his accursed swarm of Charis(1) fellows which comes
assailing my door?

f(1) A flute-player, mentioned above.

BOEOTIAN
Ah! by Iolas!(1) Drive them off, my dear host, you will please me
immensely; all the way from Thebes, they were there piping behind me
and have completely stripped my penny-royal of its blossom.
But will you buy anything of me, some chickens or some locusts?

f(1) A hero, much honoured in Thebes; nephew of Heracles.

DICAEOPOLIS
Ah! good day, Boeotian, eater of good round loaves.(1) What do you
bring?

f(1) A form of bread peculiar to Boeotia.

BOEOTIAN
All that is good in Boeotia, marjoram, penny-royal, rush-mats,
lamp-wicks, ducks, jays, woodcocks, water-fowl, wrens, divers.

DICAEOPOLIS
'Tis a very hail of birds that beats down on my market.

BOEOTIAN
I also bring geese, hares, foxes, moles, hedgehogs, cats, lyres,
martins, otters and eels from the Copaic lake.(1)

f(1) A lake in Boeotia.

DICAEOPOLIS
Ah! my friend, you, who bring me the most delicious of fish,
let me salute your eels.

BOEOTIAN
Come, thou, the eldest of my fifty Copaic virgins, come and
complete the joy of our host.

DICAEOPOLIS
Oh! my well-beloved, thou object of my long regrets, thou art here
at last then, thou, after whom the comic poets sigh, thou, who art
dear to Morychus.(1) Slaves, hither with the stove and the bellows.
Look at this charming eel, that returns to us after six long years
of absence.(2) Salute it, my children; as for myself, I will supply
coal to do honour to the stranger. Take it into my house; death itself
could not separate me from her, if cooked with beet leaves.

f(1) He was the Lucullus of Athens.

f(2) This again fixes the date of the presentation of 'The
Acharnians' to 436 B.C., the sixth year of the War, since the
beginning of which Boeotia had been closed to the Athenians.

BOEOTIAN
And what will you give me in return?

DICAEOPOLIS
It will pay for your market dues. And as to the rest, what do
you wish to sell me?

BOEOTIAN
Why, everything.

DICAEOPOLIS
On what terms? For ready-money or in wares from these parts?

BOEOTIAN
I would take some Athenian produce, that we have not got
in Boeotia.

DICAEOPOLIS
Phaleric anchovies, pottery?

BOEOTIAN
Anchovies, pottery? But these we have. I want produce that is
wanting with us and that is plentiful here.

DICAEOPOLIS
Ah! I have the very thing; take away