He follows them in.
Interlude of dancing by the Chorus.
Hermes enters and begins knocking on the door.
Cario
opening the door
Who is knocking at the door? Halloa! I see no one; it was then by chance it gave forth that plaintive tone.
Hermes
To Cario, who is about to close the door
[1100]
Cario! stop!
Cario
Eh! friend, was it you who knocked so loudly? Tell me.
Hermes
No, I was going to knock and you forestalled me by opening. Come, call your master quick, then his wife and his children,
[1105]
then his slave and his dog, then yourself and his pig.
Cario
And what's it all about?
Hermes
It's about this, rascal! Zeus wants to serve you all with the same sauce and hurl the lot of you into the Barathrum.
Cario
aside
[1110]
Have a care for your tongue, you bearer of ill tidings!To Hermes But why does he want to treat us in that scurvy fashion?
Hermes
Because you have committed the most dreadful crime. Since Plutus has recovered his sight, there is nothing for us other gods, neither incense, nor laurels,
[1115]
nor cakes, nor victims, nor anything in the world.
Cario
And you will never be offered anything more; you governed us too ill.
Hermes
I care nothing at all about the other gods, but it's myself. I tell you I am dying of hunger.
Cario
That's reasoning like a wise fellow.
Hermes
[1120]
Formerly, from earliest dawn, I was offered all sorts of good things in the wine-shops, —wine-cakes, honey, dried figs, in short, dishes worthy of Hermes. Now, I lie the livelong day on my back, with my legs in the air, famishing.
Cario
And quite right too, for you
[1125]
often had them punished who treated you so well.
Hermes
Ah! the lovely cake they used to knead for me on the fourth of the month!
Cario
You recall it vainly; your regrets are useless!
Hermes
Ah! the ham I was wont to devour!
Cario
Well then! make use of your legs and hop on one leg upon the wineskin, to while away the time.
Hermes
[1130]
Oh! the grilled entrails I used to swallow down!
Cario
Your own have got the colic, I think.
Hermes
Oh! the delicious tipple, half-wine, half-water!
Cario
Here, take this and be off.
He farts.
Hermes
in tragic style
Would you render service to the friend that loves you?
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Table of Contents:
Aristophanes. Wealth. The Complete Greek Drama, vol. 2. Eugene O'Neill, Jr. New York. Random House. 1938.
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