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An Additional Scene Towards The Closing Of Lysistrata

(The MAGISTRATE is in a room with the head ATHENIAN AMBASSADORS.)

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MAN 1: If Lysistrata and her patrons continue their foolishness for any longer, the Peloponnesian League will shatter right through our troops on the Attican border. Currently, our only choice is to repress our attacks. Without access to the treasure stored in the holy acropolis, how shall we ever supply the expenses of our feud with Sparta? We are paralyzed as tough we have been bit by a pygmy rattlesnake.

MAGISTRATE: Lysistrata’s tactics are no worse than a bite from a snake. Along with her own fate, she has doomed the rest of the village women. The
1300 women now wander around as shameless concubines. What would Cinesias say if he saw his unblemished Myrrhine support Lysistrata’s short-sighted tactics?   She has lured them into believing in her half-witted ideas by using analogies between the wars and knitting wool. How dare she compare something so substantial to a woman’s chore? She feels as tough us old men fancy in planning wars for our sons to die in. As we are abroad raiding the coast of the Peloponnese with the backing of Poseidon finally in our benefits, our mistresses are stirring up such nonsense. Alas, we ourselves have brought forth this dilemma. We trust our women to be alone for months and expect them not to rot.
1310 We leave them with slaves to follow by their biddings, leaving them with nothing else to do but add to our problems.   A bored mind is the birth of evil.
MAN 2: We leave them as reputable members of society and return to see them transformed into wanton beasts such as the Gorgons on the island of Anthemusa. Why must they jest with the virgin goddess, Artemis. Lysistrata is as alluring as the narcissus’ from Macedonia, but also as toxic as it’s leaves. How dare they even dream of the day we give into their demands? We cannot be dethroned by these Amazons. We will be the laughing stock in all of Greece. Perhaps we will be shunned
1320 even in the...