ADRASTOS
Slacker.
THE AZANES
CHORUS
So now we set these suppliant boughs
and the wreaths' due honour at your feet,
asking you to leave off
this loveless sacrifice to Zeus.
THE CONTESTS
A
Are you talking about watchers or contestants?
B
They eat plenty, the way men in training do.
A
Where are the strangers from?
B
Boeotia.
For they push their bright bare arms forward,
swelling with youth as they walk, gleaming
with the fresh bloom of strong shoulders;
oil enough on chest and the hollow of foot —
they rub themselves down as if they brought soft living from home.
And into the hand they'll press silver-priced trinkets of Cyprian stone, an ornament,
and a smearing of Egyptian unguents.
AITHON THE SATYR PLAY
In an empty belly there's no desire for beautiful things.
To the hungry Cypris is bitter.
Let other things be chopped small for me —
side-dishes well-stewed, the smoking edges of meat.
I've been hearing plenty
about these shapes of garlanded swine.
SATYR A
Was the river-water mixed in heavy?
SATYR B
Our kind isn't even allowed to lick the stuff.
SATYR A
Then a fine Scythian draught — drink it pure.
...anointed with bakkaris and standing
his forelock up with cool-cup feathers.
SATYR
Hail Charon, hail Charon, hail Charon —
is he really that angry?
ALKMEON THE SATYR PLAY
SATYR
I'm sick at the sight of these sauce-mongers.
Who's this lurking around back here,
namesake of those pimps' choppers?
Quick now — bring a black lamb here,
the shared mixing-bowl, the little cups.
Without rancour.
ALPHESIBOIA
Starry, like a maenad.
ERGINOS
HEPHAISTOS THE SATYR PLAY
DIONYSOS
First we'll delight you with a feast — it's ready.
HEPHAISTOS
And the second pleasure, how will you win me with that?
DIONYSOS
I'll rub you all over with sweet-smelling oil.
HEPHAISTOS
Won't you give me water for my hands first?
DIONYSOS
When the table's been carried out of the way.
THESEUS
Artemis of Saronia.
With a sharp-prowed bull.
THE IRIS SATYRS
A silver-leaded
oil-flask hung at his side, full of unguent —
the Spartan kind, painted on its double tablet.
Dionysos unrestrainable.
Shore-creature.
He made it a peg-handle.
Moons.
THE PROBING
Bilious thoughts.
KYKNOS
We've come to the house of Kyknos, first —
You've come to the house of a man like that.
To a hungry man a barley-loaf is worth more
than gold and ivory.
LINOS THE SATYR PLAY
SATYRS
...throwing, casting away, smashing, what didn't they call me —
"O fairest little Herakles,
splash of wine!"
THE FATES
For a great pack of them —
sea-going, wheeling in a ring, an ocean spectacle —
staining the calm of the salt with their tails.
SILENOS
Babai, babai — I'll mount the women.
MOMOS
Ares the bandit, with his spear, with his shield.
OIDIPOUS
Unclean.
He's plucking it out.
OMPHALE THE SATYR PLAY
How good with slaves he was, how good with the household.
SATYR
The wine-cup of the god has been calling me for a while now, showing me its letters:
delta, iota, and third an ou,
and a nu, and the upsilon is there too — and not absent,
from beyond, a san and an ou announce themselves.
So even by weak ones he was caught — and quickly:
the eagle by the tortoise, in no time at all.
Apollo of Phanai.
PEIRITHOOS
A fenced-in jar.
PHILOKTETES
AGAMEMNON
Time to help — I'll lead the way.
Let one man set his hand to the sword-hilt,
another sound the trumpet, fast as he can —
time to move, eleleleu!
PHRIXOS
Peleos.
UNCERTAIN PLAYS
Tarentine dyed-stuffs.
He was being greeted with a Biblian wine-cup.
Does Etna really feed such horned snails as these?
I've come having done terrible things; fare you well.
A calf gaping with hunger, like a swallow.
Shimmering.
More timely.
Cup-husks.
Flour.
A bridegroom of nymphs.
All-seeing.
Without feet of the sea.
For a fat drachma.
Drinking-cup.