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Little Daughter
Answer, father, if you love me.

Trygaeus
Singing.
Yes, I am going. You hurt me too sorely, my daughters, [120] when you ask me for bread, calling me your daddy, and there is not the ghost of an obolus in the house; if I succeed and come back, you will have a barley loaf every morning —and a punch in the eye for sauce!

Little Daughter
But how will you make the journey? [125] There's no ship that will take you there.

Trygaeus
No, but this winged steed will.

Little Daughter
But what an idea, papa, to harness a beetle, to fly to the gods on.

Trygaeus
We see from Aesop's fables [130] that they alone can fly to the abode of the Immortals.

Little Daughter
Father, father, that's a tale nobody can believe! that such a smelly creature can have gone to the gods.

Trygaeus
It went to have vengeance on the eagle and break its eggs.

Little Daughter
[135] Why not saddle Pegasus? you would have a more tragic appearance in the eyes of the gods.

Trygaeus
Eh! don't you see, little fool, that then twice the food would be wanted? Whereas my beetle devours again as filth what I have eaten myself.

Little Daughter
[140] And if it fell into the watery depths of the sea, could it escape with its wings?

Trygaeus
Exposing himself.
I am fitted with a rudder in case of need, and my Naxos beetle will serve me as a boat.

Little Daughter
And what harbor will you put in at?

Trygaeus
[145] Why, is there not the harbor of Cantharus at the Piraeus?

Little Daughter
Take care not to knock against anything and so fall off into space; once a cripple, you would be a fit subject for Euripides, who would put you into a tragedy.

Trygaeus
As the Machine hoists him higher.
I'll see to it. Good-bye!To the Athenians. [150] You, for love of whom I brave these dangers, do ye neither fart nor crap for the space of three days, for, if, while cleaving the air, my steed should scent anything, he would fling me head foremost from the summit of my hopes.

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Piraeus (Greece) (1)
Naxos City (Greece) (1)

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