Aristophanes, Ecclesiazusae
Eugene O'Neill, Jr., Ed.

Chremes
But they were outnumbered, and the orator shouted louder than they, [435] saying much good of the women and much ill of you.

Blepyrus
Eagerly.
And what did he say?

Chremes
First he said you were a rogue ...

Blepyrus
And you?

Chremes
Wait a minute! ... and a thief ...

Blepyrus
I alone?

Chremes
And an informer.

Blepyrus
I alone?

Chremes
Why, no, by the gods! [440] this whole crowd here.

He points to the audience.

Blepyrus
And who avers the contrary?

Chremes
He maintained that women were both clever and thrifty, that they never divulged the Mysteries of Demeter, while you and I go about babbling incessantly about whatever happens at the Senate.

Blepyrus
[445] By Hermes, he was not lying!

Chremes
Then he added that the women lend each other clothes, trinkets of gold and silver, drinking-cups, and not before witnesses too, but all by themselves, and that they return everything with exactitude without ever cheating each other; [450] whereas, according to him, we are ever ready to deny the loans we have effected.

Blepyrus
Yes, by Poseidon, and in spite of witnesses.

Chremes
Again, he said that women were not informers, nor did they bring lawsuits, nor hatch conspiracies; in short, he praised the women in every possible manner.

Blepyrus
[455] And what was decided?

Chremes
To confide the direction of affairs to them; it's the one and only innovation that has not yet been tried at Athens.

Blepyrus
And it was voted?

Chremes
Yes.

Blepyrus
And everything that used to be the men's concern has been given over to the women?

Chremes
You express it exactly.

Blepyrus
[460] Thus it will be my wife who will go to the courts now in my stead?

Chremes
And it will be she who will keep your children in your place.

Blepyrus
I shall no longer have to tire myself out with work from daybreak onwards?

Chremes
No, 'twill be the women's business, and you can stay at home and amuse yourself with farting the whole day through.

Blepyrus
[465] Well, what I fear for us fellows now is, that, holding the reins of government, they will forcibly compel us ...

Chremes
To do what?

Blepyrus
... to lay them.

Chremes
And if we are not able?

Blepyrus
They will give us no dinner.

Chremes
Well then, [470] do your duty; dinner and love-making form a double enjoyment.

Blepyrus
Ah! but I hate compulsion.

Chremes
But if it is for the public good, let us resign ourselves.

Blepyrus
It's an old saying that our absurdest and maddest decrees [475] always somehow turn out for our good.

Chremes
May it be so in this case, oh gods, oh venerable Pallas! But I must be off; so, good-bye to you!

Exit.

Blepyrus
Good-bye, Chremes. He goes back into his house.