2.2: Section 2

(LAMPITO and some go off; the others go up into the Acropolis).

(The Chorus of OLD MEN enter to attack the captured Acropolis).

Make room, Draces, move ahead; why your shoulder's chafed, I see,
With lugging uphill these lopped branches of the olive-tree.
How upside-down and wrong-way-round a long life sees things grow.
Ah, Strymodorus, who'd have thought affairs could tangle so?

The women whom at home we fed,
Like witless fools, with fostering bread,
Have impiously come to this--
They've stolen the Acropolis,
With bolts and bars our orders flout
And shut us out.

Come, Philurgus, bustle thither; lay our branch-bundles on the ground,
In neat stacks beleaguering the insurgents all around;
And the vile conspiratresses, plotters of such mischief dire,
Pile and burn them all together in one vast and righteous pyre:
Fling with our own hands Lycon's wife [1] to fry in the thickest fire.
By Demeter, [2] they'll get no brag while I've a vein to beat!
Cleomenes [3] himself was hurtled out in sore defeat.
His stiff-backed Spartan pride was bent.
Out, stripped of all his arms, he went:
A pigmy cloak that would not stretch
To hide his rump (the draggled wretch),
Six sprouting years of beard, the spilth
Of six years' filth.

That was a siege! Our men were ranged in lines of seventeen deep
Before the gates, and never left their posts there, even to sleep.
Shall I not smite the rash presumption then of foes like these,
Detested both of all the gods and of Euripides--[4]
Else, may the Marathon-plain not boast my trophied victories! [5]

Ah, now, there's but a little space
To reach the place!
A deadly climb it is, a tricky road
With all this bumping load:
A pack-ass soon would tire.... [6]
How these logs bruise my shoulders! further still
Jog up the hill,
And puff the fire inside,
Or just as we reach the top we'll find it's died.
Ough, phew!
I choke with the smoke.

Lord Heracles, [7] how acrid-hot
Out of the pot
This mad-dog smoke leaps, worrying me
And biting angrily....
'Tis Lemnian fire [8] that smokes,
Or else it would not sting my eyelids thus....
Haste, all of us;
Athena invokes our aid.
Laches, now or never the assault must be made!
Ough, phew!
I choke with the smoke. ..

Thanked be the gods! The fire peeps up and crackles as it should.
Now why not first slide off our backs these weary loads of wood
And dip a vine-branch in the brazier till it glows, then straight
Hurl it at the battering-ram against the stubborn gate? [9]
If they refuse to draw the bolts in immediate compliance,
We'll set fire to the wood, and smoke will strangle their defiance.

Phew, what a spluttering drench of smoke! Come, now from off my back....
Is there no Samos-general [10] to help me to unpack?
Ah there, that's over! For the last time now it's galled my shoulder.
Flare up your embers, brazier, and dutifully smolder,
To kindle a brand, that I the first may strike the citadel.
Aid me, Lady Victory, [11] that a triumph-trophy [12] may tell
How we did anciently this insane audacity quell!

Chorus of WOMEN. [13]

What's that rising yonder? That ruddy glare, that smoky skurry?
O is it something in a blaze? Quick, quick, my comrades, hurry!
Nicodice, helter-skelter!
Or poor Calyce's in flames
And Cratylla's stifled in the welter.
O these dreadful old men
And their dark laws of hate!
There, I'm all of a tremble lest I turn out to be too late.
I could scarcely get near to the spring though I rose before dawn,
What with tattling of tongues and rattling of pitchers in one jostling din
With slaves pushing in!.... [14]

Still here at last the water's drawn
And with it eagerly I run
To help those of my friends who stand
In danger of being burned alive.
For I am told a dribbling band
Of greybeards hobble to the field,
Great brush-bundles in each palsied hand,
As if a hot bath to prepare,
And threatening that out they'll drive
These wicked women or soon leave them charring into ashes there.
O Goddess, suffer not, I pray, this harsh deed to be done,
But show us Greece and Athens with their warlike acts repealed!
For this alone, in this your hold,
O Goddess with the helm of gold,
We laid hands on your sanctuary, [15]
Athena.... Then our ally be 
And where they cast their fires of slaughter
Direct our water!

STRATYLLIS (caught)

Let me go!

WOMEN

You villainous old men, what's this you do?
No honest man, no pious man, could do such things as you.

MEN

Ah ha, here's something most original, I have no doubt:
A swarm of women sentinels to man the walls without.

WOMEN

So then we scare you, do we? Do we seem a fearful host?
You only see the smallest fraction mustered at this post.

MEN

Ho, Phaedrias, shall we put a stop to all these chattering tricks?
Suppose that now upon their backs we splintered these our sticks?

WOMEN

Let us lay down the pitchers, so our bodies will be free,
In case these lumping fellows try to cause some injury.

MEN

O hit them hard and hit again and hit until they run away,
And perhaps they'll learn, like Bupalus, [16] not to have too much to say.

WOMEN

Come on, then--do it! I won't budge, but like a dog I'll bite
At every little scrap of meat that dangles in my sight.

MEN

Be quiet, or I'll bash you out of any years to come.

WOMEN

Now you just touch Stratyllis with the top-joint of your thumb.

MEN

What vengeance can you take if with my fists your face I beat?

WOMEN

I'll rip you with my teeth and strew your entrails at your feet.

MEN

Now I appreciate Euripides' strange subtlety: [17]
Woman is the most shameless beast of all the beasts that be.

WOMEN

Rhodippe, come, and let's pick up our water-jars once more.

MEN

Ah cursed drab, what have you brought this water for?

WOMEN

What is your fire for then, you smelly corpse? Yourself to burn?

MEN

To build a pyre and make your comrades ready for the urn. [18]

WOMEN

And I've the water to put out your fire immediately.

MEN

What, you put out my fire?

WOMEN

Yes, sirrah, as you soon will see.

MEN

I don't know why I hesitate to roast you with this flame.

WOMEN

If you have any soap you'll go off cleaner than you came.

MEN

Cleaner, you dirty slut?

WOMEN

A nuptial-bath in which to lie! [19]

MEN

Did you hear that insolence?

WOMEN

I'm a free woman, I. [20]

MEN

I'll make you hold your tongue.

WOMEN

Henceforth you'll serve in no more juries. [21]

MEN

Burn off her hair for her.

WOMEN

Now forward, water, quench their furies!

MEN

O dear, O dear!

WOMEN

So ... was it hot?

MEN

Hot! ... Enough, O hold.

WOMEN

Watered, perhaps you'll bloom again--why not?

MEN

Brrr, I'm wrinkled up from shivering with cold.

WOMEN

Next time you've fire you'll warm yourself and leave us to our lot.

MAGISTRATE [22] (enters with attendant SCYTHIANS) [23].

MAGISTRATE

Have the luxurious rites of the women glittered
Their libertine show, their drumming tapped out crowds,
The Sabazian Mysteries summoned their mob, [24]
Adonis [25] been wept to death on the terraces,
As I could hear the last day in the Assembly? [26]
For Demostratus [27]--let bad luck befoul him--
Was roaring, "We must sail for Sicily," [28]
While a woman, throwing herself about in a dance
Lopsided with drink, was shrilling out "Adonis,
Woe for Adonis." Then Demostratus shouted,
"We must levy hoplites [29] at Zacynthus,"
And there the woman, up to the ears in wine,
Was screaming "Weep for Adonis" on the house-top,
The scoundrelly politician, that lunatic ox,
Bellowing bad advice through tipsy shrieks:
Such are the follies wantoning in them.

MEN

O if you knew their full effrontery!
All of the insults they've done, besides sousing us
With water from their pots to our public disgrace
For we stand here wringing our clothes like grown-up infants.

MAGISTRATE

By Poseidon, justly done! For in part with us
The blame must lie for dissolute behavior
And for the pampered appetites they learn.
Thus grows the seedling lust to blossoming:
We go into a shop and say, "Here, goldsmith,
You remember the necklace that you wrought my wife;
Well, the other night in fervor of a dance
Her clasp broke open. Now I'm off for Salamis;
If you've the leisure, would you go tonight
And stick a bolt-pin into her opened clasp."
Another goes to a cobbler; a soldierly fellow,
Always standing up erect, and says to him,
"Cobbler, a sandal-strap of my wife's pinches her,
Hurts her little toe in a place where she's sensitive.
Come at noon and see if you can stretch out wider
This thing that troubles her, loosen its tightness."
And so you view the result. Observe my case--
I, a magistrate, come here to draw
Money to buy oar-blades, and what happens?
The women slam the door full in my face.
But standing still's no use. Bring me a crowbar,
And I'll chastise this their impertinence.
What do you gape at, wretch, with dazzled eyes?
Peering for a tavern, I suppose.
Come, force the gates with crowbars, pry them apart!
I'll pry away myself too.... (LYSISTRATA appears.)

LYSISTRATA

Stop this banging.
I'm coming of my own accord.... Why bars?
It is not bars we need but common sense.

MAGISTRATE

Indeed, you slut! Where is the archer now? [30]
Arrest this woman, tie her hands behind.

LYSISTRATA

If he brushes me with a finger, by Artemis, [31]
The public menial, [32] he'll be sorry for it.

MAGISTRATE

Are you afraid? Grab her about the middle.
Two of you then, lay hands on her and end it.

CALONICE

By Pandrosos, [33] if your hand touches her
I'll spread you out and trample on your guts.

MAGISTRATE

My guts! Where is the other archer gone?
Bind that minx there who talks so prettily.

MYRRHINE

By Phosphor, [34] if your hand moves out her way
You'd better have a surgeon somewhere handy.

MAGISTRATE

You too! Where is that archer? Take that woman.
I'll put a stop to these surprise-parties.

STRATYLLIS

By the Tauric Artemis, [35] one inch nearer
My fingers, and it's a bald man that'll be yelling.

MAGISTRATE

Tut tut, what's here? Deserted by my archers....
But surely women never can defeat us;
Close up your ranks, my Scythians. Forward at them.

LYSISTRATA

By the goddesses, you'll find that here await you
Four companies of most pugnacious women
Armed cap-a-pie from the topmost louring curl
To the lowest angry dimple.

MAGISTRATE

On, Scythians, bind them.

LYSISTRATA

On, gallant allies of our high design,
Vendors of grain-eggs-pulse-and-vegetables,
Ye garlic-tavern-keepers of bakeries,
Strike, batter, knock, hit, slap, and scratch our foes,
Be finely imprudent, say what you think of them....
Enough! Retire and do not rob the dead. [36]

MAGISTRATE

How basely did my archer-force come off.

LYSISTRATA

Ah, ha, you thought it was a herd of slaves [37]

You had to tackle, and you didn't guess
The thirst for glory ardent in our blood.

MAGISTRATE

By Apollo, I know well the thirst that heats you--
Especially when a wine-skin's close.

MEN

You waste your breath, dear magistrate, I fear, in answering back.
What's the good of argument with such a rampageous pack?
Remember how they washed us down (these very clothes I wore)
With water that looked nasty and that smelt so even more.

WOMEN

What else to do, since you advanced too dangerously nigh.
If you should do the same again, I'll punch you in the eye.
Though I'm a stay-at-home and most a quiet life enjoy,
Polite to all and every (for I'm naturally coy),
Still if you wake a wasps' nest then of wasps you must beware.

MEN

How may this ferocity be tamed? It grows too great to bear.
Let us question them and find if they'll perchance declare
The reason why they strangely dare
To seize on Cranaos' citadel,
This eyrie inaccessible,
This shrine above the precipice,
The Acropolis.
Probe them and find what they mean with this idle talk; listen,
but watch they don't try to deceive.
You'd be neglecting your duty most certainly if now this mystery
unplumbed you leave.

MAGISTRATE

Women there! Tell what I ask you, directly....
Come, without rambling, I wish you to state
What's your rebellious intention in barring up thus on our noses
our own temple-gate.

LYSISTRATA

To take first the treasury [38] out of your management, and so stop the war
through the absence of gold.

MAGISTRATE

Is gold then the cause of the war?

LYSISTRATA

Yes, gold caused it and miseries more, too many to be told.
It was for money, and money alone, that Pisander [39] with all of the army of mob-agitators
Raised up revolutions. But, as for the future, it won't be worth while to set up to be traitors.
Not an obol they'll get as their loot, not an obol! While we have the treasure-chest in our command.

MAGISTRATE

What then is that you propose?

LYSISTRATA

Just this--merely to take the exchequer henceforth in hand. [40]

MAGISTRATE

The exchequer!

LYSISTRATA

Yes, why not? Of our capabilities you have had various clear evidences.
Firstly remember we have always administered soundly the budget of all home-expenses.

MAGISTRATE

But this matter's different.

LYSISTRATA

How is it different?

MAGISTRATE

Why, it deals chiefly with war-time supplies.

LYSISTRATA

But we abolish war straight by our policy.

MAGISTRATE

What will you do if emergencies arise?

LYSISTRATA

Face them our own way.

MAGISTRATE

What you will?

LYSISTRATA

Yes we will!

MAGISTRATE

Then there's no help for it; we're all destroyed.

LYSISTRATA

No, willy-nilly you must be safeguarded.

MAGISTRATE

What madness is this?

LYSISTRATA

Why, it seems you're annoyed.
It must be done, that's all.

MAGISTRATE

Such awful oppression never,
O never in the past yet I bore.

LYSISTRATA

You must be saved, sirrah--that's all there is to it.

MAGISTRATE

If we don't want to be saved?

LYSISTRATA

All the more.

MAGISTRATE

Why do you women come prying and meddling in matters of state touching
war-time and peace?

LYSISTRATA

That I will tell you.

MAGISTRATE

O tell me or quickly I'll--

LYSISTRATA

Hearken awhile and from threatening cease.

MAGISTRATE

I cannot, I cannot; it's growing too insolent.

WOMEN

Come on; you've far more than we have to dread.

MAGISTRATE

Stop from your croaking, old carrion-crow there....
Continue.

LYSISTRATA

Be calm then and I'll go ahead.
All the long years when the hopeless war dragged along we, unassuming, forgotten in quiet,
Endured without question, endured in our loneliness all your incessant child's antics and riot.
Our lips we kept tied, though aching with silence, though well all the while in our silence we knew
How wretchedly everything still was progressing by listening dumbly the day long to you.
For always at home you continued discussing the war and its politics loudly, and we
Sometimes would ask you, our hearts deep with sorrowing though we spoke lightly, though happy to see,
"What's to be inscribed on the side of the Treaty-stone, [41] What, dear, was said in the Assembly today?"
"Mind your own business," he'd answer me growlingly, "hold your tongue, woman, or else go away."
And so I would hold it.

WOMEN

I'd not be silent for any man living on earth, no, not I!

MAGISTRATE

Not for a staff?

LYSISTRATA

Well, so I did nothing but sit in the house, feeling dreary, and sigh,
While ever arrived some fresh tale of decisions more foolish by far and presaging disaster.
Then I would say to him, "O my dear husband, why still do they rush on destruction the faster?"
At which he would look at me sideways, exclaiming, "Keep for your web and your shuttle your care,
Or for some hours hence your cheeks will be sore and hot; leave this alone, war is Man's sole affair!"

MAGISTRATE

By Zeus, but a man of fine sense, he.

LYSISTRATA

How sensible?
You dotard, because he at no time had lent
His intractable ears to absorb from our counsel one temperate word of advice, kindly meant?
But when at the last in the streets we heard shouted (everywhere ringing the ominous cry)
"Is there no one to help us, no savior in Athens?" and, "No, there is no one," come back in reply.
At once a convention of all wives through Hellas [42] here for a serious purpose was held,
To determine how husbands might yet back to wisdom despite their reluctance in time be compelled.
Why then delay any longer? It's settled. For the future you'll take up our old occupation.
Now in turn you're to hold tongue, as we did, and listen while we show the way to recover the nation.

MAGISTRATE

You talk to us! Why, you're mad. I'll not stand it.

LYSISTRATA

Cease babbling, you fool; till I end, hold your tongue.

MAGISTRATE

If I should take orders from one who wears veils, may my
neck straightaway be deservedly wrung.

LYSISTRATA

O if that keeps pestering you,
I've a veil here for your hair,
I'll fit you out in everything
As is only fair.

CALONICE

Here's a spindle that will do.

MYRRHINE

I'll add a wool-basket too.

LYSISTRATA

Girdled now sit humbly at home,
Munching beans, [43] while you card wool and comb. For war from now on
is the Women's affair.

WOMEN.

Come then, down pitchers, all,
And on, courageous of heart,
In our comradely venture
Each taking her due part.

I could dance, dance, dance, and be fresher after,
I could dance away numberless suns,
To no weariness let my knees bend.
Earth I could brave with laughter,
Having such wonderful girls here to friend.
O the daring, the gracious, the beautiful ones!
Their courage unswerving and witty
Will rescue our city.

O sprung from the seed of most valiant-wombed grand-mothers,
scions of savage and dangerous nettles!
Prepare for the battle, all. Gird up your angers. Our way
the wind of sweet victory settles.

LYSISTRATA

O tender Eros [44] and Lady of Cyprus, [45] some flush of beauty I pray you devise
To flash on our bosoms and, O Aphrodite, rosily gleam on our valorous thighs!
Joy will raise up its head through the legions warring and all of the far-serried ranks of mad-love
Bristle the earth to the pillared horizon, pointing in vain to the heavens above.
I think that perhaps then they'll give us our title--Peace-makers.

MAGISTRATE

What do you mean? Please explain.

LYSISTRATA

First, we'll not see you now flourishing arms about into the market-place clang again.

WOMEN
No, by the Paphian. 

LYSISTRATA

Still I can conjure them as past were the herbs stand or crockery's sold
Like Corybants [46] jingling (poor sots) fully armored, they noisily round on their promenade strolled.

MAGISTRATE

And rightly; that's discipline, they--

LYSISTRATA

But what's sillier than to go on an errand of buying a fish
Carrying along an immense. Gorgon-buckler [47] instead the usual platter or dish?
A phylarch [48] I lately saw, mounted on horse-back, dressed for the part with long ringlets and all,
Stow in his helmet the omelet bought steaming from an old woman who kept a food-stall.
Nearby a soldier, a Thracian, [49] was shaking wildly his spear like Tereus [50] in the play,
To frighten a fig-girl while unseen the ruffian filched from her fruit-trays the ripest away.

MAGISTRATE

How, may I ask, will your rule re-establish order and justice in lands so tormented?

LYSISTRATA

Nothing is easier.

MAGISTRATE

Out with it speedily--what is this plan that you boast you've invented?

LYSISTRATA

If, when yarn we are winding, It chances to tangle, then, as perchance you may know, through the skein
This way and that still the spool we keep passing till it is finally clear all again:
So to untangle the War and its errors, ambassadors out on all sides we will send
This way and that, here, there and round about--soon you will find that the War has an end.

MAGISTRATE

So with these trivial tricks of the household, domestic analogies of threads, skeins and spools,
You think that you'll solve such a bitter complexity, unwind such political problems, you fools!

LYSISTRATA

Well, first as we wash dirty wool so's to cleanse it, so with a pitiless zeal we will scrub
Through the whole city for all greasy fellows; burrs too, the parasites,off we will rub.
That verminous plague of insensate place-seekers [51] soon between thumb and forefinger we'll crack.
All who inside Athens' walls have their dwelling into one great common basket we'll pack.
Disenfranchised or citizens, allies or aliens, [52] pell-mell the lot of them in we will squeeze.
Till they discover humanity's meaning.... As for disjointed and far colonies, [53]
Them you must never from this time imagine as scattered about just like lost hanks of wool.
Each portion we'll take and wind in to this center, inward to Athens each loyalty pull,
Till from the vast heap where all's piled together at last can be woven a strong cloak of State.

MAGISTRATE

How terrible is it to stand here and watch them carding and winding at will with our fate, [54]
Witless in war as they are.

LYSISTRATA

What of us then, who ever in vain for our children must weep
Borne but to perish afar and in vain?

MAGISTRATE

Not that, O let that one memory sleep!

LYSISTRATA

Then while we should be companioned still merrily, happy as brides may, the livelong night,
Kissing youth by, we are forced to lie single.... But leave for a moment our pitiful plight,
It hurts even more to behold the poor maidens helpless wrinkling in staler virginity.

MAGISTRATE

Does not a man age?

LYSISTRATA

Not in the same way. Not as a woman grows withered, grows he.
He, when returned from the war, though grey-headed, yet
if he wishes can choose out a wife.
But she has no solace save peering for omens, wretched and
lonely the rest of her life.

MAGISTRATE

But the old man will often select--

LYSISTRATA

O why not finish and die? [55]
A bier is easy to buy,
A honey-cake I'll knead you with joy,
This garland will see you are decked.

CALONICE

I've a wreath for you too.

MYRRHINE

I also will fillet you. [56]

LYSISTRATA

What more is lacking? Step aboard the boat. [57]
See, Charon shouts ahoy.
You're keeping him, he wants to shove afloat.

MAGISTRATE

Outrageous insults! Thus my place to flout!
Now to my fellow-magistrates I'll go
And what you've perpetrated on me show.

LYSISTRATA

Why are you blaming us for laying you out?
Assure yourself we'll not forget to make
The third day offering early for your sake. [58]

(MAGISTRATE retires and LYSISTRATA returns within).

Footnotes:

[1] Lycon was an Athenian citizen who held prominent offices and whose wife had a reputation for sexual promiscuity.

[2] Demeter (Latin: Ceres) was goddess of the harvest (meant to be ironic as she ensured the production of the bread the old men accuse their wives of consuming).

[3] The old men pretend to remember participating in a campaign which occurred well before their time, when a Spartan king and general had briefly occupied the Acropolis in 508 BCE.

[4] Euripides' plays frequently featured portraits of women which could be read as misogynistic fears brought to life on stage.

[5] The famous battle of Marathon (480 BCE) occurred during the Persian Wars, so these men would have to be nearly 100 years old.

[6] Pack-asses or donkeys were traditionally used to carry heavy loads, and still are today.

[7] Heracles (Latin: Hercules) was a famed Greek hero venerated as a demi-god by some. They are comparing their labors to his.

[8] According to legend, the goddess Aphrodite (Venus) punished the women of Lemnos, who had neglected her worship, by making them physically stink. Infidelity and abandonment resulted, and the Lemnian women punished their unfaithful husbands with death.

[9] Lysistrata and her allies had blocked the Propylaea, the ceremonial gates which controlled access to the Acropolis. See this map: http://arthistoryresources.net/greek-art-archaeology-2016/acropolis.html and 3D video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8smmU8MseWE

[10] Samos was the base for the Athenian navy.

[11] There was a temple dedicated to Athena Nike (Athena as Victory) just inside the Propylaean gates. Both Athena and Nike (sometimes personified as a separate goddess) were depicted as female. See note 9 above.

[12] A pole or tree displaying the enemy's captured armor and weapons. See a Roman version here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropaion#/media/File:Booty_from_the_Dacian_wars.JPG

[13] This chorus is separate from Lysistrata and her allies and is the counterpart to that of the old men.

[14] For women drawing water from the communal water source, see: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/247244

[15] There were multiple temples dedicated in some shape or form to Athena, who was Athens' patron goddess. The speaker here probably refers to the Parthenon, with its famed massive statue of Athena with her trademark crested helmet, spear, and shield. See: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/the-parthenon-rebuilt-4552d90409924583b1fadfc9953134cb and the reconstruction in Nashville, TN: 

[16] Bupalus was a sculptor who famously sparred with the poet Hipponax and later committed suicide because of the verbally abusive verses Hipponax circulated about him. Like that conflict, this fight will be mostly conducted with words.

[17] Euripides was a famous writer of tragic plays featuring female characters who challenged Greek gender norms.

[18] In Athens, most deceased citizens were cremated in elaborate ceremonies and their bones and ashes placed in urns afterwards. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urn#/media/File:Geometric_Cremation_urn_Athens_Agora_Museum.jpg

[19] It was customary for both brides and grooms to take a ritual bath as part of the marriage festivities.

[20] Or, as Sarah Ruden translates it: "I'm not a slave" (Ruden 23).

[21] Citizens could exercise considerable power and earn a daily salary by serving on juries and some older men appear to have done so somewhat obsessively. Aristophanes mocks this in his play, Wasps.

[22] Shortly before Aristophanes wrote Lysistrata, the Council of Five Hundred ceded many of its administrative powers to a board of ten councilors or magistrates.

[23] Scythian slaves formed the government-owned security force and acted as bodyguards for public officials. Scythians were considered "barbarians" by the Greeks.

[24] Sabazios was originally a god worshipped by the Phrygians and Thracians. When the Greeks adopted his worship, they assigned to him attributes of both Zeus and Dionysus, He appears to have been worshipped with rites similar to those of other mystery cults. Some Athenian men suspected that women were using such rites to escape male control.

[25] Traditionally women ritually lamented the death of Adonis from the flat rooftops of their houses. Aphrodite had taken him as a lover before his tragic death, commemorated in annual festival.

[26] By this he means the General Assembly, attended in theory by every male citizen.

[27] Demostratus was an Athenian citizen who put forward a proposal for the ill-fated Sicilian expedition, which resulted in a resounding defeat for Athens. The woman lamenting Adonis' death foreshadows the young men lost there.

[28] Southern Italy and Sicily were known in the Roman empire as "Magna Grecia" due to the large amounts of Greek peoples that settled there.

[29] Armed Greek citizen foot-soldiers who fought in phalanx formation with shield and spear. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoplite#/media/File:Hoplite_5th_century.jpg

[30] He's referring to the Scythians. In Athens, the “Scythian Archers,” served some of the functions we currently associate with police forces, They practice crowd control during public gatherings (the Council, the Assembly, and the Agora) and appear to have been authorized to use non-lethal force against citizens in certain scenarios. The "Scythian Archers" were slaves owned by the state who worked as guards and watchmen. There are real tensions between citizens and police forces in the United States, and there were in Athens as well. 

[31] Artemis was goddess of the hunt and a famed archer herself.

[32] Lysistrata refers to the Scythian's unfree status.

[33] Pandrosos was a legendary Athenian princess.

[34] An epithet, "Light-Bearer" associated with both Hecate, goddess of magic and Artemis, goddess of the hunt.

[35] One of Artemis' titles was "Drawn by a Bull," presumably referring to an ox-drawn cart.

[36] Lysistrata barks orders like a commander. The Iliad is full of scenes of champion warriors despoiling their slain opponent of their weapons and armor as trophies or loot. Presumably Aristophanes' audience found this parody of epic knee-slappingly funny.

[37] A comparison worth dwelling on.

[38] The Athenian public treasury was located in the Acropolis.

[39] In 411 BCE, Pisander would stage a coup. He was an Athenian aristocrat who believed in rule by the few (oligarchy).

[40] The equivalent of taking over the Federal Reserve, The Department of the Treasury, and Fort Knox's gold supply. And assuming the budget-determining capabilities of Congress.

[41] Treaties were often literally engraved in stone and in 418 BCE the Athenian Assembly decided to alter a treaty agreed on with Sparta by publicly inscribing an addition saying that the Spartans had broken its conditions.

[42] We might say "Greece." The Hellenes was a term used to refer to Greek-speaking city-states.

[43] We chew gum, the Greeks chewed beans. Carding (cleaning and detangling) wool and textile preparation were considered women's work.

[44] God of sexual love.

[45] Venus/Aphrodite, goddess of sexual love.

[46] Male devotees of the Phrygian goddess Cybele who honored her by dancing in full battle-gear.

[47] There were three female gorgons with heads of snake-hair, whose gaze turned humans to stone. Their image was often put on shield-bosses and armor to intimidate enemies.

[48] A phylarch was the elected commander of a cavalry unit provided by each of the city's ten tribes. Imagine someone driving into a crowded farmer's market.

[49] Thracians were often employed by Athens as mercenaries but were viewed as very nearly barbarian.

[50] A famously savage mythical Thracian king.

[51] She compares these people to lice who need to be squashed.

[52] This is an important panorama of the different groups living in Athens, including metics or foreigners, who could not vote.

[53] Athens was at this point in time aggressively colonizing large areas of the Mediterranean.

[54] The fates were often depicted as three women who determined an individual's life outcome. Their control was described in metaphors of spinning and weaving.

[55] The lines that follow mimic Greek funeral rites, in which women played a dominant role.

[56] Put a garland on his head.

[57] When bodies were laid out for a viewing, they were given a cake to bribe Cerberus, three-headed guardian dog of the underworld, and coins to pay Charon, who ferried the souls of the dead over the river Styx.

[58] Probably referring to the offerings made when the body of the deceased was ritually interred after cremation.