DIONYSUS. Oh! great gods!
AESCHYLUS. Silence!
EURIPIDES. There was no comprehending one word.
DIONYSUS (to Aeschylus). Don't grind your teeth.
EURIPIDES. There were Scamanders, abysses, griffins with eagles' beaks chiselled upon brazen bucklers, all words with frowning crests and hard, hard to understand.
DIONYSUS. 'Faith, I was kept awake almost an entire night, trying to think out his yellow bird, half cock and half horse.[474]
AESCHYLUS. Why, fool, 'tis a device that is painted on the prow of a vessel.
DIONYSUS. Ah! I actually thought 'twas Eryxis, the son ofPhiloxenus.[475]
EURIPIDES. But what did you want with a cock in tragedy?
AESCHYLUS. But you, you foe of the gods, what have you done that is so good?
EURIPIDES. Oh! I have not made horses with cocks' heads like you, nor goats with deer's horns, as you may see 'em on Persian tapestries; but, when I received tragedy from your hands, it was quite bloated with enormous, ponderous words, and I began by lightening it of its heavy baggage and treated it with little verses, with subtle arguments, with the sap of white beet and decoctions of philosophical folly, the whole being well filtered together;[476] then I fed it with monologues, mixing in some Cephisophon;[477] but I did not chatter at random nor mix in any ingredients that first came to hand; from the outset I made my subject clear, and told the origin of the piece.
AESCHYLUS. Well, that was better than telling your own.[478]
EURIPIDES. Then, starting with the very first verse, each character played his part; all spoke, both woman and slave and master, young girl and old hag.[479]
AESCHYLUS. And was not such daring deserving of death?
EURIPIDES. No, by Apollo! 'twas to please the people.
DIONYSUS. Oh! leave that alone, do; 'tis not the best side of your case.
EURIPIDES. Furthermore, I taught the spectators the art of speech …
AESCHYLUS. 'Tis true indeed! Would that you had burst before you did it!
EURIPIDES. … the use of the straight lines and of the corners of language, the science of thinking, of reading, of understanding, plotting, loving deceit, of suspecting evil, of thinking of everything….
AESCHYLUS. Oh! true, true again!
EURIPIDES. I introduced our private life upon the stage, our common habits; and 'twas bold of me, for everyone was at home with these and could be my critic; I did not burst out into big noisy words to prevent their comprehension; nor did I terrify the audience by showing them Cycni[480] and Memnons[481] on chariots harnessed with steeds and jingling bells. Look at his disciples and look at mine. His are Phormisius and Megaenetus of Magnesia[482], all a-bristle with long beards, spears and trumpets, and grinning with sardonic and ferocious laughter, while my disciples are Clitophon and the graceful Theramenes.[483]
DIONYSUS. Theramenes? An able man and ready for anything; a man, who in imminent dangers knew well how to get out of the scrape by saying he was from Chios and not from Ceos.[484]
EURIPIDES. 'Tis thus that I taught my audience how to judge, namely, by introducing the art of reasoning and considering into tragedy. Thanks to me, they understand everything, discern all things, conduct their households better and ask themselves, "What is to be thought of this? Where is that? Who has taken the other thing?"
DIONYSUS. Yes, certainly, and now every Athenian who returns home, bawls to his slaves, "Where is the stew-pot? Who has eaten off the sprat's head? Where is the clove of garlic that was left over from yesterday? Who has been nibbling at my olives?" Whereas formerly they kept their seats with mouths agape like fools and idiots.
CHORUS. You hear him, illustrious Achilles,[485] and what are you going to reply? Only take care that your rage does not lead you astray, for he has handled you brutally. My noble friend, don't get carried away; furl all your sails, except the top-gallants, so that your ship may only advance slowly, until you feel yourself driven forward by a soft and favourable wind. Come then, you who were the first of the Greeks to construct imposing monuments of words and to raise the old tragedy above childish trifling, open a free course to the torrent of your words.
AESCHYLUS. This contest rouses my gall; my heart is boiling over with wrath. Am I bound to dispute with this fellow? But I will not let him think me unarmed and helpless. So, answer me! what is it in a poet one admires?
EURIPIDES. Wise counsels, which make the citizens better.
AESCHYLUS. And if you have failed in this duty, if out of honest and pure-minded men you have made rogues, what punishment do you think is your meet?
DIONYSUS. Death. I will reply for him.
AESCHYLUS. Behold then what great and brave men I bequeathed to him! They did not shirk the public burdens; they were not idlers, rogues and cheats, as they are to-day; their very breath was spears, pikes, helmets with white crests, breastplates and greaves; they were gallant souls encased in seven folds of ox-leather.
EURIPIDES. I must beware! he will crush me beneath the sheer weight of his hail of armour.
DIONYSUS. And how did you teach them this bravery? Speak, Aeschylus, and don't display so much haughty swagger.
AESCHYLUS. By composing a drama full of the spirit of Ares.
DIONYSUS. Which one?
AESCHYLUS. The Seven Chiefs before Thebes. Every man who had once seen it longed to be marching to battle.
DIONYSUS. And you did very wrongly; through you the Thebans have become more warlike; for this misdeed you deserve to be well beaten.
AESCHYLUS. You too might have trained yourself, but you were not willing. Then, by producing 'The Persae,' I have taught you to conquer all your enemies; 'twas my greatest work.
DIONYSUS. Aye, I shook with joy at the announcement of the death ofDarius; and the Chorus immediately clapped their hands and shouted,"Triumph!"[486]
AESCHYLUS. Those are the subjects that poets should use. Note how useful, even from remotest times, the poets of noble thought have been! Orpheus taught us the mystic rites and the horrid nature of murder; Musaeus, the healing of ailments and the oracles; Hesiod, the tilling of the soil and the times for delving and harvest. And does not divine Homer owe his immortal glory to his noble teachings? Is it not he who taught the warlike virtues, the art of fighting and of carrying arms?
DIONYSUS. At all events he has not taught it to Pantacles,[487] the most awkward of all men; t'other day, when he was directing a procession, 'twas only after he had put on his helmet that he thought of fixing in the crest.
AESCHYLUS. But he has taught a crowd of brave warriors, such as Lamachus,[488] the hero of Athens. 'Tis from Homer that I borrowed the Patrocli and the lion-hearted Teucers,[489] whom I revived to the citizens, to incite them to show themselves worthy of these illustrious examples when the trumpets sounded. But I showed them neither Sthenoboea[490] nor shameless Phaedra; and I don't remember ever having placed an amorous woman on the stage.
EURIPIDES. No, no, you have never known Aphrodité.
AESCHYLUS. And I am proud of it. Whereas with you and those like you, she appears everywhere and in every shape; so that even you yourself were ruined and undone by her.[491]
DIONYSUS. That's true; the crimes you imputed to the wives of others, you suffered from in turn.
EURIPIDES. But, cursed man, what harm have my Sthenoboeas done to Athens?
AESCHYLUS. You are the cause of honest wives of honest citizens drinking hemlock, so greatly have your Bellerophons made them blush.[492]
EURIPIDES. Why, did I invent the story of Phaedra?
AESCHYLUS. No, the story is true enough; but the poet should hide what is vile and not produce nor represent it on the stage. The schoolmaster teaches little children and the poet men of riper age. We must only display what is good.
EURIPIDES. And when you talk to us of towering mountains—Lycabettus and of the frowning Parnes[493]—is that teaching us what is good? Why not use human language?
AESCHYLUS. Why, miserable man, the expression must always rise to the height of great maxims and of noble thoughts. Thus as the garment of the demi-gods is more magnificent, so also is their language more sublime. I ennobled the stage, while you have degraded it.
EURIPIDES. And how so, pray?
AESCHYLUS. Firstly you have dressed the kings in rags,[494] so that they might inspire pity.
EURIPIDES. Where's the harm?
AESCHYLUS. You are the cause why no rich man will now equip the galleys, they dress themselves in tatters, groan and say they are poor.
DIONYSUS. Aye, by Demeter! and he wears a tunic of fine wool underneath; and when he has deceived us with his lies, he may be seen turning up on the fish-market.[495]
AESCHYLUS. Moreover, you have taught boasting and quibbling; the wrestling schools are deserted and the young fellows have submitted their arses to outrage,[496] in order that they might learn to reel off idle chatter, and the sailors have dared to bandy words with their officers.[497] In my day they only knew how to ask for their ship's-biscuit and to shout "Yo ho! heave ho!"
DIONYSUS. … and to let wind under the nose of the rower below them, to befoul their mate with filth and to steal when they went ashore. Nowadays they argue instead of rowing and the ship can travel as slow as she likes.
AESCHYLUS. Of what crimes is he not the author? Has he not shown us procurers, women who get delivered in the temples, have traffic with their brothers,[498] and say that life is not life.[499] 'Tis thanks to him that our city is full of scribes and buffoons, veritable apes, whose grimaces are incessantly deceiving the people; but there is no one left who knows how to carry a torch,[500] so little is it practised.
DIONYSUS. I' faith, that's true! I almost died of laughter at the last Panathenaea at seeing a slow, fat, pale-faced fellow, who ran well behind all the rest, bent completely double and evidently in horrible pain. At the gate of the Ceramicus the spectators started beating his belly, sides, flanks and thighs; these slaps knocked so much wind out of him that it extinguished his torch and he hurried away.
CHORUS. 'Tis a serious issue and an important debate; the fight is proceeding hotly and its decision will be difficult; for, as violently as the one attacks, as cleverly and as subtly does the other reply. But don't keep always to the same ground; you are not at the end of your specious artifices. Make use of every trick you have, no matter whether it be old or new! Out with everything boldly, blunt though it be; risk anything—that is smart and to the point. Perchance you fear that the audience is too stupid to grasp your subtleties, but be reassured, for that is no longer the case. They are all well-trained folk; each has his book, from which he learns the art of quibbling; such wits as they are happily endowed with have been rendered still keener through study. So have no fear! Attack everything, for you face an enlightened audience.
EURIPIDES. Let's take your prologues; 'tis the beginnings of this able poet's tragedies that I wish to examine at the outset. He was obscure in the description of his subjects.
DIONYSUS. And which prologue are you going to examine?
EURIPIDES. A lot of them. Give me first of all that of the'Orestes.'[501]
DIONYSUS. All keep silent, Aeschylus, recite.
AESCHYLUS. "Oh! Hermes of the nether world, whose watchful power executes the paternal bidding, be my deliverer, assist me, I pray thee. I come, I return to this land."[502]
DIONYSUS. Is there a single word to condemn in that?
EURIPIDES. More than a dozen.
DIONYSUS. But there are but three verses in all.
EURIPIDES. And there are twenty faults in each.
DIONYSUS. Aeschylus, I beg you to keep silent; otherwise, besides these three iambics, there will be many more attacked.
AESCHYLUS. What? Keep silent before this fellow?
DIONYSUS. If you will take my advice.
EURIPIDES. He begins with a fearful blunder. Do you see the stupid thing?
DIONYSUS. Faith! I don't care if I don't.
AESCHYLUS. A blunder? In what way?
EURIPIDES. Repeat the first verse.
AESCHYLUS. "Oh! Hermes of the nether world, whose watchful power executes the paternal bidding."
EURIPIDES. Is not Orestes speaking in this fashion before his father's tomb?
AESCHYLUS. Agreed.
EURIPIDES. Does he mean to say that Hermes had watched, only that Agamemnon should perish at the hands of a woman and be the victim of a criminal intrigue?
AESCHYLUS. 'Tis not to the god of trickery, but to Hermes the benevolent, that he gives the name of god of the nether world, and this he proves by adding that Hermes is accomplishing the mission given him by his father.
EURIPIDES. The blunder is even worse than I had thought to make it out; for if he holds his office in the nether world from his father….
DIONYSUS. It means his father has made him a grave-digger.
AESCHYLUS. Dionysus, your wine is not redolent of perfume.[503]
DIONYSUS. Continue, Aeschylus, and you, Euripides, spy out the faults as he proceeds.
AESCHYLUS. "Be my deliverer, assist me, I pray thee. I come, I return to this land."
EURIPIDES. Our clever Aeschylus says the very same thing twice over.
AESCHYLUS. How twice over?
EURIPIDES. Examine your expressions, for I am going to show you the repetition. "I come, I return to this land." But Icomeis the same thing as Ireturn.
DIONYSUS. Undoubtedly. 'Tis as though I said to my neighbour, "Lend me either your kneading-trough or your trough to knead in."
AESCHYLUS. No, you babbler, no, 'tis not the same thing, and the verse is excellent.
DIONYSUS. Indeed! then prove it.
AESCHYLUS. To come is the act of a citizen who has suffered no misfortune; but the exile both comes and returns.
DIONYSUS. Excellent! by Apollo! What do you say to that, Euripides?
EURIPIDES. I say that Orestes did not return to his country, for he came there secretly, without the consent of those in power.
DIONYSUS. Very good indeed! by Hermes! only I have not a notion what it is you mean.
EURIPIDES. Go on.
DIONYSUS. Come, be quick, Aeschylus, continue; and you look out for the faults.
AESCHYLUS. "At the foot of this tomb I invoke my father and beseech him to hearken to me and to hear."
EURIPIDES. Again a repetition, to hearken and to hear are obviously the same thing.
DIONYSUS. Why, wretched man, he's addressing the dead, whom to call thrice even is not sufficient.
AESCHYLUS. And you, how do you form your prologues?
EURIPIDES. I am going to tell you, and if you find a repetition, an idle word or inappropriate, let me be scouted!
DIONYSUS. Come, speak; 'tis my turn to listen. Let us hear the beauty of your prologues,
EURIPIDES. "Oedipus was a fortunate man at first …"
AESCHYLUS. Not at all; he was destined to misfortune before he even existed, since Apollo predicted he would kill his father before ever he was born. How can one say he was fortunate at first?
EURIPIDES. "… and he became the most unfortunate of mortals afterwards."
AESCHYLUS. No, he did not become so, for he never ceased being so. Look at the facts! First of all, when scarcely born, he is exposed in the middle of winter in an earthenware vessel, for fear he might become the murderer of his father, if brought up; then he came to Polybus with his feet swollen; furthermore, while young, he marries an old woman, who is also his mother, and finally he blinds himself.
DIONYSUS. 'Faith! I think he could not have done worse to have been a colleague of Erasinidas.[504]
EURIPIDES. You can chatter as you will, my prologues are very fine.
AESCHYLUS. I will take care not to carp at them verse by verse and word for word;[505] but, an it please the gods, a simple little bottle will suffice me for withering every one of your prologues.
EURIPIDES. You will wither my prologues with a little bottle?[506]
AESCHYLUS. With only one. You make verses of such a kind, that one can adapt what one will to your iambics: a little bit of fluff, a little bottle, a little bag. I am going to prove it.
EURIPIDES. You will prove it?
AESCHYLUS. Yes.
DIONYSUS. Come, recite.
EURIPIDES. "Aegyptus, according to the most widely spread reports, having landed at Argos with his fifty daughters[507] …"
AESCHYLUS. … lost his little bottle.
EURIPIDES. What little bottle? May the plague seize you!
DIONYSUS. Recite another prologue to him. We shall see.
EURIPIDES. "Dionysus, who leads the choral dance on Parnassus with the thyrsus in his hand and clothed in skins of fawns[508] …"
AESCHYLUS. … lost his little bottle.
DIONYSUS. There again his little bottle upsets us.
EURIPIDES. He won't bother us much longer. I have a certain prologue to which he cannot adapt his tag: "There is no perfect happiness; this one is of noble origin, but poor; another of humble birth[509] …"
AESCHYLUS. … lost his little bottle.
DIONYSUS. Euripides!
EURIPIDES. What's the matter?
DIONYSUS. Clue up your sails, for this damned little bottle is going to blow a gale.
EURIPIDES. Little I care, by Demeter! I am going to make it burst in his hands.
DIONYSUS. Then out with it; recite another prologue, but beware, beware of the little bottle.
EURIPIDES. "Cadmus, the son of Agenor, while leaving the city ofSidon[510] …"
AESCHYLUS. … lost his little bottle.
DIONYSUS. Oh! my poor friend; buy that bottle, do, for it is going to tear all your prologues to ribbons.
EURIPIDES. What? Am I to buy it of him?
DIONYSUS. If you take my advice.
EURIPIDES. No, not I, for I have many prologues to which he cannot possibly fit his catchword: "Pelops, the son of Tantalus, having started for Pisa on his swift chariot[511] …"
AESCHYLUS. … lost his little bottle.
DIONYSUS. D'ye see? Again he has popped in his little bottle. Come, Aeschylus, he is going to buy it of you at any price, and you can have a splendid one for an obolus.
EURIPIDES. By Zeus, no, not yet! I have plenty of other prologues."Oeneus in the fields one day[512] …"
AESCHYLUS. … lost his little bottle.
EURIPIDES. Let me first finish the opening verse: "Oeneus in the fields one day, having made an abundant harvest and sacrificed the first-fruits to the gods …"
AESCHYLUS. … lost his little bottle.
DIONYSUS. During the sacrifice? And who was the thief?
EURIPIDES. Allow him to try with this one: "Zeus, as even Truth has said[513] …"
DIONYSUS (to Euripides). You have lost again; he is going to say, "lost his little bottle," for that bottle sticks to your prologues like a ringworm. But, in the name of the gods, turn now to his choruses.
EURIPIDES. I will prove that he knows nothing of lyric poetry, and that he repeats himself incessantly.
CHORUS. What's he going to say now? I am itching to know what criticisms he is going to make on the poet, whose sublime songs so far outclass those of his contemporaries. I cannot imagine with what he is going to reproach the king of the Dionysia, and I tremble for the aggressor.
EURIPIDES. Oh! those wonderful songs! But watch carefully, for I am going to condense them all into a single one.
DIONYSUS. And I am going to take pebbles to count the fragments.
EURIPIDES. "Oh, Achilles, King of Phthiotis, hearken to the shout of the conquering foe and haste to sustain the assault. We dwellers in the marshes do honour to Hermes, the author of our race. Haste to sustain the assault."
DIONYSUS. There, Aeschylus, you have already two assaults against you.
EURIPIDES. "Oh, son of Atreus, the most illustrious of the Greeks, thou, who rulest so many nations, hearken to me. Haste to the assault."
DIONYSUS. A third assault. Beware, Aeschylus.
EURIPIDES. "Keep silent, for the inspired priestesses are opening the temple of Artemis. Haste to sustain the assault. I have the right to proclaim that our warriors are leaving under propitious auspices. Haste to sustain the assault."[514]
DIONYSUS. Great gods, what a number of assaults! my kidneys are quite swollen with fatigue; I shall have to go to the bath after all these assaults.
EURIPIDES. Not before you have heard this other song arranged for the music of the cithara.
DIONYSUS. Come then, continue; but, prithee, no more "assaults."
EURIPIDES. "What! the two powerful monarchs, who reign over the Grecian youth, phlattothrattophlattothrat, are sending the Sphinx, that terrible harbinger of death, phlattothrattophlattothrat. With his avenging arm bearing a spear, phlattothrattophlattothrat, the impetuous bird delivers those who lean to the side of Ajax, phlattothrattophlattothrat, to the dogs who roam in the clouds, phlattothrattophlattothrat."[515]
DIONYSUS (to Aeschylus). What is this 'phlattothrat'? Does it come fromMarathon or have you picked it out of some labourer's chanty?
AESCHYLUS. I took what was good and improved it still more, so that I might not be accused of gathering the same flowers as Phrynichus in the meadow of the Muse. But this man borrows from everybody, from the suggestions of prostitutes, from the sons of Melitus,[516] from the Carian flute-music, from wailing women, from dancing-girls. I am going to prove it, so let a lyre be brought. But what need of a lyre in his case? Where is the girl with the castanets? Come, thou Muse of Euripides; 'tis quite thy business to accompany songs of this sort.
DIONYSUS. This Muse has surely done fellation in her day, like a Lesbian wanton.[517]
AESCHYLUS. "Ye halcyons, who twitter over the ever-flowing billows of the sea, the damp dew of the waves glistens on your wings; and you spiders, who we-we-we-we-we-weave the long woofs of your webs in the corners of our houses with your nimble feet like the noisy shuttle, there where the dolphin by bounding in the billows, under the influence of the flute, predicts a favourable voyage; thou glorious ornaments of the vine, the slender tendrils that support the grape. Child, throw thine arms about my neck."[518] Do you note the harmonious rhythm?
DIONYSUS. Yes.
AESCHYLUS. Do you note it?
DIONYSUS. Yes, undoubtedly.
AESCHYLUS. And does the author of such rubbish dare to criticize my songs? he, who imitates the twelve postures of Cyrené in his poetry?[519] There you have his lyric melodies, but I still want to give you a sample of his monologues. "Oh! dark shadows of the night! what horrible dream are you sending me from the depths of your sombre abysses! Oh! dream, thou bondsman of Pluto, thou inanimate soul, child of the dark night, thou dread phantom in long black garments, how bloodthirsty, bloodthirsty is thy glance! how sharp are thy claws! Handmaidens, kindle the lamp, draw up the dew of the rivers in your vases and make the water hot; I wish to purify myself of this dream sent me by the gods. Oh! king of the ocean, that's right, that's right! Oh! my comrades, behold this wonder. Glycé has robbed me of my cock and has fled. Oh, Nymphs of the mountains! oh! Mania! seize her! How unhappy I am! I was full busy with my work, I was sp-sp-sp-sp-spinning the flax that was on my spindle, I was rounding off the clew that I was to go and sell in the market at dawn; and he flew off, flew off, cleaving the air with his swift wings; he left to me nothing but pain, pain! What tears, tears, poured, poured from my unfortunate eyes! Oh! Cretans, children of Ida, take your bows; help me, haste hither, surround the house. And thou, divine huntress, beautiful Artemis, come with thy hounds and search through the house. And thou also, daughter of Zeus, seize the torches in thy ready hands and go before me to Glycé's home, for I propose to go there and rummage everywhere."[520]
DIONYSUS. That's enough of choruses.
AESCHYLUS. Yes, faith, enough indeed! I wish now to see my verses weighed in the scales; 'tis the only way to end this poetic struggle.
DIONYSUS. Well then, come, I am going to sell the poet's genius the same way cheese is sold in the market.
CHORUS. Truly clever men are possessed of an inventive mind. Here again is a new idea that is marvellous and strange, and which another would not have thought of; as for myself I would not have believed anyone who had told me of it, I would have treated him as a driveller.
DIONYSUS. Come, hither to the scales.
AESCHYLUS AND EURIPIDES. Here we are.
DIONYSUS. Let each one hold one of the scales, recite a verse, and not let go until I have cried, "Cuckoo!"
AESCHYLUS AND EURIPIDES. We understand.
DIONYSUS. Well then, recite and keep your hands on the scales.
EURIPIDES. "Would it had pleased the gods that the vessel Argo had never unfurled the wings of her sails!"[521]
AESCHYLUS. "Oh! river Sperchius! oh! meadows, where the oxen graze!"[522]
DIONYSUS. Cuckoo! let go! Oh! the verse of Aeschylus sinks far the lower of the two.
EURIPIDES. And why?
DIONYSUS. Because, like the wool-merchants, who moisten their wares, he has thrown a river into his verse and has made it quite wet, whereas yours was winged and flew away.
EURIPIDES. Come, another verse! You recite, Aeschylus, and you, weigh.
DIONYSUS. Hold the scales again.
AESCHYLUS AND EURIPIDES. Ready.
DIONYSUS (to Euripides). You begin.
EURIPIDES. "Eloquence is Persuasion's only sanctuary."[523]
AESCHYLUS. "Death is the only god whom gifts cannot bribe."[524]
DIONYSUS. Let go! let go! Here again our friend Aeschylus' verse drags down the scale; 'tis because he has thrown in Death, the weightiest of all ills.
EURIPIDES. And I Persuasion; my verse is excellent.
DIONYSUS. Persuasion has both little weight and little sense. But hunt again for a big weighty verse and solid withal, that it may assure you the victory.
EURIPIDES. But where am I to find one—where?
DIONYSUS. I'll tell you one: "Achilles has thrown two and four."[525]Come, recite! 'tis the last trial.
EURIPIDES. "With his arm he seized a mace, studded with iron."[526]
AESCHYLUS. "Chariot upon chariot and corpse upon corpse."[527]
DIONYSUS (to Euripides) There you're foiled again.
EURIPIDES. Why?
DIONYSUS. There are two chariots and two corpses in the verse; why, 'tis a weight a hundred Egyptians could not lift.[528]
AESCHYLUS. 'Tis no longer verse against verse that I wish to weigh, but let him clamber into the scale himself, he, his children, his wife, Cephisophon[529] and all his works; against all these I will place but two of my verses on the other side.
DIONYSUS. I willnotbe their umpire, for they are dear to me and I will not have a foe in either of them; meseems the one is mighty clever, while the other simply delights me.
PLUTO. Then you are foiled in the object of your voyage.
DIONYSUS. And if I do decide?
PLUTO. You shall take with you whichever of the twain you declare the victor; thus you will not have come in vain.
DIONYSUS. That's all right! Well then, listen; I have come down to find a poet.
EURIPIDES. And with what intent?
DIONYSUS. So that the city, when once it has escaped the imminent dangers of the war, may have tragedies produced. I have resolved to take back whichever of the two is prepared to give good advice to the citizens. So first of all, what think you of Alcibiades? For the city is in most difficult labour over this question.
EURIPIDES. And what does it think about it?
DIONYSUS. What does it think? It regrets him, hates him, and yet wishes to have him, all at the same time. But tell me your opinion, both of you.
EURIPIDES. I hate the citizen who is slow to serve his country, quick to involve it in the greatest troubles, ever alert to his own interests, and a bungler where those of the State are at stake.
DIONYSUS. That's good, by Posidon! And you, what is your opinion?
AESCHYLUS. A lion's whelp should not be reared within the city. No doubt that's best; but if the lion has been reared, one must submit to his ways.
DIONYSUS. Zeus, the Deliverer! this puzzles me greatly. The one is clever, the other clear and precise. Now each of you tell me your idea of the best way to save the State.
EURIPIDES. If Cinesias were fitted to Cleocritus as a pair of wings, and the wind were to carry the two of them across the waves of the sea …
DIONYSUS. 'Twould be funny. But what is he driving at?
EURIPIDES. … they could throw vinegar into the eyes of the foe in the event of a sea-fight. But I know something else I want to tell you.
DIONYSUS. Go on.
EURIPIDES. When we put trust in what we mistrust and mistrust what we trust….
DIONYSUS. What? I don't understand. Tell us something less profound, but clearer.
EURIPIDES. If we were to mistrust the citizens, whom we trust, and to employ those whom we to-day neglect, we should be saved. Nothing succeeds with us; very well then, let's do the opposite thing, and our deliverance will be assured.
DIONYSUS. Very well spoken. You are the most ingenious of men, a truePalamedes![530] Is this fine idea your own or is it Cephisophon's?
EURIPIDES. My very own,—bar the vinegar, which is Cephisophon's.
DIONYSUS (to Aeschylus). And you, what have you to say?
AESCHYLUS. Tell me first who the commonwealth employs. Are they the just?
DIONYSUS. Oh! she holdsthemin abhorrence.
AESCHYLUS. What, are then the wicked those she loves?
DIONYSUS. Not at all, but she employs them against her will.
AESCHYLUS. Then what deliverance can there be for a city that will neither have cape nor cloak?[531]
DIONYSUS. Discover, I adjure you, discover a way to save her from shipwreck.
AESCHYLUS. I will tell you the way on earth, but I won't here.
DIONYSUS. No, send her this blessing from here.
AESCHYLUS. They will be saved when they have learnt that the land of the foe is theirs and their own land belongs to the foe; that their vessels are their true wealth, the only one upon which they can rely.[532]
DIONYSUS. That's true, but the dicasts devour everything.[533]
PLUTO (to Dionysus). Now decide.
DIONYSUS. 'Tis for you to decide, but I choose him whom my heart prefers.
EURIPIDES. You called the gods to witness that you would bear me through; remember your oath and choose your friends.
DIONYSUS. Yes, "my tongue has sworn."[534] … But I choose Aeschylus.
EURIPIDES. What have you done, you wretch?
DIONYSUS. I? I have decided that Aeschylus is the victor. What then?
EURIPIDES. And you dare to look me in the face after such a shameful deed?
DIONYSUS. "Why shameful, if the spectators do not think so?"[535]
EURIPIDES. Cruel wretch, will you leave me pitilessly among the dead?
DIONYSUS. "Who knows if living be not dying,[536] if breathing be not feasting, if sleep be not a fleece?"[537]
PLUTO. Enter my halls. Come, Dionysus.
DIONYSUS. What shall we do there?
PLUTO. I want to entertain my guests before they leave.
DIONYSUS. Well said, by Zeus; 'tis the very thing to please me best.
CHORUS. Blessed the man who has perfected wisdom! Everything is happiness for him. Behold Aeschylus; thanks to the talent, to the cleverness he has shown, he returns to his country; and his fellow-citizens, his relations, his friends will all hail his return with joy. Let us beware of jabbering with Socrates and of disdaining the sublime notes of the tragic Muse. To pass an idle life reeling off grandiloquent speeches and foolish quibbles, is the part of a madman.
PLUTO. Farewell, Aeschylus! Go back to earth and may your noble precepts both save our city[538] and cure the mad; there are such, a many of them! Carry this rope from me to Cleophon, this one to Myrmex and Nichomachus, the public receivers, and this other one to Archenomous.[539] Bid them come here at once and without delay; if not, by Apollo, I will brand them with the hot iron.[540] I will make one bundle of them and Adimantus,[541] the son of Leucolophus,[542] and despatch the lot into hell with all possible speed.
AESCHYLUS. I will do your bidding, and do you make Sophocles occupy my seat. Let him take and keep it for me, against I should ever return here. In fact I award him the second place among the tragic poets. As for this impostor, watch that he never usurps my throne, even should he be placed there in spite of himself.
PLUTO (to the Chorus of the Initiate). Escort him with your sacred torches, singing to him as you go his own hymns and choruses.
CHORUS. Ye deities of the nether world, grant a pleasant journey to the poet who is leaving us to return to the light of day; grant likewise wise and healthy thoughts to our city. Put an end to the fearful calamities that overwhelm us, to the awful clatter of arms. As for Cleophon and the likes of him, let them go, an it please them, and fight in their own land.[543]
* * * * *
* * * * *
Footnotes:
[382] These were comic poets contemporary with Aristophanes. Phrynichus, the best known, gained the second prize with his 'Muses' when the present comedy was put upon the stage. Amipsias had gained the first prize over our author's first edition of 'The Clouds' and again over his 'Birds.' Aristophanes is ridiculing vulgar and coarse jests, which, however, he does not always avoid himself.
[383] Instead of the expected "son of Zeus," he calls himself the "son of a wine-jar."
[384] At the sea-fight at Arginusae the slaves who had distinguished themselves by their bravery were presented with their freedom. This battle had taken place only a few months before the production of 'The Frogs.' Had Xanthias been one of these slaves he could then have treated his master as he says, for he would have been his equal.
[385] The door of the Temple of Heracles, situated in the deme of Melité, close to Athens. This temple contained a very remarkable statue of the god, the work of Eleas, the master of Phidias.
[386] A fabulous monster, half man and half horse.
[387] So also, in 'The Thesmophoriazusae,' Agathon is described as wearing a saffron robe, which was a mark of effeminacy.
[388] A woman's foot-gear.
[389] He speaks of him as though he were a vessel. Clisthenes, who was scoffed at for his ugliness, was completely beardless, which fact gave him the look of a eunuch. He was accused of prostituting himself.
[390] Heracles cannot believe it. Dionysus had no repute for bravery. His cowardice is one of the subjects for jesting which we shall most often come upon in 'The Frogs.'
[391] A tragedy by Euripides, produced some years earlier, some fragments of which are quoted by Aristophanes in his 'Thesmophoriazusae.'
[392] An actor of immense stature.
[393] The gluttony of Heracles was a byword. See 'The Birds.'
[394] Euripides, weary, it is said, of the ridicule and envy with which he was assailed in Athens, had retired in his old age to the court of Archelaus, King of Macedonia, where he had met with the utmost hospitality. We are assured that he perished through being torn to pieces by dogs, which set upon him in a lonely spot. His death occurred in 407 B.C., the year before the production of 'The Frogs.'
[395] This is a hemistich, the Scholiast says, from Euripides.
[396] The son of Sophocles. Once, during his father's lifetime, he gained the prize for tragedy, but it was suspected that the piece itself was largely the work of Sophocles himself. It is for this reason that Dionysus wishes to try him when he is dependent on his own resources, now that his father is dead. The death of the latter was quite recent at the time of the production of 'The Frogs,' and the fact lent all the greater interest to this piece.
[397] Agathon was a contemporary of Euripides, and is mentioned in terms of praise by Aristotle for his delineation of the character of Achilles, presumably in his tragedy of 'Telephus.' From the fragments which remain of this author it appears that his style was replete with ornament, particularly antithesis.
[398] Son of Caminus, an inferior poet, often made the butt of Aristophanes' jeers.
[399] A poet apparently, unknown.
[400] Expressions used by Euripides in different tragedies.
[401] Parody of a verse in Euripides' 'Andromeda,' a lost play.
[402] Heracles, being such a glutton, must be a past master in matters of cookery, but this does not justify him in posing as a dramatic critic.
[403] Xanthias, bent double beneath his load, gets more and more out of patience with his master's endless talk with Heracles.
[404] The mortar in which hemlock was pounded.
[405] An allusion to the effect of hemlock.
[406] A quarter of Athens where the Lampadephoria was held in honour of Athené, Hephaestus, and Prometheus, because the first had given the mortals oil, the second had invented the lamp, and the third had stolen fire from heaven. The principal part of this festival consisted in thelampadedromia, or torch-race. This name was given to a race in which the competitors for the prize ran with a torch in their hand; it was essential that the goal should be reached with the torch still alight. The signal for starting was given by throwing a torch from the top of the tower mentioned a few verses later on.
[407] Theseus had descended into Hades with Pirithous to fetch away Persephoné. Aristophanes doubtless wishes to say that in consequence of this descent Pluto established a toll across Acheron, in order to render access to his kingdom less easy, and so that the poor and the greedy, who could not or would not pay, might be kept out.
[408] Morsimus was a minor poet, who is also mentioned with disdain in 'The Knights,' and is there called the son of Philocles. Aristophanes jestingly likens anyone who helps to disseminate his verses to the worst of criminals.
[409] The Pyrrhic dance was a lively and quick-step dance. Cinesias was not a dancer, but a dithyrambic poet, who declaimed with much gesticulation and movement that one might almost think he was performing this dance.
[410] Those initiated into the Mysteries of Demeter, who, according to the belief of the ancients, enjoyed a kind of beatitude after death.
[411] Xanthias, his strength exhausted and his patience gone, prepares to lay down his load. Asses were used for the conveyance from Athens to Eleusis of everything that was necessary for the celebration of the Mysteries. They were often overladen, and from this fact arose the proverb here used by Xanthias, as indicating any heavy burden.
[412] The Ancients believed that meeting this or that person or thing at the outset of a journey was of good or bad omen. The superstition is not entirely dead even to-day.
[413] Dionysus had seated himselfoninstead ofatthe oar.
[414] One of the titles given to Dionysus, because of the worship accorded him at Nysa, a town in Ethiopia, where he was brought up by the nymphs.
[415] This was the third day of the Anthesteria or feasts of Dionysus. All kinds of vegetables were cooked in pots and offered to Dionysus and Athené. It was also the day of the dramatic contests.
[416] Dionysus' temple, the Lenaeum, was situated in the district of Athens known as theLinnae, or Marshes, on the south side of the Acropolis.
[417] He points to the audience.
[418] A spectre, which Hecaté sent to frighten men. It took all kinds of hideous shapes. It was exorcised by abuse.
[419] This was one of the monstrosities which credulity attributed to the Empusa.
[420] He is addressing a priest of Bacchus, who occupied a seat reserved for him in the first row of the audience.
[421] A verse from the Orestes of Euripides.—Hegelochus was an actor who, in a recent representation, had spoken the line in such a manner as to lend it an absurd meaning; instead of saying, [Greek: gal_en_en], which meanscalm, he had pronounced it [Greek: gal_en], which meansa cat.
[422] The priest of Bacchus, mentioned several verses back.
[423] High-flown expressions from Euripides' Tragedies.
[424] A second Chorus, comprised of Initiates into the Mysteries of Demeter and Dionysus.
[425] A philosopher, a native of Melos, and originally a dithyrambic poet. He was prosecuted on a charge of atheism.
[426] A comic and dithyrambic poet.
[427] This Thorycion, a toll collector at Aegina, which then belonged to Athens, had taken advantage of his position to send goods to Epidaurus, an Argolian town, thereby defrauding the treasury of the duty of 5 per cent, which was levied on every import and export.
[428] An allusion to Alcibiades, who is said to have obtained a subsidy for the Spartan fleet from Cyrus, satrap of Asia Minor.
[429] An allusion to the dithyrambic poet, Cinesias, who was accused of having sullied, by stooling against it, the pedestal of a statue of Hecaté at one of the street corners of Athens.
[430] Athené.
[431] The route of the procession of the Initiate was from the Ceramicus (a district of Athens) to Eleusis, a distance of twenty-five stadia.
[432] A shaft shot at thechoragiby the poet, because they had failed to have new dresses made for the actors on this occasion.
[433] It was at the age of seven that children were entered on the registers of their father's tribe. Aristophanes is accusing Archidemus, who at that time was the head of the popular party, of being no citizen, because his name is not entered upon the registers of any tribe.
[434] At funerals women tore their hair, rent their garments, and beat their bosoms. Aristophanes parodies these demonstrations of grief and attributes them to the effeminate Clisthenes. Sebinus the Anaphlystian is a coined name containing an obscene allusion, implying he was in the habit of allowing connexion with himself a posteriori, and being masturbated by the other in turn.
[435] Callias, the son of Hipponicus, which the poet turns into Hippobinus, i.e. one who treads a mare, was an Athenian general, who had distinguished himself at the battle of Arginusae; he was notorious for his debauched habits, which he doubtless practised even on board his galleys. He is called a new Heracles, because of the legend that Heracles triumphed over fifty virgins in a single night; no doubt the poet alludes to some exploit of the kind here.
[436] A proverb applied to silly boasters. The Corinthians had sent an envoy to Megara, who, in order to enhance the importance of his city, incessantly repeated the phrase, "The Corinth of Zeus."
[437] Demeter.
[438] Tartessus was an Iberian town, near the Avernian marshes, which were said to be tenanted by reptiles, the progeny of vipers and muraenae, a kind of fish.
[439] Tithrasios was a part of Libya, fabled to be peopled by Gorgons.
[440] "Invoke the god" was the usual formula which immediately followed the offering of the libation in the festival of Dionysus. Here he uses the words after a libation of a new kind and induced by fear.
[441] That is, Heracles, whose temple was at Melité, a suburban deme of Athens.
[442] Whose statues were placed to make the boundaries of land.
[443] One of the Thirty Tyrants, noted for his versatility.
[444] Celon and Hyperbolus were both dead, and are therefore supposed to have become the leaders and patrons of the populace in Hades, the same as they had been on earth.
[445] Already mentioned; one of the chiefs of the popular party in 406 B.C.
[446] Heracles had carried of Cerberus.
[447] Names of Thracian slaves.
[448] As was done to unruly children; he allows every kind of torture with the exception of the mildest.
[449] A deme of Attica, where there was a temple to Heracles. No doubt those present uttered the cry "Oh! oh!" in honour of the god.
[450] He pretends it was not a cry of pain at all, but of astonishment and admiration.
[451] Pretending that it was the thorn causing him pain, and not the lash of the whip.
[452] According to the Scholiast this is a quotation from the 'Laocoon,' a lost play of Sophocles.
[453] A general known for his cowardice; he was accused of not being a citizen, but of Thracian origin; in 406 B.C. he was in disfavour, and he perished shortly after in a popular tumult.
[454] According to Athenian law, the accused was acquitted when the voting was equal.
[455] He had helped to establish the oligarchical government of the Four Hundred, who had just been overthrown.
[456] The fight of Arginusae; the slaves who had fought there had been accorded their freedom.—The Plataeans had had the title of citizens since the battle of Marathon.
[457] Things were not going well for Athens at the time; it was only two years later, 404 B.C., that Lysander took the city.
[458] A demagogue; because he deceived the people, Aristophanes compares him with the washermen who cheated their clients by using some mixture that was cheaper than potash.
[459] Callistrates says that Clidemides was one of Sophocles' sons; Apollonius states him to have been an actor.
[460] Dionysus was, of course, the patron god of the drama and dramatic contests.
[461] The majestic grandeur of Aeschylus' periods, coupled with a touch of parody, is to be recognized in this piece.
[462] It is said that Euripides was the son of a fruit-seller.
[463] Euripides is constantly twitted by Aristophanes with his predilection for ragged beggars and vagabonds as characters in his plays.
[464] Bellerophon, Philoctetes, and Telephus, were all characters in different Tragedies of Euripides.
[465] Sailors, when in danger, sacrificed a black lamb to Typhon, the god of storms.
[466] An allusion to a long monologue of Icarus in the tragedy called 'The Cretans.'
[467] In 'Aeolus,' Macareus violates his own sister; in 'The Clouds,' this incest, which Euripides introduced upon the stage, is also mentioned.
[468] The title of one of Euripides' pieces.
[469] The titles of three lost Tragedies of Euripides.
[470] A verse from one of the lost Tragedies of Euripides; the poet was born at Eleusis.
[471] Aristophanes often makes this accusation of religious heterodoxy against Euripides.
[472] A dramatic poet, who lived about the end of the sixth century B.C., and a disciple of Thespis; the scenic art was then comparatively in its infancy.
[473] The Scholiast tells us that Achilles remained mute in the tragedy entitled 'The Phrygians' or 'The Ransom of Hector,' and that his face was veiled; he only spoke a few words at the beginning of the drama during a dialogue with Hermes.—We have no information about the Niobé mentioned here.
[474] The Scholiast tells us that this expression ([Greek: hippalektru_on]) was used in 'The Myrmidons' of Aeschylus; Aristophanes ridicules it again both in the 'Peace' and in 'The Birds.'
[475] An individual apparently noted for his uncouth ugliness.
[476] The beet and the decoctions are intended to indicate the insipidity of Euripides' style.
[477] An intimate friend of Euripides, who is said to have worked with him on his Tragedies, to have been 'ghost' to him in fact.
[478] An allusion to Euripides' obscure birth; his mother had been, so it was said, a vegetable-seller in the public market.
[479] Euripides had introduced every variety of character into his pieces, whereas Aeschylus only staged divinities or heroes.
[480] There are two Cycni, one, the son of Ares, was killed by Heracles according to the testimony of Hesiod in his description of the "Shield of Heracles"; the other, the son of Posidon, who, according to Pindar, perished under the blows of Achilles. It is not known in which Tragedy of Aeschylus this character was introduced.
[481] Memnon, the son of Aurora, was killed by Achilles; in the list of the Tragedies of Aeschylus there is one entitled 'Memnon.'
[482] These two were not poets, but Euripides supposes them disciples of Aeschylus, because of their rude and antiquated manners.
[483] Clitophon and Theramenes were elegants of effeminate habits and adept talkers.
[484] A proverb which was applied to versatile people; the two Greek names [Greek: Chios] and [Greek: Keios] might easily be mistaken for one another. Both, of course, are islands of the Cyclades.
[485] A verse from the 'Myrmidons' of Aeschylus; here Achilles is Aeschylus himself.
[486] The 'Persae' of Aeschylus (produced 472 B.C.) was received with transports of enthusiasm, reviving as it did memories of the glorious defeat of Xerxes at Salamis, where the poet had fought, only a few years before, 480 B.C.
[487] Nothing is known of this Pantacles, whom Eupolis, in his 'Golden Age,' also describes as awkward ([Greek: skaios]).
[488] Aristophanes had by this time modified his opinion of this general, whom he had so flouted in 'The Acharnians.'
[489] Son of Telamon, the King of Salamis and brother of Ajax.
[490] The wife of Proetus, King of Argos. Bellerophon, who had sought refuge at the court of this king after the accidental murder of his brother Bellerus, had disdained her amorous overtures. Therefore she denounced him to her husband as having wanted to attempt her virtue and urged him to cause his death. She killed herself immediately after the departure of the young hero.
[491] Cephisophon, Euripides' friend, is said to have seduced his wife.
[492] Meaning, they have imitated Sthenoboea in everything; like her, they have conceived adulterous passions and, again like her, they have poisoned themselves.
[493] Lycabettus, a mountain of Attica, just outside the walls of Athens, the "Arthur's Seat" of the city. Parnassus, the famous mountain of Phocis, the seat of the temple and oracle of Delphi and the home of the Muses. The whole passage is, of course, in parody of the grandiloquent style of Aeschylus.
[494] An allusion to Oeneus, King of Aetolia, and to Telephus, King of Mysia; characters put upon the stage by Euripides.
[495] It was only the rich Athenians who could afford fresh fish, because of their high price; we know how highly the gourmands prized the eels from the Copaic lake.
[496] If Aristophanes is to be believed, the orators were of depraved habits, and exacted infamous complaisances as payment for their lessons in rhetoric.
[497] Aristophanes attributes the general dissoluteness to the influence of Euripides; he suggests that the subtlety of his poetry, by sharpening the wits of the vulgar and even of the coarsest, has instigated them to insubordination.
[498] Augé, who was seduced by Heracles, was delivered in the temple of Athené (Scholiast); it is unknown in what piece this fact is mentioned.—Macareus violates his sister Canacé in the 'Aeolus.'
[499] i.e. they busy themselves with philosophic subtleties. This line is taken from 'The Phryxus,' of which some fragments have come down to us.
[500] In the torch-race the victor was the runner who attained the goal first without having allowed his torch to go out. This race was a very ancient institution. Aristophanes means to say that the old habits had fallen into disuse.
[501] A tetralogy composed of three tragedies, the 'Agamemnon,' the 'Choëphorae,' the 'Eumenides,' together with a satirical drama, the 'Proteus.'
[502] This is the opening of the 'Choëphorae.' Aeschylus puts the words in the mouth of Orestes, who is returning to his native land and visiting his father's tomb.
[503] i.e. your jokes are very coarse.
[504] He was one of the Athenian generals in command at Arginusae; he and his colleagues were condemned to death for not having given burial to the men who fell in that naval fight.
[505] As Euripides had done to those of Aeschylus; that sort of criticism was too low for him.
[506] [Greek: D_ekuthion ap_olesa],oleum perdidi,I have lost my labour, was a proverbial expression, which was also possibly the refrain of some song. Aeschylus means to say that all Euripides' phrases are cast in the same mould, and that his style is so poor and insipid that one can adapt to it any foolery one wishes; as for the phrase he adds to every one of the phrases his rival recites, he chooses it to insinuate that the work of Euripides islabour lost, and that he would have done just as well not to meddle with tragedy. The joke is mediocre at its best and is kept up far too long.
[507] Prologue of the 'Archelaus' of Euripides, a tragedy now lost.
[508] From prologue of the 'Hypsipilé' of Euripides, a play now lost.
[509] From prologue of the 'Sthenoboea' of Euripides, a play now lost.
[510] From prologue of the 'Phryxus' of Euripides, a play now lost.
[511] From prologue of the 'Iphigeneia in Tauris' of Euripides.
[512] Prologue of 'The Meleager' by Euripides, lost.
[513] Prologue of 'The Menalippé Sapiens,' by Euripides, lost.
[514] The whole of these fragments are quoted at random and have no meaning. Euripides, no doubt, wants to show that the choruses of Aeschylus are void of interest or coherence. As to the refrain, "haste to sustain the assault," Euripides possibly wants to insinuate that Aeschylus incessantly repeats himself and that a wearying monotony pervades his choruses. However, all these criticisms are in the main devoid of foundation.
[515] This ridiculous couplet pretends to imitate the redundancy and nonsensicality of Aeschylus' language; it can be seen how superficial and unfair the criticism of Euripides is; probably this is just what Aristophanes wanted to convey by this long and wearisome scene.
[516] The Scholiast conjectures this Melitus to be the same individual who later accused Socrates.
[517] The most infamous practices were attributed to the Lesbian women, amongst others, that offellation, that is the vile trick of taking a man's penis in the mouth, to give him gratification by sucking and licking it with the tongue. Dionysus means to say that Euripides takes pleasure in describing shameful passions.
[518] Here the criticism only concerns the rhythm and not either the meaning or the style. This passage was sung to one of the airs that Euripides had adopted for his choruses and which have not come down to us; we are therefore absolutely without any data that would enable us to understand and judge a criticism of this kind.
[519] A celebrated courtesan, who was skilled in twelve different postures of Venus. Aeschylus returns to his idea, which he has so often indicated, that Euripides' poetry is low and impure; he at the same time scoffs at the artifices to which Euripides had recourse when inspiration and animation failed him.
[520] No monologue of Euripides that has been preserved bears the faintest resemblance to this specimen which. Aeschylus pretends to be giving here.
[521] Beginning of Euripides' 'Medea.'
[522] Fragment from Aeschylus 'Philoctetes.' The Sperchius is a river in Thessaly, which has its source in the Pindus range and its mouth in the Maliac gulf.
[523] A verse from Euripides' 'Antigoné.' Its meaning is, that it is better to speak well than to speak the truth, if you want to persuade.
[524] From the 'Niobe,' a lost play, of Aeschylus.
[525] From the 'Telephus' of Euripides, in which he introduces Achilles playing at dice. This line was also ridiculed by Eupolis.
[526] From Euripides' 'Meleager.' All these plays, with the one exception of the 'Medea,' are lost.
[527] From the 'Glaucus Potniensis,' a lost play of Aeschylus.
[528] i.e. one hundred porters, either because many of the Athenian porters were Egyptians, or as an allusion to the Pyramids and other great works, which had habituated them to carrying heavy burdens.
[529] Euripides' friend and collaborator.
[530] The invention of weights and measures, of dice, and of the game of chess are attributed to him, also that of four additional letters of the alphabet.
[531] i.e. that cannot decide for either party.
[532] i.e. that a country can always be invaded and that the fleet alone is a safe refuge. This is the same advice as that given by Pericles, and which Thucydides expresses thus, "Let your country be devastated, or even devastate it yourself, and set sail for Laconia with your fleet."
[533] An allusion to the fees of the dicasts, or jurymen; we have already seen that at this period it was two obols, and later three.
[534] A half-line from Euripides' 'Hippolytus.' The full line is: [Greek: h_e gl_ott' om_omok', h_e de phr_en an_omotos,] "my tongue has taken an oath, but my mind is unsworn," a bit of casuistry which the critics were never tired of bringing up against the author.
[535] A verse from the 'Aeolus' of Euripides, but slightly altered. Euripides said, "Why is is shameful, if the spectators, who enjoy it, do not think so?"
[536] A verse from the 'Phrixus' of Euripides; what follows is a parody.
[537] We have already seen Aeschylus pretending that it was possible to adapt any foolish expression one liked to the verses of Euripides: "a little bottle, a little bag, a little fleece."
[538] Pluto speaks as though he were an Athenian himself.
[539] That they should hang themselves. Cleophon is said to have been an influential alien resident who was opposed to concluding peace; Myrmex and Nicomachus were two officials guilty of peculation of public funds; Archenomus is unknown.
[540] He would brand them as fugitive slaves, if, despite his orders, they refused to come down.
[541] An Athenian admiral.
[542] The real name of the father of Adimantus was Leucolophides, which Aristophanes jestingly turns into Leucolophus, i.e.White Crest.
[543] i.e. in a foreign country; Cleophon, as we have just seen, was not an Athenian.