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Clemensia Dovecote
Lysistrata is one of Coriolanus’s friends. She mentors Jessup from District 12, so she and Coriolanus (whose tribute, Lucy Gray, is also from District 12) end up spending more time together than usual. Lysistrata is quiet, intelligent, and honorable. Over the course of her mentoring relationship with Jessup, Lysistrata truly comes to see him as human and ultimately comes to question whether the Hunger Games should exist at all. When it becomes clear that Jessup contracted rabies, Lysistrata helps kill him and save Lucy Gray by sending him bottles of water (rabies makes victims fear water). In her interview after Jessup’s death, she continues to insist that Jessup was a human deserving of compassion, just like people who live in the Capitol. She also stands firm and insists that Jessup contracted rabies in the Capitol and didn’t bring it from the districts. Her father is the official doctor for President Ravinstill, so Lysistrata is versed in medicine and Coriolanus sees no reason to doubt her assessment.
Lysistrata Vickers Quotes in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes quotes below are all either spoken by Lysistrata Vickers or refer to Lysistrata Vickers. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 13 Quotes
“My cousin said to remember this isn’t of our making. That we’re still children, too.”
“That doesn’t help, somehow. Being used like this,” said Lysistrata sadly. “Especially when three of us are dead.”
Used? Coriolanus had not thought of being a mentor as anything but an honor. A way to serve the Capitol and perhaps gain a little glory. But she had a point. If the cause wasn’t honorable, how could it be an honor to participate in it? He felt confused, then manipulated, then undefended. As if he were more a tribute than a mentor.
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Lysistrata Vickers Character Timeline in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The timeline below shows where the character Lysistrata Vickers appears in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 9
...into a line with their tributes. Coriolanus and Lucy Gray are next to Jessup and Lysistrata. Reaper, Clemensia’s tribute, glowers at the ground. Lysistrata offers Jessup medicine for his neck.
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Chapter 10
...Ring. Two of Coriolanus’s classmates are in the hospital in critical condition. Coriolanus asks about Lysistrata, who’d been right behind him. Grandma’am says she’s fine, but she’s obviously looking for attention:...
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Chapter 11
...class that they’ll win the war with their heads, not their hearts. When Livia and Lysistrata argue that the war is over and the killing should stop, Festus notes it doesn’t...
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Chapter 13
...that Lucy Gray and the Covey aren’t District 12 at all—in fact, they’re almost Capitol. Lysistrata looks annoyed; in her interview she insists Jessup and Lucy Gray are devoted to each...
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...toward a seat near the doors. Highbottom turns away to dose himself with morphling and Lysistrata rushes up, angry that Coriolanus is destroying her strategy with Jessup.
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...allow the mentors to select food items and send them to their tributes. Coriolanus shows Lysistrata Lucy Gray’s list of food on his communicuff and promises to help Jessup. Lysistrata apologizes...
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Lysistrata and Coriolanus find seats in the back of the special mentor section in the auditorium—they...
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Chapter 14
...cuts back to the arena. Now, Marcus is the only tribute in sight. Coriolanus refuses Lysistrata’s suggestion that he go after Sejanus. He hates that people think he and Sejanus are...
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...leave, but the mentors stay on through the evening. Coriolanus enjoys dinner and strategizes with Lysistrata about getting their tributes food.
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...It’s Reaper, carrying Dill. Dill looks tiny, and red spittle is coming from her mouth. Lysistrata says it looks like Dill has tuberculosis as Reaper lays the girl in the sunshine...
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Chapter 17
Lysistrata murmurs that Jessup has rabies. Rabies returned in the Capitol during the war, when people...
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...cracks and Jessup becomes even more agitated. Coriolanus remembers that rabies makes victims fear water. Lysistrata orders him bottle after bottle of water, insisting she wants Lucy Gray to win if...
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...Jessup’s face, and closes his eyes with a handkerchief. She scoops up the food parcels Lysistrata sends and then runs into a tunnel, just as Reaper enters the arena. In the...
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...mentors. He introduces Lucy Gray as the most popular tribute, and Coriolanus crosses Jessup and Lysistrata off his mentor sheet. The rest of the evening is uneventful, so Coriolanus heads home....
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Chapter 18
...Lucky starts the morning by having Lepidus interview Coriolanus about Jessup’s rabies scare. Coriolanus praises Lysistrata’s quick thinking and notes that Lucy Gray is loyal and brave—like a Capitol girl, not...
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Epilogue
It would’ve been Sejanus’s 19th birthday tonight. Snow has invited Festus and Lysistrata for dinner, and he plans to give Ma and Strabo Sejanus’s box of personal effects....
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