Look at the book.
PITHETAERUS

This oracle in no sort of way resembles the one Apollo dictated to
me: "If an impostor comes without invitation to annoy you during the

sacrifice and to demand a share of the victim, apply a stout stick
to his ribs."

ORACLE-MONGER
You are drivelling.

PITHETAERUS
Look at the book. "And don't spare him, were he an eagle from

out of the clouds, were it Lampon himself or the great Diopithes."
ORACLE-MONGER

Does it say that?
PITHETAERUS

Look at the book and go and hang yourself.
ORACLE-MONGER

Oh! unfortunatewretch that I am.
(He departs.)

PITHETAERUS
Away with you, and take your prophecies elsewhere.

(Enter METON, With surveying instruments.)
METON

I have come to you...
PITHETAERUS (interrupting)

Yet another pest! What have you come to do? What's your plan?
What's the purpose of your journey? Why these splendid buskins?

METON
I want to survey the plains of the air for you and to parcel

them into lots.
PITHETAERUS

In the name of the gods, who are you?
METON

Who am I? Meton, known throughout Greece and at Colonus.
PITHETAERUS

What are these things?
METON

Tools for measuring the air. In truth, the spaces in the air
have precisely the form of a furnace. With this bent ruler I draw a

line from top to bottom; from one of its points I describe a circle
with the compass. Do you understand?

PITHETAERUS
Not in the least.

METON
With the straight ruler I set to work to inscribe a square

within this circle; in its centre will be the market-place, into which
all the straight streets will lead, converging to this centre like a

star, which, although only orbicular, sends forth its rays in a
straight line from all sides.

PITHETAERUS
A regular Thales! Meton...

METON
What d'you want with me?

PITHETAERUS
I want to give you a proof of my friendship. Use your legs.

METON
Why, what have I to fear?

PITHETAERUS
It's the same here as in Sparta. Strangers are driven away, and

blows rain down as thick as hail.
METON

Is there sedition in your city?
PITHETAERUS

No, certainly not.
METON

What's wrong then?
PITHETAERUS

We are agreed to sweep all quacks and impostors far from our
borders.

METON
Then I'll be going.

PITHETAERUS
I'm afraid it's too late. The thunder growls already.

(He beats him.)
METON

Oh, woe! oh, woe!
PITHETAERUS

I warned you. Now, be off, and do your surveying somewhere else.
(METON takes to his heels. He is no sooner gone than an INSPECTOR

arrives.)
INSPECTOR

Where are the Proxeni?
PITHETAERUS

Who is this Sardanapalus?
INSPECTOR

I have been appointed by lot to come to Nephelococcygia. as
inspector.

PITHETAERUS
An inspector! and who sends you here, you rascal?

INSPECTOR
A decree of Teleas.

PITHETAERUS
Will you just pocket your salary, do nothing, and get out?

INSPECTOR
Indeed I will; I am urgently needed to be at Athens to attend

the Assembly; for I am charged with the interests of Pharnaces.
PITHETAERUS

Take it then, and get on your way. This is your salary.
(He beats him.)

INSPECTOR
What does this mean?

PITHETAERUS
This is the assembly where you have to defend Pharnaces.

INSPECTOR
You shall testify that they dare to strike me, the inspector.

PITHETAERUS
Are you not going to get out with your urns? It's not to be

believed; they send us inspectors before we have so much as paid
sacrifice to the gods.

(The INSPECTOR goes into hiding. A DEALER IN DECREES arrives.)
DEALER IN DECREES (reading)

"If the Nephelococcygian does wrong to the Athenian..."
PITHETAERUS

What trouble now? What book is that?
DEALER IN DECREES

I am a dealer in decrees, and I have come here to sell you the new
laws.

PITHETAERUS
Which?

DEALER IN DECREES
"The Nephelococcygians shall adopt the same weights, measures

and decrees as the Olophyxians."
PITHETAERUS

And you shall soon be imitating the Ototyxians.
(He beats him.)

DEALER IN DECREES
Ow! what are you doing?

PITHETAERUS
Now will you get out of here with your decrees? For I am going

to let you see some severe ones.
(The DEALER IN DECREES departs; the INSPECTOR comes out of

hiding.)
INSPECTOR (returning)

I summon Pithetaerus for outrage for the month of Munychion.
PITHETAERUS

Ha! my friend! are you still here?
(The DEALER IN DECREES also returns.)

DEALER IN DECREES
"Should anyone drive away the magistrates and not receive them,

according to the decree duly posted..."
PITHETAERUS

What! rascal! you are back too?
(He rushes at him.)

INSPECTOR
Woe to you! I'll have you condemned to a fine of ten thousand

drachmae.
PITHETAERUS

And I'll smash your urns.
INSPECTOR

Do you recall that evening when you crapped on the column where
the decrees are posted?

PITHETAERUS
Here! here! let him be seized. (The INSPECTOR runs off.) Why,

don't you want to stay any longer? But let us get indoors as quick
as possible; we will sacrifice the goat inside.

FIRST SEMI-CHORUS (singing)
Henceforth it is to me that mortals must address their

sacrifices and their prayers. Nothing escapes my sight nor my might.
My glance embraces the universe, I preserve the fruit in the flower by

destroying the thousand kinds of voracious insects the soil
produces, which attack the trees and feed on the germ when it has

scarcely formed in the calyx; I destroy those who ravage the balmy
terrace gardens like a deadlyplague; all these gnawing crawling

creatures perish beneath the lash of my wing.
LEADER OF FIRST SEMI-CHORUS

I hear it proclaimed everywhere: "A talent for him who shall
kill Diagoras of Melos, and a talent for him who destroys one of the

dead tyrants." We likewise wish to make our proclamation: "A talent to
him among you who shall kill Philocrates, the Struthian; four, if he

brings him to us alive. For this Philocrates skewers the finches
together and sells them at the rate of an obolus for seven. He

tortures the thrushes by blowing them out, so that they may look
bigger, sticks their own feathers into the nostrils of blackbirds, and

collects pigeons, which he shuts up and forces them, fastened in a
net, to decoy others." That is what we wish to proclaim. And if anyone

is keeping birds shut up in his yard, let him hasten to let them
loose; those who disobey shall be seized by the birds and we shall put

them in chains, so that in their turn they may decoy other men.
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS (singing)

Happy indeed is the race of winged birds who need no cloak in
winter! Neither do I fear the relentless rays of the fiery dog-days;

when the divinegrasshopper, intoxicated with the sunlight, as noon is
burning the ground, is breaking out into shrillmelody; my home is

beneath the foliage in the flowery meadows. I winter in deep
caverns, where I frolic with the mountain nymphs, while in spring I

despoil the gardens of the Graces and gather the white, virgin berry
on the myrtle bushes.

LEADER OF SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
I want now to speak to the judges about the prize they are going

to award; if they are favourable to us, we will load them with
benefits far greater than those Paris received. Firstly, the owls of

Laurium, which every judge desires above all things, shall never be
wanting to you; you shall see them homing with you, building their

nests in your money-bags and laying coins. Besides, you shall be
housed like the gods, for we shall erect gables over your dwellings;

if you hold some public post and want to do a little pilfering, we
will give you the sharp claws of a hawk. Are you dining in town, we

will provide you with stomachs as capacious as a bird's crop. But,
if your award is against us, don't fail to have metal covers fashioned

for yourselves, like those they place over statues; else, look out!
for the day you wear a white tunic all the birds will soil it with

their droppings.

• apollo [ə´pɔləu] n.阿波罗 (初中英语单词)
• invitation [,invi´teiʃən] n.邀请；请帖；吸引 (初中英语单词)
• victim [´viktim] n.牺牲者；受害者 (初中英语单词)
• unfortunate [ʌn´fɔ:tʃunit] a.不幸的，运气差的 (初中英语单词)
• survey [´sə:vei] vt.&n.俯瞰；审视；测量 (初中英语单词)
• greece [gri:s] n.希腊 (初中英语单词)
• furnace [´fə:nis] n.熔炉；火炉 (初中英语单词)
• compass [´kʌmpəs] n.指南针；圆规 (初中英语单词)
• circle [´sə:kəl] n.圆圈 v.环绕；盘旋 (初中英语单词)
• driven [´driv(ə)n] drive 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• thunder [´θʌndə] n.雷 vi.打雷 vt.吼出 (初中英语单词)
• decree [di´kri:] n.法令；公告；天命 (初中英语单词)
• assembly [ə´sembli] n.集会；装配；与会者 (初中英语单词)
• dealer [´di:lə] n.商人 (初中英语单词)
• severe [si´viə] a.严厉的；苛刻的 (初中英语单词)
• column [´kɔləm] n.柱；柱状物；纵队 (初中英语单词)
• preserve [pri´zə:v] v.保藏 n.保藏物 (初中英语单词)
• deadly [´dedli] a.致命的 ad.死一般地 (初中英语单词)
• perish [´periʃ] v.灭亡；消灭；(使)死去 (初中英语单词)
• talent [´tælənt] n.天才；才干；天资 (初中英语单词)
• likewise [´laikwaiz] ad.同样地；也，又 (初中英语单词)
• proclaim [prə´kleim] vt.宣布；公布；声明 (初中英语单词)
• hasten [´heisən] vt.催促；促进 vi.赶紧 (初中英语单词)
• winged [´wiŋd] a.有翼的 (初中英语单词)
• divine [di´vain] a.神圣的 v.预言 (初中英语单词)
• sunlight [´sʌnlait] n.日光 (初中英语单词)
• oracle [´ɔrəkl] n.预言(者)；圣理名言 (高中英语单词)
• precisely [pri´saisli] ad.精确地；刻板地 (高中英语单词)
• athens [´æθinz] n.雅典 (高中英语单词)
• testify [´testifai] v.证明；证实；表明 (高中英语单词)
• inspector [in´spektə] n.检查员；监察员 (高中英语单词)
• summon [´sʌmən] vt.召集；号召 (高中英语单词)
• outrage [´aut,reidʒ] n.残暴 vt.虐待；伤害 (高中英语单词)
• indoors [,in´dɔ:z] ad.在屋里 (高中英语单词)
• universe [´ju:nivə:s] n.天地；全人类；银河系 (高中英语单词)
• plague [pleig] n.瘟疫 vt.使...染疫 (高中英语单词)
• grasshopper [´grɑ:s,hɔpə] n.蚱蜢，蝗虫 (高中英语单词)
• shrill [ʃril] a.(声音)尖锐的 (高中英语单词)
• melody [´melədi] n.悦耳的音调；乐曲 (高中英语单词)
• foliage [´fəuli-idʒ] n.叶子，簇叶 (高中英语单词)
• frolic [´frɔlik] n.&v.嬉戏 a.嬉戏的 (高中英语单词)
• virgin [´və:dʒin] a.处女(般)的 n.处女 (高中英语单词)
• wretch [retʃ] n.不幸的人；卑鄙的人 (英语四级单词)
• inscribe [in´skraib] vt.题写；铭刻；题名 (英语四级单词)
• ravage [´rævidʒ] v.蹂躏；劫掠 (英语四级单词)
• proclamation [,prɔklə´meiʃən] n.宣布；公告；声明 (英语四级单词)
• disobey [,disə´bei] v.不服从；不听命令 (英语四级单词)
• flowery [´flauəri] a.多花的 (英语四级单词)
• relentless [ri´lentləs] a.无情的；坚韧的 (英语六级单词)
• myrtle [´mə:tl] n.桃金娘科 (英语六级单词)
• capacious [kə´peiʃəs] a.广阔的；容积大的 (英语六级单词)