previous next

Exit Strepsiades and enter Just Cause and Unjust Cause

Just Cause.
Come hither! Show yourself to the spectators, although being audacious.

Unjust Cause.
Go whither you please; for I shall far rather do for you, if I speak before a crowd.

Just.
You destroy me? Who are you?

Unj.
A cause.

Just.
Ay, the worse.

Unj.
But I conquer you, who say that you are better than I.

Just.
By doing what clever trick?

Unj.
By discovering new contrivances.

Just.
For these innovations flourish by the favour of these silly persons.

Unj.
No; but wise persons.

Just
I will destroy you miserably.

Unj.
Tell me, by doing what?

Just
By speaking what is just.

Unj.
But I will overturn them by contradicting them; for I deny that justice even exists at all.

Just
Do you deny that it exists?

Unj.
For come, where is it?

Just
With the gods.

Unj.
How, then, if justice exists, has Jupiter not perished, who bound his own father?

Just
Bah! This profanity now is spreading! Give me a basin.

Unj.
You are a dotard and absurd.

Just
You are debauched and shameless.

Unj.
You have spoken roses of me.

Just
And a dirty lickspittle.

Unj.
You crown me with lilies.

Just
And a parricide.

Unj.
You don't know that you are sprinkling me with gold.

Just
Certainly not so formerly, but with lead.

Unj.
But now this is an ornament to me.

Just
You are very impudent.

Unj.
And you are antiquated.

Just
And through you, no one of our youths is willing to go to school; and you will be found out some time or other by the Athenians, what sort of doctrines you teach the simple-minded.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.

hide References (1 total)
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (1):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: