LYSISTRATA. So fine, it means just this, Greece saved by the women!
CALONICE. 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....
CALONICE. That would be a noble deed truly!
LYSISTRATA. To exterminate the Boeotians to a man!
CALONICE. 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.
CALONICE. 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.
[392] The eels from Lake Copaïs in Boeotia were esteemed highly by epicures.
Studies
