Peace | Page 5

was introduced riding on Pegasus.
TRYGAEUS Gently, gently, go easy, beetle; don't start off so proudly,
or trust at first too greatly to your powers; wait till you have sweated,
till the beating of your wings shall make your limb joints supple.
Above all things, don't let off some foul smell, I adjure you; else I
would rather have you stop in the stable altogether.
SECOND SERVANT Poor master! Is he crazy?
TRYGAEUS Silence! silence!
SECOND SERVANT (TO TRYGAEUS) But why start up into the air
on chance?
TRYGAEUS 'Tis for the weal of all the Greeks; I am attempting a

daring and novel feat.
SECOND SERVANT But what is your purpose? What useless folly!
TRYGAEUS No words of ill omen! Give vent to joy and command all
men to keep silence, to close down their drains and privies with new
tiles and to stop up their own vent-holes.[1]
f[1] Fearing that if it caught a whiff from earth to its liking, the beetle
might descend from the highest heaven to satisfy itself.
FIRST SERVANT No, I shall not be silent, unless you tell me where
you are going.
TRYGAEUS Why, where am I likely to be going across the sky, if it be
not to visit Zeus?
FIRST SERVANT For what purpose?
TRYGAEUS I want to ask him what he reckons to do for all the
Greeks.
SECOND SERVANT And if he doesn't tell you?
TRYGAEUS I shall pursue him at law as a traitor who sells Greece to
the Medes.[1]
f[1] The Persians and the Spartans were not then allied as the scholiast
states, since a treaty between them was only concluded in 412 B.C., i.e.
eight years after the production of 'Peace'; the great king, however, was
trying to derive advantages out of the dissensions in Greece.
SECOND SERVANT Death seize me, if I let you go.
TRYGAEUS It is absolutely necessary.
SECOND SERVANT Alas! alas! dear little girls, your father is
deserting you secretly to go to heaven. Ah! poor orphans, entreat him,
beseech him.
LITTLE DAUGHTER Father! father! what is this I hear? Is it true?
What! you would leave me, you would vanish into the sky, you would
go to the crows?[1] 'Tis impossible! Answer, father, an you love me.
f[1] "Go to the crows," a proverbial expression equivalent to our "Go to
the devil."
TRYGAEUS Yes, I am going. You hurt me too sorely, my daughters,
when you ask me for bread, calling me your daddy, and there is not the
ghost of an obolus in the house; if I succeed and come back, you will
have a barley loaf every morning--and a punch in the eye for sauce!
LITTLE DAUGHTER But how will you make the journey? 'Tis not a
ship that will carry you thither.

TRYGAEUS No, but this winged steed will.
LITTLE DAUGHTER But what an idea, daddy, to harness a beetle, on
which to fly to the gods.
TRYGAEUS We see from Aesop's fables that they alone can fly to the
abode of the Immortals.[1]
f[1] Aesop tells us that the eagle and the beetle were at war; the eagle
devoured the beetle's young and the latter got into its nest and tumbled
out its eggs. On this the eagle complained to Zeus, who advised it to lay
its eggs in his bosom; but the beetle flew up to the abode of Zeus, who,
forgetful of the eagle's eggs, at once rose to chase off the objectionable
insect. The eggs fell to earth and were smashed to bits.
LITTLE DAUGHTER Father, father, 'tis a tale nobody can believe!
that such a stinking creature can have gone to the gods.
TRYGAEUS It went to have vengeance on the eagle and break its eggs.
LITTLE DAUGHTER Why not saddle Pegasus? you would have a
more TRAGIC[1] appearance in the eyes of the gods.
f[1] Pegasus is introduced by Euripides both in his 'Andromeda' and his
'Bellerophon.'
TRYGAEUS Eh! don't you see, little fool, that then twice the food
would be wanted? Whereas my beetle devours again as filth what I
have eaten myself.
LITTLE DAUGHTER And if it fell into the watery depths of the sea,
could it escape with its wings?
TRYGAEUS (EXPOSING HIMSELF) I am fitted with a rudder in case
of need, and my Naxos beetle will serve me as a boat.[1]
f[1] Boats, called 'beetles,' doubtless because in form they resembled
these insects, were built at Naxos.
LITTLE DAUGHTER And what harbour will you put in at?
TRYGAEUS Why is there not the harbour of Cantharos at the
Piraeus?[1]
f[1] Nature had divided the Piraeus into three basins--Cantharos,
Aphrodisium and Zea. [Cantharos] is Greek for dung-beetle.
LITTLE DAUGHTER Take care not to knock against anything and so
fall off into space; once a cripple, you would be a fit