Clouds

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 715 sections

1098
What, then, do you see?
1098a
By the gods, the blackguards to be far more numerous. This fellow, at any rate, I know; and him yonder; and this fellow with the long hair.
1101a
What, then, will you say?
1102
We are conquered. Ye blackguards, by the gods, receive my cloak, for I desert to you.
1105
What then? whether do you wish to take and lead away this your son, or shall I teach him to speak?
1107
Teach him, and chastise him: and remember that you train him properly; on the one side able for petty suits; but train his other jaw able for the more important causes.
1111
Make yourself easy; you shall receive him back a clever sophist.
1112
Nay, rather, pale and wretched.
1113
Go ye, then: but I think that you will repent of these proceedings.
1115
We wish to speak about the judges, what they will gain, if at all they justly assist this Chorus. For in the first place, if you wish to plough up your fields in spring, we will rain for you first; but for the others afterward. And then we will protect the fruits, and the vines,
1120
so that neither drought afflict them, nor excessive wet weather. But if any mortal dishonour us who are goddesses, let him consider what evils he will suffer at our hands, obtaining neither wine nor anything else from his farm. For when his olives and vines sprout, they shall be cut down; with such slings
1125
will we smite them. And if we see him making brick, we will rain; and we will smash the tiles of his roof with round hailstones. And if he himself, or any one of his kindred or friends, at any time marry, we will rain the whole night; so he will probably wish rather to have been
1130
even in Egypt than to have judged badly.
1154
Then I will shout with a very loud
1155
shout: Ho! Weep, you petty-usurers, both you and your principals, and your compound interests! For you can no longer do me any harm, because such a son is being reared for me in this house,
1160
shining with a double-edged tongue, for my guardian, the preserver of my house, a mischief to my enemies, ending the sadness of the great woes of his father. Him do thou run and summon from within to me.
1165
O child! O son! Come forth from the house! Hear your father! Re-enter Socrates leading in Phidippides. Lo, here is the man!
1168
O my dear, my dear!
1169
Take your son and depart.
1170
Oh, oh, my child! Huzza! Huzza! How I am delighted at the first sight of your complexion! Now, indeed, you are, in the first place, negative and disputatious to look at, and this fashion native to the place plainly appears, the what do you say? and the seeming
1175
to be injured when, I well know, you are injuring and inflicting a wrong; and in your countenance there is the Attic look. Now, therefore, see that you save me, since you have also ruined me.
1178
What, pray, do you fear?
1178b
The Old and New.
1179
Why, is any day old and new?
1180
Yes; on which they say that they will make their deposits against me.
1181
Then those that have made them will lose them; for it is not possible that two days can be one day.
1183
Can not it?
1183b
Certainly not; unless the same woman can be both old and young at the same time.
1185
And yet it is the law.
1185b
For they do not, I think, rightly understand what the law means.
1186b
And what does it mean?
1187
The ancient Solon was by nature the commons’ friend.
1188
This surely is nothing whatever to the Old and New.
1189
He therefore made the summons for two days, for the Old and New, that the deposits might be made on the first of the month.
1192
Why, pray, did he add the old day?
1192b
In order, my good sir, that the defendants, being present a day before, might compromise the matter of their own accord; but if not,
1195
that they might be worried on the morning of the new moon.
1196
Why, then, do the magistrates not receive the deposits on the new moon, but on the Old and New?
1198
They seem to me to do what the forestallers do: in order that they may appreciate the deposits as soon as possible, on this account they have the first pick by one day.
1201
Bravo! Ye wretches, why do you sit senseless, the gain of us wise men, being blocks, ciphers, mere sheep, jars heaped together, wherefore I must sing an encomium upon myself and this my son,
1205
on account of our good fortune.
1206
O happy Strepsiades! How wise you are yourself, and how excellent is the son whom you are rearing!" My friends
1210
and fellow-tribesmen will say of me, envying me, when you prove victorious in arguing causes. But first I wish to lead you in and entertain you.
1214
Then, ought a man to throw away any part of his own property?
1215
Never! But it were better then at once to put away blushes, rather than now to have trouble; since I am now dragging you to be a witness, for the sake of my own money; and further, in addition to this, I shall become an enemy to my fellow-tribesman.
1220
But never, while I live, will I disgrace my country, but will summon Strepsiades.
1221b
Who’s there?
1222
For the Old and New.
1222b
I call you to witness, that he has named it for two days. For what matter do you summon me?
1224
For the twelve minae, which you received when you were buying the dapple-gray horse.
1225b
A horse? Do you not hear? I, whom you all know to hate horsemanship!
1227
And, by Jupiter! You swore by the gods too, that you would repay it.
1228
Ay, by Jove! For then my Phidippides did not yet know the irrefragable argument.
1230
And do you now intend, on this account, to deny the debt?
1231
Why, what good should I get else from his instruction?
1232
And will you be willing to deny these upon oath of the gods?
1233b
What gods?
1234
Jupiter, Mercury, and Neptune.
1234b
Yes, by Jupiter! And would pay down, too, a three-obol piece besides to swear.
1236
Then may you perish some day for your impudence!
1237
This man would be the better for it if he were cleansed by rubbing with salt.
1238
Ah me, how you deride me!
1238b
He will contain six choae.
1239
By great Jupiter and the gods, you certainly shall not do this to me with impunity!
1240b
I like your gods amazingly; and Jupiter, sworn by, is ridiculous to the knowing ones.
1242
You will assuredly suffer punishment, some time or other, for this. But answer and dismiss me, whether you are going to repay me my money or not.
1244b
Keep quiet now, for I will presently answer you distinctly.
1246
(to his summons-witness). What do you think he will do?
1246b
I think he will pay you.
1247
Where is this man who asks me for his money? Tell me what is this?
1248b
What is this? A κάρδοπος.
1249
And do you then ask me for your money, being such an ignorant person? I would not pay, not even an obolus, to any one who called the καρδόπη κάρδοπος.
1252
Then won’t you pay me?
1252b
Not, as far as I know. Will you not then pack off as fast as possible from my door?
1254b
I will depart; and be assured of this, that I will make deposit against you, or may I live no longer!
1256
Then you will lose it besides, in addition to your twelve minae. And yet I do not wish you to suffer this, because you named the kardopos floolishly.
1259
Ah me! Ah me!
1260
Ha! Whoever is this, who is lamenting? Surely it was not one of Carcinus’ deities that spoke.
1262
But why do you wish to know this, who I am?-A miserable man.
1263b
Then follow your own path.
1264
O harsh fortune! O Fates, breaking the wheels of my horses! O Pallas, how you have destroyed me!
1266
What evil, pray, has Tlepolemus ever done you?
1267
Do not jeer me, my friend; but order your son to pay me the money which he received; especially as I have been unfortunate.
1270
What money is this?
1270b
That which he borrowed.
1271
Then you were really unlucky, as I think.
1272
By the gods, I fell while driving my horses.
1273
Why, pray, do you talk nonsense, as if you had fallen from an ass?
1274
Do I talk nonsense if I wish to recover my money?
1275
You can’t be in your senses yourself.
1275b
Why, pray?
1276
You appear to me to have had your brains shaken as it were.
1277
And you appear to me, by Hermes, to be going to be summoned, if you will not pay me the money?
1278b
Tell me now, whether you think that Jupiter
1280
always rains fresh rain on each occasion, or that the sun draws from below the same water back again?
1282
I know not which; nor do I care.
1283
How then is it just that you should recover your money, if you know nothing of meteorological matters?
1285
Well, if you are in want, pay me the interest of my money.
1286b
What sort of animal is this interest?
1287
Most assuredly the money is always becoming more and more every month and every day as the time slips away.

Perseus Greek. CTS URN tlg0019.tlg003.perseus-eng2. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source.