. Athenians,
you are not well placed for pulling. There you are too busy with
law-suits; if you really want to free the goddess, get down a little
towards the sea.(1)

f(1) Meaning, look chiefly to your fleet. This was the
counsel that Themistocles frequently gave the Athenians.

CHORUS Come, friends, none but husbandmen on the rope.

HERMES Ah! that will do ever so much better.

CHORUS He says the thing is going well. Come, all of you, together and
with a will.

TRYGAEUS 'Tis the husbandmen who are doing all the work.

CHORUS Come then, come, and all together! Hah! hah! at last there is
some unanimity in the work. Don't let us give up, let us redouble our
efforts. There! now we have it! Come then, all together! Heave away,
heave! Heave away, heave! Heave away, heave! Heave away, heave! Heave
away, heave! All together! (PEACE IS DRAWN OUT OF THE PIT.)

TRYGAEUS Oh! venerated goddess, who givest us our grapes, where am I to
find the ten-thousand-gallon words(1) wherewith to greet thee? I have
none such at home. Oh! hail to thee, Opora,(2) and thee, Theoria!(3) How
beautiful is thy face! How sweet thy breath! What gentle fragrance comes
from thy bosom, gentle as freedom from military duty, as the most dainty
perfumes!

f(1) A metaphor referring to the abundant vintages that
peace would assure.

f(2) The goddess of fruits.

f(3) Aristophanes personifies under this name the sacred
ceremonies in general which peace would allow to be
celebrated with due pomp. Opora and Theoria come on the
stage in the wake of Peace, clothed and decked out as
courtesans.

HERMES Is it then a smell like a soldier's knapsack?

TRYGAEUS Oh! hateful soldier! your hideous satchel makes me sick! it
stinks like the belching of onions, whereas this lovable deity has the
odour of sweet fruits, of festivals, of the Dionysia, of the harmony of
flutes, of the comic poets, of the verses of Sophocles, of the phrases
of Euripides...

HERMES That's a foul calumny, you wretch! She detests that framer of
subtleties and quibbles.

TRYGAEUS ...of ivy, of straining-bags for wine, of bleating ewes, of
provision-laden women hastening to the kitchen, of the tipsy servant
wench, of the upturned wine-jar, and of a whole heap of other good
things.

HERMES Then look how the reconciled towns chat pleasantly together, how
they laugh; and yet they are all cruelly mishandled; their wounds are
bleeding s