Do you see yourself?
MNESILOCHUS: But this is not I, it is Clisthenes!
EURIPIDES: Stand up; I am now going to remove your hair. Bend down.
MNESILOCHUS: Alas! alas! they are going to grill me like a pig.
EURIPIDES: Come now, a torch or a lamp! Bend down and take care of the tender end of your tail!
MNESILOCHUS: Aye, aye! but I'm afire! oh! oh! Water, water, neighbour, or my rump will be alight!
Keep up your courage!
MNESILOCHUS: Keep my courage, when I'm being burnt up?
EURIPIDES: Come, cease your whining, the worst is over.
MNESILOCHUS: Oh! it's quite black, all burnt below there all about the hole!
EURIPIDES: Don't worry! that will be washed off with a sponge.
MNESILOCHUS: Woe to him who dares to wash my rump!
EURIPIDES: Agathon, you refuse to devote yourself to helping me; but at any rate lend me a tunic and a belt. You cannot say you have not got them.
Take them and use them as you like; I consent.
MNESILOCHUS: What must be taken?
EURIPIDES: What must be taken? First put on this long saffron-coloured robe.
MNESILOCHUS: By Aphrodité! what a sweet odour! how it smells of a man's genitals! Hand it me quickly. And the belt?
EURIPIDES: Here it is.
MNESILOCHUS: Now some rings for my legs.
EURIPIDES: You still want a hair-net and a head-dress.
Here is my night-cap.
EURIPIDES: Ah! that's capital.
MNESILOCHUS: Does it suit me?
AGATHON: It could not be better.
EURIPIDES: And a short mantle?
AGATHON: There's one on the couch; take it.
EURIPIDES: He wants slippers.
AGATHON: Here are mine.
MNESILOCHUS: Will they fit me? You like a loose fit.
AGATHON: Try them on. Now that you have all you need, let me be taken inside.
You look for all the world like a woman. But when you talk, take good care to give your voice a woman's tone.
MNESILOCHUS: I'll try my best.
EURIPIDES: Come, get yourself to the temple.
MNESILOCHUS: No, by Apollo, not unless you swear to me ...
MNESILOCHUS: that, if anything untoward happen to me, you will leave nothing undone to save me. EURIPIDES Very well! I swear it by the Ether, the dwelling-place of the king of the gods.
Why not rather swear it by the disciples of Hippocrates?
EURIPIDES: Come, I swear it by all the gods, both great and small.
MNESILOCHUS: Remember, 'tis the heart, and not the tongue, that has sworn; for the oaths of the tongue concern me but little.
EURIPIDES: Hurry yourself! The signal for the meeting has just been displayed on the Temple of Demeter. Farewell. [_Exit._
MNESILOCHUS: Here, Thratta, follow me. Look, Thratta, at the cloud of smoke that arises from all these lighted torches. Ah! beautiful Thesmophorae! grant me your favours, protect me, both within the temple and on my way back! Come, Thratta, put down the basket and take out the cake, which I wish to offer to the two goddesses. Mighty divinity, oh, Demeter, and thou, Persephoné, grant that I may be able to offer you many sacrifices; above all things, grant that I may not be recognized. Would that my young daughter might marry a man as rich as he is foolish and silly, so that she may have nothing to do but amuse herself. But where can a place be found for hearing well? Be off, Thratta, be off; slaves have no right to be present at this gathering.
Silence! Silence! Pray to the Thesmophorae, Demeter and Cora; pray to Plutus, Calligenia, Curotrophos, the Earth, Hermes and the Graces, that all may happen for the best at this gathering, both for the greatest advantage of Athens and for our own personal happiness! May the award be given her, who, by both deeds and words, has most deserved it from the Athenian people and from the women! Address these prayers to heaven and demand happiness for yourselves. Io Paean! Io Paean! Let us rejoice!
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.
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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