The Project Gutenberg eBook ofPeaceThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: PeaceAuthor: AristophanesRelease date: April 1, 2001 [eBook #2571]Most recently updated: January 24, 2013Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Derek Davis, and David Widger*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEACE ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: PeaceAuthor: AristophanesRelease date: April 1, 2001 [eBook #2571]Most recently updated: January 24, 2013Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Derek Davis, and David Widger
Title: Peace
Author: Aristophanes
Author: Aristophanes
Release date: April 1, 2001 [eBook #2571]Most recently updated: January 24, 2013
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Derek Davis, and David Widger
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEACE ***
Original Transcriber's Note: Translator uncredited. Footnotes have been retained because they provide the meanings of Greek names, terms and ceremonies and explain puns and references otherwise lost in translation. Occasional Greek words in the footnotes have not been included. Footnote numbers, in brackets, start anew at (1) for each piece of dialogue, and each footnote follows immediately the dialogue to which it refers, labeled thus: f(1).
Original Transcriber's Note: Translator uncredited. Footnotes have been retained because they provide the meanings of Greek names, terms and ceremonies and explain puns and references otherwise lost in translation. Occasional Greek words in the footnotes have not been included. Footnote numbers, in brackets, start anew at (1) for each piece of dialogue, and each footnote follows immediately the dialogue to which it refers, labeled thus: f(1).
The 'Peace' was brought out four years after 'The Acharnians' (422 B.C.), when the War had already lasted ten years. The leading motive is the same as in the former play—the intense desire of the less excitable and more moderate-minded citizens for relief from the miseries of war.
Trygaeus, a rustic patriot, finding no help in men, resolves to ascend to heaven to expostulate personally with Zeus for allowing this wretched state of things to continue. With this object he has fed and trained a gigantic dung-beetle, which he mounts, and is carried, like Bellerophon on Pegasus, on an aerial journey. Eventually he reaches Olympus, only to find that the gods have gone elsewhere, and that the heavenly abode is occupied solely by the demon of War, who is busy pounding up the Greek States in a huge mortar. However, his benevolent purpose is not in vain; for learning from Hermes that the goddess Peace has been cast into a pit, where she is kept a fast prisoner, he calls upon the different peoples of Hellas to make a united effort and rescue her, and with their help drags her out and brings her back in triumph to earth. The play concludes with the restoration of the goddess to her ancient honours, the festivities of the rustic population and the nuptials of Trygaeus with Opora (Harvest), handmaiden of Peace, represented as a pretty courtesan.
Such references as there are to Cleon in this play are noteworthy. The great Demagogue was now dead, having fallen in the same action as the rival Spartan general, the renowned Brasidas, before Amphipolis, and whatever Aristophanes says here of his old enemy is conceived in the spirit of 'de mortuis nil nisi bonum.' In one scene Hermes is descanting on the evils which had nearly ruined Athens and declares that 'The Tanner' was the cause of them all. But Trygaeus interrupts him with the words:
"Hold-say not so, good master Hermes; Let the man rest in peace where now he lies. He is no longer of our world, but yours."
Here surely we have a trait of magnanimity on the author's part as admirable in its way as the wit and boldness of his former attacks had been in theirs.
TRYGAEUSTWO SERVANTS OF TRYGAEUSMAIDENS, DAUGHTERS OF TRYGAEUSHERMESWARTUMULTHIEROCLES, a SoothsayerA SICKLE-MAKERA CREST-MAKERA TRUMPET-MAKERA HELMET-MAKERA SPEAR-MAKERSON OF LAMACHUSSON OF CLEONYMUSCHORUS OF HUSBANDMEN
SCENE: A farmyard, two slaves busy beside a dungheap; afterwards, in Olympus.
FIRST SERVANT Quick, quick, bring the dung-beetle his cake.
SECOND SERVANT Coming, coming.
FIRST SERVANT Give it to him, and may it kill him!
SECOND SERVANT May he never eat a better.
FIRST SERVANT Now give him this other one kneaded up with ass's dung.
SECOND SERVANT There! I've done that too.
FIRST SERVANT And where's what you gave him just now; surely he can't have devoured it yet!
SECOND SERVANT Indeed he has; he snatched it, rolled it between his feet and bolted it.
FIRST SERVANT Come, hurry up, knead up a lot and knead them stiffly.
SECOND SERVANT Oh, scavengers, help me in the name of the gods, if you do not wish to see me fall down choked.
FIRST SERVANT Come, come, another made from the stool of a young scapegrace catamite. 'Twill be to the beetle's taste; he likes it well ground.
SECOND SERVANT There! I am free at least from suspicion; none will accuse me of tasting what I mix.
FIRST SERVANT Faugh! come, now another! keep on mixing with all your might.
SECOND SERVANT I' faith, no. I can stand this awful cesspool stench no longer, so I bring you the whole ill-smelling gear.
FIRST SERVANT Pitch it down the sewer sooner, and yourself with it.
SECOND SERVANT Maybe, one of you can tell me where I can buy a stopped-up nose, for there is no work more disgusting than to mix food for a beetle and to carry it to him. A pig or a dog will at least pounce upon our excrement without more ado, but this foul wretch affects the disdainful, the spoilt mistress, and won't eat unless I offer him a cake that has been kneaded for an entire day.... But let us open the door a bit ajar without his seeing it. Has he done eating? Come, pluck up courage, cram yourself till you burst! The cursed creature! It wallows in its food! It grips it between its claws like a wrestler clutching his opponent, and with head and feet together rolls up its paste like a rope-maker twisting a hawser. What an indecent, stinking, gluttonous beast! I know not what angry god let this monster loose upon us, but of a certainty it was neither Aphrodite nor the Graces.
FIRST SERVANT Who was it then?
SECOND SERVANT No doubt the Thunderer, Zeus.
FIRST SERVANT But perhaps some spectator, some beardless youth, who thinks himself a sage, will say, "What is this? What does the beetle mean?" And then an Ionian,(1) sitting next him, will add, "I think 'tis an allusion to Cleon, who so shamelessly feeds on filth all by himself."—But now I'm going indoors to fetch the beetle a drink.
f(1) 'Peace' was no doubt produced at the festival of theApaturia, which was kept at the end of October, a periodwhen strangers were numerous in Athens.
SECOND SERVANT As for me, I will explain the matter to you all, children, youths, grownups and old men, aye, even to the decrepit dotards. My master is mad, not as you are, but with another sort of madness, quite a new kind. The livelong day he looks open-mouthed towards heaven and never stops addressing Zeus. "Ah! Zeus," he cries, "what are thy intentions? Lay aside thy besom; do not sweep Greece away!"
TRYGAEUS Ah! ah! ah!
SECOND SERVANT Hush, hush! Mehinks I hear his voice!
TRYGAEUS Oh! Zeus, what art thou going to do for our people? Dost thou not see this, that our cities will soon be but empty husks?
SECOND SERVANT As I told you, that is his form of madness. There you have a sample of his follies. When his trouble first began to seize him, he said to himself, "By what means could I go straight to Zeus?" Then he made himself very slender little ladders and so clambered up towards heaven; but he soon came hurtling down again and broke his head. Yesterday, to our misfortune, he went out and brought us back this thoroughbred, but from where I know not, this great beetle, whose groom he has forced me to become. He himself caresses it as though it were a horse, saying, "Oh! my little Pegasus,(1) my noble aerial steed, may your wings soon bear me straight to Zeus!" But what is my master doing? I must stoop down to look through this hole. Oh! great gods! Here! neighbours, run here quick! here is my master flying off mounted on his beetle as if on horseback.
f(1) The winged steed of Perseus—an allusion to a losttragedy of Euripides, in which Bellerophon was introducedriding on Pegasus.
TRYGAEUS Gently, gently, go easy, beetle; don't start off so proudly, or trust at first too greatly to your powers; wait till you have sweated, till the beating of your wings shall make your limb joints supple. Above all things, don't let off some foul smell, I adjure you; else I would rather have you stop in the stable altogether.
SECOND SERVANT Poor master! Is he crazy?
TRYGAEUS Silence! silence!
SECOND SERVANT (TO TRYGAEUS) But why start up into the air on chance?
TRYGAEUS 'Tis for the weal of all the Greeks; I am attempting a daring and novel feat.
SECOND SERVANT But what is your purpose? What useless folly!
TRYGAEUS No words of ill omen! Give vent to joy and command all men to keep silence, to close down their drains and privies with new tiles and to stop up their own vent-holes.(1)
f(1) Fearing that if it caught a whiff from earth to itsliking, the beetle might descend from the highest heaven tosatisfy itself.
FIRST SERVANT No, I shall not be silent, unless you tell me where you are going.
TRYGAEUS Why, where am I likely to be going across the sky, if it be not to visit Zeus?
FIRST SERVANT For what purpose?
TRYGAEUS I want to ask him what he reckons to do for all the Greeks.
SECOND SERVANT And if he doesn't tell you?
TRYGAEUS I shall pursue him at law as a traitor who sells Greece to the Medes.(1)
f(1) The Persians and the Spartans were not then allied asthe scholiast states, since a treaty between them was onlyconcluded in 412 B.C., i.e. eight years after the productionof 'Peace'; the great king, however, was trying to deriveadvantages out of the dissensions in Greece.
SECOND SERVANT Death seize me, if I let you go.
TRYGAEUS It is absolutely necessary.
SECOND SERVANT Alas! alas! dear little girls, your father is deserting you secretly to go to heaven. Ah! poor orphans, entreat him, beseech him.
LITTLE DAUGHTER Father! father! what is this I hear? Is it true? What! you would leave me, you would vanish into the sky, you would go to the crows?(1) 'Tis impossible! Answer, father, an you love me.
f(1) "Go to the crows," a proverbial expression equivalentto our "Go to the devil."
TRYGAEUS Yes, I am going. You hurt me too sorely, my daughters, when you ask me for bread, calling me your daddy, and there is not the ghost of an obolus in the house; if I succeed and come back, you will have a barley loaf every morning—and a punch in the eye for sauce!
LITTLE DAUGHTER But how will you make the journey? 'Tis not a ship that will carry you thither.
TRYGAEUS No, but this winged steed will.
LITTLE DAUGHTER But what an idea, daddy, to harness a beetle, on which to fly to the gods.
TRYGAEUS We see from Aesop's fables that they alone can fly to the abode of the Immortals.(1)
f(1) Aesop tells us that the eagle and the beetle were atwar; the eagle devoured the beetle's young and the lattergot into its nest and tumbled out its eggs. On this theeagle complained to Zeus, who advised it to lay its eggs inhis bosom; but the beetle flew up to the abode of Zeus, who,forgetful of the eagle's eggs, at once rose to chase off theobjectionable insect. The eggs fell to earth and weresmashed to bits.
LITTLE DAUGHTER Father, father, 'tis a tale nobody can believe! that such a stinking creature can have gone to the gods.
TRYGAEUS It went to have vengeance on the eagle and break its eggs.
LITTLE DAUGHTER Why not saddle Pegasus? you would have a more TRAGIC(1) appearance in the eyes of the gods.
f(1) Pegasus is introduced by Euripides both in his'Andromeda' and his 'Bellerophon.'
TRYGAEUS Eh! don't you see, little fool, that then twice the food would be wanted? Whereas my beetle devours again as filth what I have eaten myself.
LITTLE DAUGHTER And if it fell into the watery depths of the sea, could it escape with its wings?
TRYGAEUS (EXPOSING HIMSELF) I am fitted with a rudder in case of need, and my Naxos beetle will serve me as a boat.(1)
f(1) Boats, called 'beetles,' doubtless because in form theyresembled these insects, were built at Naxos.
LITTLE DAUGHTER And what harbour will you put in at?
TRYGAEUS Why is there not the harbour of Cantharos at the Piraeus?(1)
f(1) Nature had divided the Piraeus into three basins—Cantharos, Aphrodisium and Zea. (Cantharos) is Greek fordung-beetle.
LITTLE DAUGHTER Take care not to knock against anything and so fall off into space; once a cripple, you would be a fit subject for Euripides, who would put you into a tragedy.(1)
f(1) In allusion to Euripides' fondness for introducing lameheroes in his plays.
TRYGAEUS I'll see to it. Good-bye! (TO THE ATHENIANS.) You, for love of whom I brave these dangers, do ye neither let wind nor go to stool for the space of three days, for, if, while cleaving the air, my steed should scent anything, he would fling me head foremost from the summit of my hopes. Now come, my Pegasus, get a-going with up-pricked ears and make your golden bridle resound gaily. Eh! what are you doing? What are you up to? Do you turn your nose towards the cesspools? Come, pluck up a spirit; rush upwards from the earth, stretch out your speedy wings and make straight for the palace of Zeus; for once give up foraging in your daily food.—Hi! you down there, what are you after now? Oh! my god! 'tis a man emptying his belly in the Piraeus, close to the house where the bad girls are. But is it my death you seek then, my death? Will you not bury that right away and pile a great heap of earth upon it and plant wild thyme therein and pour perfumes on it? If I were to fall from up here and misfortune happened to me, the town of Chios(1) would owe a fine of five talents for my death, all along of your cursed rump. Alas! how frightened I am! oh! I have no heart for jests. Ah! machinist, take great care of me. There is already a wind whirling round my navel; take great care or, from sheer fright, I shall form food for my beetle.... But I think I am no longer far from the gods; aye, that is the dwelling of Zeus, I perceive. Hullo! Hi! where is the doorkeeper? Will no one open?
f(1) An allusion to the proverbial nickname applied to theChians (in Greek)—'crapping Chian.' There is a furtherjoke, of course, in connection with the hundred and onefrivolous pretexts which the Athenians invented for exactingcontributions from the maritime allies.
(THE SCENE CHANGES AND HEAVEN IS PRESENTED.)
HERMES Meseems I can sniff a man. (HE PERCEIVES TRYGAEUS ASTRIDE HIS BEETLE.) Why, what plague is this?
TRYGAEUS A horse-beetle.
HERMES Oh! impudent, shameless rascal! oh! scoundrel! triple scoundrel! the greatest scoundrel in the world! how did you come here? Oh! scoundrel of all scoundrels! your name? Reply.
TRYGAEUS Triple scoundrel.
HERMES Your country?
TRYGAEUS Triple scoundrel.
HERMES Your father?
TRYGAEUS My father? Triple scoundrel.
HERMES By the Earth, you shall die, unless you tell me your name.
TRYGAEUS I am Trygaeus of the Athmonian deme, a good vine-dresser, little addicted to quibbling and not at all an informer.
HERMES Why do you come?
TRYGAEUS I come to bring you this meat.
HERMES Ah! my good friend, did you have a good journey?
TRYGAEUS Glutton, be off! I no longer seem a triple scoundrel to you. Come, call Zeus.
HERMES Ah! ah! you are a long way yet from reaching the gods, for they moved yesterday.
TRYGAEUS To what part of the earth?
HERMES Eh! of the earth, did you say?
TRYGAEUS In short, where are they then?
HERMES Very far, very far, right at the furthest end of the dome of heaven.
TRYGAEUS But why have they left you all alone here?
HERMES I am watching what remains of the furniture, the little pots and pans, the bits of chairs and tables, and odd wine-jars.
TRYGAEUS And why have the gods moved away?
HERMES Because of their wrath against the Greeks. They have located War in the house they occupied themselves and have given him full power to do with you exactly as he pleases; then they went as high up as ever they could, so as to see no more of your fights and to hear no more of your prayers.
TRYGAEUS What reason have they for treating us so?
HERMES Because they have afforded you an opportunity for peace more than once, but you have always preferred war. If the Laconians got the very slightest advantage, they would exclaim, "By the Twin Brethren! the Athenians shall smart for this." If, on the contrary, the latter triumphed and the Laconians came with peace proposals, you would say, "By Demeter, they want to deceive us. No, by Zeus, we will not hear a word; they will always be coming as long as we hold Pylos."(1)
f(1) Masters of Pylos and Sphacteria, the Athenians hadbrought home the three hundred prisoners taken in the latterplace in 425 B.C.; the Spartans had several times sentenvoys to offer peace and to demand back both Pylos and theprisoners, but the Athenian pride had caused these proposalsto be long refused. Finally the prisoners had been given upin 423 B.C., but the War was continued nevertheless.
TRYGAEUS Yes, that is quite the style our folk do talk in.
HERMES So that I don't know whether you will ever see Peace again.
TRYGAEUS Why, where has she gone to then?
HERMES War has cast her into a deep pit.
TRYGAEUS Where?
HERMES Down there, at the very bottom. And you see what heaps of stones he has piled over the top, so that you should never pull her out again.
TRYGAEUS Tell me, what is War preparing against us?
HERMES All I know is that last evening he brought along a huge mortar.
TRYGAEUS And what is he going to do with his mortar?
HERMES He wants to pound up all the cities of Greece in it.... But I must say good-bye, for I think he is coming out; what an uproar he is making!
TRYGAEUS Ah! great gods! let us seek safety; meseems I already hear the noise of this fearful war mortar.
WAR (ENTERS, CARRYING A HUGE MORTAR) Oh! mortals, mortals, wretched mortals, how your jaws will snap!
TRYGAEUS Oh! divine Apollo! what a prodigious big mortar! Oh, what misery the very sight of War causes me! This then is the foe from whom I fly, who is so cruel, so formidable, so stalwart, so solid on his legs!
WAR Oh! Prasiae!(1) thrice wretched, five times, aye, a thousand times wretched! for thou shalt be destroyed this day.
f(1) An important town in Eastern Laconia on the Argolicgulf, celebrated for a temple where a festival was heldannually in honour of Achilles. It had been taken andpillaged by the Athenians in the second year of thePeloponnesian War, 430 B.C. As he utters this imprecation,War throws some leeks, the root-word of the name Praisae,into his mortar.
TRYGAEUS This does not concern us over much; 'tis only so much the worse for the Laconians.
WAR Oh! Megara! Megara! how utterly are you going to be ground up! what fine mincemeat(1) are you to be made into!
f(1) War throws some garlic into his mortar as emblematicalof the city of Megara, where it was grown in abundance.
TRYGAEUS Alas! alas! what bitter tears there will be among the Megarians!(1)
f(1) Because the smell of bruised garlic causes the eyes towater.
WAR Oh, Sicily! you too must perish! Your wretched towns shall be grated like this cheese.(1) Now let us pour some Attic honey(2) into the mortar.
f(1) He throws cheese into the mortar as emblematical ofSicily, on account of its rich pastures.f(2) Emblematical of Athens. They honey of Mount Hymettuswas famous.
TRYGAEUS Oh! I beseech you! use some other honey; this kind is worth four obols; be careful, oh! be careful of our Attic honey.
WAR Hi! Tumult, you slave there!
TUMULT What do you want?
WAR Out upon you! Standing there with folded arms! Take this cuff o' the head for your pains.
TUMULT Oh! how it stings! Master, have you got garlic in your fist, I wonder?
WAR Run and fetch me a pestle.
TUMULT But we haven't got one; 'twas only yesterday we moved.
WAR Go and fetch me one from Athens, and hurry, hurry!
TUMULT Aye, I hasten there; if I return without one, I shall have no cause for laughing. (EXIT.)
TRYGAEUS Ah! what is to become of us, wretched mortals that we are? See the danger that threatens if he returns with the pestle, for War will quietly amuse himself with pounding all the towns of Hellas to pieces. Ah! Bacchus! cause this herald of evil to perish on his road!
WAR Well?
TUMULT (WHO HAS RETURNED) Well, what?
WAR You have brought back nothing?
TUMULT Alas! the Athenians have lost their pestle—the tanner, who ground Greece to powder.(1)
f(1) Cleon, who had lately fallen before Amphipolis, in 422B.C.
TRYGAEUS Oh! Athene, venerable mistress! 'tis well for our city he is dead, and before he could serve us with this hash.
WAR Then go and seek one at Sparta and have done with it!
TUMULT Aye, aye, master!
WAR Be back as quick as ever you can.
TRYGAEUS (TO THE AUDIENCE) What is going to happen, friends? 'Tis the critical hour. Ah! if there is some initiate of Samothrace(1) among you, 'tis surely the moment to wish this messenger some accident—some sprain or strain.
f(1) An island in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Thrace andopposite the mouth of the Hebrus; the Mysteries are said tohave found their first home in this island, where theCabirian gods were worshipped; this cult, shrouded in deepmystery to even the initiates themselves, has remained analmost insoluble problem for the modern critic. It was saidthat the wishes of the initiates were always granted, andthey were feared as to-day the 'jettatori' (spell-throwers,casters of the evil eye) in Sicily are feared.
TUMULT (WHO RETURNS) Alas! alas! thrice again, alas!
WAR What is it? Again you come back without it?
TUMULT The Spartans too have lost their pestle.
WAR How, varlet?
TUMULT They had lent it to their allies in Thrace,(1) who have lost it for them.
f(1) Brasidas perished in Thrace in the same battle as Cleonat Amphipolis, 422 B.C.
TRYGAEUS Long life to you, Thracians! My hopes revive, pluck up courage, mortals!
WAR Take all this stuff away; I am going in to make a pestle for myself.
TRYGAEUS 'Tis now the time to sing as Datis did, as he abused himself at high noon, "Oh pleasure! oh enjoyment! oh delights!" 'Tis now, oh Greeks! the moment when freed of quarrels and fighting, we should rescue sweet Peace and draw her out of this pit, before some other pestle prevents us. Come, labourers, merchants, workmen, artisans, strangers, whether you be domiciled or not, islanders, come here, Greeks of all countries, come hurrying here with picks and levers and ropes! 'Tis the moment to drain a cup in honour of the Good Genius.
CHORUS Come hither all! quick, hasten to the rescue! All peoples of Greece, now is the time or never, for you to help each other. You see yourselves freed from battles and all their horrors of bloodshed. The day, hateful to Lamachus(1), has come. Come then, what must be done? Give your orders, direct us, for I swear to work this day without ceasing, until with the help of our levers and our engines we have drawn back into light the greatest of all goddesses, her to whom the olive is so dear.
f(1) An Athenian general as ambitious as he was brave. In423 B.C. he had failed in an enterprise against Heracles, astorm having destroyed his fleet. Since then he haddistingued himself in several actions, and was destined,some years later, to share the command of the expedition toSicily with Alcibiades and Nicias.
TRYGAEUS Silence! if War should hear your shouts of joy he would bound forth from his retreat in fury.
CHORUS Such a decree overwhelms us with joy; how different to the edict, which bade us muster with provisions for three days.(1)
f(1) Meaning, to start a military expedition.
TRYGAEUS Let us beware lest the cursed Cerberus(1) prevent us even from the nethermost hell from delivering the goddess by his furious howling, just as he did when on earth.
f(1) Cleon.
CHORUS Once we have hold of her, none in the world will be able to take her from us. Huzza! huzza!(1)
f(1) The Chorus insist on the conventional choric dance.
TRYGAEUS You will work my death if you don't subdue your shouts. War will come running out and trample everything beneath his feet.
CHORUS Well then! LET him confound, let him trample, let him overturn everything! We cannot help giving vent to our joy.
TRYGAEUS Oh! cruel fate! My friends! in the name of the gods, what possesses you? Your dancing will wreck the success of a fine undertaking.
CHORUS 'Tis not I who want to dance; 'tis my legs that bound with delight.
TRYGAEUS Enough, an you love me, cease your gambols.
CHORUS There! 'Tis over.
TRYGAEUS You say so, and nevertheless you go on.
CHORUS Yet one more figure and 'tis done.
TRYGAEUS Well, just this one; then you must dance no more.
CHORUS No, no more dancing, if we can help you.
TRYGAEUS But look, you are not stopping even now.
CHORUS By Zeus, I am only throwing up my right leg, that's all.
TRYGAEUS Come, I grant you that, but pray, annoy me no further.
CHORUS Ah! the left leg too will have its fling; well, 'tis but its right. I am so happy, so delighted at not having to carry my buckler any more. I sing and I laugh more than if I had cast my old age, as a serpent does its skin.
TRYGAEUS No, 'tis not time for joy yet, for you are not sure of success. But when you have got the goddess, then rejoice, shout and laugh; thenceforward you will be able to sail or stay at home, to make love or sleep, to attend festivals and processions, to play at cottabos,(1) live like true Sybarites and to shout, Io, io!
f(1) One of the most favourite games with the Greeks. Astick was set upright in the ground and to this the beam ofa balance was attached by its centre. Two vessels were hungfrom the extremities of the beam so as to balance; beneaththese two other and larger dishes were placed and filledwith water, and in the middle of each a brazen figure,called Manes, was stood. The game consisted in throwingdrops of wine from an agreed distance into one or the othervessel, so that, dragged downwards by the weight of theliquor, it bumped against Manes.
CHORUS Ah! God grant we may see the blessed day. I have suffered so much; have so oft slept with Phormio(1) on hard beds. You will no longer find me an acid, angry, hard judge as heretofore, but will find me turned indulgent and grown younger by twenty years through happiness. We have been killing ourselves long enough, tiring ourselves out with going to the Lyceum(2) and returning laden with spear and buckler.—But what can we do to please you? Come, speak; for 'tis a good Fate that has named you our leader.
f(1) A general of austere habits; he disposed of all hisproperty to pay the cost of a naval expedition, in which hebeat the fleet of the foe off the promontory of Rhium in 429B.C.f(2) The Lyceum was a portico ornamented with paintings andsurrounded with gardens, in which military exercises tookplace.
TRYGAEUS How shall we set about removing these stones?
HERMES Rash reprobate, what do you propose doing?
TRYGAEUS Nothing bad, as Cillicon said.(1)
f(1) A citizen of Miletus, who betrayed his country to thepeople of Pirene. When asked what he purposed, he replied,"Nothing bad," which expression had therefore passed into aproverb.
HERMES You are undone, you wretch.
TRYGAEUS Yes, if the lot had to decide my life, for Hermes would know how to turn the chance.(1)
f(1) Hermes was the god of chance.
HERMES You are lost, you are dead.
TRYGAEUS On what day?
HERMES This instant.
TRYGAEUS But I have not provided myself with flour and cheese yet(1) to start for death.
f(1) As the soldiers had to do when starting on anexpedition.
HERMES You ARE kneaded and ground already, I tell you.(1)
f(1) That is, you are predicated.
TRYGAEUS Hah! I have not yet tasted that gentle pleasure.
HERMES Don't you know that Zeus has decreed death for him who is surprised exhuming Peace?
TRYGAEUS What! must I really and truly die?
HERMES You must.
TRYGAEUS Well then, lend me three drachmae to buy a young pig; I wish to have myself initiated before I die.(1)
f(1) The initiated were thought to enjoy greater happinessafter death.
HERMES Oh! Zeus, the Thunderer!(1)
f(1) He summons Zeus to reveal Trygaeus' conspiracy.
TRYGAEUS I adjure you in the name of the gods, master, don't denounce us!
HERMES I may not, I cannot keep silent.
TRYGAEUS In the name of the meats which I brought you so good-naturedly.
HERMES Why, wretched man, Zeus will annihilate me, if I do not shout out at the top of my voice, to inform him what you are plotting.
TRYGAEUS Oh, no! don't shout, I beg you, dear little Hermes.... And what are you doing, comrades? You stand there as though you were stocks and stones. Wretched men, speak, entreat him at once; otherwise he will be shouting.
CHORUS Oh! mighty Hermes! don't do it; no, don't do it! If ever you have eaten some young pig, sacrificed by us on your altars, with pleasure, may this offering not be without value in your sight to-day.
TRYGAEUS Do you not hear them wheedling you, mighty god?
CHORUS Be not pitiless toward our prayers; permit us to deliver the goddess. Oh! the most human, the most generous of the gods, be favourable toward us, if it be true that you detest the haughty crests and proud brows of Pisander;(1) we shall never cease, oh master, offering you sacred victims and solemn prayers.
f(1) An Athenian captain who later had the recall ofAlcibiades decreed by the Athenian people; in 'The Birds'Aristophanes represents him as a cowardly beggar. He wasthe reactionary leader who established the OligarchicalGovernment of the Four Hundred, 411 B.C., after the failureof the Syracusan expedition.
TRYGAEUS Have mercy, mercy, let yourself be touched by their words; never was your worship so dear to them as to-day.
HERMES I' truth, never have you been greater thieves.(1)
f(1) Among other attributes, Hermes was the god of thieves.
TRYGAEUS I will reveal a great, a terrible conspiracy against the gods to you.
HERMES Hah! speak and perchance I shall let myself be softened.
TRYGAEUS Know then, that the Moon and that infamous Sun are plotting against you, and want to deliver Greece into the hands of the Barbarians.
HERMES What for?
TRYGAEUS Because it is to you that we sacrifice, whereas the barbarians worship them; hence they would like to see you destroyed, that they alone might receive the offerings.
HERMES 'Tis then for this reason that these untrustworthy charioteers have for so long been defrauding us, one of them robbing us of daylight and the other nibbling away at the other's disk.(1)
f(1) Alluding to the eclipses of the sun and the moon.
TRYGAEUS Yes, certainly. So therefore, Hermes, my friend, help us with your whole heart to find and deliver the captive and we will celebrate the great Panathenaea(1) in your honour as well as all the festivals of the other gods; for Hermes shall be the Mysteries, the Dipolia, the Adonia; everywhere the towns, freed from their miseries, will sacrifice to Hermes the Liberator; you will be loaded with benefits of every kind, and to start with, I offer you this cup for libations as your first present.
f(1) The Panathenaea were dedicated to Athene, the Mysteriesto Demeter, the Dipolia to Zeus, the Adonia to Aphrodite andAdonis. Trygaeus promises Hermes that he shall be worshippedin the place of the other gods.
HERMES Ah! how golden cups do influence me! Come, friends, get to work. To the pit quickly, pick in hand, and drag away the stones.
CHORUS We go, but you, cleverest of all the gods, supervise our labours; tell us, good workman as you are, what we must do; we shall obey your orders with alacrity.
TRYGAEUS Quick, reach me your cup, and let us preface our work by addressing prayers to the gods.
HERMES Oh! sacred, sacred libations! Keep silence, oh! ye people! keep silence!
TRYGAEUS Let us offer our libations and our prayers, so that this day may begin an era of unalloyed happiness for Greece and that he who has bravely pulled at the rope with us may never resume his buckler.
CHORUS Aye, may we pass our lives in peace, caressing our mistresses and poking the fire.
TRYGAEUS May he who would prefer the war, oh Dionysus, be ever drawing barbed arrows out of his elbows.
HERMES If there be a citizen, greedy for military rank and honours who refuses, oh, divine Peace! to restore you to daylight, may he behave as cowardly as Cleonymus on the battlefield.
TRYGAEUS If a lance-maker or a dealer in shields desires war for the sake of better trade, may he be taken by pirates and eat nothing but barley.
CHORUS If some ambitious man does not help us, because he wants to become a General, or if a slave is plotting to pass over to the enemy, let his limbs be broken on the wheel, may he be beaten to death with rods! As for us, may Fortune favour us! Io! Paean, Io!
TRYGAEUS Don't say Paean,(1) but simply, Io.