From 4f7af46b7a40ee1e6d46cc20128dce2ec431413d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Roger Frank Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2025 05:30:06 -0700 Subject: initial commit of ebook 7700 --- .gitattributes | 3 + 7700-h.zip | Bin 0 -> 2220580 bytes 7700-h/7700-h.htm | 6459 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 7700-h/images/001.png | Bin 0 -> 51331 bytes 7700-h/images/015.png | Bin 0 -> 167226 bytes 7700-h/images/021.png | Bin 0 -> 701583 bytes 7700-h/images/032a.jpg | Bin 0 -> 42181 bytes 7700-h/images/033a.jpg | Bin 0 -> 44724 bytes 7700-h/images/040a.jpg | Bin 0 -> 55512 bytes 7700-h/images/041a.jpg | Bin 0 -> 39566 bytes 7700-h/images/046.jpg | Bin 0 -> 186679 bytes 7700-h/images/063a.jpg | Bin 0 -> 40677 bytes 7700-h/images/071a.jpg | Bin 0 -> 52073 bytes 7700-h/images/072.jpg | Bin 0 -> 68276 bytes 7700-h/images/073.jpg | Bin 0 -> 235798 bytes 7700-h/images/080.jpg | Bin 0 -> 64859 bytes 7700-h/images/083a.jpg | Bin 0 -> 39674 bytes 7700-h/images/084a.jpg | Bin 0 -> 41193 bytes 7700-h/images/097a.jpg | Bin 0 -> 49184 bytes 7700-h/images/098a.jpg | Bin 0 -> 38899 bytes 7700-h/images/102.jpg | Bin 0 -> 281381 bytes 7700-h/images/104a.jpg | Bin 0 -> 66785 bytes 7700.txt | 3906 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 7700.zip | Bin 0 -> 43176 bytes LICENSE.txt | 11 + README.md | 2 + old/alyss10.txt | 3917 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ old/alyss10.zip | Bin 0 -> 43481 bytes old/alyss10h.zip | Bin 0 -> 2753867 bytes 29 files changed, 14298 insertions(+) create mode 100644 .gitattributes create mode 100644 7700-h.zip create mode 100644 7700-h/7700-h.htm create mode 100644 7700-h/images/001.png create mode 100644 7700-h/images/015.png create mode 100644 7700-h/images/021.png create mode 100644 7700-h/images/032a.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/033a.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/040a.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/041a.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/046.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/063a.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/071a.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/072.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/073.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/080.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/083a.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/084a.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/097a.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/098a.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/102.jpg create mode 100644 7700-h/images/104a.jpg create mode 100644 7700.txt create mode 100644 7700.zip create mode 100644 LICENSE.txt create mode 100644 README.md create mode 100644 old/alyss10.txt create mode 100644 old/alyss10.zip create mode 100644 old/alyss10h.zip diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7700-h.zip b/7700-h.zip new file mode 100644 index 0000000..90a1edc Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h.zip differ diff --git a/7700-h/7700-h.htm b/7700-h/7700-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..afddee3 --- /dev/null +++ b/7700-h/7700-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6459 @@ + + + + + + + + Lysistrata, by Aristophanes + + + + +

+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lysistrata, by Aristophanes
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lysistrata
+
+Author: Aristophanes
+
+Commentator: Jack Lindsay
+
+Illustrator: Norman Lindsay
+
+Release Date: April 6, 2008 [EBook #7700]
+Last Updated: October 24, 2012
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LYSISTRATA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Ted Garvin, David Widger and the Distributed
+Proofreaders Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+

+

+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+
+

+ Translated from the Greek of +

+
+

+ ARISTOPHANES +

+

+

+ Illustrations by Norman Lindsay +

+

+

+

+

+
FOREWORD +

+ Lysistrata is the greatest work by Aristophanes. This blank and + rash statement is made that it may be rejected. But first let it be + understood that I do not mean it is a better written work than the Birds + or the Frogs, or that (to descend to the scale of values that will + be naturally imputed to me) it has any more appeal to the collectors of + "curious literature" than the Ecclesiazusae or the Thesmophoriazusae. + On the mere grounds of taste I can see an at least equally good case made + out for the Birds. That brightly plumaged fantasy has an aerial wit + and colour all its own. But there are certain works in which a man finds + himself at an angle of vision where there is an especially felicitous + union of the aesthetic and emotional elements which constitute the basic + qualities of his uniqueness. We recognize these works as being welded into + a strange unity, as having a homogeneous texture of ecstasy over them that + surpasses any aesthetic surface of harmonic colour, though that harmony + also is understood by the deeper welling of imagery from the core of + creative exaltation. And I think that this occurs in Lysistrata. + The intellectual and spiritual tendrils of the poem are more truly + interwoven, the operation of their centres more nearly unified; and so the + work goes deeper into life. It is his greatest play because of this, + because it holds an intimate perfume of femininity and gives the finest + sense of the charm of a cluster of girls, the sweet sense of their + chatter, and the contact of their bodies, that is to be found before + Shakespeare, because that mocking gaiety we call Aristophanies reaches + here its most positive acclamation of life, vitalizing sex with a deep + delight, a rare happiness of the spirit. +

+ Indeed it is precisely for these reasons that it is not considered + Aristophanes' greatest play. +

+ To take a case which is sufficiently near to the point in question, to + make clear what I mean: the supremacy of Antony and Cleopatra in + the Shakespearean aesthetic is yet jealously disputed, and it seems silly + to the academic to put it up against a work like Hamlet. But it is + the comparatively more obvious achievement of Hamlet, its surface + intellectuality, which made it the favourite of actors and critics. It is + much more difficult to realize the complex and delicately passionate edge + of the former play's rhythm, its tides of hugely wandering emotion, the + restless, proud, gay, and agonized reaction from life, of the blood, of + the mind, of the heart, which is its unity, than to follow the relatively + straightforward definition of Hamlet's nerves. Not that anything + derogatory to Hamlet or the Birds is intended; but the value + of such works is not enhanced by forcing them into contrast with other + works which cover deeper and wider nexus of aesthetic and spiritual + material. It is the very subtlety of the vitality of such works as Antony + and Cleopatra and Lysistrata that makes it so easy to + undervalue them, to see only a phallic play and political pamphlet in one, + only a chronicle play in a grandiose method in the other. For we have to + be in a highly sensitized condition before we can get to that subtle point + where life and the image mix, and so really perceive the work at all; + whereas we can command the response to a lesser work which does not call + so finely on the full breadth and depth of our spiritual resources. +

+ I amuse myself at times with the fancy that Homer, Sappho, and + Aristophanes are the inviolable Trinity of poetry, even to the extent of + being reducible to One. For the fiery and lucid directness of Sappho, if + her note of personal lyricism is abstracted, is seen to be an element of + Homer, as is the profoundly balanced humour of Aristophanes, at once + tenderly human and cruelly hard, as of a god to whom all sympathies and + tolerances are known, but who is invulnerable somewhere, who sees from a + point in space where the pressure of earth's fear and pain, and so its + pity, is lifted. It is here that the Shakespearean and Homeric worlds + impinge and merge, not to be separated by any academic classifications. + They meet in this sensitivity equally involved and aloof, sympathetic and + arrogant, suffering and joyous; and in this relation we see Aristophanes + as the forerunner of Shakespeare, his only one. We see also that the whole + present aesthetic of earth is based in Homer. We live and grow in the + world of consciousness bequeathed to us by him; and if we grow beyond it + through deeper Shakespearean ardours, it is because those beyond are + rooted in the broad basis of the Homeric imagination. To shift that basis + is to find the marshes of primitive night and fear alone beneath the feet: + Christianity. +

+ And here we return to the question of the immorality of Lysistrata. + First we may inquire: is it possible for a man whose work has so + tremendous a significance in the spiritual development of mankind--and I + do not think anyone nowadays doubts that a work of art is the sole + stabilizing force that exists for life--is it possible for a man who + stands so grandly at head of an immense stream of liberating effort to + write an immoral work? Surely the only enduring moral virtue which can be + claimed is for that which moves to more power, beauty and delight in the + future? The plea that the question of changing customs arises is not + valid, for customs ratified by Aristophanes, by Rabelais, by Shakespeare, + have no right to change. If they have changed, let us try immediately to + return from our disgraceful refinements to the nobler and more rarefied + heights of lyric laughter, tragic intensity, and wit, for we cannot have + the first two without the last. And anyhow, how can a social custom claim + precedence over the undying material of the senses and the emotions of + man, over the very generating forces of life? +

+ How could the humanistic emotions, such as pity, justice, sympathy, exist + save as pacifistic quietings of the desire to slay, to hurt, to torment. + Where the desire to hurt is gone pity ceases to be a significant, a + central emotion. It must of course continue to exist, but it is displaced + in the spiritual hierarchy; and all that moves courageously, desirously, + and vitally into the action of life takes on a deeper and subtler + intention. Lust, then, which on the lower plane was something to be very + frightened of, becomes a symbol of the highest spirituality. It is right + for Paul to be terrified of sex and so to hate it, because he has so + freshly escaped a bestial condition of life that it threatens to plunge + him back if he listens to one whisper But it is also right for a + Shakespeare to suck every drop of desire from life, for he is building + into a higher condition, one self-willed, self- responsible, the + discipline of which comes from joy, not fear. +

+ Sex, therefore, is an animal function, one admits, one insists; it may be + only that. But also in the bewildering and humorous and tragic duality of + all life's energies, it is the bridge to every eternity which is not + merely a spectral condition of earth disembowelled of its lusts. For sex + holds the substance of the image. But we must remember with Heine that + Aristophanes is the God of this ironic earth, and that all argument is + apparently vitiated from the start by the simple fact that Wagner and a + rooster are given an analogous method of making love. And therefore it + seems impeccable logic to say that all that is most unlike the rooster is + the most spiritual part of love. All will agree on that, schisms only + arise when one tries to decide what does go farthest from the bird's + automatic mechanism. Certainly not a Dante-Beatrice affair which is only + the negation of the rooster in terms of the swooning bombast of + adolescence, the first onslaught of a force which the sufferer cannot + control or inhabit with all the potentialities of his body and soul. But + the rooster is troubled by no dreams of a divine orgy, no carnival-loves + like Beethoven's Fourth Symphony, no heroic and shining lust + gathering and swinging into a merry embrace like the third act of Siegfried. + It is desire in this sense that goes farthest from the animal. +

+ Consciously, no one can achieve the act of love on earth as a completed + thing of grace, with whatever delirium of delight, with whatever ingenious + preciosity, we go through its process. Only as an image of beauty mated in + some strange hermaphroditic ecstasy is that possible. I mean only as a + dream projected into a hypothetical, a real heaven. But on earth we cannot + complete the cycle in consciousness that would give us the freedom of an + image in which two identities mysteriously realize their separate unities + by the absorption of a third thing, the constructive rhythm of a work of + art. It is thus that Tristan and Isolde become wholly distinct + individuals, yet wholly submerged in the unity that is Wagner; and so + reconcile life's duality by balancing its opposing laughters in a definite + form--thereby sending out into life a profounder duality than existed + before. A Platonic equipoise, Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence--the only + real philosophic problem, therefore one of which these two philosophers + alone are aware. +

+ But though Wagner with Mathilde Wesendonck in his arms was Tristan in the + arms of Isolde, he did not find a melody instead of a kiss on his lips; he + did not find a progression of harmonies melting through the contours of a + warm beauty with a blur of desperate ecstasies, semitones of desire, he + found only the anxious happiness of any other lover. Nevertheless, he was + gathering the substance of the second act of Tristan und Isolde. + And it is this that Plato means when he says that fornication is something + immortal in mortality. He does not mean that the act itself is a godlike + thing, a claim which any bedroom mirror would quickly deride. He means + that it is a symbol, an essential condition, and a part of something that + goes deeper into life than any geometry of earth's absurd, passionate, + futile, and very necessary antics would suggest. +

+ It is a universal fallacy that because works like the comedies of + Aristophanes discuss certain social or ethical problems, they are inspired + by them. Aristophanes wrote to express his vision on life, his delight in + life itself seen behind the warping screen of contemporary event; and for + his purposes anything from Euripides to Cleon served as ground work. Not + that he would think in those terms, naturally: but the rationalizing + process that goes on in consciousness during the creation of a work of + art, for all its appearance of directing matters, is the merest + weathercock in the wind of the subconscious intention. As an example of + how utterly it is possible to misunderstand the springs of inspiration in + a poem, we may take the following remark of B. B. Rogers: It is much to + be regretted that the phallus element should be so conspicuous in this + play.... (This) coarseness, so repulsive to ourselves, was introduced, it + is impossible to doubt, for the express purpose of counter-balancing the + extreme earnestness and gravity of the play. It seems so logical, so + irrefutable; and so completely misinterprets every creative force of + Aristophanes' Psyche that it certainly deserves a little admiration. It is + in the best academic tradition, and everyone respects a man for writing so + mendaciously. The effort of these castrators is always to show that the + parts considered offensive are not the natural expression of the poet, + that they are dictated externally. They argue that Shakespeare's + coarseness is the result of the age and not personal predilection, + completely ignoring the work of men like Sir Philip Sidney and Spenser, + indeed practically all the pre-Shakespearean writers, in whom none of this + so-called grossness exists. Shakespeare wrote sculduddery because he liked + it, and for no other reason; his sensuality is the measure of his + vitality. These liars pretend similarly that because Rabelais had a + humanistic reason for much of his work--the destructior Mediaevalism, and + the Church, which purpose they construe of course as an effort to purify, + etc.--therefore he only put the lewdery to make the rest palatable, when + it should be obvious even to an academic how he glories in his wild + humour. +

+ What the academic cannot understand is that in such works, while attacking + certain conditions, the creative power of the vigorous spirits is so great + that it overflows and saturates the intellectual conception with their own + passionate sense of life. It is for this reason that these works have an + eternal significance. If Rabelais were merely a social reformer, then the + value of his work would not have outlived his generation. If Lysistrata + were but a wise political tract, it would have merely an historical + interest, and it would have ceased spiritually at 404 B.C. +

+ But Panurge is as fantastic and fascinating a character now as he was 300 + years ago, Lysistrata and her girls as freshly bodied as any girl kissed + to-day. Therefore the serious part of the play is that which deals with + them, the frivolous part that in which Rogers detects gravity and + earnestness. +

+ Aristophanes is the lord of all who take life as a gay adventure, who defy + all efforts to turn life into a social, economic, or moral abstraction. Is + it therefore just that the critics who, by some dark instinct, unerringly + pick out the exact opposite of any creator's real virtues as his chief + characteristics, should praise him as an idealistic reformer? An "ideal" + state of society was the last thing Aristophanes desired. He wished, + certainly, to eliminate inhumanities and baseness; but only that there + might be free play for laughter, for individual happiness. +

+ Consequently the critics lay the emphasis on the effort to cleanse + society, not the method of laughter. Aristophanes wished to destroy Cleon + because that demagogue failed to realize the poet's conception of + dignified government and tended to upset the stability of Hellas. But it + was the stability of life, the vindication of all individual freedoms, in + which he was ultimately interested. +

+ JACK LINDSAY. +

+

+

+

+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ The Persons of the drama. +

+ + + + +

+ LYSISTRATA
CALONICE
MYRRHINE
LAMPITO
Stratyllis, + etc.
Chorus of Women.
MAGISTRATE
CINESIAS
SPARTAN + HERALD
ENVOYS
ATHENIANS
Porter, Market Idlers, etc.
+ Chorus of old Men. +

+

+

+ LYSISTRATA stands alone with the Propylaea at her back. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ If they were trysting for a Bacchanal,
A feast of Pan or Colias or + Genetyllis,
The tambourines would block the rowdy streets,
But + now there's not a woman to be seen
Except--ah, yes--this neighbour of + mine yonder. +

+ Enter CALONICE. +

+ Good day Calonice. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Good day Lysistrata.
But what has vexed you so? Tell me, child.
+ What are these black looks for? It doesn't suit you
To knit your + eyebrows up glumly like that. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Calonice, it's more than I can bear,
I am hot all over with blushes + for our sex.
Men say we're slippery rogues-- +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ And aren't they right? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Yet summoned on the most tremendous business
For deliberation, still + they snuggle in bed. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ My dear, they'll come. It's hard for women, you know,
To get away. + There's so much to do;
Husbands to be patted and put in good tempers:
+ Servants to be poked out: children washed
Or soothed with lullays or + fed with mouthfuls of pap. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ But I tell you, here's a far more weighty object. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ What is it all about, dear Lysistrata,
That you've called the women + hither in a troop?
What kind of an object is it? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ A tremendous thing! +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ And long? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Indeed, it may be very lengthy. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Then why aren't they here? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ No man's connected with it;
If that was the case, they'd soon come + fluttering along.
No, no. It concerns an object I've felt over
+ And turned this way and that for sleepless nights. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ It must be fine to stand such long attention. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ So fine it comes to this--Greece saved by Woman! +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ By Woman? Wretched thing, I'm sorry for it. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Our country's fate is henceforth in our hands:
To destroy the + Peloponnesians root and branch-- +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ What could be nobler! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Wipe out the Boeotians-- +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Not utterly. Have mercy on the eels!
[Footnote: The Boeotian eels + were highly esteemed delicacies in Athens.] +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ But with regard to Athens, note I'm careful
Not to say any of these + nasty things;
Still, thought is free.... But if the women join us
+ From Peloponnesus and Boeotia, then
Hand in hand we'll rescue Greece. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ How could we do
Such a big wise deed? We women who dwell
Quietly + adorning ourselves in a back-room
With gowns of lucid gold and gawdy + toilets
Of stately silk and dainty little slippers.... +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ These are the very armaments of the rescue.
These crocus-gowns, this + outlay of the best myrrh,
Slippers, cosmetics dusting beauty, and + robes
With rippling creases of light. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Yes, but how? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ No man will lift a lance against another-- +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ I'll run to have my tunic dyed crocus. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Or take a shield-- +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ I'll get a stately gown. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Or unscabbard a sword-- +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Let me buy a pair of slipper. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Now, tell me, are the women right to lag? +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ They should have turned birds, they should have grown
wings and + flown. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ My friend, you'll see that they are true Athenians:
Always too late. + Why, there's not a woman
From the shoreward demes arrived, not one + from Salamis. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ I know for certain they awoke at dawn,
And got their husbands up if + not their boat sails. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ And I'd have staked my life the Acharnian dames
Would be here first, + yet they haven't come either! +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Well anyhow there is Theagenes' wife
We can expect--she consulted + Hecate.
But look, here are some at last, and more behind them.
+ See ... where are they from? +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ From Anagyra they come. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Yes, they generally manage to come first. +

+ Enter MYRRHINE. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Are we late, Lysistrata? ... What is that?
Nothing to say? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ I've not much to say for you,
Myrrhine, dawdling on so vast an + affair. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ I couldn't find my girdle in the dark.
But if the affair's so + wonderful, tell us, what is it? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ No, let us stay a little longer till
The Peloponnesian girls and the + girls of Bocotia
Are here to listen. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ That's the best advice.
Ah, there comes Lampito. +

+ Enter LAMPITO. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Welcome Lampito!
Dear Spartan girl with a delightful face,
+ Washed with the rosy spring, how fresh you look
In the easy stride of + your sleek slenderness,
Why you could strangle a bull! +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ I think I could.
It's frae exercise and kicking high behint. +

+ [Footnote: The translator has put the speech of the Spartan characters
+ in Scotch dialect which is related to English about as was the Spartan
+ dialect to the speech of Athens. The Spartans, in their character,
+ anticipated the shrewd, canny, uncouth Scotch highlander of modern
+ times.] +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ What lovely breasts to own! +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ Oo ... your fingers
Assess them, ye tickler, wi' such tender chucks
+ I feel as if I were an altar-victim. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Who is this youngster? +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ A Boeotian lady. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ There never was much undergrowth in Boeotia,
Such a smooth place, and + this girl takes after it. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Yes, I never saw a skin so primly kept. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ This girl? +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ A sonsie open-looking jinker!
She's a Corinthian. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Yes, isn't she
Very open, in some ways particularly. +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ But who's garred this Council o' Women to meet here? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ I have. +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ Propound then what you want o' us. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ What is the amazing news you have to tell? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ I'll tell you, but first answer one small question. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ As you like. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Are you not sad your children's fathers
Go endlessly off soldiering + afar
In this plodding war? I am willing to wager
There's not one + here whose husband is at home. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Mine's been in Thrace, keeping an eye on Eucrates
For five months + past. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ And mine left me for Pylos
Seven months ago at least. +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ And as for mine
No sooner has he slipped out frae the line
He + straps his shield and he's snickt off again. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ And not the slightest glitter of a lover!
And since the Milesians + betrayed us, I've not seen
The image of a single upright man
To + be a marble consolation to us.
Now will you help me, if I find a + means
To stamp the war out. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ By the two Goddesses, Yes!
I will though I've to pawn this very dress
+ And drink the barter-money the same day. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ And I too though I'm split up like a turbot
And half is hackt off as + the price of peace. +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ And I too! Why, to get a peep at the shy thing
I'd clamber up to the + tip-top o' Taygetus. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Then I'll expose my mighty mystery.
O women, if we would compel the + men
To bow to Peace, we must refrain-- +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ From what?
O tell us! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Will you truly do it then? +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ We will, we will, if we must die for it. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ We must refrain from every depth of love....
Why do you turn your + backs? Where are you going?
Why do you bite your lips and shake your + heads?
Why are your faces blanched? Why do you weep?
Will you or + won't you, or what do you mean? +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ No, I won't do it. Let the war proceed. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ No, I won't do it. Let the war proceed. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ You too, dear turbot, you that said just now
You didn't mind being + split right up in the least? +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Anything else? O bid me walk in fire
But do not rob us of that + darling joy.
What else is like it, dearest Lysistrata? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ And you? +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ O please give me the fire instead. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Lewd to the least drop in the tiniest vein,
Our sex is fitly food for + Tragic Poets,
Our whole life's but a pile of kisses and babies.
+ But, hardy Spartan, if you join with me
All may be righted yet. O + help me, help me. +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ It's a sair, sair thing to ask of us, by the Twa,
A lass to sleep her + lane and never fill
Love's lack except wi' makeshifts.... But let it + be.
Peace maun be thought of first. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ My friend, my friend!
The only one amid this herd of weaklings. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ But if--which heaven forbid--we should refrain
As you would have us, + how is Peace induced? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ By the two Goddesses, now can't you see
All we have to do is idly sit + indoors
With smooth roses powdered on our cheeks,
Our bodies + burning naked through the folds
Of shining Amorgos' silk, and meet + the men
With our dear Venus-plats plucked trim and neat.
Their + stirring love will rise up furiously,
They'll beg our arms to open. + That's our time!
We'll disregard their knocking, beat them off--
+ And they will soon be rabid for a Peace.
I'm sure of it. +

+

+

+

+

+ LAMPITO +

+ Just as + Menelaus, they say,
Seeing the bosom of his naked Helen
Flang + down the sword. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ But + we'll be tearful fools
If our husbands take us at our word and leave + us. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ There's only left then, in Pherecrates' phrase,
To flay a skinned + dog--flay more our flayed desires. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Bah, proverbs will never warm a celibate.
But what avail will your + scheme be if the men
Drag us for all our kicking on to the couch? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Cling to the doorposts. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ But + if they should force us? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Yield then, but with a sluggish, cold indifference.
There is no joy + to them in sullen mating.
Besides we have other ways to madden them;
+ They cannot stand up long, and they've no delight
Unless we fit their + aim with merry succour. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Well if you must have it so, we'll all agree. +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ For us I ha' no doubt. We can persuade
Our men to strike a fair an' + decent Peace,
But how will ye pitch out the battle-frenzy
O' the + Athenian populace? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ I promise you
We'll wither up that curse. +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ I don't believe it.
Not while they own ane trireme oared an' rigged,
+ Or a' those stacks an' stacks an' stacks O' siller. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ I've thought the whole thing out till there's no flaw.
We shall + surprise the Acropolis today:
That is the duty set the older dames.
+ While we sit here talking, they are to go
And under pretence of + sacrificing, seize it. +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ Certie, that's fine; all's working for the best. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Now quickly, Lampito, let us tie ourselves
To this high purpose as + tightly as the hemp of words
Can knot together. +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ Set out the terms in detail
And we'll a' swear to them. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Of course.... Well then
Where is our Scythianess? Why are you + staring?
First lay the shield, boss downward, on the floor
And + bring the victim's inwards. +

+
+

+ CAILONICE +

+ But, Lysistrata,
What is this oath that we're to swear? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ What oath!
In Aeschylus they take a slaughtered sheep
And swear + upon a buckler. Why not we? +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ O Lysistrata, Peace sworn on a buckler! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ What oath would suit us then? +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Something burden bearing
Would be our best insignia.... A white + horse!
Let's swear upon its entrails. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ A horse indeed! +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Then what will symbolise us? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ This, as I tell you--
First set a great dark bowl upon the ground
+ And disembowel a skin of Thasian wine,
Then swear that we'll not add + a drop of water. +

+
+

+ LAMPITO
Ah, what aith could clink pleasanter than that! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA
Bring me a bowl then and a skin of wine. +

+
+

+ CALONICE
My dears, see what a splendid bowl it is;
+ I'd not say No if asked to sip it off. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA
  Put down the bowl. Lay hands, all, on the + victim.
  Skiey Queen who givest the last word in + arguments,
  And thee, O Bowl, dear comrade, we beseech:
+   Accept our oblation and be propitious to us. +

+
+

+ CALONICE
What healthy blood, la, how it gushes out! +

+
+

+ LAMPITO
An' what a leesome fragrance through the air. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA
Now, dears, if you will let me, I'll speak + first. +

+
+

+ CALONICE
Only if you draw the lot, by Aphrodite! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA
  SO, grasp the brim, you, Lampito, and all.
+   You, Calonice, repeat for the rest
  Each word + I say. Then you must all take oath
  And pledge your arms + to the same stern conditions-- +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA
To husband or lover I'll not open arms +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ To husband or lover I'll not open arms +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Though love and denial may enlarge his charms. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Though love and denial may enlarge his charms.
O, O, my knees + are failing me, Lysistrata! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ But still at home, ignoring him, I'll stay, +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ But still at home, ignoring him, I'll stay, +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Beautiful, clad in saffron silks all day. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Beautiful, clad in saffron silks all day. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ If then he seizes me by dint of force, +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ If then he seizes me by dint of force, +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ I'll give him reason for a long remorse. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ I'll give him reason for a long remorse. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ I'll never lie and stare up at the ceiling, +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ I'll never lie and stare up at the ceiling, +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Nor like a lion on all fours go kneeling. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Nor like a lion on all fours go kneeling. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ If I keep faith, then bounteous cups be mine. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ If I keep faith, then bounteous cups be mine. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ If not, to nauseous water change this wine. +

+
+

+ CALONICE
If not, to nauseous water change this wine. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Do you all swear to this? +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ We do, we do. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Then I shall immolate the victim thus.
She drinks. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Here now, share fair, haven't we made a pact?
Let's all quaff down + that friendship in our turn. +

+
+

+ LAMPITO +

+ Hark, what caterwauling hubbub's that? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ As I told you,
The women have appropriated the citadel.
So, + Lampito, dash off to your own land
And raise the rebels there. These + will serve as hostages,
While we ourselves take our places in the + ranks
And drive the bolts right home. +

+

+

+

+

+ CALONICE +

+ But won't the men
March straight against us? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ And what if they do?
No threat shall creak our hinges wide, no torch
+ Shall light a fear in us; we will come out
To Peace alone. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ That's it, by Aphrodite!
As of old let us seem hard and obdurate. +

+
+

+ LAMPITO and some go off; the others go up into the Acropolis. +

+

+

+

+

+ Chorus of OLD MEN enter to attack the captured Acropolis. +

+ Make room, Draces, move ahead; why your shoulder's chafed, I see,
+ With lugging uphill these lopped branches of the olive-tree.
How + upside-down and wrong-way-round a long life sees things grow.
Ah, + Strymodorus, who'd have thought affairs could tangle so? +

+ The women whom at home we fed,
Like witless fools, with fostering + bread,
Have impiously come to this--
They've stolen the + Acropolis,
With bolts and bars our orders flout
And shut us out. +

+ Come, Philurgus, bustle thither; lay our faggots on the ground,
In + neat stacks beleaguering the insurgents all around;
And the vile + conspiratresses, plotters of such mischief dire,
Pile and burn them + all together in one vast and righteous pyre:
Fling with our own hands + Lycon's wife to fry in the thickest fire.
By Demeter, they'll get no + brag while I've a vein to beat!
Cleomenes himself was hurtled out in + sore defeat.
His stiff-backed Spartan pride was bent.
Out, + stripped of all his arms, he went:
A pigmy cloak that would not + stretch
To hide his rump (the draggled wretch),
Six sprouting + years of beard, the spilth
Of six years' filth. +

+ That was a siege! Our men were ranged in lines of seventeen deep
+ Before the gates, and never left their posts there, even to sleep.
+ Shall I not smite the rash presumption then of foes like these,
+ Detested both of all the gods and of Euripides--
Else, may the + Marathon-plain not boast my trophied victories! +

+ Ah, now, there's but a little space
To reach the place!
A deadly + climb it is, a tricky road
With all this bumping load:
A + pack-ass soon would tire....
How these logs bruise my shoulders! + further still
Jog up the hill,
And puff the fire inside,
Or + just as we reach the top we'll find it's died.
Ough, phew!
I + choke with the smoke. +

+ Lord Heracles, how acrid-hot
Out of the pot
This mad-dog smoke + leaps, worrying me
And biting angrily....
'Tis Lemnian fire that + smokes,
Or else it would not sting my eyelids thus....
Haste, + all of us;
Athene invokes our aid.
Laches, now or never the + assault must be made!
Ough, phew!
I choke with the smoke. .. +

+ Thanked be the gods! The fire peeps up and crackles as it should.
Now + why not first slide off our backs these weary loads of wood
And dip a + vine-branch in the brazier till it glows, then straight
Hurl it at + the battering-ram against the stubborn gate?
If they refuse to draw + the bolts in immediate compliance,
We'll set fire to the wood, and + smoke will strangle their defiance. +

+ Phew, what a spluttering drench of smoke! Come, now from off my back....
+ Is there no Samos-general to help me to unpack?
Ah there, that's + over! For the last time now it's galled my shoulder.
Flare up thine + embers, brazier, and dutifully smoulder,
To kindle a brand, that I + the first may strike the citadel.
Aid me, Lady Victory, that a + triumph-trophy may tell
How we did anciently this insane audacity + quell! +

+ Chorus of WOMEN. +

+ What's that rising yonder? That ruddy glare, that smoky skurry?
O is + it something in a blaze? Quick, quick, my comrades, hurry!
Nicodice, + helter-skelter!
Or poor Calyce's in flames
And Cratylla's + stifled in the welter.
O these dreadful old men
And their dark + laws of hate!
There, I'm all of a tremble lest I turn out to be too + late.
I could scarcely get near to the spring though I rose before + dawn,
What with tattling of tongues and rattling of pitchers in one + jostling din
With slaves pushing in!.... +

+ Still here at last the water's drawn
And with it eagerly I run
+ To help those of my friends who stand
In danger of being burned + alive.
For I am told a dribbling band
Of greybeards hobble to + the field,
Great faggots in each palsied hand,
As if a hot bath + to prepare,
And threatening that out they'll drive
These wicked + women or soon leave them charring into ashes
there.
O Goddess, + suffer not, I pray, this harsh deed to be done,
But show us Greece + and Athens with their warlike acts repealed!
For this alone, in this + thy hold,
Thou Goddess with the helm of gold,
We laid hands on + thy sanctuary,
Athene.... Then our ally be
And where they cast + their fires of slaughter
Direct our water! +

+
+

+ STRATYLLIS (caught) +

+ Let me go! +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ You villainous old men, what's this you do?
No honest man, no pious + man, could do such things as you. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Ah ha, here's something most original, I have no doubt:
A swarm of + women sentinels to man the walls without. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ So then we scare you, do we? Do we seem a fearful host?
You only see + the smallest fraction mustered at this post. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Ho, Phaedrias, shall we put a stop to all these chattering tricks?
+ Suppose that now upon their backs we splintered these our sticks? +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Let us lay down the pitchers, so our bodies will be free,
In + case these lumping fellows try to cause some injury. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ O hit them hard and hit again and hit until they run away,
And + perhaps they'll learn, like Bupalus, not to have too much to say. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Come on, then--do it! I won't budge, but like a dog I'll bite
At + every little scrap of meat that dangles in my sight. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Be quiet, or I'll bash you out of any years to come. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Now you just touch Stratyllis with the top-joint of your thumb. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ What vengeance can you take if with my fists your face I beat? +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ I'll rip you with my teeth and strew your entrails at your feet. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Now I appreciate Euripides' strange subtlety:
Woman is the most + shameless beast of all the beasts that be. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Rhodippe, come, and let's pick up our water-jars once more. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Ah cursed drab, what have you brought this water for? +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ What is your fire for then, you smelly corpse? Yourself to burn? +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ To build a pyre and make your comrades ready for the urn. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ And I've the water to put out your fire immediately. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ What, you put out my fire? +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Yes, sirrah, as you soon will see. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ I don't know why I hesitate to roast you with this flame. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ If you have any soap you'll go off cleaner than you came. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Cleaner, you dirty slut? +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ A nuptial-bath in which to lie! +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Did you hear that insolence? +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ I'm a free woman, I. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ I'll make you hold your tongue. +

+

+

+

+

+ WOMEN +

+ Henceforth you'll serve in no more juries. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Burn off her hair for her. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Now forward, water, quench their furies! +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ O dear, O dear! +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ So ... was it hot? +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Hot! ... Enough, O hold. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Watered, perhaps you'll bloom again--why not? +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Brrr, I'm wrinkled up from shivering with cold. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Next time you've fire you'll warm yourself and leave us to our lot. +

+

+

+

+

+ MAGISTRATE enters with attendant SCYTHIANS. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Have the luxurious rites of the women glittered
Their libertine show, + their drumming tapped out crowds,
The Sabazian Mysteries summoned + their mob,
Adonis been wept to death on the terraces,
As I could + hear the last day in the Assembly?
For Demostratus--let bad luck + befoul him--
Was roaring, "We must sail for Sicily,"
While a + woman, throwing herself about in a dance
Lopsided with drink, was + shrilling out "Adonis,
Woe for Adonis." Then Demostratus shouted,
+ "We must levy hoplites at Zacynthus,"
And there the woman, up to the + ears in wine,
Was screaming "Weep for Adonis" on the house-top,
+ The scoundrelly politician, that lunatic ox,
Bellowing bad advice + through tipsy shrieks:
Such are the follies wantoning in them. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ O if you knew their full effrontery!
All of the insults they've done, + besides sousing us
With water from their pots to our public disgrace
+ For we stand here wringing our clothes like grown-up infants. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ By Poseidon, justly done! For in part with us
The blame must lie for + dissolute behaviour
And for the pampered appetites they learn.
+ Thus grows the seedling lust to blossoming:
We go into a shop and + say, "Here, goldsmith,
You remember the necklace that you wrought my + wife;
Well, the other night in fervour of a dance
Her clasp + broke open. Now I'm off for Salamis;
If you've the leisure, would you + go tonight
And stick a bolt-pin into her opened clasp."
Another + goes to a cobbler; a soldierly fellow,
Always standing up erect, and + says to him,
"Cobbler, a sandal-strap of my wife's pinches her,
+ Hurts her little toe in a place where she's sensitive.
Come at noon + and see if you can stretch out wider
This thing that troubles her, + loosen its tightness."
And so you view the result. Observe my case--
+ I, a magistrate, come here to draw
Money to buy oar-blades, and what + happens?
The women slam the door full in my face.
But standing + still's no use. Bring me a crowbar,
And I'll chastise this their + impertinence.
What do you gape at, wretch, with dazzled eyes?
+ Peering for a tavern, I suppose.
Come, force the gates with crowbars, + prise them apart!
I'll prise away myself too.... (LYSISTRATA appears.) +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Stop this banging.
I'm coming of my own accord.... Why bars?
It + is not bars we need but common sense. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Indeed, you slut! Where is the archer now?
Arrest this woman, tie her + hands behind. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ If he brushes me with a finger, by Artemis,
The public menial, he'll + be sorry for it. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Are you afraid? Grab her about the middle.
Two of you then, lay hands + on her and end it. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ By Pandrosos I if your hand touches her
I'll spread you out and + trample on your guts. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ My guts! Where is the other archer gone?
Bind that minx there who + talks so prettily. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ By Phosphor, if your hand moves out her way
You'd better have a + surgeon somewhere handy. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ You too! Where is that archer? Take that woman.
I'll put a stop to + these surprise-parties. +

+
+

+ STRATYLLIS +

+ By the Tauric Artemis, one inch nearer
My fingers, and it's a bald + man that'll be yelling. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Tut tut, what's here? Deserted by my archers....
But surely women + never can defeat us;
Close up your ranks, my Scythians. Forward at + them. +

+

+

+

+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ By the Goddesses, you'll find that here await you
Four companies of + most pugnacious women
Armed cap-a-pie from the topmost louring curl
+ To the lowest angry dimple. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ On, Scythians, bind them. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ On, gallant allies of our high design,
Vendors of + grain-eggs-pulse-and-vegetables,
Ye garlic-tavern-keepers of + bakeries,
Strike, batter, knock, hit, slap, and scratch our foes,
+ Be finely imprudent, say what you think of them....
Enough! retire + and do not rob the dead. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ How basely did my archer-force come off. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Ah, ha, you thought it was a herd of slaves
You had to tackle, and + you didn't guess
The thirst for glory ardent in our blood. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ By Apollo, I know well the thirst that heats you--
Especially when a + wine-skin's close. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ You waste your breath, dear magistrate, I fear, in answering back.
+ What's the good of argument with such a rampageous pack?
Remember how + they washed us down (these very clothes I wore)
With water that + looked nasty and that smelt so even more. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ What else to do, since you advanced too dangerously nigh.
If you + should do the same again, I'll punch you in the eye.
Though I'm a + stay-at-home and most a quiet life enjoy,
Polite to all and every + (for I'm naturally coy),
Still if you wake a wasps' nest then of + wasps you must beware. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ How may this ferocity be tamed? It grows too great to bear.
Let us + question them and find if they'll perchance declare
The reason why + they strangely dare
To seize on Cranaos' citadel,
This eyrie + inaccessible,
This shrine above the precipice,
The Acropolis.
+ Probe them and find what they mean with this idle talk; listen,
but + watch they don't try to deceive.
You'd be neglecting your duty most + certainly if now this mystery
unplumbed you leave. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Women there! Tell what I ask you, directly....
Come, without + rambling, I wish you to state
What's your rebellious intention in + barring up thus on our noses
our own temple-gate. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ To take first the treasury out of your management, and so stop the war
+ through the absence of gold. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Is gold then the cause of the war? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Yes, gold caused it and miseries more, too many to be told.
'Twas for + money, and money alone, that Pisander with all of the army of
+ mob-agitators.
Raised up revolutions. But, as for the future, it + won't be worth while
to set up to be traitors.
Not an obol + they'll get as their loot, not an obol! while we have the
+ treasure-chest in our command. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ What then is that you propose? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Just this--merely to take the exchequer henceforth in hand. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ The exchequer! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Yes, why not? Of our capabilities you have had various clear evidences.
+ Firstly remember we have always administered soundly the budget of all
+ home-expenses. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ But this matter's different. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ How is it different? +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Why, it deals chiefly with war-time supplies. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ But we abolish war straight by our policy. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ What will you do if emergencies arise? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Face them our own way. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ What you will? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Yes we will! +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Then there's no help for it; we're all destroyed. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ No, willy-nilly you must be safeguarded. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ What madness is this? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Why, it seems you're annoyed.
It must be done, that's all. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Such awful oppression never,
O never in the past yet I bore. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ You must be saved, sirrah--that's all there is to it. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ If we don't want to be saved? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ All the more. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Why do you women come prying and meddling in matters of state touching
+ war-time and peace? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ That I will tell you. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ O tell me or quickly I'll-- +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Hearken awhile and from threatening cease. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ I cannot, I cannot; it's growing too insolent. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Come on; you've far more than we have to dread. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Stop from your croaking, old carrion-crow there....
Continue. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Be calm then and I'll go ahead.
All the long years when the hopeless + war dragged along we, unassuming,
forgotten in quiet,
Endured + without question, endured in our loneliness all your incessant
+ child's antics and riot.
Our lips we kept tied, though aching with + silence, though well all the
while in our silence we knew
How + wretchedly everything still was progressing by listening dumbly the
+ day long to you.
For always at home you continued discussing the war + and its politics
loudly, and we
Sometimes would ask you, our + hearts deep with sorrowing though we spoke
lightly, though happy to + see,
"What's to be inscribed on the side of the Treaty-stone
+ What, dear, was said in the Assembly today?"
"Mind your own + business," he'd answer me growlingly
"hold your tongue, woman, or + else go away."
And so I would hold it. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ I'd not be silent for any man living on earth, no, not I! +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Not for a staff? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Well, so I did nothing but sit in the house, feeling dreary, and sigh,
+ While ever arrived some fresh tale of decisions more foolish by far and
+ presaging disaster.
Then I would say to him, "O my dear husband, why + still do they rush on
destruction the faster?"
At which he would + look at me sideways, exclaiming, "Keep for your web
and your shuttle + your care,
Or for some hours hence your cheeks will be sore and hot; + leave this
alone, war is Man's sole affair!" +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ By Zeus, but a man of fine sense, he. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ How sensible?
You dotard, because he at no time had lent
His + intractable ears to absorb from our counsel one temperate word of
+ advice, kindly meant?
But when at the last in the streets we heard + shouted (everywhere ringing
the ominous cry)
"Is there no one to + help us, no saviour in Athens?" and, "No, there is
no one," come back + in reply.
At once a convention of all wives through Hellas here for a + serious
purpose was held,
To determine how husbands might yet + back to wisdom despite their
reluctance in time be compelled.
+ Why then delay any longer? It's settled. For the future you'll take
+ up our old occupation.
Now in turn you're to hold tongue, as we did, + and listen while we show
the way to recover the nation. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ You talk to us! Why, you're mad. I'll not stand it. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Cease babbling, you fool; till I end, hold your tongue. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ If I should take orders from one who wears veils, may my
neck + straightaway be deservedly wrung. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ O if that keeps pestering you,
I've a veil here for your hair,
+ I'll fit you out in everything
As is only fair. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ Here's a spindle that will do. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ I'll add a wool-basket too. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Girdled now sit humbly at home,
Munching beans, while you card wool + and comb. For war from now on
is the Women's affair. +

+
+

+ WOMEN. +

+ Come then, down pitchers, all,
And on, courageous of heart,
In + our comradely venture
Each taking her due part. +

+ I could dance, dance, dance, and be fresher after,
I could dance away + numberless suns,
To no weariness let my knees bend.
Earth I + could brave with laughter,
Having such wonderful girls here to + friend.
O the daring, the gracious, the beautiful ones!
Their + courage unswerving and witty
Will rescue our city. +

+ O sprung from the seed of most valiant-wombed grand-mothers,
scions + of savage and dangerous nettles!
Prepare for the battle, all. Gird up + your angers. Our way
the wind of sweet victory settles. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ O tender Eros and Lady of Cyprus, some flush of beauty I
pray you + devise
To flash on our bosoms and, O Aphrodite, rosily gleam on
+ our valorous thighs!
Joy will raise up its head through the legions + warring and
all of the far-serried ranks of mad-love
Bristle the + earth to the pillared horizon, pointing in vain to
the heavens above.
+ I think that perhaps then they'll give us our title--
Peace-makers. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ What do you + mean? Please explain. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ First, we'll not see you now flourishing arms about into the
+ Marketing-place clang again. +

+
+

+ WOMEN
No, by the Paphian. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Still I can conjure them as past were the herbs stand or crockery's sold
+ Like Corybants jingling (poor sots) fully armoured, they noisily round
+ on their promenade strolled. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ And rightly; that's discipline, they-- +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ But what's sillier than to go on an errand of buying a fish
Carrying + along an immense. Gorgon-buckler instead the usual platter
or dish?
+ A phylarch I lately saw, mounted on horse-back, dressed for the part
+ with long ringlets and all,
Stow in his helmet the omelet bought + steaming from an old woman who
kept a food-stall.
Nearby a + soldier, a Thracian, was shaking wildly his spear like Tereus
in the + play,
To frighten a fig-girl while unseen the ruffian filched from + her
fruit-trays the ripest away. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ How, may I ask, will your rule re-establish order and justice in lands
+ so tormented? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Nothing is easier. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Out with it speedily--what is this plan that you boast you've invented? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ If, when yarn we are winding, It chances to tangle, then, as perchance you
+ may know, through the skein
This way and that still the spool we keep + passing till it is finally clear
all again:
So to untangle the + War and its errors, ambassadors out on all sides we will
send
+ This way and that, here, there and round about--soon you will find that + the
War has an end. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ So with these trivial tricks of the household, domestic analogies of
+ threads, skeins and spools,
You think that you'll solve such a bitter + complexity, unwind such political
problems, you fools! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Well, first as we wash dirty wool so's to cleanse it, so with a pitiless
+ zeal we will scrub
Through the whole city for all greasy fellows; + burrs too, the parasites,
off we will rub.
That verminous plague + of insensate place-seekers soon between thumb and
forefinger we'll + crack.
All who inside Athens' walls have their dwelling into one + great common
basket we'll pack.
Disenfranchised or citizens, + allies or aliens, pell-mell the lot of them
in we will squeeze.
+ Till they discover humanity's meaning.... As for disjointed and far
+ colonies,
Them you must never from this time imagine as scattered + about just like
lost hanks of wool.
Each portion we'll take and + wind in to this centre, inward to Athens
each loyalty pull,
Till + from the vast heap where all's piled together at last can be woven
a + strong Cloak of State. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ How terrible is it to stand here and watch them carding and winding at
+ will with our fate,
Witless in war as they are. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ What of us then, who ever in vain for our children must weep
Borne + but to perish afar and in vain? +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Not that, O let that one memory sleep! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Then while we should be companioned still merrily, happy as brides may,
+ the livelong night,
Kissing youth by, we are forced to lie single.... + But leave for a moment
our pitiful plight,
It hurts even more to + behold the poor maidens helpless wrinkling in
staler virginity. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Does not a man age? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Not in the same way. Not as a woman grows withered, grows he.
He, + when returned from the war, though grey-headed, yet
if he wishes can + choose out a wife.
But she has no solace save peering for omens, + wretched and
lonely the rest of her life. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ But the old man will often select-- +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ O why not finish and die?
A bier is easy to buy,
A honey-cake + I'll knead you with joy,
This garland will see you are decked. +

+
+

+ CALONICE +

+ I've a wreath for you too. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ I also will fillet you. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ What more is lacking? Step aboard the boat.
See, Charon shouts ahoy.
+ You're keeping him, he wants to shove afloat. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Outrageous insults! Thus my place to flout!
Now to my + fellow-magistrates I'll go
And what you've perpetrated on me show. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Why are you blaming us for laying you out?
Assure yourself we'll not + forget to make
The third day offering early for your sake. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE retires, LYSISTRATA returns within. +

+
+

+ OLD MEN. +

+ All men who call your loins your own, awake at last, arise
And strip + to stand in readiness. For as it seems to me
Some more perilous + offensive in their heads they now devise.
I'm sure a Tyranny
+ Like that of Hippias
In this I detect....
They mean to put us + under
Themselves I suspect,
And that Laconians assembling
+ At Cleisthenes' house have played
A trick-of-war and provoked them
+ Madly to raid
The Treasury, in which term I include
The Pay for + my food. +

+ For is it not preposterous
They should talk this way to us
On a + subject such as battle! +

+ And, women as they are, about bronze bucklers dare prattle--
Make + alliance with the Spartans--people I for one
Like very hungry wolves + would always most sincere shun....
Some dirty game is up their + sleeve,
I believe.
A Tyranny, no doubt... but they won't catch + me, that know.
Henceforth on my guard I'll go,
A sword with + myrtle-branches wreathed for ever in my hand,
And under arms in the + Public Place I'll take my watchful stand,
Shoulder to shoulder with + Aristogeiton. Now my staff I'll draw
And start at once by knocking
+ that shocking
Hag upon the jaw. +

+
+

+ WOMEN. +

+ Your own mother will not know you when you get back to the town.
But + first, my friends and allies, let us lay these garments down,
And all + ye fellow-citizens, hark to me while I tell
What will aid Athens + well.
Just as is right, for I
Have been a sharer
In all the + lavish splendour
Of the proud city.
I bore the holy vessels
+ At seven, then
I pounded barley
At the age of ten,
And clad + in yellow robes,
Soon after this,
I was Little Bear to
+ Brauronian Artemis;
Then neckletted with figs,
Grown tall and + pretty,
I was a Basket-bearer,
And so it's obvious I should
+ Give you advice that I think good,
The very best I can.
It + should not prejudice my voice that I'm not born a man,
If I say + something advantageous to the present situation.
For I'm taxed too, + and as a toll provide men for the nation
While, miserable greybeards, + you,
It is true,
Contribute nothing of any importance whatever + to our needs;
But the treasure raised against the Medes
You've + squandered, and do nothing in return, save that you make
Our lives + and persons hazardous by some imbecile mistakes
What can you answer? + Now be careful, don't arouse my spite,
Or with my slipper I'll take + you napping,
faces slapping
Left and right. +

+
+

+ MEN. +

+ What villainies they contrive!
Come, let vengeance fall,
You + that below the waist are still alive,
Off with your tunics at my + call--
Naked, all.
For a man must strip to battle like a man.
+ No quaking, brave steps taking, careless what's ahead, white shoed,
+ in the nude, onward bold,
All ye who garrisoned Leipsidrion of + old....
Let each one wag
As youthfully as he can,
And if he + has the cause at heart
Rise at least a span. +

+ We must take a stand and keep to it,
For if we yield the smallest bit
+ To their importunity.
Then nowhere from their inroads will be left to + us immunity.
But they'll be building ships and soon their navies will + attack us,
As Artemisia did, and seek to fight us and to sack us.
+ And if they mount, the Knights they'll rob
Of a job,
For + everyone knows how talented they all are in the saddle,
Having long + practised how to straddle;
No matter how they're jogged there up and + down, they're never thrown.
Then think of Myron's painting, and each + horse-backed Amazon
In combat hand-to-hand with men.... Come, on + these women fall,
And in pierced wood-collars let's stick
quick
+ The necks of one and all. +

+
+

+ WOMEN. +

+ Don't cross me or I'll loose
The Beast that's kennelled here....
+ And soon you will be howling for a truce,
Howling out with fear.
+ But my dear,
Strip also, that women may battle unhindered....
+ But you, you'll be too sore to eat garlic more, or one black bean,
I + really mean, so great's my spleen, to kick you black and blue
With + these my dangerous legs.
I'll hatch the lot of you,
If my rage + you dash on,
The way the relentless Beetle
Hatched the Eagle's + eggs. +

+ Scornfully aside I set
Every silly old-man threat
While + Lampito's with me.
Or dear Ismenia, the noble Theban girl. Then let + decree
Be hotly piled upon decree; in vain will be your labours,
+ You futile rogue abominated by your suffering neighbour
To Hecate's + feast I yesterday went.
Off I sent
To our neighbours in Boeotia, + asking as a gift to me
For them to pack immediately
That darling + dainty thing ... a good fat eel [1] I meant of course; +

+ [Footnote 1:Vide supra, p. 23.] +

+ But they refused because some idiotic old decree's in force.
O this + strange passion for decrees nothing on earth can check,
Till someone + puts a foot out tripping you,
and slipping you
Break your neck. +

+

+

+

+

+ LYSISTRATA enters in dismay. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Dear Mistress of our martial enterprise,
Why do you come with sorrow + in your eyes? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ O 'tis our naughty femininity,
So weak in one spot, that hath + saddened me. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ What's this? Please speak. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Poor women, O so weak! +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ What can it be? Surely your friends may know. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Yea, I must speak it though it hurt me so. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Speak; can we help? Don't stand there mute in need. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ I'll blurt it out then--our women's army's mutinied. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ O Zeus! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ What use is Zeus to our anatomy?
Here is the gaping calamity I meant:
+ I cannot shut their ravenous appetites
A moment more now. They are + all deserting.
The first I caught was sidling through the postern
+ Close by the Cave of Pan: the next hoisting herself
With rope and + pulley down: a third on the point
Of slipping past: while a fourth + malcontent, seated
For instant flight to visit Orsilochus
On + bird-back, I dragged off by the hair in time....
They are all + snatching excuses to sneak home.
Look, there goes one.... Hey, what's + the hurry? +

+
+

+ 1ST WOMAN +

+ I must get home. I've some Milesian wool
Packed wasting away, and + moths are pushing through it. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Fine moths indeed, I know. Get back within. +

+
+

+ 1ST WOMAN +

+ By the Goddesses, I'll return instantly.
I only want to stretch it on + my bed. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ You shall stretch nothing and go nowhere either. +

+
+

+ 1ST WOMAN +

+ Must I never use my wool then? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ If needs be. +

+
+

+ 2ND WOMAN +

+ How unfortunate I am! O my poor flax!
It's left at home unstript. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ So here's another
That wishes to go home and strip her flax.
+ Inside again! +

+
+

+ 2ND WOMAN +

+ No, by the Goddess of Light,
I'll be back as soon as I have flayed it + properly. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ You'll not flay anything. For if you begin
There'll not be one here + but has a patch to be flayed. +

+
+

+ 3RD WOMAN +

+ O holy Eilithyia, stay this birth
Till I have left the precincts of + the place! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ What nonsense is this? +

+
+

+ 3RD WOMAN +

+ I'll drop it any minute. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Yesterday you weren't with child. +

+
+

+ 3RD WOMAN +

+ But I am today.
O let me find a midwife, Lysistrata.
O quickly! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Now what story is this you tell?
What is this hard lump here? +

+
+

+ 3RD WOMAN +

+ It's a male child. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ By Aphrodite, it isn't. Your belly's hollow,
And it has the feel of + metal.... Well, I soon can see.
You hussy, it's Athene's sacred helm,
+ And you said you were with child. +

+
+

+ 3RD WOMAN +

+ And so I am. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Then why the helm? +

+
+

+ 3RD WOMAN +

+ So if the throes should take me
Still in these grounds I could use it + like a dove
As a laying-nest in which to drop the child. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ More pretexts! You can't hide your clear intent,
And anyway why not + wait till the tenth day
Meditating a brazen name for your brass brat? +

+
+

+ WOMAN +

+ And I can't sleep a wink. My nerve is gone
Since I saw that + snake-sentinel of the shrine. +

+
+

+ WOMAN +

+ And all those dreadful owls with their weird hooting!
Though I'm + wearied out, I can't close an eye. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ You wicked women, cease from juggling lies.
You want your men. But + what of them as well?
They toss as sleepless in the lonely night,
+ I'm sure of it. Hold out awhile, hold out,
But persevere a + teeny-weeny longer.
An oracle has promised Victory
If we don't + wrangle. Would you hear the words? +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Yes, yes, what is it? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Silence then, you chatterboxes.
Here--
Whenas the swallows + flocking in one place from the hoopoes
Deny themselves love's gambols + any more,
All woes shall then have ending and great Zeus the + Thunderer
Shall put above what was below before. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Will the men then always be kept under us? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA
But if the swallows squabble among themselves and fly + away
Out of the temple, refusing to agree,
Then The Most Wanton + Birds in all the World
They shall be named for ever. That's his + decree. +

+
+

+ WOMAN +

+ It's obvious what it means.
LYSISTRATA +

+ Now + by all the gods
We must let no agony deter from duty,
Back to + your quarters. For we are base indeed,
My friends, if we betray the + oracle. +

+ She goes out. +

+
+

+ OLD MEN. +

+ I'd like to remind you of a fable they used to employ,
When I was a + little boy:
How once through fear of the marriage-bed a young man,
+ Melanion by name, to the wilderness ran,
And there on the hills he + dwelt.
For hares he wove a net
Which with his dog he set--
+ Most likely he's there yet.
For he never came back home, so great was + the fear he felt.
I loathe the sex as much as he,
And therefore + I no less shall be
As chaste as was Melanion. +

+
+

+ MAN +

+ Grann'am, do you much mind men? +

+
+

+ WOMAN +

+ Onions you won't need, to cry. +

+
+

+ MAN +

+ From my foot you shan't escape. +

+
+

+ WOMAN +

+ What thick forests I espy. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ So much Myronides' fierce beard
And thundering black back were + feared,
That the foe fled when they were shown--
Brave he as + Phormion. +

+
+

+ WOMEN. +

+ Well, I'll relate a rival fable just to show to you
A different point + of view:
There was a rough-hewn fellow, Timon, with a face
That + glowered as through a thorn-bush in a wild, bleak place.
He too + decided on flight,
This very Furies' son,
All the world's ways + to shun
And hide from everyone,
Spitting out curses on all + knavish men to left and right.
But though he reared this hate for + men,
He loved the women even then,
And never thought them + enemies. +

+
+

+ WOMAN +

+ O your jaw I'd like to break. +

+
+

+ MAN +

+ That I fear do you suppose? +

+
+

+ WOMAN +

+ Learn what kicks my legs can make. +

+
+

+ MAN +

+ Raise them up, and you'll expose-- +

+

+

+

+

+ WOMAN +

+ Nay, you'll see there, I engage,
All is well kept despite my age,
+ And tended smooth enough to slip
From any adversary's grip. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA appears. +

+

+

+

+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Hollo there, hasten hither to me
Skip fast along. +

+
+

+ WOMAN +

+ What is this? Why the noise? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ A man, a man! I spy a frenzied man!
He carries Love upon him like a + staff.
O Lady of Cyprus, and Cythera, and Paphos,
I beseech you, + keep our minds and hands to the oath. +

+

+

+

+

+ WOMAN +

+ Where is he, whoever he is? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ By the Temple of Chloe. +

+
+

+ WOMAN +

+ Yes, now I see him, but who can he be? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Look at him. Does anyone recognise his face? +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ I do. He is my husband, Cinesias. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ You know how to work. Play with him, lead him on,
Seduce him to the + cozening-point--kiss him, kiss him,
Then slip your mouth aside just + as he's sure of it,
Ungirdle every caress his mouth feels at
+ Save that the oath upon the bowl has locked. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ You can rely on me. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ I'll stay here to help
In working up his ardor to its height
Of + vain magnificence.... The rest to their quarters. +

+ Enter CINESIAS. +

+ Who is this that stands within our lines? +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ I. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ A man? +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Too much a man! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Then be off at once. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Who are you that thus eject me? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Guard for the day. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ By all the gods, then call Myrrhine hither. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ So, call Myrrhine hither! Who are you? +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ I am her husband Cinesias, son of Anthros. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Welcome, dear friend! That glorious name of yours
Is quite familiar + in our ranks. Your wife
Continually has it in her mouth.
She + cannot touch an apple or an egg
But she must say, "This to Cinesias!" +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ O is that true? +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ By Aphrodite, it is.
If the conversation strikes on men, your wife
+ Cuts in with, "All are boobies by Cinesias." +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Then call her here. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ And what am I to get? +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ This, if you want it.... See, what I have here.
But not to take away. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Then I'll call her. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Be quick, be quick. All grace is wiped from life
Since she went away. + O sad, sad am I
When there I enter on that loneliness,
And wine + is unvintaged of the sun's flavour.
And food is tasteless. But I've + put on weight. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE (above) +

+ I love him O so much! but he won't have it.
Don't call me down to + him. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Sweet little Myrrhine!
What do you mean? Come here. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ O no I won't.
Why are you calling me? You don't want me. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Not want you! with this week-old strength of love. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Farewell. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Don't go, please don't go, Myrrhine.
At least you'll hear our child. + Call your mother, lad. +

+
+

+ CHILD +

+ Mummy ... mummy ... mummy! +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ There now, don't you feel pity for the child?
He's not been fed or + washed now for six days. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ I certainly pity him with so heartless a father. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Come down, my sweetest, come for the child's sake. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ A trying life it is to be a mother!
I suppose I'd better go. She + comes down. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ How much younger she looks,
How fresher and how prettier! Myrrhine,
+ Lift up your lovely face, your disdainful face;
And your ankle ... + let your scorn step out its worst;
It only rubs me to more ardor + here. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE (playing with the child) +

+ You're as innocent as he's iniquitous.
Let me kiss you, + honey-petting, mother's darling. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ How wrong to follow other women's counsel
And let loose all these + throbbing voids in yourself
As well as in me. Don't you go + throb-throb? +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Take away your hands. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Everything in the house
Is being ruined. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ I don't care at all. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ The roosters are picking all your web to rags.
Do you mind that? +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Not I. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ What time we've wasted
We might have drenched with Paphian laughter, + flung
On Aphrodite's Mysteries. O come here. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Not till a treaty finishes the war. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ If you must have it, then we'll get it done. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Do it and I'll come home. Till then I am bound. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Well, can't your oath perhaps be got around? +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ No ... no ... still I'll not say that I don't love you. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ You love me! Then dear girl, let me also love you. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ You must be joking. The boy's looking on. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Here, Manes, take the child home!... There, he's gone.
There's + nothing in the way now. Come to the point. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Here in the open! In plain sight? +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ In Pan's cave.
A splendid place. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Where shall I dress my hair again
Before returning to the citadel? +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ You can easily primp yourself in the Clepsydra. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ But how can I break my oath? +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Leave that to me,
I'll take all risk. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Well, I'll make you comfortable. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Don't worry. I'd as soon lie on the grass. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ No, by Apollo, in spite of all your faults
I won't have you lying on + the nasty earth.
(From here MYRRHINE keeps on going off to fetch + things.) +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Ah, how she loves me. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Rest there on the bench,
While I arrange my clothes. O what a + nuisance,
I must find some cushions first. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Why some cushions?
Please don't get them! +

+

+

+

+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ What? The plain, hard wood?
Never, by Artemis! That would be too + vulgar. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Open your arms! +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ No. Wait a second. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ O....
Then hurry back again. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Here the cushions are.
Lie down while I--O dear! But what a shame,
+ You need more pillows. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ I don't want them, dear. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ But I do. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Thwarted affection mine,
They treat you just like Heracles at a feast
+ With cheats of dainties, O disappointing arms! +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Raise up your head. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ There, that's everything at last. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Yes, all. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Then run to my arms, you golden girl. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ I'm loosening my girdle now. But you've not forgotten?
You're not + deceiving me about the Treaty? +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ No, by my life, I'm not. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Why, you've no blanket. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ It's not the silly blanket's warmth but yours I want. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Never mind. You'll soon have both. I'll come straight back. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ The woman will choke me with her coverlets. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Get up a moment. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ I'm up high enough. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Would you like me to perfume you? +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ By Apollo, no! +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ By Aphrodite, I'll do it anyway. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Lord Zeus, may she soon use up all the myrrh. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Stretch out your hand. Take it and rub it in. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Hmm, it's not as fragrant as might be; that is,
Not before it's + smeared. It doesn't smell of kisses. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ How silly I am: I've brought you Rhodian scents. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ It's good enough, leave it, love. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ You must be jesting. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ Plague rack the man who first compounded scent! +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ Here, take this flask. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ I've a far better one.
Don't tease me, come here, and get nothing + more. +

+
+

+ MYRRHINE +

+ I'm coming.... I'm just drawing off my shoes....
You're sure you will + vote for Peace? +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ I'll think about it.
She runs off.
I'm dead: the woman's + worn me all away.
She's gone and left me with an anguished pulse. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Baulked in your amorous delight
How melancholy is your plight.
+ With sympathy your case I view;
For I am sure it's hard on you.
+ What human being could sustain
This unforeseen domestic strain,
+ And not a single trace
Of willing women in the place! +

+

+

+

+

+ CINESIAS +

+ O Zeus, what throbbing suffering! +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ She did it all, the harlot, she
With her atrocious harlotry. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Nay, rather call her darling-sweet. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ What, sweet? She's a rude, wicked thing. +

+
+

+ CINESIAS +

+ A wicked thing, as I repeat.
O Zeus, O Zeus,
Canst Thou not + suddenly let loose
Some twirling hurricane to tear
Her flapping + up along the air
And drop her, when she's whirled around,
Here + to the ground
Neatly impaled upon the stake
That's ready upright + for her sake.
He goes out. +

+

+

+

+

+ Enter SPARTAN HERALD. +

+ The MAGISTRATE comes forward. +

+
+

+ HERALD +

+ What here gabs the Senate an' the Prytanes?
I've fetcht despatches + for them. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Are you a man
Or a monstrosity? +

+
+

+ HERALD +

+ My scrimp-brained lad,
I'm a herald, as ye see, who hae come frae + Sparta
Anent a Peace. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Then why do you hide that lance
That sticks out under your arms? +

+
+

+ HERALD. +

+ I've brought no lance. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Then why do you turn aside and hold your cloak
So far out from your + body? Is your groin swollen
With stress of travelling? +

+
+

+ HERALD +

+ By Castor, I'll swear
The man is wud. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Indeed, your cloak is wide,
My rascal fellow. +

+
+

+ HERALD +

+ But I tell ye No!
Enow o' fleering! +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Well, what is it then? +

+
+

+ HERALD +

+ It's my despatch cane. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Of course--a Spartan cane!
But speak right out. I know all this too + well.
Are new privations springing up in Sparta? +

+
+

+ HERALD +

+ Och, hard as could be: in lofty lusty columns
Our allies stand + united. We maun get Pellene. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ Whence has this evil come? Is it from Pan? +

+
+

+ HERALD +

+ No. Lampito first ran asklent, then the others
Sprinted after her + example, and blocked, the hizzies,
Their wames unskaithed against our + every fleech. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ What did you do? +

+
+

+ HERALD +

+ We are broken, and bent double,
Limp like men carrying lanthorns in + great winds
About the city. They winna let us even
Wi' lightest + neif skim their primsie pretties
Till we've concluded Peace-terms wi' + a' Hellas. +

+
+

+ MAGISTRATE +

+ So the conspiracy is universal;
This proves it. Then return to + Sparta. Bid them
Send envoys with full powers to treat of Peace;
+ And I will urge the Senate here to choose
Plenipotentiary + ambassadors,
As argument adducing this connection. +

+
+

+ HERALD +

+ I'm off. Your wisdom none could contravert.
They retire. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ There is no beast, no rush of fire, like woman so untamed.
She calmly + goes her way where even panthers would be shamed. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ And yet you are fool enough, it seems, to dare to war with me,
When + for your faithful ally you might win me easily. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Never could the hate I feel for womankind grow less. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Then have your will. But I'll take pity on your nakedness.
For I can + see just how ridiculous you look, and so
Will help you with your + tunic if close up I now may go. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Well, that, by Zeus, is no scoundrel-deed, I frankly will admit.
I + only took them off myself in a scoundrel raging-fit. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Now you look sensible, and that you're men no one could doubt.
If you + were but good friends again, I'd take the insect out
That hurts your + eye. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ Is that what's wrong? That nasty bitie thing.
Please squeeze it out, + and show me what it is that makes this sting.
It's been paining me a + long while now. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ Well I'll agree to that,
Although you're most unmannerly. O what a + giant gnat.
Here, look! It comes from marshy Tricorysus, I can tell. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ O thank you. It was digging out a veritable well.
Now that it's gone, + I can't hold back my tears. See how they fall. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ I'll wipe them off, bad as you are, and kiss you after all. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ I won't be kissed. +

+
+

+ WOMEN +

+ O yes, you will. Your wishes do not matter. +

+
+

+ MEN +

+ O botheration take you all! How you cajole and flatter.
A hell it is + to live with you; to live without, a hell:
How truly was that said. + But come, these enmities let's quell.
You stop from giving orders and + I'll stop from doing wrong.
So let's join ranks and seal our bargain + with a choric song. +

+
+

+ CHORUS. +

+ Athenians, it's not our intention
To sow political dissension
By + giving any scandal mention;
But on the contrary to promote good + feeling in the state
By word and deed. We've had enough calamities of + late.
So let a man or woman but divulge
They need a trifle, say,
+ Two minas, three or four,
I've purses here that bulge.
There's + only one condition made
(Indulge my whim in this I pray)--
When + Peace is signed once more,
On no account am I to be repaid. +

+ And I'm making preparation
For a gay select collation
With some + youths of reputation.
I've managed to produce some soup and they're + slaughtering for me
A sucking-pig: its flesh should taste as tender + as could be.
I shall expect you at my house today.
To the baths + make an early visit,
And bring your children along;
Don't dawdle + on the way.
Ask no one; enter as if the place
Was all your + own--yours henceforth is it.
If nothing chances wrong,
The door + will then be shut bang in your face. +

+ The SPARTAN AMBASSADORS approach. +

+
+

+ CHORUS +

+ Here come the Spartan envoys with long, worried beards.
Hail, + Spartans how do you fare?
Did anything new arise? +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ No need for a clutter o' words. Do ye see our condition? +

+
+

+ CHORUS +

+ The situation swells to greater tension.
Something will explode soon. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ It's awfu' truly.
But come, let us wi' the best speed we may
+ Scribble a Peace. +

+
+

+ CHORUS +

+ I notice that our men
Like wrestlers poised for contest, hold their + clothes
Out from their bellies. An athlete's malady!
Since + exercise alone can bring relief. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ Can anyone tell us where Lysistrata is?
There is no need to describe + our men's condition,
It shows up plainly enough. +

+
+

+ CHORUS +

+ It's the same disease.
Do you feel a jerking throbbing in the + morning? +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ By Zeus, yes! In these straits, I'm racked all through.
Unless Peace + is soon declared, we shall be driven
In the void of women to try + Cleisthenes. +

+
+

+ CHORUS +

+ Be wise and cover those things with your tunics.
Who knows what kind + of person may perceive you? +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ By Zeus, you're right. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ By the Twa Goddesses,
Indeed ye are. Let's put our tunics on. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ Hail O my fellow-sufferers, hail Spartans. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ O hinnie darling, what a waefu' thing!
If they had seen us wi' our + lunging waddies! +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ Tell us then, Spartans, what has brought you here? +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ We come to treat o' Peace. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ Well spoken there!
And we the same. Let us callout Lysistrata
+ Since she alone can settle the Peace-terms. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ Callout Lysistratus too if ye don't mind. +

+
+

+ CHORUS +

+ No indeed. She hears your voices and she comes. +

+ Enter LYSISTRATA +

+ Hail, Wonder of all women! Now you must be in turn
Hard, shifting, + clear, deceitful, noble, crafty, sweet, and stern.
The foremost men + of Hellas, smitten by your fascination,
Have brought their tangled + quarrels here for your sole arbitration. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ An easy task if the love's raging home-sickness
Doesn't start trying + out how well each other
Will serve instead of us. But I'll know at + once
If they do. O where's that girl, Reconciliation?
Bring + first before me the Spartan delegates,
And see you lift no rude or + violent hands--
None of the churlish ways our husbands used.
But + lead them courteously, as women should.
And if they grudge fingers, + guide them by other methods,
And introduce them with ready tact. The + Athenians
Draw by whatever offers you a grip.
Now, Spartans, + stay here facing me. Here you,
Athenians. Both hearken to my words.
+ I am a woman, but I'm not a fool.
And what of natural intelligence I + own
Has been filled out with the remembered precepts
My father + and the city-elders taught me.
First I reproach you both sides + equally
That when at Pylae and Olympia,
At Pytho and the many + other shrines
That I could name, you sprinkle from one cup
The + altars common to all Hellenes, yet
You wrack Hellenic cities, bloody + Hellas
With deaths of her own sons, while yonder clangs
The + gathering menace of barbarians. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ We cannot hold it in much longer now. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Now unto you, O Spartans, do I speak.
Do you forget how your own + countryman,
Pericleidas, once came hither suppliant
Before our + altars, pale in his purple robes,
Praying for an army when in + Messenia
Danger growled, and the Sea-god made earth quaver.
Then + with four thousand hoplites Cimon marched
And saved all Sparta. Yet + base ingrates now,
You are ravaging the soil of your preservers. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ By Zeus, they do great wrong, Lysistrata. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ Great wrong, indeed. O! What a luscious wench! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ And now I turn to the Athenians.
Have you forgotten too how once the + Spartans
In days when you wore slavish tunics, came
And with + their spears broke a Thessalian host
And all the partisans of + Hippias?
They alone stood by your shoulder on that day.
They + freed you, so that for the slave's short skirt
You should wear the + trailing cloak of liberty. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ I've never seen a nobler woman anywhere. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ Nor I one with such prettily jointing hips. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Now, brethren twined with mutual benefactions,
Can you still war, can + you suffer such disgrace?
Why not be friends? What is there to + prevent you? +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ We're agreed, gin that we get this tempting Mole. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Which one? +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ That ane we've wanted to get into,
O for sae lang.... Pylos, of + course. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ By Poseidon,
Never! +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Give it up. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ Then what will we do?
We need that ticklish place united to us-- +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Ask for some other lurking-hole in return. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ Then, ah, we'll choose this snug thing here, Echinus,
Shall we call + the nestling spot? And this backside haven,
These desirable twin + promontories, the Maliac,
And then of course these Megarean Legs. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ Not that, O surely not that, never that. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Agree! Now what are two legs more or less? +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ I want to strip at once and plough my land. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ And mine I want to fertilize at once. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ And so you can, when Peace is once declared.
If you mean it, get your + allies' heads together
And come to some decision. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ What allies?
There's no distinction in our politics:
We've risen + as one man to this conclusion;
Every ally is jumping-mad to drive it + home. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ And ours the same, for sure. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ The Carystians first!
I'll bet on that. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ I agree with all of you.
Now off, and cleanse yourselves for the + Acropolis,
For we invite you all in to a supper
From our + commissariat baskets. There at table
You will pledge good behaviour + and uprightness;
Then each man's wife is his to hustle home. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ Come, as quickly as possible. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ As quick as ye like.
Lead on. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ O Zeus, quick, quick, lead quickly on.
They hurry off. +

+
+

+ CHORUS. +

+ Broidered stuffs on high I'm heaping,
Fashionable cloaks and sweeping
+ Trains, not even gold gawds keeping.
Take them all, I pray you, take + them all (I do not care)
And deck your children--your daughter, if + the Basket she's to bear.
Come, everyone of you, come in and take
+ Of this rich hoard a share.
Nought's tied so skilfully
But you + its seal can break
And plunder all you spy inside.
I've laid out + all that I can spare,
And therefore you will see
Nothing unless + than I you're sharper-eyed.
If lacking corn a man should be
+ While his slaves clamour hungrily
And his excessive progeny,
+ Then I've a handfull of grain at home which is always to be had,
And + to which in fact a more-than-life-size loaf I'd gladly add.
+

+

+

+

+

+ Then let the poor bring with them bag or sack
And take this store of + food.
Manes, my man, I'll tell
To help them all to pack
+ Their wallets full. But O take care.
I had forgotten; don't intrude,
+ Or terrified you'll yell.
My dog is hungry too, and bites--beware! +

+

+

+

+

+ Some LOUNGERS from the Market with torches approach
the + Banqueting hall. The PORTER bars their entrance. +

+
+

+ 1ST MARKET-LOUNGER +

+ Open the door. +

+
+

+ PORTER +

+ Here move along. +

+
+

+ 1ST MARKET-LOUNGER +

+ What's this?
You're sitting down. Shall I singe you with my torch?
+ That's vulgar! O I couldn't do it ... yet
If it would gratify the + audience,
I'll mortify myself. +

+
+

+ 2ND MARKET-LOUNGER +

+ And I will too.
We'll both be crude and vulgar, yes we will. +

+
+

+ PORTER +

+ Be off at once now or you'll be wailing
Dirges for your hair. Get off + at once,
And see you don't disturb the Spartan envoys
Just + coming out from the splendid feast they've had. +

+ The banqueters begin to come out. +

+
+

+ 1ST ATHENIAN +

+ I've never known such a pleasant banquet before,
And what delightful + fellows the Spartans are.
When we are warm with wine, how wise we + grow. +

+
+

+ 2ND ATHENIAN +

+ That's only fair, since sober we're such fools:
This is the advice + I'd give the Athenians--
See our ambassadors are always drunk.
+ For when we visit Sparta sober, then
We're on the alert for trickery + all the while
So that we miss half of the things they say,
And + misinterpret things that were never said,
And then report the muddle + back to Athens.
But now we're charmed with each other. They might cap
+ With the Telamon-catch instead of the Cleitagora,
And we'd applaud + and praise them just the same;
We're not too scrupulous in weighing + words. +

+
+

+ PORTER +

+ Why, here the rascals come again to plague me.
Won't you move on, you + sorry loafers there! +

+
+

+ MARKET-LOUNGER +

+ Yes, by Zeus, they're already coming out. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ Now hinnie dearest, please tak' up your pipe
That I may try a spring + an' sing my best
In honour o' the Athenians an' oursels. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS +

+ Aye, take your pipe. By all the gods, there's nothing
Could glad my + heart more than to watch you dance. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS. +

+ Mnemosyne,
Let thy fire storm these younkers,
O tongue wi' + stormy ecstasy
My Muse that knows
Our deeds and theirs, how when + at sea
Their navies swooped upon
The Medes at Artemision--
+ Gods for their courage, did they strike
Wrenching a triumph frae + their foes;
While at Thermopylae
Leonidas' army stood: + wild-boars they were like
Wild-boars that wi' fierce threat
+ Their terrible tusks whet;
The sweat ran streaming down each twisted + face,
Faen blossoming i' strange petals o' death
Panted frae + mortal breath,
The sweat drenched a' their bodies i' that place,
+ For the hurly-burly o' Persians glittered more
Than the sands on the + shore. +

+ Come, Hunting Girl, an' hear my prayer--
You whose arrows whizz in + woodlands, come an' bless
This Peace we swear.
Let us be fenced + wi' age long amity,
O let this bond stick ever firm through thee
+ In friendly happiness.
Henceforth no guilefu' perjury be seen!
O + hither, hither O
Thou wildwood queen. +

+
+

+ LYSISTRATA +

+ Earth is delighted now, peace is the voice of earth.
Spartans, sort + out your wives: Athenians, yours.
Let each catch hands with his wife + and dance his joy,
Dance out his thanks, be grateful in music,
+ And promise reformation with his heels. +

+
+

+ ATHENIANS. +

+ O Dancers, forward. Lead out the Graces,
Call Artemis out;
Then + her brother, the Dancer of Skies,
That gracious Apollo.
Invoke + with a shout
Dionysus out of whose eyes
Breaks fire on the + maenads that follow;
And Zeus with his flares of quick lightning, and + call,
Happy Hera, Queen of all,
And all the Daimons summon + hither to be
Witnesses of our revelry
And of the noble Peace we + have made,
Aphrodite our aid.
+

+

+

+

+

+ Io Paieon, Io, cry--
For victory, leap!
Attained by me, leap!
+ Euoi Euoi Euai Euai. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS +

+ Piper, gie us the music for a new sang. +

+
+

+ SPARTANS. +

+ Leaving again lovely lofty Taygetus
Hither O Spartan Muse, hither to + greet us,
And wi' our choric voice to raise
To Amyclean Apollo + praise,
And Tyndareus' gallant sons whose days
Alang Eurotas' + banks merrily pass,
An' Athene o' the House o' Brass. +

+ Now the dance begin;
Dance, making swirl your fringe o' woolly skin,
+ While we join voices
To hymn dear Sparta that rejoices
I' a + beautifu' sang,
An' loves to see
Dancers tangled beautifully;
+ For the girls i' tumbled ranks
Alang Eurotas' banks
Like wanton + fillies thrang,
Frolicking there
+

+

+

+

+

+ An' like Bacchantes shaking the wild air
To comb a giddy laughter + through the hair,
Bacchantes that clench thyrsi as they sweep
To + the ecstatic leap. +

+ An' Helen, Child o' Leda, come
Thou holy, nimble, gracefu' Queen,
+ Lead thou the dance, gather thy joyous tresses up i' bands
An' play + like a fawn. To madden them, clap thy hands,
And sing praise to the + warrior goddess templed i' our lands,
Her o' the House o' Brass. +

+

+

+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lysistrata, by Aristophanes
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LYSISTRATA ***
+
+***** This file should be named 7700-h.htm or 7700-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/7/7/0/7700/
+
+Produced by Ted Garvin, David Widger and the Distributed
+Proofreaders Team
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+

+ + diff --git a/7700-h/images/001.png b/7700-h/images/001.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2179c20 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/001.png differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/015.png b/7700-h/images/015.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0edb4a1 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/015.png differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/021.png b/7700-h/images/021.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf36e84 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/021.png differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/032a.jpg b/7700-h/images/032a.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..172f1e5 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/032a.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/033a.jpg b/7700-h/images/033a.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36d69b3 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/033a.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/040a.jpg b/7700-h/images/040a.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9318624 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/040a.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/041a.jpg b/7700-h/images/041a.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e244cff Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/041a.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/046.jpg b/7700-h/images/046.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..56963c9 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/046.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/063a.jpg b/7700-h/images/063a.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9acf639 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/063a.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/071a.jpg b/7700-h/images/071a.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c8070f2 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/071a.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/072.jpg b/7700-h/images/072.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a31a43 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/072.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/073.jpg b/7700-h/images/073.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a1f18b Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/073.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/080.jpg b/7700-h/images/080.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..395cba3 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/080.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/083a.jpg b/7700-h/images/083a.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec8d0c8 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/083a.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/084a.jpg b/7700-h/images/084a.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ce5683 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/084a.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/097a.jpg b/7700-h/images/097a.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c8bb4ea Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/097a.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/098a.jpg b/7700-h/images/098a.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..63523be Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/098a.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/102.jpg b/7700-h/images/102.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..efa6045 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/102.jpg differ diff --git a/7700-h/images/104a.jpg b/7700-h/images/104a.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..04bad20 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700-h/images/104a.jpg differ diff --git a/7700.txt b/7700.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0d2b7f --- /dev/null +++ b/7700.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3906 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lysistrata, by Aristophanes + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lysistrata + +Author: Aristophanes + +Commentator: Jack Lindsay + +Illustrator: Norman Lindsay + +Release Date: April 6, 2008 [EBook #7700] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LYSISTRATA *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin and the Distributed Proofreaders Team + + + + + + +LYSISTRATA + + +Translated from the Greek of + +ARISTOPHANES + +Illustrations by Norman Lindsay + + + + +FOREWORD + +_Lysistrata_ is the greatest work by Aristophanes. This blank and rash +statement is made that it may be rejected. But first let it be +understood that I do not mean it is a better written work than the +_Birds_ or the _Frogs_, or that (to descend to the scale of values that +will be naturally imputed to me) it has any more appeal to the +collectors of "curious literature" than the _Ecclesiazusae_ or the +_Thesmophoriazusae_. On the mere grounds of taste I can see an at least +equally good case made out for the _Birds_. That brightly plumaged +fantasy has an aerial wit and colour all its own. But there are certain +works in which a man finds himself at an angle of vision where there is +an especially felicitous union of the aesthetic and emotional elements +which constitute the basic qualities of his uniqueness. We recognize +these works as being welded into a strange unity, as having a +homogeneous texture of ecstasy over them that surpasses any aesthetic +surface of harmonic colour, though that harmony also is understood by +the deeper welling of imagery from the core of creative exaltation. And +I think that this occurs in _Lysistrata_. The intellectual and spiritual +tendrils of the poem are more truly interwoven, the operation of their +centres more nearly unified; and so the work goes deeper into life. It +is his greatest play because of this, because it holds an intimate +perfume of femininity and gives the finest sense of the charm of a +cluster of girls, the sweet sense of their chatter, and the contact of +their bodies, that is to be found before Shakespeare, because that +mocking gaiety we call Aristophanies reaches here its most positive +acclamation of life, vitalizing sex with a deep delight, a rare +happiness of the spirit. + +Indeed it is precisely for these reasons that it is _not_ considered +Aristophanes' greatest play. + +To take a case which is sufficiently near to the point in question, to +make clear what I mean: the supremacy of _Antony and Cleopatra_ in the +Shakespearean aesthetic is yet jealously disputed, and it seems silly to +the academic to put it up against a work like _Hamlet_. But it is the +comparatively more obvious achievement of _Hamlet_, its surface +intellectuality, which made it the favourite of actors and critics. It +is much more difficult to realize the complex and delicately passionate +edge of the former play's rhythm, its tides of hugely wandering emotion, +the restless, proud, gay, and agonized reaction from life, of the blood, +of the mind, of the heart, which is its unity, than to follow the +relatively straightforward definition of Hamlet's nerves. Not that +anything derogatory to _Hamlet_ or the _Birds_ is intended; but the +value of such works is not enhanced by forcing them into contrast with +other works which cover deeper and wider nexus of aesthetic and +spiritual material. It is the very subtlety of the vitality of such +works as _Antony and Cleopatra_ and _Lysistrata_ that makes it so easy +to undervalue them, to see only a phallic play and political pamphlet in +one, only a chronicle play in a grandiose method in the other. For we +have to be in a highly sensitized condition before we can get to that +subtle point where life and the image mix, and so really perceive the +work at all; whereas we can command the response to a lesser work which +does not call so finely on the full breadth and depth of our spiritual +resources. + +I amuse myself at times with the fancy that Homer, Sappho, and +Aristophanes are the inviolable Trinity of poetry, even to the extent of +being reducible to One. For the fiery and lucid directness of Sappho, if +her note of personal lyricism is abstracted, is seen to be an element of +Homer, as is the profoundly balanced humour of Aristophanes, at once +tenderly human and cruelly hard, as of a god to whom all sympathies and +tolerances are known, but who is invulnerable somewhere, who sees from a +point in space where the pressure of earth's fear and pain, and so its +pity, is lifted. It is here that the Shakespearean and Homeric worlds +impinge and merge, not to be separated by any academic classifications. +They meet in this sensitivity equally involved and aloof, sympathetic +and arrogant, suffering and joyous; and in this relation we see +Aristophanes as the forerunner of Shakespeare, his only one. We see also +that the whole present aesthetic of earth is based in Homer. We live and +grow in the world of consciousness bequeathed to us by him; and if we +grow beyond it through deeper Shakespearean ardours, it is because those +beyond are rooted in the broad basis of the Homeric imagination. To +shift that basis is to find the marshes of primitive night and fear +alone beneath the feet: Christianity. + +And here we return to the question of the immorality of _Lysistrata_. +First we may inquire: is it possible for a man whose work has so +tremendous a significance in the spiritual development of mankind--and I +do not think anyone nowadays doubts that a work of art is the sole +stabilizing force that exists for life--is it possible for a man who +stands so grandly at head of an immense stream of liberating effort to +write an immoral work? Surely the only enduring moral virtue which can +be claimed is for that which moves to more power, beauty and delight in +the future? The plea that the question of changing customs arises is not +valid, for customs ratified by Aristophanes, by Rabelais, by +Shakespeare, have no right to change. If they have changed, let us try +immediately to return from our disgraceful refinements to the nobler and +more rarefied heights of lyric laughter, tragic intensity, and wit, for +we cannot have the first two without the last. And anyhow, how can a +social custom claim precedence over the undying material of the senses +and the emotions of man, over the very generating forces of life? + +How could the humanistic emotions, such as pity, justice, sympathy, +exist save as pacifistic quietings of the desire to slay, to hurt, to +torment. Where the desire to hurt is gone pity ceases to be a +significant, a central emotion. It must of course continue to exist, but +it is displaced in the spiritual hierarchy; and all that moves +courageously, desirously, and vitally into the action of life takes on a +deeper and subtler intention. Lust, then, which on the lower plane was +something to be very frightened of, becomes a symbol of the highest +spirituality. It is right for Paul to be terrified of sex and so to hate +it, because he has so freshly escaped a bestial condition of life that +it threatens to plunge him back if he listens to one whisper But it is +also right for a Shakespeare to suck every drop of desire from life, +for he is building into a higher condition, one self-willed, +self-responsible, the discipline of which comes from joy, not fear. + +Sex, therefore, is an animal function, one admits, one insists; it may +be only that. But also in the bewildering and humorous and tragic +duality of all life's energies, it is the bridge to every eternity which +is not merely a spectral condition of earth disembowelled of its lusts. +For sex holds the substance of the image. But we must remember with +Heine that Aristophanes is the God of this ironic earth, and that all +argument is apparently vitiated from the start by the simple fact that +Wagner and a rooster are given an analogous method of making love. And +therefore it seems impeccable logic to say that all that is most unlike +the rooster is the most spiritual part of love. All will agree on that, +schisms only arise when one tries to decide what does go farthest from +the bird's automatic mechanism. Certainly not a Dante-Beatrice affair +which is only the negation of the rooster in terms of the swooning +bombast of adolescence, the first onslaught of a force which the +sufferer cannot control or inhabit with all the potentialities of his +body and soul. But the rooster is troubled by no dreams of a divine +orgy, no carnival-loves like Beethoven's _Fourth Symphony_, no heroic +and shining lust gathering and swinging into a merry embrace like the +third act of _Siegfried_. It is desire in this sense that goes farthest +from the animal. + +Consciously, no one can achieve the act of love on earth as a completed +thing of grace, with whatever delirium of delight, with whatever +ingenious preciosity, we go through its process. Only as an image of +beauty mated in some strange hermaphroditic ecstasy is that possible. I +mean only as a dream projected into a hypothetical, a real heaven. But +on earth we cannot complete the cycle in consciousness that would give +us the freedom of an image in which two identities mysteriously realize +their separate unities by the absorption of a third thing, the +constructive rhythm of a work of art. It is thus that Tristan and Isolde +become wholly distinct individuals, yet wholly submerged in the unity +that is Wagner; and so reconcile life's duality by balancing its +opposing laughters in a definite form--thereby sending out into life a +profounder duality than existed before. A Platonic equipoise, +Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence--the only real philosophic problem, +therefore one of which these two philosophers alone are aware. + +But though Wagner with Mathilde Wesendonck in his arms was Tristan in +the arms of Isolde, he did not find a melody instead of a kiss on his +lips; he did not find a progression of harmonies melting through the +contours of a warm beauty with a blur of desperate ecstasies, semitones +of desire, he found only the anxious happiness of any other lover. +Nevertheless, he was gathering the substance of the second act of +_Tristan und Isolde_. And it is this that Plato means when he says that +fornication is something immortal in mortality. He does not mean that +the act itself is a godlike thing, a claim which any bedroom mirror +would quickly deride. He means that it is a symbol, an essential +condition, and a part of something that goes deeper into life than any +geometry of earth's absurd, passionate, futile, and very necessary +antics would suggest. + +It is a universal fallacy that because works like the comedies of +Aristophanes discuss certain social or ethical problems, they are +inspired by them. Aristophanes wrote to express his vision on life, his +delight in life itself seen behind the warping screen of contemporary +event; and for his purposes anything from Euripides to Cleon served as +ground work. Not that he would think in those terms, naturally: but the +rationalizing process that goes on in consciousness during the creation +of a work of art, for all its appearance of directing matters, is the +merest weathercock in the wind of the subconscious intention. As an +example of how utterly it is possible to misunderstand the springs of +inspiration in a poem, we may take the following remark of B. B. Rogers: +_It is much to be regretted that the phallus element should be so +conspicuous in this play.... (This) coarseness, so repulsive to +ourselves, was introduced, it is impossible to doubt, for the express +purpose of counter-balancing the extreme earnestness and gravity of the +play_. It seems so logical, so irrefutable; and so completely +misinterprets every creative force of Aristophanes' Psyche that it +certainly deserves a little admiration. It is in the best academic +tradition, and everyone respects a man for writing so mendaciously. The +effort of these castrators is always to show that the parts considered +offensive are not the natural expression of the poet, that they are +dictated externally. They argue that Shakespeare's coarseness is the +result of the age and not personal predilection, completely ignoring the +work of men like Sir Philip Sidney and Spenser, indeed practically all +the pre-Shakespearean writers, in whom none of this so-called grossness +exists. Shakespeare wrote sculduddery because he liked it, and for no +other reason; his sensuality is the measure of his vitality. These liars +pretend similarly that because Rabelais had a humanistic reason for much +of his work--the destructior Mediaevalism, and the Church, which purpose +they construe of course as an effort to purify, etc.--therefore he only +put the lewdery to make the rest palatable, when it should be obvious +even to an academic how he glories in his wild humour. + +What the academic cannot understand is that in such works, while +attacking certain conditions, the creative power of the vigorous spirits +is so great that it overflows and saturates the intellectual conception +with their own passionate sense of life. It is for this reason that +these works have an eternal significance. If Rabelais were merely a +social reformer, then the value of his work would not have outlived his +generation. If _Lysistrata_ were but a wise political tract, it would +have merely an historical interest, and it would have ceased spiritually +at 404 B.C. + +But Panurge is as fantastic and fascinating a character now as he was +300 years ago, Lysistrata and her girls as freshly bodied as any girl +kissed to-day. Therefore the serious part of the play is that which +deals with them, the frivolous part that in which Rogers detects gravity +and earnestness. + +Aristophanes is the lord of all who take life as a gay adventure, who +defy all efforts to turn life into a social, economic, or moral +abstraction. Is it therefore just that the critics who, by some dark +instinct, unerringly pick out the exact opposite of any creator's real +virtues as his chief characteristics, should praise him as an idealistic +reformer? An "ideal" state of society was the last thing Aristophanes +desired. He wished, certainly, to eliminate inhumanities and baseness; +but only that there might be free play for laughter, for individual +happiness. + +Consequently the critics lay the emphasis on the effort to cleanse +society, not the method of laughter. Aristophanes wished to destroy +Cleon because that demagogue failed to realize the poet's conception of +dignified government and tended to upset the stability of Hellas. But it +was the stability of life, the vindication of all individual freedoms, +in which he was ultimately interested. + +JACK LINDSAY. + + + * * * * * + + +LYSISTRATA + +The Persons of the drama. + +LYSISTRATA +CALONICE +MYRRHINE +LAMPITO +Stratyllis, etc. +Chorus of Women. +MAGISTRATE +CINESIAS +SPARTAN HERALD +ENVOYS +ATHENIANS +Porter, Market Idlers, etc. +Chorus of old Men. + + +LYSISTRATA _stands alone with the Propylaea at her back._ + + +LYSISTRATA + +If they were trysting for a Bacchanal, +A feast of Pan or Colias or Genetyllis, +The tambourines would block the rowdy streets, +But now there's not a woman to be seen +Except--ah, yes--this neighbour of mine yonder. + +_Enter_ CALONICE. + +Good day Calonice. + +CALONICE + +Good day Lysistrata. +But what has vexed you so? Tell me, child. +What are these black looks for? It doesn't suit you +To knit your eyebrows up glumly like that. + +LYSISTRATA + +Calonice, it's more than I can bear, +I am hot all over with blushes for our sex. +Men say we're slippery rogues-- + +CALONICE + +And aren't they right? + +LYSISTRATA + +Yet summoned on the most tremendous business +For deliberation, still they snuggle in bed. + +CALONICE + +My dear, they'll come. It's hard for women, you know, +To get away. There's so much to do; +Husbands to be patted and put in good tempers: +Servants to be poked out: children washed +Or soothed with lullays or fed with mouthfuls of pap. + +LYSISTRATA + +But I tell you, here's a far more weighty object. + +CALONICE + +What is it all about, dear Lysistrata, +That you've called the women hither in a troop? +What kind of an object is it? + +LYSISTRATA + +A tremendous thing! + +CALONICE + +And long? + +LYSISTRATA + +Indeed, it may be very lengthy. + +CALONICE + +Then why aren't they here? + +LYSISTRATA + +No man's connected with it; +If that was the case, they'd soon come fluttering along. +No, no. It concerns an object I've felt over +And turned this way and that for sleepless nights. + +CALONICE + +It must be fine to stand such long attention. + +LYSISTRATA + +So fine it comes to this--Greece saved by Woman! + +CALONICE + +By Woman? Wretched thing, I'm sorry for it. + +LYSISTRATA + +Our country's fate is henceforth in our hands: +To destroy the Peloponnesians root and branch-- + +CALONICE + +What could be nobler! + +LYSISTRATA + +Wipe out the Boeotians-- + +CALONICE + +Not utterly. Have mercy on the eels! +[Footnote: The Boeotian eels were highly esteemed delicacies in Athens.] + +LYSISTRATA + +But with regard to Athens, note I'm careful +Not to say any of these nasty things; +Still, thought is free.... But if the women join us +From Peloponnesus and Boeotia, then +Hand in hand we'll rescue Greece. + +CALONICE + +How could we do +Such a big wise deed? We women who dwell +Quietly adorning ourselves in a back-room +With gowns of lucid gold and gawdy toilets +Of stately silk and dainty little slippers.... + +LYSISTRATA + +These are the very armaments of the rescue. +These crocus-gowns, this outlay of the best myrrh, +Slippers, cosmetics dusting beauty, and robes +With rippling creases of light. + +CALONICE + +Yes, but how? + +LYSISTRATA + +No man will lift a lance against another-- + +CALONICE + +I'll run to have my tunic dyed crocus. + +LYSISTRATA + +Or take a shield-- + +CALONICE + +I'll get a stately gown. + +LYSISTRATA + +Or unscabbard a sword-- + +CALONICE + +Let me buy a pair of slipper. + +LYSISTRATA + +Now, tell me, are the women right to lag? + +CALONICE + +They should have turned birds, they should have grown +wings and flown. + +LYSISTRATA + +My friend, you'll see that they are true Athenians: +Always too late. Why, there's not a woman +From the shoreward demes arrived, not one from Salamis. + +CALONICE + +I know for certain they awoke at dawn, +And got their husbands up if not their boat sails. + +LYSISTRATA + +And I'd have staked my life the Acharnian dames +Would be here first, yet they haven't come either! + +CALONICE + +Well anyhow there is Theagenes' wife +We can expect--she consulted Hecate. +But look, here are some at last, and more behind them. +See ... where are they from? + +CALONICE + +From Anagyra they come. + +LYSISTRATA + +Yes, they generally manage to come first. + +_Enter_ MYRRHINE. + +MYRRHINE + +Are we late, Lysistrata? ... What is that? +Nothing to say? + +LYSISTRATA + +I've not much to say for you, +Myrrhine, dawdling on so vast an affair. + +MYRRHINE + +I couldn't find my girdle in the dark. +But if the affair's so wonderful, tell us, what is it? + +LYSISTRATA + +No, let us stay a little longer till +The Peloponnesian girls and the girls of Bocotia +Are here to listen. + +MYRRHINE + +That's the best advice. +Ah, there comes Lampito. + +_Enter_ LAMPITO. + +LYSISTRATA + +Welcome Lampito! +Dear Spartan girl with a delightful face, +Washed with the rosy spring, how fresh you look +In the easy stride of your sleek slenderness, +Why you could strangle a bull! + +LAMPITO + +I think I could. +It's frae exercise and kicking high behint. + +[Footnote: The translator has put the speech of the Spartan characters +in Scotch dialect which is related to English about as was the Spartan +dialect to the speech of Athens. The Spartans, in their character, +anticipated the shrewd, canny, uncouth Scotch highlander of modern +times.] + +LYSISTRATA + +What lovely breasts to own! + +LAMPITO + +Oo ... your fingers +Assess them, ye tickler, wi' such tender chucks +I feel as if I were an altar-victim. + +LYSISTRATA + +Who is this youngster? + +LAMPITO + +A Boeotian lady. + +LYSISTRATA + +There never was much undergrowth in Boeotia, +Such a smooth place, and this girl takes after it. + +CALONICE + +Yes, I never saw a skin so primly kept. + +LYSISTRATA + +This girl? + +LAMPITO + +A sonsie open-looking jinker! +She's a Corinthian. + +LYSISTRATA + +Yes, isn't she +Very open, in some ways particularly. + +LAMPITO + +But who's garred this Council o' Women to meet here? + +LYSISTRATA + +I have. + +LAMPITO + +Propound then what you want o' us. + +MYRRHINE + +What is the amazing news you have to tell? + +LYSISTRATA + +I'll tell you, but first answer one small question. + +MYRRHINE + +As you like. + +LYSISTRATA + +Are you not sad your children's fathers +Go endlessly off soldiering afar +In this plodding war? I am willing to wager +There's not one here whose husband is at home. + +CALONICE + +Mine's been in Thrace, keeping an eye on Eucrates +For five months past. + +MYRRHINE + +And mine left me for Pylos +Seven months ago at least. + +LAMPITO + +And as for mine +No sooner has he slipped out frae the line +He straps his shield and he's snickt off again. + +LYSISTRATA + +And not the slightest glitter of a lover! +And since the Milesians betrayed us, I've not seen +The image of a single upright man +To be a marble consolation to us. +Now will you help me, if I find a means +To stamp the war out. + +MYRRHINE + +By the two Goddesses, Yes! +I will though I've to pawn this very dress +And drink the barter-money the same day. + +CALONICE + +And I too though I'm split up like a turbot +And half is hackt off as the price of peace. + +LAMPITO + +And I too! Why, to get a peep at the shy thing +I'd clamber up to the tip-top o' Taygetus. + +LYSISTRATA + +Then I'll expose my mighty mystery. +O women, if we would compel the men +To bow to Peace, we must refrain-- + +MYRRHINE + +From what? +O tell us! + +LYSISTRATA + +Will you truly do it then? + +MYRRHINE + +We will, we will, if we must die for it. + +LYSISTRATA + +We must refrain from every depth of love.... +Why do you turn your backs? Where are you going? +Why do you bite your lips and shake your heads? +Why are your faces blanched? Why do you weep? +Will you or won't you, or what do you mean? + +MYRRHINE + +No, I won't do it. Let the war proceed. + +CALONICE + +No, I won't do it. Let the war proceed. + +LYSISTRATA + +You too, dear turbot, you that said just now +You didn't mind being split right up in the least? + +CALONICE + +Anything else? O bid me walk in fire +But do not rob us of that darling joy. +What else is like it, dearest Lysistrata? + +LYSISTRATA + +And you? + +MYRRHINE + +O please give me the fire instead. + +LYSISTRATA + +Lewd to the least drop in the tiniest vein, +Our sex is fitly food for Tragic Poets, +Our whole life's but a pile of kisses and babies. +But, hardy Spartan, if you join with me +All may be righted yet. O help me, help me. + +LAMPITO + +It's a sair, sair thing to ask of us, by the Twa, +A lass to sleep her lane and never fill +Love's lack except wi' makeshifts.... But let it be. +Peace maun be thought of first. + +LYSISTRATA + +My friend, my friend! +The only one amid this herd of weaklings. + +CALONICE + +But if--which heaven forbid--we should refrain +As you would have us, how is Peace induced? + +LYSISTRATA + +By the two Goddesses, now can't you see +All we have to do is idly sit indoors +With smooth roses powdered on our cheeks, +Our bodies burning naked through the folds +Of shining Amorgos' silk, and meet the men +With our dear Venus-plats plucked trim and neat. +Their stirring love will rise up furiously, +They'll beg our arms to open. That's our time! +We'll disregard their knocking, beat them off-- +And they will soon be rabid for a Peace. +I'm sure of it. + +LAMPITO + + Just as Menelaus, they say, +Seeing the bosom of his naked Helen +Flang down the sword. + +CALONICE + + But we'll be tearful fools +If our husbands take us at our word and leave us. + +LYSISTRATA + +There's only left then, in Pherecrates' phrase, +_To flay a skinned dog_--flay more our flayed desires. + +CALONICE + +Bah, proverbs will never warm a celibate. +But what avail will your scheme be if the men +Drag us for all our kicking on to the couch? + +LYSISTRATA + +Cling to the doorposts. + +CALONICE + + But if they should force us? + +LYSISTRATA + +Yield then, but with a sluggish, cold indifference. +There is no joy to them in sullen mating. +Besides we have other ways to madden them; +They cannot stand up long, and they've no delight +Unless we fit their aim with merry succour. + +CALONICE + +Well if you must have it so, we'll all agree. + +LAMPITO + +For us I ha' no doubt. We can persuade +Our men to strike a fair an' decent Peace, +But how will ye pitch out the battle-frenzy +O' the Athenian populace? + +LYSISTRATA + +I promise you +We'll wither up that curse. + +LAMPITO + +I don't believe it. +Not while they own ane trireme oared an' rigged, +Or a' those stacks an' stacks an' stacks O' siller. + +LYSISTRATA + +I've thought the whole thing out till there's no flaw. +We shall surprise the Acropolis today: +That is the duty set the older dames. +While we sit here talking, they are to go +And under pretence of sacrificing, seize it. + +LAMPITO + +Certie, that's fine; all's working for the best. + +LYSISTRATA + +Now quickly, Lampito, let us tie ourselves +To this high purpose as tightly as the hemp of words +Can knot together. + +LAMPITO + +Set out the terms in detail +And we'll a' swear to them. + +LYSISTRATA + +Of course.... Well then +Where is our Scythianess? Why are you staring? +First lay the shield, boss downward, on the floor +And bring the victim's inwards. + +CAILONICE + +But, Lysistrata, +What is this oath that we're to swear? + +LYSISTRATA + +What oath! +In Aeschylus they take a slaughtered sheep +And swear upon a buckler. Why not we? + +CALONICE + +O Lysistrata, Peace sworn on a buckler! + +LYSISTRATA + +What oath would suit us then? + +CALONICE + +Something burden bearing +Would be our best insignia.... A white horse! +Let's swear upon its entrails. + +LYSISTRATA + +A horse indeed! + +CALONICE + +Then what will symbolise us? + +LYSISTRATA + +This, as I tell you-- +First set a great dark bowl upon the ground +And disembowel a skin of Thasian wine, +Then swear that we'll not add a drop of water. + +LAMPITO + Ah, what aith could clink pleasanter than that! + +LYSISTRATA + Bring me a bowl then and a skin of wine. + +CALONICE + My dears, see what a splendid bowl it is; + I'd not say No if asked to sip it off. + +LYSISTRATA + Put down the bowl. Lay hands, all, on the victim. + Skiey Queen who givest the last word in arguments, + And thee, O Bowl, dear comrade, we beseech: + Accept our oblation and be propitious to us. + +CALONICE + What healthy blood, la, how it gushes out! + +LAMPITO + An' what a leesome fragrance through the air. + +LYSISTRATA + Now, dears, if you will let me, I'll speak first. + +CALONICE + Only if you draw the lot, by Aphrodite! + +LYSISTRATA + SO, grasp the brim, you, Lampito, and all. + You, Calonice, repeat for the rest + Each word I say. Then you must all take oath + And pledge your arms to the same stern conditions-- + +LYSISTRATA + To husband or lover I'll not open arms + +CALONICE + +_To husband or lover I'll not open arms_ + +LYSISTRATA + +Though love and denial may enlarge his charms. + +CALONICE + +_Though love and denial may enlarge his charms._ +O, O, my knees are failing me, Lysistrata! + +LYSISTRATA + +But still at home, ignoring him, I'll stay, + +CALONICE + +_But still at home, ignoring him, I'll stay,_ + +LYSISTRATA + +Beautiful, clad in saffron silks all day. + +CALONICE + +_Beautiful, clad in saffron silks all day._ + +LYSISTRATA + +If then he seizes me by dint of force, + +CALONICE + +_If then he seizes me by dint of force,_ + +LYSISTRATA + +I'll give him reason for a long remorse. + +CALONICE + +_I'll give him reason for a long remorse._ + +LYSISTRATA + +I'll never lie and stare up at the ceiling, + +CALONICE + +_I'll never lie and stare up at the ceiling,_ + +LYSISTRATA + +Nor like a lion on all fours go kneeling. + +CALONICE + +_Nor like a lion on all fours go kneeling._ + +LYSISTRATA + +If I keep faith, then bounteous cups be mine. + +CALONICE + +_If I keep faith, then bounteous cups be mine._ + +LYSISTRATA + +If not, to nauseous water change this wine. + +CALONICE + _If not, to nauseous water change this wine._ + +LYSISTRATA + +Do you all swear to this? + +MYRRHINE + +We do, we do. + +LYSISTRATA + +Then I shall immolate the victim thus. +_She drinks._ + +CALONICE + +Here now, share fair, haven't we made a pact? +Let's all quaff down that friendship in our turn. + +LAMPITO + +Hark, what caterwauling hubbub's that? + +LYSISTRATA + +As I told you, +The women have appropriated the citadel. +So, Lampito, dash off to your own land +And raise the rebels there. These will serve as hostages, +While we ourselves take our places in the ranks +And drive the bolts right home. + +CALONICE + +But won't the men +March straight against us? + +LYSISTRATA + +And what if they do? +No threat shall creak our hinges wide, no torch +Shall light a fear in us; we will come out +To Peace alone. + +CALONICE + +That's it, by Aphrodite! +As of old let us seem hard and obdurate. + +LAMPITO _and some go off; the others go up into the Acropolis._ + +_Chorus of_ OLD MEN _enter to attack the captured Acropolis_. + +Make room, Draces, move ahead; why your shoulder's chafed, I see, +With lugging uphill these lopped branches of the olive-tree. +How upside-down and wrong-way-round a long life sees things grow. +Ah, Strymodorus, who'd have thought affairs could tangle so? + +The women whom at home we fed, +Like witless fools, with fostering bread, +Have impiously come to this-- +They've stolen the Acropolis, +With bolts and bars our orders flout +And shut us out. + +Come, Philurgus, bustle thither; lay our faggots on the ground, +In neat stacks beleaguering the insurgents all around; +And the vile conspiratresses, plotters of such mischief dire, +Pile and burn them all together in one vast and righteous pyre: +Fling with our own hands Lycon's wife to fry in the thickest fire. +By Demeter, they'll get no brag while I've a vein to beat! +Cleomenes himself was hurtled out in sore defeat. +His stiff-backed Spartan pride was bent. +Out, stripped of all his arms, he went: +A pigmy cloak that would not stretch +To hide his rump (the draggled wretch), +Six sprouting years of beard, the spilth +Of six years' filth. + +That was a siege! Our men were ranged in lines of seventeen deep +Before the gates, and never left their posts there, even to sleep. +Shall I not smite the rash presumption then of foes like these, +Detested both of all the gods and of Euripides-- +Else, may the Marathon-plain not boast my trophied victories! + +Ah, now, there's but a little space +To reach the place! +A deadly climb it is, a tricky road +With all this bumping load: +A pack-ass soon would tire.... +How these logs bruise my shoulders! further still +Jog up the hill, +And puff the fire inside, +Or just as we reach the top we'll find it's died. +Ough, phew! +I choke with the smoke. + +Lord Heracles, how acrid-hot +Out of the pot +This mad-dog smoke leaps, worrying me +And biting angrily.... +'Tis Lemnian fire that smokes, +Or else it would not sting my eyelids thus.... +Haste, all of us; +Athene invokes our aid. +Laches, now or never the assault must be made! +Ough, phew! +I choke with the smoke. .. + +Thanked be the gods! The fire peeps up and crackles as it should. +Now why not first slide off our backs these weary loads of wood +And dip a vine-branch in the brazier till it glows, then straight +Hurl it at the battering-ram against the stubborn gate? +If they refuse to draw the bolts in immediate compliance, +We'll set fire to the wood, and smoke will strangle their defiance. + +Phew, what a spluttering drench of smoke! Come, now from off my back.... +Is there no Samos-general to help me to unpack? +Ah there, that's over! For the last time now it's galled my shoulder. +Flare up thine embers, brazier, and dutifully smoulder, +To kindle a brand, that I the first may strike the citadel. +Aid me, Lady Victory, that a triumph-trophy may tell +How we did anciently this insane audacity quell! + +_Chorus of_ WOMEN. + +What's that rising yonder? That ruddy glare, that smoky skurry? +O is it something in a blaze? Quick, quick, my comrades, hurry! +Nicodice, helter-skelter! +Or poor Calyce's in flames +And Cratylla's stifled in the welter. +O these dreadful old men +And their dark laws of hate! +There, I'm all of a tremble lest I turn out to be too late. +I could scarcely get near to the spring though I rose before dawn, +What with tattling of tongues and rattling of pitchers in one jostling din +With slaves pushing in!.... + +Still here at last the water's drawn +And with it eagerly I run +To help those of my friends who stand +In danger of being burned alive. +For I am told a dribbling band +Of greybeards hobble to the field, +Great faggots in each palsied hand, +As if a hot bath to prepare, +And threatening that out they'll drive +These wicked women or soon leave them charring into ashes +there. +O Goddess, suffer not, I pray, this harsh deed to be done, +But show us Greece and Athens with their warlike acts repealed! +For this alone, in this thy hold, +Thou Goddess with the helm of gold, +We laid hands on thy sanctuary, +Athene.... Then our ally be +And where they cast their fires of slaughter +Direct our water! + +STRATYLLIS (_caught_) + +Let me go! + +WOMEN + +You villainous old men, what's this you do? +No honest man, no pious man, could do such things as you. + +MEN + +Ah ha, here's something most original, I have no doubt: +A swarm of women sentinels to man the walls without. + +WOMEN + +So then we scare you, do we? Do we seem a fearful host? +You only see the smallest fraction mustered at this post. + +MEN + +Ho, Phaedrias, shall we put a stop to all these chattering tricks? +Suppose that now upon their backs we splintered these our sticks? + +WOMEN + +Let us lay down the pitchers, so our bodies will be free, + In case these lumping fellows try to cause some injury. + +MEN + +O hit them hard and hit again and hit until they run away, +And perhaps they'll learn, like Bupalus, not to have too much to say. + +WOMEN + +Come on, then--do it! I won't budge, but like a dog I'll bite +At every little scrap of meat that dangles in my sight. + +MEN + +Be quiet, or I'll bash you out of any years to come. + +WOMEN + +Now you just touch Stratyllis with the top-joint of your thumb. + +MEN + +What vengeance can you take if with my fists your face I beat? + +WOMEN + +I'll rip you with my teeth and strew your entrails at your feet. + +MEN + +Now I appreciate Euripides' strange subtlety: +Woman is the most shameless beast of all the beasts that be. + +WOMEN + +Rhodippe, come, and let's pick up our water-jars once more. + +MEN + +Ah cursed drab, what have you brought this water for? + +WOMEN + +What is your fire for then, you smelly corpse? Yourself to burn? + +MEN + +To build a pyre and make your comrades ready for the urn. + +WOMEN + +And I've the water to put out your fire immediately. + +MEN + +What, you put out my fire? + +WOMEN + +Yes, sirrah, as you soon will see. + +MEN + +I don't know why I hesitate to roast you with this flame. + +WOMEN + +If you have any soap you'll go off cleaner than you came. + +MEN + +Cleaner, you dirty slut? + +WOMEN + +A nuptial-bath in which to lie! + +MEN + +Did you hear that insolence? + +WOMEN + +I'm a free woman, I. + +MEN + +I'll make you hold your tongue. + +WOMEN + +Henceforth you'll serve in no more juries. + +MEN + +Burn off her hair for her. + +WOMEN + +Now forward, water, quench their furies! + +MEN + +O dear, O dear! + +WOMEN + +So ... was it hot? + +MEN + +Hot! ... Enough, O hold. + +WOMEN + +Watered, perhaps you'll bloom again--why not? + +MEN + +Brrr, I'm wrinkled up from shivering with cold. + +WOMEN + +Next time you've fire you'll warm yourself and leave us to our lot. + +MAGISTRATE _enters with attendant_ SCYTHIANS. + +MAGISTRATE + +Have the luxurious rites of the women glittered +Their libertine show, their drumming tapped out crowds, +The Sabazian Mysteries summoned their mob, +Adonis been wept to death on the terraces, +As I could hear the last day in the Assembly? +For Demostratus--let bad luck befoul him-- +Was roaring, "We must sail for Sicily," +While a woman, throwing herself about in a dance +Lopsided with drink, was shrilling out "Adonis, +Woe for Adonis." Then Demostratus shouted, +"We must levy hoplites at Zacynthus," +And there the woman, up to the ears in wine, +Was screaming "Weep for Adonis" on the house-top, +The scoundrelly politician, that lunatic ox, +Bellowing bad advice through tipsy shrieks: +Such are the follies wantoning in them. + +MEN + +O if you knew their full effrontery! +All of the insults they've done, besides sousing us +With water from their pots to our public disgrace +For we stand here wringing our clothes like grown-up infants. + +MAGISTRATE + +By Poseidon, justly done! For in part with us +The blame must lie for dissolute behaviour +And for the pampered appetites they learn. +Thus grows the seedling lust to blossoming: +We go into a shop and say, "Here, goldsmith, +You remember the necklace that you wrought my wife; +Well, the other night in fervour of a dance +Her clasp broke open. Now I'm off for Salamis; +If you've the leisure, would you go tonight +And stick a bolt-pin into her opened clasp." +Another goes to a cobbler; a soldierly fellow, +Always standing up erect, and says to him, +"Cobbler, a sandal-strap of my wife's pinches her, +Hurts her little toe in a place where she's sensitive. +Come at noon and see if you can stretch out wider +This thing that troubles her, loosen its tightness." +And so you view the result. Observe my case-- +I, a magistrate, come here to draw +Money to buy oar-blades, and what happens? +The women slam the door full in my face. +But standing still's no use. Bring me a crowbar, +And I'll chastise this their impertinence. +What do you gape at, wretch, with dazzled eyes? +Peering for a tavern, I suppose. +Come, force the gates with crowbars, prise them apart! +I'll prise away myself too.... (LYSISTRATA _appears._) + +LYSISTRATA + +Stop this banging. +I'm coming of my own accord.... Why bars? +It is not bars we need but common sense. + +MAGISTRATE + +Indeed, you slut! Where is the archer now? +Arrest this woman, tie her hands behind. + +LYSISTRATA + +If he brushes me with a finger, by Artemis, +The public menial, he'll be sorry for it. + +MAGISTRATE + +Are you afraid? Grab her about the middle. +Two of you then, lay hands on her and end it. + +CALONICE + +By Pandrosos I if your hand touches her +I'll spread you out and trample on your guts. + +MAGISTRATE + +My guts! Where is the other archer gone? +Bind that minx there who talks so prettily. + +MYRRHINE + +By Phosphor, if your hand moves out her way +You'd better have a surgeon somewhere handy. + +MAGISTRATE + +You too! Where is that archer? Take that woman. +I'll put a stop to these surprise-parties. + +STRATYLLIS + +By the Tauric Artemis, one inch nearer +My fingers, and it's a bald man that'll be yelling. + +MAGISTRATE + +Tut tut, what's here? Deserted by my archers.... +But surely women never can defeat us; +Close up your ranks, my Scythians. Forward at them. + +LYSISTRATA + +By the Goddesses, you'll find that here await you +Four companies of most pugnacious women +Armed cap-a-pie from the topmost louring curl +To the lowest angry dimple. + +MAGISTRATE + +On, Scythians, bind them. + +LYSISTRATA + +On, gallant allies of our high design, +Vendors of grain-eggs-pulse-and-vegetables, +Ye garlic-tavern-keepers of bakeries, +Strike, batter, knock, hit, slap, and scratch our foes, +Be finely imprudent, say what you think of them.... +Enough! retire and do not rob the dead. + +MAGISTRATE + +How basely did my archer-force come off. + +LYSISTRATA + +Ah, ha, you thought it was a herd of slaves +You had to tackle, and you didn't guess +The thirst for glory ardent in our blood. + +MAGISTRATE + +By Apollo, I know well the thirst that heats you-- +Especially when a wine-skin's close. + +MEN + +You waste your breath, dear magistrate, I fear, in answering back. +What's the good of argument with such a rampageous pack? +Remember how they washed us down (these very clothes I wore) +With water that looked nasty and that smelt so even more. + +WOMEN + +What else to do, since you advanced too dangerously nigh. +If you should do the same again, I'll punch you in the eye. +Though I'm a stay-at-home and most a quiet life enjoy, +Polite to all and every (for I'm naturally coy), +Still if you wake a wasps' nest then of wasps you must beware. + +MEN + +How may this ferocity be tamed? It grows too great to bear. +Let us question them and find if they'll perchance declare +The reason why they strangely dare +To seize on Cranaos' citadel, +This eyrie inaccessible, +This shrine above the precipice, +The Acropolis. +Probe them and find what they mean with this idle talk; listen, +but watch they don't try to deceive. +You'd be neglecting your duty most certainly if now this mystery +unplumbed you leave. + +MAGISTRATE + +Women there! Tell what I ask you, directly.... +Come, without rambling, I wish you to state +What's your rebellious intention in barring up thus on our noses +our own temple-gate. + +LYSISTRATA + +To take first the treasury out of your management, and so stop the war +through the absence of gold. + +MAGISTRATE + +Is gold then the cause of the war? + +LYSISTRATA + +Yes, gold caused it and miseries more, too many to be told. +'Twas for money, and money alone, that Pisander with all of the army of +mob-agitators. +Raised up revolutions. But, as for the future, it won't be worth while +to set up to be traitors. +Not an obol they'll get as their loot, not an obol! while we have the +treasure-chest in our command. + +MAGISTRATE + +What then is that you propose? + +LYSISTRATA + +Just this--merely to take the exchequer henceforth in hand. + +MAGISTRATE + +The exchequer! + +LYSISTRATA + +Yes, why not? Of our capabilities you have had various clear evidences. +Firstly remember we have always administered soundly the budget of all +home-expenses. + +MAGISTRATE + +But this matter's different. + +LYSISTRATA + +How is it different? + +MAGISTRATE + +Why, it deals chiefly with war-time supplies. + +LYSISTRATA + +But we abolish war straight by our policy. + +MAGISTRATE + +What will you do if emergencies arise? + +LYSISTRATA + +Face them our own way. + +MAGISTRATE + +What _you_ will? + +LYSISTRATA + +Yes _we_ will! + +MAGISTRATE + +Then there's no help for it; we're all destroyed. + +LYSISTRATA + +No, willy-nilly you must be safeguarded. + +MAGISTRATE + +What madness is this? + +LYSISTRATA + +Why, it seems you're annoyed. +It must be done, that's all. + +MAGISTRATE + +Such awful oppression never, +O never in the past yet I bore. + +LYSISTRATA + +You must be saved, sirrah--that's all there is to it. + +MAGISTRATE + +If we don't want to be saved? + +LYSISTRATA + +All the more. + +MAGISTRATE + +Why do you women come prying and meddling in matters of state touching +war-time and peace? + +LYSISTRATA + +That I will tell you. + +MAGISTRATE + +O tell me or quickly I'll-- + +LYSISTRATA + +Hearken awhile and from threatening cease. + +MAGISTRATE + +I cannot, I cannot; it's growing too insolent. + +WOMEN + +Come on; you've far more than we have to dread. + +MAGISTRATE + +Stop from your croaking, old carrion-crow there.... +Continue. + +LYSISTRATA + +Be calm then and I'll go ahead. +All the long years when the hopeless war dragged along we, unassuming, +forgotten in quiet, +Endured without question, endured in our loneliness all your incessant +child's antics and riot. +Our lips we kept tied, though aching with silence, though well all the +while in our silence we knew +How wretchedly everything still was progressing by listening dumbly the +day long to you. +For always at home you continued discussing the war and its politics +loudly, and we +Sometimes would ask you, our hearts deep with sorrowing though we spoke +lightly, though happy to see, +"What's to be inscribed on the side of the Treaty-stone +What, dear, was said in the Assembly today?" +"Mind your own business," he'd answer me growlingly +"hold your tongue, woman, or else go away." +And so I would hold it. + +WOMEN + +I'd not be silent for any man living on earth, no, not I! + +MAGISTRATE + +Not for a staff? + +LYSISTRATA + +Well, so I did nothing but sit in the house, feeling dreary, and sigh, +While ever arrived some fresh tale of decisions more foolish by far and +presaging disaster. +Then I would say to him, "O my dear husband, why still do they rush on +destruction the faster?" +At which he would look at me sideways, exclaiming, "Keep for your web +and your shuttle your care, +Or for some hours hence your cheeks will be sore and hot; leave this +alone, war is Man's sole affair!" + +MAGISTRATE + +By Zeus, but a man of fine sense, he. + +LYSISTRATA + +How sensible? +You dotard, because he at no time had lent +His intractable ears to absorb from our counsel one temperate word of +advice, kindly meant? +But when at the last in the streets we heard shouted (everywhere ringing +the ominous cry) +"Is there no one to help us, no saviour in Athens?" and, "No, there is +no one," come back in reply. +At once a convention of all wives through Hellas here for a serious +purpose was held, +To determine how husbands might yet back to wisdom despite their +reluctance in time be compelled. +Why then delay any longer? It's settled. For the future you'll take +up our old occupation. +Now in turn you're to hold tongue, as we did, and listen while we show +the way to recover the nation. + +MAGISTRATE + +_You_ talk to _us!_ Why, you're mad. I'll not stand it. + +LYSISTRATA + +Cease babbling, you fool; till I end, hold your tongue. + +MAGISTRATE + +If I should take orders from one who wears veils, may my +neck straightaway be deservedly wrung. + +LYSISTRATA + +O if that keeps pestering you, +I've a veil here for your hair, +I'll fit you out in everything +As is only fair. + +CALONICE + +Here's a spindle that will do. + +MYRRHINE + +I'll add a wool-basket too. + +LYSISTRATA + +Girdled now sit humbly at home, +Munching beans, while you card wool and comb. For war from now on +is the Women's affair. + +WOMEN. + +Come then, down pitchers, all, +And on, courageous of heart, +In our comradely venture +Each taking her due part. + +I could dance, dance, dance, and be fresher after, +I could dance away numberless suns, +To no weariness let my knees bend. +Earth I could brave with laughter, +Having such wonderful girls here to friend. +O the daring, the gracious, the beautiful ones! +Their courage unswerving and witty +Will rescue our city. + +O sprung from the seed of most valiant-wombed grand-mothers, +scions of savage and dangerous nettles! +Prepare for the battle, all. Gird up your angers. Our way +the wind of sweet victory settles. + +LYSISTRATA + +O tender Eros and Lady of Cyprus, some flush of beauty I +pray you devise +To flash on our bosoms and, O Aphrodite, rosily gleam on +our valorous thighs! +Joy will raise up its head through the legions warring and +all of the far-serried ranks of mad-love +Bristle the earth to the pillared horizon, pointing in vain to +the heavens above. +I think that perhaps then they'll give us our title-- +Peace-makers. + +MAGISTRATE + + What do you mean? Please explain. + +LYSISTRATA + + First, we'll not see you now flourishing arms about into the + Marketing-place clang again. + +WOMEN + No, by the Paphian. + +LYSISTRATA + +Still I can conjure them as past were the herbs stand or crockery's sold +Like Corybants jingling (poor sots) fully armoured, they noisily round +on their promenade strolled. + +MAGISTRATE + +And rightly; that's discipline, they-- + +LYSISTRATA + +But what's sillier than to go on an errand of buying a fish +Carrying along an immense. Gorgon-buckler instead the usual platter +or dish? +A phylarch I lately saw, mounted on horse-back, dressed for the part +with long ringlets and all, +Stow in his helmet the omelet bought steaming from an old woman who +kept a food-stall. +Nearby a soldier, a Thracian, was shaking wildly his spear like Tereus +in the play, +To frighten a fig-girl while unseen the ruffian filched from her +fruit-trays the ripest away. + +MAGISTRATE + +How, may I ask, will your rule re-establish order and justice in lands +so tormented? + +LYSISTRATA + +Nothing is easier. + +MAGISTRATE + +Out with it speedily--what is this plan that you boast you've invented? + +LYSISTRATA + +If, when yarn we are winding, It chances to tangle, then, as perchance you +may know, through the skein +This way and that still the spool we keep passing till it is finally clear +all again: +So to untangle the War and its errors, ambassadors out on all sides we will +send +This way and that, here, there and round about--soon you will find that the +War has an end. + +MAGISTRATE + +So with these trivial tricks of the household, domestic analogies of +threads, skeins and spools, +You think that you'll solve such a bitter complexity, unwind such political +problems, you fools! + +LYSISTRATA + +Well, first as we wash dirty wool so's to cleanse it, so with a pitiless +zeal we will scrub +Through the whole city for all greasy fellows; burrs too, the parasites, +off we will rub. +That verminous plague of insensate place-seekers soon between thumb and +forefinger we'll crack. +All who inside Athens' walls have their dwelling into one great common +basket we'll pack. +Disenfranchised or citizens, allies or aliens, pell-mell the lot of them +in we will squeeze. +Till they discover humanity's meaning.... As for disjointed and far +colonies, +Them you must never from this time imagine as scattered about just like +lost hanks of wool. +Each portion we'll take and wind in to this centre, inward to Athens +each loyalty pull, +Till from the vast heap where all's piled together at last can be woven +a strong Cloak of State. + +MAGISTRATE + +How terrible is it to stand here and watch them carding and winding at +will with our fate, +Witless in war as they are. + +LYSISTRATA + +What of us then, who ever in vain for our children must weep +Borne but to perish afar and in vain? + +MAGISTRATE + +Not that, O let that one memory sleep! + +LYSISTRATA + +Then while we should be companioned still merrily, happy as brides may, +the livelong night, +Kissing youth by, we are forced to lie single.... But leave for a moment +our pitiful plight, +It hurts even more to behold the poor maidens helpless wrinkling in +staler virginity. + +MAGISTRATE + +Does not a man age? + +LYSISTRATA + +Not in the same way. Not as a woman grows withered, grows he. +He, when returned from the war, though grey-headed, yet +if he wishes can choose out a wife. +But she has no solace save peering for omens, wretched and +lonely the rest of her life. + +MAGISTRATE + +But the old man will often select-- + +LYSISTRATA + +O why not finish and die? +A bier is easy to buy, +A honey-cake I'll knead you with joy, +This garland will see you are decked. + +CALONICE + +I've a wreath for you too. + +MYRRHINE + +I also will fillet you. + +LYSISTRATA + +What more is lacking? Step aboard the boat. +See, Charon shouts ahoy. +You're keeping him, he wants to shove afloat. + +MAGISTRATE + +Outrageous insults! Thus my place to flout! +Now to my fellow-magistrates I'll go +And what you've perpetrated on me show. + +LYSISTRATA + +Why are you blaming us for laying you out? +Assure yourself we'll not forget to make +The third day offering early for your sake. + +MAGISTRATE _retires_, LYSISTRATA _returns within_. + +OLD MEN. + +All men who call your loins your own, awake at last, arise +And strip to stand in readiness. For as it seems to me +Some more perilous offensive in their heads they now devise. +I'm sure a Tyranny +Like that of Hippias +In this I detect.... +They mean to put us under +Themselves I suspect, +And that Laconians assembling +At Cleisthenes' house have played +A trick-of-war and provoked them +Madly to raid +The Treasury, in which term I include +The Pay for my food. + +For is it not preposterous +They should talk this way to us +On a subject such as battle! + +And, women as they are, about bronze bucklers dare prattle-- +Make alliance with the Spartans--people I for one +Like very hungry wolves would always most sincere shun.... +Some dirty game is up their sleeve, +I believe. +A Tyranny, no doubt... but they won't catch me, that know. +Henceforth on my guard I'll go, +A sword with myrtle-branches wreathed for ever in my hand, +And under arms in the Public Place I'll take my watchful stand, +Shoulder to shoulder with Aristogeiton. Now my staff I'll draw +And start at once by knocking +that shocking +Hag upon the jaw. + +WOMEN. + +Your own mother will not know you when you get back to the town. +But first, my friends and allies, let us lay these garments down, +And all ye fellow-citizens, hark to me while I tell +What will aid Athens well. +Just as is right, for I +Have been a sharer +In all the lavish splendour +Of the proud city. +I bore the holy vessels +At seven, then +I pounded barley +At the age of ten, +And clad in yellow robes, +Soon after this, +I was Little Bear to +Brauronian Artemis; +Then neckletted with figs, +Grown tall and pretty, +I was a Basket-bearer, +And so it's obvious I should +Give you advice that I think good, +The very best I can. +It should not prejudice my voice that I'm not born a man, +If I say something advantageous to the present situation. +For I'm taxed too, and as a toll provide men for the nation +While, miserable greybeards, you, +It is true, +Contribute nothing of any importance whatever to our needs; +But the treasure raised against the Medes +You've squandered, and do nothing in return, save that you make +Our lives and persons hazardous by some imbecile mistakes +What can you answer? Now be careful, don't arouse my spite, +Or with my slipper I'll take you napping, +faces slapping +Left and right. + +MEN. + +What villainies they contrive! +Come, let vengeance fall, +You that below the waist are still alive, +Off with your tunics at my call-- +Naked, all. +For a man must strip to battle like a man. +No quaking, brave steps taking, careless what's ahead, white shoed, +in the nude, onward bold, +All ye who garrisoned Leipsidrion of old.... +Let each one wag +As youthfully as he can, +And if he has the cause at heart +Rise at least a span. + +We must take a stand and keep to it, +For if we yield the smallest bit +To their importunity. +Then nowhere from their inroads will be left to us immunity. +But they'll be building ships and soon their navies will attack us, +As Artemisia did, and seek to fight us and to sack us. +And if they mount, the Knights they'll rob +Of a job, +For everyone knows how talented they all are in the saddle, +Having long practised how to straddle; +No matter how they're jogged there up and down, they're never thrown. +Then think of Myron's painting, and each horse-backed Amazon +In combat hand-to-hand with men.... Come, on these women fall, +And in pierced wood-collars let's stick +quick +The necks of one and all. + +WOMEN. + +Don't cross me or I'll loose +The Beast that's kennelled here.... +And soon you will be howling for a truce, +Howling out with fear. +But my dear, +Strip also, that women may battle unhindered.... +But you, you'll be too sore to eat garlic more, or one black bean, +I really mean, so great's my spleen, to kick you black and blue +With these my dangerous legs. +I'll hatch the lot of you, +If my rage you dash on, +The way the relentless Beetle +Hatched the Eagle's eggs. + +Scornfully aside I set +Every silly old-man threat +While Lampito's with me. +Or dear Ismenia, the noble Theban girl. Then let decree +Be hotly piled upon decree; in vain will be your labours, +You futile rogue abominated by your suffering neighbour +To Hecate's feast I yesterday went-- +Off I sent +To our neighbours in Boeotia, asking as a gift to me +For them to pack immediately +That darling dainty thing ... a good fat eel [1] I meant of course; + +[Footnote 1:_Vide supra_, p. 23.] + +But they refused because some idiotic old decree's in force. +O this strange passion for decrees nothing on earth can check, +Till someone puts a foot out tripping you, +and slipping you +Break your neck. + +LYSISTRATA _enters in dismay_. + +WOMEN + +Dear Mistress of our martial enterprise, +Why do you come with sorrow in your eyes? + +LYSISTRATA + +O 'tis our naughty femininity, +So weak in one spot, that hath saddened me. + +WOMEN + +What's this? Please speak. + +LYSISTRATA + +Poor women, O so weak! + +WOMEN + +What can it be? Surely your friends may know. + +LYSISTRATA + +Yea, I must speak it though it hurt me so. + +WOMEN + +Speak; can we help? Don't stand there mute in need. + +LYSISTRATA + +I'll blurt it out then--our women's army's mutinied. + +WOMEN + +O Zeus! + +LYSISTRATA + +What use is Zeus to our anatomy? +Here is the gaping calamity I meant: +I cannot shut their ravenous appetites +A moment more now. They are all deserting. +The first I caught was sidling through the postern +Close by the Cave of Pan: the next hoisting herself +With rope and pulley down: a third on the point +Of slipping past: while a fourth malcontent, seated +For instant flight to visit Orsilochus +On bird-back, I dragged off by the hair in time.... +They are all snatching excuses to sneak home. +Look, there goes one.... Hey, what's the hurry? + +1ST WOMAN + +I must get home. I've some Milesian wool +Packed wasting away, and moths are pushing through it. + +LYSISTRATA + +Fine moths indeed, I know. Get back within. + +1ST WOMAN + +By the Goddesses, I'll return instantly. +I only want to stretch it on my bed. + +LYSISTRATA + +You shall stretch nothing and go nowhere either. + +1ST WOMAN + +Must I never use my wool then? + +LYSISTRATA + +If needs be. + +2ND WOMAN + +How unfortunate I am! O my poor flax! +It's left at home unstript. + +LYSISTRATA + +So here's another +That wishes to go home and strip her flax. +Inside again! + +2ND WOMAN + +No, by the Goddess of Light, +I'll be back as soon as I have flayed it properly. + +LYSISTRATA + +You'll not flay anything. For if you begin +There'll not be one here but has a patch to be flayed. + +3RD WOMAN + +O holy Eilithyia, stay this birth +Till I have left the precincts of the place! + +LYSISTRATA + +What nonsense is this? + +3RD WOMAN + +I'll drop it any minute. + +LYSISTRATA + +Yesterday you weren't with child. + +3RD WOMAN + +But I am today. +O let me find a midwife, Lysistrata. +O quickly! + +LYSISTRATA + +Now what story is this you tell? +What is this hard lump here? + +3RD WOMAN + +It's a male child. + +LYSISTRATA + +By Aphrodite, it isn't. Your belly's hollow, +And it has the feel of metal.... Well, I soon can see. +You hussy, it's Athene's sacred helm, +And you said you were with child. + +3RD WOMAN + +And so I am. + +LYSISTRATA + +Then why the helm? + +3RD WOMAN + +So if the throes should take me +Still in these grounds I could use it like a dove +As a laying-nest in which to drop the child. + +LYSISTRATA + +More pretexts! You can't hide your clear intent, +And anyway why not wait till the tenth day +Meditating a brazen name for your brass brat? + +WOMAN + +And I can't sleep a wink. My nerve is gone +Since I saw that snake-sentinel of the shrine. + +WOMAN + +And all those dreadful owls with their weird hooting! +Though I'm wearied out, I can't close an eye. + +LYSISTRATA + +You wicked women, cease from juggling lies. +You want your men. But what of them as well? +They toss as sleepless in the lonely night, +I'm sure of it. Hold out awhile, hold out, +But persevere a teeny-weeny longer. +An oracle has promised Victory +If we don't wrangle. Would you hear the words? + +WOMEN + +Yes, yes, what is it? + +LYSISTRATA + +Silence then, you chatterboxes. +Here-- +_Whenas the swallows flocking in one place from the hoopoes +Deny themselves love's gambols any more, +All woes shall then have ending and great Zeus the Thunderer +Shall put above what was below before._ + +WOMEN + +Will the men then always be kept under us? + +LYSISTRATA +_But if the swallows squabble among themselves and fly away +Out of the temple, refusing to agree, +Then The Most Wanton Birds in all the World +They shall be named for ever. That's his decree._ + +WOMAN + +It's obvious what it means. + +LYSISTRATA + + Now by all the gods +We must let no agony deter from duty, +Back to your quarters. For we are base indeed, +My friends, if we betray the oracle. + +_She goes out._ + + +OLD MEN. + +I'd like to remind you of a fable they used to employ, +When I was a little boy: +How once through fear of the marriage-bed a young man, +Melanion by name, to the wilderness ran, +And there on the hills he dwelt. +For hares he wove a net +Which with his dog he set-- +Most likely he's there yet. +For he never came back home, so great was the fear he felt. +I loathe the sex as much as he, +And therefore I no less shall be +As chaste as was Melanion. + +MAN + +Grann'am, do you much mind men? + +WOMAN + +Onions you won't need, to cry. + +MAN + +From my foot you shan't escape. + +WOMAN + +What thick forests I espy. + +MEN + +So much Myronides' fierce beard +And thundering black back were feared, +That the foe fled when they were shown-- +Brave he as Phormion. + +WOMEN. + +Well, I'll relate a rival fable just to show to you +A different point of view: +There was a rough-hewn fellow, Timon, with a face +That glowered as through a thorn-bush in a wild, bleak place. +He too decided on flight, +This very Furies' son, +All the world's ways to shun +And hide from everyone, +Spitting out curses on all knavish men to left and right. +But though he reared this hate for men, +He loved the women even then, +And never thought them enemies. + +WOMAN + +O your jaw I'd like to break. + +MAN + +That I fear do you suppose? + +WOMAN + +Learn what kicks my legs can make. + +MAN + +Raise them up, and you'll expose-- + +WOMAN + +Nay, you'll see there, I engage, +All is well kept despite my age, +And tended smooth enough to slip +From any adversary's grip. + +LYSISTRATA _appears_. + +LYSISTRATA + +Hollo there, hasten hither to me +Skip fast along. + +WOMAN + +What is this? Why the noise? + +LYSISTRATA + +A man, a man! I spy a frenzied man! +He carries Love upon him like a staff. +O Lady of Cyprus, and Cythera, and Paphos, +I beseech you, keep our minds and hands to the oath. + +WOMAN + +Where is he, whoever he is? + +LYSISTRATA + +By the Temple of Chloe. + +WOMAN + +Yes, now I see him, but who can he be? + +LYSISTRATA + +Look at him. Does anyone recognise his face? + +MYRRHINE + +I do. He is my husband, Cinesias. + +LYSISTRATA + +You know how to work. Play with him, lead him on, +Seduce him to the cozening-point--kiss him, kiss him, +Then slip your mouth aside just as he's sure of it, +Ungirdle every caress his mouth feels at +Save that the oath upon the bowl has locked. + +MYRRHINE + +You can rely on me. + +LYSISTRATA + +I'll stay here to help +In working up his ardor to its height +Of vain magnificence.... The rest to their quarters. + +_Enter_ CINESIAS. + +Who is this that stands within our lines? + +CINESIAS + +I. + +LYSISTRATA + +A man? + +CINESIAS + +Too much a man! + +LYSISTRATA + +Then be off at once. + +CINESIAS + +Who are you that thus eject me? + +LYSISTRATA + +Guard for the day. + +CINESIAS + +By all the gods, then call Myrrhine hither. + +LYSISTRATA + +So, call Myrrhine hither! Who are you? + +CINESIAS + +I am her husband Cinesias, son of Anthros. + +LYSISTRATA + +Welcome, dear friend! That glorious name of yours +Is quite familiar in our ranks. Your wife +Continually has it in her mouth. +She cannot touch an apple or an egg +But she must say, "This to Cinesias!" + +CINESIAS + +O is that true? + +LYSISTRATA + +By Aphrodite, it is. +If the conversation strikes on men, your wife +Cuts in with, "All are boobies by Cinesias." + +CINESIAS + +Then call her here. + +LYSISTRATA + +And what am I to get? + +CINESIAS + +This, if you want it.... See, what I have here. +But not to take away. + +LYSISTRATA + +Then I'll call her. + +CINESIAS + +Be quick, be quick. All grace is wiped from life +Since she went away. O sad, sad am I +When there I enter on that loneliness, +And wine is unvintaged of the sun's flavour. +And food is tasteless. But I've put on weight. + +MYRRHINE (_above_) + +I love him O so much! but he won't have it. +Don't call me down to him. + +CINESIAS + +Sweet little Myrrhine! +What do you mean? Come here. + +MYRRHINE + +O no I won't. +Why are you calling me? You don't want me. + +CINESIAS + +Not want you! with this week-old strength of love. + +MYRRHINE + +Farewell. + +CINESIAS + +Don't go, please don't go, Myrrhine. +At least you'll hear our child. Call your mother, lad. + +CHILD + +Mummy ... mummy ... mummy! + +CINESIAS + +There now, don't you feel pity for the child? +He's not been fed or washed now for six days. + +MYRRHINE + +I certainly pity him with so heartless a father. + +CINESIAS + +Come down, my sweetest, come for the child's sake. + +MYRRHINE + +A trying life it is to be a mother! +I suppose I'd better go. _She comes down._ + +CINESIAS + +How much younger she looks, +How fresher and how prettier! Myrrhine, +Lift up your lovely face, your disdainful face; +And your ankle ... let your scorn step out its worst; +It only rubs me to more ardor here. + +MYRRHINE (_playing with the child_) + +You're as innocent as he's iniquitous. +Let me kiss you, honey-petting, mother's darling. + +CINESIAS + +How wrong to follow other women's counsel +And let loose all these throbbing voids in yourself +As well as in me. Don't you go throb-throb? + +MYRRHINE + +Take away your hands. + +CINESIAS + +Everything in the house +Is being ruined. + +MYRRHINE + +I don't care at all. + +CINESIAS + +The roosters are picking all your web to rags. +Do you mind that? + +MYRRHINE + +Not I. + +CINESIAS + +What time we've wasted +We might have drenched with Paphian laughter, flung +On Aphrodite's Mysteries. O come here. + +MYRRHINE + +Not till a treaty finishes the war. + +CINESIAS + +If you must have it, then we'll get it done. + +MYRRHINE + +Do it and I'll come home. Till then I am bound. + +CINESIAS + +Well, can't your oath perhaps be got around? + +MYRRHINE + +No ... no ... still I'll not say that I don't love you. + +CINESIAS + +You love me! Then dear girl, let me also love you. + +MYRRHINE + +You must be joking. The boy's looking on. + +CINESIAS + +Here, Manes, take the child home!... There, he's gone. +There's nothing in the way now. Come to the point. + +MYRRHINE + +Here in the open! In plain sight? + +CINESIAS + +In Pan's cave. +A splendid place. + +MYRRHINE + +Where shall I dress my hair again +Before returning to the citadel? + +CINESIAS + +You can easily primp yourself in the Clepsydra. + +MYRRHINE + +But how can I break my oath? + +CINESIAS + +Leave that to me, +I'll take all risk. + +MYRRHINE + +Well, I'll make you comfortable. + +CINESIAS + +Don't worry. I'd as soon lie on the grass. + +MYRRHINE + +No, by Apollo, in spite of all your faults +I won't have you lying on the nasty earth. +(_From here MYRRHINE keeps on going off to fetch things._) + +CINESIAS + +Ah, how she loves me. + +MYRRHINE + +Rest there on the bench, +While I arrange my clothes. O what a nuisance, +I must find some cushions first. + +CINESIAS + +Why some cushions? +Please don't get them! + +MYRRHINE + +What? The plain, hard wood? +Never, by Artemis! That would be too vulgar. + +CINESIAS + +Open your arms! + +MYRRHINE + +No. Wait a second. + +CINESIAS + +O.... +Then hurry back again. + +MYRRHINE + +Here the cushions are. +Lie down while I--O dear! But what a shame, +You need more pillows. + +CINESIAS + +I don't want them, dear. + +MYRRHINE + +But I do. + +CINESIAS + +Thwarted affection mine, +They treat you just like Heracles at a feast +With cheats of dainties, O disappointing arms! + +MYRRHINE + +Raise up your head. + +CINESIAS + +There, that's everything at last. + +MYRRHINE + +Yes, all. + +CINESIAS + +Then run to my arms, you golden girl. + +MYRRHINE + +I'm loosening my girdle now. But you've not forgotten? +You're not deceiving me about the Treaty? + +CINESIAS + +No, by my life, I'm not. + +MYRRHINE + +Why, you've no blanket. + +CINESIAS + +It's not the silly blanket's warmth but yours I want. + +MYRRHINE + +Never mind. You'll soon have both. I'll come straight back. + +CINESIAS + +The woman will choke me with her coverlets. + +MYRRHINE + +Get up a moment. + +CINESIAS + +I'm up high enough. + +MYRRHINE + +Would you like me to perfume you? + +CINESIAS + +By Apollo, no! + +MYRRHINE + +By Aphrodite, I'll do it anyway. + +CINESIAS + +Lord Zeus, may she soon use up all the myrrh. + +MYRRHINE + +Stretch out your hand. Take it and rub it in. + +CINESIAS + +Hmm, it's not as fragrant as might be; that is, +Not before it's smeared. It doesn't smell of kisses. + +MYRRHINE + +How silly I am: I've brought you Rhodian scents. + +CINESIAS + +It's good enough, leave it, love. + +MYRRHINE + +You must be jesting. + +CINESIAS + +Plague rack the man who first compounded scent! + +MYRRHINE + +Here, take this flask. + +CINESIAS + +I've a far better one. +Don't tease me, come here, and get nothing more. + +MYRRHINE + +I'm coming.... I'm just drawing off my shoes.... +You're sure you will vote for Peace? + +CINESIAS + +I'll think about it. +_She runs off._ +I'm dead: the woman's worn me all away. +She's gone and left me with an anguished pulse. + +MEN + +Baulked in your amorous delight +How melancholy is your plight. +With sympathy your case I view; +For I am sure it's hard on you. +What human being could sustain +This unforeseen domestic strain, +And not a single trace +Of willing women in the place! + +CINESIAS + +O Zeus, what throbbing suffering! + +MEN + +She did it all, the harlot, she +With her atrocious harlotry. + +WOMEN + +Nay, rather call her darling-sweet. + +MEN + +What, sweet? She's a rude, wicked thing. + +CINESIAS + +A wicked thing, as I repeat. +O Zeus, O Zeus, +Canst Thou not suddenly let loose +Some twirling hurricane to tear +Her flapping up along the air +And drop her, when she's whirled around, +Here to the ground +Neatly impaled upon the stake +That's ready upright for her sake. +_He goes out._ + +_Enter_ SPARTAN HERALD. + +_The_ MAGISTRATE _comes forward_. + +HERALD + +What here gabs the Senate an' the Prytanes? +I've fetcht despatches for them. + +MAGISTRATE + +Are you a man +Or a monstrosity? + +HERALD + +My scrimp-brained lad, +I'm a herald, as ye see, who hae come frae Sparta +Anent a Peace. + +MAGISTRATE + +Then why do you hide that lance +That sticks out under your arms? + +HERALD. + +I've brought no lance. + +MAGISTRATE + +Then why do you turn aside and hold your cloak +So far out from your body? Is your groin swollen +With stress of travelling? + +HERALD + +By Castor, I'll swear +The man is wud. + +MAGISTRATE + +Indeed, your cloak is wide, +My rascal fellow. + +HERALD + +But I tell ye No! +Enow o' fleering! + +MAGISTRATE + +Well, what is it then? + +HERALD + +It's my despatch cane. + +MAGISTRATE + +Of course--a Spartan cane! +But speak right out. I know all this too well. +Are new privations springing up in Sparta? + +HERALD + +Och, hard as could be: in lofty lusty columns +Our allies stand united. We maun get Pellene. + +MAGISTRATE + +Whence has this evil come? Is it from Pan? + +HERALD + +No. Lampito first ran asklent, then the others +Sprinted after her example, and blocked, the hizzies, +Their wames unskaithed against our every fleech. + +MAGISTRATE + +What did you do? + +HERALD + +We are broken, and bent double, +Limp like men carrying lanthorns in great winds +About the city. They winna let us even +Wi' lightest neif skim their primsie pretties +Till we've concluded Peace-terms wi' a' Hellas. + +MAGISTRATE + +So the conspiracy is universal; +This proves it. Then return to Sparta. Bid them +Send envoys with full powers to treat of Peace; +And I will urge the Senate here to choose +Plenipotentiary ambassadors, +As argument adducing this connection. + +HERALD + +I'm off. Your wisdom none could contravert. +_They retire._ + +MEN + +There is no beast, no rush of fire, like woman so untamed. +She calmly goes her way where even panthers would be shamed. + +WOMEN + +And yet you are fool enough, it seems, to dare to war with me, +When for your faithful ally you might win me easily. + +MEN + +Never could the hate I feel for womankind grow less. + +WOMEN + +Then have your will. But I'll take pity on your nakedness. +For I can see just how ridiculous you look, and so +Will help you with your tunic if close up I now may go. + +MEN + +Well, that, by Zeus, is no scoundrel-deed, I frankly will admit. +I only took them off myself in a scoundrel raging-fit. + +WOMEN + +Now you look sensible, and that you're men no one could doubt. +If you were but good friends again, I'd take the insect out +That hurts your eye. + +MEN + +Is that what's wrong? That nasty bitie thing. +Please squeeze it out, and show me what it is that makes this sting. +It's been paining me a long while now. + +WOMEN + +Well I'll agree to that, +Although you're most unmannerly. O what a giant gnat. +Here, look! It comes from marshy Tricorysus, I can tell. + +MEN + +O thank you. It was digging out a veritable well. +Now that it's gone, I can't hold back my tears. See how they fall. + +WOMEN + +I'll wipe them off, bad as you are, and kiss you after all. + +MEN + +I won't be kissed. + +WOMEN + +O yes, you will. Your wishes do not matter. + +MEN + +O botheration take you all! How you cajole and flatter. +A hell it is to live with you; to live without, a hell: +How truly was that said. But come, these enmities let's quell. +You stop from giving orders and I'll stop from doing wrong. +So let's join ranks and seal our bargain with a choric song. + +CHORUS. + +Athenians, it's not our intention +To sow political dissension +By giving any scandal mention; +But on the contrary to promote good feeling in the state +By word and deed. We've had enough calamities of late. +So let a man or woman but divulge +They need a trifle, say, +Two minas, three or four, +I've purses here that bulge. +There's only one condition made +(Indulge my whim in this I pray)-- +When Peace is signed once more, +On no account am I to be repaid. + +And I'm making preparation +For a gay select collation +With some youths of reputation. +I've managed to produce some soup and they're slaughtering for me +A sucking-pig: its flesh should taste as tender as could be. +I shall expect you at my house today. +To the baths make an early visit, +And bring your children along; +Don't dawdle on the way. +Ask no one; enter as if the place +Was all your own--yours henceforth is it. +If nothing chances wrong, +The door will then be shut bang in your face. + +_The_ SPARTAN AMBASSADORS _approach_. + +CHORUS + +Here come the Spartan envoys with long, worried beards. +Hail, Spartans how do you fare? +Did anything new arise? + +SPARTANS + +No need for a clutter o' words. Do ye see our condition? + +CHORUS + +The situation swells to greater tension. +Something will explode soon. + +SPARTANS + +It's awfu' truly. +But come, let us wi' the best speed we may +Scribble a Peace. + +CHORUS + +I notice that our men +Like wrestlers poised for contest, hold their clothes +Out from their bellies. An athlete's malady! +Since exercise alone can bring relief. + +ATHENIANS + +Can anyone tell us where Lysistrata is? +There is no need to describe our men's condition, +It shows up plainly enough. + +CHORUS + +It's the same disease. +Do you feel a jerking throbbing in the morning? + +ATHENIANS + +By Zeus, yes! In these straits, I'm racked all through. +Unless Peace is soon declared, we shall be driven +In the void of women to try Cleisthenes. + +CHORUS + +Be wise and cover those things with your tunics. +Who knows what kind of person may perceive you? + +ATHENIANS + +By Zeus, you're right. + +SPARTANS + +By the Twa Goddesses, +Indeed ye are. Let's put our tunics on. + +ATHENIANS + +Hail O my fellow-sufferers, hail Spartans. + +SPARTANS + +O hinnie darling, what a waefu' thing! +If they had seen us wi' our lunging waddies! + +ATHENIANS + +Tell us then, Spartans, what has brought you here? + +SPARTANS + +We come to treat o' Peace. + +ATHENIANS + +Well spoken there! +And we the same. Let us callout Lysistrata +Since she alone can settle the Peace-terms. + +SPARTANS + +Callout Lysistratus too if ye don't mind. + +CHORUS + +No indeed. She hears your voices and she comes. + +_Enter LYSISTRATA_ + +Hail, Wonder of all women! Now you must be in turn +Hard, shifting, clear, deceitful, noble, crafty, sweet, and stern. +The foremost men of Hellas, smitten by your fascination, +Have brought their tangled quarrels here for your sole arbitration. + +LYSISTRATA + +An easy task if the love's raging home-sickness +Doesn't start trying out how well each other +Will serve instead of us. But I'll know at once +If they do. O where's that girl, Reconciliation? +Bring first before me the Spartan delegates, +And see you lift no rude or violent hands-- +None of the churlish ways our husbands used. +But lead them courteously, as women should. +And if they grudge fingers, guide them by other methods, +And introduce them with ready tact. The Athenians +Draw by whatever offers you a grip. +Now, Spartans, stay here facing me. Here you, +Athenians. Both hearken to my words. +I am a woman, but I'm not a fool. +And what of natural intelligence I own +Has been filled out with the remembered precepts +My father and the city-elders taught me. +First I reproach you both sides equally +That when at Pylae and Olympia, +At Pytho and the many other shrines +That I could name, you sprinkle from one cup +The altars common to all Hellenes, yet +You wrack Hellenic cities, bloody Hellas +With deaths of her own sons, while yonder clangs +The gathering menace of barbarians. + +ATHENIANS + +We cannot hold it in much longer now. + +LYSISTRATA + +Now unto you, O Spartans, do I speak. +Do you forget how your own countryman, +Pericleidas, once came hither suppliant +Before our altars, pale in his purple robes, +Praying for an army when in Messenia +Danger growled, and the Sea-god made earth quaver. +Then with four thousand hoplites Cimon marched +And saved all Sparta. Yet base ingrates now, +You are ravaging the soil of your preservers. + +ATHENIANS + +By Zeus, they do great wrong, Lysistrata. + +SPARTANS + +Great wrong, indeed. O! What a luscious wench! + +LYSISTRATA + +And now I turn to the Athenians. +Have you forgotten too how once the Spartans +In days when you wore slavish tunics, came +And with their spears broke a Thessalian host +And all the partisans of Hippias? +They alone stood by your shoulder on that day. +They freed you, so that for the slave's short skirt +You should wear the trailing cloak of liberty. + +SPARTANS + +I've never seen a nobler woman anywhere. + +ATHENIANS + +Nor I one with such prettily jointing hips. + +LYSISTRATA + +Now, brethren twined with mutual benefactions, +Can you still war, can you suffer such disgrace? +Why not be friends? What is there to prevent you? + +SPARTANS + +We're agreed, gin that we get this tempting Mole. + +LYSISTRATA + +Which one? + +SPARTANS + +That ane we've wanted to get into, +O for sae lang.... Pylos, of course. + +ATHENIANS + +By Poseidon, +Never! + +LYSISTRATA + +Give it up. + +ATHENIANS + +Then what will we do? +We need that ticklish place united to us-- + +LYSISTRATA + +Ask for some other lurking-hole in return. + +ATHENIANS + +Then, ah, we'll choose this snug thing here, Echinus, +Shall we call the nestling spot? And this backside haven, +These desirable twin promontories, the Maliac, +And then of course these Megarean Legs. + +SPARTANS + +Not that, O surely not that, never that. + +LYSISTRATA + +Agree! Now what are two legs more or less? + +ATHENIANS + +I want to strip at once and plough my land. + +SPARTANS + +And mine I want to fertilize at once. + +LYSISTRATA + +And so you can, when Peace is once declared. +If you mean it, get your allies' heads together +And come to some decision. + +ATHENIANS + +What allies? +There's no distinction in our politics: +We've risen as one man to this conclusion; +Every ally is jumping-mad to drive it home. + +SPARTANS + +And ours the same, for sure. + +ATHENIANS + +The Carystians first! +I'll bet on that. + +LYSISTRATA + +I agree with all of you. +Now off, and cleanse yourselves for the Acropolis, +For we invite you all in to a supper +From our commissariat baskets. There at table +You will pledge good behaviour and uprightness; +Then each man's wife is his to hustle home. + +ATHENIANS + +Come, as quickly as possible. + +SPARTANS + +As quick as ye like. +Lead on. + +ATHENIANS + +O Zeus, quick, quick, lead quickly on. +_They hurry off._ + +CHORUS. + +Broidered stuffs on high I'm heaping, +Fashionable cloaks and sweeping +Trains, not even gold gawds keeping. +Take them all, I pray you, take them all (I do not care) +And deck your children--your daughter, if the Basket she's to bear. +Come, everyone of you, come in and take +Of this rich hoard a share. +Nought's tied so skilfully +But you its seal can break +And plunder all you spy inside. +I've laid out all that I can spare, +And therefore you will see +Nothing unless than I you're sharper-eyed. +If lacking corn a man should be +While his slaves clamour hungrily +And his excessive progeny, +Then I've a handfull of grain at home which is always to be had, +And to which in fact a more-than-life-size loaf I'd gladly add. +Then let the poor bring with them bag or sack +And take this store of food. +Manes, my man, I'll tell +To help them all to pack +Their wallets full. But O take care. +I had forgotten; don't intrude, +Or terrified you'll yell. +My dog is hungry too, and bites--beware! + +Some _LOUNGERS_ from the Market with torches approach +the Banqueting hall. The _PORTER_ bars their entrance. + +1ST MARKET-LOUNGER + +Open the door. + +PORTER + +Here move along. + +1ST MARKET-LOUNGER + +What's this? +You're sitting down. Shall I singe you with my torch? +That's vulgar! O I couldn't do it ... yet +If it would gratify the audience, +I'll mortify myself. + +2ND MARKET-LOUNGER + +And I will too. +We'll both be crude and vulgar, yes we will. + +PORTER + +Be off at once now or you'll be wailing +Dirges for your hair. Get off at once, +And see you don't disturb the Spartan envoys +Just coming out from the splendid feast they've had. + +_The banqueters begin to come out._ + +1ST ATHENIAN + +I've never known such a pleasant banquet before, +And what delightful fellows the Spartans are. +When we are warm with wine, how wise we grow. + +2ND ATHENIAN + +That's only fair, since sober we're such fools: +This is the advice I'd give the Athenians-- +See our ambassadors are always drunk. +For when we visit Sparta sober, then +We're on the alert for trickery all the while +So that we miss half of the things they say, +And misinterpret things that were never said, +And then report the muddle back to Athens. +But now we're charmed with each other. They might cap +With the Telamon-catch instead of the Cleitagora, +And we'd applaud and praise them just the same; +We're not too scrupulous in weighing words. + +PORTER + +Why, here the rascals come again to plague me. +Won't you move on, you sorry loafers there! + +MARKET-LOUNGER + +Yes, by Zeus, they're already coming out. + +SPARTANS + +Now hinnie dearest, please tak' up your pipe +That I may try a spring an' sing my best +In honour o' the Athenians an' oursels. + +ATHENIANS + +Aye, take your pipe. By all the gods, there's nothing +Could glad my heart more than to watch you dance. + +SPARTANS. + +Mnemosyne, +Let thy fire storm these younkers, +O tongue wi' stormy ecstasy +My Muse that knows +Our deeds and theirs, how when at sea +Their navies swooped upon +The Medes at Artemision-- +Gods for their courage, did they strike +Wrenching a triumph frae their foes; +While at Thermopylae +Leonidas' army stood: wild-boars they were like +Wild-boars that wi' fierce threat +Their terrible tusks whet; +The sweat ran streaming down each twisted face, +Faen blossoming i' strange petals o' death +Panted frae mortal breath, +The sweat drenched a' their bodies i' that place, +For the hurly-burly o' Persians glittered more +Than the sands on the shore. + +Come, Hunting Girl, an' hear my prayer-- +You whose arrows whizz in woodlands, come an' bless +This Peace we swear. +Let us be fenced wi' age long amity, +O let this bond stick ever firm through thee +In friendly happiness. +Henceforth no guilefu' perjury be seen! +O hither, hither O +Thou wildwood queen. + +LYSISTRATA + +Earth is delighted now, peace is the voice of earth. +Spartans, sort out your wives: Athenians, yours. +Let each catch hands with his wife and dance his joy, +Dance out his thanks, be grateful in music, +And promise reformation with his heels. + +ATHENIANS. + +O Dancers, forward. Lead out the Graces, +Call Artemis out; +Then her brother, the Dancer of Skies, +That gracious Apollo. +Invoke with a shout +Dionysus out of whose eyes +Breaks fire on the maenads that follow; +And Zeus with his flares of quick lightning, and call, +Happy Hera, Queen of all, +And all the Daimons summon hither to be +Witnesses of our revelry +And of the noble Peace we have made, +Aphrodite our aid. +Io Paieon, Io, cry-- +For victory, leap! +Attained by me, leap! +Euoi Euoi Euai Euai. + +SPARTANS + +Piper, gie us the music for a new sang. + +SPARTANS. + +Leaving again lovely lofty Taygetus +Hither O Spartan Muse, hither to greet us, +And wi' our choric voice to raise +To Amyclean Apollo praise, +And Tyndareus' gallant sons whose days +Alang Eurotas' banks merrily pass, +An' Athene o' the House o' Brass. + +Now the dance begin; +Dance, making swirl your fringe o' woolly skin, +While we join voices +To hymn dear Sparta that rejoices +I' a beautifu' sang, +An' loves to see +Dancers tangled beautifully; +For the girls i' tumbled ranks +Alang Eurotas' banks +Like wanton fillies thrang, +Frolicking there +An' like Bacchantes shaking the wild air +To comb a giddy laughter through the hair, +Bacchantes that clench thyrsi as they sweep +To the ecstatic leap. + +An' Helen, Child o' Leda, come +Thou holy, nimble, gracefu' Queen, +Lead thou the dance, gather thy joyous tresses up i' bands +An' play like a fawn. To madden them, clap thy hands, +And sing praise to the warrior goddess templed i' our lands, +Her o' the House o' Brass. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lysistrata, by Aristophanes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LYSISTRATA *** + +***** This file should be named 7700.txt or 7700.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/7/0/7700/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, David Widger and the Distributed +Proofreaders Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/7700.zip b/7700.zip new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d727f6 Binary files /dev/null and b/7700.zip differ diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d25b9b --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #7700 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7700) diff --git a/old/alyss10.txt b/old/alyss10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bca1482 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/alyss10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3917 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lysistrata, by Aristophanes +#5 in our series by Aristophanes + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Lysistrata + +Author: Aristophanes + +Release Date: March, 2005 [EBook #7700] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 18, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LYSISTRATA *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin and the Distributed Processing Team. + + + + +LYSISTRATA + + +Translated from the Greek of + +ARISTOPHANES + +Illustrations by Norman Lindsay [to be added to the next edition] + + + +FOREWORD + +_Lysistrata_ is the greatest work by Aristophanes. This blank and rash +statement is made that it may be rejected. But first let it be +understood that I do not mean it is a better written work than the +_Birds_ or the _Frogs_, or that (to descend to the scale of values that +will be naturally imputed to me) it has any more appeal to the +collectors of "curious literature" than the _Ecclesiazusae_ or the +_Thesmophoriazusae_. On the mere grounds of taste I can see an at least +equally good case made out for the _Birds_. That brightly plumaged +fantasy has an aerial wit and colour all its own. But there are certain +works in which a man finds himself at an angle of vision where there is +an especially felicitous union of the aesthetic and emotional elements +which constitute the basic qualities of his uniqueness. We recognize +these works as being welded into a strange unity, as having a +homogeneous texture of ecstasy over them that surpasses any aesthetic +surface of harmonic colour, though that harmony also is understood by +the deeper welling of imagery from the core of creative exaltation. And +I think that this occurs in _Lysistrata_. The intellectual and spiritual +tendrils of the poem are more truly interwoven, the operation of their +centres more nearly unified; and so the work goes deeper into life. It +is his greatest play because of this, because it holds an intimate +perfume of femininity and gives the finest sense of the charm of a +cluster of girls, the sweet sense of their chatter, and the contact of +their bodies, that is to be found before Shakespeare, because that +mocking gaiety we call Aristophanies reaches here its most positive +acclamation of life, vitalizing sex with a deep delight, a rare +happiness of the spirit. + +Indeed it is precisely for these reasons that it is _not_ considered +Aristophanes' greatest play. + +To take a case which is sufficiently near to the point in question, to +make clear what I mean: the supremacy of _Antony and Cleopatra_ in the +Shakespearean aesthetic is yet jealously disputed, and it seems silly to +the academic to put it up against a work like _Hamlet_. But it is the +comparatively more obvious achievement of _Hamlet_, its surface +intellectuality, which made it the favourite of actors and critics. It +is much more difficult to realize the complex and delicately passionate +edge of the former play's rhythm, its tides of hugely wandering emotion, +the restless, proud, gay, and agonized reaction from life, of the blood, +of the mind, of the heart, which is its unity, than to follow the +relatively straightforward definition of Hamlet's nerves. Not that +anything derogatory to _Hamlet_ or the _Birds_ is intended; but the +value of such works is not enhanced by forcing them into contrast with +other works which cover deeper and wider nexus of aesthetic and +spiritual material. It is the very subtlety of the vitality of such +works as _Antony and Cleopatra_ and _Lysistrata_ that makes it so easy +to undervalue them, to see only a phallic play and political pamphlet in +one, only a chronicle play in a grandiose method in the other. For we +have to be in a highly sensitized condition before we can get to that +subtle point where life and the image mix, and so really perceive the +work at all; whereas we can command the response to a lesser work which +does not call so finely on the full breadth and depth of our spiritual +resources. + +I amuse myself at times with the fancy that Homer, Sappho, and +Aristophanes are the inviolable Trinity of poetry, even to the extent of +being reducible to One. For the fiery and lucid directness of Sappho, if +her note of personal lyricism is abstracted, is seen to be an element of +Homer, as is the profoundly balanced humour of Aristophanes, at once +tenderly human and cruelly hard, as of a god to whom all sympathies and +tolerances are known, but who is invulnerable somewhere, who sees from a +point in space where the pressure of earth's fear and pain, and so its +pity, is lifted. It is here that the Shakespearean and Homeric worlds +impinge and merge, not to be separated by any academic classifications. +They meet in this sensitivity equally involved and aloof, sympathetic +and arrogant, suffering and joyous; and in this relation we see +Aristophanes as the forerunner of Shakespeare, his only one. We see also +that the whole present aesthetic of earth is based in Homer. We live and +grow in the world of consciousness bequeathed to us by him; and if we +grow beyond it through deeper Shakespearean ardours, it is because those +beyond are rooted in the broad basis of the Homeric imagination. To +shift that basis is to find the marshes of primitive night and fear +alone beneath the feet: Christianity. + +And here we return to the question of the immorality of _Lysistrata_. +First we may inquire: is it possible for a man whose work has so +tremendous a significance in the spiritual development of mankind--and I +do not think anyone nowadays doubts that a work of art is the sole +stabilizing force that exists for life--is it possible for a man who +stands so grandly at head of an immense stream of liberating effort to +write an immoral work? Surely the only enduring moral virtue which can +be claimed is for that which moves to more power, beauty and delight in +the future? The plea that the question of changing customs arises is not +valid, for customs ratified by Aristophanes, by Rabelais, by +Shakespeare, have no right to change. If they have changed, let us try +immediately to return from our disgraceful refinements to the nobler and +more rarefied heights of lyric laughter, tragic intensity, and wit, for +we cannot have the first two without the last. And anyhow, how can a +social custom claim precedence over the undying material of the senses +and the emotions of man, over the very generating forces of life? + +How could the humanistic emotions, such as pity, justice, sympathy, +exist save as pacifistic quietings of the desire to slay, to hurt, to +torment. Where the desire to hurt is gone pity ceases to be a +significant, a central emotion. It must of course continue to exist, but +it is displaced in the spiritual hierarchy; and all that moves +courageously, desirously, and vitally into the action of life takes on a +deeper and subtler intention. Lust, then, which on the lower plane was +something to be very frightened of, becomes a symbol of the highest +spirituality. It is right for Paul to be terrified of sex and so to hate +it, because he has so freshly escaped a bestial condition of life that +it threatens to plunge him back if he listens to one whisper But it is +also right for a Shakespeare to suck every drop of desire from life, for +he is building into a higher condition, one se1f-willed, self- +responsible, the discipline of which comes from joy, not fear. + +Sex, therefore, is an animal function, one admits, one insists; it may +be only that. But also in the bewildering and humorous and tragic +duality of all life's energies, it is the bridge to every eternity which +is not merely a spectral condition of earth disembowelled of its lusts. +For sex holds the substance of the image. But we must remember with +Heine that Aristophanes is the God of this ironic earth, and that all +argument is apparently vitiated from the start by the simple fact that +Wagner and a rooster are given an analogous method of making love. And +therefore it seems impeccable logic to say that all that is most unlike +the rooster is the most spiritual part of love. All will agree on that, +schisms only arise when one tries to decide what does go farthest from +the bird's automatic mechanism. Certainly not a Dante-Beatrice affair +which is only the negation of the rooster in terms of the swooning +bombast of adolescence, the first onslaught of a force which the +sufferer cannot control or inhabit with all the potentialities of his +body and soul. But the rooster is troubled by no dreams of a divine +orgy, no carnival-loves like Beethoven's _Fourth Symphony_, no heroic +and shining lust gathering and swinging into a merry embrace like the +third act of _Siegfried_. It is desire in this sense that goes farthest +from the animal. + +Consciously, no one can achieve the act of love on earth as a completed +thing of grace, with whatever delirium of delight, with whatever +ingenious preciosity, we go through its process. Only as an image of +beauty mated in some strange hermaphroditic ecstasy is that possible. I +mean only as a dream projected into a hypothetical, a real heaven. But +on earth we cannot complete the cycle in consciousness that would give +us the freedom of an image in which two identities mysteriously realize +their separate unities by the absorption of a third thing, the +constructive rhythm of a work of art. It is thus that Tristan and Isolde +become wholly distinct individuals, yet wholly submerged in the unity +that is Wagner; and so reconcile life's duality by balancing its +opposing laughters in a definite form--thereby sending out into life a +profounder duality than existed before. A Platonic equipoise, +Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence--the only real philosophic problem, +therefore one of which these two philosophers alone are aware. + +But though Wagner with Mathilde Wesendonck in his arms was Tristan in +the arms of Isolde, he did not find a melody instead of a kiss on his +lips; he did not find a progression of harmonies melting through the +contours of a warm beauty with a blur of desperate ecstasies, semitones +of desire, he found only the anxious happiness of any other lover. +Nevertheless, he was gathering the substance of the second act of +_Tristan und Isolde_. And it is this that Plato means when he says that +fornication is something immortal in mortality. He does not mean that +the act itself is a godlike thing, a claim which any bedroom mirror +would quickly deride. He means that it is a symbol, an essential +condition, and a part of something that goes deeper into life than any +geometry of earth's absurd, passionate, futile, and very necessary +antics would suggest. + +It is a universal fallacy that because works like the comedies of +Aristophanes discuss certain social or ethical problems, they are +inspired by them. Aristophanes wrote to express his vision on life, his +delight in life itself seen behind the warping screen of contemporary +event; and for his purposes anything from Euripides to Cleon served as +ground work. Not that he would think in those terms, naturally: but the +rationalizing process that goes on in consciousness during the creation +of a work of art, for all its appearance of directing matters, is the +merest weathercock in the wind of the subconscious intention. As an +example of how utterly it is possible to misunderstand the springs of +inspiration in a poem, we may take the following remark of B. B. Rogers: +_It is much to be regretted that the phallus element should be so +conspicuous in this play.... (This) coarseness, so repulsive to +ourselves, was introduced, it is impossible to doubt, for the express +purpose of counter-balancing the extreme earnestness and gravity of the +play_. It seems so logical, so irrefutable; and so completely +misinterprets every creative force of Aristophanes' Psyche that it +certainly deserves a little admiration. It is in the best academic +tradition, and everyone respects a man for writing so mendaciously. The +effort of these castrators is always to show that the parts considered +offensive are not the natural expression of the poet, that they are +dictated externally. They argue that Shakespeare's coarseness is the +result of the age and not personal predilection, completely ignoring the +work of men like Sir Philip Sidney and Spenser, indeed practically all +the pre-Shakespearean writers, in whom none of this so-called grossness +exists. Shakespeare wrote sculduddery because he liked it, and for no +other reason; his sensuality is the measure of his vitality. These liars +pretend similarly that because Rabelais had a humanistic reason for much +of his work--the destructior Mediaevalism, and the Church, which purpose +they construe of course as an effort to purify, etc.--therefore he only +put the lewdery to make the rest palatable, when it should be obvious +even to an academic how he glories in his wild humour. + +What the academic cannot understand is that in such works, while +attacking certain conditions, the creative power of the vigorous spirits +is so great that it overflows and saturates the intellectual conception +with their own passionate sense of life. It is for this reason that +these works have an eternal significance. If Rabelais were merely a +social reformer, then the value of his work would not have outlived his +generation. If _Lysistrata_ were but a wise political tract, it would +have merely an historical interest, and it would have ceased spiritually +at 4O4 B.C. + +But Panurge is as fantastic and fascinating a character now as he was +3OO years ago, Lysistrata and her girls as freshly bodied as any girl +kissed to-day. Therefore the serious part of the play is that which +deals with them, the frivolous part that in which Rogers detects gravity +and earnestness. + +Aristophanes is the lord of all who take life as a gay adventure, who +defy all efforts to turn life into a social, economic, or moral +abstraction. Is it therefore just that the critics who, by some dark +instinct, unerringly pick out the exact opposite of any creator's real +virtues as his chief characteristics, should praise him as an idealistic +reformer? An "ideal" state of society was the last thing Aristophanes +desired. He wished, certainly, to eliminate inhumanities and baseness; +but only that there might be free play for laughter, for individual +happiness. + +Consequently the critics lay the emphasis on the effort to cleanse +society, not the method of laughter. Aristophanes wished to destroy +Cleon because that demagogue failed to realize the poet's conception of +dignified government and tended to upset the stability of Hellas. But it +was the stability of life, the vindication of all individual freedoms, +in which he was ultimately interested. + +JACK LINDSAY. + + + * * * * * + + +LYSISTRATA + +The Persons of the drama. + +LYSISTRATA +CALONICE +MYRRHINE +LAMPITO +Stratyllis, etc. +Chorus of Women. +MAGISTRATE +CINESIAS +SPARTAN HERALD +ENVOYS +ATHENIANS +Porter, Market Idlers, etc. +Chorus of old Men. + + +LYSISTRATA _stands alone with the Propylaea at her back._ + + +LYSISTRATA + +If they were trysting for a Bacchanal, +A feast of Pan or Colias or Genetyllis, +The tambourines would block the rowdy streets, +But now there's not a woman to be seen +Except--ah, yes--this neighbour of mine yonder. + +_Enter_ CALONICE. + +Good day Calonice. + +CALONICE + +Good day Lysistrata. +But what has vexed you so? Tell me, child. +What are these black looks for? It doesn't suit you +To knit your eyebrows up glumly like that. + +LYSISTRATA + +Calonice, it's more than I can bear, +I am hot all over with blushes for our sex. +Men say we're slippery rogues-- + +CALONICE + +And aren't they right? + +LYSISTRATA + +Yet summoned on the most tremendous business +For deliberation, still they snuggle in bed. + +CALONICE + +My dear, they'll come. It's hard for women, you know, +To get away. There's so much to do; +Husbands to be patted and put in good tempers: +Servants to be poked out: children washed +Or soothed with lullays or fed with mouthfuls of pap. + +LYSISTRATA + +But I tell you, here's a far more weighty object. + +CALONICE + +What is it all about, dear Lysistrata, +That you've called the women hither in a troop? +What kind of an object is it? + +LYSISTRATA + +A tremendous thing! + +CALONICE + +And long? + +LYSISTRATA + +Indeed, it may be very lengthy. + +CALONICE + +Then why aren't they here? + +LYSISTRATA + +No man's connected with it; +If that was the case, they'd soon come fluttering along. +No, no. It concerns an object I've felt over +And turned this way and that for sleepless nights. + +CALONICE + +It must be fine to stand such long attention. + +LYSISTRATA + +So fine it comes to this--Greece saved by Woman! + +CALONICE + +By Woman? Wretched thing, I'm sorry for it. + +LYSISTRATA + +Our country's fate is henceforth in our hands: +To destroy the Peloponnesians root and branch-- + +CALONICE + +What could be nobler! + +LYSISTRATA + +Wipe out the Boeotians-- + +CALONICE + +Not utterly. Have mercy on the eels! +[Footnote: The Boeotian eels were highly esteemed delicacies in Athens.] + +LYSISTRATA + +But with regard to Athens, note I'm careful +Not to say any of these nasty things; +Still, thought is free.... But if the women join us +From Peloponnesus and Boeotia, then +Hand in hand we'll rescue Greece. + +CALONICE + +How could we do +Such a big wise deed? We women who dwell +Quietly adorning ourselves in a back-room +With gowns of lucid gold and gawdy toilets +Of stately silk and dainty little slippers.... + +LYSISTRATA + +These are the very armaments of the rescue. +These crocus-gowns, this outlay of the best myrrh, +Slippers, cosmetics dusting beauty, and robes +With rippling creases of light. + +CALONICE + +Yes, but how? + +LYSISTRATA + +No man will lift a lance against another-- + +CALONICE + +I'll run to have my tunic dyed crocus. + +LYSISTRATA + +Or take a shield-- + +CALONICE + +I'll get a stately gown. + +LYSISTRATA + +Or unscabbard a sword-- + +CALONICE + +Let me buy a pair of slipper. + +LYSISTRATA + +Now, tell me, are the women right to lag? + +CALONICE + +They should have turned birds, they should have grown +wings and flown. + +LYSISTRATA + +My friend, you'll see that they are true Athenians: +Always too late. Why, there's not a woman +From the shoreward demes arrived, not one from Salamis. + +CALONICE + +I know for certain they awoke at dawn, +And got their husbands up if not their boat sails. + +LYSISTRATA + +And I'd have staked my life the Acharnian dames +Would be here first, yet they haven't come either! + +CALONICE + +Well anyhow there is Theagenes' wife +We can expect--she consulted Hecate. +But look, here are some at last, and more behind them. +See ... where are they from? + +CALONICE + +From Anagyra they come. + +LYSISTRATA + +Yes, they generally manage to come first. + +_Enter_ MYRRHINE. + +MYRRHINE + +Are we late, Lysistrata? ... What is that? +Nothing to say? + +LYSISTRATA + +I've not much to say for you, +Myrrhine, dawdling on so vast an affair. + +MYRRHINE + +I couldn't find my girdle in the dark. +But if the affair's so wonderfull, tell us, what is it? + +LYSISTRATA + +No, let us stay a little longer till +The Peloponnesian girls and the girls of Bocotia +Are here to listen. + +MYRRHINE + +That's the best advice. +Ah, there comes Lampito. + +_Enter_ LAMPITO. + +LYSISTRATA + +Welcome Lampito! +Dear Spartan girl with a delightful face, +Washed with the rosy spring, how fresh you look +In the easy stride of your sleek slenderness, +Why you could strangle a bull! + +LAMPITO + +I think I could. +It's frae exercise and kicking high behint. + +[Footnote: The translator has put the speech of the Spartan characters +in Scotch dialect which is related to English about as was the Spartan +dialect to the speech of Athens. The Spartans, in their character, +anticipated the shrewd, canny, uncouth Scotch highlander of modern +times.] + +LYSISTRATA + +What lovely breasts to own! + +LAMPITO + +Oo ... your fingers +Assess them, ye tickler, wi' such tender chucks +I feel as if I were an altar-victim. + +LYSISTRATA + +Who is this youngster? + +LAMPITO + +A Boeotian lady. + +LYSISTRATA + +There never was much undergrowth in Boeotia, +Such a smooth place, and this girl takes after it. + +CALONICE + +Yes, I never saw a skin so primly kept. + +LYSISTRATA + +This girl? + +LAMPITO + +A sonsie open-looking jinker! +She's a Corinthian. + +LYSISTRATA + +Yes, isn't she +Very open, in some ways particularly. + +LAMPITO + +But who's garred this Council o' Women to meet here? + +LYSISTRATA + +I have. + +LAMPITO + +Propound then what you want o' us. + +MYRRHINE + +What is the amazing news you have to tell? + +LYSISTRATA + +I'll tell you, but first answer one small question. + +MYRRHINE + +As you like. + +LYSISTRATA + +Are you not sad your children's fathers +Go endlessly off soldiering afar +In this plodding war? I am willing to wager +There's not one here whose husband is at home. + +CALONICE + +Mine's been in Thrace, keeping an eye on Eucrates +For five months past. + +MYRRHINE + +And mine left me for Pylos +Seven months ago at least. + +LAMPITO + +And as for mine +No sooner has he slipped out frae the line +He straps his shield and he's snickt off again. + +LYSISTRATA + +And not the slightest glitter of a lover! +And since the Milesians betrayed us, I've not seen +The image of a single upright man +To be a marble consolation to us. +Now will you help me, if I find a means +To stamp the war out. + +MYRRHINE + +By the two Goddesses, Yes! +I will though I've to pawn this very dress +And drink the barter-money the same day. + +CALONICE + +And I too though I'm split up like a turbot +And half is hackt off as the price of peace. + +LAMPITO + +And I too! Why, to get a peep at the shy thing +I'd clamber up to the tip-top o' Taygetus. + +LYSISTRATA + +Then I'll expose my mighty mystery. +O women, if we would compel the men +To bow to Peace, we must refrain-- + +MYRRHINE + +From what? +O tell us! + +LYSISTRATA + +Will you truly do it then? + +MYRRHINE + +We will, we will, if we must die for it. + +LYSISTRATA + +We must refrain from every depth of love.... +Why do you turn your backs? Where are you going? +Why do you bite your lips and shake your heads? +Why are your faces blanched? Why do you weep? +Will you or won't you, or what do you mean? + +MYRRHINE + +No, I won't do it. Let the war proceed. + +CALONICE + +No, I won't do it. Let the war proceed. + +LYSISTRATA + +You too, dear turbot, you that said just now +You didn't mind being split right up in the least? + +CALONICE + +Anything else? O bid me walk in fire +But do not rob us of that darling joy. +What else is like it, dearest Lysistrata? + +LYSISTRATA + +And you? + +MYRRHINE + +O please give me the fire instead. + +LYSISTRATA + +Lewd to the least drop in the tiniest vein, +Our sex is fitly food for Tragic Poets, +Our whole life's but a pile of kisses apd babies. +But, hardy Spartan, if you join with me +All may be righted yet. O help me, help me. + +LAMPITO + +It's a sair, sair thing to ask of us, by the Twa, +A lass to sleep her lane and never fill +Love's lack except wi' makeshifts.... But let it be. +Peace maun be thought of first. + +LYSISTRATA + +My friend, my friend! +The only one amid this herd of weaklings. + +CALONICE + +But if--which heaven forbid--we should refrain +As you would have us, how is Peace induced? + +LYSISTRATA + +By the two Goddesses, now can't you see +All we have to do is idly sit indoors +With smooth roses powdered on our cheeks, +Our bodies burning naked through the folds +Of shining Amorgos' silk, and meet the men +With our dear Venus-plats plucked trim and neat. +Their stirring love will rise up furiously, +They'll beg our arms to open. That's our time! +We'll disregard their knocking, beat them off-- +And they will soon be rabid for a Peace. +I'm sure of it. + +LAMPITO + + Just as Menelaus, they say, +Seeing the bosom of his naked Helen +Flang down the sword. + +CALONICE + + But we'll be tearful fools +If our husbands take us at our word and leave us. + +LYSISTRATA + +There's only left then, in Pherecrates' phrase, +_To flay a skinned dog_--flay more our flayed desires. + +CALONICE + +Bah, proverbs will never warm a celibate. +But what avail will your scheme be if the men +Drag us for all our kicking on to the couch? + +LYSISTRATA + +Cling to the doorposts. + +CALONICE + + But if they should force us? + +LYSISTRATA + +Yield then, but with a sluggish, cold indifference. +There is no joy to them in sullen mating. +Besides we have other ways to madden them; +They cannot stand up long, and they've no delight +Unless we fit their aim with merry succour. + +CALONICE + +Well if you must have it so, we'll all agree. + +LAMPITO + +For us I ha' no doubt. We can persuade +Our men to strike a fair an' decent Peace, +But how will ye pitch out the battle-frenzy +O' the Athenian populace? + +LYSISTRATA + +I promise you +We'll wither up that curse. + +LAMPITO + +I don't believe it. +Not while they own ane trireme oared an' rigged, +Or a' those stacks an' stacks an' stacks O' siller. + +LYSISTRATA + +I've thought the whole thing out till there's no flaw. +We shall surprise the Acropolis today: +That is the duty set the older dames. +While we sit here talking, they are to go +And under pretence of sacrificing, seize it. + +LAMPITO + +Certie, that's fine; all's warking for the best. + +LYSISTRATA + +Now quickly, Lampito, let us tie ourselves +To this high purpose as tightly as the hemp of words +Can knot together. + +LAMPITO + +Set out the terms in detail +And we'll a' swear to them. + +LYSISTRATA + +Of course.... Well then +Where is our Scythianess? Why are you staring? +First lay the shield, boss downward, on the floor +And bring the victim's inwards. + +CAILONICE + +But, Lysistrata, +What is this oath that we're to swear? + +LYSISTRATA + +What oath! +In Aeschylus they take a slaughtered sheep +And swear upon a buckler. Why not we? + +CALONICE + +O Lysistrata, Peace sworn on a buckler! + +LYSISTRATA + +What oath would suit us then? + +CALONICE + +Something burden bearing +Would be our best insignia.... A white horse! +Let's swear upon its entrails. + +LYSISTRATA + +A horse indeed! + +CALONICE + +Then what will symbolise us? + +LYSISTRATA + +This, as I tell you-- +First set a great dark bowl upon the ground +And disembowel a skin of Thasian wine, +Then swear that we'll not add a drop of water. + +LAMPITO + Ah, what aith could clink pleasanter than that! + +LYSISTRATA + Bring me a bowl then and a skin of wine. + +CALONICE + My dears, see what a splendid bowl it is; + I'd not say No if asked to sip it off. + +LYSISTRATA + Put down the bowl. Lay hands, all, on the victim. + Skiey Queen who givest the last word in arguments, + And thee, O Bowl, dear comrade, we beseech: + Accept our oblation and be propitious to us. + +CALONICE + What healthy blood, la, how it gushes out! + +LAMPITO + An' what a leesome fragrance through the air. + +LYSISTRATA + Now, dears, if you will let me, I'll speak first. + +CALONICE + Only if you draw the lot, by Aphrodite! + +LYSISTRATA + SO, grasp the brim, you, Lampito, and all. + You, Calonice, repeat for the rest + Each word I say. Then you must all take oath + And pledge your arms to the same stern conditions-- + +LYSISTRATA + To husband or lover I'll not open arms + +CALONICE + +_To husband or lover I'll not open arms_ + +LYSISTRATA + +Though love and denial may enlarge his charms. + +CALONICE + +_Though love and denial may enlarge his charms._ +O, O, my knees are failing me, Lysistrata! + +LYSISTRATA + +But still at home, ignoring him, I'll stay, + +CALONICE + +_But still at home, ignoring him, I'll stay,_ + +LYSISTRATA + +Beautiful, clad in saffron silks all day. + +CALONICE + +_Beautiful, clad in saffron silks all day._ + +LYSISTRATA + +If then he seizes me by dint of force, + +CALONICE + +_If then he seizes me by dint of force,_ + +LYSISTRATA + +I'll give him reason for a long remorse. + +CALONICE + +_I'll give him reason for a long remorse._ + +LYSISTRATA + +I'll never lie and stare up at the ceiling, + +CALONICE + +_I'll never lie and stare up at the ceiling,_ + +LYSISTRATA + +Nor like a lion on all fours go kneeling. + +CALONICE + +_Nor like a lion on all fours go kneeling._ + +LYSISTRATA + +If I keep faith, then bounteous cups be mine. + +CALONICE + +_If I keep faith, then bounteous cups be mine._ + +LYSISTRATA + +If not, to nauseous water change this wine. + +CALONICE + _If not, to nauseous water change this wine._ + +LYSISTRATA + +Do you all swear to this? + +MYRRHINE + +We do, we do. + +LYSISTRATA + +Then I shall immolate the victim thus. +_She drinks._ + +CALONICE + +Here now, share fair, haven't we made a pact? +Let's all quaff down that friendship in our turn. + +LAMPITO + +Hark, what caterwauling hubbub's that? + +LYSISTRATA + +As I told you, +The women have appropriated the citadel. +So, Lampito, dash off to your own land +And raise the rebels there. These will serve as hostages, +While we ourselves take our places in the ranks +And drive the bolts right home. + +CALONICE + +But won't the men +March straight against us? + +LYSISTRATA + +And what if they do? +No threat shall creak our hinges wide, no torch +Shall light a fear in us; we will come out +To Peace alone. + +CALONICE + +That's it, by Aphrodite! +As of old let us seem hard and obdurate. + +LAMPITO _and some go off; the others go up into the Acropolis._ + +_Chorus of_ OLD MEN _enter to attack the captured Acropolis_. + +Make room, Draces, move ahead; why your shoulder's chafed, I see, +With lugging uphill these lopped branches of the olive-tree. +How upside-down and wrong-way-round a long life sees things grow. +Ah, Strymodorus, who'd have thought affairs could tangle so? + +The women whom at home we fed, +Like witless fools, with fostering bread, +Have impiously come to this-- +They've stolen the Acropolis, +With bolts and bars our orders flout +And shut us out. + +Come, Philurgus, bustle thither; lay our faggots on the ground, +In neat stacks beleaguering the insurgents all around; +And the vile conspiratresses, plotters of such mischief dire, +Pile and burn them all together in one vast and righteous pyre: +Fling with our own hands Lycon's wife to fry in the thickest fire. +By Demeter, they'll get no brag while I've a vein to beat! +Cleomenes himself was hurtled out in sore defeat. +His stiff-backed Spartan pride was bent. +Out, stripped of all his arms, he went: +A pigmy cloak that would not stretch +To hide his rump (the draggled wretch), +Six sprouting years of beard, the spilth +Of six years' filth. + +That was a siege! Our men were ranged in lines of seventeen deep +Before the gates, and never left their posts there, even to sleep. +Shall I not smite the rash presumption then of foes like these, +Detested both of all the gods and of Euripides-- +Else, may the Marathon-plain not boast my trophied victories! + +Ah, now, there's but a little space +To reach the place! +A deadly climb it is, a tricky road +With all this bumping load: +A pack-ass soon would tire.... +How these logs bruise my shoulders! further still +Jog up the hill, +And puff the fire inside, +Or just as we reach the top we'll find it's died. +Ough, phew! +I choke with the smoke. + +Lord Heracles, how acrid-hot +Out of the pot +This mad-dog smoke leaps, worrying me +And biting angrily.... +'Tis Lemnian fire that smokes, +Or else it would not sting my eyelids thus.... +Haste, all of us; +Athene invokes our aid. +Laches, now or never the assault must be made! +Ough, phew! +I choke with the smoke. .. + +Thanked be the gods! The fire peeps up and crackles as it should. +Now why not first slide off our backs these weary loads of wood +And dip a vine-branch in the brazier till it glows, then straight +Hurl it at the battering-ram against the stubborn gate? +If they refuse to draw the bolts in immediate compliance, +We'll set fire to the wood, and smoke will strangle their defiance. + +Phew, what a spluttering drench of smoke! Come, now from off my back.... +Is there no Samos-general to help me to unpack? +Ah there, that's over! For the last time now it's galled my shoulder. +Flare up thine embers, brazier, and dutifully smoulder, +To kindle a brand, that I the first may strike the citadel. +Aid me, Lady Victory, that a triumph-trophy may tell +How we did anciently this insane audacity quell! + +_Chorus of_ WOMEN. + +What's that rising yonder? That ruddy glare, that smoky skurry? +O is it something in a blaze? Quick, quick, my comrades, hurry! +Nicodice, helter-skelter! +Or poor Calyce's in flames +And Cratylla's stifled in the welter. +O these dreadful old men +And their dark laws of hate! +There, I'm all of a tremble lest I turn out to be too late. +I could scarcely get near to the spring though I rose before dawn, +What with tattling of tongues and rattling of pitchers in one jostling din +With slaves pushing in!.... + +Still here at last the water's drawn +And with it eagerly I run +To help those of my friends who stand +In danger of being burned alive. +For I am told a dribbling band +Of greybeards hobble to the field, +Great faggots in each palsied hand, +As if a hot bath to prepare, +And threatening that out they'll drive +These wicked women or soon leave them charring into ashes +there. +O Goddess, suffer not, I pray, this harsh deed to be done, +But show us Greece and Athens with their warlike acts repealed! +For this alone, in this thy hold, +Thou Goddess with the helm of gold, +We laid hands on thy sanctuary, +Athene.... Then our ally be +And where they cast their fires of slaughter +Direct our water! + +STRATYLLIS (_caught_) + +Let me go! + +WOMEN + +You villainous old men, what's this you do? +No honest man, no pious man, could do such things as you. + +MEN + +Ah ha, here's something most original, I have no doubt: +A swarm of women sentinels to man the walls without. + +WOMEN + +So then we scare you, do we? Do we seem a fearful host? +You only see the smallest fraction mustered at this post. + +MEN + +Ho, Phaedrias, shall we put a stop to all these chattering tricks? +Suppose that now upon their backs we splintered these our sticks? + +WOMEN + +Let us lay down the pitchers, so our bodies will be free, + In case these lumping fellows try to cause some injury. + +MEN + +O hit them hard and hit again and hit until they run away, +And perhaps they'll learn, like Bupalus, not to have too much to say. + +WOMEN + +Come on, then--do it! I won't budge, but like a dog I'll bite +At every little scrap of meat that dangles in my sight. + +MEN + +Be quiet, or I'll bash you out of any years to come. + +WOMEN + +Now you just touch Stratyllis with the top-joint of your thumb. + +MEN + +What vengeance can you take if with my fists your face I beat? + +WOMEN + +I'll rip you with my teeth and strew your entrails at your feet. + +MEN + +Now I appreciate Euripides' strange subtlety: +Woman is the most shameless beast of all the beasts that be. + +WOMEN + +Rhodippe, come, and let's pick up our water-jars once more. + +MEN + +Ah cursed drab, what have you brought this water for? + +WOMEN + +What is your fire for then, you smelly corpse? Yourself to burn? + +MEN + +To build a pyre and make your comrades ready for the urn. + +WOMEN + +And I've the water to put out your fire immediately. + +MEN + +What, you put out my fire? + +WOMEN + +Yes, sirrah, as you soon will see. + +MEN + +I don't know why I hesitate to roast you with this flame. + +WOMEN + +If you have any soap you'll go off cleaner than you came. + +MEN + +Cleaner, you dirty slut? + +WOMEN + +A nuptial-bath in which to lie! + +MEN + +Did you hear that insolence? + +WOMEN + +I'm a free woman, I. + +MEN + +I'll make you hold your tongue. + +WOMEN + +Henceforth you'll serve in no more juries. + +MEN + +Burn off her hair for her. + +WOMEN + +Now forward, water, quench their furies! + +MEN + +O dear, O dear! + +WOMEN + +So ... was it hot? + +MEN + +Hot! ... Enough, O hold. + +WOMEN + +Watered, perhaps you'll bloom again--why not? + +MEN + +Brrr, I'm wrinkled up from shivering with cold. + +WOMEN + +Next time you've fire you'll warm yourself and leave us to our lot. + +MAGISTRATE _enters with attendant_ SCYTHIANS. + +MAGISTRATE + +Have the luxurious rites of the women glittered +Their libertine show, their drumming tapped out crowds, +The Sabazian Mysteries summoned their mob, +Adonis been wept to death on the terraces, +As I could hear the last day in the Assembly? +For Demostratus--let bad luck befoul him-- +Was roaring, "We must sail for Sicily," +While a woman, throwing herself about in a dance +Lopsided with drink, was shrilling out "Adonis, +Woe for Adonis." Then Demostratus shouted, +"We must levy hoplites at Zacynthus," +And there the woman, up to the ears in wine, +Was screaming "Weep for Adonis" on the house-top, +The scoundrelly politician, that lunatic ox, +Bellowing bad advice through tipsy shrieks: +Such are the follies wantoning in them. + +MEN + +O if you knew their full effronery! +All of the insults they've done, besides sousing us +With water from their pots to our public disgrace +For we stand here wringing our clothes like grown-up infants. + +MAGISTRATE + +By Poseidon, justly done! For in part with us +The blame must lie for dissolute behaviour +And for the pampered appetites they learn. +Thus grows the seedling lust to blossoming: +We go into a shop and say, "Here, goldsmith, +You remember the necklace that you wrought my wife; +Well, the other night in fervour of a dance +Her clasp broke open. Now I'm off for Salamis; +If you've the leisure, would you go tonight +And stick a bolt-pin into her opened clasp." +Another goes to a cobbler; a soldierly fellow, +Always standing up erect, and says to him, +"Cobbler, a sandal-strap of my wife's pinches her, +Hurts her little toe in a place where she's sensitive. +Come at noon and see if you can stretch out wider +This thing that troubles her, loosen its tightness." +And so you view the result. Observe my case-- +I, a magistrate, come here to draw +Money to buy oar-blades, and what happens? +The women slam the door full in my face. +But standing still's no use. Bring me a crowbar, +And I'll chastise this their impertinence. +What do you gape at, wretch, with dazzled eyes? +Peering for a tavern, I suppose. +Come, force the gates with crowbars, prise them apart! +I'll prise away myself too.... (LYSISTRATA _appears._) + +LYSISTRATA + +Stop this banging. +I'm coming of my own accord.... Why bars? +It is not bars we need but common sense. + +MAGISTRATE + +Indeed, you slut! Where is the archer now? +Arrest this woman, tie her hands behind. + +LYSISTRATA + +If he brushes me with a finger, by Artemis, +The public menial, he'll be sorry for it. + +MAGISTRATE + +Are you afraid? Grab her about the middle. +Two of you then, lay hands on her and end it. + +CALONICE + +By Pandrosos I if your hand touches her +I'll spread you out and trample on your guts. + +MAGISTRATE + +My guts! Where is the other archer gone? +Bind that minx there who talks so prettily. + +MYRRHINE + +By Phosphor, if your hand moves out her way +You'd better have a surgeon somewhere handy. + +MAGISTRATE + +You too! Where is that archer? Take that woman. +I'll put a stop to these surprise-parties. + +STRATYLLIS + +By the Tauric Artemis, one inch nearer +My fingers, and it's a bald man that'll be yelling. + +MAGISTRATE + +Tut tut, what's here? Deserted by my archers.... +But surely women never can defeat us; +Close up your ranks, my Scythians. Forward at them. + +LYSISTRATA + +By the Goddesses, you'll find that here await you +Four companies of most pugnacious women +Armed cap-a-pie from the topmost louring curl +To the lowest angry dimple. + +MAGISTRATE + +On, Scythians, bind them. + +LYSISTRATA + +On, gallant allies of our high design, +Vendors of grain-eggs-pulse-and-vegetables, +Ye garlic-tavern-keepers of bakeries, +Strike, batter, knock, hit, slap, and scratch our foes, +Be finely imprudent, say what you think of them.... +Enough! retire and do not rob the dead. + +MAGISTRATE + +How basely did my archer-force come off. + +LYSISTRATA + +Ah, ha, you thought it was a herd of slaves +You had to tackle, and you didn't guess +The thirst for glory ardent in our blood. + +MAGISTRATE + +By Apollo, I know well the thirst that heats you-- +Especially when a wine-skin's close. + +MEN + +You waste your breath, dear magistrate, I fear, in answering back. +What's the good of argument with such a rampageous pack? +Remember how they washed us down (these very clothes I wore) +With water that looked nasty and that smelt so even more. + +WOMEN + +What else to do, since you advanced too dangerously nigh. +If you should do the same again, I'll punch you in the eye. +Though I'm a stay-at-home and most a quiet life enjoy, +Polite to all and every (for I'm naturally coy), +Still if you wake a wasps' nest then of wasps you must beware. + +MEN + +How may this ferocity be tamed? It grows too great to bear. +Let us question them and find if they'll perchance declare +The reason why they strangely dare +To seize on Cranaos' citadel, +This eyrie inaccessible, +This shrine above the precipice, +The Acropolis. +Probe them and find what they mean with this idle talk; listen, +but watch they don't try to deceive. +You'd be neglecting your duty most certainly if now this mystery +unplumbed you leave. + +MAGISTRATE + +Women there! Tell what I ask you, directly.... +Come, without rambling, I wish you to state +What's your rebellious intention in barring up thus on our noses +our own temple-gate. + +LYSISTRATA + +To take first the treasury out of your management, and so stop the war +through the absence of gold. + +MAGISTRATE + +Is gold then the cause of the war? + +LYSISTRATA + +Yes, gold caused it and miseries more, too many to be told. +'Twas for money, and money alone, that Pisander with all of the army of +mob-agitators. +Raised up revolutions. But, as for the future, it won't be worth while +to set up to be traitors. +Not an obol they'll get as their loot, not an obol! while we have the +treasure-chest in our command. + +MAGISTRATE + +What then is that you propose? + +LYSISTRATA + +Just this--merely to take the exchequer henceforth in hand. + +MAGISTRATE + +The exchequer! + +LYSISTRATA + +Yes, why not? Of our capabilities you have had various clear evidences. +Firstly remember we have always administered soundly the budget of all +home-expenses. + +MAGISTRATE + +But this matter's different. + +LYSISTRATA + +How is it different? + +MAGISTRATE + +Why, it deals chiefly with war-time supplies. + +LYSISTRATA + +But we abolish war straight by our policy. + +MAGISTRATE + +What will you do if emergencies arise? + +LYSISTRATA + +Face them our own way. + +MAGISTRATE + +What _you_ will? + +LYSISTRATA + +Yes _we_ will! + +MAGISTRATE + +Then there's no help for it; we're all destoryed. + +LYSISTRATA + +No, willy-nilly you must be safeguarded. + +MAGISTRATE + +What madness is this? + +LYSISTRATA + +Why, it seems you're annoyed. +It must be done, that's all. + +MAGISTRATE + +Such awful oppression never, +O never in the past yet I bore. + +LYSISTRATA + +You must be saved, sirrah--that's all there is to it. + +MAGISTRATE + +If we don't want to be saved? + +LYSISTRATA + +All the more. + +MAGISTRATE + +Why do you women come prying and meddling in matters of state touching +war-time and peace? + +LYSISTRATA + +That I will tell you. + +MAGISTRATE + +O tell me or quickly I'll-- + +LYSISTRATA + +Hearken awhile and from threatening cease. + +MAGISTRATE + +I cannot, I cannot; it's growing too insolent. + +WOMEN + +Come on; you've far more than we have to dread. + +MAGISTRATE + +Stop from your croaking, old carrion-crow there.... +Continue + +LYSISTRATA + +Be calm then and I'll go ahead. +All the long years when the hopeless war dragged along we, unassuming, +forgotten in quiet, +Endured without question, endured in our loneliness all your incessant +child's antics and riot. +Our lips we kept tied, though aching with silence, though well all the +while in our silence we knew +How wretchedly everything still was progressing by listening dumbly the +day long to you. +For always at home you continued discussing the war and its politics +loudly, and we +Sometimes would ask you, our hearts deep with sorrowing though we spoke +lightly, though happy to see, +"What's to be inscribed on the side of the Treaty-stone +What, dear, was said in the Assembly today?" +"Mind your own business," he'd answer me growlingly +"hold your tongue, woman, or else go away." +And so I would hold it. + +WOMEN + +I'd not be silent for any man living on earth, no, not I! + +MAGISTRATE + +Not for a staff? + +LYSISTRATA + +Well, so I did nothing but sit in the house, feeling dreary, and sigh, +While ever arrived some fresh tale of decisions more foolish by far and +presaging disaster. +Then I would say to him, "O my dear husband, why still do they rush on +destructlon the faster?" +At which he would look at me sideways, exclaiming, "Keep for your web +and your shuttle your care, +Or for some hours hence your cheeks will be sore and hot; leave this +alone, war is Man's sole affair!" + +MAGISTRATE + +By Zeus, but a man of fine sense, he. + +LYSISTRATA + +How sensible? +You dotard, because he at no time had lent +His intractible ears to absorb from our counsel one temperate word of +advice, kindly meant? +But when at the last in the streets we heard shouted (everywhere ringing +the ominous cry) +"Is there no one to help us, no saviour in Athens?" and, "No, there is +no one," come back in reply. +At once a convention of all wives through Hellas here for a serious +purpose was held, +To determine how husbands might yet back to wisdom despite their +reluctance in time be compelled. +Why then delay any longer? It's settled. For the future you'll take +up our old occupation. +Now in turn you're to hold tongue, as we did, and listen while we show +the way to recover the nation. + +MAGISTRATE + +_You_ talk to _us!_ Why, you're mad. I'll not stand it. + +LYSISTRATA + +Cease babbling, you fool; till I end, hold your tongue. + +MAGISTRATE + +If I should take orders from one who wears veils, may my +neck straightaway be deservedly wrung. + +LYSISTRATA + +O if that keeps pestering you, +I've a veil here for your hair, +I'll fit you out in everything +As is only fair. + +CALONICE + +Here's a spindle that will do. + +MYRRHINE + +I'll add a wool-basket too. + +LYSISTRATA + +Girdled now sit humbly at home, +Munching beans, while you card wool and comb. For war from now on +is the Women's affair. + +WOMEN. + +Come then, down pitchers, all, +And on, courageous of heart, +In our comradely venture +Each taking her due part. + +I could dance, dance, dance, and be fresher after, +I could dance away numberless suns, +To no weariness let my knees bend. +Earth I could brave with laughter, +Having such wonderful girls here to friend. +O the daring, the gracious, the beautiful ones! +Their courage unswerving and witty +Will rescue our city. + +O sprung from the seed of most valiant-wombed grand- +mothers, scions of savage and dangerous nettles! +Prepare for the battle, all. Gird up your angers. Our way +the wind of sweet victory settles. + +LYSISTRATA + +O tender Eros and Lady of Cyprus, some flush of beauty I +pray you devise +To flash on our bosoms and, O Aphrodite, rosily gleam on +our valorous thighs! +Joy will raise up its head through the legions warring and +all of the far-serried ranks of mad-love +Bristle the earth to the pillared horizon, pointing in vain to +the heavens above. +I think that perhaps then they'll give us our title-- +Peace-makers. + +MAGISTRATE + + What do you mean? Please explain. + +LYSISTRATA + + First, we'll not see you now flourishing arms about into the + Marketing-place clang again. + +WOMEN + No, by the Paphian. + +LYSISTRATA + +Still I can conjure them as past were the herbs stand or crockery's sold +Like Corybants jingling (poor sots) fully armoured, they noisily round +on their promenade strolled. + +MAGISTRATE + +And rightly; that's discipline, they-- + +LYSISTRATA + +But what's sillier than to go on an errand of buying a fish +Carrying along an immense. Gorgon-buckler instead the usual platter +or dish? +A phylarch I lately saw, mounted on horse-back, dressed for the part +with long ringlets and all, +Stow in his helmet the omelet bought steaming from an old woman who +kept a food-stall. +Nearby a soldier, a Thracian, was shaking wildly his spear like Tereus +in the play, +To frighten a fig-girl while unseen the ruffian filched from her +fruit-trays the ripest away. + +MAGISTRATE + +How, may I ask, will your rule re-establish order and justice in lands +so tormented? + +LYSISTRATA + +Nothing is easier. + +MAGISTRATE + +Out with it speedily--what is this plan that you boast you've invented? + +LYSISTRATA + +If, when yarn we are winding, It chances to tangle, then, as perchance you +may know, through the skein +This way and that still the spool we keep passing till it is finally clear +all again: +So to untangle the War and its errors, ambassadors out on all sides we will +send +This way and that, here, there and round about--soon you will find that the +War has an end. + +MAGISTRATE + +So with these trivial tricks of the household, domestic analogies of +threads, skeins and spools, +You think that you'll solve such a bitter complexity, unwind such political +problems, you fools! + +LYSISTRATA + +Well, first as we wash dirty wool so's to cleanse it, so with a pitiless +zeal we will scrub +Through the whole city for all greasy fellows; burrs too, the parasites, +off we will rub. +That verminous plague of insensate place-seekers soon between thumb and +forefinger we'll crack. +All who inside Athens' walls have their dwelling into one great common +basket we'll pack. +Disenfranchised or citizens, allies or aliens, pell-mell the lot of them +in we will squeeze. +Till they discover humanity's meaning.... As for disjointed and far +colonies, +Them you must never from this time imagine as scattered about just like +lost hanks of wool. +Each portion we'll take and wind in to this centre, inward to Athens +each loyalty pull, +Till from the vast heap where all's piled together at last can be woven +a strong Cloak of State. + +MAGISTRATE + +How terrible is it to stand here and watch them carding and winding at +will with our fate, +Witless in war as they are. + +LYSISTRATA + +What of us then, who ever in vain for our children must weep +Borne but to perish afar and in vain? + +MAGISTRATE + +Not that, O let that one memory sleep! + +LYSISTRATA + +Then while we should be companioned still merrily, happy as brides may, +the livelong night, +Kissing youth by, we are forced to lie single.... But leave for a moment +our pitiful plight, +It hurts even more to behold the poor maidens helpless wrinkling in +staler virginity. + +MAGISTRATE + +Does not a man age? + +LYSISTRATA + +Not in the same way. Not as a woman grows withered, grows he. +He, when returned from the war, though grey-headed, yet +if he wishes can choose out a wife. +But she has no solace save peering for omens, wretched and +lonely the rest of her life. + +MAGISTRATE + +But the old man will often select-- + +LYSISTRATA + +O why not finish and die? +A bier is easy to buy, +A honey-cake I'll knead you with joy, +This garland will see you are decked. + +CALONICE + +I've a wreath for you too. + +MYRRHINE + +I also will fillet you. + +LYSISTRATA + +What more is lacking? Step aboard the boat. +See, Charon shouts ahoy. +You're keeping him, he wants to shove afloat. + +MAGISTRATE + +Outrageous insults! Thus my place to flout! +Now to my fellow-magistrates I'll go +And what you've perpetrated on me show. + +LYSISTRATA + +Why are you blaming us for laying you out? +Assure yourself we'll not forget to make +The third day offering early for your sake. + +MAGISTRATE _retires_, LYSISTRATA _returns within_. + +OLD MEN. + +All men who call your loins your own, awake at last, arise +And strip to stand in readiness. For as it seems to me +Some more perilous offensive in their heads they now devise. +I'm sure a Tyranny +Like that of Hippias +In this I detect.... +They mean to put us under +Themselves I suspect, +And that Laconians assembling +At Cleisthenes' house have played +A trick-of-war and provoked them +Madly to raid +The Treasury, in which term I include +The Pay for my food. + +For is it not preposterous +They should talk this way to us +On a subject such as battle! + +And, women as they are, about bronze bucklers dare prattle-- +Make alliance with the Spartans--people I for one +Like very hungry wolves would always most sincere shun.... +Some dirty game is up their sleeve, +I believe. +A Tyranny, no doubt... but they won't catch me, that know. +Henceforth on my guard I'll go, +A sword with myrtle-branches wreathed for ever in my hand, +And under arms in the Public Place I'll take my watchful stand, +Shoulder to shoulder with Aristogeiton. Now my staff I'll draw +And start at once by knocking +that shocking +Hag upon the jaw. + +WOMEN. + +Your own mother will not know you when you get back to the town. +But first, my friends and allies, let us lay these garments down, +And all ye fellow-citizens, hark to me while I tell +What will aid Athens well. +Just as is right, for I +Have been a sharer +In all the lavish splendour +Of the proud city. +I bore the holy vessels +At seven, then +I pounded barley +At the age of ten, +And clad in yellow robes, +Soon after this, +I was Little Bear to +Brauronian Artemis; +Then neckletted with figs, +Grown tall and pretty, +I was a Basket-bearer, +And so it's obvious I should +Give you advice that I think good, +The very best I can. +It should not prejudice my voice that I'm not born a man, +If I say something advantageous to the present situation. +For I'm taxed too, and as a toll provide men for the nation +While, miserable greybeards, you, +It is true, +Contribute nothing of any importance whatever to our needs; +But the treasure raised against the Medes +You've squandered, and do nothing in return, save that you make +Our lives and persons hazardous by some imbecile mistakes +What can you answer? Now be careful, don't arouse my spite, +Or with my slipper I'll take you napping, +faces slapping +Left and right. + +MEN. + +What villainies they contrive! +Come, let vengeance fall, +You that below the waist are still alive, +Off with your tunics at my call-- +Naked, all. +For a man must strip to battle like a man. +No quaking, brave steps taking, careless what's ahead, white shoed, +in the nude, onward bold, +All ye who garrisoned Leipsidrion of old.... +Let each one wag +As youthfully as he can, +And if he has the cause at heart +Rise at least a span. + +We must take a stand and keep to it, +For if we yield the smallest bit +To their importunity. +Then nowhere from their inroads will be left to us immunity. +But they'll be building ships and soon their navies will attack us, +As Artemisia did, and seek to fight us and to sack us. +And if they mount, the Knights they'll rob +Of a job, +For everyone knows how talented they all are in the saddle, +Having long practised how to straddle; +No matter how they're jogged there up and down, they're never thrown. +Then think of Myron's painting, and each horse-backed Amazon +In combat hand-to-hand with men.... Come, on these women fall, +And in pierced wood-collars let's stick +quick +The necks of one and all. + +WOMEN. + +Don't cross me or I'll loose +The Beast that's kennelled here.... +And soon you will be howling for a truce, +Howling out with fear. +But my dear, +Strip also, that women may battle unhindered.... +But you, you'll be too sore to eat garlic more, or one black bean, +I really mean, so great's my spleen, to kick you black and blue +With these my dangerous legs. +I'll hatch the lot of you, +If my rage you dash on, +The way the relentless Beetle +Hatched the Eagle's eggs. + +Scornfully aside I set +Every silly old-man threat +While Lampito's with me. +Or dear Ismenia, the noble Theban girl. Then let decree +Be hotly piled upon decree; in vain will be your labours, +You futile rogue abominated by your suffering neighbour +To Hecate's feast I yesterday went- +Off I sent +To our neighbours in Boeotia, asking as a gift to me +For them to pack immediately +That darling dainty thing ... a good fat eel [1] I meant of course; + +[Footnote 1:_Vide supra_, p. 23.] + +But they refused because some idiotic old decree's in force. +O this strange passion for decrees nothing on earth can check, +Till someone puts a foot out tripping you, +and slipping you +Break your neck. + +-----------------------File: 064.png---------------------------- +LYSISTRATA _enters in dismay_. + +WOMEN + +Dear Mistress of our martial enterprise, +Why do you come with sorrow in your eyes? + +LYSISTRATA + +O 'tis our naughty femininity, +So weak in one spot, that hath saddened me. + +WOMEN + +What's this? Please speak. + +LYSISTRATA + +Poor women, O so weak! + +WOMEN + +What can it be? Surely your friends may know. + +LYSISTRATA + +Yea, I must speak it though it hurt me so. + +WOMEN + +Speak; can we help? Don't stand there mute in need. + +LYSISTRATA + +I'll blurt it out then--our women's army's mutinied. + +WOMEN + +O Zeus! + +LYSISTRATA + +What use is Zeus to our anatomy? +Here is the gaping calamity I meant: +I cannot shut their ravenous appetites +A moment more now. They are all deserting. +The first I caught was sidling through the postern +Close by the Cave of Pan: the next hoisting herself +With rope and pulley down: a third on the point +Of slipping past: while a fourth malcontent, seated +For instant flight to visit Orsilochus +On bird-back, I dragged off by the hair in time.... +They are all snatching excuses to sneak home. +Look, there goes one.... Hey, what's the hurry? + +1ST WOMAN + +I must get home. I've some Milesian wool +Packed wasting away, and moths are pushing through it. + +LYSISTRATA + +Fine moths indeed, I know. Get back within. + +1ST WOMAN + +By the Goddesses, I'll return instantly. +I only want to stretch it on my bed. + +LYSISTRATA + +You shall stretch nothing and go nowhere either. + +1ST WOMAN + +Must I never use my wool then? + +LYSISTRATA + +If needs be. + +2ND WOMAN + +How unfortunate I am! O my poor flax! +It's left at home unstript. + +LYSISTRATA + +So here's another +That wishes to go home and strip her flax. +Inside again! + +2ND WOMAN + +No, by the Goddess of Light, +I'll be back as soon as I have flayed it properly. + +LYSISTRATA + +You'll not flay anything. For if you begin +There'll not be one here but has a patch to be flayed. + +3RD WOMAN + +O holy Eilithyia, stay this birth +Till I have left the precincts of the place! + +LYSISTRATA + +What nonsense is this? + +3RD WOMAN + +I'll drop it any minute. + +LYSISTRATA + +Yesterday you weren't with child. + +3RD WOMAN + +But I am today. +O let me find a midwife, Lysistrata. +O quickly! + +LYSISTRATA + +Now what story is this you tell? +What is this hard lump here? + +3RD WOMAN + +It's a male child. + +LYSISTRATA + +By Aphrodite, it isn't. Your belly's hollow, +And it has the feel of metal.... Well, I soon can see. +You hussy, it's Athene's sacred helm, +And you said you were with child. + +3RD WOMAN + +And so I am. + +LYSISTRATA + +Then why the helm? + +3RD WOMAN + +So if the throes should take me +Still in these grounds I could use it like a dove +As a laying-nest in which to drop the child. + +LYSISTRATA + +More pretexts! You can't hide your clear intent, +And anyway why not wait till the tenth day +Meditating a brazen name for your brass brat? + +WOMAN + +And I can't sleep a wink. My nerve is gone +Since I saw that snake-sentinel of the shrine. + +WOMAN + +And all those dreadful owls with their weird hooting! +Though I'm wearied out, I can't close an eye. + +-----------------------File: 068.png---------------------------- +LYSISTRATA + +You wicked women, cease from juggling lies. +You want your men. But what of them as well? +They toss as sleepless in the lonely night, +I'm sure of it. Hold out awhile, hold out, +But persevere a teeny-weeny longer. +An oracle has promised Victory +If we don't wrangle. Would you hear the words? + +WOMEN + +Yes, yes, what is it? + +LYSISTRATA + +Silence then, you chatterboxes. +Here-- +_Whenas the swallows flocking in one place from the hoopoes +Deny themselves love's gambols any more, +All woes shall then have ending and great Zeus the Thunderer +Shall put above what was below before._ + +WOMEN + +Will the men then always be kept under us? + +LYSISTRATA +_But if the swallows squabble among themselves and fly away +Out of the temple, refusing to agree, +Then The Most Wanton Birds in all the World +They shall be named for ever. That's his decree._ + +WOMAN + +It's obvious what it means. +-----------------------File: 069.png---------------------------- +LYSISTRATA + + Now by all the gods +We must let no agony deter from duty, +Back to your quarters. For we are base indeed, +My friends, if we betray the oracle. + +_She goes out._ + + +OLD MEN. + +I'd like to remind you of a fable they used to employ, +When I was a little boy: +How once through fear of the marriage-bed a young man, +Melanion by name, to the wilderness ran, +And there on the hills he dwelt. +For hares he wove a net +Which with his dog he set-- +Most likely he's there yet. +For he never came back home, so great was the fear he felt. +I loathe the sex as much as he, +And therefore I no less shall be +As chaste as was Melanion. + +MAN + +Grann'am, do you much mind men? + +WOMAN + +Onions you won't need, to cry. + +MAN + +From my foot you shan't escape. + +WOMAN + +What thick forests I espy. + +-----------------------File: 07O.png---------------------------- +MEN + +So much Myronides' fierce beard +And thundering black back were feared, +That the foe fled when they were shown-- +Brave he as Phormion. + +WOMEN. + +Well, I'll relate a rival fable just to show to you +A different point of view: +There was a rough-hewn fellow, Timon, with a face +That glowered as through a thorn-bush in a wild, bleak place. +He too decided on flight, +This very Furies' son, +All the world's ways to shun +And hide from everyone, +Spitting out curses on all knavish men to left and right. +But though he reared this hate for men, +He loved the women even then, +And never thought them enemies. + +WOMAN + +O your jaw I'd like to break. + +MAN + +That I fear do you suppose? + +WOMAN + +Learn what kicks my legs can make. + +MAN + +Raise them up, and you'll expose-- + +-----------------------File: 071.png---------------------------- +WOMAN + +Nay, you'll see there, I engage, +All is well kept despite my age, +And tended smooth enough to slip +From any adversary's grip. + +-----------------------File: 072.png---------------------------- +LYSISTRATA _appears_. + +LYSISTRATA + +Hollo there, hasten hither to me +Skip fast along. + +WOMAN + +What is this? Why the noise? + +LYSISTRATA + +A man, a man! I spy a frenzied man! +He carries Love upon him like a staff. +O Lady of Cyprus, and Cythera, and Paphos, +I beseech you, keep our minds and hands to the oath. + +WOMAN + +Where is he, whoever he is? + +LYSISTRATA + +By the Temple of Chloe. + +WOMAN + +Yes, now I see him. but who can he be? + +LYSISTRATA + +Look at him. Does anyone recognise his face? + +-----------------------File: 073.png---------------------------- +-----------------------File: 074.png---------------------------- +MYRRHINE + +I do. He is my husband, Cinesias. + +LYSISTRATA + +You know how to work. Play with him, lead him on, +Seduce him to the cozening-point--kiss him, kiss him, +Then slip your mouth aside just as he's sure of it, +Ungirdle every caress his mouth feels at +Save that the oath upon the bowl has locked. + +MYRRHINE + +You can rely on me. + +LYSISTRATA + +I'll stay here to help +In working up his ardor to its height +Of vain magnificence.... The rest to their quarters. + +_Enter_ CINESIAS. + +Who is this that stands within our lines? + +CINESIAS + +I. + +LYSISTRATA + +A man? + +CINESIAS + +Too much a man! + +LYSISTRATA + +Then be off at once. + +CINESIAS + +Who are you that thus eject me? + +LYSISTRATA + +Guard for the day. + +-----------------------File: 075.png---------------------------- +CINESIAS + +By all the gods, then call Myrrhine hither. + +LYSISTRATA + +So, call Myrrhine hither! Who are you? + +CINESIAS + +I am her husband Cinesias, son of Anthros. + +LYSISTRATA + +Welcome, dear friend! That glorious name of yours +Is quite familiar in our ranks. Your wife +Continually has it in her mouth. +She cannot touch an apple or an egg +But she must say, "This to Cinesias!" + +CINESIAS + +O is that true? + +LYSISTRATA + +By Aphrodite, it is. +If the conversation strikes on men, your wife +Cuts in with, "All are boobies by Cinesias." + +CINESIAS + +Then call her here. + +LYSISTRATA + +And what am I to get? + +CINESIAS + +This, if you want it.... See, what I have here. +But not to take away. + +LYSISTRATA + +Then I'll call her. + +-----------------------File: 076.png---------------------------- +CINESIAS + +Be quick, be quick. All grace is wiped from life +Since she went away. O sad, sad am I +When there I enter on that loneliness, +And wine is unvintaged of the sun's flavour. +And food is tasteless. But I've put on weight. + +MYRRHINE (_above_) + +I love him O so much! but he won't have it. +Don't call me down to him. + +CINESIAS + +Sweet little Myrrhine! +What do you mean? Come here. + +MYRRHINE + +O no I won't. +Why are you calling me? You don't want me. + +CINESIAS + +Not want you! with this week-old strength of love. + +MYRRHINE + +Farewell. + +CINESIAS + +Don't go, please don't go, Myrrhine. +At least you'll hear our child. Call your mother, lad. + +CHILD + +Mummy ... mummy ... mummy! + +CINESIAS + +There now, don't you feel pity for the child? +He's not been fed or washed now for six days. + +MYRRHINE + +I certainly pity him with so heartless a father. + +-----------------------File: 077.png---------------------------- +CINESIAS + +Come down, my sweetest, come for the child's sake. + +MYRRHINE + +A trying life it is to be a mother! +I suppose I'd better go. _She comes down._ + +CINESIAS + +How much younger she looks, +How fresher and how prettier! Myrrhine, +Lift up your lovely face, your disdainful face; +And your ankle ... let your scorn step out its worst; +It only rubs me to more ardor here. + +MYRRHINE (_playing with the child_) + +You're as innocent as he's iniquitous. +Let me kiss you, honey-petling, mother's darling. + +CINESIAS + +How wrong to follow other women's counsel +And let loose all these throbbing voids in yourself +As well as in me. Don't you go throb-throb? + +MYRRHINE + +Take away your hands. + +CINESIAS + +Everything in the house +Is being ruined. + +MYRRHINE + +I don't care at all. + +CINESIAS + +The roosters are picking all your web to rags. +Do you mind that? + +-----------------------File: 078.png---------------------------- +MYRRHINE + +Not I. + +CINESIAS + +What time we've wasted +We might have drenched with Paphian laughter, flung +On Aphrodite's Mysteries. O come here. + +MYRRHINE + +Not till a treaty finishes the war. + +CINESIAS + +If you must have it, then we'll get it done. + +MYRRHINE + +Do it and I'll come home. Till then I am bound. + +CINESIAS + +Well, can't your oath perhaps be got around? + +MYRRHINE + +No ... no ... still I'll not say that I don't love you. + +CINESIAS + +You love me! Then dear girl, let me also love you. + +MYRRHINE + +You must be joking. The boy's looking on. + +CINESIAS + +Here, Manes, take the child home!... There, he's gone. +There's nothing in the way now. Come to the point. + +MYRRHINE + +Here in the open! In plain sight? + +CINESIAS + +In Pan's cave. +A splendid place. + +-----------------------File: 079.png---------------------------- +MYRRHINE + +Where shall I dress my hair again +Before returning to the citadel? + +CINESIAS + +You can easily primp yourself in the Clepsydra. + +MYRRHINE + +But how can I break my oath? + +CINESIAS + +Leave that to me, +I'll take all risk. + +MYRRHINE + +Well, I'll make you comfortable. + +CINESIAS + +Don't worry. I'd as soon lie on the grass. + +MYRRHINE + +No, by Apollo, in spite of all your faults +I won't have you lying on the nasty earth. +(_From here MYRRHINE keeps on going off to fetch things._) + +CINESIAS + +Ah, how she loves me. + +MYRRHINE + +Rest there on the bench, +While I arrange my clothes. O what a nuisance, +I must find some cushions first. + +CINESIAS + +Why some cushions? +Please don't get them! + +-----------------------File: 08O.png---------------------------- +MYRRHINE + +What? The plain, hard wood? +Never, by Artemis! That would be too vulgar. + +CINESIAS + +Open your arms! + +MYRRHINE + +No. Wait a second. + +CINESIAS + +O.... +Then hurry back again. + +MYRRHINE + +Here the cushions are. +Lie down while I--O dear! But what a shame, +You need more pillows. + +CINESIAS + +I don't want them, dear. + +MYRRHINE + +But I do. + +CINESIAS + +Thwarted affection mine, +They treat you just like Heracles at a feast +With cheats of dainties, O disappointing arms! + +MYRRHINE + +Raise up your head. + +CINESIAS + +There, that's everything at last. + +MYRRHINE + +Yes, all. + +CINESIAS + +Then run to my arms, you golden girl. + +-----------------------File: 081.png---------------------------- +MYRRHINE + +I'm loosening my girdle now. But you've not forgotten? +You're not deceiving me about the Treaty? + +CINESIAS + +No, by my life, I'm not. + +MYRRHINE + +Why, you've no blanket. + +CINESIAS + +It's not the silly blanket's warmth but yours I want. + +MYRRHINE + +Never mind. You'll soon have both. I'll come straight back. + +CINESIAS + +The woman will choke me with her coverlets. + +MYRRHINE + +Get up a moment. + +CINESIAS + +I'm up high enough. + +MYRRHINE + +Would you like me to perfume you? + +CINESIAS + +By Apollo, no! + +MYRRHINE + +By Aphrodite, I'll do it anyway. + +CINESIAS + +Lord Zeus, may she soon use up all the myrrh. + +MYRRHINE + +Stretch out your hand. Take it and rub it in. + +CINESIAS + +Hmm, it's not as fragrant as might be; that is, +Not before it's smeared. It doesn't smell of kisses. + +-----------------------File: 082.png---------------------------- +MYRRHINE + +How silly I am: I've brought you Rhodian scents. + +CINESIAS + +It's good enough, leave it, love. + +MYRRHINE + +You must be jesting. + +CINESIAS + +Plague rack the man who first compounded scent! + +MYRRHINE + +Here, take this flask. + +CINESIAS + +I've a far better one. +Don't tease me, come here, and get nothing more. + +MYRRHINE + +I'm coming.... I'm just drawing off my shoes.... +You're sure you will vote for Peace? + +CINESIAS + +I'll think about it. +_She runs off._ +I'm dead: the woman's worn me all away. +She's gone and left me with an anguished pulse. + +MEN + +Baulked in your amorous delight +How melancholy is your plight. +With sympathy your case I view; +For I am sure it's hard on you. +What human being could sustain +This unforeseen domestic strain, +And not a single trace +Of willing women in the place! + + +-----------------------File: 083.png---------------------------- +CINESIAS + +O Zeus, what throbbing suffering! + +MEN + +She did it all, the harlot, she +With her atrocious harlotry. + +WOMEN + +Nay, rather call her darling-sweet. + +MEN + +What, sweet? She's a rude, wicked thing. + +CINESIAS + +A wicked thing, as I repeat. +O Zeus, O Zeus, +Canst Thou not suddenly let loose +Some twirling hurricane to tear +Her flapping up along the air +And drop her, when she's whirled around, +Here to the ground +Neatly impaled upon the stake +That's ready upright for her sake. +_He goes out._ + +-----------------------File: 084.png---------------------------- +_Enter_ SPARTAN HERALD. + +_The_ MAGISTRATE _comes forward_. + +HERALD + +What here gabs the Senate an' the Prytanes? +I've fetcht despatches for them. + +MAGISTRATE + +Are you a man +Or a monstrosity? + +HERALD + +My scrimp-brained lad, +I'm a herald, as ye see, who hae come frae Sparta +Anent a Peace. + +MAGISTRATE + +Then why do you hide that lance +That sticks out under your arms? + +-----------------------File: 085.png---------------------------- +HERALD. + +I've brought no lance. + +MAGISTRATE + +Then why do you turn aside and hold your cloak +So far out from your body? Is your groin swollen +With stress of travelling? + +HERALD + +By Castor, I'll swear +The man is wud. + +MAGISTRATE + +Indeed, your cloak is wide, +My rascal fellow. + +HERALD + +But I tell ye No! +Enow o' fleering! + +MAGISTRATE + +Well, what is it then? + +HERALD + +It's my despatch cane. + +MAGISTRATE + +Of course--a Spartan cane! +But speak right out. I know all this too well. +Are new privations springing up in Sparta? + +HERALD + +Och, hard as could be: in lofty lusty columns +Our allies stand united. We maun get Pellene. + +MAGISTRATE + +Whence has this evil come? Is it from Pan? + +-----------------------File: 086.png---------------------------- +HERALD + +No. Lampito first ran asklent, then the ithers +Sprinted after her example, and blocked, the hizzies, +Their wames unskaithed against our every fleech. + +MAGISTRATE + +What did you do? + +HERALD + +We are broken, and bent double, +Limp like men carrying lanthorns in great winds +About the city. They winna let us even +Wi' lightest neif skim their primsie pretties +Till we've concluded Peace-terms wi' a' Hellas. + +MAGISTRATE + +So the conspiracy is universal; +This proves it. Then return to Sparta. Bid them +Send envoys with full powers to treat of Peace; +And I will urge the Senate here to choose +Plenipotentiary ambassadors, +As argument adducing this connection. + +HERALD + +I'm off. Your wisdom nane could contravert. +_They retire._ + +MEN + +There is no beast, no rush of fire, like woman so untamed. +She calmly goes her way where even panthers would be shamed. + +-----------------------File: 087.png---------------------------- +WOMEN + +And yet you are fool enough, it seems, to dare to war with me, +When for your faithful ally you might win me easily. + +MEN + +Never could the hate I feel for womankind grow less. + +WOMEN + +Then have your will. But I'll take pity on your nakedness. +For I can see just how ridiculous you look, and so +Will help you with your tunic if close up I now may go. + +MEN + +Well, that, by Zeus, is no scoundrel-deed, I frankly will admit. +I only took them off myself in a scoundrel raging-fit. + +WOMEN + +Now you look sensible, and that you're men no one could doubt. +If you were but good friends again, I'd take the insect out +That hurts your eye. + +MEN + +Is that what's wrong? That nasty bitie thing. +Please squeeze it out, and show me what it is that makes this sting. +It's been paining me a long while now. + +WOMEN + +Well I'll agree to that, +Although you're most unmannerly. O what a giant gnat. +Here, look! It comes from marshy Tricorysus, I can tell. + +-----------------------File: 088.png---------------------------- +MEN + +O thank you. It was digging out a veritable well. +Now that it's gone, I can't hold back my tears. See how they fall. + +WOMEN + +I'll wipe them off, bad as you are, and kiss you after all. + +MEN + +I won't be kissed. + +WOMEN + +O yes, you will. Your wishes do not matter. + +MEN + +O botheration take you all! How you cajole and flatter. +A hell it is to live with you; to live without, a hell: +How truly was that said. But come, these enmities let's quell. +You stop from giving orders and I'll stop from doing wrong. +So let's join ranks and seal our bargain with a choric song. + +CHORUS. + +Athenians, it's not our intention +To sow political dissension +By giving any scandal mention; +But on the contrary to promote good feeling in the state +By word and deed. We've had enough calamities of late. +So let a man or woman but divulge +They need a trifle, say, +Two minas, three or four, +I've purses here that bulge. +-----------------------File: 089.png---------------------------- +There's only one condition made +(Indulge my whim in this I pray)-- +When Peace is signed once more, +On no account am I to be repaid. + +And I'm making preparation +For a gay select collation +With some youths of reputation. +I've managed to produce some soup and they're slaughtering for me +A sucking-pig: its flesh should taste as tender as could be. +I shall expect you at my house today. +To the baths make an early visit, +And bring your children along; +Don't dawdle on the way. +Ask no one; enter as if the place +Was all your own--yours henceforth is it. +If nothing chances wrong, +The door will then be shut bang in your face. + +_The_ SPARTAN AMBASSADORS _approach_. + +CHORUS + +Here come the Spartan envoys with long, worried beards. +Hail, Spartans how do you fare? +Did anything new arise? + +SPARTANS + +No need for a clutter o' words. Do ye see our condition? + +-----------------------File: 09O.png---------------------------- +CHORUS + +The situation swells to greater tension. +Something will explode soon. + +SPARTANS + +It's awfu' truly. +But come, let us wi' the best speed we may +Scribble a Peace. + +CHORUS + +I notice that our men +Like wrestlers poised for contest, hold their clothes +Out from their bellies. An athlete's malady! +Since exercise alone can bring relief. + +ATHENIANS + +Can anyone tell us where Lysistrata is? +There is no need to describe our men's condition, +It shows up plainly enough. + +CHORUS + +It's the same disease. +Do you feel a jerking throbbing in the morning? + +ATHENIANS + +By Zeus, yes! In these straits, I'm racked all through. +Unless Peace is soon declared, we shall be driven +In the void of women to try Cleisthenes. + +CHORUS + +Be wise and cover those things with your tunics. +Who knows what kind of person may perceive you? + +ATHENIANS + +By Zeus, you're right. + +-----------------------File: 091.png---------------------------- +SPARTANS + +By the Twa Goddesses, +Indeed ye are. Let's put our tunics on. + +ATHENIANS + +Hail O my fellow-sufferers, hail Spartans. + +SPARTANS + +O hinnie darling, what a waefu' thing! +If they had seen us wi' our lunging waddies! + +ATHENIANS + +Tell us then, Spartans, what has brought you here? + +SPARTANS + +We come to treat o' Peace. + +ATHENIANS + +Well spoken there! +And we the same. Let us callout Lysistrata +Since she alone can settle the Peace-terms. + +SPARTANS + +Callout Lysistratus too if ye don't mind. + +CHORUS + +No indeed. She hears your voices and she comes. + +_Enter LYSISTRATA_ + +Hail, Wonder of all women! Now you must be in turn +Hard, shifting, clear, deceitful, noble, crafty, sweet, and stern. +The foremost men of Hellas, smitten by your fascination, +Have brought their tangled quarrels here for your sole arbitration. + +-----------------------File: 092.png---------------------------- +LYSISTRATA + +An easy task if the love's raging home-sickness +Doesn't start trying out how well each other +Will serve instead of us. But I'll know at once +If they do. O where's that girl, Reconciliation? +Bring first before me the Spartan delegates, +And see you lift no rude or violent hands-- +None of the churlish ways our husbands used. +But lead them courteously, as women should. +And if they grudge fingers, guide them by other methods, +And introduce them with ready tact. The Athenians +Draw by whatever offers you a grip. +Now, Spartans, stay here facing me. Here you, +Athenians. Both hearken to my words. +I am a woman, but I'm not a fool. +And what of natural intelligence I own +Has been filled out with the remembered precepts +My father and the city-elders taught me. +First I reproach you both sides equally +That when at Pylae and Olympia, +At Pytho and the many other shrines +That I could name, you sprinkle from one cup +The altars common to all Hellenes, yet +You wrack Hellenic cities, bloody Hellas +With deaths of her own sons, while yonder clangs +The gathering menace of barbarians. + +ATHENIANS + +We cannot hold it in much longer now. + +-----------------------File: 093.png---------------------------- +LYSISTRATA + +Now unto you, O Spartans, do I speak. +Do you forget how your own countryman, +Pericleidas, once came hither suppliant +Before our altars, pale in his purple robes, +Praying for an army when in Messenia +Danger growled, and the Sea-god made earth quayer. +Then with four thousand hoplites Cimon marched +And saved all Sparta. Yet base ingrates now, +You are ravaging the soil of your preservers. + +ATHENIANS + +By Zeus, they do great wrong, Lysistrata. + +SPARTANS + +Great wrang, indeed. O! What a luscious wench! + +LYSISTRATA + +And now I turn to the Athenians. +Have you forgotten too how once the Spartans +In days when you wore slavish tunics, came +And with their spears broke a Thessalian host +And all the partisans of Hippias? +They alone stood by your shoulder on that day. +They freed you, so that for the slave's short skirt +You should wear the trailing cloak of liberty. + +SPARTANS + +I've never seen a nobler woman anywhere. + +ATHENIANS + +Nor I one with such prettily jointing hips. + +-----------------------File: 094.png---------------------------- +LYSISTRATA + +Now, brethren twined with mutual benefactions, +Can you still war, can you suffer such disgrace? +Why not be friends? What is there to prevent you? + +SPARTANS + +We're agreed, gin that we get this tempting Mole. + +LYSISTRATA + +Which one? + +SPARTANS + +That ane we've wanted to get into, +O for sae lang.... Pylos, of course. + +ATHENIANS + +By Poseidon, +Never! + +LYSISTRATA + +Give it up. + +ATHENIANS + +Then what will we do? +We need that ticklish place united to us-- + +LYSISTRATA + +Ask for some other lurking-hole in return. + +ATHENIANS + +Then, ah, we'll choose this snug thing here, Echinus, +Shall we call the nestling spot? And this backside haven, +These desirable twin promontories, the Maliac, +And then of course these Megarean Legs. + +SPARTANS + +Not that, O surely not that, never that. + +-----------------------File: 095.png---------------------------- +LYSISTRATA + +Agree! Now what are two legs more or less? + +ATHENIANS + +I want to strip at once and plough my land. + +SPARTANS + +And mine I want to fertilize at once. + +LYSISTRATA + +And so you can, when Peace is once declared. +If you mean it, get your allies' heads together +And come to some decision. + +ATHENIANS + +What allies? +There's no distinction in our politics: +We've risen as one man to this conclusion; +Every ally is jumping-mad to drive it home. + +SPARTANS + +And ours the same, for sure. + +ATHENIANS + +The Carystians first! +I'll bet on that + +LYSISTRATA + +I agree with all of you. +Now off, and cleanse yourselves for the Acropolis, +For we invite you all in to a supper +From our commissariat baskets. There at table +You will pledge good behaviour and uprightness; +Then each man's wife is his to hustle home. + +ATHENIANS + +Come, as quickly as possible. + +-----------------------File: 096.png---------------------------- +SPARTANS + +As quick as ye like. +Lead on. + +ATHENIANS + +O Zeus, quick, quick, lead quickly on. +_They hurry off._ + +CHORUS. + +Broidered stuffs on high I'm heaping, +Fashionable cloaks and sweeping +Trains, not even gold gawds keeping. +Take them all, I pray you, take them all (I do not care) +And deck your children--your daughter, if the Basket she's to bear. +Come, everyone of you, come in and take +Of this rich hoard a share. +Nought's tied so skilfully +But you its seal can break +And plunder all you spy inside. +I've laid out all that I can spare, +And therefore you will see +Nothing unless than I you're sharper-eyed. +If lacking corn a man should be +While his slaves clamour hungrily +And his excessive progeny, +Then I've a handfull of grain at home which is always to be had, +And to which in fact a more-than-life-size loaf I'd gladly add. +-----------------------File: 097.png---------------------------- +Then let the poor bring with them bag or sack +And take this store of food. +Manes, my man, I'll tell +To help them all to pack +Their wallets full. But O take care. +I had forgotten; don't intrude, +Or terrified you'll yell. +My dog is hungry too, and bites--beware! + +-----------------------File: 098.png---------------------------- +_Some_ LOUNGERS _from the Market with torches approach +the Banqueting hall. The_ PORTER_ bars their entrance. + +1ST MARKET-LOUNGER + +Open the door. + +PORTER + +Here move along. + +1ST MARKET-LOUNGER + +What's this? +You're sitting down. Shall I singe you with my torch? +That's vulgar! O I couldn't do it ... yet +If it would gratify the audience, +I'll mortify myself. + +2ND MARKET-LOUNGER + +And I will too. +We'll both be crude and vulgar, yes we will. + +PORTER + +Be off at o~ce now or you'll be wailing +Dirges for your hair. Get off at once, +And see you don't disturb the Spartan envoys +Just coming out from the splendid feast they've had. + +-----------------------File: 099.png---------------------------- +_The banqueters begin to come out._ + +1ST ATHENIAN + +I've never known such a pleasant banquet before, +And what delightful fellows the Spartans are. +When we are warm with wine, how wise we grow. + +2ND ATHENIAN + +That's only fair, since sober we're such fools: +This is the advice I'd give the Athenians-- +See our ambassadors are always drunk. +For when we visit Sparta sober, then +We're on the alert for trickery all the while +So that we miss half of the things they say, +And misinterpret things that were never said, +And then report the muddle back to Athens. +But now we're charmed with each other. They might cap +With the Telamon-catch instead of the Cleitagora, +And we'd applaud and praise them just the same; +We're not too scrupulous in weighing words. + +PORTER + +Why, here the rascals come again to plague me. +Won't you move on, you sorry loafers there! + +MARKET-LOUNGER + +Yes, by Zeus, they're already coming out. + +SPARTANS + +Now hinnie dearest, please tak' up your pipe +That I may try a spring an' sing my best +In honour o' the Athenians an' oursels. + +-----------------------File: 100.png---------------------------- +ATHENIANS + +Aye, take your pipe. By all the gods, there's nothing +Could glad my heart more than to watch you dance. + +SPARTANS. + +Mnemosyne, +Let thy fire storm these younkers, +O tongue wi' stormy ecstasy +My Muse that knows +Our deeds and theirs, how when at sea +Their navies swooped upon +The Medes at Artemision-- +Gods for their courage, did they strike +Wrenching a triumph frae their foes; +While at Thermopylae +Leonidas' army stood: wild-boars they were like +Wild-boars that wi' fierce threat +Their terrible tusks whet; +The sweat ran streaming down each twisted face, +Faem blossoming i' strange petals o' death +Panted frae mortal breath, +The sweat drenched a' their bodies i' that place, +For the hurly-burly o' Persians glittered more +Than the sands on the shore. + +Come, Hunting Girl, an' hear my prayer-- +You whose arrows whizz in woodlands, come an' bless +This Peace we swear. +Let us be fenced wi' age long amity, +-----------------------File: 101.png---------------------------- +O let this bond stick ever firm through thee +In friendly happiness. +Henceforth no guilefu' perjury be seen! +O hither, hither O +Thou wildwood queen. + +LYSISTRATA + +Earth is delighted now, peace is the voice of earth. +Spartans, sort out your wives: Athenians, yours. +Let each catch hands with his wife and dance his joy, +Dance out his thanks, be grateful in music, +And promise reformation with his heels. + +ATHENIANS. + +O Dancers, forward. Lead out the Graces, +Call Artemis out; +Then her brother, the Dancer of Skies, +That gracious Apollo. +Invoke with a shout +Dionysus out of whose eyes +Breaks fire on the maenads that follow; +And Zeus with his flares of quick lightning, and call, +Happy Hera, Queen of all, +And all the Daimons summon hither to be +Witnesses of our revelry +And of the noble Peace we have made, +Aphrodite our aid. +-----------------------File: 102.png---------------------------- +-----------------------File: 103.png---------------------------- +Io Paieon, Io, cry-- +For victory, leap! +Attained by me, leap! +Euoi Euoi Euai Euai. + +SPARTANS + +Piper, gie us the music for a new sang. + +SPARTANS. + +Leaving again lovely lofty Taygetus +Hither O Spartan Muse, hither to greet us, +And wi' our choric voice to raise +To Amyclean Apollo praise, +And Tyndareus' gallant sons whose days +Alang Eurotas' banks merrily pass, +An' Athene o' the House o' Brass. + +Now the dance begin; +Dance, making swirl your fringe o' woolly skin, +While we join voices +To hymn dear Sparta that rejoices +I' a beautifu' sang, +An' loves to see +Dancers tangled beautifully; +For the girls i' tumbled ranks +Alang Eurotas' banks +Like wanton fillies thrang, +Frolicking there +-----------------------File: 104.png---------------------------- +An' like Bacchantes shaking the wild air +To comb a giddy laughter through the hair, +Bacchantes that clench thyrsi as they sweep +To the ecstatic leap. + +An' Helen, Child o' Leda, come +Thou holy, nimble, gracefu' Queen, +Lead thou the dance, gather thy joyous tresses up i' bands +An' play like a fawn. To madden them, clap thy hands, +And sing praise to the warrior goddess templed i' our lands, +Her o' the House o' Brass. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lysistrata, by Aristophanes + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LYSISTRATA *** + +This file should be named alyss10.txt or alyss10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, alyss11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, alyss10a.txt + +Produced by Ted Garvin and the Distributed Processing Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/alyss10.zip b/old/alyss10.zip new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3436999 Binary files /dev/null and b/old/alyss10.zip differ diff --git a/old/alyss10h.zip b/old/alyss10h.zip new file mode 100644 index 0000000..709b894 Binary files /dev/null and b/old/alyss10h.zip differ -- cgit v1.2.3