking out loud
in the open street: "Is there never a man left in Athens?" and, "No,
not one, not one," you were assured in reply. Then, then we made up
our minds without more delay to make common cause to save Greece. Open
your ears to our wise counsels and hold your tongues, and we may yet
put things on a better footing.
  MAGISTRATE
    You put things indeed! Oh! this is too much! The insolence of
the creatures!
  LYSISTRATA
    Be still!
  MAGISTRATE
    May I die a thousand deaths ere I obey one who wears a veil!
  LYSISTRATA
    If that's all that troubles you, here, take my veil, wrap it round
your head, and hold your tongue.
  CLEONICE
    Then take this basket; put on a girdle, card wool, munch beans.
The war shall be women's business.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Lay aside your water-pots, we will guard them, we will help our
friends and companions.
  CHORUS OF WOMEN  (singing)
    For myself, I will never weary of the dance; my knees will never
grow stiff with fatigue. I will brave everything with my dear
allies, on whom Nature has lavished virtue, grace, boldness,
cleverness, and whose wisely directed energy is going to save the
State.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Oh! my good, gallant Lysistrata, and all my friends, be ever
like a bundle of nettles; never let your anger slacken; the winds of
fortune blow our way.
  LYSISTRATA
    May gentle Love and the sweet Cyprian Queen shower seductive
charms on our breasts and our thighs. If only we may stir so amorous a
feeling among the men that they stand as firm as sticks, we shall
indeed deserve the name of peace-makers among the Greeks.
  MAGISTRATE
    How will that be, pray?
  LYSISTRATA
    To begin with, we shall not see you any more running like mad
fellows to the Market holding lance in fist.
  CLEONICE
    That will be something gained, anyway, by the Paphian goddess,
it will!
  LYSISTRATA
    Now we see them, mixed up with saucepans and kitchen stuff,
armed to the teeth, looking like wild Corybantes!
  MAGISTRATE
    Why, of course; that's what brave men should do.
  LYSISTRATA
    Oh! but what a funny sight, to behold a man wearing a
Gorgon's-bead buckler coming along to buy fish!
  CLEONICE
    The other day in the Market I saw a phylarch with flowing
ringlets; he was on horseback, and was pouring into his helmet the
broth he had just bought at an old dame's still. There was a
Thracian warrior too, who was brandishing his lance like Tereus in the
play; he had scared a good woman selling figs into a perfect panic,
and was gobbling up all her ripest fruit-
  MAGISTRATE
    And how, pray, would you propose to restore peace and order in all
the countries of Greece?
  LYSISTRATA
    It's the easiest thing in the world!
  MAGISTRATE
    Come, tell us how; I am curious to know.
  LYSISTRATA
    When we are winding thread, and it is tangled, we pass the spool
across and through the skein, now this way, now that way; even so,
to finish of the war, we shall send embassies hither and thither and
everywhere, to disentangle matters.
  MAGISTRATE
    And is it with your yarn, and your skeins, and your spools, you
think to appease so many bitter enmities, you silly women?
  LYSISTRATA
    If only you had common sense, you would always do in politics
the same as we do with our yarn.
  MAGISTRATE
    Come, how is that, eh?
  LYSISTRATA
    First we wash the yarn to separate the grease and filth; do the
same with all bad citizens, sort them out and drive them forth with
rods-they're the refuse of the city. Then for all such as come
crowding up in search of employments and offices, we must card them
thoroughly; then, to bring them all to the same standard, pitch them
pell-mell into the same basket, resident aliens or no, allies, debtors
to the State, all mixed up together. Then as for our Colonies, you
must think of them as so many isolated hanks; find the ends of the
separate threads, draw them to a centre here, wind them into one, make
one great hank of the lot, out of which the public can weave itself
a good, stout tunic.
  MAGISTRATE
    Is it not a sin and a shame to see them carding and winding the
State, these women who have neither art nor part in the burdens of the
war?
  LYSISTRATA
    What! wretched man! why, it's a far heavier burden to us than to
you. In the first place, we bear sons who go off to fight far away
from Athens.
  MAGISTRATE
    Enough said! do not recall sad and sorry memories!
  LYSISTRATA
    Then secondly, instead of enjoying the pleasures of love and
making the best of our youth and beauty, we are left to languish far
from our husbands, who are all with the army. But say no more of
ourselves; what afflicts me is to see our girls growing old in
lonely grief.
  MAGISTRATE
    Don't the men grow old too?
  LYSISTRATA
    That is not the same thing. When the soldier returns from the
wars, even though he has white hair, he very soon finds a young
wife. But a woman has only one summer; if she does not make hay
while the sun shines, no one will afterwards have anything to say to
her, and she spends her days consulting oracles that never send her
a husband.
  MAGISTRATE
    But the old man who can still get an erection...
  LYSISTRATA
    But you, why don't you get done with it and die? You are rich;
go buy yourself a bier, and I will knead you a honey-cake for
Cerberus. Here, take this garland.
                                           (Drenching him with water.)
  CLEONICE
    And this one too.
                                           (Drenching him with water.)
  MYRRHINE
    And these fillets.
                                           (Drenching him with water.)
  LYSISTRATA
    What else do you need? Step aboard the boat; Charon is waiting for
you, you're keeping him from pushing off.
  MAGISTRATE
    To treat me so scurvily! What an insult! I will go show myself
to my fellow-magistrates just as I am.
  LYSISTRATA
    What! are you blaming us for not having exposed you according to
custom? Nay, console yourself; we will not fail to offer up the
third-day sacrifice for you, first thing in the morning.
            (She goes into the Acropolis, with CLEONICE and MYRRHINE.)
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Awake, friends of freedom; let us hold ourselves aye ready to act.
  CHORUS OF OLD MEN  (singing)
    I suspect a mighty peril; I foresee another tyranny like Hippias'.
I am sore afraid the Laconians assembled here with Clisthenes have, by
a stratagem of war, stirred up these women, enemies of the gods, to
seize upon our treasury and the funds whereby I lived.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Is it not a sin and a shame for them to interfere in advising
the citizens, to prate of shields and lances, and to ally themselves
with Laconians, fellows I trust no more than I would so many
famished wolves? The whole thing, my friends, is nothing else but an
attempt to re-establish tyranny. But I will never submit; I will be on
my guard for the future; I will always carry a blade hidden under
myrtle boughs; I will post myself in the public square under arms,
shoulder to shoulder with Aristogiton; and now, to make a start, I
must just break a few of that cursed old jade's teeth yonder.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Nay, never play the brave man, else when you go back home, your
own mother won't know you. But, dear friends and allies, first let
us lay our burdens down.
  CHORUS OF WOMEN  (singing)
    Then, citizens all, hear what I have to say. I have useful counsel
to give our city, which deserves it well at my hands for the brilliant
distinctions it has lavished on my girlhood. At seven years of age,
I carried the sacred vessels; at ten, I pounded barley for the altar
of Athene; next, clad in a robe of yellow silk, I played the bear to
Artemis at the Brauronia; presently, when I was grown up, a tall,
handsome maiden, they put a necklace of dried figs about my neck,
and I was one of the Canephori.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    So surely I am bound to give my best advice to Athens. What
matters that I was born a woman, if I can cure your misfortunes? I pay
my share of tolls and taxes, by giving men to the State. But you,
you miserable greybeards, you contribute nothing to the public
charges; on the contrary, you have wasted the treasure of our
forefathers, as it was called, the treasure amassed in the days of the
Persian Wars. You pay nothing at all in return; and into the bargain
you endanger our lives and liberties by your mistakes. Have you one
word to say for yourselves?... Ah! don't irritate me, you there, or
I'll lay my slipper across your jaws; and it's pretty heavy.
  CHORUS OF OLD MEN  (singing)
    Outrage upon outrage! things are going from bad to worse. Let us
punish the minxes, every one of us that has balls to boast of. Come,
off with our tunics, for a man must savour of manhood; come, my
friends, let us strip naked from head to foot. Courage, I say, we
who in our day garrisoned Lipsydrion; let us be young again, and shake
off eld.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    If we give them the least hold over us, that's the end! their
audacity will know no bounds! We shall see them building ships, and
fighting sea-fights, like Artemisia; and, if they want to mount and
ride as cavalry, we had best cashier the knights, for indeed women
excel in riding, and have a fine. firm seat for the gallop. Just think
of all those squadrons of Amazons Micon has painted for us engaged
in hand-to-hand combat with men. Come then, we must now fit collars to
all these willing necks.
  CHORUS OF WOMEN  (singing)
    By the blessed goddesses, if you anger me, I will let loose the
beast of my evil passions, and a very hailstorm of blows will set
you yelling for help. Come, dames, off with your tunics, and quick's
the word; women must smell the smell of women in the throes of
passion.... Now just you dare to measure strength with me, old
greybeard, and I warrant you you'll never eat garlic or black beans
any more. No, not a word! my anger is at boiling point, and I'll do
with you what the beetle did with the eagle's eggs.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    I laugh at your threats, so long as I have on my side Lampito
here, and the noble Theban, my dear Ismenia.... Pass decree on decree,
you can do us no hurt, you wretch abhorred of all your fellows. Why,
only yesterday, on occasion of the feast of Hecate, I asked my
neighbours of Boeotia for one of their daughters for whom my girls
have a lively liking -a fine, fat eel to wit; and if they did not
refuse, all along of your silly decrees! We shall never cease to
suffer the like, till some one gives you a neat trip-up and breaks
your neck for you!  (To LYSISTRATA as she comes out from the
Acropolis)  You, Lysistrata, you who are leader of our glorious
enterprise, why do I see you coming towards me with so gloomy an air?
  LYSISTRATA
    It's the behaviour of these naughty women, it's the female heart
and female weakness that so discourage me.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Tell us, tell us, what is it?
  LYSISTRATA
    I only tell the simple truth.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    What has happened so disconcerting? Come, tell your friends.
  LYSISTRATA
    Oh! the thing is so hard to tell-yet so impossible to conceal.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Never seek to hide any ill that has befallen our cause.
  LYSISTRATA
    To blurt it out in a word-we want laying!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Oh! Zeus, oh! Zeus!
  LYSISTRATA
    What use calling upon Zeus? The thing is even as I say. I cannot
stop them any longer from lusting after the men. They are all for
deserting. The first I caught was slipping out by the postern gate
near the cave of Pan; another was letting herself down by a rope and
pulley; a third was busy preparing her escape; while a fourth, perched
on a bird's back, was just taking wing for Orsilochus' house, when I
seized her by the hair. One and all, they are inventing excuses to
be off home.  (Pointing to the gate)  Look! there goes one, trying
to get out! Halloa there! whither away so fast?
  FIRST WOMAN
    I want to go home; I have some Milesian wool in the house, which
is getting all eaten up by the worms.
  LYSISTRATA
    Bah! you and your worms! go back, I say!
  FIRST WOMAN
    I will return immediately, I swear I will by the two goddesses!
I only have just to spread it out on the bed.
  LYSISTRATA
    You shall not do anything of the kind! I say, you shall not go.
  FIRST WOMAN
    Must I leave my wool to spoil then?
  LYSISTRATA
    Yes, if need be.
  SECOND WOMAN
    Unhappy woman that I am! Alas for my flax! I've left it at home
unstript!
  LYSISTRATA
    So, here's another trying to escape to go home and strip her flax!
  SECOND WOMAN
    Oh! I swear by the goddess of light, the instant I have put it
in condition I will come straight back.
  LYSISTRATA
    You shall do nothing of the kind! If once you began, others
would want to follow suit.
  THIRD WOMAN
    Oh! goddess divine, Ilithyia, patroness of women in labour,
stay, stay the birth, till I have reached a spot less hallowed than
Athene's mount!
  LYSISTRATA
    What mean you by these silly tales?
  THIRD WOMAN
    I am going to have a child-now, this minute!
  LYSISTRATA
    But you were not pregnant yesterday!
  THIRD WOMAN
    Well, I am to-day. Oh! let me go in search of the midwife,
Lysistrata, quick, quick!
  LYSISTRATA
    What is this fable you are telling me?  (Feeling her stomach)  Ah!
what have you got there so hard?
  THIRD WOMAN
    A male child.
  LYSISTRATA
    No, no, by Aphrodite! nothing of the sort! Why, it feels like
something hollow-a pot or a kettle.  (Opening her robe)  Oh! you silly
creature, if you have not got the sacred helmet of Pallas-and you said
you were with child!
  THIRD WOMAN
    And so I am, by Zeus, I am!
  LYSISTRATA
    Then why this helmet, pray?
  THIRD WOMAN
    For fear my pains should seize me in the Acropolis; I mean to
lay my eggs in this helmet, as the doves do.
  LYSISTRATA
    Excuses and pretences every word! the thing's as clear as
daylight. Anyway, you must stay here now till the fifth day, your
day of purification.
  THIRD WOMAN
    I cannot sleep any more in the Acropolis, now I have seen the
snake that guards the temple.
  FOURTH WOMAN
    Ah! and those awful owls with their dismal hooting! I cannot get a
wink of rest, and I'm just dying of fatigue.
  LYSISTRATA
    You wicked women, have done with your falsehoods! You want your
husbands, that's plain enough. But don't you think they want you
just as badly? They are spending dreadful nights, oh! I know that well
enough. But hold out, my dears, hold out! A little more patience,
and the victory will be ours. An oracle promises us success, if only
we remain united. Shall I repeat the words?
  THIRD WOMAN
    Yes, tell us what the oracle declares.
  LYSISTRATA
    Silence then! Now-"Whenas the swallows, fleeing before the
hoopoes, shall have all flocked together in one place, and shall
refrain them from all amorous commerce, then will be the end of all
the ills of life; yea, and Zeus, who doth thunder in the skies,
shall set above what was erst below...."
  THIRD WOMAN
    What! shall the men be underneath?
  LYSISTRATA
    "But if dissension do arise among the swallows, and they take wing
from the holy temple, it will be said there is never a more wanton
bird in all the world."
  THIRD WOMAN
    Ye gods! the prophecy is clear.
  LYSISTRATA
    Nay, never let us be cast down by calamity! let us be brave to
bear, and go back to our posts. It would be shameful indeed not to
trust the promises of the oracle.
                                (They all go back into the Acropolis.)
  CHORUS OF OLD MEN  (singing)
    I want to tell you a fable they used to relate to me when I was
a little boy. This is it: Once upon a time there was a young man
called Melanion, who hated the thought of marriage so sorely that he
fled away to the wilds. So he dwelt in the mountains, wove himself
nets, and caught hares. He never, never came back, he had such a
horror of women. As chaste as Melanion, we loathe the jades just as
much as he did.
  AN OLD MAN  (beginning a brief duet with one of the women)
    You dear old woman, I would fain kiss you.
  WOMAN
    I will set you crying without onions.
  OLD MAN
    And give you a sound kicking.
  WOMAN  (pointing)
    Ah, ha! what a dense forest you have there!
  OLD MAN
    So was Myronides one of the bushiest of men of this side; his
backside was all black, and he terrified his enemies as much as
Phormio.
  CHORUS OF WOMEN  (singing)
    I want to tell you a fable too, to match yours about Melanion.
Once there was a certain man called Timon, a tough customer, and a
whimsical, a true son of the Furies, with a face that seemed to
glare out of a thorn-bush. He withdrew from the world because he
couldn't abide bad men, after vomiting a thousand curses at them. He
had a holy horror of ill-conditioned fellows, but he was mighty tender
towards women.
  WOMAN  (beginning another duet)
    Suppose I up and broke your jaw for you!
  OLD MAN
    I am not a bit afraid of you.
  WOMAN
    Suppose I let fly a good kick at you?
  OLD MAN
    I should see your thing then.
  WOMAN
    You would see that, for all my age, it is very well plucked.
  LYSISTRATA  (rushing out of the Acropolis)
    Ho there! come quick, come quick!
  ONE OF THE WOMEN
    What is it? Why these cries?
  LYSISTRATA
    A man! a man! I see him approaching all afire with the flames of
love. Oh! divine Queen of Cyprus, Paphos and Cythera, I pray you still
be propitious to our enterprise.
  WOMAN
    Where is he, this unknown foe?
  LYSISTRATA
    Over there-beside the Temple of Demeter.
  WOMAN
    Yes, indeed, I see him; but who is he?
  LYSISTRATA
    Look, look! do any of you recognize him?
  MYRRHINE  (joyfully)
    I do, I do! it's my husband Cinesias.
  LYSISTRATA
    To work then! Be it your task to inflame and torture and torment
him. Seductions, caresses, provocations, refusals, try every means!
Grant every favour,-always excepting what is forbidden by our oath
on the wine-bowl.
  MYRRHINE
    Have no fear, I'll do it.
  LYSISTRATA
    Well, I shall stay here to help you cajole the man and set his
passions aflame. The rest of you withdraw.
    (CINESIAS enters, in obvious and extreme sexual excitement. A
      slave follows him carrying an infant.)
  CINESIAS
    Alas! alas! how I am tortured by spasm and rigid convulsion! Oh! I
am racked on the wheel!
  LYSISTRATA
    Who is this that dares to pass our lines?
  CINESIAS
    It is I.
  LYSISTRATA
    What, a man?
  CINESIAS
    Very much so!
  LYSISTRATA
    Get out.
  CINESIAS
    But who are you that thus repulses me?
  LYSISTRATA
    The sentinel of the day.
  CINESIAS
    For the gods' sake, call Myrrhine.
  LYSISTRATA
    Call Myrrhine, you say? And who are you?
  CINESIAS
    I am her husband, Cinesias, son of Paeon.
  LYSISTRATA
    Ah! good day, my dear friend. Your name is not unknown amongst us.
Your wife has it forever on her lips; and she never touches an egg
or an apple without saying: "This is for Cinesias."
  CINESIAS
    Really and truly?
  LYSISTRATA
    Yes, indeed, by Aphrodite! And if we fall to talking of men, quick
your wife declares: "Oh! all the rest, they're good for nothing
compared with Cinesias."
  CINESIAS
    Oh! please, please go and call her to me!
  LYSISTRATA
    And what will you give me for my trouble?
  CINESIAS
    Anything I've got, if you like.  (Pointing to the evidence of
his condition)  I will give you what I have here!
  LYSISTRATA
    Well, well, I will tell her to come.
                                           (She enters the Acropolis.)
  CINESIAS
    Quick, oh! be quick! Life has no more charms for me since she left
my house. I am sad, sad, when I go indoors; it all seems so empty;
my victuals have lost their savour. And all because of this erection
that I can't get rid of!
  MYRRHINE  (to LYSISTRATA, over her shoulder)
    I love him, oh! I love him; but he won't let himself be loved. No!
I shall not come.
  CINESIAS
    Myrrhine, my little darling Myrrhine, what are you saying? Come
down to me quick.
  MYRRHINE
    No indeed, not I.
  CINESIAS
    I call you, Myrrhine, Myrrhine; won't you please come?
  MYRRHINE
    Why should you call me? You do not want me.
  CINESIAS
    Not want you! Why, here I stand, stiff with desire!
  oMYRRHINE
    Good-bye.
                                             (She turns, as if to go.)
  CINESIAS
    Oh! Myrrhine, Myrrhine, in our child's name, hear me; at any
rate hear the child! Little lad, call your mother.
  CHILD
    Mamma, mamma, mamma!
  CINESIAS
    There, listen! Don't you pity the poor child? It's six days now
you've never washed and never fed the child.
  MYRRHINE
    Poor darling, your father takes mighty little care of you!
  CINESIAS
    Come down, dearest, come down for the child's sake.
  MYRRHINE
    Ah! what a thing it is to be a mother! Well, well, we must come
down, I suppose.
  CINESIAS  (as MYRRHINE approaches)
    Why, how much younger and prettier she looks! And how she looks at
me so lovingly! Her cruelty and scorn only redouble my passion.
  MYRRHINE  (ignoring him; to the child)
    You are as sweet as your father is provoking! Let me kiss you,
my treasure, mother's darling!
  CINESIAS
    Ah! what a bad thing it is to let yourself be led away by other
women! Why give me such pain and suffering, and yourself into the
bargain?
  MYRRHINE  (as he is about to embrace her)
    Hands off, sir!
  CINESIAS
    Everything is going to rack and ruin in the house.
  MYRRHINE
    I don't care.
  CINESIAS
    But your web that's all being pecked to pieces by the cocks and
hens, don't you care for that?
  MYRRHINE
    Precious little.
  CINESIAS
    And Aphrodite, whose mysteries you have not celebrated for so
long? Oh! won't you please come back home?
  MYRRHINE
    No, least, not till a sound treaty puts an end to the war.
  CINESIAS
    Well, if you wish it so much, why, we'll make it, your treaty.
  MYRRHINE
    Well and good! When that's done, I will come home. Till then, I am
bound by an oath.
  CINESIAS
    At any rate, lie with me for a little while.
  MYRRHINE
    No, no, no!  (she hesitates)  but just the same I can't say I
don't love you.
  CINESIAS
    You love me? Then why refuse to lie with me, my little girl, my
sweet Myrrhine?
  MYRRHINE  (pretending to be shocked)
    You must be joking! What, before the child!
  CINESIAS  (to the slave)
    Manes, carry the lad home. There, you see, the child is gone;
there's nothing to hinder us; won't you lie down now?
  MYRRHINE
    But, miserable man, where, where?
  CINESIAS
    In the cave of Pan; nothing could be better.
  MYRRHINE
    But how shall I purify myself before going back into the citadel?
  CINESIAS
    Nothing easier! you can wash at the Clepsydra.
  MYRRHINE
    But my oath? Do you want me to perjure myself?
  CINESIAS
    I'll take all responsibility; don't worry.
  MYRRHINE
    Well, I'll be off, then, and find a bed for us.
  CINESIAS
    There's no point in that; surely we can lie on the ground.
  MYRRHINE
    No, no! even though you are bad, I don't like your lying on the
bare earth.
                                   (She goes back into the Acropolis.)
  CINESIAS  (enraptured)
    Ah! how the dear girl loves me!
  MYRRHINE  (coming back with a cot)
    Come, get to bed quick; I am going to undress. But, oh dear, we
must get a mattress.
  CINESIAS
    A mattress? Oh! no, never mind about that!
  MYRRHINE
    No, by Artemis! lie on the bare sacking? never! That would be
squalid.
  CINESIAS
    Kiss me!
  MYRRHINE
    Wait a minute!
                                               (She leaves him again.)
  CINESIAS
    Good god, hurry up
  MYRRHINE  (coming back with a mattress)
    Here is a mattress. Lie down, I am just going to undress. But
you've got no pillow.
  CINESIAS
    I don't want one either!
  MYRRHINE
    But I do.
                                               (She leaves him again.)
  CINESIAS
    Oh god, oh god, she treats my tool just like Heracles!
  MYRRHINE  (coming back with a pillow)
    There, lift your head, dear!  (Wondering what else to tantalize
him with; to herself)  Is that all, I wonder?
  CINESIAS  (misunderstanding)
    Surely. there's nothing else. Come, my treasure.
  MYRRHINE
    I am just unfastening my girdle. But remember what you promised me
about making peace; mind you keep your word.
  CINESIAS
    Yes, yes, upon my life I will.
  MYRRHINE
    Why, you have no blanket!
  CINESIAS
    My god, what difference does that make? What I want is to make
love!
  MYRRHINE  (going out again)
    Never fear-directly, directly! I'll be back in no time.
  CINESIAS
    The woman will kill me with her blankets!
  MYRRHINE  (coming back with a blanket)
    Now, get yourself up.
  CINESIAS  (pointing)
    I've got this up!
  MYRRHINE
    Wouldn't you like me to scent you?
  CINESIAS
    No, by Apollo, no, please don't!
  MYRRHINE
    Yes, by Aphrodite, but I will, whether you like it or not.
                                                 (She goes out again.)
  CINESIAS
    God, I wish she'd hurry up and get through with all this!
  MYRRHINE  (coming back with a flask of perfume)
    Hold out your hand; now rub it in.
  CINESIAS
    Oh! in Apollo's name, I don't much like the smell of it; but
perhaps it will improve when it's well rubbed in. It does not
somehow smack of the marriage bed!
  MYRRHINE
    Oh dear! what a scatterbrain I am; if I haven't gone and brought
Rhodian perfumes!
  CINESIAS
    Never mind, dearest, let it go now.
  MYRRHINE
    You don't really mean that.
                                                           (She goes.)
  CINESIAS
    Damn the man who invented perfumes!
  MYRRHINE  (coming back with another flask)
    Here, take this bottle.
  CINESIAS
    I have a better one allready for you, darling. Come, you provoking
creature, to bed with you, and don't bring another thing.
  MYRRHINE
    Coming, coming; I'm just slipping off my shoes. Dear boy, will you
vote for peace?
  CINESIAS
    I'll think about it.  (MYRRHINE runs away.)  I'm a dead man, she
is killing me! She has gone, and left me in torment!  (in tragic
style)  I must have someone to lay, I must! Ah me! the loveliest of
women has choused and cheated me. Poor little lad, how am I to give
you what you want so badly? Where is Cynalopex? quick, man, get him
a nurse, do!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Poor, miserable wretch, baulked in your amorousness! what tortures
are yours! Ah! you fill me with pity. Could any man's back and loins
stand such a strain. He stands stiff and rigid, and there's never a
wench to help him!
  CINESIAS
    Ye gods in heaven, what pains I suffer!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Well, there it is; it's her doing, that abandoned hussy!
  CINESIAS
    No, no! rather say that sweetest, dearest darling.
                                                         (He departs.)
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    That dearest darling? no, no, that hussy, say I! Zeus, thou god of
the skies, canst not let loose a hurricane, to sweep them all up
into the air, and whirl them round, then drop them down crash! and
impale them on the point of this man's tool!
    (A Spartan HERALD enters; he shows signs of being in the same
      condition as CINESIAS.)
  HERALD
    Say, where shall I find the Senate and the Prytanes? I am bearer
of despatches.
                                      (An Athenian MAGISTRATE enters.)
  MAGISTRATE
    Are you a man or a Priapus?
  HERALD  (with an effort at officiousness)
    Don't be stupid! I am a herald, of course, I swear I am, and I
come from Sparta about making peace.
  MAGISTRATE  (pointing)
    But look, you are hiding a lance under your clothes, surely.
  HERALD  (embarrassed)
    No, nothing of the sort.
  MAGISTRATE
    Then why do you turn away like that, and hold your cloak out
from your body? Have you got swellings in the groin from your journey?
  HERALD
    By the twin brethren! the man's an old maniac.
  MAGISTRATE
    But you've got an erection! You lewd fellow!
  HERALD
    I tell you no! but enough of this foolery.
  MAGISTRATE  (pointing)
    Well, what is it you have there then?
  HERALD
    A Lacedaemonian 'skytale.'
  MAGISTRATE
    Oh, indeed, a 'skytale,' is it? Well, well, speak out frankly; I
know all about these matters. How are things going at Sparta now?
  HERALD
    Why, everything is turned upside down at Sparta; and all the
allies have erections. We simply must have Pellene.
  MAGISTRATE
    What is the reason of it all? Is it the god Pan's doing?
  HERALD
    No, it's all the work of Lampito and the women who are acting at
her instigation; they have kicked the men out from between their
thighs.
  MAGISTRATE
    But what are you doing about it?
  HERALD
    We are at our wits' end; we walk bent double, just as if we were
carrying lanterns in a wind. The jades have sworn we shall not so much
as touch them till we have all agreed to conclude peace.
  MAGISTRATE
    Ah! I see now, it's a general conspiracy embracing all Greece.
Go back to Sparta and bid them send envoys plenipotentiary to treat
for peace. I will urge our Senators myself to name plenipotentiaries
from us; and to persuade them, why, I will show them my own tool.
  HERALD
    What could be better? I fly at your command.
                                 (They go out in opposite directions.)
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    No wild beast is there, no flame of fire, more fierce and
untamable than woman; the leopard is less savage and shameless.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    And yet you dare to make war upon me, wretch, when you might
have me for your most faithful friend and ally.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Never, never can my hatred cease towards women.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Well, suit yourself. Still I cannot bear to leave you all naked as
you are; folks would laugh at you. Come, I am going to put this
tunic on you.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    You are right, upon my word! it was only in my confounded fit of
rage that I took it off.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Now at any rate you look like a man, and they won't make fun of
you. Ah! if you had not offended me so badly, I would take out that
nasty insect you have in your eye for you.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Ah! so that's what was annoying me so Look, here's a ring, just
remove the insect, and show it to me. By Zeus! it has been hurting
my eye for a long time now.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Well, I agree, though your manners are not over and above
pleasant. Oh I what a huge great gnat! just look! It's from
Tricorythus, for sure.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    A thousand thanks! the creature was digging a regular well in my
eye; now that it's gone, my tears can flow freely.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    I will wipe them for you-bad, naughty man though you are. Now,
just one kiss.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    A kiss? certainly not
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN
    Just one, whether you like it or not.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Oh! those confounded women! how they do cajole us! How true the
saying: " 'Tis impossible to live with the baggages, impossible to
live without 'em!" Come, let us agree for the future not to regard
each other any more as enemies; and to clinch the bargain, let us sing
a choric song.
  COMBINED CHORUS OF WOMEN AND OLD MEN  (singing)
    We desire, Athenians, to speak ill of no man; but on the
contrary to say much good of everyone, and to do the like. We have had
enough of misfortunes and calamities. If there is any man or woman who
wants a bit of money-two or three minas or so; well, our purse is
full. If only peace is concluded, the borrower will not have to pay
back. Also I'm inviting to supper a few Carystian friends, who are
excellently well qualified. I have still a drop of good soup left, and
a young porker I'm going to kill, and the flesh will be sweet and
tender. I shall expect you at my house to-day; but first away to the
baths with you, you and your children; then come all of you, ask no
one's leave, but walk straight up, as if you were at home; never fear,
the door will be... shut in your faces!
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Ah! here come the envoys from Sparta with their long flowing
beards; why, you would think they wore pigstyes between their thighs.
(Enter the LACONIAN ENVOYS afflicted like their herald.)  Hail to you,
first of all, Laconians; then tell us how you fare.
  LACONIAN ENVOY
    No need for many words; you can see what a state we are in.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Alas! the situation grows more and more strained! the intensity of
the thing is simply frightful.
  LACONIAN ENVOY
    It's beyond belief. But to work! summon your Commissioners, and
let us patch up the best peace we may.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Ah! our men too, like wrestlers in the arena, cannot endure a
rag over their bellies; it's an athlete's malady, which only
exercise can remedy.
    (The MAGISTRATE returns; he too now has an evident reason to
      desire peace.)
  MAGISTRATE
    Can anybody tell us where Lysistrata is? Surely she will have some
compassion on our condition.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN  (pointing)
    Look! now he has the very same complaint.  (To the MAGISTRATE)
Don't you feel a strong nervous tension in the morning?
  MAGISTRATE
    Yes, and a dreadful, dreadful torture it is! Unless peace is
made very soon, we shall find no recourse but to make love to
Clisthenes.
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Take my advice, and arrange your clothes as best you can; one of
the fellows who mutilated the Hermae might see you.
  MAGISTRATE
    Right, by Zeus.
    (He endeavours, not too successfully, to conceal his condition.)
  LACONIAN ENVOY
    Quite right, by the Dioscuri. There, I will put on my tunic.
  MAGISTRATE
    Oh! what a terrible state we are in! Greeting to you, Laconian
fellow-sufferers.
  LACONIAN ENVOY  (addressing one of his countrymen)
    Ah! my boy, what a terrible thing it would have been if these
fellows had seen us just now when we were on full stand!
  MAGISTRATE
    Speak out, Laconians, what is it brings you here?
  LACONIAN ENVOY
    We have come to treat for peace.
  MAGISTRATE
    Well said; we are of the same mind. Better call Lysistrata,
then; she is the only person will bring us to terms.
  LACONIAN ENVOY
    Yes, yes-and Lysistratus into the bargain, if you will.
  MAGISTRATE
    Needless to call her; she has heard your voices, and here she
comes.
                                     (She comes out of the Acropolis.)
  LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN
    Hail, boldest and bravest of womankind! The time is come to show
yourself in turn uncompromising and conciliatory, exacting and
yielding, haughty and condescending. Call up all your skill and
artfulness. Lo! the foremost men in Hellas, seduced by your
fascinations, are agreed to entrust you with the task of ending
their quarrels.
  LYSISTRATA
    It will be an easy task-if only they refrain from mutual
indulgence in masculine love; if they do, I shall know the fact at
once. Now, where is the gentle goddess Peace?  (The goddess, in the
form of a beautiful nude girl is brought in by the Machine.)  Lead
hither the Laconian envoys. But, look you, no roughness or violence;
our husbands always behaved so boorishly. Bring them to me with
smiles, as women should. If any refuse to give you his hand, then take
hold of his tool. Bring up the Athenians too; you may lead them either
way. Laconians, approach; and you, Athenians, on my other side. Now
hearken all! I am but a woman; but I have good common sense; Nature
has endowed me with discriminating judgment, which I have yet
further developed, thanks to the wise teachings of my father and the
elders of the city. First I must bring a reproach against you that
applies equally to both sides. At Olympia, and Thermopylae, and
Delphi, and a score of other places too numerous to mention, you
celebrate before the same altars ceremonies common to all Hellenes;
yet you go cutting each other's throats, and sacking Hellenic
cities, when all the while the barbarian yonder is threatening you!
That is my first point.
  MAGISTRATE  (devouring the goddess with his eyes)
    Good god, this erection is killing me!
  LYSISTRATA
    Now it is to you I address myself, Laconians. Have you forgotten
how Periclidas, your own countryman, sat a suppliant before our
altars? How pale he was in his purple robes! He had come to crave an
army of us; it was the time when Messenia was pressing you sore, and
the Sea-god was shaking the earth. Cimon marched to your aid at the
head of four thousand hoplites, and saved Lacedaemon. And, after
such a service as that, you ravage the soil of your benefactors!
  MAGISTRATE
    They do wrong, very wrong, Lysistrata.
  LACONIAN ENVOY
    We do wrong, very wrong.  (Looking at the goddess)  Ah! great
gods! what a lovely bottom Peace has!
  LYSISTRATA
    And now a word to the Athenians. Have you no memory left of how,
in the days when you wore the tunic of slaves, the Laconians came,
spear in hand, and slew a host of Thessalians and partisans of Hippias
the tyrant? They, and they only, fought on your side on that
eventful day; they delivered you from despotism, and thanks to them
our nation could change the short tunic of the slave for the long
cloak of the free man.
  LACONIAN ENVOY  (looking at LYSISTRATA)
    I have never see a woman of more gracious dignity.
  MAGISTRATE  (looking at PEACE)
    I have never seen a woman with a finer body!
  LYSISTRATA
    Bound by such ties of mutual kindness, how can you bear to be at
war? Stop, stay the hateful strife, be reconciled; what hinders you?
  LACONIAN ENVOY
    We are quite ready, if they will give us back our rampart.
  LYSISTRATA
    What rampart, my dear man?
  LACONIAN ENVOY
    Pylos, which we have been asking for and craving for ever so long.
  MAGISTRATE
    In the Sea-god's name, you shall never have it!
  LYSISTRATA
    Agree, my friends, agree.
  MAGISTRATE
    But then what city shall we be able to stir up trouble in?
  LYSISTRATA
    Ask for another place in exchange.
  MAGISTRATE
    Ah! that's the ticket! Well, to begin with, give us Echinus, the
Maliac gulf adjoining, and the two legs of Megara.
  LACONIAN ENVOY
    No, by the Dioscuri, surely not all that, my dear sir.
  LYSISTRATA
    Come to terms; never make a difficulty of two legs more or less!
  MAGISTRATE  (his eye on PEACE)
    Well, I'm ready to strip down and get to work right now.
                                            (He takes off his mantle.)
  LACONIAN ENVOY  (following out this idea)
    And I also, to dung it to start with.
  LYSISTRATA
    That's just what you shall do, once peace is signed. So, if you
really want to make it, go consult your allies about the matter.
  MAGISTRATE
    What allies, I should like to know? Why, we are all erected;
there's no one who is not mad to be mating. What we all want is to
be in bed with our wives; how should our allies fail to second our
project?
  LACONIAN ENVOY
    And ours too, for certain sure!
  MAGISTRATE
    The Carystians first and foremost by the gods!
  LYSISTRATA
    Well said, indeed! Now go and purify yourselves for entering the
Acropolis, where the women invite you to supper; we will empty our
provision baskets to do you honour. At table, you will exchange
oaths and pledges; then each man will go home with his wife.
  MAGISTRATE
    Come along then, and as quick as may be.
  LACONIAN ENVOY
    Lead on; I'm your man.
  MAGISTRATE
    Quick, quick's the word, say I.
                          (They follow LYSISTRATA into the Acropolis.)
  CHORUS OF WOMEN  (singing)
    Embroidered stuffs, and dainty tunics, and flowing gowns, and
golden ornaments, everything I have, I offer them to you with all my
heart; take them all for your children, for your girls, in case they
are chosen Canephori. I invite you every one to enter, come in and
choose whatever you will; there is nothing so well fastened, you
cannot break the seals, and carry away the contents. Look about you
everywhere. . . you won't find a blessed thing, unless you have
sharper eyes than mine. And if any of you lacks corn to feed his
slaves and his young and numerous family, why, I have a few grains
of wheat at home; let him take what I have to give, a big twelve-pound
loaf included. So let my poorer neighbours all come with bags and
wallets; my man, Manes, shall give them corn; but I warn them not to
come near my door, but-beware the dog!
         (Another MAGISTRATE enters, and begins knocking at the gate.)
  SECOND MAGISTRATE
    I say, you, open the door!  (To the WOMEN)  Go your way, I tell
you.  (As the women sit down in front of the gate)  Why, bless me,
they're sitting down now; I shall have to singe 'em with my torch to
make 'em stir! What impudence! I won't take this. Oh, well, if it's
absolutely necessary, just to please you, we'll have to take the
trouble.
  AN ATHENIAN
    And I'll share it with you.

    (He brandishes the torch he is carrying and the CHORUS OF WOMEN
        departs. The CHORUS OF OLD MEN follows shortly after.)

  SECOND MAGISTRATE
    No, no, you must be off-or I'll tear your hair out, I will; be
off, I say, and don't annoy the Laconian envoys; they're just coming
out from the banquet-ball.
  ATHENIAN
    Such a merry banquet I've never seen before! The Laconians were
simply charming. After the drink is in, why, we're all wise men, every
one of us.
  MAGISTRATE
    It's only natural, to be sure, for sober, we're all fools. Take my
advice, my fellow-countrymen, our envoys should always be drunk. We go
to Sparta; we enter the city sober; why, we must be picking a
quarrel directly. We don't understand what they say to us, we
imagine a lot they don't say at all, and we report home all wrong, all
topsy-urvy. But, look you, to-day it's quite different; we're
enchanted whatever happens; instead of Clitagora, they might sing us
Telamon, and we should clap our hands just the same. A perjury or
two into the bargain, why! What does that matter to merry companions
in their cups? (The two CHORUSES return.)  But here they are back
again! Will you begone, you loafing scoundrels.
                                          (The CHORUSES retire again.)
  ATHENIAN
    Ah ha! here's the company coming out already.

    (Two choruses, one Laconian and one Athenian, enter, dancing to
the music of flutes; they are followed by the women under the
leadership of LYSISTRATA.)

  A LACONIAN
    My dear, sweet friend, come, take your flute in hand; I would fain
dance and sing my best in honour of the Athenians and our noble
selves.
  ATHENIAN
    Yes, take your flute, in the gods'name. What a delight to see
him dance!
  LACONIAN  (dancing and singing)
    Oh! Mnemosyne! inspire these men, inspire my muse who knows our
exploits and those of the Athenians. With what a god-like ardour did
they swoop down at Artemisium on the ships of the Medes! What a
glorious victory was that! For the soldiers of Leonidas, they were
like fierce boars whetting their tusks. The sweat ran down their
faces, and drenched all their limbs, for verily the Persians were as
many as the sands of the seashore. Oh! Artemis, huntress queen,
whose arrows pierce the denizens of the woods, virgin goddess, be thou
favourable to the peace we here conclude; through thee may our
hearts be long united! May this treaty draw close for ever the bonds
of a happy friendship! No more wiles and stratagems! Aid us, oh! aid
us, maiden huntress!
  MAGISTRATE
    All is for the best; and now, Laconians, take your wives away home
with you, and you, Athenians, yours. May husband live happily with
wife, and wife with husband. Dance, dance, to celebrate our bliss, and
let us be heedful to avoid like mistakes for the future.
  CHORUS OF ATHENIANS  (singing)
    Appear, appear, dancers, and the Graces with you! Let us invoke,
one and all, Artemis, and her heavenly brother, gracious Apollo,
patron of the dance, and Dionysus, whose eye darts flame, as he
steps forward surrounded by the Maenad maids, and Zeus, who wields the
flashing lightning, and his august, thrice-blessed spouse, the Queen
of Heaven! These let us invoke, and all the other gods, calling all
the inhabitants of the skies to witness the noble Peace now
concluded under the fond auspices of Aphrodite. Io Paean! Io Paean!
dance, leap, as in honour of a victory won. Euoi! Euoi!  Euai! Euai!
  MAGISTRATE
    And you, our Laconian guests, sing us a new and inspiring strain!
  LACONIAN  (singing)
    Leave once more, oh! leave once more the noble height of Taygetus,
oh! Muse of Lacedaemon, and join us in singing the praises of Apollo
of Amyclae, and Athene of the Brazen House, and the gallant twin
sons of Tyndareus, who practise arms on the banks of the Eurotas
river. Haste, haste hither with nimble-footed pace, let us sing
Sparta, the city that delights in choruses divinely sweet and graceful
dances, when our maidens bound lightly by the river side, like
frolicsome fillies, beating the ground with rapid steps and shaking
their long locks in the wind, as Bacchantes wave their wands in the
wild revels of the Wine-god. At their head, oh! chaste and beauteous
goddess, daughter of Leto, Artemis, do thou lead the song and dance.
With a fillet binding thy waving tresses, appear in thy loveliness;
leap like a fawn, strike thy divine hands together to animate the
dance, and aid us to renown the valiant goddess of battles, great
Athene of the Brazen House!
                                    (All depart, singing and dancing.)


                           THE END
.