The Clouds | Page 7

in order that we may
behold clearly the far-seen watch-towers, and the fruits, and the
fostering, sacred earth, and the rushing sounds of the divine rivers, and
the roaring, loud-sounding sea; for the unwearied eye of Aether
sparkles with glittering rays. Come, let us shake off the watery cloud
from our immortal forms and survey the earth with far-seeing eye.
Soc. O ye greatly venerable Clouds, ye have clearly heard me when I
called.
[Turning to Strepsiades.]
Did you hear the voice, and the thunder which bellowed at the same
time, feared as a god?
Strep. I too worship you, O ye highly honoured, and am inclined to
reply to the thundering, so much do I tremble at them and am alarmed.
And whether it be lawful, or be not lawful, I have a desire just now to
ease myself.
Soc. Don't scoff, nor do what these poor-devil-poets do, but use words
of good omen, for a great swarm of goddesses is in motion with their
songs.
Cho. Ye rain-bringing virgins, let us come to the fruitful land of Pallas,
to view the much-loved country of Cecrops, abounding in brave men;
where is reverence for sacred rites not to be divulged; where the house
that receives the initiated is thrown open in holy mystic rites; and gifts

to the celestial gods; and high-roofed temples, and statues; and most
sacred processions in honour of the blessed gods; and well-crowned
sacrifices to the gods, and feasts, at all seasons; and with the approach
of spring the Bacchic festivity, and the rousings of melodious choruses,
and the loud-sounding music of flutes.
Strep. Tell me, O Socrates, I beseech you, by Jupiter, who are these that
have uttered this grand song? Are they some heroines?
Soc. By no means; but heavenly Clouds, great divinities to idle men;
who supply us with thought and argument, and intelligence and
humbug, and circumlocution, and ability to hoax, and comprehension.
Strep. On this account therefore my soul, having heard their voice,
flutters, and already seeks to discourse subtilely, and to quibble about
smoke, and having pricked a maxim with a little notion, to refute the
opposite argument. So that now I eagerly desire, if by any means it be
possible, to see them palpably.
Soc. Look, then, hither, toward Mount Parnes; for now I behold them
descending gently.
Strep. Pray where? Show me.
Soc. See! There they come in great numbers through the hollows and
thickets; there, obliquely.
Strep. What's the matter? For I can't see them.
Soc. By the entrance.
[Enter Chorus]
Strep. Now at length with difficulty I just see them.
Soc. Now at length you assuredly see them, unless you have your eyes
running pumpkins.
Strep. Yes, by Jupiter! O highly honoured Clouds, for now they cover
all things.
Soc. Did you not, however, know, nor yet consider, these to be
goddesses?
Strep. No, by Jupiter! But I thought them to be mist, and dew, and
smoke.
Soc. For you do not know, by Jupiter! that these feed very many
sophists, Thurian soothsayers, practisers of medicine,
lazy-long-haired-onyx-ring-wearers, song-twisters for the cyclic dances,
and meteorological quacks. They feed idle people who do nothing,
because such men celebrate them in verse.

Strep. For this reason, then, they introduced into their verses "the
dreadful impetuosity of the moist, whirling-bright clouds"; and the
"curls of hundred-headed Typho"; and the "hard-blowing tempests";
and then "aerial, moist"; "crooked-clawed birds, floating in air"' and
"the showers of rain from dewy Clouds." And then, in return for these,
they swallow "slices of great, fine mullets, and bird's-flesh of thrushes."
Soc. Is it not just, however, that they should have their reward, on
account of these?
Strep. Tell me, pray, if they are really clouds, what ails them, that they
resemble mortal women? For they are not such.
Soc. Pray, of what nature are they?
Strep. I do not clearly know: at any rate they resemble spread-out
fleeces, and not women, by Jupiter! Not a bit; for these have noses.
Soc. Answer, then, whatever I ask you.
Strep. Then say quickly what you wish.
Soc. Have you ever, when you; looked up, seen a cloud like to a
centaur, or a panther, or a wolf, or a bull?
Strep. By Jupiter, have I! But what of that?
Soc. They become all things, whatever they please. And then if they see
a person with long hair, a wild one of these hairy fellows, like the son
of Xenophantes, in derision of his folly, they liken themselves to
centaurs.
Strep. Why, what, if they should see Simon, a plunderer of the public
property, what do they do?
Soc. They suddenly become wolves, showing up his disposition.
Strep. For this reason, then, for this reason, when they yesterday saw
Cleonymus the recreant, on this account they became stags, because