Old Woman: Come now, friends, old men, to the house.
Old Woman: Indeed, we have come to this new god,
960
Old Woman: Have we gone completely off the road?
Chorus: but know that she has come to these very doors.
Chorus: O young girl, for you will soon learn.
Old Woman: Come then, I will call someone from inside.
Chremylus: No indeed, for I myself have gone out.
965
Chremylus: But whatever you most of all came to say, you ought to have said.
Old Woman: I have suffered terrible and unlawful things, most dear friend;
Granny: for since this god began to see,
Old Woman: She has made my life unlivable for me.
Chremylus: But what is it? Surely you are a slanderer too.
970
Chremylus: Were you among the women?
Old Woman: By Zeus, I say no.
Chremylus: But you did not drink in the lottery?
Old Woman: You are mocking me; but I am thoroughly frightened.
Chremylus: Surely, after you have extinguished the smoke, you will not tell us who it is?
Old Woman: Listen now. I once had a young man as a friend,
975
Old Woman: Poor, but otherwise good-looking and beautiful.
Old Woman: and good; for if I were to be asked by anyone,
Old Woman: She did everything for me in an orderly and beautiful manner.
Gr. But I served all these things for him.
Chremylus: But what was it that you most needed each time?
980
Old Woman: Not much; for he treated me shamefully according to the law.
Old Woman: But I would have asked for twenty drachmas of silver.
Old Woman: into a cloak, but eight [drachmas] into shoes;
Old Woman: and [tell them] to buy a little tunic for the sisters.
Old Woman: He would have ordered a little cloak for his mother;
985
Old Woman: I would have needed four bushels of wheat.
Chremylus: Well then, by Apollo, not many of these things, at least.
Chremylus: You have spoken, but it is clear that he was ashamed of you.
Old Woman: And yet these things, then, are not out of hatred.
Old Woman: She said that she asked me, but for the sake of friendship,
990
Old Woman: So that, wearing my cloak, you might remember me.
Chremylus: You speak of a man who is in love most lawlessly.
Old Woman: But surely now the wretch no longer has his wits about him.
Old Woman: The same, but it has quite changed.
Old Woman: for indeed I myself have given him this cake.
995
Old Woman: And the other snacks from the table.
Old Woman: 'after having sent [him] and after having said this:'
Old Woman: I would come in the evening—
Chremylus: What are you doing? Tell me.
Old Woman: The old man has sent this fellow away from us.
Old Woman: 'on the condition that you never come there again.'
1000
Old Woman: and on top of this, he said, sending her away, that
Old Woman: Long ago, the Milesians were valiant.
Wealth. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.