Second Semi-Chorus
Singing.
Such are the songs with which the Muse with the glorious hair
800
inspires the able poet and which enchant the assembled populace, when the spring swallow twitters beneath the foliage; but the god spare us from the chorus of Morsimus and that of Melanthius!
805
Oh! what a bitter discordancy grated upon my ears that day when the tragic chorus was directed by this same Melanthius and his brother, these two
810
Gorgons, these two Harpies, the plague of the seas, whose gluttonous bellies devour the entire race of fishes, these followers of old women, these goats with their stinking arm-pits.
815
Oh! Muse, spit upon them abundantly and keep the feast gaily with me.
Such are the songs with which the Muse with the glorious hair
800
inspires the able poet and which enchant the assembled populace, when the spring swallow twitters beneath the foliage; but the god spare us from the chorus of Morsimus and that of Melanthius!
805
Oh! what a bitter discordancy grated upon my ears that day when the tragic chorus was directed by this same Melanthius and his brother, these two
810
Gorgons, these two Harpies, the plague of the seas, whose gluttonous bellies devour the entire race of fishes, these followers of old women, these goats with their stinking arm-pits.
815
Oh! Muse, spit upon them abundantly and keep the feast gaily with me.
Peace. Aristophanes. ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.. New York. 1938.
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