EURIPIDES. "Cadmus, the son of Agenor, while leaving the city of Sidon[510] ..."
AESCHYLUS. ... lost his little bottle.
DIONYSUS. Oh! my poor friend; buy that bottle, do, for it is going to tear all your prologues to ribbons.
EURIPIDES. What? Am I to buy it of him?
DIONYSUS. If you take my advice.
EURIPIDES. No, not I, for I have many prologues to which he cannot possibly fit his catchword: "Pelops, the son of Tantalus, having started for Pisa on his swift chariot[511] ..."
AESCHYLUS. ... lost his little bottle.
DIONYSUS. D'ye see? Again he has popped in his little bottle. Come, Aeschylus, he is going to buy it of you at any price, and you can have a splendid one for an obolus.
EURIPIDES. By Zeus, no, not yet! I have plenty of other prologues. "Oeneus in the fields one day[512] ..."
[510] From prologue of the 'Phryxus' of Euripides, a play now lost.
[511] From prologue of the 'Iphigeneia in Tauris' of Euripides.
[512] Prologue of 'The Meleager' by Euripides, lost.
Studies
