LYSISTRATA
237
Calonicé.
But I know for certain they embarked at daybreak.
Lysistrata.
And the dames from Acharnæ![1] why, I thought they would have been the very first to arrive.
Calonicé.
Theagenes wife[2] 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.[3]
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.
- ↑ A deme, or township, of Attica, lying five or six miles north of Athens. The Acharnians were throughout the most extreme partisans of the warlike party during the Peloponnesian struggle. See ‘The Acharnians’
- ↑ The precise reference is uncertain, and where the joke exactly comes in. The Scholiast says Theagenes was a rich, miserly and superstitious citizen, who never undertook any enterprise without first consulting an image of Hecaté, the distributor of honour and wealth according to popular belief; and his wife would naturally follow her husband’s example.
- ↑ A deme of Attica, a small and insignificant community—a ‘Little Pedlington’ in fact.
