Lysistrata.
Nay, but those are the very sheet-anchors of our salvation—those yellow tunics, those scents and slippers, those cosmetics and transparent robes.
Calonicé.
How so, pray?
Lysistrata.
There is not a man will wield a lance against another . . .
Calonicé.
Quick, I will get me a yellow tunic from the dyer’s.
Lysistrata.
. . . or want a shield.
Calonicé.
I’ll run and put on a flowing gown.
Lysistrata.
. . . or draw a sword.
Calonicé.
I’ll haste and buy a pair of slippers this instant.
Lysistrata.
Now tell me, would not the women have done best to come?
Calonicé.
Why, they should have flown here!
Lysistrata.
Ah! my dear, you'll see that like true Athenians, they will do everything too late.[1] . . . Why, there’s not a woman come from the shoreward parts, not one from Salamis?[2]
- ↑ This is the reproach Demosthenes constantly levelled against his Athenian fellow-countrymen—their failure to seize opportunity.
- ↑ An island of the Saronic Gulf, lying between Magara and Attica. It was separated by a narrow strait—scene of the naval battle of Salamis, in which the Athenians defeated Xerxes—only from the Attic coast, and was subject to Athens.
