Chapter 59
FOURTH WOMAN. You ask me who I am? I am the wife of Cleonymus.[597]
CLISTHENES. Do you know this woman?
CHORUS. Yes, yes, pa.s.s on to the rest.
CLISTHENES. And she who carries the child?
MNESILOCHUS (_aside_). I'm a dead man. (_He runs off._)
CLISTHENES (_to Mnesilochus_). Hi! you there! where are you off to? Stop there. What are you running away for?
MNESILOCHUS. I want to relieve myself.
CLISTHENES. The shameless thing! Come, hurry yourself; I will wait here for you.
CHORUS. Wait for her and examine her closely; 'tis the only one we do not know.
CLISTHENES. You are a long time about your business.
MNESILOCHUS. Aye, my G.o.d, yes; 'tis because I am unwell, for I ate cress yesterday.[598]
CLISTHENES. What are you chattering about cress? Come here and be quick.
MNESILOCHUS. Oh! don't pull a poor sick woman about like that.
CLISTHENES. Tell me, who is your husband?
MNESILOCHUS. My husband? Do you know a certain individual at Cothocidae[599]...?
CLISTHENES. Whom do you mean? Give his name.
MNESILOCHUS. 'Tis an individual to whom the son of a certain individual one day....
CLISTHENES. You are drivelling! Let's see, have you ever been here before?
MNESILOCHUS. Why certainly, every year.
CLISTHENES. Who is your tent companion?[600]
MNESILOCHUS. 'Tis a certain.... Oh! my G.o.d!
CLISTHENES. You don't answer.
FIFTH WOMAN. Withdraw, all of you; I am going to examine her thoroughly about last year's mysteries. But move away, Clisthenes, for no man may hear what is going to be said. Now answer my questions! What was done first?
MNESILOCHUS. Let's see then. What was done first? Oh! we drank.
FIFTH WOMAN. And then?
MNESILOCHUS. We drank to our healths.
FIFTH WOMAN. You will have heard that from someone. And then?
MNESILOCHUS. Xenylla relieved herself in a cup, for there was no other vessel.
FIFTH WOMAN. You trifle. Here, Clisthenes, here! This is the man of whom you spoke.
CLISTHENES. What is to be done then?
FIFTH WOMAN. Take off his clothes, I
MNESILOCHUS. What! are you going to strip a mother of nine children naked?
CLISTHENES. Come, undo your girdle, you shameless thing.
FIFTH WOMAN. Ah! what a st.u.r.dy frame! but she has no b.r.e.a.s.t.s like we have.
MNESILOCHUS. That's because I'm barren. I never had any children.
FIFTH WOMAN. Oh! indeed! just now you were the mother of nine.
CLISTHENES. Stand up straight. Hullo! what do I see there? Why, a p.e.n.i.s sticking out behind.
FIFTH WOMAN. There's no mistaking it; you can see it projecting, and a fine red it is.
CLISTHENES. Where has it gone to now?
FIFTH WOMAN. To the front.
CLISTHENES. No.
FIFTH WOMAN. Ah! 'tis behind now.
CLISTHENES. Why, friend, 'tis for all the world like the Isthmus; you keep pulling your tool backwards and forwards just as the Corinthians do their s.h.i.+ps.[601]
FIFTH WOMAN. Ah! the wretch! this is why he insulted us and defended Euripides.
MNESILOCHUS. Aye, wretch indeed, what troubles have I not got into now!
FIFTH WOMAN. What shall we do?
CLISTHENES. Watch him closely, so that he does not escape. As for me, I go to report the matter to the magistrates, the Prytanes.
CHORUS. Let us kindle our lamps; let us go firmly to work and with courage, let us take off our cloaks and search whether some other man has not come here too; let us pa.s.s round the whole Pnyx,[602] examine the tents and the pa.s.sages.[603] Come, be quick, let us start off on a light toe[604] and rummage all round in silence. Let us hasten, let us finish our round as soon as possible. Look quickly for the traces that might show you a man hidden here, let your glance fall on every side; look well to the right and to the left. If we seize some impious fellow, woe to him! He will know how we punish the outrage, the crime, the sacrilege.
The criminal will then acknowledge at last that G.o.ds exist; his fate will teach all men that the deities must be revered, that justice must be observed and that they must submit to the sacred laws. If not, then woe to them! Heaven itself will punish sacrilege; being aflame with fury and mad with frenzy, all their deeds will prove to mortals, both men and women, that the deity punishes injustice and impiety, and that she is not slow to strike. But I think I have now searched everywhere and that no other man is hidden among us.
SIXTH WOMAN. Where is he flying to? Stop him! stop him! Ah! miserable woman that I am, he has torn my child from my breast and has disappeared with it.