The drama takes its title from the Chorus, composed
of old men of Acharnae.
* * * *
*
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
DICAEOPOLIS.
HERALD.
AMPHITHEUS.
AMBASSADORS.
PSEUDARTABAS.
THEORUS.
WIFE OF DICAEOPOLIS.
DAUGHTER OF DICAEOPOLIS.
EURIPIDES.
CEPHISOPHON, servant of Euripides.
LAMACHUS.
ATTENDANT OF LAMACHUS.
A MEGARIAN.
MAIDENS, daughters of the Megarian.
A BOEOTIAN.
NICARCHUS.
A HUSBANDMAN.
A BRIDESMAID.
AN INFORMER.
MESSENGERS.
CHORUS OF ACHARNIAN ELDERS.
SCENE: The Athenian Ecclesia on the Pnyx; afterwards
Dicaeopolis’ house in the country.
* * * *
*
DICAEOPOLIS[147] (alone). What cares have
not gnawed at my heart and how few have been the pleasures
in my life! Four, to be exact, while my troubles
have been as countless as the grains of sand on the
shore! Let me see of what value to me have been
these few pleasures? Ah! I remember that
I was delighted in soul when Cleon had to disgorge
those five talents;[148] I was in ecstasy and I love
the Knights for this deed; ’it is an honour
to Greece.’[149] But the day when I was impatiently
awaiting a piece by Aeschylus,[150] what tragic despair
it caused me when the herald called, “Theognis,[151]
introduce your Chorus!” Just imagine how this
blow struck straight at my heart! On the other
hand, what joy Dexitheus caused me at the musical
competition, when he played a Boeotian melody on the
lyre! But this year by contrast! Oh! what
deadly torture to hear Chaeris[152] perform the prelude
in the Orthian mode![153]—Never, however,
since I began to bathe, has the dust hurt my eyes as
it does to-day. Still it is the day of assembly;
all should be here at daybreak, and yet the Pnyx[154]
is still deserted. They are gossiping in the
market-place, slipping hither and thither to avoid
the vermilioned rope.[155] The Prytanes[156] even
do not come; they will be late, but when they come
they will push and fight each other for a seat in the
front row. They will never trouble themselves
with the question of peace. Oh! Athens!
Athens! As for myself, I do not fail to come here
before all the rest, and now, finding myself alone,
I groan, yawn, stretch, break wind, and know not what
to do; I make sketches in the dust, pull out my loose
hairs, muse, think of my fields, long for peace, curse
town life and regret my dear country home,[157] which
never told me to ’buy fuel, vinegar or oil’;
there the word ‘buy,’ which cuts me in
two, was unknown; I harvested everything at will.
Therefore I have come to the assembly fully prepared
to bawl, interrupt and abuse the speakers, if they
talk of aught but peace. But here come the Prytanes,
and high time too, for it is midday! As I foretold,
hah! is it not so? They are pushing and fighting
for the front seats.
