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 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.