They are spending
dreadful
nights, oh!
Aristophanes
For fear my pains should seize me in the Acropolis; I mean
to lay my eggs in this helmet, as the doves do.
LYSISTRATA. Excuses and pretences every word! the thing's as clear as
daylight. Anyway, you must stay here now till the fifth day, your day of
purification.
THIRD WOMAN. I cannot sleep any more in the Acropolis, now I have seen
the snake that guards the Temple.
FOURTH WOMAN. Ah! and those confounded owls with their dismal hooting! I
cannot get a wink of rest, and I'm just dying of fatigue.
LYSISTRATA. You wicked women, have done with your falsehoods! You want
your husbands, that's plain enough. But don't you think they want you
just as badly?
They are spending dreadful nights, oh! I know that well
enough. But hold out, my dears, hold out! A little more patience, and the
victory will be ours. An Oracle promises us success, if only we remain
united. Shall I repeat the words?
FIRST WOMAN. Yes, tell us what the Oracle declares.
LYSISTRATA. Silence then! Now--"Whenas the swallows, fleeing before the
hoopoes, shall have all flocked together in one place, and shall refrain
them from all amorous commerce, then will be the end of all the ills of
life; yea, and Zeus, which doth thunder in the skies, shall set above
what was erst below. . . . "
CHORUS OF WOMEN. What!
to lay my eggs in this helmet, as the doves do.
LYSISTRATA. Excuses and pretences every word! the thing's as clear as
daylight. Anyway, you must stay here now till the fifth day, your day of
purification.
THIRD WOMAN. I cannot sleep any more in the Acropolis, now I have seen
the snake that guards the Temple.
FOURTH WOMAN. Ah! and those confounded owls with their dismal hooting! I
cannot get a wink of rest, and I'm just dying of fatigue.
LYSISTRATA. You wicked women, have done with your falsehoods! You want
your husbands, that's plain enough. But don't you think they want you
just as badly?
They are spending dreadful nights, oh! I know that well
enough. But hold out, my dears, hold out! A little more patience, and the
victory will be ours. An Oracle promises us success, if only we remain
united. Shall I repeat the words?
FIRST WOMAN. Yes, tell us what the Oracle declares.
LYSISTRATA. Silence then! Now--"Whenas the swallows, fleeing before the
hoopoes, shall have all flocked together in one place, and shall refrain
them from all amorous commerce, then will be the end of all the ills of
life; yea, and Zeus, which doth thunder in the skies, shall set above
what was erst below. . . . "
CHORUS OF WOMEN. What!
