2–4
JOESSA
You’ve ruined us, Pythias! Perhaps he’s heard you saying, “Shut him out!”
5
LYSIAS
I’ve not come back because of her, Pythias, for I wouldn’t look at her till she changes her ways, but for your sake, so that you won’t think I’m in the wrong and say, “Lysias is heartless.”
PYTHIAS
Indeed that’s just what I was saying, Lysias.
LYSIAS
So, Pythias, you expect me to put up with Joessa? She may be all tears now, but I myself found her being unfaithful to me and sleeping with another young man.
PYTHIAS
Lysias, the point is that she’s a courtesan. But how did you catch them sleeping together?
LYSIAS
It was about five days ago; yes, by Jove, five it was, for it was the second of the month, and it’s the seventh today. My father, knowing that I’d long been in love with this paragon among women, had shut me in, with instructions to the porter that he wasn’t to open the door for me. But I, unable to stay away from her, told Dromo to bend down along the top of the courtyard wall at its lowest part, and let me mount his back. In that way I’d be able to climb up more easily. To cut my story short, I got over the wall, came here, and found the door carefully bolted, for it was midnight. I didn’t knock, but gently eased the door up off its hinges, as I’d done on earlier occasions, and, pushing it open, entered without making a sound. Everybody was asleep, and I felt my way along the wall till I was at the bed.
5
JOESSA
In Demeter’s name, what are you going to say? I’m on tenterhooks.
