Plot, picture and thoughts
Picture
αἱ γυναῖκες διαλεγόμεναι ἀλλήλαις πέπλον ὑφαίνουσιν.See the women? What are they doing? working (weaving) and chatting of course:
ἐργάζονται: they are workingὑφαίνουσιν: they are weaving, at least 2 of them areWhat are they weaving? Nothing very spectacular, just plain cloth
πέπλον ὑφαίνουσιν ὁ πέπλος is anything woven: a woven garnment, mantle, robe, cover, blanket ...What are they doing while they work? chat, talk, converse of course. With/To whom?
with/to each other ἀλλήλαις.
Men chatting to each other would be ἀλλήλοις of course.
And "I chat, converse" is διαλέγομαι, but for that I need a partner.
Who do you converse with? τίνι διαλέγει/διαλέγῃ;So: a "dialogue" is not between 2 (δις) people but across (διά) from person to person.
We meet a strange new form here:
[διαλέγονται they chat, they are chatting]διαλεγό́μεναι chatting. See present participle
Plot
We learnt, in lesson 4, that the Athenians were organizing a festival in honour of Dionysus (the god of grapes and wine). Now wouldn't the ladies just love to go and watch that festival: procession, sacrifices, dancing contests. And generally make merry (which for a large proportion of the people meant getting drunk, as you'll read in lesson 9).
Murrine was afraid her all-work-and-no-play husband wouldn't want to go. He hardly ever takes her anywhere, says she. Remember that women were most definitely NOT supposed to go out unaccompanied: unless hubby takes you, at home you stay.
Melitta though was convinced that she could easily persuade daddy to take them all. Well now, are they going or not? As the title indicates, they are.
What else is there to talk about. Philip, the wolf-slayer's brave deeds of course. So why does Dikaiopolis still grumble?