f(1) Among other attributes, Hermes was the god of thieves.
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 then for this reason that these untrustworthy charioteers
have for so long been defrauding us, one of them robbing us of daylight
and the other nibbling away at the other's disk.(1)
f(1) Alluding to the eclipses of the sun and the moon.
TRYGAEUS Yes, certainly. So therefore, Hermes, my friend, help us with
your whole heart to find and deliver the captive and we will celebrate
the great Panathenaea(1) in your honour as well as all the festivals
of the other gods; for Hermes shall be the Mysteries, the Dipolia, the
Adonia; everywhere the towns, freed from their miseries, will sacrifice
to Hermes the Liberator; you will be loaded with benefits of every kind,
and to start with, I offer you this cup for libations as your first
present.
f(1) The Panathenaea were dedicated to Athene, the Mysteries
to Demeter, the Dipolia to Zeus, the Adonia to Aphrodite and
Adonis. Trygaeus promises Hermes that he shall be worshipped
in the place of the other gods.
HERMES Ah! how golden cups do influence me! Come, friends, get to work.
To the pit quickly, pick in hand, and drag away the stones.
CHORUS We go, but you, cleverest of all the gods, supervise our labours;
tell us, good workman as you are, what we must do; we shall obey your
orders with alacrity.
TRYGAEUS Quick, reach me your cup, and let us preface our work by
addressing prayers to the gods.
HERMES Oh! sacred, sacred libations! Keep silence, oh! ye people! keep
silence!
TRYGAEUS Let us offer our libations and our prayers, so that this day
may begin an era of unalloyed happiness for Greece and that he who has
bravely pulled at the rope with us may never resume his buckler.
CHORUS Aye, may we pass our lives in peace, caressing our mistresses and
poking the fire.
TRYGAEUS May he who would prefer the war, oh Dionysus, be ever drawing
barbed arrows out of his elbows.
HERMES If there be a citizen, greedy for military rank and honours who
refuses, oh, divine Peace! to restore you to daylight, may he behave as
cowardly as Cleonymus on the battlefield.
TRYGAEUS If a lance-maker or a dealer in shields desires war for the
sake of better trade, may he be taken by pirates and eat nothing but
barley.
CHORUS If some ambitious man does not help us, because he wants to
become a General, or if a slave is plotting to pass over to the enemy,
let his limbs be broken on the wheel, may he be beaten to death with
rods! As for us, may Fortune favour us! Io! Paean, Io!
TRYGAEUS Don't say Paean,(1) but simply, Io.
f(1) The pun here cannot be kept. The word (in Greek),
Paean, resembles (that for) to strike; hence the word, as
recalling the blows and wounds of the war, seems of ill omen
to Trygaeus.
HERMES Very well, then! Io! Io! I'll simply say, Io!
TRYGAEUS To Hermes, the Graces, Hora, Aphrodite, Eros!
CHORUS But not to Ares?
TRYGAEUS No.
CHORUS Nor doubtless to Enyalius?
TRYGAEUS No.
CHORUS Come, all strain at the ropes to tear away the stones. Pull!
HERMES Heave away, heave, heave, oh!
CHORUS Come, pull harder, harder.
HERMES Heave away, heave, heave, oh!
CHORUS Still harder, harder still.
HERMES Heave away, heave! Heave away, heave, heave, oh!
TRYGAEUS Come, come, there is no working together. Come! all pull at the
same instant! you Boeotians are only pretending. Beware!
HERMES Come, heave away, heave!
CHORUS Hi! you two pull as well.
TRYGAEUS Why, I am pulling, I am hanging on to the rope and straining
till I am almost off my feet; I am working with all my might.
CHORUS Why does not the work advance then?
TRYGAEUS Lamachus, this is too bad! You are in the way, sitting there.
We have no use for your Medusa's head, friend.(1)
f(1) The device on his shield was a Gorgon's head. (See
'The Acharnians.')
HERMES But hold, the Argives have not pulled the least bit; they have
done nothing but laugh at us for our pains while they were getting gain
with both hands.(1)
f(1) Both Sparta and Athens had sought the alliance of the
Argives; they had kept themselves strictly neutral and had
received pay from both sides. But, the year after the
production of 'The Wasps,' they openly joined Athens, had
attacked Epidaurus and got cut to pieces by the Spartans.
TRYGAEUS Ah! my dear sir, the Laconians at all events pull with vigour.
CHORUS But look! only those among them who generally hold the
plough-tail show any zeal,(1) while the armourers impede them in their
efforts.
f(1) These are the Spartan prisoners from Sphacteria, who
were lying in goal at Athens. They were chained fast to
large beams of wood.
HERMES And the Megarians too are doing nothing, yet look how they are
pulling and showing their teeth like famished curs; The poor wretches
are dying of hunger!(1)
f(1) 'Twas want of force, not want of will. They had
suffered more than any other people from the war. (See 'The
Acharnians.')
TRYGAEUS This won't do, friends. Come! all together! Everyone to the
work and with a good heart for the business.
HERMES Heave away, heave!
TRYGAEUS Harder!
HERMES Heave away, heave!
TRYGAEUS Come on then, by heaven.
HERMES Heave away, heave! Heave away, heave!
CHORUS This will never do.
TRYGAEUS Is it not a shame? some pull one way and others another. You,
Argives there, beware of a thrashing!
HERMES Come, put your strength into it.
TRYGAEUS Heave away, heave!
CHORUS There are many ill-disposed folk among us.
TRYGAEUS Do you at least, who long for peace, pull heartily.
CHORUS But there are some who prevent us.
HERMES Off to the Devil with you, Megarians! The goddess hates you. She
recollects that you were the first to rub her the wrong way. Athenians,
you are not well placed for pulling. There you are too busy with
law-suits; if you really want to free the goddess, get down a little
towards the sea.(1)
f(1) Meaning, look chiefly to your fleet. This was the
counsel that Themistocles frequently gave the Athenians.
CHORUS Come, friends, none but husbandmen on the rope.
HERMES Ah! that will do ever so much better.
CHORUS He says the thing is going well. Come, all of you, together and
with a will.
TRYGAEUS 'Tis the husbandmen who are doing all the work.
CHORUS Come then, come, and all together! Hah! hah! at last there is
some unanimity in the work. Don't let us give up, let us redouble our
efforts. There! now we have it! Come then, all together! Heave away,
heave! Heave away, heave! Heave away, heave! Heave away, heave! Heave
away, heave! All together! (PEACE IS DRAWN OUT OF THE PIT.)
TRYGAEUS Oh! venerated goddess, who givest us our grapes, where am I to
find the ten-thousand-gallon words(1) wherewith to greet thee? I have
none such at home. Oh! hail to thee, Opora,(2) and thee, Theoria!(3) How
beautiful is thy face! How sweet thy breath! What gentle fragrance comes
from thy bosom, gentle as freedom from military duty, as the most dainty
perfumes!
f(1) A metaphor referring to the abundant vintages that
peace would assure.
f(2) The goddess of fruits.
f(3) Aristophanes personifies under this name the sacred
ceremonies in general which peace would allow to be
celebrated with due pomp. Opora and Theoria come on the
stage in the wake of Peace, clothed and decked out as
courtesans.
HERMES Is it then a smell like a soldier's knapsack?
TRYGAEUS Oh! hateful soldier! your hideous satchel makes me sick! it
stinks like the belching of onions, whereas this lovable deity has the
odour of sweet fruits, of festivals, of the Dionysia, of the harmony of
flutes, of the comic poets, of the verses of Sophocles, of the phrases
of Euripides...
HERMES That's a foul calumny, you wretch! She detests that framer of
subtleties and quibbles.
TRYGAEUS ...of ivy, of straining-bags for wine, of bleating ewes, of
provision-laden women hastening to the kitchen, of the tipsy servant
wench, of the upturned wine-jar, and of a whole heap of other good
things.
HERMES Then look how the reconciled towns chat pleasantly together, how
they laugh; and yet they are all cruelly mishandled; their wounds are
bleeding still.
TRYGAEUS But let us also scan the mien of the spectators; we shall thus
find out the trade of each.
HERMES Ah! good gods! Look at that poor crest-maker, tearing at his
hair,(1) and at that pike-maker, who has just broken wind in yon
sword-cutler's face.
f(1) Aristophanes has already shown us the husbandmen and
workers in peaceful trades pulling at the rope the extricate
Peace, while the armourers hindered them by pulling the
other way.
TRYGAEUS And do you see with what pleasure this sickle-maker is making
long noses at the spear-maker?
HERMES Now ask the husbandmen to be off.
TRYGAEUS Listen, good folk! Let the husbandmen take their farming tools
and return to their fields as quick as possible, but without either
sword, spear or javelin. All is as quiet as if Peace had been reigning
for a century. Come, let everyone go till the earth, singing the Paean.
CHORUS Oh, thou, whom men of standing desired and who art good to
husbandmen, I have gazed upon thee with delight; and now I go to greet
my vines, to caress after so long an absence the fig trees I planted in
my youth.
TRYGAEUS Friends, let us first adore the goddess, who has delivered us
from crests and Gorgons;(1) then let us hurry to our farms, having first
bought a nice little piece of salt fish to eat in the fields.
f(1) An allusion to Lamachus' shield.
HERMES By Posidon! what a fine crew they make and dense as the crust of
a cake; they are as nimble as guests on their way to a feast.
TRYGAEUS See, how their iron spades glitter and how beautifully their
three-pronged mattocks glisten in the sun! How regularly they align the
plants! I also burn myself to go into the country and to turn over the
earth I have so long neglected.--Friends, do you remember the happy life
that Peace afforded us formerly; can you recall the splendid baskets
of figs, both fresh and dried, the myrtles, the sweet wine, the violets
blooming near the spring, and the olives, for which we have wept so
much? Worship, adore the goddess for restoring you so many blessings.
CHORUS Hail! hail! thou beloved divinity! thy return overwhelms us with
joy. When far from thee, my ardent wish to see my fields again made me
pine with regret. From thee came all blessings. Oh! much desired Peace!
thou art the sole support of those who spend their lives tilling the
earth. Under thy rule we had a thousand delicious enjoyments at our
beck; thou wert the husbandman's wheaten cake and his safeguard. So that
our vineyards, our young fig-tree woods and all our plantations hail
thee with delight and smile at thy coming. But where was she then,
I wonder, all the long time she spent away from us? Hermes, thou
benevolent god, tell us!
HERMES Wise husbandmen, hearken to my words, if you want to know why
she was lost to you. The start of our misfortunes was the exile of
Phidias;(1) Pericles feared he might share his ill-luck, he mistrusted
your peevish nature and, to prevent all danger to himself, he threw out
that little spark, the Megarian decree,(2) set the city aflame, and blew
up the conflagration with a hurricane of war, so that the smoke drew
tears from all Greeks both here and over there. At the very outset of
this fire our vines were a-crackle, our casks knocked together;(3)
it was beyond the power of any man to stop the disaster, and Peace
disappeared.
f(1) Having been commissioned to execute a statue of Athene,
Phidias was accused of having stolen part of the gold given
him out of the public treasury for its decoration. Rewarded
for his work by calumny and banishment, he resolved to make
a finer statue than his Athene, and executed one for the
temple of Elis, that of the Olympian Zeus, which was
considered one of the wonders of the world.
f(2) He had issued a decree, which forbade the admission of
any Megarian on Attic soil, and also all trade with that
people. The Megarians, who obtained all their provisions
from Athens, were thus almost reduced to starvation.
f(3) That is, the vineyards were ravaged from the very
outset of the war, and this increased the animosity.
TRYGAEUS That, by Apollo! is what no one ever told me; I could not think
what connection there could be between Phidias and Peace.
CHORUS Nor I; I know it now. This accounts for her beauty, if she is
related to him. There are so many things that escape us.
HERMES Then, when the towns subject to you saw that you were angered one
against the other and were showing each other your teeth like dogs, they
hatched a thousand plots to pay you no more dues and gained over
the chief citizens of Sparta at the price of gold. They, being as
shamelessly greedy as they were faithless in diplomacy, chased off Peace
with ignominy to let loose War. Though this was profitable to them,
'twas the ruin of the husbandmen, who were innocent of all blame; for,
in revenge, your galleys went out to devour their figs.
TRYGAEUS And 'twas with justice too; did they not break down my black
fig tree, which I had planted and dunged with my own hands?
CHORUS Yes, by Zeus! yes, 'twas well done; the wretches broke a chest
for me with stones, which held six medimni of corn.
HERMES Then the rural labourers flocked into the city(1) and let
themselves be bought over like the others. Not having even a grape-stone
to munch and longing after their figs, they looked towards the
orators.(2) These well knew that the poor were driven to extremity and
lacked even bread; but they nevertheless drove away the Goddess, each
time she reappeared in answer to the wish of the country, with their
loud shrieks that were as sharp as pitchforks; furthermore, they
attacked the well-filled purses of the richest among our allies on the
pretence that they belonged to Brasidas' party.(3) And then you would
tear the poor accused wretch to pieces with your teeth; for the city,
all pale with hunger and cowed with terror, gladly snapped up any
calumny that was thrown it to devour. So the strangers, seeing what
terrible blows the informers dealt, sealed their lips with gold. They
grew rich, while you, alas! you could only see that Greece was going to
ruin. 'Twas the tanner who was the author of all this woe.(4)
f(1) Driven in from the country parts by the Lacedaemonian
invaders.
f(2) The demagogues, who distributed the slender dole given
to the poor, and by that means exercised undue power over
them.
f(3) Meaning, the side of the Spartans.
f(4) Cleon.
TRYGAEUS Enough said, Hermes, leave that man in Hades, whither he has
gone; he no longer belongs to us, but rather to yourself.(1) That he
was a cheat, a braggart, a calumniator when alive, why, nothing could be
truer; but anything you might say now would be an insult to one of your
own folk. Oh! venerated Goddess! why art thou silent?
f(1) It was Hermes who conducted the souls of the dead down
to the lower regions.
HERMES And how could she speak to the spectators? She is too angry at
all that they have made her suffer.
TRYGAEUS At least let her speak a little to you, Hermes.
HERMES Tell me, my dear, what are your feelings with regard to them?
Come, you relentless foe of all bucklers, speak; I am listening to you.
(PEACE WHISPERS INTO HERMES' EAR.) Is that your grievance against them?
Yes, yes, I understand. Hearken, you folk, this is her complaint. She
says, that after the affair of Pylos(1) she came to you unbidden to
bring you a basket full of truces and that you thrice repulsed her by
your votes in the assembly.
f(1) The Spartans had thrice offered to make peace after the
Pylos disaster.
TRYGAEUS Yes, we did wrong, but forgive us, for our mind was then
entirely absorbed in leather.(1)
f(1) i.e. dominated by Cleon.
HERMES Listen again to what she has just asked me. Who was her greatest
foe here? and furthermore, had she a friend who exerted himself to put
an end to the fighting?
TRYGAEUS Her most devoted friend was Cleonymus; it is undisputed.
HERMES How then did Cleonymus behave in fights?
TRYGAEUS Oh! the bravest of warriors! Only he was not born of the father
he claims; he showed it quick enough in the army by throwing away his
weapons.(1)
f(1) There is a pun here that cannot be rendered between
(the Greek for) 'one who throws away his weapons' and 'a
supposititious child.'
HERMES There is yet another question she has just put to me. Who rules
now in the rostrum?
TRYGAEUS 'Tis Hyperbolus, who now holds empire on the Pnyx. (TO PEACE)
What now? you turn away your head!
HERMES She is vexed, that the people should give themselves a wretch of
that kind for their chief.
TRYGAEUS Oh! we shall not employ him again; but the people, seeing
themselves without a leader, took him haphazard, just as a man, who is
naked, springs upon the first cloak he sees.
HERMES She asks, what will be the result of such a choice of the city?
TRYGAEUS We shall be more far-seeing in consequence.
HERMES And why?
TRYGAEUS Because he is a lamp-maker. Formerly we only directed our
business by groping in the dark; now we shall only deliberate by
lamplight.
HERMES Oh! oh! what questions she does order me to put to you!
TRYGAEUS What are they?
HERMES She wants to have news of a whole heap of old-fashioned things
she left here. First of all, how is Sophocles?
TRYGAEUS Very well, but something very strange has happened to him.
HERMES What then?