Enter the Spartan and Athenian envoys
Spartan (to one of his fellow-envoys) : My good fellow, take up your pipes; I want to do a fancy two-step and sing a jolly song for the Athenians.
Athenian: Yes, do take your pipes, by all means. I'd love to see you dance.
Spartan (singing and dancing with the CHORUS OF SPARTAN):
These youths inspire
To song and dance, O Memory;
Stir up my Muse, to tell how we
And Athens'men, in our galleys clashing
At Artemisium, 'gainst foemen dashing
In godlike ire,
Conquered the Persian and set Greece free.
Leonidas
Led on his valiant warriors
Whetting their teeth like angry boars.
Abundant foam on their lips was flow'ring,
The Persian was
Numberless as the sand on the shores.
O Huntress who slayest the beasts in the glade
O Virgin divine, hither come to our truce,
Unite us in bonds which all time will not loose.
Grant us to find in this treaty, we pray,
An unfailing source of true friendship today,
And all of our days, helping us to refrain
From weaseling tricks which bring war in their train.
Then hither, come hither! O huntress maid.
Lysistrata: Come then, since all is fairly done, men of Sparta, lead away your wives, and you, Athenians, take yours. Let every man stand beside his wife, and every wife beside her man, and then, to celebrate our fortune, let's dance. And in the future, let's take care to avoid these misunderstandings.
CHORUS OF ATHENIANS (singing and dancing):
Lead on the dances, your graces revealing.
Call Artemis hither, call Artemis' twin,
Leader of dances, Apollo the Healing,
Kindly God-hither! let's summon him in!
Nysian Bacchus call,
Who with his Maenads, his eyes flashing fire,
Dances, and last of all
Zeus of the thunderbolt flaming, the Sire,
And Hera in majesty,
Queen of prosperity.
Come, ye Powers who dwell above
Unforgetting, our witnesss be
Of Peace with bonds of harmonious love-
The Peace which Cypris has wrought for me.
Alleluia! Io Paean!
Leap in joy-hurrah! hurrah!
'Tis victory-hurrah! hurrah!
Euoi! Euoi! Euai! Euai!
Lysistrata (to the Spartans): Come now, sing a new song to cap ours.
CHORUS OF SPARTANS (singing and dancing):
Leaving Taygetus fair and renown'd,
Muse of Laconia, hither come:
Amyclae's of the Brazen Home,
And Castor and Pollux, Tyndareus' sons,
Who sport where Eurotas murmuring runs.
On with the dance! Heia! Ho!
All leaping along,
Mantles a-swinging as we go!
Of Sparta our song.
There the holy chorus ever gladdens,
There the beat of stamping feet,
As our winsome fillies, lovely maidens,
Dance, beside Eurotas' banks a-skipping,-
Nimbly go to and fro
Hast'ning, leaping feet in measures tripping,
Like the Bacchae's revels, hair a-streaming.
Leda's child, divine and mind,
Leads the holy dance, her fair face beaming.
On with the dance! as your hand
Press the hair
Streaming away unconfined.
Leap in the air
Light as the deer; footsteps resound
Aiding our dance, beating the ground.
Praise Athene, Maid divine, unrivalled in her might,
Dweller in the Brazen Home, unconquered in the fight.
(All go out singing and dancing.)
Aristophanes