aeschylus - Conscious Evolution TV

Now protruding, now protruding,
Comes the fierce and dreadful sting,
Which we wield for punishing.
Children, hold these garments for us:
then away with all your speed,
Shout and run and bawl to Cleon,
tell him of this direful deed;
Bid him quickly hither fly
As against a city-hater,
And a trai tor doomed to die,
One who actually proposes
That we should no lawsuits try. Exit BOYS.
Bd. (entering) Listen, worthy sirs, to reason:
goodness I don't keep screaming so.
Ch. Scream I we'll scream as high as heaven.
Bd. I don't intend to let him go.
Ch. These be frightful things to see!
This is open tyrannyl
Rouse the Statel Rouse the great
God-abhorred Sneak Theorusl
And whoe'er Else is there,
Fawning lord Ruling o'er us.
Xa. Heracles! they've stings beside them!
Master, master, don't you see?
Bd. Ay, which slew the son of Gorgias,
Philip, with their sharp decree.
Ch. You we'll also slay directly!
Wheel about him, everyone,
Draw your stings, and, all together,
in upon the fellow run.
Close your ranks, collect your forces,
brimming full of rage and hate,
He shall know the sort of wasps-nest
he has dared to irritate.
Xa. Now with such as these to combat
is, by Zeus, a serious thing:
Veril y I quake and tremble,
Ch. Let him gol
You shall bless
but to look upon their sting.
Loose your hold I
If you don't
Tortoise-backs
ARISTOPHANES 440-470
I declare
For the shells Which they wear.
Ph. On then, on, my fellow-dicasts,
brother wasps of heart severe,
Some fly in with angry buzzings,
and attack them in the rear,
Some surround them in a ring, and
both their eyes and fingers sting.
Bd. Ho there! Midas! Phryxl Masyntias!
hither! hither! haste to me!
Take my father, guard him safely:
suffer none to set him free;
Else you both shall lunch off nothing,
clapped in fetters strong and stout.
There's a sound of many fig-leaves
(well I know it) buzzed about.
Ch. This shall stand infixed within you
if you will not let him go.
Ph. Mighty Cecrops! King and herol
Dragon-born and -shaped below,
Wilt thou let these rude barbarians
vex and maul me at their pleasure,
5I2
Me who heretofore have made them
weep in full imperial measure?
Ch. Trulv, of abundant evils,
. age is evermore the source:
Only see how these two scoundrels
hold their ancient lord perforce,
Clean forgetting how, aforetime,
he their daily wants supplied,
Bought them little sleeveless jackets,
bought them caps and coats of hide,
Clean forgetting all the kindness
shown their feet in wintry weather,
How from chill and cold he kept them:
ah! but these have altogether
Banished from their eyes the reverence
owing to those dear old brogues.
Ph. Won't you even now unhand me,
shameless villain, worst of rogues?
When the grapes I caught you stealing,
o remember, if you can,
How I tied you to the olive,
and I flogged you like a man,
So that all beheld with envy:
but a grateful soul you lack I
Oh, unhand me, you, and you,
at once, before my son come back.
Ch. But a famous retribution
ye for this shall undergo,
One that will not lag nor linger;
so that ye betimes shall know,
Know the mood ofangry-tempered,
righteous, mustard-glancing men.
Here BDELYCLEON suddenly issues from the house,
followed by XANTHIAS and SOSIAS, the former
armed with a stick. the latter carrying an apparatus
for smoking-out wasps.
Bd. Beat them, Xanthias, from the door-way;
beat the wasps away again.
Xa. That I will, sir.
Bd. Fume them, Sosias,
drive the smoke in dense and thick.
Shoo there, shool be off, confound you.
At them, Xanthias, with the stickl
Smoke them, Sosias, smoke, infusing
Aeschines, Selartius' son.
So. So then we at bst were going,
as it seems, to make you run.
Bd. But you never would have managed
thus to beat them off with ease,
Had it chanced that they had eaten
Ch.
of the songs of Philocles.
Creeping o'er us, creeping o'er us,
Here at least the poor can see,
Stealthy-creeping tyranny I
If you from the laws debar us,
which the city has ordained,
You, a curly-haired Amynias,
you, a rascal dou ble-grained,
Not by words of wit persuading,
Not for weighty reasons shown,
But because, forsooth, YOll will it,
Like an autocrat, alone.