Chorus
singing
Let us ask the fulfillment of these wishes both for the city and for the people,
355
and may the wisest of us cause her opinion to be accepted. But woe to those women who break their oaths,
360
who speculate on the public misfortune, who seek to alter the laws and the decrees, who reveal our secrets to the foe
365
and admit the Medes into our territory so that they may devastate it! I declare them both impious and criminal. Oh! almighty Zeus! see to it that
370
the gods protect us, albeit we are but women!
Let us ask the fulfillment of these wishes both for the city and for the people,
355
and may the wisest of us cause her opinion to be accepted. But woe to those women who break their oaths,
360
who speculate on the public misfortune, who seek to alter the laws and the decrees, who reveal our secrets to the foe
365
and admit the Medes into our territory so that they may devastate it! I declare them both impious and criminal. Oh! almighty Zeus! see to it that
370
the gods protect us, albeit we are but women!
Thesmophoriazusae. Aristophanes. ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.. New York. 1938.
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