ARISTOPHANIS LYSISTRATA. TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES This transcription is based on Richard François Philippe Brunck's (1729-1803) Latin prose version of the comedy by Aristophanes. The edition used is the following: "Aristophanis comoediae ex optimis exemplaribus emendatae: cum versione latina, variis lectionibus, notis et emendationibus", Vol. 4 (1810, Oxonii, Typis et sumtu N. Bliss.) This edition ("Oxford") was also compared with a second edition dating from 1826 ("Leipzig"): "Aristophanis comoediae auctoritate libri praeclarissimi saeculi decimi emendatae a Philippo Invernizio", vol. 13 (1826, Lipsiae, in libraria Weidmannia) Differences between these editions as well as typos in the Latin text are listed in the appendix "Transcriber's Footnotes". They are referenced in the text as [1], [2], etc. To make the play easier to comprehend, respective footnotes have been added from an English version (Project Gutenberg-text #8688). These are referenced as [PG1], [PG2], etc. When comparing various translations of the "Lysistrata", it was found that the actors are not always the same. For that reason alternative actor names have been added from the following Loeb-edition: "Aristophanes with the English translation of Benjamin Bickley Rogers", Vol. III (1924, New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons) These alternative actor names are given in round brackets immediately after the one of the Latin edition. In a few cases it was found necessary to provide a fuller explanation. The respective footnotes are referenced as [L1], [L2], etc. The above Loeb-edition is also the source of the English stage directions added by the Transcriber. The "lines" mentioned in some of these are those of the Loeb-version. Carolus Raeticus, 2015-08-23 DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. LYSISTRATA. CALONICE. MYRRHINA. LAMPITO. CHORUS SENUM. CHORUS MULIERUM. STRATYLLIS. PROVISOR. MULIERES QUÆDAM. CINESIAS. PUER. CADUCEATOR LACEDÆMONIORUM. LEGATI LACEDÆMONIORUM. POLYCHARIDES. CIRCUMFORANEI QUIDAM. FAMULUS. ATHENIENSIS QUIDAM. ARISTOPHANIS LYSISTRATA. [_It is daybreak at Athens; and Lysistrata, a young and beautiful woman, is standing alone, with marks of evident anxiety in her countenance and demeanour. The scene represents the sloping hill which rises from the Lower to the Upper City. In the background are the Propylaea, the splendid portals of the Athenian Acropolis. Lysistrata is on the look-out for persons who do not come, and after exhibiting various symptoms of impatience, she suddenly begins to speak with abrupt and indignant emphasis._] LYSISTRATA, CALONICE, MYRRHINA, LAMPITO. LYS. At si quis in ædem Bacchi vocasset eas, aut Panos, aut Coliadis, aut Genetyllidis,[PG1] ne transire quidem liceret præ multitudine tympanorum: nunc autem nulla adest hic mulier. Verumtamen hæc vicina mea foras exit. Salve, ô Calonice. CAL. Et tu mecastor salve, Lysistrata. Sed quid conturbata es? exporge frontem, carissima: non enim te decent contracta supercilia. LYS. Sed, ô Calonice, uritur mihi cor, et valde me piget sexus nostri, quoniam viri existimant[1] nos esse nequam. CAL. Quippe tales pol sumus. LYS. Quumque edictum illis fuerit huc convenire, deliberaturis de re non levi, dormiunt, nec veniunt. CAL. 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. LYS. Sed erant magis necessaria curanda ipsis. CAL. Quid autem est, mea Lysistrata, cur nos mulieres convocas? Quænam illa res est aut quanta? LYS. Magna.[PG2] CAL. Num etiam crassa? LYS. Ita me servet Jupiter, crassa. CAL. Quî fit ergo, ut non veniamus? LYS. Nihil tale est: cito enim convenissemus. Sed est quiddam a me quæsitum, multis vigiliis in omnes partes versatum. CAL. Mirabor, ni subtile quid sit versatum istud in omnes partes. LYS. Adeo subtile, ut universæ Græciæ salus sita sit in mulieribus. CAL. In mulieribus? Parum ergo abest, quin nulla sit. LYS. Ita ut arbitri nostri sit, salvam esse rempublicam, aut nullos superesse, nec Peloponnesios— CAL. Nullos superesse edepol optimum[2] est. LYS. Bœotiosque omnes perire funditus. CAL. Non omnes, quæso; sed anguillas excipe.[PG3] LYS. De Athenis autem nil tale ominabor: tu ipsa conjecturam facias.[3] Si vero convenerint huc mulieres ex Bœotia simul et Peloponneso, nosque Atticæ, communiter servabimus Græciam. CAL. Sed quid possent mulieres prudenter agere et præclare? nosne, quæ sedemus pigmentis nitentes, ornamentis excultæ, crocotas gestantes, et Cimbericas rectas, et peribaridas? LYS. Immo enimvero hæc ipsa sunt, a quibus salutem spero; crocotulæ, et unguenta, et peribarides, et anchusa, et pellucidæ tunicæ. CAL. Quo tandem modo? LYS. Ita ut illorum, qui nunc vivunt, virorum contra alium hastam nemo tollat. CAL. Crocotam ergo, ita me Ceres amet et Proserpina, mihi tingendam curabo. LYS. Nec clypeum sumat. CAL. Cimbericam induam. LYS. Nec gladiolum. CAL. Peribaridas emam. LYS. Annon ergo adesse mulieres oportebat? CAL. Quin pol volando venisse oportuit dudum. LYS. Sed, pro dolor! videbis eas esse nimis Atticas, dum omnia faciunt justo tardius.[PG4] At nec ex maritimis ulla mulier adest, nec ex Salamine.[PG5] CAL. Sed has scio in celocibus trajecisse matutinas. LYS. Nec, quas sperabam et confidebam ego primas hic adfore, Acharnenses mulieres veniunt.[PG6] CAL. Attamen Theagenis uxor,[PG7] tanquam horsum venire cupiens Hecatæ simulacrum consuluit. [_Several women enter, headed by Myrrhina, from the village of Anagyrus. Others soon follow._ Sed ecce accedunt quædam: item aliæ etiam. Hem, hem! undenam sunt? LYS. Ex Anagyro. CAL. Edepol ut dicis. Anagyrus[PG8] ergo mihi videtur commotus. MYRR. Num tardius advenimus, ô Lysistrata? quid ais? cur taces? LYS. Non laudo, Myrrhina, modo advenientem in re tanta. MYRR. Vix enim in tenebris cingulum inveni, sed, si res urget, fare præsentibus nobis. LYS. Immo potius opperiamur paulisper, dum Bœotiæ et Peloponnesiæ mulieres veniant. MYRR. Multo tu rectius dicis: et ecce jam hæc Lampito accedit. [_Lampito, a Spartan woman, enters, accompanied by her friends._ LYS. O carissima Lacæna, salve Lampito. Quam formosa videris, ô dulcissima! quam pulchro colore, quam vegeto es corpore! vel taurum strangulare possis. LAMP. Næ istuc ecastor credo, siquidem corpus exerceo, et subsultans pede podicem ferio.[PG9] LYS. Quam bellas habes papillas![4] LAMP. Tanquam victimam pertractatis me.[5] LYS. Hæc autem adolescentula altera, cujas est? LAMP. Primaria ecastor femina Bœotia venit ad vos. LYS. Pol Bœotia est, pulchrumque habens campum. CAL. Et pol mundum, vulso pulegio.[PG10] LYS. Quænam vero est illa altera puella? LAMP. Bona quidem ecastor, sed Corinthia. LYS. Bona edepol videtur, ut illic esse solent.[PG11] LAMP. Jam vero quis congregavit mulierum hunc cœtum? LYS. Ipsa ego. LAMP. Dic igitur nobis, quid velis. LYS. Ita sane, carissima. MYRR. Dic tandem quodnam sit serium illud negotium. LYS. Jam dicam. Sed priusquam dicam, vos hoc interrogabo pauxillum quidpiam. MYRR. Quidquid voles. LYS. Liberorum vestrorum patres nonne desideratis absentes in milita? Sat enim scio unicuique vostrûm peregre abesse virum. CAL. Meus quidem vir jam quinque menses, ô miser, abest in Thracia observans Eucratem.[PG12] LYS. Meus vero totos sex menses ad Pylum.[PG13] LAMP. Meus autem, si quando ab exercitu redeat, mox adnexo sibi clypeo evolat. LYS. 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? MYRR. Per Deas juro me velle, si me oporteat vel encyclum hocce opponere pignori, sumtamque pecuniam hoc ipso die ebibere.[PG14] CAL. Ego vero mihi videor vel rhombi instar meipsam dissectura, et dimidium mei datura. LAMP. Ego vero vel ad Taygetum[PG15] ascenderem, si ibi Pacem sim visura. LYS. Dicam ergo; siquidem res celanda non est. Nobis enim, ô mulieres, si volumus cogere viros ad colendam pacem, abstinendum est— MYRR. Quo? dic. LYS. Facietisne ergo? MYRR. Faciemus, si vel nos mori oporteat. LYS. 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? MYRR. Non fecerim, sed bellum serpat. CAL. Nec edepol ego, sed bellum serpat. LYS. Hoccine dicis tu, rhombe? atqui modo aiebas te vel dimidium tui abscissuram. CAL. 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. LYS. Tu vero, quid? LAMP. (MYRR.) Et ego volo per ignem. LYS. O libidinosum sexum omnem nostrum! non temere est, quod de nobis fiunt Tragœdiæ: nihil enim sumus, nisi _Neptunus et scapha_.[PG16] Sed, ô cara Lacæna (tu enim si fueris sola mecum, perditam[6] rem adhuc restituere poterimus) adsentire mihi. LAMP. Per ecastor[PG17] difficile est feminas dormire solas sine mentula. Hoc tamen perpeti oportet: nam pacem fieri oportet maxime. LYS. O carissima et sola harum femina. MYRR. (CAL.) Si autem, quod absit, quam maxime abstineamus a quo tu dicis, magisne eapropter fiet pax? LYS. Multo magis, ita me ament Divæ. Si enim domi sederemus pigmentis oblitæ et in amorginis[PG18] subucilis nudæ insederemus glabro cunno, arrigerent viri, et coire cuperent: nos autem si non accederemus, at nos contineremus, sat scio mox pacem eos facturos. LAMP. Sane Menelaus olim conspectis, ut puto, Helenæ nudis papillis, ensem abjecit. MYRR. (CAL.) Quid vero, ô misella, si nos omiserint viri? LYS. Tum istud Pherecratis adhibe, _Canem excoriatum excoriare_.[PG19] MYRR. (CAL.) Nugæ sunt ista simulacra. Si vero comprehensas in cubiculum vi traxerint nos? LYS. Renitere apprehensis foribus. MYRR. (CAL.) At si verberent? LYS. 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. MYRR. (CAL.) Si vobis hoc videtur, nobis itidem videtur. LAMP. 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? LYS. Ne sis sollicita: nos, quod in nobis erit, nostratibus persuadebimus. LAMP. Nequicquam, quamdiu in triremes conferentur studia, et in Divæ æde adservabitur immensa illa pecuniæ vis. LYS. 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. LAMP. Omnino fieri possit: etenim sic bene autumas. LYS. Cur ergo non hæc quamprimum, ô Lampito, jurejurando confirmamus, ut irrupta sint? LAMP. Jusjurandum modo concipito, ut juremus. LYS. Recte autumas. Ubi est Scythæna?[PG20] quo spectas? Pone in conspectu clypeum supinum: et mihi det hostias aliquis. MYRR. (CAL.) Lysistrata, quo sacramento nos adstringes? LYS. Quonam? In clypeum, ut Æschylum aiunt fecisse quondam, ove mactata—[PG21] MYRR. (CAL.) Ne, quæso, mea Lysistrata, juraveris in clypeum quicquam super pace. LYS. Quodnam erit ergo jusjurandum? MYRR. (CAL.) Si sumtum alicunde album equum immolemus, et super eo juremus. LYS. Quorsum album equum? MYRR. (CAL.) Sed quomodo jurabimus nos? LYS. (MYRR.) Edepol tibi dicam, si velis. Collocato supino grandi calice nigro, in eum immolemus Thasii[PG22] vini urceum, et juremus aquam[7] in calicem nos non infusuras. LAMP. Dii boni, quale juramentum! dicere nequeam quantum illum probem.[L1] Intus efferat aliquis foras calicem et urceum. [_A maiden brings out a jar of wine and an immense cup._ LYS. O carissimæ mulieres, quanta vis fictilium! hoc sumto calice statim quis hilarabitur:[L2] [_to the servant_] eum depone, et hostiam mihi prehende. O Suada domina, et amicitiæ phiala, propitia mulieribus accipe hæc sacra. [_The servant pours the wine into the cup, the women all pressing round to see._ MYRR. (CAL.) Boni coloris est sanguis et pulchre profluit. LAMP. Quin etiam, ita me Castor amet, suave olet. LYS. (MYRR.) Sinite primam me, ô mulieres, jurare. MYRR. (CAL.) Non, per Venerem; nisi sortita fueris. LYS. 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—_ MYRR. (CAL.) _Nec adulter, nec vir ullus est._ LYS. _Qui ad me accedet rigente nervo._ Dic. MYRR. (CAL.) _Qui ad me accedet rigente nervo._ Papæ! labant genua mea, o Lysistrata. LYS. _Domi casta degam ætatem—_ MYRR. (CAL.) _Domi casta degam ætatem._ LYS. _Crocotam gestans et comta—_ MYRR. (CAL.) _Crocotam gestans et comta._ LYS. _Ut meus vir quam maxime incendatur—_ MYRR. (CAL.) _Ut meus vir quam maxime incendatur._ LYS. _Nec unquam sponte viro meo morem geram—_ MYRR. (CAL.) _Nec unquam sponte viro meo morem geram._ LYS. _Si vero me invitam vi cogat—_ MYRR. (CAL.) _Si vero me invitam vi cogat._ LYS. _Maligne ei præbebo et motus non addam._ MYRR. (CAL.) _Maligne ei præbebo et motus non addam._ LYS. _Non tollam calceos sursum ad lacunar._ MYRR. (CAL.) _Non tollam calceos sursum ad lacunar._ LYS. _Non conquiniscam instar leœnæ in cultri manubrio._ MYRR. (CAL.) _Non conquiniscam instar leœnæ in cultri manubrio._ LYS. _Hæc si rata habeam, liceat mihi hinc bibere._ MYRR. (CAL.) _Hæc si rata habeam, liceat mihi, hinc bibere._ LYS. _Si vero transgrediar, aqua impleatur calix._ MYRR. (CAL.) _Si vero transgrediar, aqua impleatur calix._ LYS. Vosne omnes jurejurando hæc firmatis? CAL. (MYRR.) Ita, per Jovem. LYS. Age, ego sacrificabo hanc hostiam. [_Lysistrata takes the wine-cup in her hand._ MYRR. (CAL.) Partem modo, ô cara, ut statim ab initio amicæ inter nos simus. [_A sound of persons cheering is heard in the distance._ LAMP. Quis ille clamor? LYS. 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. MYRR. (CAL.) Nonne putatis contra nos suppetias venturos mox viros? LYS. Flocci eos non facio.[8] Non enim tantas minas, nec tantum ignem ferentes venient, ut claustra hæc reserare possint, nisi ea, qua diximus, conditione. MYRR. (CAL.) Nunquam certe, ita me Venus amet. Frustra enim nos mulieres vocaremur invictæ et scelestæ. [_The crowd now disperses: Lampito leaving for her homeward journey, and the others disappearing through the gates of the Proyplaea. After a pause the Chorus of Men [Transcriber: CHORUS SENUM] are seen slowly approaching from the Lower City. They are carrying heavy logs of firewood, and a jar of lighted cinders; and as they move, they sing their entrance song._ CHORUS SENUM, CHORUS MULIERUM, STRATYLLIS, PROVISOR, MULIERES QUÆDAM. CHOR. SEN. Perge, Draces;[PG23] præi pedetentim, etsi dolet tibi humerus, ferenti tantum onus virentis olivæ. SEMICH. (CHOR. SEN.) Profecto multa præter spem eveniunt in longa ætate. Vah! quis enim unquam sperasset, ô Stymmodore, se auditurum, ut mulieres, quas pavimus domi, malum manifestum, obtinerent sacrum simulacrum, et occuparent arcem meam, pessulisque et claustris vestibulum occluderent? SEMICH. (CHOR. SEN.) Sed quam citissime properemus ad arcem ire, ô Philurge, ut circumponentes hos caudices ipsis, quotquot hoc facinus instituerunt et aggressæ sunt, pyra una aggesta, incendamus nostris manibus omnes, uno animo: inprimis autem Lyconis uxorem. Non enim, ita mihi Ceres propitia sit, quoad ego vixero, nobis illudent. Nam nec Cleomenes,[PG24] qui arcem prius occupavit, abivit sine malo suo: sed is, licet Laconicos spiritus gerens, abscessit, armis mihi traditis, exiguam plane et detritam habens lacernam, squalidus, sordidatus, hirsutus, inde a sex annis illotus. Ita oppugnavi ego virum illum tamen, per sedecim ordines disposito exercitu, dormiens ad portas. Harum vero, quæ Euripidi et diis omnibus invisæ sunt, ego non reprimam præsens audaciam tantam? Ne ergo amplius in Tetrapoli meum sit tropæum. Sed enim hoc mihi viæ conficiendum superest, acclive istud spatium, ad arcem, quo propero; et danda opera, ut protelo ducamus hæc ligna sine jumento; nam mihi bajularii vectes humerum comprimunt. Attamen ire oportet, et sufflare ignem, ne forte extinctus imprudentem me deficiat, quum ad finem viæ pervenero. Fu, Fu. Dii boni, qui fumus! Quam vehemens, ô dive Hercules, adoriens me ex olla, uti rabiosus canis, mordet mihi oculos! Et est Lemnius[PG25] ignis iste omnino: non enim alioqui morsu sic læsisset gramias meas. Festina ad arcem et fer opem Divæ: quando enim ei magis quam nunc succurremus? Fu, fu. Dii boni, qui fumus! Istic quidem ignis deûm favore vigilat et vivit. Quidni ergo, depositis hic vectibus, viteam facem in ollam immittimus, accendimus, et in januam arietamus? Et nisi, quum eas vocabimus, arcis claustra laxent mulieres, incendere oportet fores, et fumo premere. Deponamus jam onus. Vah! quantus fumus! papæ! Quis e Samiæ expeditionis ducibus nobis opitulabitur, manumque vectibus admovebit?[PG26] Desierunt tandem illi dorsum meum premere. At tuum est, olla, carbones excitare: fac tædam incensam quamprimum mihi feras. Diva Victoria ades, daque nobis, ut mulierum, quæ arcem tenent, præsentem istam audaciam reprimamus, et tropæum erigamus. [_During the last few lines the Men have been completing their preparations, and the air above them is now growing lurid with the smoke and the flame of their torches. As the Men relapse into silence, the voices of Women are heard in the distance. They come sweeping round from the north side of the Acropolis, carrying their pitchers of water, and singing, in turn, their entrance song. The two Choruses are for the present concealed from each other by the north-western angle of the Acropolis._ CHOR. MUL. Flammam et fumum videor mihi cernere, ô mulieres, tanquam ardentis ignis: festinandum est ocius.[9] [PG27] SEMICH. (CHOR. MUL.) Vola, vola, Nicodice, priusquam incendantur Calyca et Critylla, flatu undique oppressæ, a legibus durissimis et perditis senibus. SEMICH. (CHOR. MUL.) At hoc timeo: num tardiore gradu succurro? nam, postquam primo diluculo urnam e fonte ægre implevi, ob turbam et tumultum et strepitum ollarum, inter ancillas stigmatiasque servos pulsata, raptim sublata urna, popularibus meis adustis nunc demum aquam ferens succurro. Audivi enim capulares senes, stipites ferentes, tanquam balneum calefacturos, trium circiter talentûm pondere, impetu ad arcem ire, atrocissimis verbis minaciter dicentes, comburendas esse sceleratas mulieres: quas, ô Diva, ne videam ego ambustas unquam, sed Græciam et cives nostros earum opera bello et furore liberatos. Eapropter, aurea galea fulgens urbis Præses, tuas sedes occuparunt: teque voco adjutricem, si quis illas vir incenderit, ut feras nobiscum aquam. [_At this juncture the Women wheel round the corner of the Acropolis, and the two Choruses suddenly meet face to face._ STRAT. (CHOR. MUL.) Omitte, oh! quid hoc est, viri improbissimi? Nunquam enim probi, aut pii hoc fecissent viri! CHOR. SEN. Hanc rem inexpectatam cernimus nobis evenire: mulierum examen foribus[10] succurrit. CHOR. MUL. Quid nos formidatis? numquid multæ videmur esse? atqui partem nostrûm decem-millesimam nondum videtis. CHOR. SEN. O Phædria, hasce garrire tam multa sinemus? nonne oportet aliquem nostrûm has verberando baculum frangere? CHOR. MUL. Deponamus jam urnas nos etiam humi, ut ne impedimento mihi sit, si quis manum admoverit. CHOR. SEN. Næ hercle, si quis jam maxillas istarum, tanquam Bupali,[PG28] bis aut ter tutudisset, vocem non haberent. CHOR. MUL. Atqui en, tundat aliquis: stans ego os præbebo, et nunquam alia canis testiculis te prehendet. CHOR. SEN. Ni taces, verberando te senectutis meæ vires exhauriam. CHOR. MUL. Accede modo, et digito tange Stratyllida. CHOR. SEN. Quid, si contundam eam pugnis? quid mihi facies mali? CHOR. MUL. Mordicus tibi pulmones et intestina extraham. CHOR. SEN. Non est Euripide poëta sapientior. Nullum enim animal æque impudens est, atque mulieres. CHOR. MUL. Tollamus nos aquæ urnam, ô Rhodippe. CHOR. SEN. Cur tu, ô diis invisa, huc venisti cum aqua? CHOR. MUL. Tu vero cur cum igne, senex Acheruntice? an ut teipsum combusturus?[11] CHOR. SEN. Ego, ut aggesta pyra incendam tuas amicas. CHOR. MUL. Ego vero, ut tuam pyram ista restinguam aqua. CHOR. SEN. Tu meum ignem restinguas? CHOR. MUL. Res ipsa mox indicabit. CHOR. SEN. Nescis, an ista lampade mox te ustulem? CHOR. MUL. Si forte sordes habes, balneum tibi præbebo. CHOR. SEN. Tu mihi balneum, obsoleta? CHOR. MUL. Et quidem nuptiale. CHOR. SEN. Audistin' ejus audaciam? CHOR. MUL. Enimvero libera sum. CHOR. SEN. Reprimam ego tibi hunc clamorem. CHOR. MUL. Sed non amplius judex in Heliæa sedebis.[PG29] CHOR. SEN. Incende comas ejus. CHOR. MUL. Tuæ sunt partes, ô Acheloë. CHOR. SEN. Væ misero mihi! CHOR. MUL. Num calida erat? CHOR. SEN. Quid calida? nonne desines? quid facis? CHOR. MUL. Irrigo te, ut regermines. CHOR SEN. Sed aridus jam sum et tremulus. CHOR. MUL. Itaque, quum ignem habeas, teipsum tepefacies. [_At this crisis the tumult is stayed for an instant by the appearance on the stage of a venerable official personage, one of the Magistrates [Transcriber: PROVISOR] who, after the Sicilian catastrophe, were appointed, under the name of Probuli, to form a Directory or Committee of Public Safety. He is attended by four Scythian archers, part of the ordinary police of the Athenian Republic. The Women retire into the background._ PROV. Satin' emicuit mulierum luxuria, et tympanorum pulsatio, et frequentes Bacchationes, et illa in ædium tectis Adonia[PG30] celebrantium lamenta, quæ ego, quum essem in concione,[PG31] audiebam. Demostratus[PG32] enim, dignus ille hercle qui male pereat, dicebat navigandum esse in Siciliam: mulier autem tripudians, _hei, hei, Adoni_, inquit. Porro Demostratus dicebat milites gravis armaturæ esse conscribendos e Zacyntho:[PG33] mulier autem in tecto temulenta, _Plangite Adonin_, ait. Contra omni studio enitebatur diis invisus ille et scelestus Cholozyges.[PG34] Tales earum sunt obscenæ cantilenæ. CHOR. SEN. Quid, si audias harum insolentiam? quæ tum aliis contumeliis nos adfecerunt, tum etiam effusis urnis nos lavarunt, ita ut vestes nobis quatiendæ sint, tanquam si imminxissemus. PROV. Merito sane, ita me Neptunus amet marinus. Quum enim nos adjutores simus nequitiæ mulierum, easque luxuriam doceamus, hujusmodi nascuntur ab illis consilia. Qui talia dicimus in officinis opificum: _O aurifex, monili, quod fabricaveras uxori meæ, dum ea vesperi saltabat, glans excidit ex foramine; mihi quidem navigandum est in Salaminem: tu autem, si vacat, quovis pacto circa vesperam veni, et ei glandem inferas._[12] Porro alius quispiam hæc ad sutorem dicit, juvenem, et qui penem habet haudquaquam puerilem: _O sutor, uxoris meæ pedis digitulum premit corrigia, utpote tenellum: hanc itaque tu meridie veniens, laxa, ut latior fiat._ Talia ex istis evenire solent, siquidem ego, qui Provisor sum, quum nunc, scriptis remigibus, pecunia opus sit, portis excludor a mulieribus.[PG35] Sed nihil proderit ad hunc modum stetisse: cedo vectes, ut illarum contumeliam retundam. [_He turns to the Scythians, who, instead of setting to work, are poking idly around them._ Quid obstupescis, miser? Tu etiam, quo respicis, qui nihil præter cauponam spectas, nonne admotis ad portas vectibus eas istinc revellitis? hinc ego etiam simul vellam. [_The gates are thrown open, and Lysistrata comes out._ LYS. Ne revellite: ultro enim ipsa exeo. Quid vectibus est opus? non enim tam vectibus opus est, quam sana mente. PROV. Siccine vero impurissima? ubi est Sagittarius? comprehende istam, et manus ei post tergum liga. LYS. Per Dianam juro, extremam mihi si manum admoverit, publicus sit licet minister, flebit.[13] PROV. Heus tu, pavesne? nonne corripies mediam, tuque cum isto una, et properabitis ligare? STRAT. (CAL.) Per Pandroson juro, si huic tantum manum injicies, mox cacabis calcatus. PROV. Ecce vero _cacabis!_ Ubi est alter sagittarius? Hanc primam constringe, quia occepit loqui. LYS. (MYRR.) Per Luciferam Dianam juro, si hanc digito attigeres,[14] cyathum mox petes. PROV. Quid hoc est? ubi sagittarius? hanc retine. Faxo ego, ut desinatis huc exire. STRAT. Per Tauricam Dianam juro, si ad hanc accesseris, evellam tibi capillos cum largo tuo fletu. PROV. Heu me miserum! deseruit me sagittarius, sed mulieribus cedere prorsus nos dedecet. Quin instructa acie obviam eis eamus, ô Scythæ. LYS. Edepol ergo experiemini et apud nos intus esse quatuor cohortes pugnacium mulierum armis instructarum. PROV. Retorquete manus earum, ô Scythæ. LYS. O sociæ mulieres, procurrite foras: ô quæ in foro semina, ova et olera venditis: ô cauponæ, quæ allia et panes venditis, nonne trahetis, nonne ferietis, nonne propulsabitis, nonne conviciabimini, nonne impudenter agetis? [_The Women come forward. After a short struggle the archers are routed._ desinite, recedite, spolia ne detrahite. PROV. Hei mihi! quam male res successit meis sagittariis! LYS. Sed quidnam arbitrabaris? an ancillas aggredi te putasti? aut mulieribus bilem inesse non existimas? PROV. Immo hercle perquam multam, si prope sit caupo. CHOR. SEN. O qui multa incassum verba effudisti, Provisor hujus urbis, cur cum hisce bestiis verbis velitationi te committis? nescis quali balneo istæ nos modo laverint indutos vestibus, idque sine lixivio. CHOR. MUL. Sed, ô bone, non oportet aliis temere admovere manum: sin hoc feceris, omnino tibi tumebunt oculi. Modeste enim ego, tanquam virgo, sedere volo, nemini hîc molestiam adferens, ne festucam quidem loco movens, dum ne quis me premat et irritet tanquam crabrones. CHOR. SEN. O Jupiter! quid faciemus istis bestiis? hæc enim sunt intolerabilia. Sed inquirendum tibi mecum est in hoc malum, quid volentes Cranaam[PG36] occupaverint, curque petricosam inaccessam arcem, sacrum templum. Sed interroga et ne crede, et adhibe omnia argumenta. Turpe enim nobis inexploratam rem ejusmodi sinere nostra negligentia. [_The field is now open for a suspension of hostilities, and a parley takes place between the leaders of the two contending factions._ PROV. Equidem hercle hoc primum cupio ex ipsis quærere: quid volentes arcem nostram repagulis occlusistis? LYS. Ut pecuniam salvam præstaremus, nec propter eam bellaretis. PROV. Propter pecuniam ergo bellamus? LYS. Quin cetera omnia turbata sunt. Pisander[PG37] enim, et qui magistratus ambiunt, ut habeant quod depeculentur, semper aliquas turbas concitare solent. Jam vero faciant quidquid libuerit: nam ex ista pecunia nihil amplius deproment. PROV. Quid facies ergo? LYS. Rogas? Nos eam dispensabimus. PROV. Vosne pecuniam dispensabitis? LYS. Quid mirum tibi videtur? nonne utique domi penum omnem vobis dispensamus? PROV. Sed non eadem res est. LYS. Quomodo non eadem? PROV. Hinc bellum gerendum est. LYS. At primum nihil opus est belligerare. PROV. Quonam ergo alio modo servabimur? LYS. Nos servabimus vos. PROV. Vosne? LYS. Nos vero. PROV. Indignum hoc quidem. LYS. Servaberis tamen, etiamsi nolis. PROV. Rem atrocem dicis. LYS. Stomacharis: attamen hoc tibi faciendum est. PROV. Per Cererem, iniquum est. LYS. Habenda salus est, ô bone. PROV. Et si non opus mihi sit ea? LYS. Eapropter multo magis. PROV. Sed vobis unde in mentem venit, ut bellum et pacem curaretis? LYS. Id vobis dicemus. PROV. Dic igitur ocius, ne plores. LYS. Ausculta jam, et conator manus comprimere. PROV. Sed non possum: mihi enim præ iracundia difficile est eas cohibere. LYS. (STRAT.) Ergo multo magis plorabis. PROV. Istuc quidem, ô vetula, tuo capiti crocitaveris: tu vero mihi quæ ad rem sint dicito. LYS. Hoc agam. Superiore quidem bello et tempore tulimus patienter modestia nostra vos viros, quidquid ageretis; non enim sinebatis nos mutire, postea non placebatis nobis: sed sentiebamus satis quid ageretis: domique sæpe audivimus vos magnis de rebus mala consilia cepisse. Deinde interno dolore ægræ cum risu interrogabamus vos: _Quid vobis hodie in concione constitutum est columnæ inscribere de pace?_ Tum[15] vir, _Quid hoc ad te_, aiebat, _nonne tacebis_? Et ego tacebam. MUL. QUÆD. (STRAT.) At ego nunquam tacuissem. PROV. At plorasses, nisi tacuisses. LYS. Ego vero domi tacebam. Audito forte alio quo deteriori consilio vestro, quærere solebamus: _Mi vir, quî fit, ut hæc tam stulte agatis?_ At ille statim limis me intuens dicebat: _Nisi subtemen neveris, dolebit tibi caput diu: bellum autem curabunt viri._ PROV. Recte quidem ille hercle dicebat. LYS. Quonam modo _recte_, ô perdite, si nobis nec submonere vos licuit, prava consilia agitantes? sed quum jam vos audiremus per compita palam dicentes: _Non est vir in urbe, non hercle quisquam est alius;_ posthæc statim Græciam servare communiter visum est mulieribus congregatis: cur enim fuisset diutius expectandum? Si igitur nobis meliora suadentibus vicissim volueritis auscultare et vicissim tacere, ut nos tunc, fieri possit, ut vos restituamus. PROV. Vosne nos restituatis? sane acerbum dictu et intolerabile. LYS. Tace. PROV. Tuone jussu, ô scelesta, taceam ego? idque præsertim quum flammeo caput obtectum habeas? emori me malim. LYS. Sed si istuc solum tibi est impedimento, flammeum hocce a me acceptum circumpone capiti tuo, deinde tace. Hunc etiam sume calathum, et succinctus lanam carpe, fabas esitans: _bellum autem curabunt mulieres._[L3] [_During the foregoing lines the Women have been arraying the Magistrate in the garb and with the apparatus of a spinning-woman: just as in the corresponding system, below, they bedeck him in the habiliments of a corpse._ CHOR. MUL. Recedite, ô mulieres, ab urnis, ut et nos vicissim amicis nostris opitulemur. Ego enim nunquam defetiscar saltando, neque lassitudo molesta capiet genua mea: voloque adire omne periculum cum istis, virtutis causa, quibus inest ingenium, inest gratia, inest audacia, inest et sapientia, inest addicta reipublicæ virtus cum prudentia conjuncta. Sed ô fortissimarum aviarum, et tactu urentium matercularum progenies, ite animo ardenti et ne mitescite: nam adhuc secundo vento curritis. LYS. Sed si Cupido ille dulcis, et Cypria Venus, amorem vobis in sinum et in femina inspiraverit; deinde vero si viris tentiginem jucundam ingeneraverit, ut quasi baculos penes erigant, spero fore aliquando, ut _Lysimachæ_ a Græcis vocitemur. PROV. Quodnam ob facinus? LYS. Si effecerimus, ut desinant cum armis in foro versari et insanire. MUL. QUÆD. (STRAT.) Maxime,[16] ita me Paphia Venus amet. LYS. Nunc enim et qua ollæ, et qua venduntur olera, obambulant per forum cum armis, quasi Corybantes.[PG38] PROV. Ita hercle: sic enim fortes decet. LYS. Profecto res est ridicula, si quis clypeum Gorgonis capite insignitum tenens, emat coracinos. MUL. QUÆD. (STRAT.) Vidi equidem ecastor comatum quemdam equitum tribunum,[PG39] qui equo insidens in æreum pileum injiciebat ovum a vetula sumtum. Thrax vero alius peltam quatiens et jaculum, uti Tereus,[PG40] terrefaciebat caricarum venditricem, et ficus maturas deglutiebat. PROV. Quomodo igitur poteritis vos turbatas res multas sedare, et dissolvere in regionibus? LYS. Perfacile. PROV. Quomodo? ostende. LYS. Sicuti fila, quum nobis sunt turbata, sic prehendimus, et subducimus fusis hac et illac; ita et bellum istud dissolvemus, si quis sinat, diducentes id per legationes hac et illac. PROV. Ex lana ergo et filis et fusis res periculosas, ô fatuæ, vos putatis sedaturas? LYS. Et vos, si vobis aliquid inesset sanæ mentis, ex nostro lanificio sumto exemplo rempublicam administraretis. PROV. Quidum? fac videam. LYS. Primum quidem oportebat vos, tanquam lanam in balneo, eluentes sordes, homines nequam præcipites ex urbe virgis expellere, et tribulos seligere; et istos qui inter se cohærent, et sese trudunt, magistratus affectantes, distrahere, eorumque capita defloccare: deinde omnes in calathum carminare communem benevolentiam, immiscendo et inquilinos, et si quis hospes aut amicus sit vobis; et si quis debeat ærario, hos quoque immiscendo. Quin etiam urbes, quas deducti ex hac terra coloni tenent, scire vos oportebat veluti glomeres quosdam nobis jacere, seorsum singulas: deinde ab istis omnibus sumere oportebat filum, hucque adducere, et omnia in unum cogere, deinde facere glomerem magnum, et ex eo texere Populo lænam. PROV. Nonne indignum est hæc istas lanæ instar purgare et glomerare, quæ belli minime participes sunt? LYS. Atqui, ô sceleratissime, plusquam duplum id ferimus, quæ primum quidem peperimus filios, et armatos emisimus. PROV. Tace: noli meminisse malorum.[PG41] LYS. Deinde, quando oportet nos oblectari, et flore ætatis frui, solæ cubamus ob militiam. At quod nostra intersit mittite: discrucior vero propter virgines in thalamis consenescentes. PROV. Non ergo et viri senescunt? LYS. Edepol longe diversum est quod dicis. Vir enim peregre adveniens, etiamsi canus sit, cito puellam ducit virginem: mulieris autem brevis est opportunitas, quam nisi apprehendat, nemo vult eam ducere: sedet autem omnia captans. PROV. Sed quicunque senex penem adhuc arrigere valet— LYS. Tu ergo cur non moreris? morti tempestivus es. Sandapilam emes: utique mellitam tibi placentam pinsam. Sume hanc corollam et cinge caput. MUL. I. (CAL.) Et istas vittas accipe a me. MUL. II. (MYRR.) Et hanc cape coronam. LYS. Quid tibi deest? quid desideras? Vade in navem; te Charon vocat: in mora es, quominus in altum provehatur. PROV. Nonne acerbum est hoc me pati? sed mehercle certum est ad collegas ire cum isto ornatu, et meipsum iis ostendere. LYS. Num expostulas, quod te non collocavimus?[PG42] sed post tertium diem a nobis venient tibi summo mane tridualia parata.[PG43] [_The Magistrate runs off in his grave-clothes to complain of and exhibit the treatment he has received. Lysistrata and her friends withdraw into the Acropolis. The two Choruses remain without, and relieve the tedium of the siege with a little banter._ CHOR. SEN. Non amplius decet dormire, quicunque est liber; sed accingamus nos, viri, ad hoc negotium. Jam enim hæc res plura et majora olere facinora mihi videtur: et præcipue odoror Hippiæ tyrannidem;[PG44] metuoque valde, ne Lacones aliqui viri huc convenerint in Clisthenis domum, et has diis invisas mulieres dolo incitent, ut occupent opes nostras, et mercedem, unde ego victitabam.[PG45] Indignum enim est ab istis admoneri cives, easque, mulieres quum sint, loqui de æreo clypeo, et insuper nobiscum agere de pace cum Laconibus, quibus non plus inest fidei, quam hianti lupo. Sed, ô viri, hæc illæ texuerunt ad tyrannidem occupandam. At enim nunquam mihi dominabuntur, siquidem cavebo, et _gestabo gladium deinceps in myrti ramo_, et in foro stabo armatus prope Aristogitonem.[PG46] Hoc modo autem stabo juxta ipsum: ipse enim mihi auctor est, ut hujus diis invisæ vetulæ percutiam maxillam. CHOR. MUL. At vos domum ingressos ne mater ipsa agnoverit. Sed, ô carissimæ vetulæ, primum hæc humi deponamus. Nos enim, ô cives, orationem exordimur civitati utilem; atque adeo merito: nam illa in deliciis splendide educavit me. Septem annos nata statim arcana in Minervæ pompa gestavi: deinde molitrix fui:[PG47] tum decennis, Dianæ dominæ, fluenti crocota amicta, Brauroniis consecrata fui: demum adulta virgo canistrum gestavi,[PG48] habens caricarum catenam. Numquid ego debeo civitati suadere utilia? licet autem femina nata sim, absit invidia, si meliora præsentibus adferam: nam symbolæ etiam ego particeps sum, quippe quæ viros in commune adfero: vobis autem miseris senibus nulla hujus pars est. Nam symbolam avorum, quæ dicitur, collatam ex Medorum spoliis,[PG49] quum consumseritis, non vicissim adfertis tributa: sed insuper etiam periculum est, ne a vobis perdamur. Num ergo mutire licet vobis? Si autem molestus mihi eris, crudo hoc cothurno buccam tibi percutiam. CHOR. SEN. Annon hæc contumelia est magna? quin et incrementum res captura mihi videtur magis. Sed obviam ire oportet huic malo, quicunque coleatus est vir. Sed exomidem exuamus. Nam vir debet olere statim virum, nec decet vestibus involutum esse. Sed agite lupipedes,[17] quicunque ad Lipsydrium[PG50] convenimus, quum adhuc essemus: nunc oportet, nunc adsumere rursus juvenile robur, et extollere totum corpus, et decutere senium hocce. Si enim quis nostrûm hisce vel exiguam ansam dederit, nihil remittent illæ ab adsiduo labore; verum et naves fabricabunt, et adhuc conabuntur navalibus præliis decertare, et contra nos navigare, ut Artemisia:[PG51] sin ad equitandum se convertant, deleo dehinc equites nostros ex catalogo. Nam equo maxime[18] gaudet, eique firmiter invehit mulier;[PG52] nec currente facile deciderit: specta sis Amazonas, quas Micon pinxit in equis pugnantes cum viris.[PG53] Sed istarum omnium in numellam indere hoc collum oportet. [_He seizes the neck of Stratyllis._ CHOR. MUL. Ecastor, si me irritassis, suem meam laxabo jam, et faxo hodie, ut vellicatus populares tuos inclames. Sed et nos, ô mulieres, ocius exuamur, ut oleamus feminas pertinaciter iratas. Nunc ad me veniat aliquis, ut ne amplius comedat allia neque fabas nigras. Nam si dixeris tantum male, sum enim valde irata, _aquilæ parienti scarabæus tibi ero obstetrix._[PG54] MUL. QUÆD. (CHOR. MUL.) Vos enim nihili faciam, si mihi vivat Lampito, et Thebana amica nobilis Ismenia. Non enim potis eris, nec si septies decreta facias, qui odio es, ô perdite, omnibus et vicinis. Nam et heri, quum Hecatæ festum ludicrum instituerem, liberis meis amicam arcessivi ex vicinia, puellam bonam et amabilem, Bœotiam anguillam: illi autem negarunt se missuros propter tua decreta. Nec unquam hujuscemodi decreta facere desinetis, priusquam vos aliquis crure arreptos in præceps dejiciat. CHORUS MULIERUM, LYSISTRATA, MULIERES QUÆDAM, CHORUS SENUM, SENEX QUIDAM. [_An interval of several days must here be supposed to elapse. The separation of the sexes has now become insupportable to both parties, and the only question is which side will hold out the longest. The Chorus of Women are alarmed at seeing Lysistrata come on the stage and walk up and down with an anxious and troubled air. The first twelve lines of the dialogue which ensues are borrowed and burlesqued from Euripides._ CHOR. MUL. Dux facinoris hujus et consili, cur mihi tristis exivisti ex ædibus? LYS. Malarum feminarum facta et muliebris animus anxiam me reddunt, et sursum deorsum agunt. CHOR. MUL. Quid ais? quid ais? LYS. Vera, vera. CHOR. MUL. Quid mali est? dic nobis, quæ amicæ tuæ sumus. LYS. Sed turpe est dicere, et difficile reticere. CHOR. MUL. Ne me celes, quid nobis evenerit male. LYS. Prurimus libidine, ut brevissime dicam. CHOR. MUL. Io Jupiter! LYS. Quid Jovem inclamas? hæc sane ita habent. Equidem eas abstinere non amplius possum a viris: aufugiunt enim. Primam quidem deprehendi foramen pertundentem,[19] ubi Panos est sacellum: aliam e trochlea sese devolventem: aliam vero transfugium parantem: porro unam, passeri insidentem, jam volare cogitantem deorsum in domum Orsilochi,[PG55] crinibus prehensam heri retraxi: omnesque prætextus extundunt domum abuendi. [_A woman is seen attempting to cross the stage._ Jam quædam earum venit. Heus tu, quorsum curris? MUL. I. [_hurriedly_] Domum ire volo: domi enim mihi est lana Milesia, quam tineæ rodunt. LYS. Quæ tineæ? nonne ibis retro? MUL. I. Sed cito revortar, per Divas juro, dummodo in lecto extendero— LYS. Ne extende, neque abeas usquam. MUL. I. Sed lanamne perire sinam? LYS. Ita, si necesse sit. [_A second woman now attempts to cross the stage._ MUL. II. Me miseram, me miseram, ob amorgidem, quam reliqui domi non decorticatam. LYS. En alia, ad amorgin non decorticatam quæ egreditur. [_To the second woman._] Redi huc. MUL. II. At per Luciferam juro, me actutum inde huc redituram, ubi eam decorticavero. LYS. Noli decorticare: nam si tu istuc inceptaveris, itidem alia mulier facere volet. [_Several women enter one after the other._ MUL. III. O diva Lucina, retine partum, donec in locum profanum ivero. LYS. Quid nugaris ita? MUL. III. Jamjam pariam. LYS. Atqui heri non eras prægnas. MUL. III. Verum hodie. Sed domum me ad obstetricem, ô Lysistrata, dimitte quam primum. LYS. Quam fabulam narras? quid habes hic duri? MUL. III. Masculum infantem. LYS. Non tu ecastor. Profecto ahenum habere quoddam videris cavum. Sciam modo. O ridicula! sacram galeam habes, et prægnatem te esse dicis. MUL. III. Et edepol prægnans[20] sum. LYS. Cur ergo hanc habebas? MUL. III. Ut, si me occupasset partus adhuc in arce, parerem in galeam istam ingressa, ut columbæ. LYS. Quid dicis? cur manifestæ rei verba prætendis? non lustricum galeæ diem hic expectabis? MUL. IV. At non possum amplius ne quidem dormire in arce, ex quo serpentem illum ædituum vidi. MUL. V. Ego vero misera pereo insomnia ob continuum titubantium[21] noctuarum clangorem. LYS. O scelestæ, mittite ficta ista portenta. Fortassis viros desideratis. Nos vero nonne putas illis desiderio esse? sat scio, molestas transigunt noctes. Sed, ô bonæ, sustinite fortiter, et durate paululum adhuc. Nobis enim editum est oraculo, superiores nos futuras, si seditionem inter nos non fecerimus. Sic autem habet oraculum. CHOR. MUL. (MUL. I-V.) Dic nobis quid dicat. LYS. Tacete jam. [_Lysistrata reads out the oracle._ _Sed quando hirundines trepidæ in unum locum convenerint epopas fugientes, abstinebuntque a mentulis, tum finis erit malorum, et summa faciet ima Jupiter altifremens._ CHOR. MUL. (MUL. I-V.) Supra jacebimus nos? LYS. _Sin dissidium fecerint, et avolarint e sacro templo hirundines, jam non videbitur avis ulla esse lascivior._ CHOR. MUL. (MUL. I-V.) Perspicuum edepol oraculum: ô Cœlites! ne jam despondeamus animum lassitudine, sed ingrediamur. Etenim turpe erit, ô carissimæ, si oraculo defuerimus. [_The women, with Lysistrata, re-enter the Acropolis. The two Choruses again indulge in an interchange of banter. The Men begin._ CHOR. SEN. Fabulam volo narrare quandam vobis, quam olim ipse puer audivi: sic autem habet. Erat adolescens quidam Melanion, qui fugiens nuptias abiit in deserta, et in montibus habitabat: deinde lepores venabatur, texens retia, et canem unum habebat. Nec amplius rediit domum, propter odium: adeo mulieres abominatus est ille. Nos vero non minus quam Melanion, qui sumus casti.[PG56] SEN. QUID. Volo te osculari, vetula. MUL. QUÆD. Non ergo cepam comedes. SEN. Et sublato crure te calce ferire. MUL. Silvam multam geris. SEN. Nam et Myronides erat hispidus illa parta, nigroque podice, timendus hostibus omnibus: sic etiam Phormio.[PG57] [_It is now the women's turn. The two systems are of course antistrophical._ CHOR. MUL. Et ego volo fabulam quandam vobis narrare Melanioni respondentem. Timon[PG58] quidam erat implacabilis, inaccessis spinis circumseptus faciem, Furiarum propago. Iste inquam Timon fugit propter odium, multa mala imprecatus improbis viris. Sic ille rursus vestrûm oderat malos viros semper: mulierum autem erat amantissimus. MUL. QUÆD. Visne buccam tibi percutiam? SEN. QUÆD. Haudquaquam timeo. MUL. Sed crure feriam. SEN. Cunnum ostendes. MUL. Sed tamen non videbis, licet vetula sim, eum crinitum, at deglabratum lucernæ flammula. LYSISTRATA, MULIERES QUÆDAM, MYRRHINA, CINESIAS, PUER, CHORUS SENUM. [_The two Choruses now retire into the background: and there is again a short pause. Suddenly the voice of Lysistrata is heard calling eagerly to her friends._ LYS. Io, io mulieres, venite huc ad me celeriter. MUL. I. Quid est? dic mihi, quis est iste clamor? LYS. Virum, virum video accedere furibundum, Veneris percitum orgiis. MUL. II. (MUL. I.) O diva, Cypri, et Cytherorum, et Paphi regina, perge recta via, quam institisti. MUL. I. Ubi est, quisquis est? LYS. Apud Cereris. MUL. I. Ecastor, næ est aliquis. Nam quis esse possit? LYS. Videte. Novitne aliqua vestrûm? MYRR. Pol equidem novi: et est meus vir Cinesias. LYS. Tuum sit munus torrere et versare illum, et decipere amando et non amando, et omnia præbere, præter illa, quorum conscius est calix. MYRR. Ne sollicita sis: faciam ista ego. LYS. Quin et ego hic manens una tecum decipiam et uram istum. Vos autem abite. [_The others withdraw, leaving Lysistrata alone upon the wall. Cinesias approaches underneath._ CIN. Hei mihi misero! quanta discrucior convulsione et tentigine, non secus ac si in rota torquear! LYS. Quis est iste, qui stat cis custodes? CIN. Ego. LYS. Vir? CIN. Vir utique. LYS. Nonne ergo hinc facesses? CIN. Tu vero quænam es, quæ me ejicis? LYS. Diurna speculatrix. CIN. Per deos ergo obsecro, evoca mihi Myrrhinam. LYS. Ecce vero! egone ut Myrrhinam tibi vocem? Tu autem, quis es? CIN. Vir illius, Pæonides Cinesias. LYS. O salve carissime: non enim obscurum apud nos est tuum nomen, nec ignobile; semper enim te in ore habet uxor tua, et si ovum aut malum sumat, _Cinesiæ sit hoc_, inquit. CIN. Dii vostram fidem! LYS. Ita est, per Venerem juro. Tum si de viris incidat sermo aliquis, statim dicere solet uxor tua, _cetera omnia nugas esse præ Cinesia._ CIN. Agedum voca ipsam. LYS. Quid? dabisne aliquid mihi? CIN. Equidem hercle illico si velis. Habeo autem istud: quod itaque habeo, do tibi. [_Gives money._ LYS. Descendam igitur, et vocabo eam tibi. [_Descends from the wall into the Acropolis._ CIN. Quam citissime ergo. Nam prorsus ingrata mihi vita est, ex quo exivit illa domo: atque intrare tædet: desolata mihi videntur omnia: neque unquam quicquam me juvat quod edo: nam riget mihi nervus. MYRR. Amo equidem, amo illum: sed non vult a me amari. Proinde ne me ad hunc vocaveris. [_As she speaks, she appears on the wall._ CIN. O dulcissima Myrrhinula, cur istæc agis? descende huc. MYRR. Non ecastor ego illuc descendam. CIN. Ne quidem me vocante, Myrrhina? MYRR. Nihil enim mei indigens me vocas. CIN. Egone nihil indigens? immo perditus. MYRR. Abeo. CIN. Noli, quæso: sed saltem puerulo ausculta. Heus tu, nonne vocas matrem? PUER. Mater, mater, mater. CIN. Heus tu, quid agis? nonne te miseret pueruli sextum jam diem illoti et mamma carentis? MYRR. Utique miseret me: sed negligens est ei pater. CIN. Descende, insana, pueruli gratia. MYRR. Hem! quale est peperisse! descendendum; quid enim agam? [_She descends from the wall, and four lines below reappears through the gate. While she is gone Cinesias speaks._ CIN. Mihi quidem junior illa videtur facta esse multo, et amabilius intueri: et quod se difficilem præbet, meique fastidit, illud ipsum nimirum est, quod me enecat desiderio. MYRR. O dulcissime filiole mali patris, age deosculabor te dulcissimum matri tuæ. CIN. Cur, ô improba, hæc facis, aliisque obsequeris mulieribus? Et me molestia, teque ipsam tædio adficis. MYRR. Potin' es ut abstineas manum? CIN. Quæ nobis autem domi sunt communia bona, perditum is. MYRR. Parvi pendo illa. CIN. An parvi pendis, quod tramam differunt gallinæ. MYRR. Ita ecastor. CIN. Veneris orgia non celebrasti tanto tempore. Nonne redibis? MYRR. Haud pol ego, nisi pacem faciatis inter vos, et desinatis belligerare. CIN. Ergo, si tibi ita placet, id etiam faciemus. MYRR. Ergo, si tibi ita placet, domum redibo: nunc autem quin redeam sacramento teneor. CIN. Saltem aliquantisper mecum decumbe. MYRR. Non sane: etsi non possim negare te a me amari. CIN. Amas? cur ergo non decumbis, ô Myrrhina? MYRR. O ridende, num præsente puerulo? CIN. Non hercle. Sed tu, ô Manes, fer eum domum. Ecce puerulus jam tibi hinc amotus: tu vero non decumbes? MYRR. Sed, ô perdite, ubi fieri id potest? CIN. Ad Panos sacellum percommode. MYRR. At quomodo in arcem casta redire potero? CIN. Facillume in Clepsydra[PG59] si laveris. MYRR. Scilicet, ô perdite, jurata pejerabo. CIN. In caput meum vertat. De jurejurando ne sis sollicita. MYRR. Agedum feram lectulum nobis. CIN. Nequaquam: sufficit nobis humi cubare. MYRR. Ita me Apollo juvet, ut ego te, quamvis turgentem libidine, non reclinaverim humi. [_Exit M._ CIN. Amat me valde, satis apparet, uxor. [_Enter M. with pallet._ MYRR. En, decumbe properans, et ego exuo vestes. At, perii! teges efferenda est. CIN. Quæ, malum, teges? haud mihi quidem. MYRR. Ita mihi Diana propitia sit: turpe est enim super loris cubare. CIN. Sine deosculer te. MYRR. En. CIN. Papæ! revertere huc ergo quam celerrime. [_Exit M. and returns with mattress._ MYRR. En teges. Decumbe: jam exuo vestes. Sed, perii! cervical non habes. CIN. At nihil opus est mihi. MYRR. At ecastor mihi. [_Exit M._ CIN. Profecto penis hicce uti Hercules hospitio excipitur.[PG60] [_M. returns with pillow._ MYRR. Surge, subsulta. CIN. Jam omnia habeo. MYRR. Itane omnia? CIN. Agedum, ô aurea. MYRR. Jam strophium solvo: tu vero memento, ne, quam dedisti de pace ineunda, fidem fallas. CIN. Peream hercle prius. MYRR. Sed lodicem non habes. CIN. Nec hercle opus est: sed futuere volo. MYRR. Ne sis sollicitus, et istud facies: cito enim redeo. [_Exit M._ CIN. Stragulis perdet me hæc femina. [_Enter M. with rug._ MYRR. Erigere. CIN. At iste jamdudum erectus est. MYRR. Vin' ut te inungam? CIN. Ne hoc Apollo sirit. MYRR. Per Venerem, velis nolis, inungere. [_Exit M._ CIN. Utinam, ô supreme Jupiter, effusum fuisset istuc unguentum! [_Enter M. with ointment._ MYRR. Porrige manum, sume et inungere. CIN. Istuc hercle unguentum minime est suave, nisi terendo bonum sit; nec concubitum olet. MYRR. Me miseram! Rhodium unguentum extuli.[PG61] CIN. Bonum est: hoc mitte, ô fatua. MYRR. Nugaris. [_Exit M._ CIN. Qui illum dii omnes perduint, qui primus coxit unguentum! [_Enter M. with a flask._ MYRR. Cape hoc alabastrum. CIN. Sed aliud habeo. At tu, ô perdita, decumbe, et ne fer mihi quicquam. MYRR. Istuc agam, ita me Diana amabit. Calceos igitur exeo. Sed, ô carissime, vide, ut decernas aliquid de pace facienda. CIN. Consulam—Perdidit me et adtrivit mulier tum aliis omnibus, tum quod me excoriatum relinquens abiit. Hei mihi! quid faciam? quem futuam, postquam spe excidi potiundæ pulcherrimæ? quomodo hancce educabo? ubi Cynalopex? loca mihi mercede nutricem.[PG62] CHOR. SEN. In maxumis malis, ô infelix, et animi angore cruciaris; et me tui miseret. Heu! heu![22] Quinam renes possint durare? quis animus? qui colei? quis lumbus? quis penis intentus, nec mane permolens aliquam? CIN. O Jupiter! quam diræ convulsiones! CHOR. SEN. Ita de te merita est execrabilis et scelesta illa. CIN. (CHOR. MUL.) Immo hercle cara et dulcissima. CHOR. SEN. Quid, malum, _dulcissima?_ Scelerata, scelerata utique. O Jupiter, ô utinam ipsam, velut acervos acerum, magno venti turbine contortam et rotatam auferas, deinde dimittas: illa autem rursus feratur in terram: deinde repente in mentulam incidat et infigatur! CADUCEATOR LACEDÆMONIORUM, PROVISOR, CHORUS SENUM, CHORUS MULIERUM. CAD. Ubi Athenarum est Senatus, aut ubi sunt Magistratus? Volo aliquid novi dicere. PROV. Tu vero quis es? utrum homo, an Conissalus?[PG63] CAD. Caduceator ego sum, ô stulte: testor deos geminos: veni Sparta, pacis conciliandæ gratia. PROV. Ergone advenisti hastam sub axilla gerens? CAD. Non ego hercle. PROV. Quo te versas? quidve prætendis sagum? an dolent tibi inguina ex itinere? CAD. Ineptus mecastor est hic homo. PROV. Sed arrigis, impurissime. CAD. Non ego hercle: noli nugari. PROV. At quid est hoc tibi? CAD. Scytala Laconica.[PG64] PROV. Sit modo hæc scytala Laconica: sed mihi, tanquam scienti, dic verum: quomodo sese res vestræ habent Lacedæmone? CAD. Erecta est universa Lacedæmon, et socii omnes arrigunt: Pellena[PG65] opus est. PROV. Undenam istud malum in vos inguit? num a Panos ira? CAD. Non. Principium quidem sola Lampito: deinde ceteræ simul Spartanæ mulieres uno conensu viros a cunnis abegerunt. PROV. Quomodo ergo habetis? CAD. Ærumnis conficimur: nam per urbem incurvi ambulamus, tanquam lucernas gestantes: mulieres autem ne tangi quidem sibi cunnum a nobis patiuntur, priusquam omnes unanimi consilio pacem faciamus cum Græcia. PROV. In hanc rem undique conjurarunt mulieres: nunc demum intelligo.[23] Sed quamprimum renuntia, ut de pace legatos plena cum potestate huc mittant: ego vero Senatui dicam, ut alios hinc lectos mittant legatos, ostendens hunc penem. CAD. Volabo: nam optime prorsus autumas. [_The Herald leaves for Sparta; the Magistrate returns to the Senate; and the two Choruses now advance for a final skirmish._ CHOR. SEN. Nulla est bestia muliere inexpugnabilior, nec ignis, nec ulla pardalis tam impudens. CHOR. MUL. Hæc vero ita esse intelligis,[24] et bellum geris, dic mihi, quum tibi nunc, ô improbe, liceat certam me habere amicam. CHOR. SEN. Equidem mulieres odisse non desinam. CHOR. MUL. Sed quando voles, desines: nunc autem non patiar te nudum sic esse: video enim, quam sis ridiculus. Verum accedam, et tibi hanc exomidem induam. CHOR. SEN. Istuc quidem hercle non perperam facitis: verum præ iracundia illam modo exui. CHOR. MUL. Primo quidem vir videris: deinde non es ridiculus: et nisi mihi molestus fuisses, ego tibi hanc bestiolam, quæ oculo tuo nunc insidet, prehensam exemissem. CHOR. SEN. Hoc nimirum erat, quod me cruciabat, mordaculus ille. Erue id: et ubi detraxeris, ostende mihi. Nam dudum hercle oculum mihi morsicat. CHOR. MUL. Sed faciam id, etsi homo sis morosus. O Jupiter! ingens utique aspectu culex inest tibi. Nonne vides? annon iste culex est Tricorysius?[PG66] CHOR. SEN. Edepol me beasti. Nam dudum me fodiebat, quasi puteum faceret: itaque, postquam exemtus est, fluit mihi lacrima largiter. CHOR. MUL. Sed detergam ego te, etsi valde sis malus; et osculabor. CHOR. SEN. Ne osculeris. CHOR. MUL. Velis nolis, tamen. CHOR. SEN. Male pereatis, ut estis ingenio ad blandiendum composito! et est vetus illud verbum vere et non perperam dictum: _Neque cum perniciosissimis, neque sine perniciosissimis._ CHOR. MUL. Sed nunc tecum paciscor, me deinceps nec facturam amplius vobis, nec passuram a vobis quicquam mali: sed jam cœtu facto incipiamus una canticum.[L4] Ita nos, ô viri comparamus, ut nulli civium ne minimum quidem male dicamus: sed contra potius omnia bona et dicamus et faciamus: etenim sufficiunt præsentia hæc mala. Sed profiteatur quicunque vir aut femina pecunia eget, et accipere vult minas duas aut tres:[PG67] nam plurimum est intus, nosque habemus cruminas: et si aliquando Pax exoriatur, quicunque nunc mutuabitur, is quæ a nobis acceperit nunquam reddet. Convivio autem excepturæ sumus hospites quosdam Carystios,[PG68] viros bonos et fortes: et est nonnihil pultis: et porcellus erat mihi, quem mactavi: sicque carnes habebitis teneras et bonas. Venite ergo in domum meam hodie: tempori autem oportet hoc facere lotos, vos ipsos et liberos vestros; deinde intro ire, nec quemquam interrogare: sed recta ingredi, tanquam in domos vestras, strenue. Fortassis autem janua erit clausa.[PG69] [_The Laconian ambassadors are seen approaching._ CHOR. SEN. (CHOR.) Sed e Sparta isti legati, trahentes barbas, adveniunt, quasi paxillum, cui porcelli adligantur,[PG70] circa femora habentes.[25] CHORUS SENUM, LEGATI, LACEDÆMONIORUM, POLYCHARIDES, LYSISTRATA, CHORUS MULIERUM, CIRCUMFORANEI QUIDAM, FAMULUS, ATHENIENSIS QUIDAM. CHOR. SEN. (CHOR.) Primum quidem, ô Lacones, salvete: deinde dicite nobis quo in statu huc veneritis. LEG. Cur vobis rem multis verbis narremus? cernere licet, quo in statu venerimus. CHOR. SEN. (CHOR.) Papæ! huic malo intenduntur nervi perquam vehementer; gliscitque fervor pejorem in modum. LEG. Res verbis adumbrari nequit: quid verbis opus est? sed veniat quis, et quo tandem pacto voluerit, pacem nobis constituat. CHOR. SEN. (CHOR.) Atqui et istos conspicor indigenas, tanquam luctatores pueros, a ventre rejicientes vestes, ita ut athleticum quid hic morbus videatur. [_The Athenian ambassadors enter._ POL. (ATHENIENSIS) Quis indicet nobis Lysistratam, ubi sit? [_shrugging his shoulders_] nam viri adsumus et nos hujuscemodi. [_He perceives the Laconian ambassadors._ CHOR. SEN. (CHOR.) Et alter hic morbus alteri congruit. Numquid mane tentigo vos capit? POL. (ATH.) Immo perimus, dum hoc experimur. Quare, nisi pacem quis inter nos ocius conciliet, fieri non poterit, quin Clisthenem futuamus.[PG71] CHOR. SEN. (CHOR.) Si sapitis, vestes sumetis, ut ne quis eorum, qui Hermas[PG72] truncant, vos videat. POL. (ATH.) Recte, ita me Jupiter amet, autumas. LEG. Ita me Castores, recte omnino. Agedum amiciamur. POL. (ATH.) Salvete, ô Lacones: turpe est, quod nobis accidit. LEG. O Polycharida, male utique nobis fuisset, si vidissent isti viri mentulas nostras[26] erectas. POL. (ATH.) Agite, Lacones, aperte profitendum est: quare huc advenistis? LEG. De pace legati. POL. (ATH.) Recte dicitis; et nos ob eam rem. Quidni ergo vocamus Lysistratam, quæ sola nos conciliare possit? LEG. Ita edepol, et, si vultis, Lysistratum. CHOR. SEN. (ATH.) Sed nihil opus est, ut videtur, a vobis eam evocarier: ipsa enim, re audita, egreditur. [_Lysitrata comes forward attended by her handmaid Reconciliation._ POL. (CHOR.) Salve mulier omnium fortissima: nunc te decet esse formidabilem, probam, simplicem, gravem, mitem, callidam. Nam primarii Græciæ viri, tuis illecebris capti, tibi permiserunt, et communi consilio commiserunt querelas suas. LYS. Sed non difficile negotium est, si quis subantes eos offendat, et mutuo masculæ Veneris usu abstinentes. Sed mox scibo. Ubi est Pax? adduc primum Laconas prehensos manu, sed non dura, nec superba, neque, ut viri nostri solebant, invenuste;[PG73] sed, ut mulieres decet, familiariter omnino. Si tibi quis manum non dederit, mentula prehensum duc. Age tu etiam Athenienses duc istos, qua concedent parte prehensos. Vos Lacones, state huc prope me: vos autem istinc, et verba mea percipite. Mulier quidem sum: mens tamen inest mihi: et primum quidem a natura mihi inditum fuit, ut recte sentirem: tum, præceptis multis e patre meo et senioribus auditis, erudita sum non male. Volo autem vos communi argumento increpare, idque merito: qui, licet eadem aqua lustrali aras conspergatis, tanquam cognati, Olympiæ, Pylis, Delphis, (Quot alia memorarem loca, si vellem esse prolixior?) quum non desint barbari hostes, tamen infestis exercitibus Græcos et eorum urbes pessundatis. Communis quidem ista oratio hactenus mihi finitur. POL. (ATH.) At ego tentigine pereo. LYS. Deinde vos Lacones, nam ad vos me convertam, nonne scitis, ut olim huc veniens Periclides Laco,[PG74] Atheniensibus supplex, ad aras sedit, pallidus, in purpureo amictu, auxiliares copias petens? nam tunc vos urgebat Messena, et una Neptunus terram quatiens. At Cimon cum quatuor millibus armatis profectus universam servavit Lacedæmonem. His ab Atheniensibus acceptis beneficiis, vastatis terram, cujus talia sunt in vos merita. POL. (ATH.) Injurii sunt isti hercle, ô Lysistrata. LEG. Injurii sumus: sed vix dici potest, quam pulcher sit hujus culus. LYS. At putasne me vos Athenienses absoluturam culpa? nonne meministis, ut vicissim Lacones, quando servilibus tunicis induti eratis, venientes armati, multos occiderunt Thessalos, multosque Hippiæ amicos et socios, soli suppetias vobis ferentes illo die, et restituta vobis libertate, pro servili tunica populum vestrum pallio amicierunt denuo? LEG. Nondum vidi mulierem præstantiorem. POL. (ATH.) At ego cunnum nunquam pulchriorem. LYS. Cur ergo, quum tam multa et præclara merita vestra exstent, pugnatis, et non desistis a malitia? cur non reconciliamini? age, quid obstat? LEG. Nos quidem volumus, si quis nobis encyclum istud reddere velit. LYS. (ATH.) Quodnam, ô bone? LEG. Pylum, ut dudum eam flagitamus et captamus. POL. (ATH.) Illud quidem vobis nunquam eveniet, per Neptunum juro. LYS. Concedite illis, ô boni. POL. (ATH.) Postea quamnam movebimus? LYS. Aliud reposcite pro isto castellum. POL. (ATH.) Perii! date igitur nobis hunc Echinuntem primo, et Maliensem sinum pone adjacentem, et Megarica Crura.[PG75] LEG. Non edepol omnia, ô insane. LYS. Sinite, ne contende de Cruribus. POL. (ATH.) Jam exuta veste nudus arare volo. LEG. At pol ego stercus convehere quamprimum. LYS. Ubi pax vobis reconciliata fuerit, istuc facietis. Sed si de pace vobis constat sententia, deliberate, et socios adeuntes rem cum iis communicate. POL. (ATH.) Nam quos, ô bona, socios? arrigimus. Annon idem nostris sociis videbitur, omnibus futuendum esse? LEG. Sic edepol meis. POL. (ATH.) Immo hercle Carystiis. LYS. Recte dicitis. Nunc curate ut puri sitis, ut nos mulieres in arce convivio vos excipiamus de illis quæ in cistis habemus. Jusjurandum et fidem illic invicem date, deinde uxore sua accepta, vestrûm unusquisque abibit. POL. (ATH.) Sed eamus quam citissime. LEG. Duc quo tu vis. POL. (ATH.) Ita hercle, quam celerrime. [_Lysistrata and the ambassadors go in._ CHOR. MUL. (CHOR.) Stragulas vestes et lænas, et xystidas, et aurea vasa, quidquid est mihi, sine invidia volo omnibus præbere, ut ferant suis liberis, si quando alicujus filia canistrum in sacris gestet. Omnibus vobis dico, ut sumatis nunc de meis opibus e domo mea, et nihil tam bene obsignatum esse, quin ceram revellatis, et quæ intus condita sunt auferatis. Sed qui omnia circumspexerit, nihil videbit, nisi quis vestrûm acutius cernit, quam ego.[PG76] Si vero alicui cibus deest, quo vernas et parvulam sobolem numerosam pascat, licet a me sumere contritas fruges: at est panis unius chœnicis, aspectu valde magnus. Quisquis igitur vult pauperum, eat in domum meam saccos habens et peras, accepturus fruges: Manes autem servus meus eis indet. Verumtamen ad januam meam ne quis accedat, prædico: sed caveat canem.[PG77] [_Some idlers come in from the market-place, an attempt to enter the house in which the ambassadors are feasting._ CIRC. Aperi januam.[L5] FAM. Nonne vis loco cedere? Vos, quid sedetis? Num vultis, ut ego lampade hac vos comburam? molesta est hæc statio. CIRC. Non recedam. FAM. Sed si omnino id faciendum est, ut vobis gratificemur, durabimus. CIRC. Et nos tecum una durabimus. FAM. Nonne abitis? Male erit vestris capillis et flebitis largiter. Non abitis, ut Lacones ex ædibus quiete abeant rerum omnium saturi? [_The banqueters begin to come out._ ATH. QUID. (ATH. I.) Nunquam equidem vidi tale convivium. Faceti utique erant Lacones: nos autem in vino convivæ sapientissimi. CHOR. SEN. (ATH. II.) Recte autumas, quia sobrii insanimus. Quod si Athenienses me audient, madidi semper obibimus legationes ubicunque.[27] Nunc enim si quando Lacedæmonem venimus sicci, statim circumspicimus, ecquid turbare possimus. Itaque quid dicant, non audimus: quæ vero non dicunt, hæc suspicamur perperam: et nuntiamus non eadem de iisdem rebus. At nunc omnia placuerunt, ut si quis cantaret Telamonis,[PG78] quum cantare debuisset scolion Clitagoræ, tamen laudaremus, et insuper pejeraremus. [_The idlers again approach._ FAM. Sed isti rursus huc conveniunt. Nonne facessitis, verberones? CIRC. Ita hercle: jam enim intus egrediuntur convivæ. [_The ambassadors come out from the banquet._ LEG. O Polycharida, cape tibias, ut ego tripudiem et canam lepide in Athenienses et nos simul. POL. (ATH.) Quin tu cape tibias, per deos obsecro: nam nihil me magis oblectat, quam si vos saltantes conspicer. LEG. Excita, ô Mnemosyne, juvenes hosce, et meam Musam, quæ nostra et Atheniensium præclara facta novit: quando hi quidem ad Artemisium,[PG79] diis similes, impetum fecerunt in naves hostiles, et Medos vicerunt. Nos vero Leonidas[PG80] ducebat, tanquam apros, exacuentes dentem: plurima autem circa ora spuma efflorescebat, plurimaque simul defluebat cruribus. Erant enim viri Persæ numero non pauciores, quam arena. Silvarum potens Diana venatrix, huc ades, virgo diva, ad fœdus nostrum, ut concordiam nostram diu tuearis, utque jam deinceps amicitia permaneat facilis, inito fœdere; et astutiam vulpinam missam faciamus: ô huc ades, ô venatrix virgo. LYS. Agite nunc rebus bene peractis ceteris, abducite istas, ô Lacones; has autem, vos: vir apud mulierem, et mulier stet apud virum. Et deinde ob felicem rerum successum, choreis in deorum honorem ductis, caveamus deinceps rursus peccare. CHOR. ATHEN. (CHOR.) Adduc chorum, adduc etiam Gratias: præterea Dianam advoca; advoca etiam geminum Dianæ, chori ducem, Pæanem benignum: advoca Nysium, cui cum Mænadibus oculi sunt flagrantes: Jovemque igni coruscum, et conjugem venerandam advoca beatam: deinde vero deos, quibus testibus utemur non obliviosis circa magnanimam pacem, quam fecit diva Cypris. Alalæ io Pæan, tollite vos sublimes, io! tanquam victoria potiti, io! Euœ, euœ; Euæ, euæ. Lacon, tu jam profer cantilenam novam post novam. CHOR. LAC. (LEG.) Taygetum amabilem relinquens, rursus veni Musa Lacæna, venerandum nobis celebrans Amyclarum deum, et Chalciœcam Minervam, Tyndaridasque fortes, qui ad Eurotam ludunt.[PG81] Eia naviter ingredere, levem pallii quatiens institam, ut Spartam celebremus, cui deorum chori sunt curæ, et pedum strepitus: puellæ vero propter Eurotam, ut pulli equini, subsultant, crebro pedum pulsu festinantes, comasque quassant, tanquam Bacchæ thyrsis ludentes. Præit autem Ledæ filia casta, dux chori pulchra. Sed age manu fluxos capillos implica vittæ, et pedibus salta, salta ut cerva: plausum simul fac choreis utilem, et divarum fortissimam Chalciœcam celebra, bellatricem. FINIS. Transcriber's Footnotes: The following notes list typos in the "Oxford"-text that have been eliminated as well as differences between the "Oxford" and the "Leipzig"-versions. [1] Leipzig: "existumant" [2] Leipzig: "optumum" [3] Leipzig: "De Athenis autem nil tale ominabor: aliud te suspicari velim. [4] Missing in Leipzig-ed. [5] Missing in Leipzig-ed. [6] Typo in Oxford: "perpitam". Leipzig has "perditam". [7] Leipzig: "et iuremus in calicem nos non infusuras." [8] Leizpig: "Flocci eos facio." [9] Leipzig: "festinandum et ocius" [10] Leipzig: "mulierum examen foris succurrit." [11] Leipzig: "an ut humanum exuras tibi?" [12] Leipzig: "et ei glandem inseras." [13] Leipzig: "Per Dianam iuro, extremam mihi si manum admoverit, quum sit publicus minister, flebit." [14] Leipzig: "si hanc digito attigeris" [15] Leipzig: "Tam vir" [16] Leipzig: "Maxume" [17] Leipzig: "lupides" [18] Leipzig: "maxume" [19] Leipzig: "Primam quidem deprehendi foramen repurgantem" [20] Leipzig: "Et edepol prægnas sum." [21] Leipzig: "tutubantium" [22] Typo in Oxford: "Heu! hen!". Leipzig has "Heu! heu!". [23] Leipzig: "intellego" [24] Leipzig: "intellegis" [25] Leipzig: "adveniunt tanquam suile vimineum circa femora adligatum habentes." [26] Typo in Oxford: "mentulas nostas". Leipzig has "mentulas nostras". [27] Leipzig: "ubicumque" Footnotes (ex Project Gutenberg #8688): [PG1] 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. [PG2] An obscene _double entendre_; Calonicé understands, or pretends to understand, Lysistrata as meaning a long and thick "membrum virile"! [PG3] The eels from Lake Copaïs in Boeotia were esteemed highly by epicures. [PG4] This is the reproach Demosthenes constantly levelled against his Athenian fellow-countrymen--their failure to seize opportunity. [PG5] 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. [PG6] 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.' [PG7] 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. [PG8] A deme of Attica, a small and insignificant community--a 'Little Pedlington' in fact. [PG9] 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. [PG10] 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. [PG11] Corinth was notorious in the Ancient world for its prostitutes and general dissoluteness. [PG12] An Athenian general strongly suspected of treachery; Aristophanes pretends his own soldiers have to see that he does not desert to the enemy. [PG13] 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. [PG14] 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. [PG15] The lofty range of hills overlooking Sparta from the west. [PG16] 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. [PG17] "By the two goddesses,"--a woman's oath, which recurs constantly in this play; the two goddesses are always Demeter and Proserpine. [PG18] 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. [PG19] 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. [PG20] 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. [PG21] 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. [PG22] A volcanic island in the northern part of the Aegaean, celebrated for its vineyards. [PG23] The old men are carrying faggots and fire to burn down the gates of the Acropolis, and supply comic material by their panting and wheezing as they climb the steep approaches to the fortress and puff and blow at their fires. Aristophanes gives them names, purely fancy ones-- Draces, Strymodorus, Philurgus, Laches. [PG24] Cleomenes, King of Sparta, had in the preceding century commanded a Lacedaemonian expedition against Athens. At the invitation of the Alcmaeonidae, enemies of the sons of Peisistratus, he seized the Acropolis, but after an obstinately contested siege was forced to capitulate and retire. [PG25] Lemnos was proverbial with the Greeks for chronic misfortune and a succession of horrors and disasters. Can any good thing come out of _Lemnos_? [PG26] That is, a friend of the Athenian people; Samos had just before the date of the play re-established the democracy and renewed the old alliance with Athens. [PG27] A second Chorus enters--of women who are hurrying up with water to extinguish the fire just started by the Chorus of old men. Nicodicé, Calycé, Crityllé, Rhodippé, are fancy names the poet gives to different members of the band. Another, Stratyllis, has been stopped by the old men on her way to rejoin her companions. [PG28] Bupalus was a celebrated contemporary sculptor, a native of Clazomenae. The satiric poet Hipponax, who was extremely ugly, having been portrayed by Bupalus as even more unsightly-looking than the reality, composed against the artist so scurrilous an invective that the latter hung himself in despair. Apparently Aristophanes alludes here to a verse in which Hipponax threatened to beat Bupalus. [PG29] The Heliasts at Athens were the body of citizens chosen by lot to act as jurymen (or, more strictly speaking, as judges and jurymen, the Dicast, or so-called Judge, being merely President of the Court, the majority of the Heliasts pronouncing sentence) in the Heliaia, or High Court, where all offences liable to public prosecution were tried. They were 6000 in number, divided into ten panels of 500 each, a thousand being held in reserve to supply occasional vacancies. Each Heliast was paid three obols for each day's attendance in court. [PG30] Women only celebrated the festivals of Adonis. These rites were not performed in public, but on the terraces and flat roofs of the houses. [PG31] The Assembly, or Ecclesia, was the General Parliament of the Athenian people, in which every adult citizen had a vote. It met on the Pnyx hill, where the assembled Ecclesiasts were addressed from the Bema, or speaking-block. [PG32] An orator and statesman who had first proposed the disastrous Sicilian Expedition, of 415-413 B.C. This was on the first day of the festival of Adonis--ever afterwards regarded by the Athenians as a day of ill omen. [PG33] An island in the Ionian Sea, on the west of Greece, near Cephalenia, and an ally of Athens during the Peloponnesian War. [PG34] Cholozyges, a nickname for Demostratus. [PG35] The State treasure was kept in the Acropolis, which the women had seized. [PG36] The second (mythical) king of Athens, successor of Cecrops. [PG37] The leader of the Revolution which resulted in the temporary overthrow of the Democracy at Athens (413, 412 B.C.), and the establishment of the Oligarchy of the Four Hundred. [PG38] Priests of Cybelé, who indulged in wild, frenzied dances, to the accompaniment of the clashing of cymbals, in their celebrations in honour of the goddess. [PG39] Captain of a cavalry division; they were chosen from amongst the _Hippeis_, or 'Knights' at Athens. [PG40] In allusion to a play of Euripides, now lost, with this title. Tereus was son of Ares and king of the Thracians in Daulis. [PG41] An allusion to the disastrous Sicilian Expedition (415-413 B.C.), in which many thousands of Athenian citizens perished. [PG42] The dead were laid out at Athens before the house door. [PG43] An offering made to the Manes of the deceased on the third day after the funeral. [PG44] Hippias and Hipparchus, the two sons of Pisistratus, known as the Pisistratidae, became Tyrants of Athens upon their father's death in 527 B.C. In 514 the latter was assassinated by the conspirators, Harmodius and Aristogiton, who took the opportunity of the Panathenaic festival and concealed their daggers in myrtle wreaths. They were put to death, but four years later the surviving Tyrant Hippias was expelled, and the young and noble martyrs to liberty were ever after held in the highest honour by their fellow-citizens. Their statues stood in the Agora or Public Market-Square. [PG45] That is, the three obols paid for attendance as a Heliast at the High Court. [PG46]] See above, under note 3 [Transcriber: "PG44"]. [PG47] The origin of the name was this: in ancient days a tame bear consecrated to Artemis, the huntress goddess, it seems, devoured a young girl, whose brothers killed the offender. Artemis was angered and sent a terrible pestilence upon the city, which only ceased when, by direction of the oracle, a company of maidens was dedicated to the deity, to act the part of she-bears in the festivities held annually in her honour at the _Brauronia_, her festival so named from the deme of Brauron in Attica. [PG48] The Basket-Bearers, Canephoroi, at Athens were the maidens who, clad in flowing robes, carried in baskets on their heads the sacred implements and paraphernalia in procession at the celebrations in honour of Demeter, Dionysus and Athené. [PG49] A treasure formed by voluntary contributions at the time of the Persian Wars; by Aristophanes' day it had all been dissipated, through the influence of successive demagogues, in distributions and gifts to the public under various pretexts. [PG50] A town and fortress of Southern Attica, in the neighbourhood of Marathon, occupied by the Alcmaeonidae--the noble family or clan at Athens banished from the city in 595 B.C., restored 560, but again expelled by Pisistratus--in the course of their contest with that Tyrant. Returning to Athens on the death of Hippias (510 B.C.), they united with the democracy, and the then head of the family, Cleisthenes, gave a new constitution to the city. [PG51] Queen of Halicarnassus, in Caria; an ally of the Persian King Xerxes in his invasion of Greece; she fought gallantly at the battle of Salamis. [PG52] A _double entendre_--with allusion to the posture in sexual intercourse known among the Greeks as ἵππος, in Latin 'equus,' the horse, where the woman mounts the man in reversal of the ordinary position. [PG53] Micon, a famous Athenian painter, decorated the walls of the Poecilé Stoa, or Painted Porch, at Athens with a series of frescoes representing the battles of the Amazons with Theseus and the Athenians. [PG54] To avenge itself on the eagle, the beetle threw the former's eggs out of the nest and broke them. See the Fables of Aesop. [PG55] Keeper of a house of ill fame apparently. [PG56] "As chaste as Melanion" was a Greek proverb. Who Melanion was is unknown. [PG57] Myronides and Phormio were famous Athenian generals. The former was celebrated for his conquest of all Boeotia, except Thebes, in 458 B.C.; the latter, with a fleet of twenty triremes, equipped at his own cost, defeated a Lacedaemonian fleet of forty-seven sail, in 429. [PG58] Timon, the misanthrope; he was an Athenian and a contemporary of Aristophanes. Disgusted by the ingratitude of his fellow-citizens and sickened with repeated disappointments, he retired altogether from society, admitting no one, it is said, to his intimacy except the brilliant young statesman Alcibiades. [PG59] A spring so named within the precincts of the Acropolis. [PG60] The comic poets delighted in introducing Heracles (Hercules) on the stage as an insatiable glutton, whom the other characters were for ever tantalizing by promising toothsome dishes and then making him wait indefinitely for their arrival. [PG61] The Rhodian perfumes and unguents were less esteemed than the Syrian. [PG62] 'Dog-fox,' nickname of a certain notorious Philostratus, keeper of an Athenian brothel of note in Aristophanes' day. [PG63] The god of gardens--and of lubricity; represented by a grotesque figure with an enormous penis. [PG64] A staff in use among the Lacedaemonians for writing cipher despatches. A strip of leather or paper was wound round the 'skytalé,' on which the required message was written lengthwise, so that when unrolled it became unintelligible; the recipient abroad had a staff of the same thickness and pattern, and so was enabled by rewinding the document to decipher the words. [PG65] A city of Achaia, the acquisition of which had long been an object of Lacedaemonian ambition. To make the joke intelligible here, we must suppose Pellené was also the name of some notorious courtesan of the day. [PG66] A deme of Attica, abounding in woods and marshes, where the gnats were particularly troublesome. There is very likely also an allusion to the spiteful, teasing character of its inhabitants. [PG67]] A mina was a little over £4; 60 minas made a talent. [PG68] Carystus was a city of Euboea notorious for the dissoluteness of its inhabitants; hence the inclusion of these Carystian youths in the women's invitation. [PG69] A παρὰ προσδοκίαν; i.e. exactly the opposite of the word expected is used to conclude the sentence--to move the sudden hilarity of the audience as a finale to the scene. [PG70] A wattled cage or pen for pigs. [PG71] An effeminate, a pathic; failing women, they will have to resort to pederasty. [PG72] These _Hermae_ were half-length figures of the god Hermes, which stood at the corners of streets and in public places at Athens. One night, just before the sailing of the Sicilian Expedition, they were all mutilated--to the consternation of the inhabitants. Alcibiades and his wild companions were suspected of the outrage. [PG73] They had repeatedly dismissed with scant courtesy successive Lacedaemonian embassies coming to propose terms of peace after the notable Athenian successes at Pylos, when the Island of Sphacteria was captured and 600 Spartan citizens brought prisoners to Athens. This was in 425 B.C., the seventh year of the War. [PG74] Chief of the Lacedaemonian embassy which came to Athens, after the earthquake of 464 B.C., which almost annihilated the town of Sparta, to invoke the help of the Athenians against the revolted Messenians and helots. [PG75] Echinus was a town on the Thessalian coast, at the entrance to the Maliac Gulf, near Thermopylae and opposite the northern end of the Athenian island of Euboea. By the "legs of Megara" are meant the two "long walls" or lines of fortification connecting the city of Megara with its seaport Nisaea--in the same way as Piraeus was joined to Athens. [PG76] Example of παρὰ προσδοκίαν again; see above. [PG77] Example of παρὰ προσδοκίαν again; see above. [PG78] Clitagoras was a composer of drinking songs, Telamon of war songs. [PG79] Here, off the north coast of Euboea, the Greeks defeated the Persians in a naval battle, 480 B.C. [PG80] The hero of Thermopylae, where the 300 Athenians arrested the advance of the invading hosts of Xerxes in the same year. [PG81] Amyclae, an ancient town on the Eurotas within two or three miles of Sparta, the traditional birthplace of Castor and Pollux; here stood a famous and magnificent Temple of Apollo. "Of the Brazen House," a surname of Athené, from the Temple dedicated to her worship at Chalcis in Euboea, the walls of which were covered with plates of brass. Sons of Tyndarus, that is, Castor and Pollux, "the great twin brethren," held in peculiar reverence at Sparta. Footnotes concerning actor names (Loeb-edition) The following footnotes have been added by the Transcriber to explain differences in actors between the Latin text and the Loeb-edition that require more explanation than could be easily integrated into the main text. [L1] Only the part "Dii boni...probem" is spoken by LAMP. The rest ("Intus efferat...urceum.") is spoken by LYS. [L2] "O carissimæ...hilarabitur" spoken by CAL., only the rest is spoken by LYS. [L3] For this passage the Loeb edition reads as follows: LY. Do not, my pretty one, do not, I pray, Suffer my wimple to stand in the way. Here, take it, and wear it over your head, and be quiet. Now to your task. CA. Here is an excellent spindle to pull. MY. Here is a basket for carding the wool. LY. Now to your task. Haricots chawing up, petticoats drawing up, Off to your carding, your combing, your trimming, WAR IS THE CARE AND THE BUSINESS OF WOMEN. [L4] Only the part "Sed nunc...una canticum" is spoken by CHOR. MUL. The rest is spoken by a joint chorus (CHOR.). In the Loeb-edition all remaining chorus-parts belong to this joint chorus. [L5] For this passage the Loeb edition reads as follows: IDLER. Open the door, ho! PORTER. Be off, you rascal ID. What, won't you stir? I've half a mind to roast you All with this torch. No, that's a vulgar trick. I won't do that. Still if the audience wish it, To please their tastes we'll undertake the task. SECOND IDLER. And we, with you, will undertake the task. POR. Hang you, be off! what are you at? you'll catch it. Come, come, begone; that these Laconians here. The banquet ended, may depart in peace.