DIONYSUS And I, I’ll take some pebbles, and keep count. (A slight pause, during which the music of a flute is heard. The music continues to the end of line 1277 as an accompaniment to the recitutive.)
EURIPIDES Lord of Phthia, Achilles, why hearing the voice of the hero-dividing Hah! smiting! approachest thou not to the rescue? We, by the lake who abide, are adoring our ancestor Hermes. Hah! smiting! approachest thou not to the rescue?
DIONYSUS O Aeschylus, twice art thou smitten!
EURIPIDES Hearken to me, great king; yea, hearken Atreides, thou noblest of all the Achaeans. Hah! smiting! approachest thou not to the rescue
DIONYSUS Thrice, Aeschylus, thrice art thou smitten!
EURIPIDES Hush! the bee-wardens are here: they will quickly the Temple of Artemis open. Hah! smiting! approachest thou not to the rescue? I will expound (for I know it) the omen the chieftains encountered. Hah! smiting! approachest thou not to the rescue?
DIONYSUS O Zeus and King, the terrible lot of smitings! I’ll to the bath: I’m very sure my kidneys Are quite inflamed and swoln with all these smitings.
EURIPIDES Wait till you’ve heard another batch of lays Culled from his lyre-accompanied melodies.
DIONYSUS Go on then, go: but no more smitings, please.
EURIPIDES How the twin-throned powers of Achaea, the lords of the mighty Hellenes. O phlattothrattophlattothrat!
EURIPIDES Sendeth the Sphinx, the unchancy, the chieftainness bloodhound. O phlattothrattophlattothrat! Launcheth fierce with brand and hand the avengers the terrible eagle. O phlattothrattophlattothrat! So for the swift-winged hounds of the air he provided a booty. O phlattothrattophlattothrat! The throng down-bearing on Aias. O phlattothrattophlattothrat!
DIONYSUS Whence comes that phlattothrat? From Marathon, or Where picked you up these cable-twister’s strains?
AESCHYLUS From noblest source for noblest ends I brought them, Unwilling in the Muses’ holy field The self-same flowers as Phrynichus to cull. But he from all things rotten draws his lays,
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