Aristophanes' ECCLESIAZUSAE (Women In Council) Complete

A Literal Translation, with Notes.

Aristophanes Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Aristophanes in Print

65 pages - You are on Page 15

PRAXAGORA. I shall say that he drivels.

FIRST WOMAN. But all the world knows that.

PRAXAGORA. I shall furthermore say that he is a raving madman.

FIRST WOMAN. There's nobody who does not know it.

PRAXAGORA. That he, as excellent a statesman as he is, is a clumsy tinker.[671]

FIRST WOMAN. And if the blear-eyed Neoclides[672] comes to insult you?

PRAXAGORA. To him I shall say, "Go and look at a dog's backside".[673]

FIRST WOMAN. And if they fly at you?

PRAXAGORA. Oh! I shall shake them off as best I can; never fear, I know how to use this tool.[674]

FIRST WOMAN. But there is one thing we don't think of. If the archers drag you away, what will you do?

[671] Cephalus' father was said to have been a tinker.

[672] The comic poets accused him of being an alien by birth and also an informer and a rogue. See the 'Plutus.'

[673] There was a Greek saying, "Look into the backside of a dog and of three foxes" which, says the Scholiast, used to be addressed to those who had bad eyes. But the precise point of the joke here is difficult to see.

[674] An obscene allusion; [Greek: hupokrouein] means both pulsare and subagitare,--to strike, and also to move to the man in sexual intercourse.

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