Cover image for

Lysistrata

Author Aristophanes
Language English
Published 411 BC
Notes

An anti-war comedy wherein the story's female characters barricade the public funds building and withhold sex from their husbands to end the Peloponnesian War and secure peace.

Approx. 14,865 words.

Excerpt

CALONICE

And long?

LYSISTRATA

Indeed, it may be very lengthy.

CALONICE

Then why aren't they here?

LYSISTRATA

No man's connected with it; If that was the case, they'd soon come fluttering along. No, no. It concerns an object I've felt over And turned this way and that for sleepless nights.

CALONICE

It must be fine to stand such long attention.

LYSISTRATA

So fine it comes to this--Greece saved by Woman!

CALONICE

By Woman? Wretched thing, I'm sorry for it.

LYSISTRATA

Our country's fate is henceforth in our hands: To destroy the Peloponnesians root and branch--