Cleon: Listen now and pay attention to me.
Cleon: Tell the path of the oracles, son of Erechtheus, which Apollo [gave] to you
1015
Cleon: He has shouted from the inner sanctuary through the highly revered tripods.
Cleon: He ordered you to save the sacred dog with the sharp teeth,
Cleon: who, before you, chattered and shouted terrible things on your behalf
Cleon: He will find you a wage, and even if he does not do these things, he will be ruined.
Cleon: For many envious cuckoos will hiss at them.
1020
Demos: By Demeter, I do not know what he is saying.
Demus: For what is [the matter] with Erechtheus and the painted [statues] and the dog?
Cleon: I am the dog; for I bark before you.
Cleon: But Phoebus told you to save me, the dog.
Sausage-seller: The oracle does not say this, but this dog here.
1025
Sausage-Seller: Just like a door, he gnawed on your sacred writings.
Sausage-seller: For I have the matter concerning this dog correctly settled.
Demos: Speak now; for I shall first take a stone,
Demos: so that this oracle does not bite my penis.
Sausage-Seller: Tell the dog Kerberos, the slave-trader, about Erechtheus.
1030
Sausage-seller: whoever, wagging his tail, watches you whenever you dine.
Baker: he sells you the bread whenever you gape somewhere else;
Sausage-seller: I will sneak up on you and catch you like a dog.
Sausage-Seller: lapping up the pans and the islands at night.
Demos: By Poseidon, that is much better, Glanis.
1035
Cleon: Oh, listen, and then decide this matter.
Cleon: There is a woman, and she will bear a lion in sacred Athens,
Cleon: He who will fight the people like a gnat against many
Cleon: so, having stood on the little dogs; you guard him,
Cleon: having made a wooden wall and iron towers.
1040
Cleon: You know what he says, don't you?
Demos: by Apollo, I certainly will not.
Cleon: The god clearly told you to save me;
Cleon: For I am in the place of the lion to you.
Demos: And how did you escape my notice, having become Antileon?
Sausage-seller: "It does not teach you one of the famous sayings willingly,"
1045
Sausage-seller: "The only iron wall and wooden [one],"
Sausage-seller: in which he commanded you to save this man, the Pythian Apollo.
Demos: How then did the god reveal this?
Sausage-Seller: I ordered you to be tied in a five-pipe wooden block.
Demos: I think that these things ought to be accomplished already, now that the words are clear.
1050
Cleon: Do not be persuaded; for envious crows are cawing overhead.
Cleon: But keep the hawk in mind in your mind, who is yours.
Cleon: He led them off, having bound the Spartans in rags.
Sausage-seller: This is what Paphlagon has indeed risked, getting drunk.
Sausage-Seller: You son of Cecrops, you evil-minded one, why do you think this work is great?
1055
Sausage-seller: And a woman would carry a burden, since a man would put it down;
Sausage-Seller: But he would not fight; for he would vomit if he fought.
Cleon: But tell this, whether you thought Pylos was before Pylos.
Cleon: There is Pylos before Pylos—
Demos: What is this saying, before Pylos?
