{"product_id":"complete-plays-of-aristophanes-isbn-9780553213430","title":"Complete Plays of Aristophanes","description":"A poet who hated an age of decadence, armed conflict, and departure from tradition, Aristophanes' comic genius influenced the political and social order of his own fifth-century Athens. But as Moses Hadas writes in his introduction to this volume, 'His true claim upon our attention is as the most brilliant and artistic and thoughtful wit our world has known.' Includes The Acharnians, The Birds, The Clouds, Ecclesiazusae, The Frogs, The Knights, Lysistrata, Peace, Plutus, Thesmophoriazusae, and The Wasps.ARISTOPHANES, the most famous comic dramatist of ancient Greece, was born an Athenian citizen in about 445 B.C.   Forty-four plays have been attributed to Aristophanes; eleven of these have survived.  His plays are the only extant representatives of Greek Old Comedy, a dramatic form whose conventions made it inevitable that the author would comment on the political and social issues of fifth-century Athens.  This Aristophanes did so well that Plato, asked by the tyrant of Syracuse for an analysis of Athenians, sent a copy of Aristophanes' plays in reply.\u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003eHis earliest play, the Banqueters, won the second prize in 427 B.C. when the dramatist must have been less than eighteen years old, since, as he notes in the Clouds (423), he was too young to produce it in his own name.  Another early play, the Babylonians, criticized the demagogue Cleon, who responded by subjecting Aristophanes to legal persecution, and as the author charges in the Acharnians, Cleon had \"slanged, and lied, and slandered and betongued me . . . till I well nigh was done to death.\"  Nevertheless, in the Knights (424), he renewed his attack on the popular Athenian leader and won first prize in that year's contest. Plutus (388) was the last of the author's plays to be produced in his lifetime.ACHARNIANS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE ACHARNIANS was produced in 425 b.c., when Aristophanes was barely twenty, but in exuberant inventiveness, lyrical quality, serious political criticism, it is among Aristophanes' best plays. It won the first prize over Cratinus and Eupolis. The characteristic topsy-turvy fantasy upon which the play hinges is the notion that a man weary of an ill-considered war might make an individual peace with the enemy. Here Dicaeopolis makes such a peace with Sparta, but as he is about to celebrate the long-intermitted vintage festival he is attacked by a chorus of Acharnian charcoal burners who represent the war party and he wins a hearing by a parody of Euripides' Telephus. In a seriocomic speech he shows that the causes of the war were trifling, and wins over half the chorus, who are engaged in a violent agon by the other half. These call in the general Lamachus to assist them, but the general too is bested in argument, and the chorus, uniting on Dicaeopolis' side, deliver the poet's parabasis. Then Megarians and Boeotians bring in for sale the good things Athens has lacked. A herald summons Lamachus to a hard campaign, and another, Dicaeopolis to a wine party. Lamachus returns wounded, and Dicaeopolis reels in, having won the prize for drinking, on the arms of pretty flute girls, whom he leads out in procession. If we are astonished at the temerity of a poet who could say a word for the enemy and many words for pacifism amid the passions of war, we must be amazed at a democracy which permitted and sponsored such a play in time of war, and gave it first prize.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHARACTERS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS\u003cbr\u003eCRIER\u003cbr\u003eAMPHITHEUS\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADORS\u003cbr\u003ePSEUDO-ARTABAS\u003cbr\u003eTHEORUS\u003cbr\u003eDAUGHTER OF DICAEOPOLIS\u003cbr\u003eSLAVE OF EURIPIDES\u003cbr\u003eEURIPIDES\u003cbr\u003eLAMACHUS\u003cbr\u003eA MEGARIAN\u003cbr\u003eTWO YOUNG GIRLS, DAUGHTERS OF THE MEGARIAN\u003cbr\u003eAN INFORMER\u003cbr\u003eA BOEOTIAN\u003cbr\u003eNICARCHUS\u003cbr\u003eSLAVE OF LAMACHUS\u003cbr\u003eDERCETES, AN ATHENIAN FARMER\u003cbr\u003eA WEDDING GUEST\u003cbr\u003eCHORUS OF ACHARNIAN CHARCOAL BURNERS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTranslated by B. B. Rogers\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(dicaeopolis is discovered near the Pnyx, impatiently awaiting the opening of the Assembly. His house, flanked by those of lamachus and euripides, is in the background.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. What heaps of things have bitten me to the heart!\u003cbr\u003eA small few pleased me, very few, just four;\u003cbr\u003eBut those that vexed were sand-dune-hundredfold.\u003cbr\u003eLet's see: what pleased me, worth my gladfulness?\u003cbr\u003eI know a thing it cheered my heart to see;\u003cbr\u003eThe five-talent bribe vomited up by Cleon.\u003cbr\u003eAt that I brightened; and I love the Knights\u003cbr\u003eFor that performance; 'twas of price to Hellas.\u003cbr\u003eThen I'd a tragic sorrow, when I looked\u003cbr\u003eWith open mouth for Aeschylus, and lo,\u003cbr\u003eThe Crier called, Bring on your play, Theognis.\u003cbr\u003eJudge what an icy shock that gave my heart!\u003cbr\u003eNext; pleased I was when Moschus left, and in\u003cbr\u003eDexitheus came with his Boeotian song.\u003cbr\u003eBut oh this year I nearly cracked my neck,\u003cbr\u003eWhen in slipped Chaeris for the Orthian Chant.\u003cbr\u003eBut never yet since first I washed my face\u003cbr\u003eWas I so bitten--in my brows with soap,\u003cbr\u003eAs now, when here's the fixed Assembly Day,\u003cbr\u003eAnd morning come, and no one in the Pnyx.\u003cbr\u003eThey're in the Agora chattering, up and down\u003cbr\u003eScurrying to dodge the cord dripping red.\u003cbr\u003eWhy, even the Prytanes are not here! They'll come\u003cbr\u003eLong after time, elbowing each other, jostling\u003cbr\u003eFor the front bench, streaming down all together\u003cbr\u003eYou can't think how. But as for making Peace\u003cbr\u003eThey do not care one jot. O City! City!\u003cbr\u003eBut I am always first of all to come,\u003cbr\u003eAnd here I take my seat; then, all alone,\u003cbr\u003eI pass the time complaining, yawning, stretching,\u003cbr\u003eI fidget, write, twitch hairs out, do my sums,\u003cbr\u003eGaze fondly countryward, longing for Peace,\u003cbr\u003eLoathing the town, sick for my village home,\u003cbr\u003eWhich never cried, Come, buy my charcoal, or\u003cbr\u003eMy vinegar, my oil, my anything;\u003cbr\u003eBut freely gave us all; no buy-word there.\u003cbr\u003eSo here I'm waiting, thoroughly prepared\u003cbr\u003eTo riot, wrangle, interrupt the speakers\u003cbr\u003eWhene'er they speak of anything but Peace.\u003cbr\u003e--But here they come, our noon-day Prytanes!\u003cbr\u003eAye, there they go! I told you how 'twould be;\u003cbr\u003eEveryone jostling for the foremost place.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRIER.Move forward all,\u003cbr\u003eMove up, within the consecrated line.\u003cbr\u003e(amphitheus enters in a violent hurry.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMPHITHEUS. Speaking begun?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRIER.Who will address the meeting?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMPHITHEUS. I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRIER. Who are you?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMPHITHEUS.Amphitheus.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRIER.Not a man?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMPHITHEUS. No, an immortal. For the first Amphitheus\u003cbr\u003eWas of Demeter and Triptolemus\u003cbr\u003eThe son: his son was Celeus; Celeus married\u003cbr\u003ePhaenarete, who bore my sire Lycinus.\u003cbr\u003eHence I'm immortal; and the gods committed\u003cbr\u003eTo me alone the making peace with Sparta.\u003cbr\u003eBut, though immortal, I've no journey money;\u003cbr\u003eThe Prytanes won't provide it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRIER.Constables, there!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMPHITHEUS. O help me, Celeus! help, Triptolemus!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. Ye wrong the Assembly, Prytanes, ye do wrong it,\u003cbr\u003eDragging away a man who only wants\u003cbr\u003eTo give us Peace, and hanging up of shields.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRIER. St! Take your seat.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS.By Apollo, no, not I,\u003cbr\u003eUnless you prytanize about the Peace.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRIER. Oyez! The Ambassadors from the Great King!\u003cbr\u003e(Enter, clad in gorgeous oriental apparel, the envoys sent to the Persian court eleven years previously in the archonship of Euthymenes, 437-436 b.c.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. What King! I'm sick to death of embassies,\u003cbr\u003eAnd all their peacocks and their impositions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRIER. Keep silence!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS.Hey! Ecbatana, here's a show.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR. You sent us, envoys to the Great King's Court,\u003cbr\u003eReceiving each two drachmas daily, when\u003cbr\u003eEuthymenes was Archon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS.O me, the drachmas!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR. And weary work we found it, sauntering on,\u003cbr\u003eSupinely stretched in our luxurious litters\u003cbr\u003eWith awnings o'er us, through CaØstrian plains.\u003cbr\u003e'Twas a bad time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS.Aye, the good time was mine,\u003cbr\u003eStretched in the litter on the ramparts here!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR. And oft they feted us, and we perforce\u003cbr\u003eOut of their gold and crystal cups must drink\u003cbr\u003eThe pure sweet wine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS.O Cranaan city, mark you\u003cbr\u003eThe insolent airs of these ambassadors?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR. For only those are there accounted men\u003cbr\u003eWho drink the hardest, and who eat the most.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. As here the most debauched and dissolute.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR. In the fourth year we reached the Great King's Court.\u003cbr\u003eBut he, with all his troops, had gone to sit\u003cbr\u003eAn eight-month session on the Golden Hills!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. Pray, at what time did he conclude his session?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR. At the full moon; and so came home again.\u003cbr\u003eThen he too feted us, and set before us\u003cbr\u003eWhole pot-baked oxen--\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS.And who ever heard\u003cbr\u003eOf pot-baked oxen? Out upon your lies!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR. And an enormous bird, three times the size\u003cbr\u003eOf our Cleonymus: its name was--Gull.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. That's why you gulled us out of all those drachmas!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR. And now we bring you Pseudo-Artabas\u003cbr\u003eThe Great King's Eye.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS.O how I wish some raven\u003cbr\u003eWould come and strike out yours, the Ambassador's.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRIER. Oyez! the Great King's Eye!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS.O Heracles!\u003cbr\u003eBy Heaven, my man, you wear a warship look!\u003cbr\u003eWhat! Do you round the point, and spy the docks?\u003cbr\u003eIs that an oar pad underneath your eye?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR. Now tell the Athenians, Pseudo-Artabas,\u003cbr\u003eWhat the Great King commissioned you to say.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePSEUDO-ARTABAS. Ijisti boutti furbiss upde rotti.1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR. Do you understand?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS.By Apollo, no not I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR. He says the King is going to send you gold.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(To pseudo-artabas.) Be more distinct and clear about the gold.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePSEUDO-ARTABAS. No getti goldi, nincompoop Iawny.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. Wow, but that's clear enough!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR.What does he say?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. He says the Ionians must be nincompoops\u003cbr\u003eIf they're expecting any gold from Persia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR. No, no: he spoke of golden income coupons.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. What income coupons? You're a great big liar!\u003cbr\u003eYou, get away; I'll test the man myself.\u003cbr\u003e(To pseudo-artabas.)\u003cbr\u003eNow look at this (Showing his fist.): and answer Yes, or No!\u003cbr\u003eOr else I'll dye you with a Sardian dye.\u003cbr\u003eDoes the Great King intend to send us gold?\u003cbr\u003e(pseudo-artabas nods dissent.)\u003cbr\u003eThen are our envoys here bamboozling us?\u003cbr\u003e(He nods assent.)\u003cbr\u003eThese fellows nod in pure Hellenic style;\u003cbr\u003eI do believe they come from hereabouts.\u003cbr\u003eAye, to be sure; why, one of these two eunuchs\u003cbr\u003eIs Cleisthenes, Sibyrtius' son!\u003cbr\u003eO you young shaver of the hot-souled rump,\u003cbr\u003eWith such a beard, you monkey, do you come\u003cbr\u003eTricked out among us in a eunuch's guise?\u003cbr\u003eAnd who's this other chap? Not Straton, surely?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRIER. St! Take your seat! Oyez!\u003cbr\u003eThe Council ask the Great King's Eye to dinner \u003cbr\u003eAt the Town Hall.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS.Now is not that a throttler?\u003cbr\u003eHere must I drudge at soldiering; while these rogues,\u003cbr\u003eThe Town-Hall door is never closed to them.\u003cbr\u003eNow then, I'll do a great and startling deed.\u003cbr\u003eAmphitheus! Where's Amphitheus?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMBASSADOR.Here am I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. Here be eight drachmas; take them; and with all\u003cbr\u003eThe Lacedaemonians make a private peace\u003cbr\u003eFor me, my wife and children: none besides.\u003cbr\u003e(To the Prytanes1 and citizens.)\u003cbr\u003eStick to your embassies and befoolings, you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRIER. Oyez! Theorus from Sitalces!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHEORUS.Here!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. O here's another humbug introduced.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHEORUS. We should not, sirs, have tarried long in Thrace--\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. But for the salary you kept on drawing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHEORUS. But for the storms, which covered Thrace with snow\u003cbr\u003eAnd froze the rivers. 'Twas about the season\u003cbr\u003eAt which Theognis was performing here.\u003cbr\u003eI all that time was drinking with Sitalces;\u003cbr\u003eA most prodigious Athens lover he,\u003cbr\u003eSo loyal an admirer, he would scribble\u003cbr\u003eOn every wall My beautiful Athenians!\u003cbr\u003eHis son, our newly made Athenian, longed\u003cbr\u003eTo taste his Apaturian sausages,\u003cbr\u003eAnd bade his father help his fatherland.\u003cbr\u003eAnd he, with deep libations, vowed to help us\u003cbr\u003eWith such a host that everyone would say\u003cbr\u003eHeavens! what a swarm of locusts comes this way!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. Hang me, if I believe a single word\u003cbr\u003eOf all that speech, except about the locusts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHEORUS. And here he sends you the most warlike tribe\u003cbr\u003eOf all in Thrace.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS.Come, here's proof positive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRIER. The Thracians whom Theorus brought, come forward!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. What the plague's this?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHEORUS. The Odomantian host.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. The Odomantians, phew! Hallo, look here.\u003cbr\u003eAre Odomantians all equipped like this?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHEORUS. Give them two drachmas each a day, and these\u003cbr\u003eWill targeteer Boeotia all to bits.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. Two drachmas for these scarecrows! Oh, our tars,\u003cbr\u003eOur noble tars, the safeguard of our state,\u003cbr\u003eWell may they groan at this. O! Murder! O!\u003cbr\u003eThese Odomantian thieves have sacked my garlic.\u003cbr\u003ePut down the garlic! drop it!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHEORUS. You rapscallion,\u003cbr\u003eHow dare you touch them, when they're garlic-primed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. O will you let them, Prytanes, use me thus,\u003cbr\u003eBarbarians too, in this my fatherland?\u003cbr\u003eBut stop! I warn you not to hold the Assembly\u003cbr\u003eAbout the Thracians' pay. I tell you there's\u003cbr\u003eA portent come; I felt a drop of rain!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCRIER. The Thracians are to go, and two days hence\u003cbr\u003eCome here again. The Assembly is dissolved.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. O me, the salad I have lost this day!\u003cbr\u003eBut here's Amphitheus, back from Lacedaemon.\u003cbr\u003eWell met, Amphitheus!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMPHITHEUS. Not till I've done running.\u003cbr\u003eI have to flee the Acharnians, clean away.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. What mean you?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMPHITHEUS.I was bringing back in haste\u003cbr\u003eThe treaties, when some veterans smelt them out,\u003cbr\u003eAcharnians, men of Marathon, hard in grain\u003cbr\u003eAs their own oak and maple, rough and tough;\u003cbr\u003eAnd all at once they cried, O villain, dare you\u003cbr\u003eBring treaties when our vineyards are cut down?\u003cbr\u003eThen in their lappets up they gathered stones;\u003cbr\u003eI fled away: they followed roaring after.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. So let them roar. But have you got the treaties?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMPHITHEUS. O yes, I have. Three samples; here they are.\u003cbr\u003eThese are the five-year treaties; take and taste them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. Phew!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMPHITHEUS. What's the matter?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS.I don't like the things,\u003cbr\u003eThey smell of tar and naval preparations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMPHITHEUS. Then taste the ten-year samples; here they are.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. These smell of embassies to all the states,\u003cbr\u003eUrgent, as if the Allies are hanging back.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMPHITHEUS. Then here are treaties both by land and sea\u003cbr\u003eFor thirty years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS.O Feast of Dionysus!\u003cbr\u003eThese have a smell of nectar and ambrosia,\u003cbr\u003eAnd never mind about the three days' rations,\u003cbr\u003eAnd in your mouth they say, Go where you please.\u003cbr\u003eThese do I welcome, these I pour, and drain,\u003cbr\u003eNor care a hang about your old Acharnians.\u003cbr\u003eBut I, released from War and War's alarms,\u003cbr\u003eWill hold, within, the Rural Dionysia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMPHITHEUS. And I will flee those peppery old Acharnians.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHORUS. Here's the trail; pursue, pursue him;\u003cbr\u003efollow, follow, every man;\u003cbr\u003eQuestion whosoever meets you\u003cbr\u003ewhitherward the fellow ran.\u003cbr\u003eMuch it boots the state to catch him!\u003cbr\u003e(To the audience.) O inform me, if ye know,\u003cbr\u003eWhere the man who bears the treaties\u003cbr\u003emanaged from my sight to go.\u003cbr\u003eFled and gone! Disappears!\u003cbr\u003eO this weary weight of years!\u003cbr\u003eO were I  Now as spry\u003cbr\u003eAs in youthful days gone by,\u003cbr\u003eWhen I stuck  Like a man\u003cbr\u003eTo Phaullus as he ran,\u003cbr\u003e And achieved  Second place\u003cbr\u003eIn the race,\u003cbr\u003eThough a great  Charcoal freight\u003cbr\u003eI was bearing on my head--\u003cbr\u003eNot so light  From my sight\u003cbr\u003eHad this treaty bearer fled,\u003cbr\u003e Nor escaped  With such ease\u003cbr\u003eFrom the chase.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow because my joints have stiffened,\u003cbr\u003eand my shins are young no more,\u003cbr\u003eAnd the legs of Lacrateides\u003cbr\u003eby old age are burdened sore,\u003cbr\u003eHe's escaped us! But we'll follow:\u003cbr\u003ebut he shall not boast that he\u003cbr\u003eGot away from us Acharnians,\u003cbr\u003ehowsoever old we be.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWho has dared  Father Zeus!\u003cbr\u003eGods of heaven! to make a truce,\u003cbr\u003eWho has pledged  Faith with those\u003cbr\u003eWho are evermore my foes;\u003cbr\u003eUpon whom  War I make\u003cbr\u003eFor my ruined vineyard's sake;\u003cbr\u003e And I ne'er  From the strife\u003cbr\u003eWill give o'er,\u003cbr\u003eNo, I ne'er  Will forbear,\u003cbr\u003eTill I pierce them in return,\u003cbr\u003eLike a reed,  Sharply barbed\u003cbr\u003eDagger-pointed, and they learn\u003cbr\u003e  Not to tread  Down my vines\u003cbr\u003eAny more.\u003cbr\u003eNow 'tis ours to seek the fellow,\u003cbr\u003eand Peltene-ward to look,\u003cbr\u003eAnd from land to land to chase him,\u003cbr\u003etill we bring the rogue to book.\u003cbr\u003eNever shall I tire of pelting,\u003cbr\u003epelting him to death with stones.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS (within). Keep ye all the holy silence!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHORUS. Hush! we've got him. Heard ye, comrades,\u003cbr\u003esilence called in solemn tones?\u003cbr\u003eThis is he, the man we're seeking.\u003cbr\u003eStand aside, and in a trice\u003cbr\u003eHe, methinks, will stand before us,\u003cbr\u003ecoming out to sacrifice!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS (coming out). Keep ye all the holy silence!\u003cbr\u003eNow, basket bearer, go you on in front,\u003cbr\u003eYou, Xanthias, hold the phallus pole erect.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWIFE. Sit down the basket, girl: and we'll begin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDAUGHTER. O mother, hand me here the gravy spoon,\u003cbr\u003eTo ladle out the gravy on the cake.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDICAEOPOLIS. 'Tis well. Lord Dionysus, grant me now\u003cbr\u003eTo show the show and make the sacrifice\u003cbr\u003eAs thou would'st have me, I and all my house;\u003cbr\u003eThen keep with joy the Rural Dionysia;\u003cbr\u003eNo more of soldiering now. And may this Peace\u003cbr\u003eOf thirty summers answer to my hopes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWIFE. O daughter, bear the basket sweetly, sweet,\u003cbr\u003eWith savory-eating look. Happy the man,\u003cbr\u003eWhoe'er he is, who weds you and begets\u003cbr\u003eKittens as fair and saucy as yourself.\u003cbr\u003eMove on! but heed lest any in the crowd\u003cbr\u003eShould nibble off, unseen, your bits of gold.","brand":"Bantam Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301609427173,"sku":"NP9780553213430","price":6.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780553213430.jpg?v=1767724003","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/complete-plays-of-aristophanes-isbn-9780553213430","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}