Aristophanes
Aristophanis Lysistrata

LYSISTRATA, CALONICE, MYRRHINA, LAMPITO

LYS.– At si quis in ædem Bacchi vocasset eas, aut Panos, aut Coliadis, aut Genetyllidis,¹ ne transire quidem liceret præ multitudine tympanorum: nunc autem nulla adest hic mulier. Verumtamen hæc vicina mea foras exit. Salve, ô Calonice.

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 existimant² 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.³

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 optimum⁴ est.

LYS.– Bœotiosque omnes perire funditus.

CAL.– Non omnes, quæso; sed anguillas excipe.⁵

LYS.– De Athenis autem nil tale ominabor: tu ipsa conjecturam facias.⁶ 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.⁷ At nec ex maritimis ulla mulier adest, nec ex Salamine.⁸

CAL.– Sed has scio in celocibus trajecisse matutinas.

LYS.– Nec, quas sperabam et confidebam ego primas hic adfore, Acharnenses mulieres veniunt.⁹

CAL.– Attamen Theagenis uxor,¹⁰ tanquam horsum venire cupiens Hecatæ simulacrum consuluit. Sed ecce accedunt quædam: item aliæ etiam. Hem, hem! undenam sunt?

LYS.– Ex Anagyro.

CAL.– Edepol ut dicis. Anagyrus¹¹ 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.

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.¹²

LYS.– Quam bellas habes papillas!¹³

LAMP.– Tanquam victimam pertractatis me.¹⁴

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.¹⁵

LYS.– Quænam vero est illa altera puella?

LAMP.– Bona quidem ecastor, sed Corinthia.

LYS.– Bona edepol videtur, ut illic esse solent.¹⁶

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.¹⁷

LYS.– Meus vero totos sex menses ad Pylum.¹⁸

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.¹⁹

CAL.– Ego vero mihi videor vel rhombi instar meipsam dissectura, et dimidium mei datura.

LAMP.– Ego vero vel ad Taygetum²⁰ 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.– 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 scapha²¹. Sed, ô cara Lacæna (tu enim si fueris sola mecum, perditam²² rem adhuc restituere poterimus) adsentire mihi.

LAMP.– Per ecastor²³ difficile est feminas dormire solas sine mentula. Hoc tamen perpeti oportet: nam pacem fieri oportet maxime.

LYS.– O carissima et sola harum femina.

MYRR.– 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 amorginis²⁴ 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.– Quid vero, ô misella, si nos omiserint viri?

LYS.– Tum istud Pherecratis adhibe, Canem excoriatum excoriare.²⁵

MYRR.– Nugæ sunt ista simulacra. Si vero comprehensas in cubiculum vi traxerint nos?

LYS.– Renitere apprehensis foribus.

MYRR.– 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.– 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?²⁶ quo spectas? Pone in conspectu clypeum supinum: et mihi det hostias aliquis.

MYRR.– Lysistrata, quo sacramento nos adstringes?

LYS.– Quonam? In clypeum, ut Æschylum aiunt fecisse quondam, ove mactata —²⁷

MYRR.– Ne, quæso, mea Lysistrata, juraveris in clypeum quicquam super pace.

LYS.– Quodnam erit ergo jusjurandum?

MYRR.– Si sumtum alicunde album equum immolemus, et super eo juremus.

LYS.– Quorsum album equum?

MYRR.– Sed quomodo jurabimus nos?

LYS.– Edepol tibi dicam, si velis. Collocato supino grandi calice nigro, in eum immolemus Thasii²⁸ vini urceum, et juremus aquam²⁹ in calicem nos non infusuras.

LAMP.– Dii boni, quale juramentum! dicere nequeam quantum illum probem. Intus efferat aliquis foras calicem et urceum.

LYS.– O carissimæ mulieres, quanta vis fictilium! hoc sumto calice statim quis hilarabitur: eum depone, et hostiam mihi prehende. O Suada domina, et amicitiæ phiala, propitia mulieribus accipe hæc sacra.

MYRR.– Boni coloris est sanguis et pulchre profluit.

LAMP.– Quin etiam, ita me Castor amet, suave olet.

LYS.– Sinite primam me, ô mulieres, jurare.

MYRR.– 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.—Nec adulter, nec vir ullus est.

LYS.—Qui ad me accedet rigente nervo. Dic.

MYRR.—Qui ad me accedet rigente nervo. Papæ! labant genua mea, o Lysistrata.

LYS.—Domi casta degam ætatem —

MYRR.—Domi casta degam ætatem.

LYS.—Crocotam gestans et comta —

MYRR.—Crocotam gestans et comta.

LYS.—Ut meus vir quam maxime incendatur —

MYRR.—Ut meus vir quam maxime incendatur.

LYS.—Nec unquam sponte viro meo morem geram —

MYRR.—Nec unquam sponte viro meo morem geram.

LYS.—Si vero me invitam vi cogat —

MYRR.—Si vero me invitam vi cogat.

LYS.—Maligne ei præbebo et motus non addam.

MYRR.—Maligne ei præbebo et motus non addam.

LYS.—Non tollam calceos sursum ad lacunar.

MYRR.—Non tollam calceos sursum ad lacunar.

LYS.—Non conquiniscam instar leœnæ in cultri manubrio.

MYRR.—Non conquiniscam instar leœnæ in cultri manubrio.

LYS.—Hæc si rata habeam, liceat mihi hinc bibere.

MYRR.—Hæc si rata habeam, liceat mihi, hinc bibere.

LYS.—Si vero transgrediar, aqua impleatur calix.

MYRR.—Si vero transgrediar, aqua impleatur calix.

LYS.– Vosne omnes jurejurando hæc firmatis?

CAL.– Ita, per Jovem.

LYS.– Age, ego sacrificabo hanc hostiam.

MYRR.– Partem modo, ô cara, ut statim ab initio amicæ inter nos simus.

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.– Nonne putatis contra nos suppetias venturos mox viros?

LYS.– Flocci eos non facio.³⁰ Non enim tantas minas, nec tantum ignem ferentes venient, ut claustra hæc reserare possint, nisi ea, qua diximus, conditione.

MYRR.– Nunquam certe, ita me Venus amet. Frustra enim nos mulieres vocaremur invictæ et scelestæ.

CHORUS SENUM, CHORUS MULIERUM, STRATYLLIS, PROVISOR, MULIERES QUÆDAM

CHOR. SEN.– Perge, Draces;³¹ præi pedetentim, etsi dolet tibi humerus, ferenti tantum onus virentis olivæ.

SEMICH.– 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.– 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,³² 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 Lemnius³³ 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?³⁴ 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.

CHOR. MUL.– Flammam et fumum videor mihi cernere, ô mulieres, tanquam ardentis ignis: festinandum est ocius.³⁵³⁶

SEMICH.– Vola, vola, Nicodice, priusquam incendantur Calyca et Critylla, flatu undique oppressæ, a legibus durissimis et perditis senibus.

SEMICH.– 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.

STRAT.– 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 foribus³⁷ 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,³⁸ 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?³⁹

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.⁴⁰

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.

PROV.– Satin' emicuit mulierum luxuria, et tympanorum pulsatio, et frequentes Bacchationes, et illa in ædium tectis Adonia⁴¹ celebrantium lamenta, quæ ego, quum essem in concione,⁴² audiebam. Demostratus⁴³ 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:⁴⁴ mulier autem in tecto temulenta, Plangite Adonin, ait. Contra omni studio enitebatur diis invisus ille et scelestus Cholozyges.⁴⁵ 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.

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1

At Athens more than anywhere the festivals of Bacchus (Dionysus) were celebrated with the utmost pomp – and also with the utmost licence, not to say licentiousness.

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2

Leipzig: "existumant"

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3

An obscene double entendre; Calonicé understands, or pretends to understand, Lysistrata as meaning a long and thick "membrum virile"!

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4

Leipzig: "optumum"

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5

The eels from Lake Copaïs in Boeotia were esteemed highly by epicures.

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6

Leipzig: "De Athenis autem nil tale ominabor: aliud te suspicari velim.

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7

This is the reproach Demosthenes constantly levelled against his Athenian fellow-countrymen – their failure to seize opportunity.

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8

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.

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9

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.'

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10

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.

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11

A deme of Attica, a small and insignificant community – a 'Little Pedlington' in fact.

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12

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.

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13

Missing in Leipzig-ed.

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14

Missing in Leipzig-ed.

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15

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.

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16

Corinth was notorious in the Ancient world for its prostitutes and general dissoluteness.

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17

An Athenian general strongly suspected of treachery; Aristophanes pretends his own soldiers have to see that he does not desert to the enemy.

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18

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.

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19

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.

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20

The lofty range of hills overlooking Sparta from the west.

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21

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.

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22

Typo in Oxford: "perpitam". Leipzig has "perditam".

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23

"By the two goddesses," – a woman's oath, which recurs constantly in this play; the two goddesses are always Demeter and Proserpine.

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24

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.

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25

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.

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26

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.

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27

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.

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28

A volcanic island in the northern part of the Aegaean, celebrated for its vineyards.

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29

Leipzig: "et iuremus in calicem nos non infusuras."

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30

Leizpig: "Flocci eos facio."

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31

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.

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32

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.

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33

Lemnos was proverbial with the Greeks for chronic misfortune and a succession of horrors and disasters. Can any good thing come out of Lemnos?

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34

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.

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35

Leipzig: "festinandum et ocius"

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36

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.

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37

Leipzig: "mulierum examen foris succurrit."

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38

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.

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39

Leipzig: "an ut humanum exuras tibi?"

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40

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.

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41

Women only celebrated the festivals of Adonis. These rites were not performed in public, but on the terraces and flat roofs of the houses.

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42

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.

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43

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.

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44

An island in the Ionian Sea, on the west of Greece, near Cephalenia, and an ally of Athens during the Peloponnesian War.

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45

Cholozyges, a nickname for Demostratus.

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