Lysistrata: But if both sweet-tempered Eros and Aphrodite, the Cyprus-born,
Lysistrata: May the desire of us against the bosoms and the thighs breathe upon,
Lysistrata: And then you will weave a pleasant fleece for the men and will sway them,
Lysistrata: I suppose that at some time we shall be called Lysimachides among the Greeks.
Probulus: What did you do?
555
Lysistrata: If we stop, first of all, with weapons
Lysistrata: buying and raging.
Woman A: By Aphrodite of Paphos.
Lysistrata: For now, indeed, both in the pots and in the vegetables alike
Lysistrata: They are walking about the market armed, like Corybantes.
Probulus: By Zeus, for it is necessary for the brave.
Lysistrata: And indeed the matter is ridiculous,
Lysistrata: Whenever someone has a shield and buys a Gorgon and then a raven's-feather.
560
Woman A: By Zeus, I at least saw a long-haired man riding a horse.
Woman A: Into the bronze helmet that is being thrown, a ladle from a pot.
Woman A: And again another Thracian, shaking a pelt and javelin, like Tyreus,
Woman A: She was worried about the prostitute and was swallowing the figs.
Probulus: How then are you able to calm so many troubled matters?
565
Probulus: In the fields and to dissolve?
Proboulos: How? Prove it.
Lysistrata: just as a spindle, whenever it is in a confused state, take it thus,
Lysistrata: 'Having borne the spindles to the one here and to the other there,'
Lysistrata: Thus we will also dissolve this war, if someone lets [it].
Lysistrata: Carry it through by means of embassies, the part here and the part there.
570
Probulus: Indeed, from wool, spindles, and distaffs come terrible things.
Probulus: Do you think, you fools, that you will stop?
Lysistrata: And if there were some sense in you,
Lysistrata: All things would have been governed by our wool.
Proboulos: How so? Let me see.
Lysistrata: first of all, it was necessary, just as in a bathhouse
Lysistrata: washing out the chamber pot, from the city onto a couch.
575
Lysistrata: to strike with a staff the wicked and to pick out the troublemakers,
Lysistrata: and those who are conspiring and those who are pillaging themselves
Lysistrata: to drag the ancient women out and to cut off their heads.
Lysistrata: Then let us all together throw our goodwill into a basket, everyone.
Lysistrata: mixing in both the metics and any stranger or friend of yours,
580
Lysistrata: 'And if anyone owes something to the state, let them also be mixed in with these;'
Lysistrata: And by Zeus, the cities, as many as are colonies of this land,
Lysistrata: I understand that these things are laid down for us just like broken bones.
Lysistrata: Let each go separately; and then, taking the fracture from all of these
Lysistrata: gather here and bring together into one, and then do it.
585
Lysistrata: I should have spun a great fleece and then from that a cloak for the people.
Probulus: Won't it be terrible to beat these women with rods and to beat them?
Probulus: Are you not even very much a participant in the war?
Lysistrata: And moreover, you most accursed one.
Lysistrata: we carry him over twice as far, first of all because we gave birth to him.
Lysistrata: and having sent away the hoplite boys.
590
Probulus: Hush, do not bear a grudge.
Lysistrata: 'Then at the time when I ought to have been joyful and enjoyed my youth,'
Lysistrata: We sleep alone because of the armies. And you, leave our part alone,
Lysistrata: As for the young women growing old in the bedrooms, I am distressed.
Probulus: But surely the men grow old too?
Lysistrata: By Zeus, but you have not said the same thing.
Lysistrata: For the one who has come, even if he is grey-haired, has quickly married a boy to a girl.
595
Lysistrata: the time for the woman is short, and if she does not seize even this,
Lysistrata: No one wants to marry this woman, and so she sits, being pursued.
