nevertheless.

TRYGAEUS Yes, that is quite the style our folk do talk in.

HERMES So that I don't know whether you will ever see Peace again.

TRYGAEUS Why, where has she gone to then?

HERMES War has cast her into a deep pit.

TRYGAEUS Where?

HERMES Down there, at the very bottom. And you see what heaps of stones
he has piled over the top, so that you should never pull her out again.

TRYGAEUS Tell me, what is War preparing against us?

HERMES All I know is that last evening he brought along a huge mortar.

TRYGAEUS And what is he going to do with his mortar?

HERMES He wants to pound up all the cities of Greece in it.... But I
must say good-bye, for I think he is coming out; what an uproar he is
making!

TRYGAEUS Ah! great gods! let us seek safety; meseems I already hear the
noise of this fearful war mortar.

WAR (ENTERS, CARRYING A HUGE MORTAR) Oh! mortals, mortals, wretched
mortals, how your jaws will snap!

TRYGAEUS Oh! divine Apollo! what a prodigious big mortar! Oh, what
misery the very sight of War causes me! This then is the foe from whom I
fly, who is so cruel, so formidable, so stalwart, so solid on his legs!

WAR Oh! Prasiae!(1) thrice wretched, five times, aye, a thousand times
wretched! for thou shalt be destroyed this day.

f(1) An important town in Eastern Laconia on the Argolic
gulf, celebrated for a temple where a festival was held
annually in honour of Achilles. It had been taken and
pillaged by the Athenians in the second year of the
Peloponnesian War, 430 B.C. As he utters this imprecation,
War throws some leeks, the root-word of the name Praisae,
into his mortar.

TRYGAEUS This does not concern us over much; 'tis only so much the worse
for the Laconians.

WAR Oh! Megara! Megara! how utterly are you going to be ground up! what
fine mincemeat(1) are you to be made into!

f(1) War throws some garlic into his mortar as emblematical
of the city of Megara, where it was grown in abundance.

TRYGAEUS Alas! alas! what bitter tears there will be among the
Megarians!(1)

f(1) Because the smell of bruised garlic causes the eyes to
water.

WAR Oh, Sicily! you too must perish! Your wretched towns shall be
grated like this cheese.(1) Now let us pour some Attic honey(2) into the
mortar.

f(1) He throws cheese into the mortar as emblematical of
Sicily, on account of its rich pastures.

f(2) Emblematical of Athens