Weak mortals, chained to the earth, creatures of clay as frail as the foliage of the woods, you unfortunate race, whose life is but darkness, as unreal as a shadow, the illusion of a dream.
One’s country is wherever one does well.
I must think of something foolproof for a fool.
That is what we do each time we see someone who falls in love with evil strategies, until we hurl him into misery, so he may learn to fear the Gods.
I love him, oh! I love him; but he won’t let himself be loved.
MEN Ah cursed drab, what have you brought this water for? WOMEN What is your fire for then, you smelly corpse? Yourself to burn?
LYSISTRATA May gentle Love and the sweet Cyprian Queen shower seductive charms on our bosoms and all our person. If only we may stir so amorous a feeling among the men that they stand firm as sticks, we shall indeed deserve the name of peace-makers among the Greeks.
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?
Shakespeare wrote sculduddery because he liked it, and for no other reason; his sensuality is the measure of his vitality.
LYSISTRATA You know how to work. Play with him, lead him on, Seduce him to the cozening-point – kiss him, kiss him, Then slip your mouth aside just as he’s sure of it, Ungirdle every caress his mouth feels at Save that the oath upon the bowl has locked. MYRRHINE.
The man credited with inventing the comma, colon, and full stop punctuation marks was a librarian of Alexandria called Aristophanes.
LYSISTRATA By the Goddesses, you’ll find that here await you Four companies of most pugnacious women Armed cap-a-pie from the topmost louring curl To the lowest angry dimple. MAGISTRATE.
Very soon we’ll be eating lepadotema choselackogaleokrani oleipsanodrimypotrimmatosil phiotyromelitokatake chymenokicklepikossyphopkat toperisteralektryonoptokeph aliokinklopeleiolagoiosiral obaphetragalopter ygdn.
Let’s smell like women, armed to teeth with rage!
What’s the use of crowbars? It’s not crowbars that we need, it’s intelligence and common sense.
Have you ever been struck by a sudden desire for – soup?
STREPSIADES. So the rear of a gnat is a trumpet. Oh! what a splendid discovery! Thrice happy Socrates! ‘Twould not be difficult to succeed in a law-suit, knowing so much about the gut of a gnat!
SOCRATES. Silence, old man, give heed to the prayers... Oh! most mighty king, the boundless air, that keepest the earth suspended in space, thou bright Aether and ye venerable goddesses, the Clouds, who carry in your loins the thunder and the lightning, arise, ye sovereign powers and manifest yourselves in the celestial spheres to the eyes of the sage.
In the second half of the play he arbitrates a contest between the poets Aeschylus and Euripides for pre-eminence in the art of tragedy.
The Chorus of Eleusinian Initiates lead Dionysus and Aeschylus off in a torchlight procession recalling the inspirational finale of Aeschylus’ Oresteia.
In the first half of the play he is the anti-heroic and burlesque figure long familiar in comedy and satyr drama.