LYSISTRATA
287
Herald.
I tell you no! but enough of this foolery.
Magistrate.
Well, what is it you have there then?
Herald.
A Lacedæmonian ‘skytalé.’[1]
Magistrate.
Oh, indeed, a ‘skytalé,’ is it? Well, well, speak out frankly; I know all about these matters. How are things going at Sparta now?
Herald.
Why, everything is turned upside down at Sparta; and all the allies are half dead with lusting. We simply must have Pellené.[2]
Magistrate.
What is the reason of it all? Is it the god Pan’s doing?
Herald.
No, but Lampito’s and the Spartan women’s, acting at her instigation; they have denied the men all access to their cunts.
Magistrate.
But whatever do you do?
- ↑ A staff in use among the Lacedæmonians for writing cipher despatches. A strip of leather or paper was wound round the ‘skytalé,’ on which the required message was written lengthwise, so that when unrolled it became unintelligible; the recipient abroad had a staff of the same thickness and pattern, and so was enabled by rewinding the document to decipher the words.
- ↑ A city of Achaia, the acquisition of which had long been an object of Lacedæmonian ambition. To make the joke intelligible here, we must suppose Pellené was also the name of some notorious courtesan of the day.
