Aristophanes
Second Stasimon
μῦθον βούλομαι λέξαι τινʼ ὑμῖν, ὅν ποτʼ ἤκουσʼ
αὐτὸς ἔτι παῖς ὤν.
785 οὕτως ἦν νεανίσκος Μελανίων τις,
ὃς φεύγων γάμον ἀφίκετʼ ἐς ἐρημίαν,
κἀν τοῖς ὄρεσιν ᾤκει·
κᾆτʼ ἐλαγοθήρει
790 πλεξάμενος ἄρκυς,
καὶ κύνα τινʼ εἶχεν,
κοὐκέτι κατῆλθε πάλιν οἴκαδʼ ὑπὸ μίσους.
οὕτω τὰς γυναῖκας ἐβδελύχθη
795 ʼκʼεῖνος, ἡμεῖς τʼ οὐδὲν ἧττον
τοῦ Μελανίωνος οἱ σώφρονες.
βούλομαί σε γραῦ κύσαι—
κρόμμυόν τἄρʼ οὐκ ἔδει.
κἀνατείνας λακτίσαι.
790–799

and hunted hares. He had a dog. Not once did he return back home He hated women—they made him sick. And we are no less wise than he.

LEADER OF MEN’S CHORUS

Let’s kiss, old bag, give it a try.

LEADER OF WOMEN’S CHORUS

You won’t need onions to make you cry.

LEADER OF MEN’S CHORUS

I’ll lift my leg—give you a kick.

LEADER OF WOMAN’S CHORUS

Down there your pubic hair’s too thick.

800 τὴν λόχμην πολλὴν φορεῖς.
καὶ Μυρωνίδης γὰρ ἦν
τραχὺς ἐντεῦθεν μελάμπυγός
τε τοῖς ἐχθροῖς ἅπασιν,
ὥς δὲ καὶ Φορμίων.
805 κἀγὼ βούλομαι μῦθόν τινʼ ὑμῖν ἀντιλέξαι
τῷ Μελανίωνι.
Τίμων ἦν ἀίδρυτός τις ἀβάτοισιν
800–809

LEADER OF MEN’S CHORUS

Myronides had a hairy dick

and beat foes with his big black bum. That Phormio was another one.

WOMEN’S CHORUS

To you I’d like to tell a tale to answer your Melanion. There was a man called Timon once, a vagabond, the Furies’ child. Wild thistles covered his whole face.

810 ἐν σκώλοισι τὸ πρόσωπον περιειργμένος,
Ἐρινύων ἀπορρώξ.
οὗτος οὖν ὁ Τίμων
ᾤχεθʼ ὑπὸ μίσους
815 πολλὰ καταρασάμενος ἀνδράσι πονηροῖς.
οὕτω ʼκεῖνος ὑμῶν ἀντεμίσει
τοὺς πονηροὺς ἄνδρας ἀεί,
810–819

He wandered off filled up with spite and always cursing evil types. But though he always hated men,

those of you who are such rogues, women he always really loved.

820 ταῖσι δὲ γυναιξὶν ἦν φίλτατος.
τὴν γνάθον βούλει θένω;
μηδαμῶς· †ἔδεισά γε.†
ἀλλὰ κρούσω τῷ σκέλει;
τὸν σάκανδρον ἐκφανεῖς.
825 ἀλλʼ ὅμως ἂν οὐκ ἴδοις
καίπερ οὔσης γραὸς ὄντʼ αὐτὸν
κομήτην, ἀλλʼ ἀπεψιλωμένον
τῷ λύχνῳ.
820–829

LEADER OF WOMEN’S CHORUS

You’d like a punch right on the chin?

LEADER OF MEN’S CHORUS

Not given the state of fear I’m in.

LEADER OF WOMEN’S CHORUS

What if I kicked you with my toe?

LEADER OF MEN’S CHORUS

We’d see your pussy down below.

LEADER OF WOMEN’S CHORUS

And then you’d see, although I’m old it’s not all matted hair down there, but singed by lamp and plucked with flair.

[Lysistrata appears on a balcony of the citadel, looking off in the distance. Other women come out after her.]
LYSISTRATA

Hey, you women! Over here to me. Come quick!

CALONICE

What’s going on? Why are you shouting?

Translation by Ian Johnston, Vancouver Island University
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An open-access project
Hall 1907
OCT
Hall & Geldart, OCT, 1907 · 1907
The Editor

Frederick William Hall (1865–1948) was a classical scholar and Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. Together with William Martin Geldart, he produced the Oxford Classical Text of several authors. Hall was a careful editor known for his thorough collation of manuscripts and his conservative approach to textual criticism.

About This Edition

The Hall–Geldart editions in the Oxford Classical Texts series provide reliable critical texts with selective apparatus criticus. The OCT series, established in 1894 as the Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, aims to present the best available Greek and Latin texts in a format suitable for both scholarly use and teaching. Each volume provides a clean text with the most significant manuscript variants recorded at the foot of each page.

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