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STRATYLLIS
(caught)
Let me go!

WOMEN
You villainous old men, what's this you do?
No honest man, no pious man, could do such things as you.

MEN
Ah ha, here's something most original, I have no doubt:
A swarm of women sentinels to man the walls without.

WOMEN
So then we scare you, do we? Do we seem a fearful host?
You only see the smallest fraction mustered at this post.

MEN
Ho, Phaedrias, shall we put a stop to all these chattering tricks?
Suppose that now upon their backs we splintered these our sticks?

WOMEN
Let us lay down the pitchers, so our bodies will be free,
     In case these lumping fellows try to cause some injury.

MEN
O hit them hard and hit again and hit until they run away,
And perhaps they'll learn, like Bupalus, not to have too much to say.

WOMEN
Come on, then—do it! I won't budge, but like a dog I'll bite
At every little scrap of meat that dangles in my sight.

MEN
Be quiet, or I'll bash you out of any years to come.

WOMEN
Now you just touch Stratyllis with the top-joint of your thumb.

MEN
What vengeance can you take if with my fists your face I beat?

WOMEN
I'll rip you with my teeth and strew your entrails at your feet.

MEN
Now I appreciate Euripides' strange subtlety:
Woman is the most shameless beast of all the beasts that be.

WOMEN
Rhodippe, come, and let's pick up our water-jars once more.

MEN
Ah cursed drab, what have you brought this water for?

WOMEN
What is your fire for then, you smelly corpse? Yourself to burn?

MEN
To build a pyre and make your comrades ready for the urn.

WOMEN
And I've the water to put out your fire immediately.

MEN
What, you put out my fire?

WOMEN
Yes, sirrah, as you soon will see.

MEN
I don't know why I hesitate to roast you with this flame.

WOMEN
If you have any soap you'll go off cleaner than you came.

MEN
Cleaner, you dirty slut?

WOMEN
A nuptial-bath in which to lie!

MEN
Did you hear that insolence?

WOMEN
I'm a free woman, I.

MEN
I'll make you hold your tongue.

WOMEN
Henceforth you'll serve in no more juries.

MEN
Burn off her hair for her.

WOMEN
Now forward, water, quench their furies!

MEN
O dear, O dear!

WOMEN
So ... was it hot?

MEN
Hot! ... Enough, O hold.

WOMEN
Watered, perhaps you'll bloom again—why not?

MEN
Brrr, I'm wrinkled up from shivering with cold.

WOMEN
Next time you've fire you'll warm yourself and leave us to our lot.

load focus Greek (F.W. Hall and W.M. Geldart, 1907)
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