Peace | Page 9

and filled with water, and in the middle of each a brazen figure, called
Manes, was stood. The game consisted in throwing drops of wine from
an agreed distance into one or the other vessel, so that, dragged
downwards by the weight of the liquor, it bumped against Manes.
CHORUS Ah! God grant we may see the blessed day. I have suffered
so much; have so oft slept with Phormio[1] on hard beds. You will no
longer find me an acid, angry, hard judge as heretofore, but will find
me turned indulgent and grown younger by twenty years through
happiness. We have been killing ourselves long enough, tiring
ourselves out with going to the Lyceum[2] and returning laden with
spear and buckler. --But what can we do to please you? Come, speak;
for 'tis a good Fate that has named you our leader.
f[1] A general of austere habits; he disposed of all his property to pay
the cost of a naval expedition, in which he beat the fleet of the foe off
the promontory of Rhium in 429 B.C. f[2] The Lyceum was a portico
ornamented with paintings and surrounded with gardens, in which
military exercises took place.
TRYGAEUS How shall we set about removing these stones?
HERMES Rash reprobate, what do you propose doing?
TRYGAEUS Nothing bad, as Cillicon said.[1]

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 passed 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 god 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 gods, 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 god?
CHORUS Be not pitiless toward our prayers; permit us to deliver the
goddess. Oh! the most human, the most generous of the gods, 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 estalbished 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 god of theieves.
TRYGAEUS I will reveal a great, a terrible conspiracy against the gods
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