Chapter 13
[278] He throws cheese into the mortar as emblematical of Sicily, on account of its rich pastures.
[279] Emblematical of Athens. The honey of Mount Hymettus was famous.
[280] Cleon, who had lately fallen before Amphipolis, in 422 B.C.
[281] An island in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Thrace and opposite the mouth of the Hebrus; the Mysteries are said to have found their first home in this island, where the Cabirian gods were worshipped; this cult, shrouded in deep mystery to even the initiates themselves, has remained an almost insoluble problem for the modern critic. It was said that the wishes of the initiates were always granted, and they were feared as to-day the _jettatori_ (spell-throwers, casters of the evil eye) in Sicily are feared.
[282] Brasidas perished in Thrace in the same battle as Cleon at Amphipolis, 422 B.C.
[283] An Athenian general as ambitious as he was brave. In 423 B.C. he had failed in an enterprise against Heraclea, a storm having destroyed his fleet. Since then he had distinguished himself in several actions, and was destined, some years later, to share the command of the expedition to Sicily with Alcibiades and Nicias.
[284] Meaning, to start on a military expedition.
[285] Cleon.
[286] The Chorus insist on the conventional choric dance.
[287] One of the most favourite games with the Greeks. A stick was set upright in the ground and to this the beam of a balance was attached by its centre. Two vessels were hung from the extremities of the beam so as to balance; beneath these two other and larger dishes were placed and filled with water, and in the middle of each a brazen figure, called Manes, was stood. The game consisted in throwing drops of wine from an agreed distance into one or the other vessel, so that, dragged downwards by the weight of the liquor, it bumped against Manes.
[288] A general of austere habits; he disposed of all his property to pay the cost of a naval expedition, in which he beat the fleet of the foe off the promontory of Rhium in 429 B.C.
[289] The Lyceum was a portico ornamented with paintings and surrounded with gardens, in which military exercises took place.
[290] A citizen of Miletus, who betrayed his country to the people of Priené. When asked what he purposed, he replied, "Nothing bad," which expression had therefore passed into a proverb.
[291] Hermes was the god of chance.
[292] As the soldiers had to do when starting on an expedition.
[293] That is, you are pedicated.
[294] The initiated were thought to enjoy greater happiness after death.
[295] He summons Zeus to reveal Trygaeus' conspiracy.
[296] An Athenian captain, who later had the recall of Alcibiades decreed by the Athenian people; in 'The Birds' Aristophanes represents him as a cowardly braggart. He was the reactionary leader who established the Oligarchical Government of the Four Hundred, 411 B.C., after the failure of the Syracusan expedition.
[297] Among other attributes, Hermes was the god of thieves.
[298] Alluding to the eclipses of the sun and the moon.
[299] The Panathenaea were dedicated to Athené, the Mysteries to Demeter, the Dipolia to Zeus, the Adonia to Aphrodité and Adonis. Trygaeus promises Hermes that he shall be worshipped in the place of all the other gods.
[300] The pun here cannot be kept. The word [Greek: paian], Paean, resembles [Greek: paiein], to strike; hence the word, as recalling the blows and wounds of the war, seems of ill omen to Trygaeus.
[301] The device on his shield was a Gorgon's head. (_See_ 'The Acharnians.')
[302] Both Sparta and Athens had sought the alliance of the Argives; they had kept themselves strictly neutral and had received pay from both sides. But, the year after the production of 'The Wasps,' they openly joined Athens, had attacked Epidaurus and got cut to pieces by the Spartans.
[303] These are the Spartan prisoners from Sphacteria, who were lying in gaol at Athens. They were chained fast to large beams of wood.
[304] 'Twas want of force, not want of will. They had suffered more than any other people from the war. (_See_ 'The Acharnians.')
[305] Meaning, look chiefly to your fleet. This was the counsel that Themistocles frequently gave the Athenians.
[306] A metaphor referring to the abundant vintages that peace would assure.
[307] The goddess of fruits.
[308] Aristophanes personifies under this name the sacred ceremonies in general which peace would allow to be celebrated with due pomp. Opora and Theoria come on the stage in the wake of Peace, clothed and decked out as courtesans.
[309] Aristophanes has already shown us the husbandmen and workers in peaceful trades pulling at the rope to extricate Peace, while the armourers hindered them by pulling the other way.
[310] An allusion to Lamachus' shield.
[311] Having been commissioned to execute a statue of Athené, Phidias was accused of having stolen part of the gold given him out of the public treasury for its decoration. Rewarded for his work by calumny and banishment, he resolved to make a finer statue than his Athené, and executed one for the temple of Elis, that of the Olympian Zeus, which was considered one of the wonders of the world.
[312] He had issued a decree, which forbade the admission of any Megarian on Attic soil, and also all trade with that people. The Megarians, who obtained all their provisions from Athens, were thus almost reduced to starvation.
[313] That is, the vineyards were ravaged from the very outset of the war, and this increased the animosity.
[314] Driven in from the country parts by the Lacedaemonian invaders.
[315] The demagogues, who distributed the slender dole given to the poor, and by that means exercised undue power over them.
[316] Meaning, the side of the Spartans.
[317] Cleon.
[318] It was Hermes who conducted the souls of the dead down to the lower regions.
[319] The Spartans had thrice offered to make peace after the Pylos disaster.
[320] i.e. dominated by Cleon.
[321] There is a pun here, that cannot be rendered, between [Greek: apobolimaios], which means, _one who throws away his weapons_, and [Greek: upobolimaios], which signifies, _a supposititious child_.
[322] Simonides was very avaricious, and sold his pen to the highest bidder. It seems that Sophocles had also started writing for gain.
[323] i.e. he would recoil from no risk to turn an honest penny.
[324] A comic poet as well known for his love of wine as for his writings; he died in 431 B.C., the first year of the war, at the age of ninety-seven.
[325] Opora was the goddess of fruits.
[326] The Scholiast says fruit may be eaten with impunity in great quantities if care is taken to drink a decoction of this herb afterwards.
[327] Theoria is confided to the care of the Senate, because it was this body who named the [Greek: The_orhoi], deputies appointed to go and consult the oracles beyond the Attic borders or to be present at feasts and games.
[328] The great festivals, e.g. the Dionysia, lasted three days. Those in honour of the return of Peace, which was so much desired, could not last a shorter time.
[329] In spite of what he says, Aristophanes has not always disdained this sort of low comedy--for instance, his Heracles in 'The Birds.'
[330] A celebrated Athenian courtesan of Aristophanes' day.
[331] Cleon. These four verses are here repeated from the parabasis of 'The Wasps,' produced 423 B.C., the year before this play.
[332] Shafts aimed at certain poets, who used their renown as a means of seducing young men to grant them pederastic favours.
[333] The poet supplied everything needful for the production of his piece--vases, dresses, masks, etc.
[334] Aristophanes was bald himself, it would seem.
[335] Carcinus and his three sons were both poets and dancers. (_See_ the closing scene of 'The Wasps.') Perhaps relying little on the literary value of their work, it seems that they sought to please the people by the magnificence of its staging.
[336] He had written a piece called 'The Mice,' which he succeeded with great difficulty in getting played, but it met with no success.
[337] This passage really follows on the invocation, "_Oh, Muse! drive the War_," etc., from which indeed it is only divided by the interpolated criticism aimed at Carcinus.
[338] The Scholiast informs us that these verses are borrowed from a poet of the sixth century B.C.
[339] Sons of Philocles, of the family of Aeschylus, tragic writers, derided by Aristophanes as bad poets and notorious gluttons.
[340] The Gorgons were represented with great teeth, and therefore the same name was given to gluttons. The Harpies, to whom the two voracious poets are also compared, were monsters with the face of a woman, the body of a vulture and hooked beak and claws.
[341] A tragic and dithyrambic poet, who had written many pieces, which had met with great success at Athens.
[342] The shooting stars.
[343] That is, men's tools;--we can set her to 'fellate.'
[344] It has already been mentioned that the sons of Carcinus were dancers.
[345] It was customary at weddings, says Menander, to give the bride a sesame-cake as an emblem of fruitfulness, because sesame is the most fruitful of all seeds.
[346] An Attic town on the east coast, noted for a magnificent temple, in which stood the statue of Artemis, which Orestes and Iphigenia had brought from the Tauric Chersonese and also for the Brauronia, festivals that were celebrated every four years in honour of the goddess. This was one of the festivals which the Attic people kept with the greatest pomp, and was an occasion for debauchery.
[347] Competitors intending to take part in the great Olympic, Isthmian and other games took with them a tent, wherein to camp in the open. Further, there is an obscene allusion which the actor indicates by gesture, pointing to the girl's privates, signifying there is the lodging where he would fain find a delightful abode. The 'Isthmus' is the perineum, the narrow space betwixt _anus_ and _cunnus_.
[348] He was a 'cunnilingue,' as we gather also from what Aristophanes says of his infamous habits in the 'Knights.'
[349] Doubtless the vessels and other sacrificial objects and implements with which Theoria was laden in her character of presiding deity at religious ceremonies.
[350] The whole passage is full of obscene _double entendres_. Theoria throughout is spoken of in words applicable to either of her twofold character--as a sacred, religious feast, and as a lady of pleasure.
[351] Where the meats were cooked after sacrifice; Trygaeus points to Theoria's privates, marking the secondary obscene sense he means to convey.
[352] "Or otherwise"--that is, with the standing penis. The whole sentence contains a series of allusions to different 'modes of love.'
[353] One of the offices of the Prytanes was to introduce those who asked admission to the Senate, but it would seem that none could obtain this favour without payment. Without this, a thousand excuses would be made; for instance, it would be a public holiday, and consequently the Senate could receive no one. As there was some festival nearly every day, he whose purse would not open might have to wait a very long while.
[354] This was only offered to lesser deities.
[355] In the Greek we have a play upon the similarity of the words, [Greek: bous], a bull, and [Greek: boan], to shout the battle cry.
[356] Theagenes, of the Piraeus, a hideous, coarse, debauched and evil-living character of the day.
[357] That is the vocative of [Greek: oïs], [Greek: oïos], the Ionic form of the word; in Attic Greek it is contracted throughout--[Greek: ois], [Greek: oios], etc.
[358] An obscene jest. The Greek word, says the Scholiast, means both barley and the male organ.
[359] Before sacrificing, the officiating person asked, "_Who is here?_" and those present answered, "_Many good men._"
[360] The actors forming the chorus are meant here.
[361] Lysimacha is derived from [Greek: luein], to put an end to, and [Greek: mach_e], fight.
[362] A tragic poet, reputed a great gourmand.
[363] A tragedy by Melanthius.
[364] Eels were cooked with beet.--A parody on some verses in the 'Medea' of Melanthius.
[365] As a matter of fact, the Sicyonians, who celebrated the festival of Peace on the sixteenth day of the month of hecatombeon (July), spilled no blood upon her altar.
[366] A celebrated diviner, who had accompanied the Athenians on their expedition to Sicily. Thus the War was necessary to make his calling pay and the smoke of the sacrifice offered to Peace must therefore be unpleasant to him.
[367] A town in Euboea on the channel which separated that island from Thessaly.
[368] When sacrificing, the tail was cut off the victim and thrown into the fire. From the way in which it burnt the inference was drawn as to whether or not the sacrifice was agreeable to the deity.
[369] This was the part that belonged to the priests and diviners. As one of the latter class, Hierocles is in haste to see this piece cut off.
[370] The Spartans.
[371] Emphatic pathos, incomprehensible even to the diviner himself; this is a satire on the obscure style of the oracles. Bacis was a famous Boeotian diviner.
[372] Of course this is not a _bona fide_ quotation, but a whimsical adaptation of various Homeric verses; the last is a coinage of his own, and means, that he is to have no part, either in the flesh of the victim or in the wine of the libations.
[373] Probably the Sibyl of Delphi is meant.
[374] The skin of the victim, that is to say.
[375] A temple of Euboea, close to Oreus. The servant means, "Return where you came from."
[376] This was the soldier's usual ration when on duty.
[377] Slaves often bore the name of the country of their birth.
[378] Because of the new colour which fear had lent his chlamys.
[379] Meaning, that he deserts his men in mid-campaign, leaving them to look after the enemy.
[380] Ancient King of Athens. This was one of the twelve statues, on the pedestals of which the names of the soldiers chosen for departure on service were written. The decrees were also placarded on them.
[381] The trierarchs stopped up some of the holes made for the oars, in order to reduce the number of rowers they had to supply for the galleys; they thus saved the wages of the rowers they dispensed with.
[382] The mina was equivalent to about £3 10s.
[383] Which is the same thing, since a mina was worth a hundred drachmae.
[384] For _cottabos_ see note above, p. 177. [Footnote 287. Transcriber.]
[385] _Syrmaea_, a kind of purgative syrup much used by the Egyptians, made of antiscorbutic herbs, such as mustard, horse-radish, etc.
[386] As wine-pots or similar vessels.
[387] These verses and those which both Trygaeus and the son of Lamachus quote afterwards are borrowed from the 'Iliad.'
[388] Boulomachus is derived from [Greek: boulesthai] and [Greek: mach_e] to wish for battle; Clausimachus from [Greek: klaein] and [Greek: mach_e], the tears that battles cost. The same root, [Greek: mach_e], battle, is also contained in the name Lamachus.
[389] A distich borrowed from Archilochus, a celebrated poet of the seventh century B.C., born at Paros, and the author of odes, satires, epigrams and elegies. He sang his own shame. 'Twas in an expedition against Saïs, not the town in Egypt as the similarity in name might lead one to believe, but in Thrace, that he had cast away his buckler. "A mighty calamity truly!" he says without shame. "I shall buy another."
LYSISTRATA
INTRODUCTION
The 'Lysistrata,' the third and concluding play of the War and Peace series, was not produced till ten years later than its predecessor, the 'Peace,' viz. in 411 B.C. It is now the twenty-first year of the War, and there seems as little prospect of peace as ever. A desperate state of things demands a desperate remedy, and the Poet proceeds to suggest a burlesque solution of the difficulty.
The women of Athens, led by Lysistrata and supported by female delegates from the other states of Hellas, determine to take matters into their own hands and force the men to stop the War. They meet in solemn conclave, and Lysistrata expounds her scheme, the rigorous application to husbands and lovers of a self-denying ordinance--"we must refrain from the male organ altogether." Every wife and mistress is to refuse all sexual favours whatsoever, till the men have come to terms of peace. In cases where the women _must_ yield 'par force majeure,' then it is to be with an ill grace and in such a way as to afford the minimum of gratification to their partner; they are to lie passive and take no more part in the amorous game than they are absolutely obliged to. By these means Lysistrata assures them they will very soon gain their end. "If we sit indoors prettily dressed out in our best transparent silks and prettiest gewgaws, and with our 'mottes' all nicely depilated, their tools will stand up so stiff that they will be able to deny us nothing." Such is the burden of her advice.
After no little demur, this plan of campaign is adopted, and the assembled women take a solemn oath to observe the compact faithfully. Meantime as a precautionary measure they seize the Acropolis, where the State treasure is kept; the old men of the city assault the doors, but are repulsed by "the terrible regiment" of women. Before long the device of the bold Lysistrata proves entirely effective, Peace is concluded, and the play ends with the hilarious festivities of the Athenian and Spartan plenipotentiaries in celebration of the event.
This drama has a double Chorus--of women and of old men, and much excellent fooling is got out of the fight for possession of the citadel between the two hostile bands; while the broad jokes and decidedly suggestive situations arising out of the general idea of the plot outlined above may be "better imagined than described."
* * * * *
LYSISTRATA
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
LYSISTRATA. CALONICÉ. MYRRHINÉ. LAMPITO. STRATYLLIS. A MAGISTRATE. CINESIAS. A CHILD. HERALD OF THE LACEDAEMONIANS. ENVOYS OF THE LACEDAEMONIANS. POLYCHARIDES. MARKET LOUNGERS. A SERVANT. AN ATHENIAN CITIZEN. CHORUS OF OLD MEN. CHORUS OF WOMEN.
SCENE: In a public square at Athens; afterwards before the gates of the Acropolis, and finally within the precincts of the citadel.
* * * * *
LYSISTRATA
LYSISTRATA (_alone_). Ah! if only they had been invited to a Bacchic revelling, or a feast of Pan or Aphrodité or Genetyllis,[390] why! the streets would have been impassable for the thronging tambourines! Now there's never a woman here-ah! except my neighbour Calonicé, whom I see approaching yonder.... Good day, Calonicé.
CALONICÉ. Good day, Lysistrata; but pray, why this dark, forbidding face, my dear? Believe me, you don't look a bit pretty with those black lowering brows.
LYSISTRATA. Oh! Calonicé, my heart is on fire; I blush for our sex. Men _will_ have it we are tricky and sly....
CALONICÉ. And they are quite right, upon my word!
LYSISTRATA. Yet, look you, when the women are summoned to meet for a matter of the last importance, they lie abed instead of coming.
CALONICÉ. Oh! they will come, my dear; but 'tis not easy, you know, for women to leave the house. One is busy pottering about her husband; another is getting the servant up; a third is putting her child asleep, or washing the brat or feeding it.
LYSISTRATA. But I tell you, the business that calls them here is far and away more urgent.
CALONICÉ. And why _do_ you summon us, dear Lysistrata? What is it all about?
LYSISTRATA. About a big affair.[391]
CALONICÉ. And is it thick too?
LYSISTRATA. Yes indeed, both big and great.
CALONICÉ. And we are not all on the spot!
LYSISTRATA. Oh! if it were what you suppose, there would be never an absentee. No, no, it concerns a thing I have turned about and about this way and that of many sleepless nights.
CALONICÉ. 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!
CALONICÉ. 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....
CALONICÉ. That would be a noble deed truly!
LYSISTRATA. To exterminate the Boeotians to a man!
CALONICÉ. 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.
CALONICÉ. 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.
CALONICÉ. How so, pray?
LYSISTRATA. There is not a man will wield a lance against another ...
CALONICÉ. Quick, I will get me a yellow tunic from the dyer's.
LYSISTRATA. ... or want a shield.
CALONICÉ. I'll run and put on a flowing gown.
LYSISTRATA. ... or draw a sword.
CALONICÉ. I'll haste and buy a pair of slippers this instant.
LYSISTRATA. Now tell me, would not the women have done best to come?
CALONICÉ. Why, they should have _flown_ here!
LYSISTRATA. Ah! my dear, you'll see that like true Athenians, they will do everything too late[393].... Why, there's not a woman come from the shoreward parts, not one from Salamis.[394]
CALONICÉ. But I know for certain they embarked at daybreak.
LYSISTRATA. And the dames from Acharnae![395] why, I thought they would have been the very first to arrive.
CALONICÉ. Theagenes wife[396] at any rate is sure to come; she has actually been to consult Hecaté.... But look! here are some arrivals--and there are more behind. Ah! ha! now what countrywomen may they be?
LYSISTRATA. They are from Anagyra.[397]
CALONICÉ. Yes! upon my word, 'tis a levy _en masse_ of all the female population of Anagyra!
MYRRHINÉ. Are we late, Lysistrata? Tell us, pray; what, not a word?
LYSISTRATA. I cannot say much for you, Myrrhiné! you have not bestirred yourself overmuch for an affair of such urgency.
MYRRHINÉ I could not find my girdle in the dark. However, if the matter is so pressing, here we are; so speak.
LYSISTRATA. No, but let us wait a moment more, till the women of Boeotia arrive and those from the Peloponnese.
MYRRHINÉ Yes, that is best.... Ah! here comes Lampito.
LYSISTRATA. Good day, Lampito, dear friend from Lacedaemon. How well and handsome you look! what a rosy complexion! and how strong you seem; why, you could strangle a bull surely!
LAMPITO. Yes, indeed, I really think I could. 'Tis because I do gymnastics and practise the kick dance.[398]
LYSISTRATA. And what superb bosoms!
LAMPITO. La! you are feeling me as if I were a beast for sacrifice.
LYSISTRATA. And this young woman, what countrywoman is she?
LAMPITO. She is a noble lady from Boeotia.
LYSISTRATA. Ah! my pretty Boeotian friend, you are as blooming as a garden.
CALONICÉ. Yes, on my word! and the garden is so prettily weeded too![399]
LYSISTRATA. And who is this?
LAMPITO. 'Tis an honest woman, by my faith! she comes from Corinth.
LYSISTRATA. Oh! honest, no doubt then--as honesty goes at Corinth.[400]
LAMPITO. But who has called together this council of women, pray?
LYSISTRATA. I have.
LAMPITO. Well then, tell us what you want of us.
LYSISTRATA. With pleasure, my dear.
MYRRHINÉ. What is the most important business you wish to inform us about?
LYSISTRATA. I will tell you. But first answer me one question.
MYRRHINÉ. What is that?
LYSISTRATA. Don't you feel sad and sorry because the fathers of your children are far away from you with the army? For I'll undertake, there is not one of you whose husband is not abroad at this moment.