Chorus: from which time indeed our teacher has stood in the wine-press choirs,
Chorus: He has not yet gone to the theater to speak as if he were expert;
Chorus: being slandered by the enemies among the quick-counseling Athenians,
630
Chorus: How he mocks our city and insults the people,
Chorus: it must now be answered to the Athenians who have changed their minds.
Chorus: He says that the poet is worthy of many good things for you,
Chorus: Having stopped you from being deceived too much by foreign words,
Chorus: neither to be pleased by being flattered, nor to be shallow citizens.
635
Chorus: and before that, the ambassadors were deceiving you from the cities.
Chorus: first they used to call them violet-crowned; and when someone said this,
Chorus: Immediately, because of the wreaths, sit upon the very tips of your buttocks.
Chorus: but if anyone, having flattered you, should call Athens fat,
Chorus: Someone has found a way through the greasy ones, having slipped a fee around their necks.
640
Chorus: Having done these things, he has become responsible for many good things to you,
Chorus: and showing the people in the cities that they are democratically governed.
Chorus: Therefore now, bringing the tribute from the cities, we are taking it away from you.
Chorus: They will come wishing to see the best poet,
Chorus: Whoever has dared to speak the just things among the Athenians.
645
Chorus: Thus already a long way off the report of his daring has come,
Chorus: when the king of the Lacedaemonians was torturing the embassy
Chorus: He first asked them whether they held power with the ships,
Chorus: then which of the two would this poet say many bad things about?
Chorus: For he said that these men have become much better.
650
Chorus: And with the war, having such an advisor, they will greatly defeat him.
Chorus: Because of this, the Lacedaemonians are provoking you for peace.
Chorus: and they demand Aegina too; and as for that island,
Chorus: They do not care, but [they act] in order that they may take this poet away.
Chorus: but you, mind you, must never be let go; how they will mock what is just!
655
Chorus: He says that he will teach you many good things, so that you will be happy,
Chorus: not flattering, nor paying a wage, nor deceiving,
Chorus: neither acting cunningly nor acting deceitfully, but teaching the best things.
Acharnians. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.