Cryer-woman: Silence, silence. Pray, then.
Herald-woman: For the Thesmophoria to Demeter and to the Daughter and to the
Herald-woman: To Plutus and to Calligeneia and to Kourotrophos.
Cryphaena: an assembly to Earth and Hermes and the Graces
Herald-woman: this procession and today's gathering most beautifully and best
Kerykaina: to do, to the advantage of the city of the Athenians, indeed,
Cryer's Wife: Happily for us ourselves. And the actress
Cryraia: the one who is speaking the best things about the people
Herald-woman: the one of the Athenians and the one of these women
Herald-woman: 'May you conquer! Pray for these things, and may good things come to you yourselves.'
Kerykaina: hie paion, hie paion. Let us rejoice.
Chorus: we welcome the race of gods as well
Chorus: We pray with these prayers.
Chorus: [to] have appeared and rejoice.
Chorus: Zeus, great-named and with the golden lyre,
Chorus: It is clear that you have a sacred [thing],
Chorus: And you, all-powerful maiden, with the gray eyes
Chorus: She who dwells in the city of the golden spear
Chorus: A prize for fighting, come here.
Chorus: And you, many-named, lion-slaying child
Chorus: A shoot of golden-faced Leto,
Chorus: You too, august Poseidon of the sea,
Chorus: leaving the seaweed behind
Chorus: a deep, fish-filled, gadfly-shaking corner,
Chorus: The daughters of the sea-dwelling Nereus
Chorus: And mountain-roaming nymphs.
Chorus: a golden lyre
Chorus: They would shout over prayers.
Chorus: By our own; completely, and
Chorus: Let us convene an assembly of the Athenians.
Chorus: noble women.
Cry: Pray to the Olympian gods!
Kerykaina: and to the Olympian games and to the Pythian games
Cryer-woman: and to the Pythian women and to the Delians.
Cryer-woman: and to the Delian women and to the other gods,
Herald-woman: if anyone plots any harm against the people.
Herald-woman: either she is a heraldess of the women or she is not.
Cryer-woman: To Euripides, in the Medes, on some damage.
Crykeia: for the women, or she plots to tyrannize
Herald-woman: 'Either to lead the tyrant away, or a child.'
Cryceina: She said it by suggestion, or by some slave.
Kerykaina: since she was a procuress, she enticed her master.
Herald-woman: Or does someone being sent bring false news,
Herald-woman: Or is an adulterer anyone who deceives by speaking falsely?
Kerykeina: and she does not give what she once promised,
Kērykaina: 'Or does an old woman give gifts to an adulterer?'
Cry: Or does she even accept a hetaira who betrays beforehand her lover,
Cryer-woman: If any seller or female seller of the wine-jar
Cryce: Is the currency of the cups being destroyed?
Herald-woman: May this very man be destroyed miserably with a cock's crow!
Herald-woman: Pray, and the other gods for you.
Herald-woman: Pray that you may give to all great and good things.
Chorus: We are all praying that it may be successful.
Chorus: but may the city and the people be complete.
Chorus: May these things come to pass,
Chorus: But the best things belong to those whom they belong to.
Chorus: to be said to be victorious; but as many as
Chorus: they deceive and transgress the
Chorus: the customary oaths
Chorus: for the sake of profits, at the cost of damage,
Chorus: Or decrees and a law
Chorus: seeking to exchange places,
Chorus: the secrets to the enemies
Chorus: 'speaking to our men,'
Chorus: Or do they bring in Medus to the land?
Chorus: for the sake of gain, at the cost of harm,
Chorus: They are acting impiously and unjustly towards the city.
Chorus: but O all-powerful one
Chorus: May Zeus confirm these things, so that
Chorus: to stand as guardians for us
Chorus: even though they are women.
Cryer-woman: Listen, everyone. It has been resolved by the Council as follows:
Kerykeina: to the women; Timocleia was commanding,
Cryke: "Lysilla was enrolled," said Zostrata;
Cryce: to hold an assembly early in the morning.
Kerykaina: the Thesmophoria, at which we have most leisure,
Kerykeia: and first to speak about Euripides,
Cryer-woman: That is what he deserves to suffer; for he seems to be doing wrong.
Crier-woman: For all of us. Who wishes to speak?
WOMAN A: I.
Herald-woman: Cover this man first before speaking.
Chorus: Be quiet, be silent, pay attention; for he is already clearing his throat.
Chorus: That is what the orators do. It seems likely to be a long speech.
Woman A: By the gods, I have no ambition whatsoever.
Woman A: I will speak, I have stood up, O women; but indeed
Woman A: Wretchedly I bear it, poor wretch, for a very long time already.
Woman A: Are you seeing us being mocked by
Woman A: Euripides' of the vegetable-seller's
Woman A: and having heard many and varied evils.
Woman A: For why does this man not deceive us about the evils?
Woman A: Where has she not been slandered, wherever there is a brief mention?
Woman A: There are spectators, and tragedians, and choruses,
Woman A: the adulteress-breeders, whom you call 'lovers of men,'
Woman A: the wine-bibbers, the traitors, the chatterboxes,
Woman A: They are neither healthy at all, but a great evil to men;
Woman A: so that, immediately, entering from the scaffolds
WOMAN A: they are looking at us furtively and immediately observing us
Woman A: Let there not be an adulterer hidden inside.
Woman A: But she did not do for us anything, just as before.
Woman A: It is permissible; this man has taught such evils.
Women A: our husbands; so that if anyone weaves
Woman A: A woman seems to love a garland; and even if she gets it.
Woman A: wandering about the house with some vessel,
WOMAN A: The man asks, 'Who has smashed the pot?'
WOMAN A: No, it is not possible not to [have dealings] with the Corinthian guest-friend.
Woman A: A girl is sick, immediately her brother says,
Woman A: I do not like the complexion of this girl.
Woman A: Very well, a certain woman wants to propose something.
Woman A: Being childless, this too cannot be hidden.
Woman A: For men are already sitting close by;
Woman A: to the old men who before [used to] the young girls
Woman A: They were being led away; she has slandered him, so that no old man...
Woman A: She wants to marry a woman for this reason:
Woman A: For a woman is the mistress of an old man's bridegroom.
Woman A: Then through this man to the women.
Woman A: They are already putting on the seals and the bars.
Women A: Guarding us, and furthermore Molossians
Woman A: They feed moluccas to the adulterers' dogs.
Woman A: And let these things be forgiven, but those things that were ours before
Women A: to entrust and to choose for them to go unnoticed
WOMAN A: barley meal, oil, wine, and not even these.
Woman A: It is allowed. For the men already have the keys.
Woman A: They carry most malicious secrets.
Woman A: Spartan girl, having three molars.
Woman A: Well then, it was before, but let us go down to the door.
Woman A: for those who made a three-obol ring,
Woman A: But now Euripides has ground them up.
Woman A: She taught her to have a little lock of hair.
Woman A: having snatched them. So now this seems to me
Woman A: 'May we come upon some sort of ruin in some way or other,'
Woman A: Either by drugs or by some single art,
Woman A: "So that she may be ruined. I say this openly."
WOMAN A: But as for the rest, I will write it down with the secretary.
Chorus: I have not yet heard of this.
Chorus: of a more complicated woman
Chorus: Nor is she speaking more terribly.
Chorus: for he says everything just,
Chorus: †He has examined every idea,
Chorus: and she endured everything with a mind tightly packed
Chorus: he discovered varied speeches.
Chorus: well searched out;
Chorus: so that if he were to speak to her
Chorus: Xenocles son of Cratinus, it seems
Chorus: if indeed him, as I think,
Chorus: to all of you
Chorus: Speak directly without saying anything.
WOMAN B: Because of a few words, I myself passed over.
Woman B: for indeed this woman has accused [others] well in other respects;
Woman B: As for what I have suffered, I wish to say these things.
Woman B: For my husband indeed died in Cyprus,
Woman B: Leaving behind five children, I myself with difficulty
Woman B: I was weaving garlands while grazing in the myrtles.
Woman B: So far, then, but only half-badly was I being fed;
Woman B: Now this man, while composing in the tragedies,
Woman B: She has persuaded the men not to be gods;
Woman B: So that we should no longer sell even for half price.
Woman B: Now, then, I advise and tell all women.
Woman B: Punish this man for this many reasons;
Woman B: for she does harsh things to us, women,
Woman B: who was raised by himself in the wild vegetables.
Woman B: But I am going to the market; for I must [go] to the men.
Woman B: Make twenty signal garlands.
Chorus: But this is another spirit entirely.
Chorus: more elegantly than before.
Chorus: It has shone forth.
Chorus: How she had been silenced!
Chorus: Not without sense, having understanding
Chorus: and a complicated thought, not
Chorus: all things, though unwise, are persuasive.
Chorus: And we must endure this outrage.
Chorus: the man
Chorus: to pay a very clear penalty.
Mnesilochus: Well, women, to be very quick-tempered
Mnesilochus: "Euripides, having heard such evils,"
Mnesilochus: It is not surprising, nor to be boiled, the gall.
Mnesilochus: For I too, so may I live, of the children,
Mnesilochus: I hate that man, unless I am out of my mind.
Mnesilochus: Still, one must give an account of it in mutual exchanges;
Mnesilochus: For we are those women, and no one has reported it.
Mnesilochus: Why do we accuse him when they have these things?
Mnesilochus: we take it hard, if two of us or three
Mnesilochus: Having done and heard many evil things, did you say this?
Mnesilochus: for I myself first, so that I may speak again,
Mnesilochus: I am well aware of many terrible things; but that, however...
Mnesilochus: It is most terrible, when she was a bride for three days,
Mnesilochus: But the man was sleeping with me; for he was a friend of mine,
Mnesilochus: just as he ravaged me when I was seven years old.
Mnesilochus: This fellow, coming with longing for me, bit my door;
Mnesilochus: And then I understood clearly. So I went down secretly.
Mnesilochus: But the man asks where you are going down? Where?
Mnesilochus: The rope has me in a stranglehold, my belly, like a nightmare and a pain.
Mnesilochus: So I am going into the manure. Come on, then.
Mnesilochus: and then he rubbed cedar shavings and fennel stalks.
Mnesilochus: I, however, poured out the water from the mill.
Mnesilochus: I went out in order to catch the adulterer; then I was pushed around.
Mnesilochus: I am holding onto the laurel near the Agias.
Mnesilochus: Euripides has never said this, look!
Mnesilochus: Not even as [being] under the slaves and the wine-pourers
Mnesilochus: let us ash, unless we have another, he will not speak;
Mnesilochus: Not even when we are most completely mastered by him.
Mnesilochus: Let us chew garlic all night long until dawn.
Mnesilochus: so that a man, coming from the wall while sniffing,
Mnesilochus: may he be thought to do nothing evil. "You see, these things,"
Mnesilochus: He has never said it. But if he abuses Phaedra,
Mnesilochus: What is this for us? He has not yet said that either,
Mnesilochus: as the woman shows the husband the round object
Mnesilochus: In the sunlight, as it is, covered up.
Mnesilochus: He sent the adulterer away, but he has not yet spoken.
Mnesilochus: But I saw another woman, who said she was in labor.
Mnesilochus: Accept [him] for the day, until he has bought a child;
Mnesilochus: But the man was running about, buying quick-bearing.
Mnesilochus: But an old woman brought the child in a cooking-pot,
Mnesilochus: in order that it may not be a bull, but a bee, dipped in wax;
Mnesilochus: 'Then, as soon as she who is carrying [the basket] nods, immediately she shouts,'
Mnesilochus: Go, go, for I now think I am a man.
Mnesilochus: to give birth. For the potter's heart was kicked.
Mnesilochus: And he was running with joy, but she tore it out.
Mnesilochus: from the mouth of the child, but she screamed out.
Mnesilochus: 'Well then, the filthy old woman, who brought the child,'
Mnesilochus: She smiles at the man and says,
Mnesilochus: A lion, a lion has become yours, even your very own imprint,
Mnesilochus: all the rest and the penis
Mnesilochus: Just like your nose, crooked like a quince.
Mnesilochus: Are we not doing these evils? By Artemis!
Mnesilochus: We certainly do. And then we are angry at Euripides,
Mnesilochus: Did we suffer nothing greater than what we have done?
Chorus: This, however, is amazing,
Chorus: From where was the money found,
Chorus: Who has nurtured the country?
Chorus: This bold woman, like this.
Chorus: for to say this about the cunning woman
Chorus: plainly and shamelessly thus
Chorus: I should not have thought that among us
Chorus: Nor dare ever.
Chorus: But let it all have already come to pass;
Chorus: But I praise the proverb.
Chorus: The old one, for under a stone
Chorus: one must with all one's mind
Chorus: let not the orator bite to look.
Chorus: but for there are not, by nature, of shameless women
Chorus: Nothing is worse in every respect, except, then, for women.
Woman A: By Aglauros, women, you are thinking well,
Woman A: But either she has been poisoned or she has suffered some other great evil,
Woman A: Let her stop this envy from insulting in such a way.
Women A: all of us. If there is any wine; but if not, we
Women A: And they, taking ash from somewhere, and the little slaves
WOMAN A: We will strip the pig of its hair, so that it may be taught.
Woman A: Since you are a woman, do not speak badly from now on.
Mnesilochus: Do not, then, the pig, O women. For if there were...
Mnesilochus: I have the boldness and the right to say whatever we citizens have not said,
Mnesilochus: Then I said that I spoke justly on behalf of Euripides,
Mnesilochus: Is it because of this that I must suffer punishment at your hands for being plucked?
Woman A: For do you not have to pay the penalty? You who alone have dared.
Woman A: to speak in opposition to a man who has done us many evils.
Woman A: deliberately finding arguments, where a wicked woman
Woman A: it happened, Melanippus composing Phaedra's; and Penelope
WOMAN A: She has never done it, since she seemed to be a sensible woman.
Mnesilochus: For I know the cause. For you could not say 'one'.
Mnesilochus: the Penelopes of the women of today, and the one-time deceivers of Pheidias.
Woman A: Listen, women, what the cunning woman has said.
Woman A: us all again, again.
Mnesilochus: And by Zeus, not yet, indeed.
Mnesilochus: I have said all that I know; since you wish, shall I speak more?
Woman A: But you would not be able to any longer; for you have poured out everything that you knew.
Mnesilochus: By Zeus, we have not yet done the ten-thousandth part of what we are doing.
Mnesilochus: since you have not said this, you see, when you have taken the strigils
Mnesilochus: Then we filter the wine through a siphon.
Woman A: Let it be rubbed!
Mnesilochus: as if she were giving the meat from the Apaturia to the pimps again.
Mnesilochus: Then we say the weasel—
Woman A: Woe is me! You are prattling.
Mnesilochus: Not even as the woman trampled the man with the axe,
Mnesilochus: I did not say it, nor that another woman bewitched the man with drugs,
Woman A: Get out!
Mnesilochus: He's a character from the Thracian city of Acarnania.
Woman A: These things are surely unbearable to hear?
Mnesilochus: Not even as when you gave birth to a male child by the slave woman, then yourself
Mnesilochus: throw this one out, but you have brought her own little daughter to her.
Woman A: No, by the two goddesses, you will not speak thus contemptuously,
Woman A: But I will twist your legs out of shape.
Mnesilochus: No, by Zeus, you will not touch it.
Woman A: And look!
Mnesilochus: And look, here he is.
Woman A: Take Philestera's shawl.
Mnesilochus: Just add it, and by Artemis, I will—
Woman A: What will you do?
Mnesilochus: I will make you urinate on that sesame-cake you ate.
Chorus: stop abusing us; for indeed a certain woman [is] among us
Chorus: [She], having hurried, runs up. Therefore before [they] come together,
Chorus: Be silent, so that we may learn in an orderly fashion what she will say.
Cleisthenes: dear women, relatives of my character;
Cleisthenes: that I am indeed a friend to you is made plain by my jaws;
Cleisthenes: For I always engage in matchmaking, being in love with women.
Cleisthenes: and now having heard a great matter concerning you
Cleisthenes: "just a little while ago, being chattered in the market,
Cleisthenes: I have come to report and announce this to you, so that
Cleisthenes: look out and beware lest he also fall upon you.
Cleisthenes: For you, without means of defense, a terrible and great matter.
Chorus: What is it, child? For you are rightly called a child,
Chorus: Until you have your jaws bare in this way.
Cleisthenes: Tell Euripides that he is a certain relative.
Cleisthenes: to send an old man here today.
Chorus: for what work or for the sake of whose opinion?
Cleisthenes: so that whatever you may be planning and intend to do,
Cleisthenes: May that man be the spy of those words.
Chorus: And how did he, being a man, escape notice among women?
Cleisthenes: Euripides set him free and sent him off.
Cleisthenes: And the rest of it, everything, he prepared just like a woman.
Mnesilochus: Do you obey this man in these matters? Who is such a man?
Mnesilochus: 'Is he a fool, whoever endured being plucked?'
Mnesilochus: I don't think so, most honoured goddess.
Cleisthenes: You are talking nonsense; for I would not have come as a messenger,
Cleisthenes: If I had not learned these things from those who know them clearly.
Chorus: This matter is bringing a serious accusation.
Chorus: But, oh women, it was not right to waver,
Chorus: but let us look at the man and search for where
Chorus: A secret intruder has hidden himself among us.
Chorus: And you also invented it, so that you might gain the favor
Chorus: You shall have this one as well as that one, O xenos.
Cleisthenes: Come, let me see: who is the first you?
Mnesilochus: Where will someone turn?
Cleisthenes: for you are to be sought.
Mnesilochus: Woe is me.
Woman A: Do you ask who I am? The wife of Kleonymos.
Cleisthenes: Do you know what sort of woman this is?
Chorus: We certainly understand. But look at the others.
Cleisthenes: But who is the one now who is the child's?
Cleisthenes: [Do you have] it?
Woman A: By Zeus, it is my nurse!
Mnesilochus: I am gone.
Cleisthenes: Where are you turning, you? Stay right there. What is the harm?
Mnesilochus: Let me urinate.
Cleisthenes: You are some shameless person.
Cleisthenes: But you, then, do this. For I shall wait here.
Chorus: Wait, then, and look at her very closely.
Chorus: for we know only her, as it were.
Cleisthenes: You've been pissing for a long time, then.
Mnesilochus: By Zeus, oh friends;
Mnesilochus: I am passing a kidney stone, for yesterday I ate watercress.
Cleisthenes: What are you grumbling about? Are you not coming here to me?
Mnesilochus: Why on earth are you dragging me, being weak?
Cleisthenes: tell me,
Cleisthenes: Who is the man to you?
Mnesilochus: Do you ask about my husband?
Mnesilochus: You know that infamous man, the one from Kothokidai?
Cleisthenes: the notorious one? Which one?
Mnesilochus: There is one who is truly terrible, who even once
Mnesilochus: 'The so-and-so, the son of so-and-so—'
Cleisthenes: You seem to me to be talking nonsense.
Cleisthenes: Have you already come up here before?
Mnesilochus: by Zeus
Mnesilochus: A true man indeed.
Cleisthenes: And who is your co-actor?
Mnesilochus: It is terribly hard for me.
Cleisthenes: Alas, wretch, you are saying nothing.
Woman A: Go away. For I will torture this woman well.
Woman A: from the sacred things of last year; but you stand back from me,
Woman A: so that you may not hear, being a man. But you tell me
Woman A: Whatever was first shown to us among the sacred rites.
Mnesilochus: Come, let me see, what was it that I first said? I drank it.
Woman A: And what [shall we do] next, secondly?
Mnesilochus: We had been drinking.
Woman A: You have heard these things from someone, but what is the third?
Mnesilochus: 'Xenyllos, he asked for a chest; for there was no competition.'
Woman A: You are saying nothing. Come here, come here, Cleisthenes!
Woman A: This is the man you speak of.
Cleisthenes: So what shall I do?
Woman A: Take him off; for he says nothing healthy.
Mnesilochus: And then will you undress the mother of nine children?
Cleisthenes: Loosen the band quickly, you shameless fellow.
Woman A: As she seems both sturdy and strong;
Woman A: And by Zeus, they don't have breasts like we do.
Mnesilochus: for I am barren and have never conceived.
Woman A: Now; but then you were the mother of nine children.
Cleisthenes: Stand up straight. Where are you thrusting your penis down?
Woman A: This has been weighed out, and it is very fair-skinned, you wretch.
Cleisthenes: And where is he?
Woman A: She goes forward again.
Kleisthenes: Not here.
Woman A: But she has come back here again.
Cleisthenes: You have some sort of isthmus, man—up and down.
Cleisthenes: You are pulling your penis tighter than the Corinthians.
WOMAN A: O this one is filthy! These things, then, are on behalf of Euripides.
Woman A: He was abusing us.
Mnesilochus: Woe is me,
Mnesilochus: Into such affairs I have rolled myself.
Woman A: Come then, what shall we do?
Cleisthenes: guard this one.
Cleisthenes: Good, so that he will not escape and depart;
Cleisthenes: But I will report these things to the prytanes.
Chorus: Therefore, after this, we must now have seized the torches.
Chorus: having stripped the nine garments well and manfully, wrapped in a belt
Chorus: to search, if perhaps some other man has arrived, and to run around.
Chorus: To wail over the entire dense crowd and the scenes and the exits.
Chorus: Come on then, first of all we must set a light foot in motion.
Chorus: and to spy silently everywhere; but one must only
Chorus: Do not delay, since the time is not to delay any longer,
Chorus: but the first one ought to run as quickly as possible already around the circle.
Chorus: Come now, pursue and seek quickly all things,
Chorus: if anyone is seated in the places
Chorus: Another one has escaped being seen.
Chorus: cast your glance everywhere,
Chorus: both here and there.
Chorus: examine everything carefully.
Chorus: For if I should do something unholy without knowing it,
Chorus: he will pay the penalty and, in addition to this,
Chorus: it will be for the other men
Chorus: an example of the hubris and unjust deeds of wrongdoers.
Chorus: and of irreligious ways.
Chorus: She will say that there are gods openly,
Chorus: he will show it now
Chorus: to reverence the gods for all people
Chorus: Justly following holy and lawful things.
Chorus: Make plans for whatever is right.
Chorus: And even if they do not do such things, it will be so;
Chorus: when one of them is caught doing something impious,
Chorus: burning with maddening madness, a frenzied one,
Chorus: If it does something
Chorus: To all it will be visible to behold, both to women and to mortals,
Chorus: because both the illegal and the unholy things are present
Chorus: the god will pay the penalty.
Chorus: But it seems to us that we have thoroughly considered everything well.
Chorus: We do not see, however, anyone else sitting yet.
Woman A: Hey, where are you running off to? Won't this man stay here?
Woman A: Poor me, poor wretch, and the child too.
Woman A: Having snatched it secretly from my nipple.
Mnesilochus: Cry out! But you will never do this again.
Mnesilochus: If you do not let me go, but [instead] here upon the thighs
Mnesilochus: struck with this knife, bloody veins
Mnesilochus: He will blood the altar.
Woman A: Oh, wretched me.
Woman A: Women, will you not help? Won't there be a loud noise?
Woman A: You will stand and make a trophy, but of the only one.
Woman A: Will you watch me being deprived of my child?
Chorus: Let go, let go.
Chorus: O Lady Fates, what is this that I am looking at?
Chorus: a new wonder again?
Chorus: As all things are now full of daring and shamelessness.
Chorus: What a deed she has done again, what a deed, my dear friends, this one.
Mnesilochus: Just wait, I'll make an example of your excessive insolence.
Chorus: Surely these are not terrible things, are they, and even more?
Woman A: That's terrible, indeed, whoever has snatched my child away from me.
Chorus: What, then, could anyone say in response to these things, when
Chorus: Does he do such things and yet have the audacity?
Mnesilochus: But I have not yet stopped.
Chorus: But indeed you have come from a place not insignificantly.
Chorus: having escaped, words
Chorus: such a deed you did and slipped through,
Chorus: She will receive a bad thing.
Mnesilochus: May this never, under any circumstances, happen; I pray for that.
Chorus: So, who, then, would be your ally from the gods?
Chorus: Would he come among the unjust deeds of the immortals?
Mnesilochus: You talk in vain; but I will not let her go.
Chorus: But by the two goddesses, perhaps he will not be glad soon.
Chorus: uttering insulting and impious words
Chorus: on unholy deeds;
Chorus: For we will also repay you, as is fitting, in return for these things.
Chorus: Perhaps they will change to a different sort of evil.
Chorus: Fortune holds back.
Chorus: But you ought to have taken these and carried them out from the wooden platform,
Chorus: And to burn down the cunning one, to set fire to him, as quickly as possible.
Woman A: Let us go to the trellises, O Mania.
Woman A: And I will expose you as a heartless wretch today.
Mnesilochus: Lift it up and hang it down; and you, the Cretan!
Mnesilochus: Take off your clothes quickly; for death, my child
Mnesilochus: I accuse the mother of all women alone.
Mnesilochus: What is this? The girl has become a wineskin.
Mnesilochus: Full of wine, and these are Persian ones.
Mnesilochus: O hottest women, O most thirsty ones!
Mnesilochus: And you are plotting to drink from every source,
Mnesilochus: Oh, a great good for the shopkeepers, but a curse for us!
Mnesilochus: But it is bad for the packing cases and also for the saffron.
Woman A: lay out many cuttings, O Mania.
Mnesilochus: 'Then, step forward! But you, answer me this,'
Mnesilochus: You say that you bore this?
Woman A: And I [have been pregnant] for ten months.
Woman A: I carried.
Mnesilochus: Have you brought it?
Woman A: By Artemis.
Mnesilochus: Is it a false alarm or what? Tell me.
Woman A: What have you done to me?
Woman A: Did you undress my child, you wretch?
Woman A: It's a tunny fish.
Mnesilochus: Let it be tunnyed?
Woman A: By Zeus, a little bit.
Mnesilochus: How many years has it been? Three Choae or four?
Woman A: Almost as far as the Dionysia.
Woman A: But pay it back.
Mnesilochus: by this very Apollo.
Woman A: Then let us burn you.
Mnesilochus: You are burning up completely.
Mnesilochus: But she will be cut off quite immediately.
Woman A: No, I beg you, but do whatever you need of me.
Woman A: Indeed, on this point.
Mnesilochus: You are by nature a lover of children.
Mnesilochus: But nevertheless this one will be slaughtered.
Woman A: Alas, child. Give me a sacrifice, Mania,
Woman A: So that I may take the blood of my child, then.
Mnesilochus: Hold it out to me, for I shall grant you this one favor.
Woman A: May he perish wretchedly, since you are envious and hostile.
Mnesilochus: This skin belongs to the priestess.
Woman A: What is happening to the priestess?
Mnesilochus: This. Take it.
Woman G: Oh, Mikka, who has plucked out your eyes?
Woman G: Who has bought your beloved daughter?
Woman A: That cunning one. But since he is present,
Woman A: Guard him, so that having taken Cleisthenes
Woman A: I will tell the prytanes what this man has done.
Mnesilochus: Come then, what will be the plan for our safety?
Mnesilochus: What is the plan, what is the idea? For the culprit
Mnesilochus: And you have made a dog's play of me into such affairs
Mnesilochus: He is not showing up yet. Come, then, what messenger might we have?
Mnesilochus: Should I send him to him? I know that, and indeed I have the money.
Mnesilochus: from the Palamedes; just as he, the flatbreads
Mnesilochus: I will throw the letters. But the cypresses are not here.
Mnesilochus: So from where could a woman ever come to me from where? From where?
Mnesilochus: But what if these statues instead of the broad ones
Mnesilochus: Shall I write and throw it away? Much better.
Mnesilochus: This is indeed a stick, and that one too was a stick.
Mnesilochus: Oh my hands
Mnesilochus: One ought to undertake a serious task.
Mnesilochus: Come now, bring clean tablets and wax tablets,
Mnesilochus: Receive the wooden spoons.
Mnesilochus: heralds of my labors! Alas!
Mnesilochus: This is a bad man!
Mnesilochus: Move along, move along. Which furrow?
Mnesilochus: Go, hurry, go through all the streets.
Mnesilochus: That one there. It must be done quickly.
Chorus: Let us then speak well of ourselves, having transgressed,
Chorus: Yet every sort of female race speaks many evils,
Chorus: How great a evil we are to men, and all things are from us,
Chorus: Strifes, quarrels, faction, painful grief, war. Come now,
Chorus: If we are bad, why do you marry us, if indeed we are bad?
Chorus: and you forbid her both to go out and to be caught while leaning out,
Chorus: But do you wish to guard the evil with great earnestness in this way?
Chorus: And if the woman should go out somewhere, then find her at the doors,
Chorus: To be mad with madness, those whom one ought to sacrifice and to rejoice in, if indeed it is true.
Chorus: From inside they found the evil and did not realize it was inside.
Chorus: And even if we get scratched while playing and working at someone else's house,
Chorus: Someone is looking for this evil, wandering around the beds.
Chorus: And even if we peek out from a window, you seek to look upon the evil;
Chorus: And even if she is ashamed and withdraws, everyone desires her all the more.
Chorus: again the evil, having leaned over, to see. Thus we openly
Chorus: We are much better than you, and the ordeal is present to be seen.
Chorus: let us give a test to see which are worse. For we say that you are,
Chorus: But you [should consider] us. Let us then examine and respond to each one,
Chorus: comparing the name of each woman and of the man.
Chorus: Nausimachos is indeed inferior to Charmos; his deeds are obvious.
Chorus: And indeed, Kleophon is surely altogether worse than Xalabakchos.
Chorus: with regard to Aristomache, a long time, with regard to that one [at] Marathon,
Chorus: And no one, not even Stratonicus, attempts to fight against you.
Chorus: But is there any councilor better than Eubouleus, one who served last year?
Chorus: having handed over the government to another? Not even you yourself will say this, indeed.
Chorus: Thus we pray that we are much better than the men.
Chorus: Nor would a woman, having stolen, yoke for fifty talents.
Chorus: May they come into the city from the public funds; but if they should have suffered the greatest losses.
Chorus: Stealing the man's sack of grain, she returned it on the very same day.
Chorus: But we, if we were to [do something], many of these...
Chorus: we would demonstrate these things while doing them.
Chorus: and in addition to this, our bellies
Chorus: rather than being, but also thieves
Chorus: and buffoons and slave-traders.
Chorus: Indeed, certainly, and the ancestral ones too.
Chorus: they are worse at saving us;
Chorus: for indeed we still have you now
Chorus: opposite is the rule, the little baskets.
Chorus: the scarecrow;
Chorus: and to these men of ours
Chorus: The canon has been lost by many.
Chorus: from the houses, for her with a spear,
Chorus: for many others from the shoulders
Chorus: in the armies
Chorus: The scarecrow has been thrown.
Chorus: We women could indeed have many complaints in court.
Chorus: Justly to the men, but one thing is most supernatural.
Chorus: For we should have been, if someone had borne us a good man for the city,
Chorus: to take a tax-archon or a general, to receive some honor,
Chorus: that a seat of honor be given to her by the Stenians and the Scirians.
Chorus: and at the other festivals as well we led the way;
Chorus: but if a woman should bear a cowardly and wicked man,
Chorus: Either a wicked trierarch or a bad helmsman,
Chorus: She should sit down later, with her head cut off, on a pot.
Chorus: of the one who gave birth to the manly one. For it is fitting, O city.
Chorus: to sit with Hyperbolus' mother dressed up
Chorus: They have laid down white clothes and hair beside Lamachus,
Chorus: and to lend money, as he ought, if he were to lend to someone
Chorus: And may interest accrue, but let no one of men pay interest,
Chorus: But having said this, to take the money by force,
Chorus: Surely you are worthy of the interest that you bore, having given birth to such interest.
Mnesilochus: I have become a fool while waiting; but he has not yet [come].
Mnesilochus: What on earth could be the obstacle? It is not possible.
Mnesilochus: Does she not feel shame at Palamedes being cold?
Mnesilochus: But surely I should bring him the play?
Mnesilochus: I know; I will imitate the new Helen.
Mnesilochus: I certainly have a woman's costume.
Woman G: Why are you again causing trouble? Why are you making a fuss while having [something]?
Woman G: You will see a bitter Helen soon, unless you do it in an orderly manner.
Woman G: You will have it, until one of the presidents appears.
Mnesilochus: These are the fair-maidened streams of the Nile,
Mnesilochus: who instead of a drop of Egyptian Nile water [has] the ground
Mnesilochus: white water stains a black-haired sheep.
Woman G: You are cunning, by Hecate the light-bringer.
Mnesilochus: But for me, my country is not without a name.
Mnesilochus: Sparta, and her father was Tyndareus.
Woman G: You have perished, you wretch!
Woman G: Is that her father? Yes, it is Phrynondas.
Mnesilochus: But I was called Helen.
Woman 3: Again a woman is born,
Woman G: Before she pays the penalty for the other woman's adultery?
Mnesilochus: But many souls went through me to the Scamander.
Mnesilochus: I died from the blows.
Woman G: You too ought to have wished for that.
Mnesilochus: And I am here; but the wretched husband
Mnesilochus: My Menelaus still has not approached.
Mnesilochus: What then do I still live?
Woman G: by the wickedness of the crows.
Mnesilochus: But just as it beautifies my heart somewhat.
Mnesilochus: Do not deceive me, O Zeus, with the hope that is coming.
Euripides: Who holds power in these fortified chambers,
Euripides: whoever receives guests with a sea-salt soup.
Euripides: worn out by winter and shipwrecks?
Mnesilochus: These are the halls of Proteus.
Euripides: of which Proteus?
Woman G: O wretched fellow, he lies, by the two gods,
Woman G: For Proteas has been dead for ten years.
Euripides: What country have we sailed into with a boat?
Mnesilochus: Egypt.
Euripides: Oh wretched, how we have been draped!
Woman G: she persuades something to this ill-bathed one.
Woman G: Fooling with nonsense? This is the Thesmophoria.
Euripides: And is Proteus himself inside or outside?
Woman G: It is not possible that you do not sail on, stranger,
Woman 3: Whoever, upon hearing that Proteas has died,
Woman G: Then are you asking whether she is inside or outside?
Euripides: Alas, he is dead. Where was he buried in a grave?
Mnesilochus: This is his mark, on which we are sitting.
Woman G: Badly, then, may you perish and be destroyed, indeed,
Woman G: Whoever dares to call the altar a tomb.
Euripides: Why then are you seating these tombstone benches?
Euripides: Will you carry it covered, stranger?
Mnesilochus: I am being forced.
Mnesilochus: to mix my bed with the son of Proteus in marriage.
Woman: What! O wretch, you deceive the stranger again!
Woman G: This man has come up here, having acted with cunning, O stranger.
Woman G: as for the women, [they are being judged] for the theft of the gold.
Mnesilochus: Stop shaking my body with your slander.
Euripides: Who is this foreign woman who is abusing you?
Mnesilochus: this is Theonoe, the daughter of Proteus.
Woman G: By the two goddesses!
Woman G: if not Kritylla, daughter of Antitheos from Gargettus;
Woman G: But you are cunning.
Mnesilochus: Say whatever you wish.
Mnesilochus: For I shall never marry your sister.
Mnesilochus: having betrayed my husband Menelaus who was in Troy.
Euripides: Woman, what did you say? Turn your eyes that shine in the light.
Mnesilochus: I am ashamed of you, your jaw having been abused.
Euripides: What is this? What silence has seized me.
Euripides: O gods, what sight do I see? Who are you, woman?
Mnesilochus: But who are you? For the same story holds both for you and for me.
Euripides: Are you a Greek woman or a country woman?
Mnesilochus: A Greek woman. But I also want to learn your [name].
Euripides: 'Woman, I have seen you most like Helen.'
Mnesilochus: But I [will give you] to Menelaus as many [of them] as there are from the figs.
Euripides: You have rightly recognized the most unhappy man.
Mnesilochus: O long-coming one of your hearth, wife!
Mnesilochus: Take me, take me, husband, and put your arms around me.
Mnesilochus: Come, bite me. Take me away, take me away, take me away!
Mnesilochus: having taken it very quickly.
Woman G: You will cry, then, by the two goddesses.
Woman G: Whoever leads you away, struck with the torch.
Euripides: You prevent my wife from me,
Euripides: 'To lead the child of Tyndareus to Sparta?'
Woman G: Alas, how crafty you seem to me to be!
WOMAN G: And there is an advisor for this. It is not yet time.
Woman G: He is acting the Egyptian. But this man will pay the penalty.
Woman G: For the prytanis and the archer are approaching.
Euripides: This is wicked; but we must pretend not to hear.
Mnesilochus: But what am I, the wretched one, doing?
Euripides: but be quiet.
Euripides: For I will never betray you, as long as I breathe,
Euripides: If the myriad arts do not abandon me.
Mnesilochus: This woman has drawn no one.
Prytanis: This is the cunning fellow whom Cleisthenes told us about?
Prytanis: Why are you bending down? Bind him as you lead him in.
Prytanis: O archer on the board, and then here.
Prytanis: set up [the guards] and keep them, and let no one approach.
Prytanis: Let him be with him, but have the whip.
Prytanis: 'Child, if anyone comes near.'
Woman 3: By Zeus, as it is now, indeed, a man
Woman G: A sailmaker almost took him away from me.
Mnesilochus: O Prytanis, at your right hand, which you love.
Mnesilochus: to offer a hollow piece of silver, if anyone gives it,
Mnesilochus: Grant me this small favor, even though I am dying.
Prutanyis: What favor shall I grant you?
Mnesilochus: me having undressed, naked
Mnesilochus: "Order the archer to bind himself to the plank."
Mnesilochus: So that an old man is not in saffron robes and headbands
Mnesilochus: I provide amusement to the crows by feasting.
Prutanis: Since you have these things, it has seemed good to the council that you must,
Prytanis: so that, being a rogue, you may be obvious to those passing by.
Mnesilochus: Iapapaiax! O, what a saffron-colored thing you have made!
Mnesilochus: And there is no hope of salvation anymore.
Chorus: Come now, let us play what is the custom here for the women,
Chorus: When we raise up the solemn mysteries of the gods at holy times, which also
Chorus: Let her cease from reverence and fasting,
Chorus: often from the hours
Chorus: being in a state of continuous prayer at the appointed times.
Chorus: such things to care for often oneself.
Chorus: Hasten, move forward.
Chorus: Lightly, step into the circle,
Chorus: join hand to hand,
Chorus: Let all follow the rhythm of the dance.
Chorus: Go swiftly with your feet.
Chorus: but to look around everywhere.
Chorus: It is necessary for the chorus to make a circular movement with its eyes.
Chorus: together also
Chorus: race of the Olympian gods.
Chorus: Sing and praise with every voice in a choir-mad manner.
Chorus: but if anyone
Chorus: he expects to speak badly.
Chorus: In a sacred place, a woman, I, being among men, do not think rightly.
Chorus: But it ought to be
Chorus: just like some new work
Chorus: First, establish a fitting foundation for the circular dance.
Chorus: Advance with your feet the well-strung [lyre].
Chorus: I will sing of the bow-bearing one
Chorus: Artemis, pure mistress.
Chorus: hail, O you who work from afar,
Chorus: Shout for victory!
Chorus: But Hera, the perfect one,
Chorus: Let us sing, as is proper,
Chorus: She mocks all the choruses and
Chorus: She guards the marriage keys.
Chorus: I invoke Hermes the lawgiver.
Chorus: and Pan and the dear Nymphs
Chorus: to laugh readily
Chorus: with our (women).
Chorus: Rejoicing with dances.
Chorus: Take it out eagerly!
Chorus: double grace for the dance.
Chorus: let us dance, women, as is the custom,
Chorus: Let us surely fast.
Chorus: But come, shake and turn with a rhythmical foot,
Chorus: dance every song.
Chorus: Lead the way yourself, then, in this manner.
Chorus: ivy-wearing Bacchus
Chorus: Sir, but as for me, with revels
Chorus: I shall sing of you to the lovers of the chorus.
Chorus: Hail, Dionysus!
Chorus: Bromius, child of Semele,
Chorus: finding pleasure in choruses
Chorus: in the mountains of the nymphs in lovely hymns,
Chorus: euiōn, euiōn, euoi!
Chorus: dancing forth.
Chorus: And around you there is a clatter.
Chorus: Kithaironian echo,
Chorus: and black-leaved mountains
Chorus: rocky dales and mountain-sides roar.
Chorus: ivy, however, is all around you
Chorus: On a well-sailed helix it blooms.
Archers: now here, groan towards the female goat!
Mnesilochus: O archer, I beg you.
Archers: Don't beg me, woman.
Mnesilochus: loosen the peg.
Bowman: But I do these things.
Mnesilochus: Alas, wretch, you are indeed hitting me all the harder.
Bowman: Even more of a bull?
Mnesilochus: Alas, alas!
Mnesilochus: May you perish miserably.
Archers: Silence, wretched old man.
Archers: I will indeed strike you on the head, so that you will be a pillar for you.
Mnesilochus: These are the very best things I have enjoyed from Euripides.
Mnesilochus: Let it be; gods, Zeus savior, there are hopes.
Mnesilochus: The man seems not to betray, but rather me.
Mnesilochus: Perseus, running out, has given a sign.
Mnesilochus: that I must become Andromeda; but I must certainly...
Mnesilochus: The bonds are there. It is clear, then, that this is so.
Mnesilochus: He will come to save me; for he would not have flown away.
Euripides: dear friends, dear maidens, how then...
Euripides: 'May I come and'
Euripides: "Might I hide the Scythian?"
Euripides: Do you hear? O by modesty, you in the caves,
Euripides: nod, let it be as
Euripides: to have come, me, the woman.
Mnesilochus: The lock that bound me is unopened,
Mnesilochus: the most groaning of mortals;
Mnesilochus: only after escaping an old woman
Mnesilochus: I have lost a rotten one, however.
Mnesilochus: For this Scythian has long been my guard.
Mnesilochus: hanging, he hung a wretched, friendless man.
Mnesilochus: a feast for crows. Do you see? No.
Mnesilochus: neither with choruses nor by girls of my age.
Mnesilochus: She is standing with her head covered.
Mnesilochus: but [she is] entangled in close bonds
Mnesilochus: I am set before as a meal for Glaucete the whale,
Mnesilochus: I am not yet married.
Mnesilochus: and to a bound paean
Mnesilochus: Lament for me, women, how
Mnesilochus: I have suffered limbs for limbs,
Mnesilochus: Oh wretched me, wretched me,
Mnesilochus: and from kinsmen, untold sufferings, a talent,
Mnesilochus: a light I beg for, a tearful Hades.
Mnesilochus: A lament for one fleeing!
Mnesilochus: Alas, alas, ah, ah,
Mnesilochus: 'who first shaved me,'
Mnesilochus: He who dressed me in saffron.
Mnesilochus: and in addition to these, she sent me here.
Mnesilochus: A sanctuary, where there are women.
Mnesilochus: Alas! my cruel and inexorable fate!
Mnesilochus: Woe is me, cursed that I am;
Mnesilochus: Who will not look at me?
Mnesilochus: an unceasing suffering in the presence of evils?
Mnesilochus: If only the star of the fire-bearing aether—
Mnesilochus: May he destroy the barbarian.
Mnesilochus: for he no longer sees an immortal flame
Mnesilochus: "It is dear to me, as I was hanged,"
Mnesilochus: the throat-cutting ills of the fated spirits,
Mnesilochus: For the dead, a journey.
Euripides: hail, dear child; but the father Cepheus
Euripides: May the gods destroy the one who exposed you.
Mnesilochus: And who are you, that have pitied my suffering?
Euripides: Echo, the female parrot of words,
Euripides: who last year in this very place
Euripides: I even competed with Euripides.
Euripides: but, child, you yourself must do your own thing,
Euripides: to weep miserably.
Mnesilochus: and later I will break you.
Euripides: 'I will take care of these things. But begin speaking.'
Mnesilochus: O holy night!
Mnesilochus: What a long chase you are pursuing!
Mnesilochus: they are driving a chariot with star-shaped backs.
Mnesilochus: 'of the holy aether'
Mnesilochus: "For the most reverent [one] through Olympus?"
Euripides: through Olympus.
Mnesilochus: What, pray tell, is Andromeda, a woman surrounded by evils?
Mnesilochus: I drew a portion—
Euripides: I have drawn a portion—
Mnesilochus: O miserable one, death?
Euripides: 'Wretch, of death?'
Mnesilochus: You will destroy me, old woman, by chattering.
Euripides: 'You are being petulant.'
Mnesilochus: By Zeus, you are an annoying fellow!
Mnesilochus: Very much so.
Euripides: "Very much."
Mnesilochus: Oh good, let me sing alone,
Mnesilochus: And she will do me a favor. Stop.
Euripides: Stop.
Mnesilochus: Go to the crows!
Euripides: Go to the crows.
Mnesilochus: What evil is this?
Euripides: 'What evil?'
Mnesilochus: You are talking nonsense.
Euripides: You are talking nonsense.
Mnesilochus: alack!
Euripides: Alas!
Mnesilochus: I'm being punched in the face.
Euripides: [I have] a sore throat.
Archer: Is this you, you chatterbox?
Euripides: Is this you, a chatterbox?
Bowman: Shall I summon the prytanes?
Euripides: Shall I summon the prytanes?
Bowman: Is this an evil?
Euripides: "And this is bad?"
Bowman: How is the mare?
Euripides: How is the foal?
Bowman: Are you talking?
Euripides: Are you talking?
Bowman: he will weep.
Euripides: he will weep.
Triballian: 'Are you sneezing for me?'
Euripides: 'Are you coughing at me?'
Mnesilochus: By Zeus, but this woman is nearby.
Euripides: 'This one is nearby.'
Bowman: Where in the world is that filthy woman? And now she is burning!
Bowman: Where, where are you making off to?
Euripides: Where, where are you fleeing?
Archers: You will not have time?
Euripides: "You will not get a chance?"
Bowman: You are still grumbling, then?
Euripides: "Are you still grumbling, then?"
Archers: take the filthy one.
Euripides: take the filthy one.
Archer: Talkative and cursed woman.
Euripides: O gods, to what land of the barbarians have we come?
Euripides: on a swift shoe? For through the middle of the air
Euripides: cutting the path, I set a winged foot.
Euripides: Sailing to Argos, Perseus the Gorgon's
Euripides: carrying a head.
Archer: What do you say? About Gorgo?
Bowman: the secretary, is your head capsized?
Euripides: the Gorgon's
Euripides: I, for one, say so.
Bowman: Gorgo, I say the same to you.
Euripides: Let go; what mound is this I see, and a maiden?
Euripides: a ship like the goddesses, how, having been moored?
Mnesilochus: Oh stranger, have pity on me, the utterly wretched one,
Mnesilochus: Loosen me from the bonds.
Archers: Are you not talking to me?
Archers: Are you cursed, daring to speak while turning away?
Euripides: Oh girl, I pity you seeing you hanging.
Archer: She is not a virgin, but an old sinner.
Archer: I both steal and am cunning.
Euripides: You are babbling, O Scythian.
Euripides: for this is Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus.
Bowman: Consider the bladder; perhaps it is being mixed?
Euripides: Come here and give me your hand, so that I may touch the maiden;
Euripides: Bring the Scythian! For illnesses [are] for men.
Euripides: 'It is so for everyone; but for me and myself, of the girl'
Euripides: desire has taken hold of her.
Archers: We do not envy you.
Archers: but if the anus has been turned this way,
Toxotes: I did not toil to bring you to punch yourself.
Euripides: But why do you not let me release her, O Scythian?
Euripides: to fall into bed and the nuptial couch?
Archers: if you really desire to beat up the old man, do it.
Bowman: having pierced the board, thrust it backwards with force.
Euripides: By Zeus, but I will untie the bonds.
Archer: So I'll whip you.
Euripides: And indeed, I will do this.
Archers: the pot, then, [will hit] you
Archers: cut off this shoe-knife!
Euripides: Alas! What shall I do? To whom shall I turn my words?
Euripides: But a barbarian nature would not accept it.
Euripides: for he brings new things to the foolish, wise things
Euripides: You would waste [your money] in vain, but [spend it] on someone else.
Euripides: we must devise a scheme fitting for this.
Bowman: a filthy fox, just as I was expecting.
Mnesilochus: remember how you leave me wretched, Perseus.
Archer: For you still desire to take the whip?
Chorus: Pallas, the lover of dancing, to me
Chorus: Here the custom is to call to the dance,
Chorus: a virgin, unmarried maiden,
Chorus: she holds our city
Chorus: and clear power, alone
Chorus: He is called a key-bearer.
Chorus: appear, O tyrants
Chorus: hating as is fitting.
Chorus: The people of women indeed call you;
Chorus: And let her come to me, having.
Chorus: I love a peace that is festive.
Chorus: Come, kindly and propitious ones,
Chorus: mistresses, to your grove,
Chorus: There it is, men are not permitted to see.
Chorus: holy mysteries of the gods, that with torches
Chorus: Let an immortal vision appear.
Chorus: Come, come, let us go together, O...
Chorus: O Thesmophoros, much-endowed one,
Chorus: if I have also heard before
Chorus: Come now, come, we beg you, come.
Chorus: Here, too, for us.
Euripides: women, if you wish for the rest of the time
Euripides: 'Make libations to me, right now it is possible,'
Euripides: for which reason one might not hear at all from me
Euripides: Then it is a bad thing. I am offering a truce on these points.
Chorus: With what need do you bring forward this speech?
Euripides: So then, this is my relative on the board.
Euripides: If then I should obtain this one, I will never...
Euripides: You will hear it badly; but if you do not obey me,
Euripides: which you are now dwelling under the men.
Euripides: I will slander you, given that you are present, from the army.
Chorus: know that what is ours is persuaded to you;
Chorus: but persuade this barbarian yourself.
Euripides: It is my work; and your blow, just so much for you.
Euripides: on the road they were saying to do this in order to remember.
Euripides: First of all, therefore, go through and uncover.
Euripides: But you, Teredon, breathe out a Persian air again.
Bowman: What is this buzzing? Who is rousing me for revelry?
Euripides: The girl was going to rehearse in advance, archer.
Euripides: For she is coming, dancing, as if she were some men.
Bowman: by oaths and practices, I am not hindered.
Toxotes: as light, just like a flea on the thigh.
Euripides: Bring the child down from above, my child!
Euripides: and sitting down on the knees of the Scythian
Euripides: Show me both feet, so that I may untie them.
Archers: Nay, nay!
Toxotes: Come down, come down, down, down, little bow.
Tosotes: Alas, how the chick chirps, just like a quail.
Euripides: Call out more quickly; are you still afraid of the Scythian?
Archer: Well, that's a good rump. You would cry if you didn't stand firm.
Bowman: Peeping up and peering over, he has been castrated;
Archer: Well then; a fine appearance around the arse.
Euripides: It is well. Take your cloak; it is time for us.
Euripides: 'Now walk.'
Archer: Didn't I strike you first with stones?
Euripides: quite so; kiss him.
Archers: Oh, oh, oh papapapai,
Toxotēs: How sweet the tongue is, like Attic honey.
Archer: Why did you not shoot an arrow past me?
Euripides: hail, archer,
Euripides: For this would not happen.
Bowman: Yes, yes, you wretch.
Bowman: For me, you owe this favor.
Euripides: Then will you give a drachma?
Bowman: Yes, by the gods, let them give.
Euripides: Well then, bring the money.
Bowman: But I haven't come to the door; rather, take the piglet.
Euripides: Then, you take it back to them.
Archers: Follow, child.
Archers: and you guard this old man, you wretch.
Archer: What is your name?
Euripides: Artemisia.
Archer: then remember the name: Artemouxia.
Euripides: Hermes, crafty one, you are still doing these things quite well.
Euripides: So then, run away, taking this little child;
Euripides: But I will release this man. And you, however, in a manly way...
Euripides: when you are loosed as quickly as possible, you will run and fart.
Euripides: as for the woman and the child, home.
Mnesilochus: I shall take care of these things once I am freed.
Euripides: loosen yourself. It is your work, flee before the archer.
Euripides: to catch them arriving.
Mnesilochus: So this is what I do.
Bowman: Oh old woman, how much your breast was tickled,
Archer: And it's not difficult, but mild. Where is the old woman?
Bowman: Alas, I am destroyed! Where is the old man from this direction?
Archer: Oh old woman, oh old woman. I do not praise an old woman.
Archer: Artemoxia.
Arrow: That old woman slandered me. Run away from her as quickly as possible, you!
Archer: That is the way to be quiet; for it must be done.
Bowman: Alas,
Bowman: What are they doing? Where is the old woman? Artamoxia.
Chorus: Are you asking about the old woman who brought the clappers?
Bowman: yes, indeed. Did you see it?
Chorus: She is going this way.
Chorus: She and that old man followed.
Bowman: Did they throw saffron at the old man?
Chorus: I say it.
Chorus: You could still catch him, if you pursued him this way.
Arrow-man: Oh, filthy old woman, are you running along the road?
Tribesman: Artemoxia.
Chorus: Run straight up. Where are you running? Not back again.
Chorus: Will she pursue her this way? But you, on the contrary, are running away from her.
Bowman: wretched one, but run. Artemoxia.
Chorus: Run now, with your apron fluttering, straight for the crows, run.
Chorus: But it has been cooked for us moderately;
Chorus: So now is the time to walk.
Chorus: to each one's home. But for the two Thesmophoriae
Chorus: a good [thing] for us.
Chorus: For this reason, let us pay them back.