Thesmophoriazusae

Acts

• Prologue

  Euripides is terrified: the women of Athens plan to condemn him at the Thesmophoria festival for portraying them as liars, drunks, and adulteresses. He needs a spy inside.

  309 lines
• Parodos

  Euripides visits the poet Agathon to ask him to infiltrate the women's festival disguised as a woman. Agathon, despite his feminine appearance, refuses.

  71 lines
• First Episode

  Euripides' elderly relative Mnesilochus volunteers. He is painfully shaved, singed, and dressed in women's clothing borrowed from Agathon.

  158 lines
• Parabasis

  Mnesilochus arrives at the Thesmophoria. The women are assembled and begin their denunciation of Euripides.

  Not yet imported
• Second Episode

  A woman delivers a prosecution speech against Euripides: since his tragedies, husbands have become suspicious and installed locks on the women's quarters.

  33 lines
• First Stasimon

  Mnesilochus attempts to defend Euripides by arguing that women actually do far worse things than Euripides portrays. This does not go well.

  Not yet imported
• Third Episode

  The women are outraged by Mnesilochus' speech. Cleisthenes arrives with news that Euripides has sent a man in disguise.

  27 lines
• Choral Interlude

  The women search for the infiltrator. Mnesilochus is exposed. He seizes a woman's baby as a hostage — and discovers it is a wineskin in swaddling clothes.

  9 lines
• Fourth Episode

  The parabasis: the chorus of women addresses the audience about the superiority of women to men, citing their faithful service to the city.

  61 lines
• Second Stasimon

  Mnesilochus, now bound to a plank, tries to signal Euripides by acting out scenes from the playwright's own tragedies — first Palamedes, writing messages on oar-blades.

  Not yet imported
• Fifth Episode

  Mnesilochus performs the role of Helen from Euripides' play. Euripides arrives as Menelaus. The guard is unimpressed.

  58 lines
• Sixth Episode

  Euripides tries the Andromeda rescue scene — arriving as Perseus to free the chained Mnesilochus. The Scythian guard is baffled but unmoved.

  151 lines
• Third Stasimon

  All tragic rescue attempts have failed. Euripides resorts to a different strategy entirely.

  21 lines
• Choral Interlude

  Euripides negotiates directly with the women: he will stop slandering them in his plays if they release his relative. They agree to a truce.

  Not yet imported
• Exodos

  Euripides distracts the Scythian guard with a dancing girl and frees Mnesilochus. The women keep their bargain. Peace is restored between Euripides and the women of Athens.

  6 lines