Euripides
“What are you saying? Turn your face towards me.”
Mnesilochus
“I dare not; my cheeks show the marks of the insults I have been forced to suffer.”
Euripides
“Oh! great gods! I cannot speak, for very emotion.
[905]
... Ah! what do I see? Who are you?”
Mnesilochus
“And you, what is your name? for my surprise is as great as yours.”
Euripides
“Are you Grecian or born in this country?”
Mnesilochus
“I am Grecian. But now your name, what is it?”
Euripides
“Oh! how you resemble Helen!”
Mnesilochus
[910]
“And you Menelaus, if I can judge by these pot-herbs.”
Euripides
“You are not mistaken, 'tis none other than that unfortunate mortal who stands before you.”
Mnesilochus
“Ah! how you have delayed coming to your wife's arms! Press me to your heart, throw your arms about me,
[915]
for I wish to cover you with kisses. Carry me away, carry me away, quick, quick, far, very far from here.”
Third Woman
By the goddesses, woe to him who would carry you away! I should thrash him with my torch.
Euripides
“Do you propose to prevent me from taking my wife, the daughter of Tyndareus, to Sparta?”
Third Woman
[920]
You seem to me to be a cunning rascal too; you are in collusion with this man, and it wasn't for nothing that you kept babbling about Egypt. But the hour for punishment has come; here is the Magistrate with his Scythian.
Euripides
This is getting awkward. Let me hide myself.
Mnesilochus
[925]
And what is to become of me, poor unfortunate man that I am?
Euripides
Don't worry. I shall never abandon you, as long as I draw breath and one of my numberless artifices remains untried.
Mnesilochus
The fish has not bitten this time.
A Magistrate enters, accompanied by a Scythian policeman.
Magistrate
Is this the rascal Cleisthenes told us about?
[930]
Why are you trying to make yourself so small? Officer, arrest him, fasten him to the post, then take up your position there and keep guard over him. Let none approach him. A sound lash with your whip for him who attempts to break the order.
Third Woman
Excellent, for just now
[935]
a rogue almost took him from me.
Mnesilochus
Magistrate, in the name of that hand which you know so well how to bend when money is placed in it, grant me a slight favour before I die.
Magistrate
What favour?
Mnesilochus
[940]
Order the archer to strip me before lashing me to the post; the crows, when they make their meal on the poor old man, would laugh too much at this robe and head-dress.
Magistrate
It is in that gear that you must be exposed by order of the Senate, so that your crime may be patent to the passers-by.
He departs.
Mnesilochus
as the Scythian seizes him
[945]
Oh! cursed robe, the cause of all my misfortune! My last hope is thus destroyed!
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Aristophanes. Women at the Thesmophoria. The Complete Greek Drama, vol. 2. Eugene O'Neill, Jr. New York. Random House. 1938.
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