The Assembly Women (Ecclesiazusae) by Aristophanes Comparison of Four Translations compiled by Tracy Marks    (Torrey Philemon) Aristophanes book chat August 9, 2002 at Classica Book Discussions, Greek classics at Webworkzone. For more information, please email Tracy Marks
DAVID BARRETT: David Barrett, Translator, Penguin Edition - Aristophanes; The Knights, Peace, The Birds/The Assemblywomen, Wealth	ANONYMOUS: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristophanes/eccles.pl.txt http://www.4literature.net/Aristophanes/Ecclesiazusae/ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0030
BARRETT: Girl and Youth  (955) GIRL: Oh come, my heart's delight, And share my bed tonight! Strange passionate desires Sweep through my body Like a hundred fires. My brain is in a whirl, I love each single curl Upon your head, I want to be your girl. This madness Eros sent: O cruel god, relent And set me free Delight not to torment! Bring him to me! YOUTH: One detail you forget: The door is bolted yet! I lust with you to lie: Admit me soon or I shall surely die. Nothing can ease my mind Until I have entwined My limbs with yours And squeezed your plump behind. This madness Eros sent O cruel, god, relent And set me free! Delight not to torment: Bring her to me!	ANONYMOUS: Girl and Youth (940) YOUNG GIRL: (She sings)  This way, my love, this way, come here and haste to rest the whole night in my arms. I worship your lovely curly hair; I am consumed with ardent desire. Oh! Eros, in thy mercy, compel him to my bed. YOUNG MAN: (standing beneath the YOUNG GIRL'S window, singing) Come down and haste to open the door Unless you want to see me fall Dead with desire. Dearest treasure, I am burning To yield myself to voluptuous sport, Lying on your bosom, To let my hands play with your bottom. Aphrodite, why dost thou fire me With such delight in her? Oh! Eros, I beseech thee, have mercy And make her share my couch. Words cannot express the tortures I am suffering. Oh! my adored one, I adjure you, open your door for me And press me to your heart; 'tis for you that I am suffering.
BARRETT: Blepyrus and Praxagora (624) BLEPYRUS: Won't the men all make for the prettiest one and want to sleep with her? PRAXAGORA: The plain unattractive girls will sit with the pretty ones; anyone who wants a pretty girl will have to lay one of the plain ones first. BLEPYRUS: Bit hard on some of us older men isn't it? If we've got to screw an ugly one first, how are we going to make it with a popsie?	ANONYMOUS: Blepyrus and Praxagora  (616) BLEPYRUS: But all will go to the prettiest woman and try to lay her. PRAXAGORA: The ugliest and the most flat-nosed will be side by side with the most charming, and to win the latter's favours, a man will first have to get into the former. BLEPYRUS: But what about us oldsters? If we have to lay the old women first, how can we keep our tools from failing before we get into the Promised Land?
BARRETT: Youth and Hag (1052) FIRST OLD WOMAN: "Be it known that the women hereby enact as follows: If a young man desires a young woman, it shall not be lawful for him to screw the same unless and until he has pleasured an old one; and if he refuses so to pleasure her in due priority it shall be lawful for the older woman to seize him by the tool and drag him away forthwith. YOUNG MAN: Yow - I'm in for a long-drawn-out evening, I can see that.	ANONYMOUS: Youth and Hag  (1018) FIRST OLD WOMAN Listen. “The women have decreed that if a young man desires a young girl, he can only lay her after having satisfied an old woman; and if he refuses and goes to seek the maiden, the old women are authorized to seize him and drag him in.” YOUNG MAN Alas! I shall become a Procrustes.
GREEK TRANSLATION at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0029 OTHER TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GREEK: Jeffrey Henderson    A.H. Sommerstein    R.G. Ussher
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