Lysistrata

Scene: In a public square at Athens; afterwards before the gates of the Acropolis, and finally within the precincts of the citadel.

Lysistrata (alone). Ah! if only they had been invited to a Bacchic revelling, or a feast of Pan or Aphrodité or Genetyllis, 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. . . .