Peace E-Book

- Aristophanes

• Herausgeber: Ktoczyta.pl
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

An elderly wine grower Trigay, tired of the war and strife between the Greek cities, on a giant dung beetle goes to heaven to talk with Zeus. Arriving there, Trigay learns from Hermes that Zeus and the other gods are away, and instead of them, Polemos settled in the house of the gods. Polemos threw the goddess of peace Eiren into the cave and stoned him; together with the Horror that is serving him, he is going to „powder” the Greek cities in a huge mortar depicting a war.

Leseprobe

Contents

CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY

Trygaeus

Two servants of trygaeus

Daughters of trygaeus

Hermes

War

Tumult

Hierocles, a Soothsayer

An armourer

A sickle-Maker

A crest-Maker

Son of lamachus

Son of cleonymus

Chorus of husbandmen

[Scene:-Behind the Orchestra on the right the farmhouse of Trygaeus, in the centre the mouth of a cave closed up with huge boulders, on the left the palace of Zeus. In front of the farmhouse is a stable, the door of wkich is closed. Two of Trygaeus’slaves are seen in front of the stable, one of them kneading cakes of dung, the other taking the finished cakes and throwing them into the stable.]

First servant

Quick, quick, bring the dung-beetle his cake.

Second servant

There it is. Give it to him, and may it kill him! And may he never eat a better.

First servant

Now give him this other one kneaded up with ass’s dung.

Second servant

There! I’ve done that too. And where’s what you gave him just now? Surely he can’t have devoured it yet!

First servant

Indeed he has; he snatched it, rolled it between his feet and bolted it. Come, hurry up, knead up a lot and knead them stiffly.

Second servant

Oh, scavengers, help me in the name of the gods, if you do not wish to see me fall down choked.

First servant

Come, come, another made from the stool of a fairy’s favourite. That will be to the beetle’s taste; he likes it well ground.

Second servant

There! I am free at least from suspicion; none will accuse me of tasting what I mix.

First servant

Faugh! come, now another! keep on mixing with all your might.

Second servant

By god, no. I can stand this awful cesspool stench no longer.

First servant

I shall bring you the whole ill-smelling gear.

Second servant

Pitch it down the sewer sooner, and yourself with it. [To the Audience] Maybe, one of you can tell me where I can buy a stopped-up nose, for there is no work more disgusting than to mix food for a dung-beetle and to carry it to him. A pig or a dog will at least pounce upon our excrement without more ado, but this foul wretch affects the disdainful, the spoilt mistress, and won’t eat unless I offer him a cake that has been kneaded for an entire day.... But let us open the door a bit ajar without his seeing it. Has he done eating? Come, pluck up courage, cram yourself till you burst! The cursed creature! It wallows in its food! It grips it between its claws like a wrestler clutching his opponent, and with head and feet together rolls up its paste like a rope-maker twisting a hawser. What an indecent, stinking, gluttonous beast! I don’t know what angry god let this monster loose upon us, but of a certainty it was neither Aphrodite nor the Graces.

First servant

Who was it then?

Second servant

No doubt Zeus, the God of the Thundercrap.

First servant

But perhaps some spectator, some beardless youth, who thinks himself a sage, will say, “What is this? What does the beetle mean?” And then an Ionian, sitting next him, will add, “I think it’s an allusion to Cleon, who so shamelessly feeds on filth all by himself."-But now I’m going indoors to fetch the beetle a drink.

Second servant

As for me, I will explain the matter to you all, children, youths, grownups and old men, aye, even to the decrepit dotards. My master is mad, not as you are, but with another sort of madness, quite a new kind. The livelong day he looks open-mouthed towards heaven and never stops addressing Zeus. “Ah! Zeus,” he cries, “what are thy intentions? Lay aside thy besom; do not sweep Greece away!” Ah! Hush, hush! I think I hear his voice!

Trygaeus [from within]

Oh! Zeus, what art thou going to do for our people? Dost thou not see this, that our cities will soon be but empty husks?

Second servant