DIONYSUS. Let go! let go! Here again our friend Aeschylus' verse drags down the scale; 'tis because he has thrown in Death, the weightiest of all ills.
EURIPIDES. And I Persuasion; my verse is excellent.
DIONYSUS. Persuasion has both little weight and little sense. But hunt again for a big weighty verse and solid withal, that it may assure you the victory.
EURIPIDES. But where am I to find one--where?
DIONYSUS. I'll tell you one: "Achilles has thrown two and four."[525] Come, recite! 'tis the last trial.
EURIPIDES. "With his arm he seized a mace, studded with iron."[526]
AESCHYLUS. "Chariot upon chariot and corpse upon corpse."[527]
DIONYSUS (to Euripides) There you're foiled again.
EURIPIDES. Why?
[525] From the 'Telephus' of Euripides, in which he introduces Achilles playing at dice. This line was also ridiculed by Eupolis.
[526] From Euripides' 'Meleager.' All these plays, with the one exception of the 'Medea,' are lost.
[527] From the 'Glaucus Potniensis,' a lost play of Aeschylus.
Studies
