f[1] Masters of Pylos and Sphacteria, the Athenians had brought home
the three hundred prisoners taken in the latter place in 425 B.C.; the Spartans
had several times sent envoys to offer peace and to demand back both
Pylos and the prisoners, but the Athenian pride had caused these
proposals to be long refused. Finally the prisoners had been given up
in 423 B.C., but the War was continued nevertheless.
TRYGAEUS
Yes, that is quite the style our folk do talk in.
HERMES
So that I don't know whether you will ever see Peace again.
TRYGAEUS
Why, where has she gone to then?
HERMES
War has cast her into a deep pit.
TRYGAEUS
Where?
HERMES
Down there, at the very bottom. And you see what heaps of stones
he has piled over the top, so that you should never pull her out again.
TRYGAEUS
Tell me, what is War preparing against us?
HERMES
All I know is that last evening he brought along a huge mortar.
TRYGAEUS
And what is he going to do with his mortar?
HERMES
He wants to pound up all the cities of Greece in it.... But I must say
good-bye, for I think he is coming out; what an uproar he is making!
TRYGAEUS
Ah! great gods! let us seek safety; meseems I already hear the
noise of this fearful war mortar.
WAR (ENTERS, CARRYING A HUGE MORTAR)
Oh! mortals, mortals, wretched mortals, how your jaws will snap!
TRYGAEUS
Oh! divine Apollo! what a prodigious big mortar! Oh, what misery
the very sight of War causes me! This then is the foe from whom I fly,
who is so cruel, so formidable, so stalwart, so solid on his legs!
WAR
Oh! Prasiae![1] thrice wretched, five times, aye, a thousand times
wretched! for thou shalt be destroyed this day.
f[1] An important town in Eastern Laconia on the Argolic gulf, celebrated
for a temple where a festival was held annually in honour of Achilles.
It had been taken and pillaged by the Athenians in the second year of
the Peloponnesian War, 430 B.C. As he utters this imprecation, War
throws some leeks, the root-word of the name Praisae, into his mortar.
TRYGAEUS
This does not concern us over much; 'tis only so much the worse for
the Laconians.
WAR
Oh! Megara! Megara! how utterly are you going to be ground up! what
fine mincemeat[1] are you to be made into!
f[1] War throws some garlic into his mortar as emblematical of the city of
Megara, where it was grown in abundance.
TRYGAEUS
Alas! alas! what bitter tears there will be among the Megarians![1]
f[1] Because the smell of bruised garlic causes the eyes to water.
WAR
Oh, Sicily! you too must perish! Your wretched towns shall be grated
like this cheese.[1] Now let us pour some Attic honey[2] into the mortar.
f[1] He throws cheese into the mortar as emblematical of Sicily, on account
of its rich pastures.
f[2] Emblematical of Athens. They honey of Mount Hymettus was famous.
TRYGAEUS
Oh! I beseech you! use some other honey; this kind is worth four obols;
be careful, oh! be careful of our Attic honey.
WAR
Hi! Tumult, you slave there!
TUMULT
What do you want?
WAR
Out upon you! Standing there with folded arms! Take this cuff o' the head
for your pains.
TUMULT
Oh! how it stings! Master, have you got garlic in your fist, I wonder?
WAR
Run and fetch me a pestle.
TUMULT
But we haven't got one; 'twas only yesterday we moved.
WAR
Go and fetch me one from Athens, and hurry, hurry!
TUMULT
Aye, I hasten there; if I return without one, I shall have no cause
for laughing. (EXIT.)
TRYGAEUS
Ah! what is to become of us, wretched mortals that we are? See the
danger that threatens if he returns with the pestle, for War will
quietly amuse himself with pounding all the towns of Hellas to pieces.
Ah! Bacchus! cause this herald of evil to perish on his road!
WAR
Well?
TUMULT (WHO HAS RETURNED)
Well, what?
WAR
You have brought back nothing?
TUMULT
Alas! the Athenians have lost their pestle--the tanner, who ground Greece
to powder.[1]
f[1] Cleon, who had lately fallen before Amphipolis, in 422 B.C.
TRYGAEUS
Oh! Athene, venerable mistress! 'tis well for our city he is dead,
and before he could serve us with this hash.
WAR
Then go and seek one at Sparta and have done with it!
TUMULT
Aye, aye, master!
WAR
Be back as quick as ever you can.
TRYGAEUS (TO THE AUDIENCE)
What is going to happen, friends? 'Tis the critical hour. Ah! if there
is some initiate of Samothrace[1] among you, 'tis surely the moment
to wish this messenger some accident--some sprain or strain.
f[1] An island in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Thrace and opposite
the mouth of the Hebrus; the Mysteries are said to have found their first
home in this island, where the Cabirian gods were worshipped; this cult,
shrouded in deep mystery to even the initiates themselves, has remained
an almost insoluble problem for the modern critic. It was said that
the wishes of the initiates were always granted, and they were feared as
to-day the 'jettatori' (spell-throwers, casters of the evil eye) in Sicily
are feared.
TUMULT (WHO RETURNS)
Alas! alas! thrice again, alas!
WAR
What is it? Again you come back without it?
TUMULT
The Spartans too have lost their pestle.
WAR
How, varlet?
TUMULT
They had lent it to their allies in Thrace,[1] who have lost it for them.
f[1] Brasidas perished in Thrace in the same battle as Cleon at Amphipolis,
422 B.C.
TRYGAEUS
Long life to you, Thracians! My hopes revive, pluck up courage,
mortals!
WAR
Take all this stuff away; I am going in to make a pestle for myself.
TRYGAEUS
'Tis now the time to sing as Datis did, as he abused himself at high
noon, "Oh pleasure! oh enjoyment! oh delights!" 'Tis now, oh Greeks!
the moment when freed of quarrels and fighting, we should rescue sweet
Peace and draw her out of this pit, before some other pestle
prevents us. Come, labourers, merchants, workmen, artisans, strangers,
whether you be domiciled or not, islanders, come here, Greeks of all
countries, come hurrying here with picks and levers and ropes!
'Tis the moment to drain a cup in honour of the Good Genius.
CHORUS
Come hither all! quick, hasten to the rescue! All peoples of Greece, now is
the time or never, for you to help each other. You see yourselves
freed from battles and all their horrors of bloodshed. The day, hateful
to Lamachus[1], has come. Come then, what must be done? Give your
orders, direct us, for I swear to work this day without ceasing, until
with the help of our levers and our engines we have drawn back into light
the greatest of all goddesses, her to whom the olive is so dear.
f[1] An Athenian general as ambitious as he was brave. In 423 B.C. he
had failed in an enterprise against Heracles, a storm having destroyed
his fleet. Since then he had distingued himself in several actions, and
was destined, some years later, to share the command of the expedition
to Sicily with Alcibiades and Nicias.
TRYGAEUS
Silence! if War should hear your shouts of joy he would bound
forth from his retreat in fury.
CHORUS
Such a decree overwhelms us with joy; how different to the
edict, which bade us muster with provisions for three days.[1]
f[1] Meaning, to start a military expedition.
TRYGAEUS
Let us beware lest the cursed Cerberus[1] prevent us even from
the nethermost hell from delivering the goddess by his furious howling,
just as he did when on earth.
f[1] Cleon.
CHORUS
Once we have hold of her, none in the world will be able to take her
from us. Huzza! huzza![1]
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