Lysistrata   

But you were not pregnant yesterday!


THIRD WOMAN


Well, I am to-day. Oh! let me go in search of the midwife,


Lysistrata, quick, quick!


LYSISTRATA


What is this fable you are telling me? (Feeling her stomach) Ah!


what have you got there so hard?


THIRD WOMAN


A male child.


LYSISTRATA


No, no, by Aphrodite! nothing of the sort! Why, it feels like


something hollow-a pot or a kettle. (Opening her robe) Oh! you silly


creature, if you have not got the sacred helmet of Pallas-and you said


you were with child!


THIRD WOMAN


And so I am, by Zeus, I am!


LYSISTRATA


Then why this helmet, pray?


THIRD WOMAN


For fear my pains should seize me in the Acropolis; I mean to


lay my eggs in this helmet, as the doves do.


LYSISTRATA