To exterminate the
Boeotians
to a man!
Aristophanes
CALONICE. It must be something mighty fine and subtle for you to have
turned it about so!
LYSISTRATA. So fine, it means just this, Greece saved by the women!
CALONICE. By women! Why, its salvation hangs on a poor thread then!
LYSISTRATA. Our country's fortunes depend on us--it is with us to undo
utterly the Peloponnesians. . . .
CALONICE. That would be a noble deed truly!
LYSISTRATA.
To exterminate the Boeotians to a man!
CALONICE. But surely you would spare the eels. [392]
LYSISTRATA. For Athens' sake I will never threaten so fell a doom; trust
me for that. However, if the Boeotian and Peloponnesian women join us,
Greece is saved.
CALONICE. But how should women perform so wise and glorious an
achievement, we women who dwell in the retirement of the household, clad
in diaphanous garments of yellow silk and long flowing gowns, decked out
with flowers and shod with dainty little slippers?
LYSISTRATA. Nay, but those are the very sheet-anchors of our
salvation--those yellow tunics, those scents and slippers, those
cosmetics and transparent robes.
CALONICE. How so, pray?
LYSISTRATA. There is not a man will wield a lance against another . . .
