Chorus of old men: Walk on, Drakes, lead the way, even if your shoulder aches.
Chorus of old men: bearing a weight of this size from a green olive branch.
Chorus of old men: Indeed, many unexpected things happen in a long life, alas,
Chorus of old men: For who would ever have expected, O Strymodorus, to hear
Chorus of old men: the women whom we are feeding
Chorus of old men: a manifest evil at home,
Chorus of old men: For, to have a sacred image,
Chorus of old men: but to take my Acropolis
Chorus of old men: but with wedges and bars
Chorus of old men: Shall we fasten the propylaea?
Chorus of old men: But let us make our way to the city as quickly as possible, Philurgus.
Chorus of old men: so that, having placed these trunks in a circle around them,
Chorus of old men: As many as instigated this affair and then changed their minds,
Chorus of old men: having built a single pyre, let us burn it ourselves.
Chorus of old men: all, by a single vote, but first the one of Lycon.
Chorus of old men: For, by Demeter, they do not go mad while I am alive;
Chorus of old men: Since even Cleomenes, who first seized her,
Chorus of old men: They went away unsated, but
Chorus of old men: Nevertheless, breathing a Spartan air
Chorus of old men: 'He has gone away, having handed over the secret to me,'
Chorus of old men: having a very small cloak,
Chorus of old men: drinking, stinking, unseasoned,
Chorus of old men: Six years without a bath.
Chorus of old men: So did I besiege that man savagely.
Chorus of old men: Asleep on top of the seventeen shields by the gates.
Chorus of old men: These women, however, are hostile to Euripides and to all the gods.
Chorus of old men: Shall I, then, not be able to restrain such a bold act while present?
Chorus of old men: May my trophy not now be in the tetrapole.
Chorus of old men: But for me, the road itself...
Chorus of old men: Well then, there is a place.
Chorus of old men: the part towards the city, which I pursue with zeal;
Chorus of old men: And how, I wonder, shall we ever shine forth?
Chorus of old men: This without the cantharus.
Chorus of old men: how, if I had been given two pieces of wood, I would have hit the shoulder!
Chorus of old men: But still, one must walk,
Chorus of old men: And the fire must be blown on,
Chorus of old men: May I not be extinguished unnoticed at the end of the road.
Chorus of old men: phoo phoo.
Chorus of old men: Oh, oh, the smoke!
Chorus of old men: How terrible, oh lord Heracles!
Chorus of old men: having fallen upon me out of the pot,
Chorus of old men: just as a rabid dog bites with its eyes;
Chorus of old men: And indeed, the fire is from Lemnos.
Chorus of old men: by every device.
Chorus of old men: For never before have they gnashed their teeth so savagely at me.
Chorus of old men: hurry before into the city.
Chorus of old men: and help the goddess.
Chorus of old men: Shall we come to her aid sooner or now, Laches?
Chorus of old men: Phew, phew.
Chorus of old men: Ouch, ouch, the smoke!
Chorus of old men: This fire has kept watch for the sake of the gods and is alive.
Chorus of old men: Then surely, if we were to put the two of them on a piece of wood first there,
Chorus of old men: having put the lantern into the pot from the vine
Chorus of old men: If we were to touch it and then, with a shout, fall upon the door?
Chorus of old men: And even if they do not call upon the wedges, let the women loosen them,
Chorus of Old Men: We must set the doors on fire and press them with the smoke.
Chorus of old men: Let us then take up the burden. Alas for the smoke, it is choking!
Chorus of old men: Who would be a partner in the wood of the generals in Samos?
Chorus of Old Men: These things have now ceased to press upon my spine.
Chorus of old men: But your task, pot, is to stir up the charcoal,
Chorus of old men: How you will bring the torch to me, which you have extinguished, first of all.
Chorus of old men: Lady Victory, be kind to the women in the city.
Chorus of old men: to set up a trophy of the boldness that stands here now.
Chorus of Women: I seem to see a green log and smoke, women.
Chorus of Women: like a burning fire; we must hurry quickly.
Chorus of Women: Fly, fly, Nikodike,
Chorus of Women: before the Calyke was burned down.
Chorus of Women: let her even sing about Kritylla
Chorus of Women: †by the burdensome laws†
Chorus of Women: by the ruin of old men.
Chorus of Women: But I am afraid of this, lest they come as a last-minute help.
Chorus of Women: For now, having filled the hydria with water, we have swept it.
Chorus of Women: with difficulty from the spring, beneath the crowd and the noise and the clamor
Chorus of Women: a potter's vessel,
Chorus of Women: being pelted with rushes.
Chorus of Women: nine with tattoos, eagerly.
Chorus of Women: having prayed to my own
Chorus of Women: for the wives who are being burned
Chorus of Women: carrying water, I come to help.
Chorus of Women: for I heard of smoke-fueled old men.
Chorus of Women: men are flowing, trunks
Chorus of Women: carrying as if they were about to go into the bathhouse.
Chorus of Women: into the city, like a weight of three talents,
Chorus of Women: threats most terrible with words
Chorus of Women: we ought to charcoal the hateful women with fire;
Chorus of Women: May I never see them burning, O goddess!
Chorus of Women: but having saved Greece from war and madness, and
Chorus of Women: citizens,
Chorus of Women: upon those very things, O golden-haired one
Chorus of Women: Guard your seats!
Chorus of Women: And I call you an ally, O...
Chorus of Women: Tritogeneia, if anyone of those
Chorus of Women: The man is secretly setting fire.
Chorus of Women: to carry water with us.
Chorus of Women: Let go, oh! What was this? Men, villains through toil;
Chorus of Women: For these men would never have done such good deeds, nor pious ones.
Chorus of old men: This affair has come to us to see unexpectedly.
Chorus of old men: This band of women comes again to help at the doors.
Chorus of Women: Why do you disgust us? Are we not thought to be many?
Chorus of Women: And indeed, you do not yet see even a ten-thousandth part of us.
Chorus of Old Men: Shall we let these women chatter so much, Phaedria?
Chorus of old men: Should someone not have struck the wood and pounded it?
Chorus of Women: Let us also sit down on the ground, so that...
Chorus of Women: If anyone holds out his hand, let not this hinder me.
Chorus of old men: If by Zeus I have already [seen] their jaws twice or three times
Chorus of old men: He cut [it] like Boupalos; he would not have had a voice.
Chorus of Women: And indeed, look, let someone strike; standing aside, I will step out,
Chorus of Women: Nor will any other dog of the dancers ever seize you.
Chorus of old men: If he does not be quiet, I will paint your old age with a red hue.
Chorus of Women: Touch only Strattis's [breast] with your finger, having approached.
Chorus of old men: "What did you do with the ash to the joints? What will the terrible thing do to me?"
Chorus of Women: Your lungs will swell, and I will make your intestines burst.
Chorus of old men: No poet is wiser than Euripides;
Chorus of old men: For there is no creature so shameless as women.
Chorus of Women: Let us women lift the water-pitcher, Rhodippe.
Chorus of old men: Why, you who are hateful to the gods, have you come here carrying water?
Chorus of Women: And what, you, having fire, you grave, are you going to burn yourself?
Chorus of old men: As for me, in order to set fire to the pyres of your beloved ones, I will kindle them.
Chorus of Women: But as for me, that I might extinguish your fire with this.
Chorus of old men: will you extinguish my fire?
Chorus of Women: The deed itself will soon show.
Chorus of Old Men: I do not know whether I shall set myself firmly in this lighted torch.
Chorus of Women: If you happen to have a cloth, I will provide a bath.
Chorus of old men: You give me a bath, you rotten one?
Chorus of Women: And this is, at least, a wedding song.
Chorus of old men: Did you hear of her audacity?
Chorus of Women: for I am free.
Chorus of old men: I will stop your shouting now.
Chorus of Women: But she is no longer basking in the sun.
Chorus of old men: Burn her hair.
Chorus of Women: Your work is to be annoying.
Chorus of old men: woe is me, wretched man.
Chorus of Women: Was it not warm?
Chorus of old men: Where is the heat? Will she not stop? What are you doing?
Chorus of Women: I shall water you so that you may sprout.
Chorus of old men: But now I am shaking.
Chorus of Women: So since you have fire, you will pamper yourself.
Probulus: Has the indulgence of the women shone forth?
Probulus: and the drumming, and the dense Sabazian revellers,
Probulus: And this Adoniazusa up on the roof,
Probulus: "Where, when I was there, did I hear it in the assembly?"
Probulus: 'But Demosthenus used to say, "Not in season..."
Proboulos: 'to sail to Sicily, but the woman dancing'
Probulus: "Alas, he speaks of Adonis, but Demosthenes"
Probulus: He said that they should enroll hoplites from the Zacynthians;
Probulus: But the woman, who has drunk up, is on the roof.
Probulus: 'He says to strike Adonis.' But he was resisting.
Proboulos: Cholozyges is an enemy of the gods and a polluted man.
Probulus: Such unbridled songs come from them.
Chorus of old men: But what if you were to learn about the outrage of these men as well?
Chorus of Old Men: They have outraged everything else and also from the dice-boxes.
Chorus of old men: Wash us, so that we may be amazed.
Chorus of Old Men: It is possible to shake, as if giving birth.
Probulus: By Poseidon the salt one, certainly so.
Probulus: for when we ourselves are conspiring
Probulus: Let us teach the women to indulge in luxury,
Probulus: Such counsels grow from them.
Probulus: those whom we say among the craftsmen are of such a sort:
Probulus: O goldsmith, the mold that you have prepared,
Probulus: While my wife was dancing in the evening,
Probulus: The acorn has fallen out of the hole.
Probulus: For me, then, I must sail to Salamis.
Probulus: But if you have leisure, with every art towards evening
Probulus: Having come, fit that acorn to her.
Probulus: But another man says this to the cobbler.
Probolus: a youth and a penis, not a boy-love.
Proboulos: O leather-stripper of my wife's foot!
Probulus: The ring pinches the yoke.
Probulus: You are soft in that respect. Therefore, you [will be] the one of the midday [session].
Proboulos: Come and untie it, so that it may be looser.
Probulus: Such things have met with such affairs,
Probulus: when I was a proboulos, having devised how
Probulus: there will be oars, and now there is need of silver,
Probulus: I have been shut out by the women at the gates.
Probulus: But nothing is accomplished by standing. Come, bring the levers,
Probulus: So that I may get them free of this outrage.
Probulus: Why are you staring, wretched man? Where are you looking now,
Proboulos: doing nothing except watching a brothel?
Probulus: Did we not wedge the bars under the gates?
Probulus: Will you pry it out from here? But from here I will.
Probulus: I will grind it all together.
Lysistrata: Stop prying!
Lysistrata: For I am coming out of my own free will. What is the need of levers?
Lysistrata: for we need not so much a lever as intelligence and good sense.
Proboulos: True, you filthy woman? Where is the archer?
Probulus: Bind her hands behind her back.
Lysistrata: If, by Artemis, the hand for me
Lysistrata: He will be driven out publicly, being in a state of utter confusion, and will weep.
Probulus: Did you fear this man? He will not seize me by the middle.
Proboulos: And you, after this, will you be bound?
Woman A: If indeed, by the Pandrosion, only here
Woman A: 'You will put your hand on it, and you will pour it out while stepping.'
Probulus: Look, he is pouring it over! Where is another archer?
Proboulos: Bind her first, since she also talks.
Woman B: If, by Zeus the Dawn-bringer, I break my hand!
Woman B: you will come over to this one, and you will ask for a ladle, perhaps.
Probulus: What was this? Where is the archer? Seize her.
Probulus: I will stop one of you from this departure.
Woman G: If, by the goddess of the Tauroi, she approaches here,
Woman G: I will dye your narrow-screaming hair red.
Probulus: Alas, wretched me! The archer has disappeared.
Probulus: But women are never to be defeated.
Probulus: For us; let us go over there with them, O Scythians.
Proboulos: Let us join forces.
Lysistrata: By the two goddesses, you shall know, then.
Lysistrata: because there are also four platoons among us.
Lysistrata: women within, armed for battle.
Probulus: Turn away your hands, Scythians.
Lysistrata: O women allies, throw [them] out from within,
Lysistrata: O seed-, pea-, bean-, and vegetable-sellers,
Lysistrata: Oh, garlic-cook-and-baker-women!
Lysistrata: You will not drag it, you will not beat it, you will not coax it?
Lysistrata: You will not abuse [us], you will not be shameless?
Lysistrata: Stop, withdraw, do not plunder.
Proboulos: Alas! how badly my arrow has fared.
Lysistrata: But what did you think? Whether it was against some slaves
Lysistrata: You thought I was coming, or do you not think so for the women?
Lysistrata: Is there bile?
Probulus: By Apollo, indeed!
Proboulos: Indeed, a great deal, if only the huckster is nearby.
Chorus of old men: O much-wasting speaker, counselor of this land,
Chorus of old men: Why do you engage yourself in conversation with these beasts?
Chorus of old men: You do not know what a bath this has just washed us with.
Chorus of old men: in these little tunics, and these without plaster?
Chorus of Women: But, O my honey, one must not offer [things] to one's neighbors at random.
Chorus of Women: The hand! If you do this, you must be beaten.
Chorus of Women: since I wish to sit modestly like a young girl,
Chorus of Women: grieve not at all here, move not even a straw,
Chorus of Women: May no one stare at me like a wasp and buzz around me.
Chorus of old men: O Zeus, what shall we do with these rats?
Chorus of old men: No, these things are no longer bearable, but must be tortured.
Chorus of old men: This suffering of yours is with me.
Chorus of old men: whatever [women] once desired the
Chorus of old men: We have seized the acropolis, to whatever extent...
Chorus of old men: a great-crested, inaccessible acropolis
Chorus of old men: sacred precinct.
Chorus of old men: But keep asking and do not be persuaded, and bring forward all your proofs,
Chorus of old men: How shameful to let such a thing happen without a cry of protest, having abandoned it.
Probulus: And indeed I desire, by Zeus, to learn this first,
Probulus: Because you shut the door to our city with the bolts, whatever you wanted.
Lysistrata: so that we might provide the money from your side and you might not fight because of it.
Probulus: Do we fight because of the money, then?
Lysistrata: And everything else is thoroughly mixed up.
Lysistrata: For so that Pissander might steal, and they, holding back the magistrates,
Lysistrata: She has always been a chatterbox. And they, therefore, for this reason are doing these things.
Lysistrata: Whatever they want; for they will not take this money any longer.
Probulus: But what will you do?
Lysistrata: You ask me this? We shall manage it.
Probulus: Will you keep the money safe?
Lysistrata: And what do you consider this to be terrible?
Lysistrata: Don't we also manage the men's money for you, after all?
Probulus: But it is not the same thing.
Lysistrata: How is it not the same?
Probulus: We must fight from this point on.
Lysistrata: But there is no need to fight first.
Probulus: For how shall we be saved otherwise?
Lysistrata: We will save you.
Probulus: You?
Lysistrata: But we.
Probulus: that is truly outrageous.
Lysistrata: As long as she is saved, even if you do not wish it.
Probulus: You say something terrible.
Lysistrata: Are you angry.
Lysistrata: But these things must be done, all the same.
PROBULUS: By Demeter, that is unjust.
Lysistrata: we must be saved, oh women!
Probulus: And if I am not asking?
Lysistrata: For this reason, and even more so.
Probulus: And where, then, did you come to care about the war and the peace?
Lysistrata: We will tell.
Probulus: Speak quickly, then, so that you do not cry.
Lysistrata: "Now listen,"
Lysistrata: And try to keep your hands still.
Probulus: But I am not able, for it is difficult.
Probulus: 'To keep them in a state of rage.'
Woman A: She will cry all the more then.
Probulus: This, old woman, is something for you to croak; but you, tell me.
Lysistrata: I will do these things.
Lysistrata: We endured the former war and the time.
Lysistrata: By the moderation of us women, whatever you men did.
Lysistrata: For she does not allow us to grumble. And yet we did not please her.
Lysistrata: But we knew you well, and many times, being inside,
Lysistrata: We heard that you have taken a great decision badly.
Lysistrata: Then, having pained you from within, we would ask you to laugh after we have laughed,
Lysistrata: What has been decided to be inscribed as an addendum to the treaty on the stele?
Lysistrata: In the assembly today, for you? What does this have to do with you? 'For who is the man?'
Lysistrata: Will she not be silent? And I too was silent.
Woman A: But I would never be silent.
Probulus: And if you had not been silent, you would have wailed too.
Lysistrata: Therefore I was silent inside.
Lysistrata: We have contrived something else, more wicked, than yours;
Lysistrata: Then we would ask: How then does one accomplish these things so foolishly?
Lysistrata: And he, immediately glancing down at me, would have said, if I had not spun the warp,
Lysistrata: They will be beaten on the head with a long stick; but war will be the concern of men.
Probulus: That man speaks correctly, by Zeus.
Lysistrata: how rightly, you wretched woman,
Lysistrata: if it was not allowed for you to make a counter-proposal even to those who were advising badly?
Lysistrata: But now that we had already clearly heard you on the roads,
Lysistrata: Is there not a man in the country? By Zeus, certainly not, said another one.
Lysistrata: After this, it immediately occurred to us to save Greece together.
Lysistrata: when the women have gathered. For where else should we wait?
Lysistrata: So if you wish to listen to us when we speak well,
Lysistrata: And keep silent just as we do, and we would set you right.
Probulus: You us? You say something terrible and unbearable for me.
Lysistrata: Be silent.
Probulus: I will be silent to you, you cursed woman, even though you are wearing a veil.
Probulus: about the head? By no means may I live.
Lysistrata: But if this is an obstacle to you,
Lysistrata: taking this veil from me
Lysistrata: Hold it and wrap it around your head.
Lysistrata: And then be quiet.
Lysistrata: and this little basket.
Lysistrata: And then, having girded himself, he will hack.
Lysistrata: eating beans;
Lysistrata: and war will be a concern to women.
Chorus of Women: Let us raise ourselves, women, from the cushions, so that we may...
Chorus of Women: in the portion, let us too catch some of our friends.
Chorus of Women: For I, at any rate, would never be weary dancing,
Chorus of Women: †Nor would weariness take my weary knees†;
Chorus of Women: I wish to go to any length.
Chorus of Women: after these, for the sake of virtue, whom
Chorus of Women: there is nature, there is charm, there is boldness,
Chorus of Women: There is one who is wise, and there is one who is a patriot.
Chorus of Women: virtue is prudent.
Chorus of Women: But, O breasts of the most manly and motherless jellyfish,
Chorus of Women: Go with anger and do not wet yourselves; for even now set your boundary.
Lysistrata: But if both sweet-tempered Eros and Aphrodite, the Cyprus-born,
Lysistrata: May the desire of us against the bosoms and the thighs breathe upon,
Lysistrata: And then you will weave a pleasant fleece for the men and will sway them,
Lysistrata: I suppose that at some time we shall be called Lysimachides among the Greeks.
Probulus: What did you do?
Lysistrata: If we stop, first of all, with weapons
Lysistrata: buying and raging.
Woman A: By Aphrodite of Paphos.
Lysistrata: For now, indeed, both in the pots and in the vegetables alike
Lysistrata: They are walking about the market armed, like Corybantes.
Probulus: By Zeus, for it is necessary for the brave.
Lysistrata: And indeed the matter is ridiculous,
Lysistrata: Whenever someone has a shield and buys a Gorgon and then a raven's-feather.
Woman A: By Zeus, I at least saw a long-haired man riding a horse.
Woman A: Into the bronze helmet that is being thrown, a ladle from a pot.
Woman A: And again another Thracian, shaking a pelt and javelin, like Tyreus,
Woman A: She was worried about the prostitute and was swallowing the figs.
Probulus: How then are you able to calm so many troubled matters?
Probulus: In the fields and to dissolve?
Lysistrata: very poorly.
Proboulos: How? Prove it.
Lysistrata: just as a spindle, whenever it is in a confused state, take it thus,
Lysistrata: 'Having borne the spindles to the one here and to the other there,'
Lysistrata: Thus we will also dissolve this war, if someone lets [it].
Lysistrata: Carry it through by means of embassies, the part here and the part there.
Probulus: Indeed, from wool, spindles, and distaffs come terrible things.
Probulus: Do you think, you fools, that you will stop?
Lysistrata: And if there were some sense in you,
Lysistrata: All things would have been governed by our wool.
Proboulos: How so? Let me see.
Lysistrata: first of all, it was necessary, just as in a bathhouse
Lysistrata: washing out the chamber pot, from the city onto a couch.
Lysistrata: to strike with a staff the wicked and to pick out the troublemakers,
Lysistrata: and those who are conspiring and those who are pillaging themselves
Lysistrata: to drag the ancient women out and to cut off their heads.
Lysistrata: Then let us all together throw our goodwill into a basket, everyone.
Lysistrata: mixing in both the metics and any stranger or friend of yours,
Lysistrata: 'And if anyone owes something to the state, let them also be mixed in with these;'
Lysistrata: And by Zeus, the cities, as many as are colonies of this land,
Lysistrata: I understand that these things are laid down for us just like broken bones.
Lysistrata: Let each go separately; and then, taking the fracture from all of these
Lysistrata: gather here and bring together into one, and then do it.
Lysistrata: I should have spun a great fleece and then from that a cloak for the people.
Probulus: Won't it be terrible to beat these women with rods and to beat them?
Probulus: Are you not even very much a participant in the war?
Lysistrata: And moreover, you most accursed one.
Lysistrata: we carry him over twice as far, first of all because we gave birth to him.
Lysistrata: and having sent away the hoplite boys.
Probulus: Hush, do not bear a grudge.
Lysistrata: 'Then at the time when I ought to have been joyful and enjoyed my youth,'
Lysistrata: We sleep alone because of the armies. And you, leave our part alone,
Lysistrata: As for the young women growing old in the bedrooms, I am distressed.
Probulus: But surely the men grow old too?
Lysistrata: By Zeus, but you have not said the same thing.
Lysistrata: For the one who has come, even if he is grey-haired, has quickly married a boy to a girl.
Lysistrata: the time for the woman is short, and if she does not seize even this,
Lysistrata: No one wants to marry this woman, and so she sits, being pursued.
Probulus: But whoever is still able to make it hard—
Lysistrata: But you, what have you learned that you do not die?
Lysistrata: 'It's a plot; he will buy a tomb.'
Lysistrata: I will make some honey-cakes and really fry them.
Lysistrata: take these and crown yourself.
Woman A: And take these from me as well.
Woman B: And take this garland.
Lysistrata: The what? What do you want? Go into the ship.
Lysistrata: Charon calls you,
Lysistrata: But you are preventing her from setting sail.
Proboulos: Then isn't it terrible for me to suffer these things?
Probulus: By Zeus, but directly to the councillors.
Probulus: I will show myself, walking as I am.
Lysistrata: Do you accuse us because we did not appoint you beforehand?
Lysistrata: But at least until the third day, you will be early in the morning.
Lysistrata: The third ones prepared by us will come.
Chorus of old men: No longer is it the work of a free man to sleep soundly,
Chorus of old men: But let us men, too, put on our clothes for this matter.
Chorus of old men: For already these things are beginning to smell of more and greater things.
Chorus of old men: It seems to me, matters,
Chorus of old men: and I am especially smelling the tyranny of Hippias;
Chorus of old men: And I am very much afraid that some of the Lacedaemonians
Chorus of old men: come together, men, to the house of Cleisthenes.
Chorus of old men: They deceive the women who are enemies of the gods with trickery.
Chorus of old men: to seize our money and the wages,
Chorus of old men: It was from here that I came.
Chorus of old men: for already these things are terribly admonishing the citizens,
Chorus of old men: And even women who are, about a bronze shield, to chatter,
Chorus of old men: and to make peace with us with Lacedaemonian men,
Chorus of old men: To them, nothing is trustworthy, unless perhaps to a wolf with its mouth gaping open.
Chorus of old men: But these things men have woven for us in order to establish tyranny.
Chorus of old men: But they will not tyrannize over me, since I will keep watch.
Chorus of old men: And I shall wear the sword henceforth in a myrtle branch,
Chorus of old men: I will buy, next to the weapons, from Aristogeiton,
Chorus of Old Men: Thus I shall stand beside him; for I am becoming bold.
Chorus of old men: To strike the jaw of this old woman, an enemy of the goddesses.
Chorus of Women: Won't your mother know you are coming home?
Chorus of Women: But let us sit down first, dear old women, here on the ground.
Chorus of Women: for we, all citizens, begin the speech.
Chorus of Women: beneficial to the city.
Chorus of Women: appropriately, since she raised me luxuriously and splendidly.
Chorus of Women: For seven years, once we had become, we immediately bore the war.
Chorus of Women: 'Then, as a washerwoman at the age of ten, she was the leader.'
Chorus of Women: And so, the bear, having the crocus-colored robe, was a Brauronian.
Chorus of Women: And I used to carry the basket when I was a beautiful girl, having it.
Chorus of Women: the rope of the buttocks.
Chorus of Women: Did I perhaps once give good advice to the city?
Chorus of Women: But if I am by nature a woman, do not begrudge me this,
Chorus of Women: If I bring in something better than the current affairs.
Chorus of Women: for I have a share in the sky; for indeed I carry up men,
Chorus of Women: but the wretched old men will not have a share with you, since
Chorus of Women: the tax called the Pappôion, from the Persian War
Chorus of Women: then, having spent it, you did not bring back the contributions,
Chorus of Women: but besides, we are in danger of being dissolved by you.
Chorus of Women: Is it a cry of pain for you? But if you hurt me,
Chorus of Women: With this very, very rough boot I shall strike the jaw.
Chorus of old men: These things, then, are not hubris.
Chorus of old men: A lot? And it seems to me that the matter is even more pressing.
Chorus of old men: But we must defend the matter, whoever the man is who is a testicle.
Chorus of old men: But let us take off our cloak, as the man must.
Chorus of old men: It is proper for a man to smell, but certainly to be bedeviled is fitting.
Chorus of old men: But come now, you white-footed ones, who came to Leipsydrium when we were still,
Chorus of old men: Now we must grow young again and take flight once more.
Chorus of old men: to shake the whole body and cast off this old age.
Chorus of old men: for if one of us yields even a small foothold to these things,
Chorus of old men: These women will not lack a smooth operation,
Chorus of old men: But they are even building ships, and will even undertake them yet.
Chorus of old men: to fight at sea and to sail upon us, just like Artemisia.
Chorus of old men: If they turn to cavalry, I strike the horsemen from the list.
Chorus of old men: for a woman is the most horse-like and dangerous thing,
Chorus of old men: And he would not slip even while running; but look at the Amazons,
Chorus of old men: Those whom Micon wrote fighting on horses against the men.
Chorus of old men: But all of these should have been placed into a perforated piece of wood.
Chorus of old men: 'Let us tighten this neck by taking hold of it.'
Chorus of Women: if by the two goddesses you were to revive me,
Chorus of Women: I will indeed untie my own donkey, and I will do so.
Chorus of Women: Today I will thrash you for bellowing like a bull.
Chorus of Women: But we too, women, will strip off our clothes more quickly,
Chorus of Women: in order that we may smell of women who have been angered on their own account.
Chorus of Women: Now let someone come to me, so that he may never eat garlic, nor...
Chorus of Women: black beans.
Chorus of Women: Even if you should say it only badly, I shall be very angry, for...
Chorus of Women: I shall midwife you, a thistle, while you are birthing an eagle.
Chorus of Women: For I would not care about you, if Lampito is still alive.
Chorus of Women: and Ismenia, the Theban girl, a dear, noble child.
Chorus of Women: for there will be no power, nor even if you vote seven times,
Chorus of Women: whoever you were, wretched man, that you became hateful to everyone and even to the neighbors.
Chorus of Women: so that I, even on the very day before yesterday, was making a game.
Chorus of Women: I called the courtesan for the boys from the neighbors,
Chorus of Women: a useful and beloved child, an eel from Boeotia;
Chorus of Women: But they said they would not send, because of your decrees.
Chorus of Women: And you will not stop these decrees until
Chorus of Women: Someone who grabs you by the leg will wrench your neck off while carrying you away.
Chorus of Women: mistress of this affair and counsel,
Chorus of Women: Why have you come out of the house in such a gloomy mood?
Lysistrata: Works of bad women and a female mind.
Lysistrata: She makes me sad to walk up and down.
Chorus of Women: What do you say? What do you say?
Lysistrata: True, true.
Chorus of Women: But what is terrible? Tell your own friends.
Lysistrata: But it is shameful to speak and heavy to remain silent.
Chorus of Women: Do not now hide from me the evil that we have suffered.
Lysistrata: Let us get on with it, in as few words as possible.
Chorus of Women: O Zeus.
Lysistrata: Why are you shouting 'Live!' again? But this is how it is.
Lysistrata: I shall hold them back no longer.
Lysistrata: Such is it from the men; for they are running away.
Lysistrata: the one who first opens the door.
Lysistrata: I have taken over the temple of Pan.
Lysistrata: but again the one who has been dragged back from the turning-wheel,
Lysistrata: the one who deserted, the one who was a prostitute on the sparrows'
Lysistrata: already intending to fly down
Lysistrata: Yesterday I pulled out Orsilochus's hair.
Lysistrata: all the excuses so that they might depart home
Lysistrata: They are dragging them. Indeed, one of them is already coming.
Lysistrata: Where are you running to?
Woman A: I want to go home.
Woman A: for she is at home, she has Milesian wool for me.
Woman A: being cut down by your troops.
Lysistrata: Whose women?
Lysistrata: Are you not here again?
Woman A: But I shall come soon, by the two goddesses.
Woman A: Just enough to spread over the bed.
Lysistrata: do not spread out, nor go anywhere.
Woman A: But let them perish, the goods?
Lysistrata: If this will be needed.
WOMAN B: Woe is me, woe to me for the woman from Amorgos,
Woman B: whom I have left behind unthreshed at home.
Lysistrata: the day after tomorrow
Lysistrata: She is setting out for the saltless Amorgos.
Lysistrata: Go back here.
Woman B: but by the Morning Star
Woman B: I, having stripped off [my clothes], am going upstairs at once.
Lysistrata: Do not strike me. For if you begin this, you,
Lysistrata: Another woman will wish to do the same thing.
Woman G: O Lady Eileithyia, hold back the birth!
Woman G: Until I have come to a sacred place.
Lysistrata: Why are you talking nonsense about these things?
Woman 3: I will give birth immediately and very quickly.
Lysistrata: But you weren't pregnant yesterday.
Woman G: but today.
Woman G: But take me home, as quickly as possible, to the midwife, O Lysistrata.
Woman G: Send her away as soon as possible.
Lysistrata: What story are you telling?
Lysistrata: What is the matter with that harshness?
Woman G: A male child.
Lysistrata: By Aphrodite, not you, but either a bronze statue
Lysistrata: It shows a hollow thing; I will find out.
Lysistrata: O wretch, you who hold the sacred dog!
Lysistrata: Did you say that you were pregnant?
WOMAN: And I am indeed pregnant, by Zeus.
Lysistrata: But then, what did you have?
Woman G: so that she might catch me
Woman G: The interest is still in the city, may it be born into the bag!
Woman G: having stepped inside this one, just like the doves.
Lysistrata: What are you saying? You are making excuses; the situation is clear.
Lysistrata: Will you not endure the testicles of his dog?
Woman 3: But I can't, I beg you, not even sleep in the city,
Woman G: Ever since I saw the house-destroying snake once.
Woman A: But I, poor wretch, am perishing from the owls.
Woman A: While the pots are making noise with sleepless women.
Lysistrata: O you wretched women, stop your soothsayings.
Lysistrata: Perhaps you miss the men; but you do not think of us.
Lysistrata: Do you long for them? I well know how tiresome they are.
Lysistrata: They bring on the night. But endure, you good women,
Lysistrata: And work hard for a little while longer,
Lysistrata: as the oracle is for us to rule, if
Lysistrata: Let us not quarrel; for here is the oracle.
Woman A: Tell us what he says.
Lysistrata: Be quiet now.
Lysistrata: but whenever the swallows take flight to one place,
Lysistrata: Having fled the ephors, let them abstain from their phalluses,
Lysistrata: there will be an end to evils, but the upper ones will be made lower.
Lysistrata: Zeus the high-thunderer—
Woman A: Shall we lie on top?
Lysistrata: But if they should be separated and spread their wings with feathers,
Lysistrata: Swallows from the holy temple, you will no longer appear.
Lysistrata: A bird is not at all more belligerent.
Woman A: Clear indeed is the oracle, by Zeus.
Lysistrata: O all you gods,
Lysistrata: let us not now go away in distress,
Lysistrata: But let us go in. For this is shameful too.
Lysistrata: O dearest friends, if we betray the oracle.
Chorus of old men: I wish to tell you a certain tale, which I once heard.
Chorus of old men: Even as a child himself.
Chorus of old men: 'So there was a young man named Melanion,'
Chorus of old men: he who, fleeing marriage, came to a desert place,
Chorus of old men: And they used to dwell even in the mountains.
Chorus of old men: And then, he is catching the hedgehog!
Chorus of old men: having made a snare,
Chorus of old men: "And he had a certain dog."
Chorus of old men: And he has not come down again home because of hatred.
Chorus of old men: Thus the women were abhorred
Chorus of old men: 'That one, and we none the less.'
Chorus of old men: 'The sensible ones are those of Melanion.'
OLD MAN: I want to kiss you, old woman—
Woman: And indeed, an onion should not have been.
OLD MAN: And stretching out, kick.
Woman: You wear a great deal of pubic hair.
Chorus of old men: For Myronides also was [there].
Chorus of old men: harsh from here is the black-throated one
Chorus of old men: to all the enemies,
Chorus of old men: 'As indeed also [it is with] Phormio.'
Chorus of Women: And I wish to reply to you with a certain word.
Chorus of Women: to Melanion.
Chorus of Women: Timon was a certain man unapproachable by the untrodden.
Chorus of Women: 'Having covered my face with a gourd,'
Chorus of Women: A root of the Furies.
Chorus of Women: This is then Timon.
Chorus of Women: She has gone away in hatred.
Chorus of Women: having cursed many wicked men.
Chorus of Women: 'That is how he will sneer at you.'
Chorus of Women: The wicked men always,
Chorus of Women: and to the women she was the dearest.
Woman: Do you want me to put your jaw in?
OLD MAN: Not at all; indeed, I was afraid.
Woman: But shall I strike with my foot?
Old man: having appeared openly, the satchel.
Chorus of Women: nevertheless, you would not see
Chorus of Women: and although she is an old woman, she is herself
Chorus of Women: A head of hair, but a shaved one.
Chorus of Women: by the lamp.
Lysistrata: Ouch, ouch, women, come here to me.
Lysistrata: Quickly.
Woman: What is it? Tell me, who is the shout?
Lysistrata: A man, a man I see coming, beaten up,
Lysistrata: Taken by the rites of Aphrodite.
Lysistrata: O mistress of Cyprus, and of the Cytherae, and of Paphos
Lysistrata: Keep it, go straight down the path you are on.
Woman: Where is someone who is there?
Lysistrata: at Chloe's house.
Woman: By Zeus, it is indeed. Who is she, then?
Lysistrata: Do you see? Does one of you understand?
Myrrhine: by Zeus!
Myrrhine: I certainly do. And my husband is Cinesias.
Lysistrata: Your work is already to roast this man and turn him.
Lysistrata: to flatter and to love and not to love,
Lysistrata: and [she said that] she would do everything except what the cup knew.
Myrrhine: I shall certainly do this.
Lysistrata: And indeed, I
Lysistrata: I will slander you for remaining here,
Lysistrata: And I will flay this man. But go away.
Kinesias: Alas, wretch, what a grip I have!
Kinesias: and the fourth [note], just like being twisted on a wheel.
Lysistrata: Who is this one of the guards standing here?
Kinesias: I.
Lysistrata: A man?
Kinesias: 'Why, he is a man, then.'
Lysistrata: Surely they won't get away from us?
Kinesias: But who are you who have been striking me?
Lysistrata: day-watchman.
Kinesias: by the gods, now call Myrrhine out to me.
Lysistrata: Shall I call Myrrhine for you? And who are you?
Cinesias: That woman's man, Paionides' Cinesias.
Lysistrata: Hail, dearest friend, for your name is not unknown.
Lysistrata: It is yours with us, and not unnamed.
Lysistrata: For a woman always has you by the mouth.
Lysistrata: And if she takes an egg or a cheese, Kinna!
Lysistrata: May this happen, he says.
Kinesias: Oh by the gods.
Lysistrata: By Aphrodite! Even if it be about men.
Lysistrata: A message; your wife has spoken immediately.
Lysistrata: because the rest is nonsense with respect to Cinesias.
Kinesias: Go now and call her.
Lysistrata: So what? Will you give me something?
Kinesias: I certainly will, by Zeus, if you wish.
Cinesias: I have this: whatever I have, I give to you.
Lysistrata: Come, then, let me call her down to you.
Kinesias: Quickly now, very quickly.
Kinesias: 'For I owe no thanks at all for my life,'
Kinesias: From the time when this woman left the house.
Cinesias: But I am annoyed as I enter, and it is desolate.
Kinesias: Everything seems to me to be in order, but as for the food supplies...
Kinesias: I know no favor at all from him; for I am disgusted.
Myrrhine: I love, I love him; but he does not wish to.
Myrrhine: to be loved by me. But you, do not call me by this name.
Kinesias: Oh dearest Myrrhine, what are you doing?
Kinesias: Come down here.
Myrrhine: By Zeus, I certainly will not.
Kinesias: Won't Myrrhine come down when I summon her?
Myrrhine: For you summon me not, needing nothing.
Kinesias: Am I not in need? Indeed, I am sharpened.
Myrrhine: I am going.
Kinesias: No indeed, but at least for the child.
Kinesias: Listen! You do not call the old woman?
Boy of Kinesias: mammy, mammy, mammy.
Kinesias: What is wrong with her? Do you not pity the child?
Kinesias: A bath on the sixth day, even though he is anointed and shaved?
Myrrhine: Indeed I pity him, but his father is careless.
Myrrhine: It is.
Cinesias: Come down, you crazy woman, for the child.
Myrrhine: Just like childbirth—it must be endured. For what else can I do?
Kinesias: For this woman seems to me to be younger as well.
Kinesias: "May I be born even softer-looking!"
Kinesias: He is becoming difficult with me and is groaning,
Kinesias: These are indeed the very things that waste me away with longing.
Myrrhine: O dearest little child of an evil father,
Myrrhine: come, I shall kiss you, sweetest of mummies.
Cinesias: What are you, wretch, doing these things and to others?
Cinesias: You persuade women, and you make me even feel annoyed.
Kinesias: And she herself is distressed?
Myrrhine: Do not bring your hand to me.
Kinesias: but as for the money that is inside, both mine and yours,
Cinesias: You are in a worse state.
Myrrhine: I care little about them.
Kinesias: Do you care a little about the wearing of the tunics?
Kinesias: By the roosters?
Myrrhine: Indeed, by Zeus.
Kinesias: But the priest of Aphrodite is not angry with you.
Cinesias: It is a long time. Won't you walk back again?
Myrrhine: By Zeus, I will not, unless you are at least reconciled.
Myrrhine: And cease from the war.
Kinesias: 'Well then, if it seems good to you,'
Kinesias: We will do these things as well.
Myrrhine: then, if it seems so,
Myrrhine: And I too shall go there; but now I have sworn an oath.
Kinesias: But you, lie down with me for a while.
Myrrhine: Certainly not; yet I will not say that I do not love you.
Kinesias: Do you love her? Then why did you not recline, Myrrine?
Myrrhine: Oh, laughable in front of the child?
Kinesias: By Zeus, but bring this home, Manes.
Kinesias: Look, here is your child, and he is already out of the way,
Kinesias: But you do not recline.
Myrrhine: For where indeed would one find a talent?
Myrrhine: Would she do this?
Kinesias: Where? The beauty of Pan.
Myrrhine: And how could I possibly come to the city in such purity, then?
Kinesias: most beautifully, I suppose, she washed herself with the Clepsydra.
Myrrhine: Then, having sworn, will I certainly commit perjury, will I?
Kinésias: May it turn to me; do not worry about any oath.
Myrrhine: Bring now a small couch for us.
Kinesias: By no means.
Kinesias: It is enough for us to lie here on the ground.
Myrrhine: by Apollo, I will not...
Myrrhine: Although he is such a person, I will lay him down on the ground.
Kinesias: This woman certainly loves me; it is quite clear.
Myrrhine: See, he is reclining after finishing something, and I am undressing.
Myrrhine: Still, what a horror, a reed-mat must be carried out!
Kinésias: What is a psithos? Not on your life.
Myrrhine: By Artemis,
Myrrhine: for it is shameful to be on a high pitch.
Kinesias: Give me a kiss now.
Myrrhine: Behold.
Kinesias: Hush! Come here now very quickly.
Myrrhine: Here is a mat; lie down, and now I am undressing.
Myrrhine: And yet, what a terrible thing, you have no pillow.
Kinesias: But I am not in need at all.
Myrrhine: By Zeus, but I.
Kinesias: But is it this penis that Heracles is visiting?
Myrrhine: rise up, leap up.
Kinesias: I already have everything.
Myrrhine: All things then.
Kinesias: Come here now, my gold.
Myrrhine: I am already untying the headband. Remember now:
Myrrhine: Do not deceive me about the negotiations.
Kinesias: By Zeus, may I perish, I wonder.
Myrrhine: You do not have a sistrum.
Cinesias: By Zeus, I am not even in need, but I want to be beaten.
Myrrhine: Indeed, you will do this; for I am coming quickly.
Kinesias: A man will wear me out over the mattresses.
Myrrhine: Lift yourself up.
Kinesias: But this has been lifted, at least.
Myrrhine: Do you want me to perfume you?
Kinesias: By Apollo, not by me.
Myrrhine: By Aphrodite, whether you wish it or not.
Kinésias: Oh master Zeus, I wish the perfume had been poured out!
Myrrhine: now hold out your hand and anoint yourself with it.
Kinesias: Isn't the perfume sweet, by Apollo, right here?
Kinesias: if it is not a delaying tactic and does not smell of marriage.
Myrrhine: Alas for me, what I have brought from Rhodes!
Cinesias: Good; leave her alone, you demon.
Myrrhine: You are talking nonsense.
Kinesias: May the first person to cook the perfume rot away most miserably.
Myrrhine: Take this alabaster jar.
Kinesias: But I have another.
Kinésias: But lie on your back and don't bring it to me.
Kinesias: Nothing.
Myrrhine: I will do these things, by Artemis.
Myrrhine: I will certainly loosen it. But as you are dearest...
Myrrhine: let us make the treaty by vote.
Kinesias: I will deliberate.
Kinesias: My wife has ruined me and has worn me out.
Kinesias: As for the rest, she has gone off having shorn herself.
Kinesias: Alas, what shall I suffer? Whom shall I punish?
Kinesias: having been deceived by the most beautiful of all?
Kinesias: How will I raise this one?
Kinesias: Where is the Fox?
Kinesias: rent me the tithe.
Chorus of old men: In a terrible plight, wretched man!
Chorus of old men: You tire the soul, having been deceived.
Chorus of old men: And I too pity you, alas.
Chorus of old men: for which, I ask, would either the kidneys hold out,
Chorus of old men: What soul, and what testicles,
Chorus of old men: What is the waist like, and what is the rump like?
Chorus of old men: straining
Chorus of old men: 'And not to work at dawn?'
Kinesias: O Zeus of terrible counter-strains.
Chorus of old men: But now this is what I have done to you.
Chorus of old men: the utterly detestable and utterly wretched one.
Kinesias: By Zeus, but she is dear and extremely sweet.
Chorus of old men: Which is sweet? A filthy, filthy one.
Kinesias: "Oh Zeus, oh Zeus, what a foul thing!"
Kinesias: if only she, just like the tomos!
Kinesias: with a huge swelling and a boil
Kinesias: having rubbed together and having grumbled.
Kinesias: Get out of here carrying it, and then you can let it go,
Kinesias: But let her bring it again to the earth,
Kinesias: and then suddenly
Kinesias: Let it wrap around the vulva.
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: Where are the Athenians? Where is the council of elders?
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: Is it the prytanes? Let's do a bit of new magic.
Kinésias: Are you, then, a man or a lump of dust?
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: I am a herald, Lord Cursanius, by the gods!
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: I am coming from Sparta about the peace terms.
Kinesias: And then, with a spear tied under your armpit, have you come?
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: Not by Zeus, I do not!
Kinésias: Where is he turning?
Kinesias: What is he putting forward the cloak for? Is it for his bubonic plague?
Kinesias: By the road?
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: by the gods, it is indeed old!
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: O man.
Kinesias: But you are silent, most wicked man.
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: Not by Zeus, not I; nor again in jest.
Kinesias: What is this to you?
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: a Lacedaemonian scytale.
Kinesias: If this is indeed a Lacedaemonian baton.
Kinesias: But as one who knows me, tell me the truth.
Cinesias: What is the matter with you in Sparta?
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: Up and away, Lacedaemon and all her allies!
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: Everyone has been beaten; we must take Pellene.
Kinesias: But from where did this evil befall you?
Kinesias: From Panos?
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: No, but I want to be a Lampon.
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: Then the rest of the women, together.
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: Women, who are from one womb.
Messenger of the Lacedaemonians: They drove the two men away from the huts.
Kinesias: How are you, then?
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: we are weary. For if the city
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: We have bent our heads over like candle-bearers.
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: for the women cannot keep silent even from the myrtle.
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: Let them be quiet, before they all in one voice
Herald of the Lacedaemonians: let us make a treaty for all Greece.
Kinesias: This matter has been sworn about from every side.
Kinesias: By the women. I just now am learning it.
Kinesias: But declare as quickly as possible about the terms of peace.
Kinesias: [He] sends out ambassadors as plenipotentiaries to this place.
Kinesias: But I will tell the Council others from here.
Kinesias: having shown this penis, to choose ambassadors.
Messenger of the Lacedaemonians: I am drunk, for you speak most wisely everywhere.
Chorus of old men: there is no beast more unwarlike than a woman,
Chorus of old men: Not even fire, nor is there any more shameless she-cub than this.
Chorus of Women: But since you understand this, you then fight against me,
Chorus of Women: If it is possible, you villain, can I have a sure hold on you, my dear?
Chorus of old men: As I hate women, I shall never cease.
Chorus of Women: But whenever you wish. But now, therefore, I will not overlook you.
Chorus of Women: She is naked, just like that. For I see how ridiculous you are.
Chorus of Women: But I will put the cloak on you as you approach.
Chorus of old men: By Zeus, this is not a bad thing you have done;
Chorus of Old Men: But because of a wicked anger, I even then took off my clothes.
Chorus of Women: First, a man shows himself, and then you are ridiculous.
Chorus of Women: If you were not grieving me, I would [even] have this beast too.
Chorus of Women: I would have plucked out what is now in the eye.
Chorus of old men: "That was the pumice-stone, this ring here."
Chorus of old men: dig it out, and then show it to me after taking it away;
Chorus of old men: How my eye has been stinging me for a long time, by Zeus!
Chorus of Women: But I will do these things; and yet you were born a difficult man.
Chorus of Women: Oh Zeus, it is a great thing for you to see the pot in the air.
Chorus of Women: Don't you see? Isn't this woman here a Tricorythia?
Chorus of old men: By Zeus, you have helped me, as you have long been besieging me.
Chorus of old men: So that, since he has been chosen, my tear flows abundantly.
Chorus of Women: But I will roast you, even though you are very villainous,
Chorus of Women: And I will kiss.
Chorus of old men: Do not kiss.
Chorus of Women: whether you wish it or not.
Chorus of old men: But do not hurry; for you are naturally flattering.
Chorus of old men: And that saying as well was spoken correctly and not badly,
Chorus of old men: neither with the utterly ruined nor without the utterly ruined.
Chorus of old men: But now I make a libation to you, and no longer in the future.
Chorus of old men: I will do no evil thing, nor will I suffer anything from you.
Chorus of old men: But let us, having assembled together, begin the song.
Chorus: We are not making preparations.
Chorus: not a single one of the citizens, men!
Chorus: not even one thing to say.
Chorus: But on the contrary, all things are truly good to speak of.
Chorus: and to act; for the evils are sufficient and those that are at hand.
Chorus: but let every man and woman promise,
Chorus: if someone needs a little money.
Chorus: to take a mina, or two, or three,
Chorus: how many things are inside!
Chorus: And we have purses.
Chorus: and even if peace should appear,
Chorus: whoever should borrow now
Chorus: from us,
Chorus: Take her and do not let her go again.
Chorus: We are about to entertain guests.
Chorus: some Carystians, an-
Chorus: See good and noble men.
Chorus: And there is still a certain kind; and there was a little pouch for me,
Chorus: And this has been cooked, so that the meat may be eaten tender and good.
Chorus: Come, then, to me today; but in the morning it is necessary
Chorus: to do this, having bathed, we-
Chorus: both the men and the children, then let them go inside,
Chorus: and let no one ask,
Chorus: but go straight on
Chorus: just as they are going home to themselves
Chorus: generally, as
Chorus: The door will be shut.
Chorus: And indeed, here are ambassadors from Sparta dragging their sleds.
Chorus: Move aside, keeping your thighs like a pigsty around them.
Chorus: Men of Lacedaemon, first of all, hail me,
Chorus: Well then, tell us how you are and when you have come.
Laconian: Why do we need to reveal many mysterious words?
Lacedaemonian: for it will be possible to see us as we are when we arrive.
Chorus: Alas! This calamity has been strung tight.
Chorus: it seems terribly, indeed worse, to have been heated up.
Spartan: Unspeakable. What could one say? But wherever she may go.
Lacedaemonian: Let anyone who has come from anywhere bring us peace.
Chorus: Indeed, I see even these autochthons too.
Chorus: just as wrestlers, men, from their bellies
Chorus: and sending away a curtain, so that it appears
Chorus: the treatment of the disease is a hardship.
Athenian: Who would tell me where Lysistrata is?
Athenian: as we are men, these men.
Chorus: This one agrees with that mother of this disease.
Chorus: Is it really a cramp that is taking you at daybreak?
Athenian: By Zeus, but by doing this we are wearing ourselves out.
Athenian: so that if anyone does not reconcile us quickly,
Athenian: We will not fail to take vengeance on Cleisthenes.
Chorus: if you are prudent, you will receive blankets, so that
Chorus: Let no one of the Hermocopidae see you.
Athenian: By Zeus, you speak well indeed.
Lacedaemonian: Yes, by my two gods
Lacedaemonian: Everywhere, indeed. Come, let us put on the costume.
Athenian: Oh, hail, Lacedaemonians! We have suffered shameful things.
Lacedaemonian: O Polycharidas, terrible things have befallen us again,
Lacedaemonian: If I see me, men, inflamed.
Athenian: Come on now, Lacedaemonians, now each must speak.
Athenian: For what purpose are you here?
Lacedaemonian: about peace terms.
Lacedaemonian: ambassadors.
Athenian: Well said; and we too say this.
Athenian: Then why do we not call Lysistrata?
Athenian: She who alone would reconcile us?
Lacedaemonian: Yes, by the two goddesses, and if you take Lysistrata.
Athenian: But we need not, it seems, call anyone;
Athenian: for this one, as she heard, is coming out thus.
Chorus: Hail, most courageous of all; you must now become
Chorus: terrible, cowardly, good, bad, serious, gentle, very experienced;
Chorus: as the first of the Greeks were seized by your lyre
Chorus: they have granted you all the accusations, and jointly have permitted them.
Lysistrata: But the task is not difficult, if anyone were to take it up.
Lysistrata: that they should not be angry at each other nor be tested.
Lysistrata: Perhaps I shall know soon enough. Where is Reconciliation?
Lysistrata: bring them forward, having first taken the Lacedaemonians,
Lysistrata: and not with a harsh hand, nor with a lawless one,
Lysistrata: nor do men act foolishly like ours in this matter,
Lysistrata: But as women are wont, very naturally,
Lysistrata: If she does not give her hand, take her by the cloak.
Lysistrata: Go and lead these Athenians too,
Lysistrata: Wherever they give, having taken these, bring them forward.
Lysistrata: Spartan men, stand near me close by,
Lysistrata: From here, you too, listen to the words.
Lysistrata: I am a woman, but I have sense,
Lysistrata: But I do not have a bad opinion of myself,
Lysistrata: But the words of my father and of my elders
Lysistrata: Having heard many [things], I shall not endure evil.
Lysistrata: Having taken you, I wish to abuse you.
Lysistrata: Justly and together, those [who are] from one lustral water
Lysistrata: sprinkling the altars as if [we were] relatives.
Lysistrata: Olympias, at Pylos, at Pytho, how many?
Lysistrata: I would speak of others, if I were required to prolong [my speech]?
Lysistrata: when hostile barbarian armies are present
Lysistrata: You are destroying Greek men and cities.
Lysistrata: One story has always been carried this far for me.
Athenian: But I am utterly ruined, stripped of my breeches!
Lysistrata: Then, O Lacedaemonians, for to you I shall turn,
Lysistrata: You do not know when Pericles came here once
Lysistrata: The Lacedaemonian suppliant of the Athenians was sitting down.
Lysistrata: pale on the altars in a crimson cloak
Lysistrata: asking for an army? But Messene at that time
Lysistrata: The god was threatening you too, shaking at the same time.
Lysistrata: having come with four thousand hoplites
Lysistrata: Kimon saved all of Sparta.
Lysistrata: having suffered these things from the Athenians,
Lysistrata: Are you ruining the country, from which you have suffered well?
Athenian: These men are doing wrong, by Zeus, O Lysistrata.
Laconian: We are being wronged. But the anus is so incredibly beautiful.
Lysistrata: Do you think I will leave the Athenians?
Lysistrata: You do not know where the Lacedaemonians are again here again
Lysistrata: having come wearing tunics, [they] with a spear
Lysistrata: many men of the Thessalians they have destroyed,
Lysistrata: many companions of Hippias and allies,
Lysistrata: fighting together with them alone on that day,
Lysistrata: and they will free them and in exchange for the little tunic.
Lysistrata: Have they again stopped your people's cloak?
Spartan: I have never seen a more charming woman.
Athenian: But I have not yet found a more beautiful one.
Lysistrata: But what of the many good deeds that have been accomplished?
Lysistrata: Are you fighting and not stopping your villainy?
Lysistrata: Why then have you not made peace? Come now, what is the hindrance?
Lacedaemonian: We are indeed strong, if someone gives us the circle.
Lacedaemonian: Let this be lost.
Lysistrata: What is it, you wretched woman?
Lacedaemonian: "Pylos,"
Lacedaemonian: Just as we have long asked for and desired.
Athenian: By Poseidon, you certainly will not do this.
Lysistrata: Let them go, you good men.
Athenian: And then what shall we stir up?
Lysistrata: Another place is demanded instead of this one.
Athenian: Then hand over this dreadful thing to us.
Athenian: first of all Echion and Melias.
Athenian: the rear bosom and the Megarian legs.
Lacedaemonian: By Zeus, not everything, you beggar.
Lysistrata: Let go, and do not differ in any way concerning the legs.
Athenian: Now I want to farm, having stripped naked.
Lacedaemonian: But I, by the two goddesses, first of all, would like to go to the dung market.
Lysistrata: When you have made peace, you will do these things.
Lysistrata: But if this seems good to do, let us take counsel also and
Lysistrata: Go to the allies and inform them.
Athenian: With which allies, oh my fellow allies? We are silent.
Athenian: It will not seem the same to the allies to us.
Athenian: to drink for all?
Lacedaemonian: By the ground, yes, by your gods.
Lacedaemonian: With us both.
Athenian: For, by Zeus, [we are] also with the Carystians.
Lysistrata: You speak well. So now, in what way will you be chaste,
Lysistrata: in such a way that the women [might] [do something] to you in the city
Lysistrata: let us entertain ourselves with what we had in the baskets.
Lysistrata: But give oaths and trust to one another there.
Lysistrata: and then, having taken his own wife of yours,
Lysistrata: Go away, each one.
Athenian: But let us go as quickly as possible.
Lacedaemonian: Come, wherever you wish.
Athenian: By Zeus, lead on as quickly as possible.
Chorus: and of various rugs and
Chorus: of chlamydes and of xystides and of
Chorus: all the gold that I have,
Chorus: I have no envy to give to all to bear.
Chorus: For the children, whenever a certain girl is a kanephoros.
Chorus: I say to all of you to take from my [things].
Chorus: now from within, of money, and
Chorus: Nothing so well has been marked-
Chorus: and not not
Chorus: to pull up the filth,
Chorus: It would be better to bring it inside.
Chorus: He will see nothing while looking, if
Chorus: Let none of you
Chorus: He sees more sharply than I.
Chorus: but if any of you has no grain,
Chorus: It is, and it feeds slaves and
Chorus: little many children,
Chorus: It is possible to take thin fire-starters from me,
Chorus: But the bread is very young-looking from a measure of six.
Chorus: So let whoever of the poor wishes go.
Chorus: having sacks on me, and
Chorus: the sponges, how he will get them-
Chorus: rush! But Manes...
Chorus: I will throw it at them.
Chorus: but certainly to the door
Chorus: I order you not to walk.
Chorus: my own, but
Chorus: to beware of the dog.
Athenian: Open the door; do you not wish to yield?
Athenian A.: Why are you sitting? Or shall I with the torch
Athenian A.: I will burn you? What a filthy place!
Athenian A.: I would not do it. But if one must do this very much,
Athenian: To grant you a favor, we will toil with great effort.
Athenian B: And we certainly will share your hardships.
Athenian A.: Are you not going? You will tear your long hair in wailing.
Athenian: I will not go away, so that the Lacedaemonians from within
Athenian A.: May they go away quietly, having feasted?
Athenian B.: I have never yet seen such a drinking party.
Athenian Man: 'Yes, and the Lacedaemonians were charming!'
Athenian B.: But we, in wine, are the wisest of drinking companions.
Athenian: That's right, since when we are sober we are not well.
Athenian A.: If I persuade the Athenians while speaking,
Athenian: We will always be ambassadors drunk everywhere.
Athenian A.: For now, whenever we come to Sparta
Athenian A.: When sober, we immediately see what we shall stir up;
Athenian A.: So that whatever they say we do not hear,
Athenian A.: What they do not say, these things we have inferred,
Athenian A.: We announce not the same things concerning the same matters.
Athenian A.: Now everything was pleasing; so that if indeed anyone
Athenian A.: 'Telemus's song, let Kleitagoras sing it.'
Athenian A.: We would have praised and also sworn falsely.
Athenian A.: But these men are coming back again.
Athenian A.: To the same point. Won't you speak, you scourges?
Athenian B.: By Zeus, she is already quite advanced inside.
Laconian: O Polycharides, take the bellows,
Lacedaemonian: so that I may walk the double-pace and sing a beautiful song
Lacean: to the Asanians and also to us at the same time.
Athenian: then take the bladders by the gods,
Athenian: How glad I am to see you dancing.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: Let us march!
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: By Zeus, by Zeus, oh Mnemosyne!
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: And my Muse, which
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: They know me as an Athenian,
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: 'Quickly, the men are at Artemisium.'
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: like a praeconium
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: We have defeated many and good things from the Medes as well,
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: 'But me again Leonidas'
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: Lead on, as we do the boars.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: pulling out the tooth.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: much foam too around the jaws has been blown,
Chorus of the Lacedaemonians: Much with one bound, the foam of legs flowed.
Chorus of Spartans: for it was not less the case, men.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: The Persians are the sand.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: older silkworm-killer
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: come here, young woman.
Chorus of Spartans: many cups of wine,
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: how long you hold me.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: But now may friendship always be well-provided.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: "By the treaties,"
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: And let us cease from the wily foxes.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: Oh, come here, come here, oh!
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: Dog-faced girl!
Athenian: Come then, since the rest has been done well,
Athenian: Lead these women away, you Lacedaemonians, and these too.
Athenian: You; but a man with a woman and a woman
Athenian: Let him stand by a man, and then upon good fortunes
Athenian: having danced to the gods, let us be cautious.
Athenian: From now on, don't make a mistake again.
Chorus of Athenians: lead on the chorus, and lead on the Graces,
Chorus of Athenians: but call upon Artemis,
Chorus of Athenians: and on top of that, a twin songless one.
Chorus of Athenians: Iēion
Chorus of Athenians: with good mind, but with a Nysian,
Chorus of Athenians: who is consumed by Bacchic eyes along with maenads,
Chorus of Athenians: By Zeus, burning with fire, and also by
Chorus of Athenians: O blessed and honored wife;
Chorus of Athenians: And then, spirits, with whom [I call] as witnesses.
Chorus of Athenians: we shall use [things] not to be forgotten.
Chorus of Athenians: About the peace of the gentle-minded,
Chorus of Athenians: which the goddess Kypris made.
Chorus of Athenians: Hooray! Iē paean!
Chorus of Athenians: Lift up your heads, hey!
Chorus of Athenians: as if in victory, rejoice.
Chorus of Athenians: Evoe, evoe, evai, evai.
Athenian: But show us a Muse who is new among the new.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: Leaving Taygetus, a lovely place,
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: Come, O Laconian, befittingly to us
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: Cléoa, the one from Amyclae!
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: and a bronze-house, Asana,
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: O daughter of Tyndareus, admirable,
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: But now they are playing on the banks of the Eurotas.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: Come on, let's step forward!
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: Oh, come on, shaking lightly,
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: as we sing of Sparta,
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: To the silent ones, the choruses are singing.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: and the stamping of feet,
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: And how the mares neigh!
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: beside the Eurotas
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: Leap, feet, in unison.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: 'Ankoniwai,'
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: the hair waves, just like the Bacchants.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: let us play the aulos and the lyre.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: Leda's daughter is being led.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: A pure leader, a leader of good appearance.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: But come, braid your hair with a comb in your hand, and stamp with your feet.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: Let a deer sing; and make a clap together with the chorus-leader.
Chorus of Lacedaemonians: And again let her sing the most powerful and warlike one of the Chalcioecus.