THE LYSISTRATA, 700-723
So that when in Hecate's honour
yesterday I soul to get
From our neighbours in Bocotia
such a dainty darling pet,
Just a lovely, graceful, slender,
white-fleshed eel divinely tender ,^a
Thanks to your decrees, confound them,
one and all refused to send her.
And you'll never stop from making
these absurd decrees I know,
Till I catch your leg and toss you
—Zeus-ha'-mercy, there you go! ^&
w. en. Illustrious leader of this bold cinprizsc,^0
What brings tliee forth, with trouble in thine eyes ?
ly.       Vile women's works: the feminine hearts they show:
These make me pace, dejected, ro and fro.
w. en. O what! and () what !
ly.       Tis true !  'tis true !
w. en. O to your friends, great queen, the tale unfold.
ly.       'Tis sad to tell, and sore to leave untold.
w. en. What, what has happened ?  tell us, tell iis quick.
ly.       Aye, in one word.   The girls are—husband-sick.
w. en. O Zeus ! Zetis ! () !
ly.      Why call on Zeus ? the fact is surely so,
1 can no longer keep tJie minxes in.
They slip out everywhere.    One J discovered
Down by Pan's grotto, burrowing through the
loophole :^a
Another, wriggling down by crane and pulley ^e :
A third deserts outright: a fourth I dragged
^d The grotto is in the north-west face of the Acropolis rock, and
a path now leads down to it through a closed doorway.
* These belonged to the well: Suhol.
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