411 BC

LYSISTRATA

by Aristophanes

anonymous translator

CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY -

LYSISTRATA

CLEONICE

MYRRHINE

LAMPITO

MAGISTRATES

CINESIAS

CHILD OF CINESIAS

HERALD OF THE LACEDAEMONIANS

ENVOYS OF THE LACEDAEMONIANS

AN ATHENIAN CITIZEN

CHORUS OF OLD MEN

CHORUS OF WOMEN

LYSISTRATA -

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

LYSISTRATA

AH! if only they had been invited to a Bacchic revelling, or a feast of Pan or Aphrodite or Genetyllis, why! the streets would have been impassable for the thronging tambourines! Now there's never a woman here- ah! except my neighbour Cleonice, whom I see approaching yonder.... Good day, Cleonice. -

CLEONICE

Good day, Lysistrata; but pray, why this dark, forbidding face, my dear? Believe me, you don't look a bit pretty with those black lowering brows. -

LYSISTRATA

Oh, Cleonice, my heart is on fire; I blush for our sex. Men will have it we are tricky and sly.... -

CLEONICE

And they are quite right, upon my word! -

LYSISTRATA

Yet, look you, when the women are summoned to meet for a matter of the greatest importance, they lie in bed instead of coming. -

CLEONICE

Oh! they will come, my dear; but it's not easy, you know, for women to leave the house. One is busy pottering about her husband; another is getting the servant up; a third is putting her child asleep or washing the brat or feeding it. -

LYSISTRATA

But I tell you, the business that calls them here is far and away more urgent. -

CLEONICE

And why do you summon us, dear Lysistrata? What is it all about? -

LYSISTRATA

About a big thing. -

CLEONICE (taking this in a different sense; with great interest)

And is it thick too? -

LYSISTRATA

Yes, very thick. -

CLEONICE

And we are not all on the spot! Imagine! -

LYSISTRATA (wearily)

Oh! if it were what you suppose, there would be never an absentee. No, no, it concerns a thing I have turned about and about this way and that so many sleepless nights. -

CLEONICE (still unable to be serious)

It must be something mighty fine and subtle for you to have turned it about so! -

LYSISTRATA

So fine, it means just this, Greece saved by the women! -

CLEONICE

By the women! Why, its salvation hangs on a poor thread then! -

LYSISTRATA

Our country's fortunes depend on us- it is with us to undo utterly the Peloponnesians. -

CLEONICE

That would be a noble deed truly! -

LYSISTRATA

To exterminate the Boeotians to a man! -

CLEONICE

But surely you would spare the eels. -

LYSISTRATA