How we cite our quotes: Line
Quote #4
Magistrate: "Really, you witch! Where's a policeman? (to First Policeman) Grab her and tie both hands behind her back."
Lysistrata: "If he so much as touches me with his fingertip, mere public servant that he is, so help me Artemis he'll go home crying!"
Magistrate: "What, are you scared? (to Second Policeman) You there, help him out; grab her around the waist and tie her up, on the double!"
Enter first Old Woman from the gates.
First Old Woman: "If you so much as lay a hand on her, so help me Pandrosos, I'll beat the s*** out of you!"
Magistrate: "Beat the s*** out of me? Where's another policemen? (to Third Policeman) Tie her up first, the one with the dirty mouth!"
Enter Second Old Woman from the gates.
Second Old Woman: "If you raise your fingertip to her, so help me our Lady of Light, you'll be begging for an eye cup!" (433-444)
For one person to show perseverance is very important—but there's only so much than an individual can do. To make perseverance truly powerful, you need many people standing together. That seems to be the message of these lines. The Magistrate might think at first that he can push Lysistrata around. But he'll have to think twice once two old women step forward to show their own perseverance in standing beside their leader. Get it, grandmas!
Quote #5
Lysistrata: "Before now, and for quite some time, we maintained our decorum and suffered in silence whatever you men did, because you wouldn't let us make a sound. But you weren't exactly all we could ask for. No, we knew only too well what you were up to, and many a time we'd hear in our homes about a bad decision you'd made on some great issue of state. Then, masking the pain in our hearts, we'd put on a smile and ask you, 'How did the Assembly go today? Any decision about a rider to the peace treaty?' And my husband would say, 'What's that to you? Shut up!' And I'd shut up. […] But later on we began to hear about even worse decisions you'd made, and then we would ask, 'Husband, how come you're handling this so stupidly?' And right away he'd glare at me and tell me to get back to my sewing if I didn't want major damage to my head: 'War shall be the business of menfolk,' unquote."
Magistrate: "He was right on the mark, I say."
Lysistrata: "How could he be right, you sorry fool, when we were forbidden to offer advice even when your policy was wrong? But then, when we began to hear you in the streets openly crying, 'There isn't a man left in the land,' and someone else saying, 'God knows, there isn't, not a one,' after that we women decided to lose no more time, and to band together to save Greece. What was the point of waiting any longer?" (507-515, 518-526)
When perseverance turns bad, it usually becomes one of two things: stubbornness or apathy. In this exchange, we can see hints of the bad forms of perseverance in both Lysistrata and the Magistrate. Lysistrata's bad perseverance comes in the form of apathy: as she explains, for a long time she (like the other women in the city) listened in silence to her husband's stories of the daily business in the assembly, without speaking up to suggest changes. The Magistrate's bad form of perseverance is stubbornness: he stubbornly sticks to the traditional mindset when he says that Lysistrata's husband was "right on the mark" for prohibiting her from offering advice.
Quote #6
Women's Leader: "Rouse yourselves, women, away from those pitchers, it's our turn to pitch in with a little help for our friends!"
Women's Chorus: "Oh yes! I'll dance with unflagging energy;
no toilsome effort will weary my knees.
I'm ready to face anything
with women as courageous as these:
they've got character, charm, and guts,
they've got intelligence and heart
that's both patriotic and smart!"
Women's Leader: "Now, most valiant of prickly mommies and spikey grannies, attack furiously and don't go mushy: you're still running with the wind!" (539-550)
Here we get another sight of the women's enduring perseverance, as seen in their bragging about their qualities of "unflagging energy," "guts," and "heart." The Women's Leader also encourages them to show perseverance by never "go[ing] mushy." At the same time, we see how perseverance feeds on teamwork. We're seriously contemplating getting a "Don't Go Mushy" tattoo.