the
streets would have been impassable for the thronging tambourines!
streets would have been impassable for the thronging tambourines!
Aristophanes
A MAGISTRATE.
CINESIAS.
A CHILD.
HERALD OF THE LACEDAEMONIANS.
ENVOYS OF THE LACEDAEMONIANS.
POLYCHARIDES.
MARKET LOUNGERS.
A SERVANT.
AN ATHENIAN CITIZEN.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN.
CHORUS OF WOMEN.
SCENE: In a public square at Athens; afterwards before the gates of the
Acropolis, and finally within the precincts of the citadel.
* * * * *
LYSISTRATA
LYSISTRATA (_alone_). Ah! if only they had been invited to a Bacchic
revelling, or a feast of Pan or Aphrodite or Genetyllis,[390] why!
the
streets would have been impassable for the thronging tambourines! Now
there's never a woman here-ah! except my neighbour Calonice, whom I see
approaching yonder. . . . Good day, Calonice.
CALONICE. Good day, Lysistrata; but pray, why this dark, forbidding face,
my dear? Believe me, you don't look a bit pretty with those black
lowering brows.
LYSISTRATA. Oh! Calonice, my heart is on fire; I blush for our sex. Men
_will_ have it we are tricky and sly. . .
