Not even one of those eight-inch leather ones.

Lysistrata: And I have been without a man too. Lampito: As for mine, if he ever does return from service, he's no sooner back than he takes down his shield again and flies back to the wars. Myrrhiné: 'Tis seven long months since mine left me for Pylos. Is there is not one of you whose husband is not abroad at this moment.Ĭalonicé: Mine has been the last five months in Thrace. Myrrhiné: What is the most important business you wish to inform us about? So, who has called together this council of women, pray? Lampito: La! You are not feeling a beast for the sacrifice. It is only because I do gymnastics and kick dancing. Lampito: Yes, indeed, I really think I could. How handsome you look! and how strong! You could strangle a bull surely! Lysistrata: Good day, Lampito, dear friend from Lacedaemon. Myrrhiné: Are we late, Lysistrata? I could not find my girdle in the dark. But look! here are some arrivals.Ĭalonicé: Yes! 'Tis Myrrhiné and all the female population of Anagyra! Ĭalonicé: Quick, I will get me a yellow gown from the dyer's. Lysistrata: There is not a man will resist. Lysistrata: Nay, those gowns, those scents and slippers, those cosmetics and transparent robes are our weapons! Ĭalonicé: But how? When we women mostly lie in our households, wearing silky yellow gowns? But now, our country's fortunes depend on us - it is for us to exterminate the Peloponnesian and the Boeotian threat!. If that was all, I would have no difficulty collecting our women. Lysistrata: Yet, look you, when the women are summoned to meet for a matter of importance, they lie abed instead of coming.Ĭalonicé: And why do you summon us, dear Lysistrata? What is it all about? Lysistrata: Oh, Calonicé, my heart is on fire I blush for our sex.

Good day, Calonicé.Ĭalonicé: Good day, Lysistrata but pray, why this dark face, my dear? It does not make you look pretty. Lysistrata: Ah! if only they had been invited to a Bacchic revelling, or a feast of Pan or Aphrodité, why! the streets would have been impassable for the thronging tambourines! Now there's never a woman here - ah! except my neighbour Calonicé, approaching yonder. It has been revived many times over the centuries, often as a message against war, notably in the 'Lysistrata Project' of 2002.Ībridged: GH, largely based on an uncredited translation published in 1912, possibly by Oscar Wilde. The play was forbidden by the Nazis, by the Greek military junta in 1960s, and it remains banned de jure in the USA. The comic play Lysistrata was first performed as popular unrest against the Peloponnesian War intensified after Athens suffered the loss of her whole navy and much of her army. Illustration by Norman Lindsay for a 20th Century edition The original, squashed down to read (or perform) in about 25 minutes

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