Aristophanes, Lysistrata, line 46

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LYSISTRATA
These are the very armaments of the rescue.
These crocus-gowns, this outlay of the best myrrh,
Slippers, cosmetics dusting beauty, and robes
With rippling creases of light.

CALONICE
Yes, but how?

LYSISTRATA
No man will lift a lance against another—

CALONICE
I'll run to have my tunic dyed crocus.

LYSISTRATA
Or take a shield—

CALONICE
I'll get a stately gown.

LYSISTRATA
Or unscabbard a sword—

CALONICE
Let me buy a pair of slipper.

LYSISTRATA
Now, tell me, are the women right to lag?

CALONICE
They should have turned birds, they should have grown
wings and flown.

LYSISTRATA
My friend, you'll see that they are true Athenians:
Always too late. Why, there's not a woman
From the shoreward demes arrived, not one from Salamis.

CALONICE
I know for certain they awoke at dawn,
And got their husbands up if not their boat sails.

LYSISTRATA
And I'd have staked my life the Acharnian dames
Would be here first, yet they haven't come either!

CALONICE
Well anyhow there is Theagenes' wife
We can expect—she consulted Hecate.
But look, here are some at last, and more behind them.
See ... where are they from?

CALONICE
From Anagyra they come.

LYSISTRATA
Yes, they generally manage to come first.
Enter MYRRHINE.

MYRRHINE
Are we late, Lysistrata? ... What is that?
Nothing to say?

LYSISTRATA
I've not much to say for you,
Myrrhine, dawdling on so vast an affair.

MYRRHINE
I couldn't find my girdle in the dark.
But if the affair's so wonderfull, tell us, what is it?

LYSISTRATA
No, let us stay a little longer till
The Peloponnesian girls and the girls of Boeotia
Are here to listen.

MYRRHINE
That's the best advice.
Ah, there comes Lampito.
Enter LAMPITO.

LYSISTRATA
Welcome Lampito!
Dear Spartan girl with a delightful face,
Washed with the rosy spring, how fresh you look
In the easy stride of your sleek slenderness,
Why you could strangle a bull!

LAMPITO
I think I could.
It's frae exercise and kicking high behint.¹

LYSISTRATA
What lovely breasts to own!

LAMPITO
Oo ... your fingers
Assess them, ye tickler, wi' such tender chucks
I feel as if I were an altar-victim.

LYSISTRATA
Who is this youngster?

1 The translator has put the speech of the Spartan characters in Scotch dialect which is related to English about as was the Spartan dialect to the speech of Athens. The Spartans, in their character, anticipated the shrewd, canny, uncouth Scotch highlander of modern times.

Lysistrata. Aristophanes.

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