Lines 1–114

PRAXAGORA.
O glowing visage of the earthen lamp,
On this conspicuous eminence well-hung,—
(For through thy fates and lineage will we go,
Thou, who, by whirling wheel of potter moulded,
Dost with thy nozzle do the sun’s bright duty)—
Awake the appointed signal of the flame !
Thou only knowest it, and rightly thou,
For thou alone, within our chambers standing,
Watchest unblamed the mysteries of love.
Thine eye, inspector of our amorous sports,
Beholdeth all, and no one saith Begone !
Thou comest, singeing, purifying all
The dim recesses which none else may see ;
And when the garners, stored with corn and wine,
By stealth we open, thou dost stand beside us.
And though thou knowest all this, thou dost not peach.
Therefore our plans will we confide to thee,
What at the Scira we resolved to do.
Ah, but there’s no one here who should be here.
Yet doth it draw towards daybreak; and the Assembly
Full soon will meet ; and we frail womankind
Must take the seats Phyromachus assigned us
(You don’t forget?) and not attract attention.
What can the matter be? Perchance their beards
Are not stitched on, as our decree commanded,
Perchance they found it difficult to steal
Their husband’s garments. Stay! I see a lamp
Moving this way. I will retire and watch,
Lest it should haply be some man approaching !

FIRST WOMAN.
It is the hour to start. As I was coming
I heard the herald give his second—crow.

PRAXAGORA.
I have been waiting, watching for you all
The whole night long ; and now I summon forth
My neighbour here, scratching her door so gently
As not to rouse her husband.

SECOND WOMAN.
Yea, I heard
(For I was up and putting on my shoes)
The stealthy creeping of thy finger-nail.
My husband, dear—a Salaminian he—
Has all night long been tossing in his bed ;
Wherefore I could not steal his garb till now.

FIRST WOMAN.
O now they are coming! Here’s Cleinarete,
Here’s Sostrata, and here’s Philaenete.

SEMICHORUS.
Come, hurry up: for Glyce vowed a vow
That whosoever comes the last shall pay
One quart of chickpeas and nine quarts of wine.

FIRST WOMAN.
And look! Melistiche, Smicythion’s wife,
Wearing her husband’s shoes. She, only she,
Has come away, methinks, at ease, unflurried.

SECOND WOMAN.
And look! Geusistrata, the tapster’s wife,
In her right hand the torch.

PRAXAGORA.
And now the wives
Of Philodoretus and Chaeretades,
And many another, hurrying on I see,
All that is best and worthiest in the town.

SEMICHORUS.
O honey, I’d tremendous work to come.
My husband gorged his fill of sprats at supper,
And he’s been cough, cough, coughing all night long.

PRAXAGORA.
Well, sit ye down, that I may ask you this,
Now that ye’re all assembled : have ye done
What at the Scira ’twas resolved to do?

FIRST WOMAN.
I have, for one. See, underneath my arms
The hair is growing thicker than a copse,
As ’twas agreed : and when my husband started
Off to the market-place, I’d oil my body
And stand all day decocting in the sun.

SECOND WOMAN.
I too have done it : flinging, first of all,
The razor out of doors, that so my skin
Might grow quite hairy, and unlike a woman.

PRAXAGORA.
But have ye got the beards, which, ’twas determined,
Ye all should bring, assembling here to-day ?

FIRST WOMAN.
I have, by Hecate! Look! a lovely one.

SECOND WOMAN.
And I, much lovelier than Epicrates’s.

PRAXAGORA.
And what say ye?

FIRST WOMAN.
They nod assent : they’ve got them.

PRAXAGORA.
The other matters, I perceive, are done.
Laconian shoes ye’ve got, and walking-sticks,
And the men’s overcloaks, as we desired you.

FIRST WOMAN.
O I’ve a splendid club I stole away
(See, here it is) from Lamias as he slept.

PRAXAGORA.
O yes, I know: “ the clubs he sweltered with.”

FIRST WOMAN.
By Zeus the Saviour, he’s the very man
To don the skins the All-eyed herdsman wore,
And, no man better, tend the — public hangman.

PRAXAGORA.
But now to finish what remains to do
While yet the stars are lingering in the sky ;
For this Assembly, as you know, whereto
We all are bound, commences with the dawn.

FIRST WOMAN.
And so it does: and we’re to seat ourselves
Facing the prytanes, just below the speakers.

SECOND WOMAN.
See what I’ve brought, dear heart : I mean to do
A little spinning while the Assembly fills.

PRAXAGORA.
Fills ? miserable woman !

SECOND WOMAN.
Yes, why not?
O I can spin and listen just as well.
Besides, my little chicks have got no clothes.

PRAXAGORA.
Fancy you spinning ! when you must not have
The tiniest morsel of your person seen.
’Twere a fine scrape, if when the Assembly’s full,
Some woman clambering o’er the seats, and throwing
Her cloak awry, should show that she’s a woman.
No, if we sit in front and gather round us
Our husbands’ garments, none will find us out.
Why, when we’ve got our flowing beards on there,
Who that beholds us will suppose we’re women ?
Was not Agyrrhius erst a woman? Yet
Now that he wears the beard of Pronomus,
He passes for a man, a statesman too.
O by yon dawning day, ’tis just for that,
We women dare this daring deed to do,
If we can seize upon the helm of state
And trim the ship to weather through the storm ;
For neither sails nor oars avail it now.

SECOND WOMAN.
How can the female soul of womankind
Address the Assembly ?

PRAXAGORA.
Admirably well.
Youths that are most effeminate, they say,
Are always strongest in the speaking line ;
And we’ve got that by nature.