Oh! if it were what you suppose, there would be never an absentee. No, no, it concerns a thing I have turned about and about this way and that so many sleepless nights. CLEONICE (still unable to be serious) It must be something mighty fine and subtle for you to have turned it about so! LYSISTRATA So fine, it means just this, Greece saved by the women! CLEONICE By the women! Why, its salvation hangs on a poor thread then! LYSISTRATA Our country's fortunes depend on us-it is with us to undo utterly the Peloponnesians. CLEONICE That would be a noble deed truly! LYSISTRATA To exterminate the Boeotians to a man! CLEONICE But surely you would spare the eels. LYSISTRATA For Athens' sake I will never threaten so fell a doom; trust me
