Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/282

252 252 ARISTOPHANES

Not even Exeeestides ^ could do it, That finds himself a native everywhere.

Euelpides. Oh dear ! We 're come to niin, utter

rum

Peisthetairus. Then go that way, can't ye : " the Road to Ruin ! " is

Eueljyides. He has brought us to a fine pass, that crazy fellow, Philocrates the poulterer ; he pretended To enable us to find where Tereus lives ; ^ The king that was, the Hoopoe that is now ; Persuading us to buy these creatures of him, 20

That raven there for threepence, — and this other. This little Tharrelides ^ of a jackdaw, He charged a penny for : but neither of 'em Are fit for anything but to bite and scratch.

[^Speaking to his jackdaw. ' Well, what are ye after now ? — gaping and poking ! You've brought us straight to the rock. Where would you take us ? 26

There 's no road here !

Peisthetairus. No, none, not even a path.

Euelpides. Nor don't your raven tell us anything ? Peisthetairus. She 's altered somehow — she croaks

differently. Euelpides. But which way does she point ? What does she say? so

Peisthetairus. Say ? Why, she says she '11 bite my fingers off.

^ He is attacked again in this play, as a foreign barbarian arrogat- ing to himself the privileges of a true-born Athenian.

2 See page 257, line 119, page 261, note 2.

^ Tharrelides was nicknamed Jackdaw, and Euelpides in contempt of his jackdaw calls it a Tharrelides ! The raven and the jackdaw are characteristic. Peisthetairus is the bearer of the sagacious bird, his companion is equipped with a jackdaw.