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Dionysus
Come on and stand beside the balance pans.
Aeschylus and Euripides
Here we are!
Dionysus
Now, each of you grab hold and speak a verse,
and don't let go till I yell “Cuckoo!”
Euripides and Aeschylus
We holding on.
Dionysus
Now recite the line into the scales.
Euripides
“Would that the Argive bark had never winged...”
Aeschylus
“Stream of Spercheius, haunts of grazing kine...”
Dionysus
Cuckoo! It's released. And much further down
goes this man's side.
Euripides
Whatever is the reason?
Dionysus
Because he introduced a stream; like fabric salesmen
he made his verse wet just like the wool.
But you put in a winged word.
Euripides
Well, let him say something else and match me.
Dionysus
Grab hold again.
Aeschylus and Euripides
All set.
Dionysus
Speak!
Euripides
“Persuasion has no other shrine save speech.”
Aeschylus
“Death is the only God that loves not bribes...”
Dionysus
Let go, let go! This one's is tilting once again.
For he inserted Death, weightiest of ills.
Euripides
And I Persuasion, a saying beautifully expressed.
Dionysus
Persuasion is but light, and makes no sense.
But this time find some other ponderous line
that will pull down on your side, something high and mighty.
Euripides
Tell me, where oh where do I have something like that?
Dionysus
I'll tell you.
Dionysus
“Achilles threw snake eyes and a four”—
Please speak, since this is your last weigh-in.
Euripides
“Heavy with iron was the club his right hand seized.”
Aeschylus
“Chariot on chariot, corpse on corpse.”
Dionysus
He fooled you again this time.
Euripides
In what way?
Dionysus
Two chariots and two corpses he put in,
which not even a hundred Egyptians could ever lift.
Aeschylus
No more word by word for me; into the scales
himself, his kids, the wife, Cephisophon,
let him step in and sit down, taking all his books.
I'll only speak two verses of mine...
Dionysus
They are my friends, and I won't judge them.
For I will not be on hostile terms with either one.
One I consider clever, the other I enjoy.
Aristophanes. Frogs. Matthew Dillon.
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