e. The Athenians, momentarily elated by victory
and over-persuaded by the demagogues of the day--Cleon and his
henchmen, refuse to hear of such a thing as coming to terms. Accordingly
Dicaeopolis dispatches an envoy to Sparta on his own account, who comes
back presently with a selection of specimen treaties in his pocket.
The old man tastes and tries, special terms are arranged, and the play
concludes with a riotous and uproarious rustic feast in honour of the
blessings of Peace and Plenty.

Incidentally excellent fun is poked at Euripides and his dramatic
methods, which supply matter for so much witty badinage in several
others of our author's pieces.

Other specially comic incidents are: the scene where the two young
daughters of the famished Megarian are sold in the market at Athens as
suck(l)ing-pigs--a scene in which the convenient similarity of the
Greek words signifying a pig and the 'pudendum muliebre' respectively
is utilized in a whole string of ingenious and suggestive 'double
entendres' and ludicrous jokes; another where the Informer, or
Market-Spy, is packed up in a crate as crockery and carried off home by
the Boeotian buyer.

The drama takes its title from the Chorus, composed of old men of
Acharnae.

THE ACHARNIANS

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(1) (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;(2) I was
in ecstasy and I love the Knights for this deed; 'it is an honour to
Greece.'(3) But the day when I was impatiently awaiting a piece by
Aeschylus,(4) what tragic despair it caused me when the herald called,
"Theognis,(5) introduce your Chorus!" Just im