Second Parabasis
Χορός
εἶδες εἶδες πᾶσα πόλι τὸν φρόνιμον ἄνδρα τὸν ὑπέρσοφον,
οἷʼ ἔχει σπεισάμενος ἐμπορικὰ χρήματα διεμπολᾶν,
975 ὧν τὰ μὲν ἐν οἰκίᾳ χρήσιμα, τὰ δʼ αὖ πρέπει χλιαρὰ κατεσθίειν.
αὐτόματα πάντʼ ἀγαθὰ τῷδέ γε πορίζεται.
οὐδέποτʼ ἐγὼ Πόλεμον οἴκαδʼ ὑποδέξομαι,
οὐδὲ παρʼ ἐμοί ποτε τὸν Ἁρμόδιον ᾄσεται
ξυγκατακλινείς, ὅτι παροινικὸς ἀνὴρ ἔφυ,
980 ὅστις ἐπὶ πάντʼ ἀγάθʼ ἔχοντας ἐπικωμάσας
ἠργάσατο πάντα κακά, κἀνέτρεπε κἀξέχει
κἀμάχετο καὶ προσέτι πολλὰ προκαλουμένου
πῖνε κατάκεισο λαβὲ τήνδε φιλοτησίαν
τὰς χάρακας ἧπτε πολὺ μᾶλλον ἐν τῷ πυρί,
985 ἐξέχει θʼ ἡμῶν βίᾳ τὸν οἶνον ἐκ τῶν ἀμπέλων.
οὑτοσὶ δʼ ἐπτέρωταί τʼ ἐπὶ τὸ δεῖπνον ἅμα καὶ μεγάλα δὴ φρονεῖ,
τοῦ βίου δʼ ἐξέβαλε δεῖγμα τάδε τὰ πτερὰ πρὸ τῶν θυρῶν.
Κύπριδι τῇ καλῇ καὶ Χάρισι ταῖς φίλαις ξύντροφε Διαλλαγή,
980–989

as he lies blind drunk across the table. He's an abusive sot, who rushes in with a company of happy revellers enjoying all sorts of delightful things, and brings with him nothing but disaster— he knocks things over, spills wine, and fights.

I often called on him to settle down: ”Why not sit here, and take this cup of wine

as a mark of friendship.” But he still burned our vineyard poles and, what is much worse, forcibly poured out all the wine we had.

This man, on the other hand, takes good care to serve a sumptuous dinner and then, proud of what he’s done, scatters these feathers before his door to show us how he lives.

[The naked figure of the goddess of Peace and Reconciliation appears from on high and descends to the top of Dicaeopolis’s house]

O peaceful Reconciliation, companion

of fair Aphrodite and the loving Graces we little knew the beauty of your face!

990 ὡς καλὸν ἔχουσα τὸ πρόσωπον ἄρʼ ἐλάνθανες.
πῶς ἂν ἐμὲ καὶ σέ τις Ἔρως ξυναγάγοι λαβών,
ὥσπερ γεγραμμένος ἔχων στέφανον ἀνθέμων.
πάνυ γερόντιον ἴσως νενόμικάς με σύ;
ἀλλά σε λαβὼν τρία δοκῶ γʼ ἂν ἔτι προσβαλεῖν·
995 πρῶτα μὲν ἂν ἀμπελίδος ὄρχον ἐλάσαι μακρόν,
εἶτα παρὰ τόνδε νέα μοσχίδια συκίδων,
καὶ τὸ τρίτον ἡμερίδος ὄρχον, γέρων ὁδί,
καὶ περὶ τὸ χωρίον ἐλᾷδας ἅπαν ἐν κύκλῳ,
ὥστʼ ἀλείφεσθαί σʼ ἀπʼ αὐτῶν κἀμὲ ταῖς νουμηνίαις.
990–999

Would that Eros, with flowers in his hair— the way he is depicted in that painting— might seize the two of us, you and me, and bring us together in happy union. Perhaps you think I am too old for you, but I fancy I could still embrace you and tumble you three times—first, I would plant a long row of vines, and then, beside them,

some fresh tender shoots of fig, and thirdly, a row of cultivated grapes. Old as I am,

there will be olive trees in every field, so that we'll always have supplies of oil to rub across our skin at each new moon.

[Exit the goddess of Peace and Reconciliation. Enter a Herald.]

HERALD Listen, you people! As was the custom

Translation by Ian Johnston, Vancouver Island University
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An open-access project
Hall 1906
OCT
Hall & Geldart, OCT, 1906 · 1906
The Editor

Frederick William Hall (1865–1948) was a classical scholar and Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. Together with William Martin Geldart, he produced the Oxford Classical Text of several authors. Hall was a careful editor known for his thorough collation of manuscripts and his conservative approach to textual criticism.

About This Edition

The Hall–Geldart editions in the Oxford Classical Texts series provide reliable critical texts with selective apparatus criticus. The OCT series, established in 1894 as the Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, aims to present the best available Greek and Latin texts in a format suitable for both scholarly use and teaching. Each volume provides a clean text with the most significant manuscript variants recorded at the foot of each page.

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