Chorus: Iacchus, O Iacchus.
Chorus: Iacchus, O Iacchus.
Xanthias: That is it, master! The initiated
Xanthias: They are playing somewhere here, those whom he told us about.
Xanthias: At least they are singing Iacchus, the very one [that] Diagoras [was].
Dionysus: And they seem so to me too. So let us keep quiet.
Dionysus: That is very good, as long as we know clearly.
Chorus: Iacchus, you who dwell here in these seats, highly honored,
Chorus: Iacchus! O Iacchus!
Chorus: Come, dance through this meadow.
Chorus: pious ones into the maenads,
Chorus: shaking a very fruitful [branch]
Chorus: overflowing about your head
Chorus: a myrtle wreath, boldly striking
Chorus: with foot the unrestrained one
Chorus: honor the playful one,
Chorus: possessing the greatest share of graces, pure, sacred
Chorus: a dance for the holy initiates.
Xanthias: O daughter of Demeter, most honored lady,
Xanthias: How sweetly the smell of pork breathed upon me.
Dionysus: Won't you stand still, if you should take hold of even a string?
Chorus: †Wake the torches, for he comes, shaking them† in his hands,
Chorus: Iacchus, O Iacchus!
Chorus: the light-bearing star of the nocturnal rite.
Chorus: and the meadow shines with fire.
Chorus: the knees of the elders tremble.
Chorus: they shake off sorrows
Chorus: years long and ancient years
Chorus: by holy honor.
Chorus: and you, blazing with a torch
Chorus: lead forward to a flowery marshy ground.
Chorus: O blessed one, you who create the chorus of youth.
Chorus: It is necessary to be silent and to stand in line with our own choruses,
Chorus: Whoever is inexperienced in such speeches or whose mind is not pure,
Chorus: Neither has he seen the mysteries of the noble Muses nor has he danced them,
Chorus: nor has the tongue of Cratinus the bull-eater been consecrated to Bacchus.
Chorus: Or do they delight in the words of the buffoons when they do this at the wrong time?
Chorus: Or if he does not dissolve a hostile stance nor is he easy for the citizens,
Chorus: But he wakes up and tosses about, desiring his own profits,
Chorus: Or while the city is being tossed about, the ruler is being bribed,
Chorus: Does he betray a fortress or a ship, or does he send away secret matters?
Chorus: a wretched twentieth-tax collector, being from the Thorikians of Aegina,
Chorus: sending up sacks and linen and flatbreads to Epidaurus,
Chorus: Or does he persuade someone to supply money for the ships of the opponents?
Chorus: Or does he, singing, make the round of the round choirs of the Hecateia,
Chorus: Or does the orator, being an orator, then gnaw away the poets' wages,
Chorus: having been mocked in the ancestral rites of Dionysus;
Chorus: To these I speak, and again I answer them, and again for the third time I answer them.
Chorus: let the initiates be amazed at the choruses; but you, awaken the song.
Chorus: and our all-night festivals, which are fitting for this festival.
Chorus: March forward now, all of you, bravely.
Chorus: to the flower-filled bosoms
Chorus: striking the meadows
Chorus: and mocking
Chorus: both playing and mocking,
Chorus: He has breakfasted sufficiently.
Chorus: But step in and somehow you will carry it off.
Chorus: bravely the Savior
Chorus: singing with the voice,
Chorus: she the country
Chorus: 'He says to save them until the season.'
Chorus: and if he is not willing in the case of the Thorucians.
Chorus: Come now, let us take up another vision of hymns, the fruit-bearing royal one.
Chorus: Celebrate, adorning the goddess Demeter with holy songs.
Chorus: Demeter of the holy rites
Chorus: Queen, stand by us!
Chorus: and save your own chorus,
Chorus: and safely all day long
Chorus: to dance and to perform in a chorus;
Chorus: And many things indeed have made me laugh-
Chorus: to drink, and many serious things, and
Chorus: Worthy of your festival.
Chorus: having played and having mocked the young man-
Chorus: to have been crowned with a wreath.
Chorus: Come on then
Chorus: Now also invite the beautiful god here.
Chorus: With songs, [I praise] the companion of this chorus.
Chorus: Hail, much-honored Iacchus, song of the festival
Chorus: having found what is most delightful, come here and follow along.
Chorus: towards the goddess
Chorus: and show it without toil.
Chorus: You are completing a long journey.
Chorus: Iacchus, lover of dancing, go with me as a companion.
Chorus: for you have indeed torn apart [him] for the sake of laughter.
Chorus: and this little sandal is also cheap.
Chorus: and the rags,
Chorus: and you found it so that they were unharmed.
Chorus: to play and to dance.
Chorus: Iacchus, lover of dancing, escort me on my way.
Chorus: for even you, a young boy, have looked aside at something.
Chorus: Now indeed I have seen her, and she is very good-looking.
Chorus: they play together.
Chorus: the tunic is torn off!
Chorus: They poked out their nipples.
Chorus: Iacchus, lover of dancing, escort me along with the others.
Dionysus: But I am always somehow a lover of baths-
Dionysus: I am a god and with her.
Dionysus: I want to dance while playing.
Xanthias: And I, too, am with you.
Chorus: Do you wish, then, to speak together?
Chorus: Shall we mock Archédeimos?
Chorus: He who, being seven years old, did not fart in the phratria.
Chorus: Now, indeed, he is playing the demagogue.
Chorus: among the dead above,
Chorus: And so it is, the first of that wretchedness over there.
Chorus: But I hear of the son of Cleisthenes.
Chorus: in the funerals, an anus
Chorus: to pluck out one's own and tear the jaws;
Chorus: And he chops, leaning forward,
Chorus: and she wept and she screamed.
Chorus: Who is Sebinus, the Anaphlystian?
Chorus: And they say that Callias too.
Chorus: this son of Hippobinos
Chorus: a lion-skin, a sea-fighter, fitted on.
Dionysus: So, then, could he tell us?
Dionysus: Where does Pluto live here?
Dionysus: for we have just arrived as strangers.
Chorus: Do not go very far,
Chorus: and do not come back to me again,
Chorus: But know that you have arrived at that very door.
Dionysus: would he lift it up again, boy.
Xanthias: What was this affair?
Xanthias: But either Corinth of Zeus is among the mattresses.
Chorus: Go!
Chorus: now a sacred [dance] in a circle of the goddess, flower-bearing through the grove
Chorus: playing with those who are present at the god-loving festival;
Chorus: And I, along with the girls and the women, am going.
Chorus: Where they spend the night in honor of the goddess, bringing forth holy light.
Chorus: let us go to the much-flowery [place].
Chorus: flowery meadows,
Chorus: our way
Chorus: the most beautiful in the choir
Chorus: playing, which are blessed.
Chorus: The Fates gather together.
Chorus: for for us alone the sun
Chorus: And there is a cheerful light,
Chorus: All who have been initiated into the holy rites-
Chorus: we have gone through [it] respectfully
Chorus: as for the manner concerning the foreigners
Chorus: and the private citizens.
Dionysus: Come then, in what way shall I knock on the door? In what way?
Dionysus: How, then, do the locals strike here?
Xanthias: You will not linger, but rather taste the door,
Xanthias: having the appearance and the beard of Heracles.
Dionysus: boy, boy.
Aiacus: Who is this?
Dionysus: Heracles the strong.
Aeacus: O detestable, shameless, and bold you!
Aiakos: and vile and utterly vile and most vile,
Aiakos: who, having driven out our dog, Kerberos,
Aiakos: having pulled the rope and leaped, you departed having seized it,
Aeacus: Him whom I was guarding. But now he has the middle seat;
Aiakos: Such is the black-hearted rock of Styx that you are.
Aiakos: And the bloody, dripping rock of Achelous.
Aiake: the dogs, circling the Cocytus, guard,
Aiakos: O hundred-headed serpent, who has your entrails.
Aiaikos: He will tear to pieces, and will seize the lungs.
Aiaikos: Tartesian mullet; but your kidneys are...
Aiaikos: to the ones with bloodied weapons
Aiakos: The Tethrasian Gorgons will be torn apart,
Aiaikos: upon which I will launch my running foot.
Xanthias: What have you done, you?
Dionysus: I have been initiated; call the god.
Xanthias: O ridiculous one, will he not soon stand up?
Xanthias: Before seeing some outsider?
Dionysus: But it is the right time.
Dionysus: But he brought a sponge to my heart.
Xanthias: Here, take it, add it.
Dionysus: Where is he?
Xanthias: O golden gods
Xanthias: Here you have the heart?
Dionysus: for having feared,
Dionysus: he lowered himself into my lower belly.
Xanthias: O most cowardly of gods and men.
Dionysus: Me?
Dionysus: How cowardly is anyone who asked you for a sponge?
Dionysus: No, another man would not have done that.
Xanthias: But what?
Dionysus: he would have been lying down smelling, if indeed he was a coward.
Dionysus: But I stood up and stuck out my tongue.
Xanthias: Brave man, oh Poseidon.
Dionysus: I think, by Zeus.
Dionysus: But you were not afraid of the noise of the words.
Dionysus: And the threats?
Xanthias: No, by Zeus, I did not even pay attention.
Dionysus: Go now, since you are both a rogue and a manly man,
Dionysus: you, then, become [the one to carry] this club, having taken it.
Dionysus: and the lion-skin, if you are indeed without fear or compassion;
Dionysus: But I shall be your equipment-bearer in that part.
Xanthias: Come then quickly! For no, but one must be persuaded;
Xanthias: And look at the Heracleoxanthias,
Xanthias: If I am to be a coward and hold it according to you.
Dionysus: By Zeus, but truly, he is not Melite's whipper.
Dionysus: Come now, I shall lift up these couches.
Servant: O dearest, have you come, Heracles? Come here.
Servant: For the goddess, since she has heard that you have arrived, [will come] immediately.
Maid: She was baking breads, she was rubbing down the pots with lye.
Maid: Two or three fennels, and strip the whole skin off an ox,
Maid: I baked flat cakes, little cakes. But come in.
Xanthias: Very beautiful, I praise you.
Maid: By Apollo, I will not...
Maidservant: I will go around and look after him, since you have meat too.
Maid: The hen was roosting, and the tidbits
Servant: It boiled, and she stirred in the most sweet wine-mix.
Maid: But come in with me.
Xanthias: very well.
Servant: You are talking nonsense.
Maid: For I will not let you go. For you are also a flute-girl.
Therapaina: She is inside, the most beautiful and a dancer.
Servant: Two or three others.
Xanthias: How do you say it? Dancers?
Maid: To have been anointed and just now put on.
Maid: But come in, just as the cook has already [prepared] the pieces.
Maid: She was about to take even the table, when she entered.
Xanthias: Go now, tell the dancers first.
Xanthias: to the women inside, I am entering.
Xanthias: Let the boy follow here carrying the equipment.
Dionysus: Stop right there. There is no hurry,
Dionysus: Did I make Heracles into a joke?
Dionysus: 'You will certainly not chatter, having [those words], O Xanthias,'
Dionysus: But, having lifted them up, you will carry the bedding back again.
Xanthias: What is it? Surely he does not intend to cheat me.
Xanthias: Have you sung yourself?
Dionysus: Not soon, but now I do it.
Dionysus: Put down the skin.
Xanthias: I testify to this.
Xanthias: And I entrust it even to the gods.
Dionysus: Which gods?
Dionysus: but it is not foolish or empty to expect you.
Dionysus: 'Will you be like a slave and mortal Alcmene?'
Xanthias: By all means, well; keep it. For perhaps to you at some time
Xanthias: You would ask me, if the god wished.
Chorus: these things are for a man
Chorus: having a mind and understanding and
Chorus: having sailed through many things,
Chorus: to roll oneself over and over
Chorus: toward the well-built wall.
Chorus: rather than painted.
Chorus: [They] stand like statues, having taken one.
Chorus: a gesture; but to turn around
Chorus: towards the softer [direction].
Chorus: it is to the right of the man.
Chorus: and by nature, Theramenes.
Dionysus: for it would not be ridiculous, if
Dionysus: Xanthias, although he is a slave, in
Dionysus: on Milesian cushions
Dionysus: with his head thrown back, the hound-
Dionysus: first she asked for a hen, then a quail, I.
Dionysus: but looking toward this one
Dionysus: I was seizing the lever, where-
Dionysus: but he himself is quite cunning.
Dionysus: He saw it, and then from the jaw
Dionysus: He punched and cut off my nose.
Dionysus: 'the front rows of the chorus?'
Tavern-keeper: Platane, Platane, come here, this rogue here,
Innkeeper: Whoever once entered the inn
Innkeeper: She ate sixteen of our loaves.
Plathane: By Zeus!
Plathane: that very man, then.
Xanthias: A bad thing is coming to someone.
Innkeeper: And twenty pieces of boiled meat on top of that.
Innkeeper: Half a obol's worth.
Xanthias: Someone will pay the penalty.
Innkeeper: And the many garlic cloves.
Dionysus: You are talking nonsense, woman.
Dionysus: And you do not know what you are saying.
Innkeeper: You did not expect me, then,
Innkeeper: Because you were wearing cothurni, could you still be recognized?
Innkeeper: Why then? I have not yet said anything in great detail.
Plathane: By Zeus, not even the fresh cheese, I swear,
Plathane: whom he himself ate up with those very coins.
Innkeeper: And then, since I was being paid the money,
Innkeeper: He looked sharply at me and bent his head.
Xanthias: This is very much his work; this way of acting is everywhere.
Innkeeper: And he was drawing his sword, seeming to be furious.
Plathane: By Zeus, wretched me.
Innkeeper: But I, having been afraid, am indeed
Innkeeper: We jumped straight up onto the roof!
Innkeeper: But he went off, having taken the rush mat, after shouting.
Xanthias: And this is his work too.
Plathane: but one should have done something.
Innkeeper: Go and summon Cleon, my lord, for me.
Plathane: but you, if you should catch Hyperbolus,
Plathane: so that we may rub him.
Innkeeper: Oh filthy throat,
Innkeeper: How sweetly I would bite your molars with a stone!
Innkeeper: I would be worn out, having eaten up all my loads.
Plathane: But I would throw you into the abyss.
Innkeeper: But I would cut out your larynx.
Landlady: Taking a sickle, with which you cut down the cholicas.
Plathane: But I am going to Cleon, who is there today.
Plathane: these things are being thoroughly roasted while he calls them.
Dionysus: I would perish most terribly, if I do not love Xanthias.
Xanthias: I know, I know the mind; stop, stop the speech.
Xanthias: I would not become Heracles, certainly.
Dionysus: By no means.
Dionysus: O Xanthidion.
Xanthias: And how could I [be] Alcmena's?
Xanthias: Could I be a son, being both a slave and mortal?
Dionysus: I know, I know that he is angry, and justly he does this;
Dionysus: Even if you were to strike me, I would not answer you back.
Dionysus: But if I should ever take something from you in the future,
Dionysus: root and branch himself, the wife, the children,
Dionysus: May I perish utterly, I who am a public nuisance, a scoundrel.
Xanthias: I accept the oath, and on top of that I take it.
Chorus: Now it is your work, since
Chorus: You have taken the costume which
Chorus: You had it from the beginning again,
Chorus: to renew
Chorus: and again to see the dreadful thing,
Chorus: mindful of the god.
Chorus: to whom you liken yourself.
Chorus: but if he is caught while raving
Chorus: and after you have cast out some soft thing,
Chorus: Again, you must be lifted.
Chorus: The mattresses will be there again.
Xanthias: Not badly, then, men, you advise,
Xanthias: But I myself happen to know these things.
Xanthias: Just now understanding together.
Xanthias: Well then, if something is good,
Xanthias: he will try to take these away again.
Xanthias: I know well that.
Xanthias: But nevertheless I will go out.
Xanthias: 'My courage is manly.'
Xanthias: and seeing oregano.
Xanthias: It seems, as I hear, a terrible thing.
Xanthias: The door, and now a noise.
Aiakos: Bind this dog-stealer quickly.
Aiaos: in order that he may pay the penalty; let it be done.
Dionysus: An evil has come.
Xanthias: Isn't it to the crows? Don't approach.
Aiaikos: Well, shall we fight?
Aiaikos: Ditulas and Skeblyas and Pardokas
Aiaikos: Advance here and fight with him.
Dionysus: Then aren't these terrible things, to beat this man?
Dionysus: stealing from other people's property?
Aeacus: But it is a superhuman thing.
Dionysus: So then they are truly shameless and terrible.
Xanthias: And indeed, by Zeus!
Xanthias: If I have ever come here, I want to die,
Xanthias: Or did I steal something of yours worthy even of a hair?
Xanthias: And I will make a very noble deed for you;
Xanthias: for having seized this boy, torture him,
Xanthias: And if you should ever catch me doing wrong, kill me while dragging me.
Aiakos: And how shall I torture?
Xanthias: in every way, on a ladder.
Xanthias: having bound and hanged him with a strap, whipping, flogging,
Xanthias: twisting, and yet pouring vinegar into the nostrils,
Xanthias: laying on the bricks, everything else, except leeks.
Xanthias: Do not beat this man, nor with a new pot.
Aiaikos: The argument is fair; and even if I should maim one of you.
Aiakos: While beating the boy, the money will be placed for you.
Xanthias: Not, pray, for me. But, having led him away, torment him so.
Aiaikos: But there, then, so that he may speak before your eyes.
Aiaikos: Put down your things quickly, so that you will speak.
Aiakos: Here, no falsehood.
Dionysus: I am speaking to someone.
Dionysus: Do not torture me, being immortal; but if not,
Dionysus: Accuse yourself.
Aiakos: And what do you say?
Dionysus: I say that Dionysus is immortal, the son of Zeus,
Dionysus: This one is a slave.
Aeacus: Do you hear these things?
Xanthias: I say so.
Xanthias: And certainly he is even more deserving of a whipping.
Xanthias: if indeed he is a god, he will not notice.
Dionysus: But what then, since you too claim to be a god,
Dionysus: Don't you also strike the same blows as me?
Xanthias: the argument is fair; and which of the two you would see us.
Xanthias: before having been beaten or having been preferred in anything
Xanthias: consider this man, though he is being beaten, not to be a god.
Aeacus: There is no way that you are not a bold man;
Aeacus: You are going to the just place. Take off your clothes, then.
Xanthias: How then will you torture us justly?
Aiakos: Easily;
Aiakos: a blow after another, each.
Xanthias: You are speaking well.
Aiaikos: Look!
Xanthias: Now look, whether you see me acting up.
Aiakos: I have already struck you.
Xanthias: Not by Zeus.
Aiakos: Nor do you seem so to me.
Aiakos: But I will go to this one and strike him.
Dionysus: when?
Aiakos: And now I have struck.
Dionysus: And then how did they not flee?
Aiaikos: I do not know; but I will try this one again.
Xanthias: Surely you won't manage it, will you? Alas!
Aiakos: What is this?
Aiakos: Were you in labor?
Xanthias: No, by Zeus, but I took care of it.
Xanthias: whenever a Heracleia is being held in the Diomeia.
Aiakos: A sacred man. One must walk back here.
Dionysus: ouch, ouch.
Aiakos: What is it?
Dionysus: I see the horsemen.
Aiakos: Why then are you weeping?
Dionysus: I smell onions.
Aiakos: since, then, you value nothing.
Dionysus: I do not care.
Aiakos: We must certainly walk back this way again.
Xanthias: Alas.
Aiaikos: What is it?
Xanthias: pull out the thorn.
Aeacus: What is this affair? We must walk back here again.
Dionysus: Apollo—who, I suppose, hold Delos or Pytho.
Xanthias: It hurt! Didn't you hear?
Dionysus: Not I, since
Dionysus: I was remembering an iamb of Hipponax.
Xanthias: You are doing nothing, for you are scraping your thighs.
Aiaikos: By Zeus, but now offer up your belly.
Dionysus: Poseidon
Xanthias: Someone has been hurt.
Dionysus: you who first dwell in the depths of the blue-grey sea of Aegaeus.
Aeacus: By Demeter, I am not yet able to learn.
Aiakos: Which one of you is a god. But, let's eat;
Aiaikos: for the master himself will know you.
Aeacus: And Persephone too, who is a goddess just like him.
Dionysus: You speak correctly; but I would like you this
Dionysus: consider first, before I receive the blows.
Chorus: Muse of the holy choruses, come and arrive for the delight of my song,
Chorus: the multitude of the people to be gazed upon; a crowd, whose wisdoms
Chorus: ten thousand are seated.
Chorus: More ambitious than Cleophon's, indeed, with his two-tongued lips
Chorus: A terrible storm comes down upon us.
Chorus: Thracian swallow
Chorus: sitting on a barbarian plate.
Chorus: it warbles a lamentable nightingale song, as if it were to be lost,
Chorus: And may they become equal.
Chorus: It is right to sing the holy chorus for the good of the city.
Chorus: to accompany and to teach. So then, it seems to us first
Chorus: to make the citizens equal and to take away the debts,
Chorus: and if someone, having been tripped up, made a mistake with Phrynichus' wrestling moves,
Chorus: I say that those who slip then ought to be born.
Chorus: He will explain the cause to release the former mistakes.
Chorus: And I say that it is right that nothing be dishonored in the city;
Chorus: For it is shameful that those who have fought at sea [should have] one [ship]...
Chorus: And that the Plataeans were immediately masters in place of slaves.
Chorus: And not even I myself could say that this is not well done,
Chorus: But I approve, for you alone have acted with understanding.
Chorus: In addition to these, it is likely that you, who along with you have many things indeed
Chorus: And the fathers fought at sea and are related by birth,
Chorus: that this single misfortune to be present to those asking.
Chorus: But laying aside your anger, you who are most wise by nature
Chorus: Let us willingly acquire all people as relatives.
Chorus: and also those who are held in honor and citizens, whoever may fight in a naval battle.
Chorus: but if we are to bellow and puff ourselves up,
Chorus: holding the city and these things in the arms of the waves,
Chorus: In time to come, we shall not seem to be of sound mind again.
Chorus: If I were to see a man's upright life or some character that still exists
Chorus: it will be wailed,
Chorus: Not much, nor does this monkey who is now causing trouble,
Chorus: Cleigenes the little one,
Chorus: the most wicked bathman, as many as rule, are ash-soakers.
Chorus: false plaster
Chorus: and of the land of Keos,
Chorus: He will stay for a while; but having seen these things, he will not
Chorus: It is peaceful, so that he might not even strip off drunk, without [it].
Chorus: walking on wood.
Chorus: many times it has seemed to us that the city has suffered.
Chorus: the same [is true] both for the citizens, for the good and noble ones.
Chorus: both to the ancient coinage and to the new gold.
Chorus: for neither to these things being nor counterfeited,
Chorus: but of all coins, as it seems, the most beautiful ones
Chorus: and only to those who have been properly cut and have been properly bell-rung.
Chorus: both among the Greeks and among the barbarians, everywhere.
Chorus: We use nothing, but with these base bronze coins
Chorus: Yesterday and the day before, [we were] stricken with the very worst wound.
Chorus: nine of the citizens whom we know to be noble and self-controlled.
Chorus: men being just and good and noble and virtuous
Chorus: and those who have been reared in wrestling schools and choruses and in music,
Chorus: we welcome, but to the bronzes and the foreigners and the Pyrrhics
Chorus: and with the wicked and from the wicked we use everything.
Chorus: to those who arrive last, whom the city [loved] before
Chorus: Nor would they easily have used the drugs without reason.
Chorus: But now you have changed your character and are still unrecognizable.
Chorus: use the good things again; for they have been accomplished.
Chorus: Reasonable, and even if there is a mistake, at least from a worthy piece of wood,
Chorus: If you suffer anything at all, you will seem to suffer like the wise.
Aiaikos: By Zeus the savior, he is a man of noble birth.
Aeacus: your master.
Xanthias: "How indeed not a gentleman,"
Xanthias: As for anyone who only knows how to drink and get drunk?
Aiakos: but that you were not struck, even though exposed openly,
Aiakos: that, although you were a slave, you claimed to be a master.
Xanthias: He groaned, indeed.
Aiakos: this, however, is slave-like.
Aiakos: you have done it immediately, which I am glad to do.
Xanthias: Are you well, I beg you?
Aiakos: But I think I am observing.
Aeacus: when I curse the master secretly.
Xanthias: But why are you shouting, when you have received blows?
Xanthias: You are going out the door many times?
Aiakos: and I am pleased by this.
Xanthias: But why do you do so many things?
Aeacus: As surely as by Zeus, I know nothing.
Xanthias: Zeus, my dear! And while the masters are listening.
Xanthias: What would they be saying?
Aiaikos: But I sail rather than I am mad.
Xanthias: But what am I saying about those things out there?
Aiakos: me?
Aeacus: By Zeus, but when I do this, I become exhausted.
Xanthias: O Phoebus Apollo, cast the right hand upon me,
Xanthias: And give [him] a kiss, and kiss yourself, and tell me.
Xanthias: by Zeus, who is our whip-fellow,
Xanthias: What is this noise and clamor then?
Xanthias: And the abuse?
Aiaikos: Aeschylus's and Euripides's.
Xanthias: What?
Aiaikos: A big deed, a big deed has been stirred up, a big one.
Aiaikos: There is also great strife among the dead.
Xanthias: From where?
Aiakos: there is a certain law established here.
Aiaikos: from the crafts that are great and skillful,
Aiaikos: the best of his own fellow craftsmen.
Aiakeus: that he should receive food in the prytaneion.
Aiakos: and a throne of Pluto in sequence—
Xanthias: I understand.
Aiaikos: until he should come back more skilled in his art.
Aeacus: Another one of his; then he had to yield.
Xanthias: Why on earth has Aeschylus been making such a commotion?
Aiakos: He had the tragic throne,
Aeacus: as being the most powerful in the art.
Xanthias: But now, who is it?
Aiaikos: when indeed Euripides came down, he was being exhibited.
Aeacus: to the thieves and to the purse-cutters.
Aiaikos: and to the patrolling guards and to the wall-climbers,
Aiaos: Whatever is the multitude in Hades, but the listeners
Aiakos: of the counter-arguments and twists and turns
Aiaikos: They went mad and they judged him to be the wisest;
Aiaikos: And then, having been puffed up, he seized hold of the throne,
Aiaikos: so that Aeschylus might sit.
Xanthias: And he wasn't being struck?
Aiakos: By Zeus, but the people were shouting to hold a trial.
Aeacus: which one might be more skilled in the craft.
Xanthias: The one of the rascals?
Aiaikos: By Zeus of heaven, what a huge one!
Xanthias: But were there not other allies with Aeschylus?
Aeacus: Goodness is little, just as here.
Xanthias: But what is Pluto now preparing to do?
Aiaikos: let us make a contest right away and a judgment.
Aiakeus: And I will expose their skill.
Xanthias: and then how?
Xanthias: Did Sophocles not also take hold of the throne?
Aiaikos: By Zeus, it was not he, but he begat Aeschylus,
Aiaikos: when he indeed came down, and threw his right hand,
Aeacus: And he also yielded to him the throne;
Aiakos: now indeed it was about to be, as Kleidēmidēs said,
Aiakos: Sit on the bench; and if indeed Aeschylus prevails,
Aiakos: He will have it by force; but if not, about the art.
Aeacus: 'He said he would compete with Euripides.'
Xanthias: Then will the money be?
Aiakos: By Zeus, a little later.
Aiaikos: And here too the horrors will now be set in motion.
Aiakos: For even by the talent of music it will be weighed—
Xanthias: What then? Will they lead the tragedy on?
Aiakos: and they will take away the canons and the cubits of the verses.
Aiakos: and folded frames—
Xanthias: 'For will they be made of brick?'
Aiakos: and measuring-rods and wasps. For Euripides
Aiakos: he says that each word tortures the tragedies.
Xanthias: I think that Aeschylus is indeed being borne with difficulty.
Aiakos: He did at least look bull-like, peering down.
Xanthias: But who will decide what this is?
Aiakos: That was difficult.
Aiakos: for I found a difficulty with wise men.
Aeacus: for Aeschylus did not happen to be with the Athenians—
Xanthias: perhaps he considered many of the wall-climbers.
Aiakeus: He thought the other things too foolish to be known.
Aiakos: the natures of poets; then your master.
Aiakeus: They allowed it, because he was experienced in the art.
Aiaikos: But let us go in; for whenever the masters
Aiakos: They have hurried up; we are getting weeping.
Chorus: Surely he will have from within the terrible wrath of the thunder-roarer,
Chorus: whenever he overlooks a sharp-tongued person drawing a tooth
Chorus: a counter-art; then indeed [I am seized] by terrible madness
Chorus: The eyes will whirl.
Chorus: And there will be horse-breathing speeches, crest-shaking quarrels.
Chorus: and the chisels and the planes, tools of the works,
Chorus: of the light-banishing man who makes the mind
Chorus: a word about horse-riders.
Chorus: shuddering, he plucked the shaggy, neck-hairy plumes of his own crest,
Chorus: He will strike, bellowing, gathering a fearsome mask.
Chorus: tearing off the nails like a tablet
Chorus: with an earthly breath.
Chorus: From here comes the tongue-wagging, word-torturing slanderer.
Chorus: tongue uncoiling, setting envious bits in motion
Chorus: She will cut up the words and chop them into tiny pieces.
Chorus: a great pain of the lungs.
Euripides: I would not relinquish the throne, unless I am being admonished.
Euripides: For I say that this art is better than that one.
Dionysus: Aeschylus, why are you silent? For you perceive the argument.
Euripides: he pretends to be serious first, which is always the case.
Euripides: he was talking nonsense in his tragedies.
Dionysus: O spirit, do not speak too greatly of men.
Euripides: I knew him and have been suspicious of him for a long time,
Euripides: a man who makes beasts wild and is impudent of mouth,
Euripides: 'A mouth that is unrestrained, uncontrolled, and unguarded,'
Euripides: an unceasing, bombastic, vainglorious talker.
Aeschylus: 'Is it true, child of the goddess of the field?'
Aeschylus: you indeed, you oafish word-gatherer,
Aeschylus: 'And a beggar-maker and a rag-stitcher?'
Aeschylus: But you will not say these things in good cheer.
Dionysus: Stop, Aeschylus.
Dionysus: And don't let your entrails heat up with wrath in anger.
Aeschylus: Not at all, until I pronounce this man clearly.
Aeschylus: The cripple, being what he is, acts boldly.
Dionysus: Bring out a black ram, boys!
Dionysus: for a typhoon is preparing to come out.
Aeschylus: Oh, collecting Cretan monodies,
Aeschylus: bringing unholy marriages into the art.
Dionysus: Stop right there, highly honored Aeschylus.
Dionysus: From the hail, you wretch Euripides!
Dionysus: Get yourself out of the way, if you are sensible,
Dionysus: so that your temple may not be struck with a blow to the head
Dionysus: If he, inflamed with anger, should pour forth Telephus;
Dionysus: but you, not towards Aeschylus in anger, but gently.
Dionysus: 'Check yourself, check yourself! But it is not fitting to abuse.'
Dionysus: poets like bakers.
Dionysus: But you, immediately like a pine tree that has been set on fire, are shouting.
Euripides: 'I am ready, indeed, and I do not surface,'
Euripides: 'I will bite first, if that seems right to him.'
Euripides: the words, the melodies, the sinews of tragedy,
Euripides: And by Zeus, both Peleus and Aeolus
Euripides: 'And Meleager, and very much so Telephus.'
Dionysus: But what are you planning to do? Speak, Aeschylus.
Aeschylus: I would not wish to quarrel here;
Aeschylus: for the contest is not equal between us.
Dionysus: But what then?
Aeschylus: because poetry has not died for me,
Aeschylus: He has died with this man, so that he will have something to say.
Aeschylus: Nevertheless, since it seems so to you, I must do these things.
Dionysus: Go now, someone bring frankincense here and give fire.
Dionysus: so that I may pray before the sophistries.
Dionysus: to judge this contest most musically;
Dionysus: And you, sing a song to the Muses.
Chorus: O holy nine maidens of Zeus
Chorus: Muses, you who look upon the subtle-minded minds.
Chorus: of men who fashion maxims, when they, with sharp-edged counsels, enter into strife
Chorus: Let them come, twisting their bodies and arguing back and forth,
Chorus: Come, let us go to see the army.
Chorus: to procure the most terrible mouths.
Chorus: words and the syllables of the words.
Chorus: For now the great contest of wisdom is already proceeding to action.
Dionysus: Pray, then, and say something yourselves before the rest speak.
Aeschylus: Demeter, who nourished my mind,
Aeschylus: 'To be worthy of your mysteries.'
Dionysus: Put it on, and you too take some incense.
Euripides: "Very well."
Euripides: For there are other gods in whom I pray.
Dionysus: 'Do you have any of your own, a new bit?'
Euripides: "And indeed."
Dionysus: Go on then, pray to the ordinary gods.
Euripides: The air is my pasture and the twist of my tongue.
Euripides: and noses and snouts and smelling-parts,
Euripides: You are right to censure me in regard to whatever speeches I undertake.
Chorus: And indeed we desire.
Chorus: to hear from wise men
Chorus: What kind of meter do you use for your words?
Chorus: Press forward on the journey.
Chorus: for indeed the tongue has become savage,
Chorus: their spirit is not lacking courage in both,
Chorus: Nor are the minds motionless.
Chorus: Therefore it is reasonable to expect.
Chorus: he will say something witty
Chorus: and trampled,
Chorus: but he, drawing it up with his own arms,
Chorus: with the words
Chorus: to scatter the many who have fallen
Chorus: the swaying of verses.
Dionysus: but we must speak as quickly as possible; so let them say it.
Dionysus: Witty, and neither like images nor like anything else anyone could say.
Euripides: 'Indeed, as for myself, as for my poetry, I am as I am,'
Euripides: In the very last lines I will speak, but this one I will refute first,
Euripides: how he was a boaster and a charlatan, capable of deceiving the spectators
Euripides: he deceived fools, having taken them as raised by Phrynichus.
Euripides: for first of all he would have sat down, having concealed himself,
Euripides: 'Achilles or Niobe, not showing the face,'
Euripides: a prop of tragedy, even this grumbling.
Dionysus: By Zeus, not at all.
Euripides: But the chorus would have been pulling down the stakes.
Euripides: he sang four melodies in succession continuously; but the others were silent.
Dionysus: I, however, was delighted by the silence, and this gave me pleasure.
Dionysus: Not less than now those who talk.
Euripides: For you were foolish,
Euripides: be quite certain.
DIONYSUS: I think so too. But what did that man do?
Euripides: out of pretension, so that the spectator, while waiting, might sit down,
Euripides: whenever Niobe speaks a word, the play would be broken up.
Dionysus: Oh, what a villain! I was so thoroughly cheated by him.
Dionysus: Why are you scowling and being ill-tempered?
Euripides: because I convict him.
Euripides: and then, since he would prattle these things and the play
Euripides: 'It would have been better if he had spoken twelve ox-head words.'
Euripides: having eyebrows and ridges, a terribly frightful monster,
Euripides: [they are] unknown to the spectators.
Aeschylus: alas, wretched me.
Dionysus: Be quiet.
Euripides: he would not have been able to say even one clear thing—
Dionysus: Do not grind your teeth.
Euripides: But either Skamandrians or trenches or those marching upon shields
Euripides: beaked, bronze-beating, and cliff-top verses,
Euripides: What to combine is not easy.
Dionysus: By the gods, I at least
Dionysus: I have indeed kept awake for a long time during the night.
Dionysus: I am looking for what kind of bird the red-headed rooster is.
Aeschylus: a sign, most clearly, was inscribed on the ships.
Dionysus: I thought, then, that Philoxenos' son was Eryx.
Euripides: Then should he have made a cock in his tragedies?
Aeschylus: But you, enemy of the gods, what things are these that you do?
Euripides: By Zeus, not hippalektryons nor tragelaphs, which you [do].
Euripides: [they write] the things on the Medes' curtains.
Euripides: But as I received the art from you at the very first, immediately
Euripides: swollen with boasting and with heavy words,
Euripides: 'He first took away her slenderness and her weight.'
Euripides: in epyllia and peripatoi and white teutlia,
Euripides: giving a gruel of bombast from detestable books.
Euripides: Then I raised [them] with monodies—
Dionysus: Mixing with Cephisophon.
Euripides: 'And then I would not have been taken prisoner by whatever happened, nor, having fallen, would I have been slain,'
Euripides: but the owl would first of all tell me its race immediately
Euripides: of the drama.
Dionysus: It would have been better for you, by Zeus, than your own.
Euripides: "But after the first lines, not a single word would have been idle."
Euripides: but the woman and the slave were telling me just as much,
Euripides: and the master, and the maiden, and the old woman, too.
Aeschylus: "Then, indeed"
Aeschylus: Shouldn't you have dared to die over these things?
Euripides: By Apollo!
Euripides: for he did them in a democratic manner.
Dionysus: Leave this alone, oh you there.
Dionysus: For there is no walking around most beautifully, at least regarding this matter.
Euripides: Then I taught these people to chatter—
Aeschylus: I too say so.
Aeschylus: 'Would that you had burst in two before you taught!'
Euripides: the openings of the subtle rules and the cornerings of the verses,
Euripides: to think, to see, to understand, to turn, to love, to contrive,
Euripides: one should even take it in stride, pondering everything—
Aeschylus: I too say so.
Euripides: introducing his own things, with which we use, with which we are familiar,
Euripides: from which I would have been refuted; for these men are aware of it.
Euripides: 'I would have been refuted in my art; but I did not flatter.'
Euripides: having torn away from thinking, he did not terrify them,
Euripides: making swans and Memnonas, bell-clapper-sellers.
Euripides: You will know the students of each of us, both of this man and of me.
Euripides: that is, the one called Phormisios, Megainetos, or the one called Manes,
Euripides: trumpet-snout-snail-blowers, sarcasm-pine-benders,
Euripides: Alas for me, and Cleitophon and Theramenes the dandy.
Dionysus: Theramenes? A clever man indeed and capable in all things,
Dionysus: whoever might happen to fall into evils and stand nearby,
Dionysus: He has fallen out of the evils, not a Chian but a Ceian.
Euripides: Such things I do not think.
Euripides: I have proposed this to them,
Euripides: putting reasoning into the art
Euripides: and reflection, so that [one] can now think.
Euripides: to know everything and in detail
Euripides: and the other things and the houses
Euripides: 'It is better to live at home than before.'
Euripides: And he watches, how this is going?
Euripides: Where is this for me? Who has taken this?
Dionysus: By the gods, at least now of the Athenians
Dionysus: Anyone entering
Dionysus: he has shouted to the slaves.
Dionysus: he is looking for, where is the pot?
Dionysus: Who has bitten off the head?
Dionysus: Of the madwoman? The jug?
Dionysus: He died last year.
Dionysus: Where is yesterday's garlic?
Dionysus: Who has turned the olive tree?
Dionysus: But up to now the most reckless.
Dionysus: Mammacucumbers, gaping!
Dionysus: The Melitians sat down.
Chorus: These things you see, bright Achilles.
Chorus: But what do you bring to these things in words?
Chorus: only that...
Chorus: lest anger snatch you
Chorus: it will carry them out beyond the olive groves;
Chorus: For he has made terrible accusations.
Chorus: but in order that you may be noble
Chorus: Do not answer back in anger,
Chorus: but, having gathered together to the very tips,
Chorus: using the sails,
Chorus: Then you will drive it on more and more.
Chorus: and you will guard,
Chorus: whenever the breath is smooth
Chorus: and may you receive a standing [crown].
Dionysus: But, you who first built up towers of lofty words among the Greeks,
Dionysus: And having adorned a tragic nonsense, fearing the spring, he let it go.
Aeschylus: I am indeed angry at the accident, and my entrails are indignant,
Aeschylus: if I must argue against him; so that he may not claim that I am at a loss,
Aeschylus: Answer me, for what reason ought one to wonder at a poet?
Euripides: [for] skill and instruction, in that we make [people] better.
Euripides: the people in the cities.
Aeschylus: then, if you have not done this,
Aeschylus: but from noble and generous men you have shown the most wretched ones,
Aeschylus: What do you say I deserve to suffer?
Dionysus: He is dead. Do not ask him this.
Aeschylus: consider, then, what sort of men he first accepted from me,
Aeschylus: if [they were] noble and broad-chested, and not street-running citizens,
Aeschylus: neither market-going nor cobblers nor cunning ones, as is the case now,
Aeschylus: but breathing spears and lances and white-crested helmets.
Aeschylus: and helmets and greaves and seven-oared shields.
Dionysus: And now this evil is on its way; now a bowl-maker will grind me down.
Euripides: And how did you, by doing this, teach them to be noble?
Dionysus: Aeschylus, speak, and do not find fault while arrogantly puffing yourself up.
Aeschylus: having composed a drama full of Ares.
Dionysus: Which one?
Aeschylus: the Seven Against Thebes.
Aeschylus: 'Whoever sees this falls in love to be a divine man.'
Dionysus: This is a bad thing you have done to me; for you have made the Thebans.
Dionysus: [They are] braver for the war, and for this reason, indeed, I strike.
Aeschylus: But you yourselves were free to practice, but you did not turn to this.
Aeschylus: 'Then, having taught Persians, afterwards I taught them to desire.'
Aeschylus: 'To always defeat the opponents, having adorned a most excellent work.'
Dionysus: At least I rejoiced when I heard that Darius was dead.
Dionysus: The chorus immediately, having struck its hands together in this way, said iaui.
Aeschylus: For these are the things that poets ought to practice. For examine from the beginning.
Aeschylus: 'How useful the noble ones have become among the poets.'
Aeschylus: For Orpheus indeed showed us the rites and to abstain from murders,
Aeschylus: And Musaeus will cure diseases and deliver oracles, and Hesiod too
Aeschylus: the cultivation of the earth, the seasons of the crops, the plowing; but the divine Homer
Aeschylus: he received honor and glory except for this, that he taught useful things,
Aeschylus: ranks, virtues, the arms of men?
Dionysus: And indeed, not Pantaclēs.
Dionysus: nevertheless he taught the most clumsy one; for indeed, the other day, whenever he was sending,
Dionysus: having first bound the helmet, he was about to tie the crest.
Aeschylus: but there were certainly many other good men, of whom Lamachus was also a hero;
Aeschylus: from which my mind, having drawn, made many virtues,
Aeschylus: 'Patroclus, the lion-hearted Teucrians, so that I might lift up a citizen man'
Aeschylus: to stretch himself out before them, whenever he hears a trumpet.
Aeschylus: but, no, by Zeus, I did not write about Phaedra's whores, nor about Sthenboea's,
Aeschylus: Nor has anyone ever made a woman whom I ever loved.
Euripides: By Zeus, there was nothing of Aphrodite in you. And may she never be there!
Aeschylus: But over you and your own has sat a great many from a great many.
Aeschylus: so then he actually struck you down.
Dionysus: By Zeus, that is quite true.
Dionysus: For whatever you did concerning other people's affairs, you yourself were struck by these things.
Euripides: And what harm do I and Sthenboia do to the city, you wretch?
Aeschylus: because you persuaded [women] of noble and noble men.
Aeschylus: to have drunk from the cups, ashamed because of your Bellerophontes.
Euripides: But did I not compose this speech about Phaedra?
Aeschylus: By Zeus, but truly so; but the poet must indeed conceal the evil,
Aeschylus: and not to produce or to teach. For to the little children
Aeschylus: There is a teacher who explains, but to the youths, the poets.
Aeschylus: By all means, we must speak noble words.
Euripides: If, then, you were to say Lycabettus...
Euripides: and the peaks of Parnassus to us, that is, to teach what is useful,
Euripides: 'The one who ought to be speaking in a human way?'
Aeschylus: but, wretched necessity,
Aeschylus: he brings forth even his verbs equal to great thoughts and conceptions.
Aeschylus: And also it is likely that the demigods should use greater words;
Aeschylus: For they use our robes much more solemnly.
Aeschylus: after having well demonstrated to me, you have ruined me.
Euripides: 'What having done?'
Aeschylus: first, indeed, he robs the ruling ones of their rags, so that they may be pitiable
Aeschylus: they would seem to be to men.
Euripides: So then, did I harm anything by doing this?
Aeschylus: But no one who is rich wants to be a trierarch because of these things,
Aeschylus: but wrapped in rags he weeps and says he is in need.
Dionysus: By Demeter, he is wearing a tunic made of whole wool below.
Dionysus: And even if he deceives while saying these things, he has risen up beside the fish.
Aeschylus: then again you learned to practice chatter and grumbling,
Aeschylus: who emptied the wrestling schools and rubbed on the boxing gloves.
Aeschylus: while the young men were being impudent, he even persuaded the Parali.
Aeschylus: to speak in opposition to the rulers. And yet, at that time, when I was alive,
Aeschylus: 'They did not know how to say anything other than 'maza' and 'ruppapai'.'
Dionysus: By Apollo, and even fart into the little bedroom's mouth,
Dionysus: and to have him get drunk and to pickpocket some passerby;
Dionysus: Now, however, he speaks against me and no longer, as he used to, rows back and forth from here to there.
Aeschylus: For of what evils is he not the cause?
Aeschylus: This man has not shown us any advance guards,
Aeschylus: and giving birth in the sacred places,
Aeschylus: and mixed with their brothers,
Aeschylus: 'And [she] says that living is not living?'
Aeschylus: And from these our city
Aeschylus: he was filled up with scribes.
Aeschylus: and of the buffoonish monkeys of the people
Aeschylus: deceiving the people always,
Aeschylus: 'No one is able to carry a torch.'
Aeschylus: even now from lack of exercise.
Dionysus: By Zeus, not at all, so that I should have been seen.
Dionysus: To the Athenians laughing, when indeed
Dionysus: a certain man is walking slowly, stooping down.
Dionysus: a white, fat fellow left behind.
Dionysus: And doing terrible things; and then the potters.
Dionysus: They are beating at the gates.
Dionysus: belly, ribs, haunches, rump,
Dionysus: but the one being struck with the flat parts
Dionysus: farting loudly
Dionysus: blowing the torch, he was fleeing.
Chorus: Great is the matter, great the strife, mighty war is coming.
Chorus: therefore it is a difficult task to divide,
Chorus: when one pulls violently,
Chorus: But he is able to turn back and to strut proudly.
Chorus: But do not sit in the same place.
Chorus: For there are many entrances and other sophisms.
Chorus: Whatever the case may be, they contend,
Chorus: Sing and play the drum and the cymbals.
Chorus: both the old and the new things,
Chorus: And you were running the risk of saying something subtle and clever.
Chorus: if this terrifies you, may no ignorance be present.
Chorus: to those who are being watched, as the
Chorus: 'It is not to be known by speaking of subtle things.'
Chorus: Do not fear this at all; for it is not now so.
Chorus: For they are soldiers,
Chorus: each one, holding a book, learns the right things;
Chorus: the natures are otherwise strongest,
Chorus: And now they are also worn out.
Chorus: So do not be afraid, but
Chorus: All the spectators have been outwitted, therefore, since they think themselves to be wise.
Euripides: And indeed, I shall turn to your very prologues,
Euripides: in order that the first part of the tragedy
Euripides: I will first torture his right hand.
Euripides: for the expression of the things was unclear.
Dionysus: And what torture will you inflict on him?
Euripides: very many.
Euripides: First, tell me the one from Orestias.
Dionysus: Come now, let every man be silent. Speak, Aeschylus.
Aeschylus: Hermes, chthonic one, looking upon the ancestral power,
Aeschylus: become my savior and ally as I ask.
Aeschylus: For I have come to this land and am descending.
Dionysus: Do you have anything to criticize about these things?
Euripides: more than twelve.
Dionysus: But not all these things are so, but only three.
Euripides: But each of them has twenty and three faults.
Dionysus: Aeschylus, I advise you to be silent; but if not,
Dionysus: Having a debt of three iambics, he shall appear.
Aeschylus: 'Am I to be silent with him?'
Dionysus: If he persuades me, then.
Euripides: for he has erred at once with a heavenly fault.
Aeschylus: Do you see that you are talking nonsense?
Dionysus: But it concerns me only a little.
Aeschylus: How do you say that I have made a mistake?
Euripides: Speak again from the beginning.
Aeschylus: Hermes, chthonian, watching over your father's power.
Euripides: So Orestes does not say this at the tomb.
Euripides: 'When his father had died?'
Aeschylus: I do not speak otherwise.
Euripides: Then, what happened to Hermes, since the father perished?
Euripides: by force from a woman's hand
Euripides: "He said that he would keep watch over these by secret treacheries?"
Aeschylus: Not that one, but Erionius.
Aeschylus: 'He addressed the underworld Hermes, while speaking of the manifest'.
Aeschylus: for this is a hereditary honor—
Euripides: You have erred even more than I wished;
Euripides: for if he has the hereditary honor of the underworld—
Dionysus: So that would be how it is, with a grave robber for a father.
Aeschylus: Dionysus, you drink wine that does not smell of flowers.
Dionysus: Tell him another one; but you keep watch for the injury.
Aeschylus: be a savior and an ally to me, the one asking.
Aeschylus: For I have come to this land and am descending—
Euripides: The wise Aeschylus has said the same thing to us twice.
Dionysus: 'How twice?'
Euripides: Consider the verb; and I will tell you.
Euripides: 'For I have come into the land,' he says, 'and I am descending.'
Euripides: 'I have come, and it is the same as "I am going down".'
Dionysus: By Zeus, just as if someone were to say to a neighbor,
Dionysus: Use a pestle, if you wish, a winnowing fan.
Aeschylus: Not at all, you wretch!
Aeschylus: That is what it is, man, but it is best in its words.
Euripides: How then? For teach me, by what you are saying exactly.
Aeschylus: "It is possible for anyone who has left their homeland to come to the land."
Aeschylus: for he has come without any other misfortune;
Aeschylus: the man comes running and descends.
Dionysus: Well, by Apollo. What are you saying about Euripides?
Euripides: I do not say that Orestes came home.
Euripides: for he came secretly, not persuading the masters.
Dionysus: Well, by Hermes! But what you are saying, I do not understand.
Euripides: Then go on with another.
Dionysus: Go across, you.
Dionysus: Having completed Aeschylus, you look to the bad.
Aeschylus: And I proclaim on this mound of the tomb to my father
Aeschylus: to hear is to listen.
Euripides: He says this again.
Euripides: to hear is to listen, which is clearly the same thing.
Dionysus: "For he said, 'You wretch, you are dead,'"
Dionysus: Even saying it three times, we do not reach it.
Aeschylus: And how do you make the prologues?
Euripides: I will tell.
Euripides: And if I say the same thing twice somewhere, you will see a heap.
Euripides: Go out from the speech, most despicable one.
Dionysus: Go ahead and speak, for I am not busy, but [I am] ready to listen.
Dionysus: of the correctness of your prologues and of the verses.
Euripides: "Oedipus was at first a happy man—"
Aeschylus: By Zeus, not at all, but [I am] ill-fated by nature,
Aeschylus: whom, indeed, Apollo said he was born before
Aeschylus: to kill his father before even being born;
Aeschylus: 'How was this man originally fortunate?'
Euripides: "And then he again became the most wretched of mortals."
Aeschylus: By Zeus, no, certainly not, he did not stop.
Aeschylus: How so? For when, first of all, he having become
Aeschylus: when winter was on, they abandoned [a child] in an amphora,
Aeschylus: in order that he might not become the murderer of his father.
Aeschylus: 'So, as when he struck Polybus with his swollen feet;'
Aeschylus: 'Then he married an old woman while he himself was young.'
Aeschylus: and, besides these things, his own mother;
Aeschylus: 'Then he blinded himself.'
Dionysus: "Truly he was blessed,"
Dionysus: if he also commanded, by Zeus, with Erasinides.
Euripides: You are talking nonsense; but I make the prologues beautiful.
Aeschylus: And indeed, by Zeus, I will not roast you word for word.
Aeschylus: every word, but with the gods.
Aeschylus: I will corrupt your prologues from a lekythos.
Euripides: from a lekythos [do you bring] my [things]?
Aeschylus: of one alone.
Aeschylus: for you do so as to fit everything,
Aeschylus: and a little drum, and a lekythos, and a bag,
Aeschylus: in the iambics. But I will show it right away.
Euripides: Look, will you show it?
Aeschylus: I say.
Dionysus: And now it is necessary to speak.
Euripides: 'Egypt, as the greatest amount has been scattered,'
Euripides: With fifty children, let him sail with a shallow draft.
Euripides: Having seized Argos—
Aeschylus: he lost a lekythos.
Dionysus: What was this little oil-flask? Will it not cry?
Dionysus: Say another prologue to him, so that he may know again.
Euripides: Dionysus, who with thyrsuses and fawnskins
Euripides: 'To be hanged among the pines down on Parnassus.'
Euripides: He leaps, dancing—
Aeschylus: He lost a lekythos.
Dionysus: Alas! I have been struck again by the oil-flask.
Euripides: But there will be no trouble; for with regard to this man
Euripides: He will not have the prologue to add a lekythos.
Euripides: 'No man is happy in all things.'
Euripides: For a man who is naturally good has no livelihood,
Euripides: Or, being of low birth—
Aeschylus: He lost a lekythos.
Dionysus: Euripides—
Euripides: What is it?
Dionysus: I think I should be carried.
Dionysus: for this little flask will smell very much.
Euripides: No, by Demeter, I would not even care!
Euripides: For now this very thing will be hacked off him.
Dionysus: Come on, say something else and keep hold of the oil flask.
Euripides: When Cadmus once left the Sidonian city,
Euripides: The son of Agenor—
Aeschylus: he lost a lekythos.
Dionysus: O cursed one, boil the oil-flask for the men,
Dionysus: in order that he may not disturb our prologues.
Euripides: What?
Euripides: Have I bought this?
Dionysus: if he only obeys me.
Euripides: Not at all, since I shall have many prologues to speak.
Euripides: 'So that this man will not be able to attach a lekythos.'
Euripides: Pelops, the son of Tantalus, having come to Pisa,
Euripides: with swift horses—
Aeschylus: He lost a lekythos.
Dionysus: You see, he has again lit the oil lamp.
Dionysus: But, good sir, give it back now by every art;
Dionysus: for he will receive a very good and noble obol.
Euripides: By Zeus, not yet; for I still have many [plays].
Euripides: "Once Oeneus from the land—"
Aeschylus: he lost a lekythos.
Euripides: Let me first say the whole line.
Euripides: 'Once Oineus, taking from the earth a grain with many-measured stalks,'
Euripides: sacrificing the firstfruits—
Aeschylus: 'He lost a lekythos.'
Dionysus: between sacrificing? And who then took it away?
Euripides: Let him be, you wretch, for let him say this.
Euripides: Zeus, as has been said by the truth—
Dionysus: He will lose you, for he will say, 'I have lost a lekythos.'
Dionysus: for this lekythos is upon your prologues.
Dionysus: Just as figs grow on the eyes.
Dionysus: But by the gods, turn to the verses himself.
Euripides: And indeed I have means by which I will prove him bad.
Euripides: a musician being and doing these things too.
Chorus: Whatever thing will happen?
Chorus: For I do have concern,
Chorus: So what complaint will you bring?
Chorus: to a man who indeed has received the greatest number of votes
Chorus: and most beautifully to the one who composed the songs
Chorus: those up to now.
Chorus: I, indeed, am amazed at the manner, for
Chorus: He will blame him at some point.
Chorus: the Bacchic lord,
Chorus: And he is afraid for him.
Euripides: Very wonderful indeed the songs; he will show them soon.
Euripides: for I will cut all his parts into one.
Dionysus: Indeed, I take these things as having been taken from the votes.
Euripides: Oh Achilleus of Phthia, what man-slaying thing are you hearing?
Euripides: Ah! You do not draw near to help?
Euripides: We, who are around the lake, honor Hermes as our ancestor.
Euripides: Ah! Do you not approach to help with toil?
Dionysus: I have twice worn out my body for you, Aeschylus, on this account.
Euripides: O most glorious of the Achaeans, lord of many couches of Atreus, learn my child.
Euripides: Alas! Do you not come to help with the toil?
Dionysus: This is the third time you have been tired.
Euripides: Sing auspiciously; near the house of Artemis, guide the honey-bees.
Euripides: Ah, are you not approaching to help with your toil?
Euripides: I am master to sing the martial power of men, ordained by fate.
Euripides: Why, do you not come to my aid?
Dionysus: O king Zeus, what a price for the pains!
DIONYSUS: I, for my part, wish to go to the bathhouse.
Dionysus: For my kidneys are aching from the exertions.
Euripides: not before you hear another arrangement of songs.
Euripides: made from the citharodic laws.
Dionysus: Come on then, cross over, and do not add any toil.
Euripides: how the two-throned power of the Achaeans, the youth of Greece,
Euripides: tophat-torat tophat-torat,
Euripides: sends forth the Sphinx, the wretched-miserable leader-dog,
Euripides: tophlaththothrath tophlaththothrath,
Euripides: 'a furious bird with spear and hand as agent,'
Euripides: tophlattothrat tophlattothrat,
Euripides: having provided the privilege of treading upon insolent, air-wandering dogs,
Euripides: tufalattothrat tufalattothrat,
Euripides: 'the couch [was] upon Ajax,'"
Euripides: tophlattothrat tophlattothrat.
Dionysus: What is this 'flattathrat'? From Marathon or?
Dionysus: From where did you gather the songs of the chariot-turner?
Aeschylus: But in any case, I go from the beautiful to the beautiful.
Aeschylus: I brought it back, so that the same [thing] would not [happen] to Phrynichus.
Aeschylus: May I be seen picking a holy meadow of the Muses;
Aeschylus: 'But this one indeed carries from everyone, [regarding] brothels,'
Aeschylus: songs of Melitus, flutes of the Carian women,
Aeschylus: dirges, choruses. And soon it will be made clear.
Aeschylus: Let someone bring the lyre. And yet, why is it necessary?
Aeschylus: a lyre upon these? Where is the one with the oyster shells?
Aeschylus: this one clapping? Come here, Muse of Euripides,
Aeschylus: 'to the very melodies to which these are suited for singing.'
Dionysus: This Muse never practiced Lesbian-style singing, no.
Aeschylus: halcyons, which by the ever-flowing sea
Aeschylus: you chatter with waves,
Aeschylus: to moisten with the southern wings
Aeschylus: 'sprinkling the skin with showers of dew.'
Aeschylus: and the ones under the roof, along the corners
Aeschylus: you twirl the phalanxes with your fingers.
Aeschylus: 'looms' woven shafts,'
Aeschylus: the labors of the singing shuttle,
Aeschylus: so that the dolphin, which loves itself, would leap.
Aeschylus: with early cyan-blue planks
Aeschylus: oracles and stadiums,
Aeschylus: the gladness of the grapevine, the bloom of wine,
Aeschylus: the winding, toil-reposing cluster.
Aeschylus: Wrap your arms around, my child.
Aeschylus: Do you see this foot?
Dionysus: I see.
Aeschylus: But what then? Do you see this one?
Dionysus: I see.
Aeschylus: in this way, however, you do it
Aeschylus: Do you dare to criticize my parts,
Aeschylus: up through the twelve-pitcher mechanism.
Aeschylus: Making melodies for Cyrene?
Aeschylus: Those are your stanzas. But I wish for more.
Aeschylus: to go through the manner of the monodies.
Aeschylus: O dark-night!
Aeschylus: 'Oh darkness, who are you to me?'
Aeschylus: a wretched dream
Aeschylus: 'You are sending [him] from the unseen,'
Aeschylus: 'Away to Hades!'
Aeschylus: 'having a soul without a soul,'
Aeschylus: child of dark Night,
Aeschylus: a terrible and terrible sight,
Aeschylus: 'black-robed with the dead,'"
Aeschylus: 'a blood-stained one, gazing with blood-shot eyes,'
Aeschylus: having large claws.
Aeschylus: But, light a lamp for me, attendants.
Aeschylus: raise the dew from the rivers in your jugs, and warm the water,
Aeschylus: as if I were to wash away a divine dream.
Aeschylus: Oh, sea god,
Aeschylus: That's the one; oh, fellow-dwellers,
Aeschylus: Look at these marvels.
Aeschylus: having snatched my rooster
Aeschylus: 'It is clear to Glyke.'
Aeschylus: Nymphs, mountain-born.
Aeschylus: O Mania, seize the club.
Aeschylus: But I, the wretched woman, happened to be paying attention.
Aeschylus: 'by my own works,'
Aeschylus: a spindle full of flax.
Aeschylus: 'a coiling, a coiling, a coiling with both hands'
Aeschylus: making a spindle, so that
Aeschylus: a wool-gatherer into the marketplace.
Aeschylus: Let them carry them off to destruction!
Aeschylus: but he flapped, he flapped into the ether
Aeschylus: with the sharpest points of his wings;
Aeschylus: he left me grief upon grief,
Aeschylus: 'Tears, and tears from the eyes.'
Aeschylus: they shot, they shot, the wretch.
Aeschylus: But, O Cretans, children of Ida,
Aeschylus: Having taken the bows, defend!
Aeschylus: And you jump around, circling the house.
Aeschylus: 'At the same time, the daughter of Dictynna, Artemis, beautiful.'
Aeschylus: Let her come, holding the little dogs, through the house everywhere,
Aeschylus: but you, carrying the double-pyres of Zeus,
Aeschylus: with two hands I brandished most sharp torches for Hecate.
Aeschylus: to Glyke, so that...
Aeschylus: When she has entered, let her see.
Dionysus: stop the songs now.
Aeschylus: And that is enough for me too.
Aeschylus: For I wish to lead it to the very scale,
Aeschylus: which will prove the poetry to be ours alone.
Aeschylus: for the weight will torment our words.
Dionysus: Come here now, if indeed it is necessary for me to do even this.
Dionysus: to buy cheese of the poets of men.
Chorus: The right-hand ones are indeed laborious.
Chorus: For this is another wonder again.
Chorus: a new-fangled thing, full of absurdity,
Chorus: Who else could have thought of this?
Chorus: By Zeus, I certainly would not even if someone were to do so.
Chorus: Tell me of those who have succeeded,
Chorus: I was angry, but I would have been angry.
Chorus: He himself is talking nonsense about these things.
Dionysus: Come, then, stand beside the two scales,
Aeschylus and Euripides: behold.
Dionysus: 'And once each of you has taken hold of the line, say it.'
Dionysus: And do not let go of me before I cackle at you both.
Aeschylus and Euripides: We follow.
Dionysus: Now speak the words into the stable.
Euripides: If only the Argos had not sailed.
Aeschylus: Spercheius, river, and the mountainous winding-turns.
Dionysus: cuckoo, let me go; and far, very far below.
Dionysus: Let him go, this one.
Euripides: And what, pray, is the cause of this?
Dionysus: because he introduced a river, in a wool-seller's manner.
Dionysus: Having made the speech moist, like the sheep,
Dionysus: but you have put this word on wings.
Euripides: But let someone else speak something and take a stand against it.
Dionysus: then take it again.
Aeschylus and Euripides: behold them.
Dionysus: Speak.
Euripides: There is no other sacred thing of Persuasion except speech.
Aeschylus: For Death alone among the gods does not love gifts.
Dionysus: Let go, let go; and that one too is tipping now.
Dionysus: For he introduced the very heaviest evil, death.
Euripides: But I have spoken a very persuasive word.
Dionysus: Persuasion is indeed light and without understanding.
Dionysus: but seek another thing from those heavy-weighted again,
Dionysus: Whatever he drags down, both strong and great.
Euripides: Where is such a thing? Where?
Dionysus: I will speak.
Dionysus: Achilles has thrown a two and a four with the dice.
Dionysus: He would say that this is the only argument left for you two.
Euripides: and he took a club heavy with iron in his right hand.
Aeschylus: For a chariot meets a chariot, and a dead man meets a dead man.
Dionysus: He has deceived you again, and now as well.
Euripides: "In what way?"
Dionysus: He has brought in four wagons and two corpses,
Dionysus: Those whom not even the hundred Egyptians would praise.
Aeschylus: and not anymore to me word by word, but according to the standard.
Aeschylus: 'The child itself, his wife Kephisophon.'
Aeschylus: let him get on and sit down, having taken the books;
Aeschylus: I, however, will speak only two lines from my own works.
Dionysus: Friends, I myself will not judge them.
Dionysus: For I shall not become an enemy to either side out of hatred.
Dionysus: For I consider the one wise, but I take pleasure in the other.
Pluto: So you will accomplish nothing for the reason that you came?
Dionysus: But if I judge?
Pluto: taking the other one, he departed.
Pluto: Whatever you decide, so that you may come not in vain.
Dionysus: May you be happy. Come, learn these things from me.
Dionysus: I went down to a poet. For what reason?
Dionysus: So that the city, having been saved, may lead the choruses.
Dionysus: whichever of them will then give advice to the city
Dionysus: Rather a good one, I think I shall lead this man.
Dionysus: Well then, first of all, what do you have to say about Alcibiades?
Dionysus: 'What is the opinion of each of you? For the city is in labor.'
Euripides: 'But what opinion does he hold about it?'
Dionysus: whom?
Dionysus: He longs, yet he hates, and yet he wants to possess.
Dionysus: But whatever you think about this, say it.
Euripides: I hate a citizen who benefits his country.
Euripides: He is naturally slow, and is quick to do great harm,
Euripides: and he has found a way for himself, but for the city it is impossible.
Dionysus: Very well, O Poseidon; but what do you think?
Aeschylus: One must not rear a lion's cub in the city,
Aeschylus: "First of all, not to rear a lion in the city,
Aeschylus: if anyone is brought up, he serves the manners.
Dionysus: By Zeus the Savior, I am having a terrible time;
Dionysus: The one indeed spoke wisely, the other clearly.
Dionysus: But let each of you still tell one opinion.
Dionysus: about the salvation of the city which you have.
Euripides: if anyone winged Cleocritus with Kinēsia,
Euripides: May the winds lift the stone from the sea.
Dionysus: It would seem ridiculous, but does it have some sense?
Euripides: if they had fought a sea-battle and then held the oars
Euripides: 'May he shower them in the eyes of the opponents.'
Euripides: I indeed know and want to explain.
Dionysus: Speak.
Euripides: when we now believe the things that are unbelievable to be trustworthy,
Euripides: but the things that are, are untrustworthy.
Dionysus: How? I do not understand.
Dionysus: Say it more foolishly and more clearly.
Euripides: if [it is] with those citizens whom we now trust,
Euripides: "Should we distrust these, whom we do not use?"
Euripides: Let us make use of these things; perhaps we might be saved.
Euripides: But if we are now unhappy in these things, how...
Euripides: Would we not be saved if we did the opposite?
Dionysus: Well, Palamedes, O most intelligent nature.
Dionysus: Did you discover these yourself or did Cephisophon?
Euripides: I alone; but Kephisophon the sharp knives.
Euripides: 'And what about you? What are you saying?'
Aeschylus: now tell me about the city.
Aeschylus: first, to whom does he make use? To the good?
Dionysus: From where?
Dionysus: he hates it most of all.
Aeschylus: and does he delight in the wicked?
Dionysus: Not that one, certainly, but she uses force.
Aeschylus: 'Then how could anyone save such a city?'
Aeschylus: "With which neither a cloak nor a sash is fitting?"
Dionysus: 'He would find it, by Zeus, if he would bring him up again.'
Aeschylus: I would say it there, but I do not wish to here.
Dionysus: No, certainly not you, but from here release the goods.
Aeschylus: 'When they think they have the land of the enemies.'
Aeschylus: 'It is one's own, but one's own of the enemies,'
Aeschylus: they made a passage, but there was a lack of a passage.
Dionysus: Good, except that the judge swallows them all alone.
Pluto: I would have been lilies.
Dionysus: This will be your trial.
Dionysus: For I will choose whichever the soul desires.
Euripides: now remember the gods whom you swore by.
Euripides: Yes indeed, he would lead me home; choose the friends.
Dionysus: The tongue has sworn, but I shall choose Aeschylus.
Euripides: What have you done, most wicked of men?
Dionysus: Me?
Dionysus: I judged Aeschylus to win. For why not?
Euripides: Is this the worst thing you have done in gazing at me?
Dionysus: What is shameful, if it does not seem so to the spectators?
Euripides: "Oh wretch, will you indeed look upon me as dead?"
Dionysus: Who knows if to live is indeed to die,
Dionysus: But to breathe is to dine, but to sleep is to row?
Pluto: Go in then, O Dionysus.
Dionysus: What then?
Pluto: In order that I may entertain you both before you sail away.
Dionysus: You speak well.
DIONYSUS: By Zeus! For I am not annoyed by the matter.
Chorus: Happy indeed is the man who has
Chorus: refined by intelligence.
Chorus: but it is easy to learn for many.
Chorus: For this one, having seemed to think well,
Chorus: again he goes home again,
Chorus: 'For the benefit of the citizens, indeed,'
Chorus: But for the sake of their own good.
Chorus: and to our kinsmen and to our friends,
Chorus: because he is sensible.
Chorus: It is therefore fitting not to [address] Socrates
Chorus: [he] is sitting beside [someone] and talking,
Chorus: having lost music,
Chorus: having omitted even the greatest things
Chorus: of the tragic art.
Chorus: but on serious words
Chorus: and with the scratching of nonsense
Chorus: to spend time in idleness,
Chorus: of a madman.
Pluto: Come now, Aeschylus, go forth in good cheer,
Pluto: And save our city!
Pluto: With good opinions and educate.
Pluto: the senseless ones; for there are many.
Pluto: And give this to Cleophon, carrying it.
Pluto: And this too to the money-brokers.
Pluto: "Together with the ant and Nicomachus,"
Pluto: this one belongs to Archonomos;
Pluto: And tell them quickly to come.
Pluto: 'As for me, come here and do not delay;'
Pluto: And if they do not come quickly, I
Pluto: By Apollo, having struck them.
Pluto: and tripped him up
Pluto: with Adeimantus the Leucolophus
Pluto: I shall send them away quickly from the earth.
Aeschylus: I will do these things; but you, the throne.
Aeschylus: to keep my tradition for Sophocles.
Aeschylus: and he preserves, if indeed I ever
Aeschylus: I have come here. For I have this one
Aeschylus: By wisdom I judge it to be second.
Aeschylus: remember how the clever man
Aeschylus: and a liar and a buffoon.
Aeschylus: never [step] onto my seat.
Aeschylus: He will not sit even unwillingly.
Pluto: So you, then, show yourselves to this man.
Pluto: carry the sacred torches, and escort [them] along the ground.
Pluto: With these songs of his
Pluto: And, gurgling with songs.
Chorus: First of all, a good journey for the departing poet
Chorus: Give light, gods, to him rising to the light from beneath the earth,
Chorus: And to the city, good suggestions for great blessings.
Chorus: for we would quite well cease from great sorrows in this way
Chorus: of toilsome campaigns in arms. And let Kleophon fight.
Chorus: And beauty, whoever wants it, in ancestral fields.