Strepsiades: So, hail, mistresses; and now, if indeed to any other,
Strepsiades: Burst forth a voice reaching to the heavens for me too, O all-mighty ones.
Chorus: Hail, old man, hunter of old, of the songs of the lovers of the Muses,
Chorus: And you, priest of the most trifling nonsense, tell us what you need;
Chorus: For we would not obey anyone else than these meteorological sophists now.
360
Chorus: except for Prodicus, for whose sake he [is] both clever and prudent, but for yours,
Chorus: because you drip in the roads and you squint your eyes,
Chorus: And even the unshod one suffers many evils and stares at us with a solemn face.
Strepsiades: O earth of the sound, how sacred and solemn and wonderful.
Socrates: For these alone are goddesses, but all the rest is chatter.
365
Strepsiades: But Zeus, by the earth, is he not an Olympian god?
Socrates: Which Zeus? You shall not prattle on; there is no Zeus.
Strepsiades: What are you saying?
Strepsiades: But who is raining? For this is the first thing I must learn of all.
Socrates: Those, indeed; but with great signs I myself will teach it to you.
Socrates: Come, for where have you ever yet seen it raining without the Clouds?
370
Socrates: Nevertheless, it ought to have rained dryly on him, but these [clouds] are going abroad.
Strepsiades: By Apollo, you have now indeed explained this matter very well to me with this very speech;
Strepsiades: And yet, previously I truly thought that Zeus urinates through a sieve.
Strepsiades: But whoever it is who thunders, tell me; this is what makes me go mad.
Socrates: These thunder as they roll.
375
Strepsiades: In what way, O you who dare everything?
Socrates: when they have been filled with much water and are compelled to carry it,
Socrates: to be hurled down full of rain by necessity, then heavy.
Socrates: falling into one another, they burst and crash.
Strepsiades: But who is the one forcing them to be, not Zeus, so as to be carried?
Socrates: Not at all, but the Aetherial Vortex.
380
Strepsiades: The vortex? That escaped my notice,
Strepsiades: Zeus does not exist, but instead of him the Whirlwind now rules.
Strepsiades: But you have not yet taught me anything about the thunderclap and the thunder.
Socrates: Didn't you hear that I say the Clouds are full of water?
Socrates: to clap them as they fall into each other because of the density?
Strepsiades: 'Come now, to whom must one believe this?'
385
Socrates: I will teach you from yourself.
Socrates: Already filled with broth by the Panathenaians, then you were disturbed.
Socrates: The belly, and suddenly it let out a great burp?
Strepsiades: By Apollo, he's doing terrible things to me right away, and he's in a state of confusion.
Strepsiades: And just as thunder makes the little pot clatter and shriek terribly;
Strepsiades: And when I shit, it booms 'pa-pa-pax' just like those do.
