EURIPIDES. ... they could throw vinegar into the eyes of the foe in the event of a sea-fight. But I know something else I want to tell you.
DIONYSUS. Go on.
EURIPIDES. When we put trust in what we mistrust and mistrust what we trust....
DIONYSUS. What? I don't understand. Tell us something less profound, but clearer.
EURIPIDES. If we were to mistrust the citizens, whom we trust, and to employ those whom we to-day neglect, we should be saved. Nothing succeeds with us; very well then, let's do the opposite thing, and our deliverance will be assured.
DIONYSUS. Very well spoken. You are the most ingenious of men, a true Palamedes![530] Is this fine idea your own or is it Cephisophon's?
EURIPIDES. My very own,--bar the vinegar, which is Cephisophon's.
DIONYSUS (to Aeschylus). And you, what have you to say?
AESCHYLUS. Tell me first who the commonwealth employs. Are they the just?
DIONYSUS. Oh! she holds them in abhorrence.
[530] The invention of weights and measures, of dice, and of the game of chess are attributed to him, also that of four additional letters of the alphabet.
Studies
