LysistrataAristophanes, Richard Francois Philippe Brunck (tr)Part 1 LYSISTRATA At si quis in ædem Bacchi vocasset eas, aut Panos, aut Coliadis, aut Genetyllidis,[1] ne transire quidem liceret præ multitudine tympanorum: nunc autem nulla adest hic mulier. Verumtamen hæc vicina mea foras exit. Salve, ô Calonice. CALONICE Et tu mecastor salve, Lysistrata. Sed quid conturbata es? exporge frontem, carissima: non enim te decent contracta supercilia. LYSISTRATA Sed, ô Calonice, uritur mihi cor, et valde me piget sexus nostri, quoniam viri existimant nos esse nequam. CALONICE Quippe tales pol sumus. LYSISTRATA Quumque edictum illis fuerit huc convenire, deliberaturis de re non levi, dormiunt, nec veniunt. CALONICE Sed, ô carissima, venient. Mulieribus domo prodire non ita facile est. Alia enim marito operam dat: alia famulum excitat: alia puerum in lecto collocat, alia lavat, alia cibo in os indito placat. LYSISTRATA Sed erant magis necessaria curanda ipsis. CALONICE Quid autem est, mea Lysistrata, cur nos mulieres convocas? Quænam illa res est aut quanta? LYSISTRATA Magna.[2] CALONICE Num etiam crassa? LYSISTRATA Ita me servet Jupiter, crassa. CALONICE Quî fit ergo, ut non veniamus? LYSISTRATA Nihil tale est: cito enim convenissemus. Sed est quiddam a me quæsitum, multis vigiliis in omnes partes versatum. CALONICE Mirabor, ni subtile quid sit versatum istud in omnes partes. LYSISTRATA Adeo subtile, ut universæ Græciæ salus sita sit in mulieribus. CALONICE In mulieribus? Parum ergo abest, quin nulla sit. LYSISTRATA Ita ut arbitri nostri sit, salvam esse rempublicam, aut nullos superesse, nec Peloponnesios— CALONICE Nullos superesse edepol optimum est. LYSISTRATA Bœotiosque omnes perire funditus. CALONICE Non omnes, quæso; sed anguillas excipe.[3] LYSISTRATA De Athenis autem nil tale ominabor: tu ipsa conjecturam facias. Si vero convenerint huc mulieres ex Bœotia simul et Peloponneso, nosque Atticæ, communiter servabimus Græciam. CALONICE Sed quid possent mulieres prudenter agere et præclare? nosne, quæ sedemus pigmentis nitentes, ornamentis excultæ, crocotas gestantes, et Cimbericas rectas, et peribaridas? LYSISTRATA Immo enimvero hæc ipsa sunt, a quibus salutem spero; crocotulæ, et unguenta, et peribarides, et anchusa, et pellucidæ tunicæ. CALONICE Quo tandem modo? LYSISTRATA Ita ut illorum, qui nunc vivunt, virorum contra alium hastam nemo tollat. CALONICE Crocotam ergo, ita me Ceres amet et Proserpina, mihi tingendam curabo. LYSISTRATA Nec clypeum sumat. CALONICE Cimbericam induam. LYSISTRATA Nec gladiolum. CALONICE Peribaridas emam. LYSISTRATA Annon ergo adesse mulieres oportebat? CALONICE Quin pol volando venisse oportuit dudum. LYSISTRATA Sed, pro dolor! videbis eas esse nimis Atticas, dum omnia faciunt justo tardius.[4] At nec ex maritimis ulla mulier adest, nec ex Salamine.[5] CALONICE Sed has scio in celocibus trajecisse matutinas. LYSISTRATA Nec, quas sperabam et confidebam ego primas hic adfore, Acharnenses mulieres veniunt.[6] CALONICE Attamen Theagenis uxor,[7] tanquam horsum venire cupiens Hecatæ simulacrum consuluit. Sed ecce accedunt quædam: item aliæ etiam. Hem, hem! undenam sunt? LYSISTRATA Ex Anagyro. CALONICE Edepol ut dicis. Anagyrus[8] ergo mihi videtur commotus. MYRRHINA Num tardius advenimus, ô Lysistrata? quid ais? cur taces? LYSISTRATA Non laudo, Myrrhina, modo advenientem in re tanta. MYRRHINA Vix enim in tenebris cingulum inveni, sed, si res urget, fare præsentibus nobis. LYSISTRATA Immo potius opperiamur paulisper, dum Bœotiæ et Peloponnesiæ mulieres veniant. MYRRHINA Multo tu rectius dicis: et ecce jam hæc Lampito accedit. LYSISTRATA O carissima Lacæna, salve Lampito. Quam formosa videris, ô dulcissima! quam pulchro colore, quam vegeto es corpore! vel taurum strangulare possis. LAMPITO Næ istuc ecastor credo, siquidem corpus exerceo, et subsultans pede podicem ferio.[9] LYSISTRATA Quam bellas habes papillas! LAMPITO Tanquam victimam pertractatis me. LYSISTRATA Hæc autem adolescentula altera, cujas est? LAMPITO Primaria ecastor femina Bœotia venit ad vos. LYSISTRATA Pol Bœotia est, pulchrumque habens campum. CALONICE Et pol mundum, vulso pulegio.[10] LYSISTRATA Quænam vero est illa altera puella? LAMPITO Bona quidem ecastor, sed Corinthia. LYSISTRATA Bona edepol videtur, ut illic esse solent.[11] LAMPITO Jam vero quis congregavit mulierum hunc cœtum? LYSISTRATA Ipsa ego. LAMPITO Dic igitur nobis, quid velis. LYSISTRATA Ita sane, carissima. MYRRHINA Dic tandem quodnam sit serium illud negotium. LYSISTRATA Jam dicam. Sed priusquam dicam, vos hoc interrogabo pauxillum quidpiam. MYRRHINA Quidquid voles. LYSISTRATA Liberorum vestrorum patres nonne desideratis absentes in milita? Sat enim scio unicuique vostrûm peregre abesse virum. CALONICE Meus quidem vir jam quinque menses, ô miser, abest in Thracia observans Eucratem.[12] LYSISTRATA Meus vero totos sex menses ad Pylum.[13] LAMPITO Meus autem, si quando ab exercitu redeat, mox adnexo sibi clypeo evolat. LYSISTRATA Sed nec mœchi relicta est scintilla. Ex quo enim nos prodiderunt Milesii, ne olisbum quidem vidi octo digitos longum, qui nobis esset coriaceum auxilium. Velletisne ergo, si quam ego fabricam invenero, bello mecum finem imponere? MYRRHINA Per Deas juro me velle, si me oporteat vel encyclum hocce opponere pignori, sumtamque pecuniam hoc ipso die ebibere.[14] CALONICE Ego vero mihi videor vel rhombi instar meipsam dissectura, et dimidium mei datura. LAMPITO Ego vero vel ad Taygetum[15] ascenderem, si ibi Pacem sim visura. LYSISTRATA Dicam ergo; siquidem res celanda non est. Nobis enim, ô mulieres, si volumus cogere viros ad colendam pacem, abstinendum est— MYRRHINA Quo? dic. LYSISTRATA Facietisne ergo? MYRRHINA Faciemus, si vel nos mori oporteat. LYSISTRATA Abstinendum igitur nobis est a pene. Quid mihi aversamini? quorsum itis? Vos inquam, cur labra distorquetis, et renuitis? cur color mutatur? cur lacrima fluit? facietisne, an non facietis? aut quid cogitatis? MYRRHINA Non fecerim, sed bellum serpat. CALONICE Nec edepol ego, sed bellum serpat. LYSISTRATA Hoccine dicis tu, rhombe? atqui modo aiebas te vel dimidium tui abscissuram. CALONICE Aliud, aliud quidquid voles. Vel per ignem, si oporteat, incedere volo. Hoc potius, quam quod de pene dicebas, ad quem nihil est quod compares, ô cara Lysistrata. LYSISTRATA Tu vero, quid? LAMPITO Et ego volo per ignem. LYSISTRATA O libidinosum sexum omnem nostrum! non temere est, quod de nobis fiunt Tragœdiæ: nihil enim sumus, nisi _Neptunus et scapha_.[16] Sed, ô cara Lacæna (tu enim si fueris sola mecum, perditam rem adhuc restituere poterimus) adsentire mihi. LAMPITO Per ecastor[17] difficile est feminas dormire solas sine mentula. Hoc tamen perpeti oportet: nam pacem fieri oportet maxime. LYSISTRATA O carissima et sola harum femina. MYRRHINA Si autem, quod absit, quam maxime abstineamus a quo tu dicis, magisne eapropter fiet pax? LYSISTRATA Multo magis, ita me ament Divæ. Si enim domi sederemus pigmentis oblitæ et in amorginis[18] subucilis nudæ insederemus glabro cunno, arrigerent viri, et coire cuperent: nos autem si non accederemus, at nos contineremus, sat scio mox pacem eos facturos. LAMPITO Sane Menelaus olim conspectis, ut puto, Helenæ nudis papillis, ensem abjecit. MYRRHINA Quid vero, ô misella, si nos omiserint viri? LYSISTRATA Tum istud Pherecratis adhibe, _Canem excoriatum excoriare_.[19] MYRRHINA Nugæ sunt ista simulacra. Si vero comprehensas in cubiculum vi traxerint nos? LYSISTRATA Renitere apprehensis foribus. MYRRHINA At si verberent? LYSISTRATA Tum præbe, sed maligne. Nulla enim his inest voluptas, si per vim fiant. Aliisque modis molestia eos afficere oportet. Nec dubites, quin ocius defatigentur: nunquam enim ex eo voluptatem vir capiet, ni mulieri simul jucundum sit. MYRRHINA Si vobis hoc videtur, nobis itidem videtur. LAMPITO Et nos quidem nostris viris persuadebimus, ut ubique sine dolo malo pacem colant. Sed Atheniensium colluviem quomodo quis adducere possit, ut ne rursus delicias faciat? LYSISTRATA Ne sis sollicita: nos, quod in nobis erit, nostratibus persuadebimus. LAMPITO Nequicquam, quamdiu in triremes conferentur studia, et in Divæ æde adservabitur immensa illa pecuniæ vis. LYSISTRATA Sed et hoc etiam bene provisum et præcautum est: occupabimus enim arcem hodie. Nam provectioribus ætate mulieribus hoc mandatum est negotium, ut, dum nos hæc constituimus, sub specie sacrificandi occupent arcem. LAMPITO Omnino fieri possit: etenim sic bene autumas. LYSISTRATA Cur ergo non hæc quamprimum, ô Lampito, jurejurando confirmamus, ut irrupta sint? LAMPITO Jusjurandum modo concipito, ut juremus. LYSISTRATA Recte autumas. Ubi est Scythæna?[20] quo spectas? Pone in conspectu clypeum supinum: et mihi det hostias aliquis. MYRRHINA Lysistrata, quo sacramento nos adstringes? LYSISTRATA Quonam? In clypeum, ut Æschylum aiunt fecisse quondam, ove mactata—[21] MYRRHINA Ne, quæso, mea Lysistrata, juraveris in clypeum quicquam super pace. LYSISTRATA Quodnam erit ergo jusjurandum? MYRRHINA Si sumtum alicunde album equum immolemus, et super eo juremus. LYSISTRATA Quorsum album equum? MYRRHINA Sed quomodo jurabimus nos? LYSISTRATA Edepol tibi dicam, si velis. Collocato supino grandi calice nigro, in eum immolemus Thasii[22] vini urceum, et juremus aquam in calicem nos non infusuras. LAMPITO Dii boni, quale juramentum! dicere nequeam quantum illum probem. Intus efferat aliquis foras calicem et urceum. LYSISTRATA O carissimæ mulieres, quanta vis fictilium! hoc sumto calice statim quis hilarabitur: eum depone, et hostiam mihi prehende. O Suada domina, et amicitiæ phiala, propitia mulieribus accipe hæc sacra. MYRRHINA Boni coloris est sanguis et pulchre profluit. LAMPITO Quin etiam, ita me Castor amet, suave olet. LYSISTRATA Sinite primam me, ô mulieres, jurare. MYRRHINA Non, per Venerem; nisi sortita fueris. LYSISTRATA Prehendite omnes calicem, ô Lampito, dicatque pro vobis una, quæcunque ego dixero; vos vero in eadem jurabitis et rata habebitis: _Nec adulter, nec vir ullus est—_ MYRRHINA _Nec adulter, nec vir ullus est._ LYSISTRATA _Qui ad me accedet rigente nervo._ Dic. MYRRHINA _Qui ad me accedet rigente nervo._ Papæ! labant genua mea, o Lysistrata. LYSISTRATA _Domi casta degam ætatem—_ MYRRHINA _Domi casta degam ætatem._ LYSISTRATA _Crocotam gestans et comta—_ MYRRHINA _Crocotam gestans et comta._ LYSISTRATA _Ut meus vir quam maxime incendatur—_ MYRRHINA _Ut meus vir quam maxime incendatur._ LYSISTRATA _Nec unquam sponte viro meo morem geram—_ MYRRHINA _Nec unquam sponte viro meo morem geram._ LYSISTRATA _Si vero me invitam vi cogat—_ MYRRHINA _Si vero me invitam vi cogat._ LYSISTRATA _Maligne ei præbebo et motus non addam._ MYRRHINA _Maligne ei præbebo et motus non addam._ LYSISTRATA _Non tollam calceos sursum ad lacunar._ MYRRHINA _Non tollam calceos sursum ad lacunar._ LYSISTRATA _Non conquiniscam instar leœnæ in cultri manubrio._ MYRRHINA _Non conquiniscam instar leœnæ in cultri manubrio._ LYSISTRATA _Hæc si rata habeam, liceat mihi hinc bibere._ MYRRHINA _Hæc si rata habeam, liceat mihi, hinc bibere._ LYSISTRATA _Si vero transgrediar, aqua impleatur calix._ MYRRHINA _Si vero transgrediar, aqua impleatur calix._ LYSISTRATA Vosne omnes jurejurando hæc firmatis? CALONICE Ita, per Jovem. LYSISTRATA Age, ego sacrificabo hanc hostiam. MYRRHINA Partem modo, ô cara, ut statim ab initio amicæ inter nos simus. LAMPITO Quis ille clamor? LYSISTRATA Hoc illud est, quod dicebam. Nam mulieres arcem Deæ jam occuparunt. Sed, ô Lampito, tu quidem abi, et res vestras compone: has autem relinque nobis hîc obsides. Nos vero cum ceteris, quæ sunt in arce, mulieribus, una occludamus ingressæ ostium repagulis. MYRRHINA Nonne putatis contra nos suppetias venturos mox viros? LYSISTRATA Flocci eos non facio. Non enim tantas minas, nec tantum ignem ferentes venient, ut claustra hæc reserare possint, nisi ea, qua diximus, conditione. MYRRHINA Nunquam certe, ita me Venus amet. Frustra enim nos mulieres vocaremur invictæ et scelestæ. [1] At Athens more than anywhere the festivals of Bacchus (Dionysus) were celebrated with the utmost pomp--and also with the utmost licence, not to say licentiousness. Pan---the rustic god and king of the Satyrs; his feast was similarly an occasion of much coarse self-indulgence. Aphrodité Colias--under this name the goddess was invoked by courtesans as patroness of sensual, physical love. She had a temple on the promontory of Colias, on the Attic coast--whence the surname. The Genetyllides were minor deities, presiding over the act of generation, as the name indicates. Dogs were offered in sacrifice to them--presumably because of the lubricity of that animal. At the festivals of Dionysus, Pan and Aphrodité women used to perform lascivious dances to the accompaniment of the beating of tambourines. Lysistrata implies that the women she had summoned to council cared really for nothing but wanton pleasures. [2] An obscene _double entendre_; Calonicé understands, or pretends to understand, Lysistrata as meaning a long and thick "membrum virile"! [3] The eels from Lake Copaïs in Boeotia were esteemed highly by epicures. [4] This is the reproach Demosthenes constantly levelled against his Athenian fellow-countrymen--their failure to seize opportunity. [5] An island of the Saronic Gulf, lying between Magara and Attica. It was separated by a narrow strait--scene of the naval battle of Salamis, in which the Athenians defeated Xerxes--only from the Attic coast, and was subject to Athens. [6] A deme, or township, of Attica, lying five or six miles north of Athens. The Acharnians were throughout the most extreme partisans of the warlike party during the Peloponnesian struggle. See 'The Acharnians.' [7] The precise reference is uncertain, and where the joke exactly comes in. The Scholiast says Theagenes was a rich, miserly and superstitious citizen, who never undertook any enterprise without first consulting an image of Hecaté, the distributor of honour and wealth according to popular belief; and his wife would naturally follow her husband's example. [8] A deme of Attica, a small and insignificant community--a 'Little Pedlington' in fact. [9] In allusion to the gymnastic training which was _de rigueur_ at Sparta for the women no less than the men, and in particular to the dance of the Lacedaemonian girls, in which the performer was expected to kick the fundament with the heels--always a standing joke among the Athenians against their rivals and enemies the Spartans. [10] The allusion, of course, is to the 'garden of love,' the female parts, which it was the custom with the Greek women, as it is with the ladies of the harem in Turkey to this day, to depilate scrupulously, with the idea of making themselves more attractive to men. [11] Corinth was notorious in the Ancient world for its prostitutes and general dissoluteness. [12] An Athenian general strongly suspected of treachery; Aristophanes pretends his own soldiers have to see that he does not desert to the enemy. [13] A town and fortress on the west coast of Messenia, south-east part of Peloponnese, at the northern extremity of the bay of Sphacteria--the scene by the by of the modern naval battle of Navarino-- in Lacedaemonian territory; it had been seized by the Athenian fleet, and was still in their possession at the date, 412 B.C., of the representation of the 'Lysistrata,' though two years later, in the twenty-second year of the War, it was recovered by Sparta. [14] The Athenian women, rightly or wrongly, had the reputation of being over fond of wine. Aristophanes, here and elsewhere, makes many jests on this weakness of theirs. [15] The lofty range of hills overlooking Sparta from the west. [16] In the original "we are nothing but Poseidon and a boat"; the allusion is to a play of Sophocles, now lost, but familiar to Aristophanes' audience, entitled 'Tyro,' in which the heroine, Tyro, appears with Poseidon, the sea-god, at the beginning of the tragedy, and at the close with the two boys she had had by him, whom she exposes in an open boat. [17] "By the two goddesses,"--a woman's oath, which recurs constantly in this play; the two goddesses are always Demeter and Proserpine. [18] One of the Cyclades, between Naxos and Cos, celebrated, like the latter, for its manufacture of fine, almost transparent silks, worn in Greece, and later at Rome, by women of loose character. [19] The proverb, quoted by Pherecrates, is properly spoken of those who go out of their way to do a thing already done--"to kill a dead horse," but here apparently is twisted by Aristophanes into an allusion to the leathern 'godemiche' mentioned a little above; if the worst comes to the worst, we must use artificial means. Pherecrates was a comic playwright, a contemporary of Aristophanes. [20] Literally "our Scythian woman." At Athens, policemen and ushers in the courts were generally Scythians; so the revolting women must have _their_ Scythian "Usheress" too. [21] In allusion to the oath which the seven allied champions before Thebes take upon a buckler, in Aeschylus' tragedy of 'The Seven against Thebes,' v. 42. [22] A volcanic island in the northern part of the Aegaean, celebrated for its vineyards. |
Lysistrata
Aristophanes Part 1 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. 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._ |
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