The Weighing
Χορός
μέγα τὸ πρᾶγμα, πολὺ τὸ νεῖκος, ἁδρὸς πόλεμος ἔρχεται.
1100 χαλεπὸν οὖν ἔργον διαιρεῖν,
ὅταν μὲν τείνῃ βιαίως,
δʼ ἐπαναστρέφειν δύνηται κἀπερείδεσθαι τορῶς.
ἀλλὰ μὴ ʼν ταὐτῷ κάθησθον·
ἐσβολαὶ γάρ εἰσι πολλαὶ χἄτεραι σοφισμάτων.
1105 τι περ οὖν ἔχετον ἐρίζειν,
λέγετον ἔπιτον ἀνά τε δέρετον
τά τε παλαιὰ καὶ τὰ καινά,
κἀποκινδυνεύετον λεπτόν τι καὶ σοφὸν λέγειν.
εἰ δὲ τοῦτο καταφοβεῖσθον, μή τις ἀμαθία προσῇ
1100–1109

When one man presses hard, the other one wheels round and launches the attack once more.

[Addressing Aeschylus and Euripides]

You two, don’t you stay inactive where you sit. For wit knows many varied ways to strike. And so, no matter what you’re fighting for, speak out, set to, bring up your works— the old and new. Put your daring to the test—

say something that’s intelligent and deft. Don’t be afraid the people watching here are just too ignorant and will not see

1110 τοῖς θεωμένοισιν, ὡς τὰ
λεπτὰ μὴ γνῶναι λεγόντοιν,
μηδὲν ὀρρωδεῖτε τοῦθʼ· ὡς οὐκέθʼ οὕτω ταῦτʼ ἔχει.
ἐστρατευμένοι γάρ εἰσι,
βιβλίον τʼ ἔχων ἕκαστος μανθάνει τὰ δεξιά·
1115 αἱ φύσεις τʼ ἄλλως κράτισται,
νῦν δὲ καὶ παρηκόνηνται.
μηδὲν οὖν δείσητον, ἀλλὰ
πάντʼ ἐπέξιτον θεατῶν γʼ οὕνεχʼ ὡς ὄντων σοφῶν.
1110–1119

the subtle points in what you two may say. Don’t worry on that score, for it’s not true. They’ve served in wars—and each man owns a book. He understands the witty parts. You see, it’s in their nature to possess strong minds, but now the whetstone’s really sharpened them. So have no fears—examine everything—

at least for the spectators’ benefit since they’ve become so wise.

EURIPIDES

All right, I’ll turn to the prologues you composed, so I can start off with a test to check

Translation by Ian Johnston, Vancouver Island University
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An open-access project
Hall 1907
OCT
Hall & Geldart, OCT, 1907 · 1907
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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