ndman's wheaten cake and his safeguard. So that
our vineyards, our young fig-tree woods and all our plantations hail
thee with delight and smile at thy coming. But where was she then,
I wonder, all the long time she spent away from us? Hermes, thou
benevolent god, tell us!

HERMES Wise husbandmen, hearken to my words, if you want to know why
she was lost to you. The start of our misfortunes was the exile of
Phidias;(1) Pericles feared he might share his ill-luck, he mistrusted
your peevish nature and, to prevent all danger to himself, he threw out
that little spark, the Megarian decree,(2) set the city aflame, and blew
up the conflagration with a hurricane of war, so that the smoke drew
tears from all Greeks both here and over there. At the very outset of
this fire our vines were a-crackle, our casks knocked together;(3)
it was beyond the power of any man to stop the disaster, and Peace
disappeared.

f(1) Having been commissioned to execute a statue of Athene,
Phidias was accused of having stolen part of the gold given
him out of the public treasury for its decoration. Rewarded
for his work by calumny and banishment, he resolved to make
a finer statue than his Athene, and executed one for the
temple of Elis, that of the Olympian Zeus, which was
considered one of the wonders of the world.

f(2) He had issued a decree, which forbade the admission of
any Megarian on Attic soil, and also all trade with that
people. The Megarians, who obtained all their provisions
from Athens, were thus almost reduced to starvation.

f(3) That is, the vineyards were ravaged from the very
outset of the war, and this increased the animosity.

TRYGAEUS That, by Apollo! is what no one ever told me; I could not think
what connection there could be between Phidias and Peace.

CHORUS Nor I; I know it now. This accounts for her beauty, if she is
related to him. There are so many things that escape us.

HERMES Then, when the towns subject to you saw that you were angered one
against the other and were showing each other your teeth like dogs, they
hatched a thousand plots to pay you no more dues and gained over
the chief citizens of Sparta at the price of gold. They, being as
shamelessly greedy as they were faithless in diplomacy, chased off Peace
with ignominy to let loose War. Though this was profitable to them,
'twas the ruin of the husbandmen, who were innocent of all blame