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    Contents:
  • Prologue 1
  • Parodos 1
  • Lyric-scene 1
  • Episode 1
  • Choral 1
  • Episode 2
  • Choral 2
  • Episode 3
  • Parabasis 1
  • Episode 4
  • Lyric-scene 2
  • Lyric-scene 3
  • Choral 3
  • Episode 5
  • Exodus 1
    		•

    Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae (ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.)

    Editions and translations: Greek (ed. F.W. Hall and W.M. Geldart) | English (ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.)
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    Table of ContentsGo to Next

    Mnesilochus
    SCENE: Behind the orchestra are two buildings, one the house of the poet Agathon, the other the Thesmophorion. Euripides enters from the right, at a rapid pace, with an air of searching for something; his father-in-law Mnesilochus, who is extremely aged, follows him as best he can, with an obviously painful expenditure of effort.

    Great Zeus! will the swallow never appear to end the winter of my discontent? Why the fellow has kept me on the run ever since early this morning; he wants to kill me, that's certain. Before I lose my spleen entirely, Euripides, can you at least tell me where you are leading me?

    Euripides

    [5] What need for you to hear what you are going to see?

    Mnesilochus

    How is that? Repeat it. No need for me to hear ...

    Euripides

    What you are going to see.

    Mnesilochus

    Nor consequently to see ...

    Euripides

    What you have to hear.

    Mnesilochus

    What is this wiseacre stuff you are telling me? [10] I must neither see nor hear?

    Euripides

    Ah! but you have two things there that are essentially distinct.

    Mnesilochus

    Seeing and hearing?

    Euripides

    Undoubtedly.

    Mnesilochus

    In what way distinct?

    Euripides

    In this way. Formerly, when Aether separated the elements [15] and bore the animals that were moving in her bosom, she wished to endow them with sight, and so made the eye round like the sun's disc and bored ears in the form of a funnel.

    Mnesilochus

    And because of this funnel I neither see nor hear. [20] Ah! great gods! I am delighted to know it. What a fine thing it is to talk with wise men!

    Euripides

    I will teach you many another thing of the sort.

    Mnesilochus

    That's well to know; but first of all I should like to find out how to grow lame, so that I need not have to follow you all about.

    Euripides

    [25] Come, hear and give heed!

    Mnesilochus

    I'm here and waiting.

    Euripides

    Do you see that little door?

    Mnesilochus

    Yes, certainly.

    Euripides

    Silence!

    Mnesilochus

    Silence about what? About the door?

    Euripides

    Pay attention!

    Mnesilochus

    Pay attention and be silent about the door? Very well.

    Euripides

    That is where Agathon, the celebrated [30] tragic poet, dwells.

    Mnesilochus

    Who is this Agathon?

    Euripides

    He's a certain Agathon ...

    Mnesilochus

    Swarthy, robust of build?

    Euripides

    No, another.

    Mnesilochus

    I have never seen him. He has a big beard?

    Euripides

    Have you never seen him?

    Mnesilochus

    Never, so far as I know.

    Euripides

    [35] And yet you have made love to him. Well, it must have been without knowing who he was. The door of Agathon's house opens. Ah! let us step aside; here is one of his slaves bringing a brazier and some myrtle branches; no doubt he is going to offer a sacrifice and pray for a happy poetical inspiration for Agathon.

    Servant of Agathon
    Standing on the threshold; solemnly

    Silence! oh, people! [40] keep your mouths sedately shut! The chorus of the Muses is moulding songs at my master's hearth. Let the winds hold their breath in the silent Aether! Let the azure waves cease murmuring on the shore!

    Mnesilochus

    [45] Bombax.

    Euripides

    Be still! I want to hear what he is saying.

    Servant

    Take your rest, ye winged races, and you, ye savage inhabitants of the woods, cease from your erratic wandering.

    Mnesilochus
    More loudly

    Bombalombax!

    Servant

    For Agathon, [50] our master, the sweet-voiced poet, is going--

    Mnesilochus

    --to be made love to?

    Servant

    Whose voice is that?

    Mnesilochus

    It's the silent Aether.


    There are a total of 2 comments on and cross references to this page.

    Cross references from Raphael Kühner, Friedrich Blass, Ausführliche Grammatik der Griechischen Sprache (ed. Ildar Ibraguimov):
    161 [Dorische Mundart.)]
    161 [Dorische Mundart.)]

    Preferred URL for linking to this page: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristoph.+Thes.+1

    The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.

    This text is based on the following book(s):
    Aristophanes. Women at the Thesmophoria. The Complete Greek Drama, vol. 2. Eugene O'Neill, Jr. New York. Random House. 1938.
    OCLC: 32280428


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