XANTHIAS. They don't say ever a word of poor me, whose shoulder is quite shattered.
HERACLES. Is there not a crowd of other little lads, who produce tragedies by the thousand and are a thousand times more loquacious than Euripides?
DIONYSUS. They are little sapless twigs, chatterboxes, who twitter like the swallows, destroyers of the art, whose aptitude is withered with a single piece and who sputter forth all their talent to the tragic Muse at their first attempt. But look where you will, you will not find a creative poet who gives vent to a noble thought.
HERACLES. How creative?
DIONYSUS. Aye, creative, who dares to risk "the ethereal dwellings of Zeus," or "the wing of Time," or "a heart that is above swearing by the sacred emblems," and "a tongue that takes an oath, while yet the soul is unpledged."[400]
HERACLES. Is that the kind of thing that pleases you?
[399] A poet apparently, unknown.
[400] Expressions used by Euripides in different tragedies.
Studies
