SERVANT
Take the knife and slaughter the sheep like a finished cook.
TRYGAEUS
No, the goddess does not wish it.[1]
f[1] As a matter of fact, the Sicyonians, who celebrated the festival of Peace
on the sixteenth day of the month of Hecatombeon (July), spilled no blood
upon her altar.
SERVANT
And why not?
TRYGAEUS
Blood cannot please Peace, so let us spill none upon her altar.
Therefore go and sacrifice the sheep in the house, cut off the legs
and bring them here; thus the carcase will be saved for the choregus.
CHORUS
You, who remain here, get chopped wood and everything needed for
the sacrifice ready.
TRYGAEUS
Don't I look like a diviner preparing his mystic fire?
CHORUS
Undoubtedly. Will anything that it behooves a wise man to know escape
you? Don't you know all that a man should know, who is distinguished
for his wisdom and inventive daring?
TRYGAEUS
There! the wood catches. Its smoke blinds poor Stilbides.[1] I am now
going to bring the table and thus be my own slave.
f[1] A celebrated diviner, who had accompanied the Athenians on their
expedition to Sicily. Thus the War was necessary to make his calling pay
and the smoke of the sacrifice offered to Peace must therefore be
unpleasant to him.
CHORUS
You have braved a thousand dangers to save your sacred town. All
honour to you! your glory will be ever envied.
SERVANT
Hold! Here are the legs, place them upon the altar. For myself,
I mean to go back to the entrails and the cakes.
TRYGAEUS
I'll see to those; I want you here.
SERVANT
Well then, here I am. Do you think I have been long?
TRYGAEUS
Just get this roasted. Ah! who is this man, crowned with laurel,
who is coming to me?
SERVANT
He has a self-important look; is he some diviner?
TRYGAEUS
No, I' faith! 'tis Hierocles.
SERVANT
Ah! that oracle-monger from Oreus.[1] What is he going to tell us?
f[1] A town in Euboea on the channel which separated that island from
Thessaly.
TRYGAEUS
Evidently he is coming to oppose the peace.
SERVANT
No, 'tis the odour of the fat that attracts him.
TRYGAEUS
Let us appear not to see him.
SERVANT
Very well.
HIEROCLES
What sacrifice is this? to what god are you offering it?
TRYGAEUS (TO THE SERVANT)
Silence!--(ALOUD.) Look after the roasting and keep your hands off
the meat.
HIEROCLES
To whom are you sacrificing? Answer me. Ah! the tail[1] is showing
favourable omens.
f[1] When sacrificing, the tail was cut off the victim and thrown into
the fire. From the way in which it burnt the inference was drawn as
to whether or not the sacrifice was agreeable to the deity.
SERVANT
Aye, very favourable, oh, loved and mighty Peace!
HIEROCLES
Come, cut off the first offering[1] and make the oblation.
f[1] This was the part that belonged to the priests and diviners. As one
of the latter class, Hierocles is in haste to see this piece cut off.
TRYGAEUS
'Tis not roasted enough.
HIEROCLES
Yea, truly, 'tis done to a turn.
TRYGAEUS
Mind your own business, friend! (TO THE SERVANT.) Cut away. Where is
the table? Bring the libations.
HIEROCLES
The tongue is cut separately.
TRYGAEUS
We know all that. But just listen to one piece of advice.
HIEROCLES
And that is?
TRYGAEUS
Don't talk, for 'tis divine Peace to whom we are sacrificing.
HIEROCLES
Oh! wretched mortals, oh, you idiots!
TRYGAEUS
Keep such ugly terms for yourself.
HIEROCLES
What! you are so ignorant you don't understand the will of the
gods and you make a treaty, you, who are men, with apes, who are
full of malice?[1]
f[1] The Spartans.
TRYGAEUS
Ha, ha, ha!
HIEROCLES
What are you laughing at?
TRYGAEUS
Ha, ha! your apes amuse me!
HIEROCLES
You simple pigeons, you trust yourselves to foxes, who are all
craft, both in mind and heart.
TRYGAEUS
Oh, you trouble-maker! may your lungs get as hot as this meat!
HIEROCLES
Nay, nay! if only the Nymphs had not fooled Bacis, and Bacis
mortal men; and if the Nymphs had not tricked Bacis a second time...[1]
f[1] Emphatic pathos, incomprehensible even to the diviner himself;
this is a satire on the obscure style of the oracles. Bacis was a famous
Boeotian diviner.
TRYGAEUS
May the plague seize you, if you don't stop wearying us with your Bacis!
HIEROCLES
...it would not have been written in the book of Fate that the
bends of Peace must be broken; but first...
TRYGAEUS
The meat must be dusted with salt.
HIEROCLES
...it does not please the blessed gods that we should stop the War until
the wolf uniteth with the sheep.
TRYGAEUS
How, you cursed animal, could the wolf ever unite with the sheep?
HIEROCLES
As long as the wood-bug gives off a fetid odour, when it flies; as
long as the noisy bitch is forced by nature to litter blind pups, so
long shall peace be forbidden.
TRYGAEUS
Then what should be done? Not to stop War would be to leave it
to the decision of chance which of the two people should suffer the most,
whereas by uniting under a treaty, we share the empire of Greece.
HIEROCLES
You will never make the crab walk straight.
TRYGAEUS
You shall no longer be fed at the Prytaneum; the war done,
oracles are not wanted.
HIEROCLES
You will never smooth the rough spikes of the hedgehog.
TRYGAEUS
Will you never stop fooling the Athenians?
HIEROCLES
What oracle ordered you to burn these joints of mutton in honour
of the gods?
TRYGAEUS
This grand oracle of Homer's: "Thus vanished the dark war-clouds
and we offered a sacrifice to new-born Peace. When the flame had
consumed the thighs of the victim and its inwards had appeased our
hunger, we poured out the libations of wine." 'Twas I who arranged
the sacred rites, but none offered the shining cup to the diviner.[1]
f[1] Of course this is not a bona fide quotation, but a whimsical
adaptatioin of various Homeric verses; the last is a coinage of his own,
and means, that he is to have no part, either in the flesh of the victim or
in the wine of the libations.
HIEROCLES
I care little for that. 'Tis not the Sibyl who spoke it.[1]
f[1] Probably the Sibyl of Delphi is meant.
TRYGAEUS
Wise Homer has also said: "He who delights in the horrors of civil
war has neither country nor laws nor home." What noble words!
HIEROCLES
Beware lest the kite turn your brain and rob...
TRYGAEUS
Look out, slave! This oracle threatens our meat. Quick, pour the libation,
and give me some of the inwards.
HIEROCLES
I too will help myself to a bit, if you like.
TRYGAEUS
The libation! the libation!
HIEROCLES
Pour out also for me and give me some of this meat.
TRYGAEUS
No, the blessed gods won't allow it yet; let us drink; and as for you,
get you gone, for 'tis their will. Mighty Peace! stay ever in our midst.
HIEROCLES
Bring the tongue hither.
TRYGAEUS
Relieve us of your own.
HIEROCLES
The libation.
TRYGAEUS
Here! and this into the bargain (STRIKES HIM).
HIEROCLES
You will not give me any meat?
TRYGAEUS
We cannot give you any until the wolf unites with the sheep.
HIEROCLES
I will embrace your knees.
TRYGAEUS
'Tis lost labour, good fellow; you will never smooth the rough
spikes of the hedgehog.... Come, spectators, join us in our feast.
HIEROCLES
And what am I to do?
TRYGAEUS
You? go and eat the Sibyl.
HIEROCLES
No, by the Earth! no, you shall not eat without me; if you do not give,
I take; 'tis common property.
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