Chorus: but where was it from us for all this long time?
Chorus: This? Teach this to us, O most faithful of the gods.
Hermes: O wisest farmers, now understand my things.
Hermes: Words, if you wish to hear how this was lost.
Hermes: First, for indeed Pheidias began with her, having done wrong;
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Hermes: Then Pericles, fearing that he might share in the fortune,
Hermes: fearing your natures and your self-willed character,
Hermes: before he suffered anything terrible himself, he kindled the city.
Hermes: having thrown in a small spark of a Megarian decree,
Hermes: He blew so much war that because of the smoke
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Hermes: Let all the Greeks weep, those there and those here.
Hermes: And when the vine had once rustled at the very beginning,
Hermes: And a jar, struck by anger, kicked back at another jar,
Hermes: there was no longer anyone to stop it, and this was disappearing.
Trygaeus: Well, by Apollo, I did not sneer at anyone,
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Trygaeus: Nor was even Phidias heard to be suitable for her.
Chorus: Not even I, except now. These things, then, were well-favored,
Chorus: She was related to him. Many things escape us.
Hermes: And since the cities which you ruled have recognized you.
Hermes: Agitated against one another and sharpened,
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Hermes: All, plotting schemes against you while fearing the taxes,
Hermes: And I persuaded the most powerful of the Lacedaemonians with money.
Hermes: but those who are greedy and mocking
Hermes: having shamefully cast aside this war, they snatched it away;
Hermes: And then, indeed, the profits from them were evil for the farmers.
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Hermes: for the triremes that retaliate from this side again
Hermes: No men would have eaten the stalks at all.
Trygaeus: Well then, in court, since you have indeed got me in a trap.
Trygaeus: They cut it down, which I planted and nurtured.
Chorus: By Zeus, oh sweetly, truly justly, since even I [have] a stone
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Chorus: Having thrown in a half-medimnos honeycomb, they lost it.
Hermes: And then, when the farmer came together from the fields with the crowd,
Hermes: he did not learn to sell in the same way,
Hermes: But, being without friends and lovers, the buttocks
Hermes: he was looking at those who were speaking; but those who understood well
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Hermes: the poor, sick and destitute of barley,
Hermes: As for this goddess, I was pushing her with my two shouts,
Hermes: often longing for her to appear in this land,
Hermes: 'And they shook the fat and rich allies.'
Hermes: adding reasons, as if they were thinking like Brasidas.
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Hermes: Then you would tear this man apart just like a little dog.
Hermes: for the city, being pale and sitting in fear,
Hermes: What curses someone could hurl at her, she would enjoy most of all.
Hermes: and those who saw the blows that the foreigners were striking
Hermes: I had a golden mouth for those who do this,
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Hermes: so that they might make those men rich, but Greece would be
Hermes: If you had not been deserted, you would have been overlooked. But this was what he was doing.
Hermes: a leather seller.
Trygaeus: Stop, stop, lord Hermes, do not speak,
Trygaeus: But leave that man there, who must be down below;
Trygaeus: For that man is no longer ours but yours.
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