f(1) A citizen of Miletus, who betrayed his country to the people of Pirene. When asked what he purposed, he replied, "Nothing bad," which expression had therefore pa.s.sed into a proverb.

HERMES You are undone, you wretch.

TRYGAEUS Yes, if the lot had to decide my life, for Hermes would know how to turn the chance.(1)

f(1) Hermes was the G.o.d of chance.

HERMES You are lost, you are dead.

TRYGAEUS On what day?

HERMES This instant.

TRYGAEUS But I have not provided myself with flour and cheese yet(1) to start for death.

f(1) As the soldiers had to do when starting on an expedition.

HERMES You ARE kneaded and ground already, I tell you.(1)

f(1) That is, you are predicated.

TRYGAEUS Hah! I have not yet tasted that gentle pleasure.

HERMES Don't you know that Zeus has decreed death for him who is surprised exhuming Peace?

TRYGAEUS What! must I really and truly die?

HERMES You must.

TRYGAEUS Well then, lend me three drachmae to buy a young pig; I wish to have myself initiated before I die.(1)

f(1) The initiated were thought to enjoy greater happiness after death.

HERMES Oh! Zeus, the Thunderer!(1)

f(1) He summons Zeus to reveal Trygaeus' conspiracy.

TRYGAEUS I adjure you in the name of the G.o.ds, master, don't denounce us!

HERMES I may not, I cannot keep silent.

TRYGAEUS In the name of the meats which I brought you so good-naturedly.

HERMES Why, wretched man, Zeus will annihilate me, if I do not shout out at the top of my voice, to inform him what you are plotting.

TRYGAEUS Oh, no! don't shout, I beg you, dear little Hermes.... And what are you doing, comrades? You stand there as though you were stocks and stones. Wretched men, speak, entreat him at once; otherwise he will be shouting.

CHORUS Oh! mighty Hermes! don't do it; no, don't do it! If ever you have eaten some young pig, sacrificed by us on your altars, with pleasure, may this offering not be without value in your sight to-day.

TRYGAEUS Do you not hear them wheedling you, mighty G.o.d?

CHORUS Be not pitiless toward our prayers; permit us to deliver the G.o.ddess. Oh! the most human, the most generous of the G.o.ds, be favourable toward us, if it be true that you detest the haughty crests and proud brows of Pisander;(1) we shall never cease, oh master, offering you sacred victims and solemn prayers.

f(1) An Athenian captain who later had the recall of Alcibiades decreed by the Athenian people; in 'The Birds'

Aristophanes represents him as a cowardly beggar. He was the reactionary leader who established the Oligarchical Government of the Four Hundred, 411 B.C., after the failure of the Syracusan expedition.

TRYGAEUS Have mercy, mercy, let yourself be touched by their words; never was your worship so dear to them as to-day.

HERMES I' truth, never have you been greater thieves.(1)

f(1) Among other attributes, Hermes was the G.o.d of thieves.

TRYGAEUS I will reveal a great, a terrible conspiracy against the G.o.ds to you.

HERMES Hah! speak and perchance I shall let myself be softened.

TRYGAEUS Know then, that the Moon and that infamous Sun are plotting against you, and want to deliver Greece into the hands of the Barbarians.

HERMES What for?

TRYGAEUS Because it is to you that we sacrifice, whereas the barbarians worship them; hence they would like to see you destroyed, that they alone might receive the offerings.

HERMES 'Tis then for this reason that these untrustworthy charioteers have for so long been defrauding us, one of them robbing us of daylight and the other nibbling away at the other's disk.(1)

f(1) Alluding to the eclipses of the sun and the moon.

TRYGAEUS Yes, certainly. So therefore, Hermes, my friend, help us with your whole heart to find and deliver the captive and we will celebrate the great Panathenaea(1) in your honour as well as all the festivals of the other G.o.ds; for Hermes shall be the Mysteries, the Dipolia, the Adonia; everywhere the towns, freed from their miseries, will sacrifice to Hermes the Liberator; you will be loaded with benefits of every kind, and to start with, I offer you this cup for libations as your first present.

f(1) The Panathenaea were dedicated to Athene, the Mysteries to Demeter, the Dipolia to Zeus, the Adonia to Aphrodite and Adonis. Trygaeus promises Hermes that he shall be worshipped in the place of the other G.o.ds.

HERMES Ah! how golden cups do influence me! Come, friends, get to work.

To the pit quickly, pick in hand, and drag away the stones.

CHORUS We go, but you, cleverest of all the G.o.ds, supervise our labours; tell us, good workman as you are, what we must do; we shall obey your orders with alacrity.

TRYGAEUS Quick, reach me your cup, and let us preface our work by addressing prayers to the G.o.ds.

HERMES Oh! sacred, sacred libations! Keep silence, oh! ye people! keep silence!

TRYGAEUS Let us offer our libations and our prayers, so that this day may begin an era of unalloyed happiness for Greece and that he who has bravely pulled at the rope with us may never resume his buckler.

CHORUS Aye, may we pa.s.s our lives in peace, caressing our mistresses and poking the fire.

TRYGAEUS May he who would prefer the war, oh Dionysus, be ever drawing barbed arrows out of his elbows.

HERMES If there be a citizen, greedy for military rank and honours who refuses, oh, divine Peace! to restore you to daylight, may he behave as cowardly as Cleonymus on the battlefield.

TRYGAEUS If a lance-maker or a dealer in shields desires war for the sake of better trade, may he be taken by pirates and eat nothing but barley.