Because he is a god well suited to live on the rocks.Come! into the air with you to help the workers who are building the wall;carry up rubble, strip yourself to mix the mortar, take up the hod, tumble down the ladder, if you like, post sentinels, keep the fire smouldering beneath the ashes, go round the walls, bell in hand, and go to sleep up there yourself then despatch two heralds, one to the gods above, the other to mankind on earth and come back here.
EUELPIDES
As for yourself, remain here, and may the plague take you for a troublesome fellow!
(He departs.)
PITHETAERUS
Go, friend, go where I send you, for without you my orders cannot be obeyed.For myself, I want to sacrifice to the new god, and I am going to summon the priest who must preside at the ceremony.Slaves! slaves! bring forward the basket and the lustral water.
CHORUS (singing)
I do as you do, and I wish as you wish, and I implore you to address powerful and solemn prayers to the gods, and in addition to immolate a sheep as a token of our gratitude.Let us sing the Pythian chant in honour of the god, and let Chaeris accompany our voices.
PITHETAERUS
Enough! but, by Heracles! what is this? Great gods! I have seen many prodigious things, but I never saw a muzzled raven.(The PRIESTarrives.) Priest! it's high time! Sacrifice to the new gods.
PRIEST
I begin, but where is the man with the basket? Pray to the Hestia of the birds, to the kite, who presides over the hearth, and to all the god and goddess-birds who dwell in Olympus...
PITHETAERUS
Oh! Hawk, the sacred guardian of Sunium, oh, god of the storks!
PRIEST
...to the swan of Delos, to Leto the mother of the quails, and to Artemis, the goldfinch...
PITHETAERUS
It's no longer Artemis Colaenis, but Artemis the goldfinch.
PRIEST
...to Bacchus, the finch and Cybele, the ostrich and mother of the gods and mankind...
PITHETAERUS
Oh! sovereign ostrich Cybele, mother of Cleocritus!
PRIEST
...to grant health and safety to the Nephelococcygians as well as to the dwellers in Chios...
PITHETAERUS
The dwellers in Chios! Ah! I am delighted they should be thus mentioned on all occasions.
PRIEST
...to the heroes, the birds, to the sons of heroes, to the porphyrion, the pelican, the spoon-bill, the redbreast, the grouse, the peacock, the horned-owl, the teal, the bittern, the heron, the stormy petrel, the fig-pecker, the titmouse...
PITHETAERUS
Stop! stop! you drive me crazy with your endless list.Why, wretch, to what sacred feast are you inviting the vultures and the sea-eagles? Don't you see that a single kite could easily carry off the lot at once? Begone, you and your fillets and all; I shall know how to complete the sacrifice by myself.
(The PRIEST departs.)
It is imperative that I sing another sacred chant for the rite of the lustral water, and that I invoke the immortals, or at least one of them, provided always that you have some suitable food to offer him; from what I see here, in the shape of gifts, there is naught whatever but horn and hair.
PITHETAERUS
Let us address our sacrifices and our prayers to the winged gods.
(A POET enters.)
POET
Oh, Muse! celebrate happy Nephelococcygia in your hymns.
PITHETAERUS
What have we here? Where did you come from, tell me? Who are you?
POET
I am he whose language is sweeter than honey, the zealous slave of the Muses, as Homer has it.
PITHETAERUS
You a slave! and yet you wear your hair long?
POET
No, but the fact is all we poets are the assiduous slaves of the Muses, according to Homer.
PITHETAERUS
In truth your little cloak is quite holy too through zeal! But, poet, what ill wind drove you here?
POET
I have composed verses in honour of your Nephelococcygia, a host of splendid dithyrambs and parthenia worthy of Simonides himself.
PITHETAERUS
And when did you compose them? How long since?
POET
Oh! 'tis long, aye, very long, that I have sung in honour of this city.
PITHETAERUS
But I am only celebrating its foundation with this sacrifice; Ihave only just named it, as is done with little babies.
POET
"Just as the chargers fly with the speed of the wind, so does the voice of the Muses take its flight.Oh! thou noble founder of the town of Aetna, thou, whose name recalls the holy sacrifices, make us such gift as thy generous heart shall suggest."(He puts out his hand.)
PITHETAERUS
He will drive us silly if we do not get rid of him by some present.(To the PRIEST'S acolyte) Here! you, who have a fur as well as your tunic, take it off and give it to this clever poet.Come, take this fur; you look to me to be shivering with cold.
POET
My Muse will gladly accept this gift; but engrave these verses of Pindar's on your mind.
PITHETAERUS
Oh! what a pest! It's impossible then to get rid of him!
POET
"Straton wanders among the Scythian nomads, but has no linen garment.He is sad at only wearing an animal's pelt and no tunic."Do you get what I mean?
PITHETAERUS
I understand that you want me to offer you a tunic.Hi! you (to the acolyte), take off yours; we must help the poet....Come, you, take it and get out.
POET
I am going, and these are the verses that I address to this city: "Phoebus of the golden throne, celebrate this shivery, freezing city; I have travelled through fruitful and snow-covered plains.Tralala! Tralala!"(He departs.)
PITHETAERUS
What are you chanting us about frosts? Thanks to the tunic, you no longer fear them.Ah! by Zeus! I could not have believed this cursed fellow could so soon have learnt the way to our city.(To a slave)Come, take the lustral water and circle the altar.Let all keep silence!
(An ORACLE-MONGER enters.)
ORACLE-MONGER
Let not the goat be sacrificed.
PITHETAERUS
Who are you?
ORACLE-MONGER
Who am I? An oracle-monger.
PITHETAERUS
Get out!
ORACLE-MONGER
Wretched man, insult not sacred things.For there is an oracle of Bacis, which exactly applies to Nephelococcygia.
PITHETAERUS
Why did you not reveal it to me before I founded my city?
ORACLE-MONGER
The divine spirit was against it.
PITHETAERUS
Well, I suppose there's nothing to do but hear the terms of the oracle.
ORACLE-MONGER