Lysistrata And that's exactly what will save us all:
the little gowns, the perfumes, and the slippers,
the make-up and the see-through lingerie!
Calonice And how do you figure that?
Lysistrata No man alive
will want to lift his spear against another
Calonice I guess I better go and buy some clothes!
Lysistrata or lift his shield
Calonice I'll put my best dress on!
Lysistrata or draw his sword.
Calonice I've got to buy some slippers.
Lysistrata So don't you think the women should have come?
Calonice Have come? They should have taken wings and flown!
Lysistrata But look around, our fellow Athenians are late as always, chronically delayed.
But I'd have thought the women from the beach towns
and the islands
Calonice Lighten up, I know they're coming:
the island girls are good at riding topside.
Lysistrata But what about the women from that town5 that's always being burnt? I thought that they
would be the first.
Calonice That shipping magnate's wife,
at any rate, is coming: she packed her schooner6 But look, I see some women coming now!
Lysistrata And there's another bunch!
Calonice But what's that smell?
What's their town?
Lysistrata Garlicville.
Calonice I might have guessed:
they must have walked right through it on their way.
Myrrhine I hope we're not too late, Lysistrata.
Well. What's the matter?
Lysistrata I'm not happy, Myrrhine7
,
when one is late for such important meetings.
Myrrhine I couldn't find my girdle: it was dark.
But now we're here: so tell us what's important!
Lysistrata Let's cool our heels a little while longer,
until the Thebans and the Spartans have a chance
to get here.
Myrrhine Sure, let's wait, you're running things.
Hey, hold it, here's the Spartan Lampito now!8 Lysistrata Lampito, darling, welcome, greetings from us all.
what a gorgeous specimen, you lovely thing!
What healthy skin, what firmness of physique!
You could take on a bull!
Lampito Is not impossible.
I go to gym, I make my buttocks hard.
Calonice I've never seen a pair of boobs like that!
Lampito You feel them: like blue-ribbon ox, you think!
Lysistrata And this young lady here, where's she come from?