The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1. Аристофан

you to eat this long cake; you will row the harder on it.

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. Take this also.

      DEMOS. And what shall I do with this tripe?

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. She sends it you to belly out your galleys, for she is always showing her kindly anxiety for our fleet. Now drink this beverage composed of three parts of water to two of wine.

      DEMOS. Ah! what delicious wine, and how well it stands the water.130

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. 'Twas the goddess who came from the head of Zeus that mixed this liquor with her own hands.

      CLEON. Hold, here is a piece of good rich cake.

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. But I offer you an entire cake.

      CLEON. But you cannot offer him stewed hare as I do.

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. Ah! great gods! stewed hare! where shall I find it? Oh! brain of mine, devise some trick!

      CLEON. Do you see this, poor fellow?

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. A fig for that! Here are folk coming to seek me.

      CLEON. Who are they?

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. Envoys, bearing sacks bulging with money.

      CLEON. (Hearing money mentioned Clean turns his head, and Agoracritus seizes the opportunity to snatch away the stewed hare.) Where, where, I say?

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. Bah! What's that to you? Will you not even now let the strangers alone? Demos, do you see this stewed hare which I bring you?

      CLEON. Ah! rascal! you have shamelessly robbed me.

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. You have robbed too, you robbed the Laconians at Pylos.

      DEMOS. An you pity me, tell me, how did you get the idea to filch it from him?

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. The idea comes from the goddess; the theft is all my own.

      CLEON. And I had taken such trouble to catch this hare.

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. But 'twas I who had it cooked.

      DEMOS (to Cleon). Get you gone! My thanks are only for him who served it.

      CLEON. Ah! wretch! have you beaten me in impudence!

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. Well then, Demos, say now, who has treated you best, you and your stomach? Decide!

      DEMOS. How shall I act here so that the spectators shall approve my judgment?

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. I will tell you. Without saying anything, go and rummage through my basket, and then through the Paphlagonian's, and see what is in them; that's the best way to judge.

      DEMOS. Let us see then, what is there in yours?

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. Why, 'tis empty, dear little father; I have brought everything to you.

      DEMOS. This is a basket devoted to the people.

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. Now hunt through the Paphlagonian's. Well?

      DEMOS. Oh! what a lot of good things! Why! 'tis quite full! Oh! what a huge great part of this cake he kept for himself! He had only cut off the least little tiny piece for me.

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. But this is what he has always done. Of everything he took, he only gave you the crumbs, and kept the bulk.

      DEMOS. Oh! rascal! was this the way you robbed me? And I was loading you with chaplets and gifts!

      CLEON. 'Twas for the public weal I robbed.

      DEMOS (to Cleon). Give me back that crown;131 I will give it to him.

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. Return it quick, quick, you gallows-bird.

      CLEON. No, for the Pythian oracle has revealed to me the name of him who shall overthrow me.

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. And that name was mine, nothing can be clearer.

      CLEON. Reply and I shall soon see whether you are indeed the man whom the god intended. Firstly, what school did you attend when a child?

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. 'Twas in the kitchens I was taught with cuffs and blows.

      CLEON. What's that you say? Ah! this is truly what the oracle said. And what did you learn from the master of exercises?

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. I learnt to take a false oath without a smile, when I had stolen something.

      CLEON. Oh! Phoebus Apollo, god of Lycia! I am undone! And when you had become a man, what trade did you follow?

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. I sold sausages and did a bit of fornication.

      CLEON. Oh! my god! I am a lost man! Ah! still one slender hope remains. Tell me, was it on the market-place or near the gates that you sold your sausages?

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. Near the gates, in the market for salted goods.

      CLEON Alas! I see the prophecy of the god is verily come true. Alas! roll me home.132 I am a miserable, ruined man. Farewell, my chaplet! 'Tis death to me to part with you. So you are to belong to another; 'tis certain he cannot be a greater thief, but perhaps he may be a luckier one.133

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. Oh! Zeus, the protector of Greece! 'tis to you I owe this victory!

      DEMOSTHENES. Hail! illustrious conqueror, but forget not, that if you have become a great man, 'tis thanks to me; I ask but a little thing; appoint me secretary of the law-court in the room of Phanus.

      DEMOS (to the Sausage-seller). But what is your name then? Tell me.

      SAUSAGE-SELLER. My name is Agoracritus, because I have always lived on the market-place in the midst of lawsuits.134

      DEMOS. Well then, Agoracritus, I stand by you; as for the Paphlagonian, I hand him over to your mercy.

      AGORACRITUS. Demos, I will care for you to the best of my power, and all shall admit that no citizen is more devoted than I to this city of simpletons.

      CHORUS. What fitter theme for our Muse, at the close as at the beginning of his work, than this, to sing the hero who drives his swift steeds down the arena? Why afflict Lysistratus with our satires on his poverty,135 and Thumantis,136 who has not so much as a lodging? He is dying of hunger and can be seen at Delphi, his face bathed in tears, clinging to your quiver, oh, Apollo! and supplicating you to take him out of his misery.

      An insult directed at the wicked is not to be censured; on the contrary, the honest man, if he has sense, can only applaud. Him, whom I wish to brand with infamy, is little known himself; 'tis the brother of Arignotus.137 I regret to quote this name which is so dear to me, but whoever can distinguish black from white, or the Orthian mode of music from others, knows the virtues of Arignotus, whom his brother, Ariphrades,138 in no way resembles. He gloats in vice, is not merely a dissolute man and utterly debauched—but he has actually invented a new form of vice; for he pollutes his tongue with abominable pleasures in brothels licking up that nauseous moisture and befouling his beard as he tickles the lips of lewd women's private parts.139 Whoever is not horrified at such a monster shall never drink from the same cup with me.

      At times a thought weighs on me at night; I wonder whence comes this fearful voracity of Cleonymus.140 'Tis said, that when dining with a rich host, he springs at the dishes with the gluttony of a wild beast and never leaves the bread-bin until his host seizes him round the knees, exclaiming, "Go, go, good gentleman, in mercy go, and spare my poor table!"

      'Tis said that the triremes assembled in council and that the oldest spoke in these terms, "Are you ignorant, my sisters, of what is plotting in Athens? They say, that a certain Hyperbolus,141 a bad citizen and an infamous scoundrel, asks

130

Both Greeks and Romans drank their wine mixed with water.

131

After his success in the Sphacteria affair Cleon induced the people to vote him a chaplet of gold.

132

That is, by means of the mechanical device of the Greek stage known as the [Greek: ekkukl_ema].

133

Parody of a well-known verse from Euripides' 'Alcestis.'

134

The name Agoracritus is compounded: cf. [Greek: agora], a market-place, and [Greek: krinein], to judge.

135

This grandiloquent opening is borrowed from Pindar.

136

Mentioned in the 'Acharnians.'

137

A soothsayer.

138

A flute-player.

139

An allusion to the vice of the 'cunnilingue,' apparently a novel form of naughtiness at Athens in Aristophanes' day.

140

As well known for his gluttony as for his cowardice.

141

One of the most noisy demagogues of Cleon's party; he succeeded him, but was later condemned to ostracism.