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A Literal Translation, with Notes.
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Aristophanes in Print
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66 pages - You are on Page 54
MNESILOCHUS. Loosen the wedge a little.[638]
SCYTHIAN. Aye, certainly.
MNESILOCHUS. Oh! by the gods! why, you are driving it in tighter.
SCYTHIAN. Is that enough?
MNESILOCHUS. Oh! la, la! oh! la, la! May the plague take you!
SCYTHIAN. Silence! you cursed old wretch! I am going to get a mat to lie upon, so as to watch you close at hand at my ease.
MNESILOCHUS. Ah! what exquisite pleasures Euripides is securing for me! But, oh, ye gods! oh, Zeus the Deliverer, all is not yet lost! I don't believe him the man to break his word; I just caught sight of him appearing in the form of Perseus, and he told me with a mysterious sign to turn myself into Andromeda. And in truth am I not really bound? 'Tis certain, then, that he is coming to my rescue; for otherwise he would not have steered his flight this way.[639]
EURIPIDES (as Perseus). Oh Nymphs, ye virgins who are dear to me, how am I to approach him? how can I escape the sight of this Scythian? And Echo, thou who reignest in the inmost recesses of the caves, oh! favour my cause and permit me to approach my spouse.
[638] Which the archer had driven in to tighten up the rope binding the prison to the pillory.
[639] Perseus was returning from the land of the Gorgons mounted upon Pegasus, when, while high up in the air, he saw Andromeda bound to a rock and exposed to the lusts and voracity of a sea monster. Touched by the misfortune and the beauty of the princess, he turned the monster to stone by showing him the head of Medusa, released Andromeda and married her.--Euripides had just produced a tragedy on this subject.
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