strike your father, but take these wings in one
hand and these spurs in the other; imagine you have a cock's crest on
your head and go and mount guard and fight; live on your pay and respect
your father's life. You're a gallant fellow! Very well, then! Fly to
Thrace and fight.(1)

f(1) The Athenians were then besieging Amphipolis in the Thracian
Chalcidice.

PARRICIDE By Bacchus! 'Tis well spoken; I will follow your counsel.

PISTHETAERUS 'Tis acting wisely, by Zeus.

CINESIAS(1) "On my light pinions I soar off to Olympus; in its
capricious flight my Muse flutters along the thousand paths of poetry in
turn..."

f(1) There was a real Cinesias--a dythyrambic poet born at Thebes.

PISTHETAERUS This is a fellow will need a whole shipload of wings.

CINESIAS (singing) "...and being fearless and vigorous, it is seeking
fresh outlet."

PISTHETAERUS Welcome, Cinesias, you lime-wood man!(1) Why have you come
here a-twisting your game leg in circles?

f(1) The scholiast thinks that Cinesias, who was tall and slight of
build, wore a kind of corset of lime-wood to support his waist--surely
rather a far-fetched interpretation!

CINESIAS "I want to become a bird, a tuneful nightingale."

PISTHETAERUS Enough of that sort of ditty. Tell me what you want.

CINESIAS Give me wings and I will fly into the topmost airs to gather
fresh songs in the clouds, in the midst of the vapours and the fleecy
snow.

PISTHETAERUS Gather songs in the clouds?

CINESIAS 'Tis on them the whole of our latter-day art depends. The most
brilliant dithyrambs are those that flap their wings in void space
and are clothed in mist and dense obscurity. To appreciate this, just
listen.

PISTHETAERUS Oh! no, no, no!

CINESIAS By Hermes! but indeed you shall. "I shall travel through thine
ethereal empire like a winged bird, who cleaveth space with his long
neck..."

PISTHETAERUS Stop! easy all, I say!(1)

f(1) The Greek word used here was the word of command employed to stop
the rowers.

CINESIAS "...as I soar over the seas, carried by the breath of the
winds..."

PISTHETAERUS By Zeus! but I'll cut your breath short.

CINESIAS "...now rushing along the tracks of Notus, now nearing Boreas
across the infinite wastes of the ether." (PISTHETAERUS BEATS HIM.) Ah!
old man, that's a pretty and clever idea truly!

PISTHETAERUS What! are you not delighted to be cleaving the air?(1)

f(1) Cinesias makes a bound each time that Pisthetaerus