Quotes from Aristophanes

If it is necessary for us to do anything [in view of peace], direct us and architect. ???? ???' ????, ?? ?? ??? ????, ????? ?????????????.

STREPSIADES. So the rear of a gnat is a trumpet. Oh! what a splendid discovery! Thrice happy Socrates! 'Twould not be difficult to succeed in a law-suit, knowing so much about the gut of a gnat!

EPOPS But, after all, what sort of city would please you best? EUELPIDES A place where the following would be the most important business transacted.—Some friend would come knocking at the door quite early in the morning saying, By Olympian Zeus, be at my house early, as soon as you have bathed, and bring your children too. I am giving a nuptial feast, so don't fail, or else don't cross my threshold when I am in distress.

SOCRATES. Silence, old man, give heed to the prayers.... Oh! most mighty king, the boundless air, that keepest the earth suspended in space, thou bright Aether and ye venerable goddesses, the Clouds, who carry in your loins the thunder and the lightning, arise, ye sovereign powers and manifest yourselves in the celestial spheres to the eyes of the sage.

There is no beast more stubborn than a woman. And neither fire nor leopard is more ruthless.

HOROVO?A MUŠKOG HORA: Ni sa kojom zverkom no sa ženom nije teži boj, nit je oganj tako nit je panter besan ijedan. HOROVO?A ŽENSKOG HORA: To ti znadeš, al opet, r?o, sa mnom ratuješ, a ja verna mogla bih ti biti prijateljica?

What villainies they contrive! Come, let vengeance fall, You that below the waist are still alive, Off with your tunics at my call— Naked, all. For a man must strip to battle like a man. No quaking, brave steps taking, careless what's ahead, white shoed, in the nude, onward bold, All ye who garrisoned Leipsidrion of old. . . . Let each one wag As youthfully as he can, And if he has the cause at heart Rise at least a span.

WOMEN Well, I'll relate a rival fable just to show to you A different point of view: There was a rough-hewn fellow, Timon, with a face That glowered as through a thorn-bush in a wild, bleak place. He too decided on flight, This very Furies' son, All the world's ways to shun And hide from everyone, Spitting out curses on all knavish men to left and right. But though he reared this hate for men, He loved the women even then, And never thought them enemies. WOMAN O your jaw I'd like to break. MAN

See why I think I owe you good advice? And please don't look on me with prejudice: My gender has no bearing on the question Whether I'm offering you a good suggestion.

But he who would provoke me should remember That those who rifle wasps' nests will be stung!

Strep. Then what shall I gain, pray? Soc. You shall become in oratory a tricky knave, a thorough rattle, a subtle speaker.

Strep. Tell me, O Socrates, I beseech you, by Jupiter, who are these that have uttered this grand song? Are they some heroines? Soc. By no means; but heavenly Clouds, great divinities to idle men; who supply us with thought and argument, and intelligence and humbug, and circumlocution, and ability to hoax, and comprehension

The man credited with inventing the comma, colon, and full stop punctuation marks was a librarian of Alexandria called Aristophanes.

Unjust Discourse: To invoke solely the weaker arguments and yet triumph is a talent worth more than a hundred thousand drachmae.

All we have to do is idly sit indoors With smooth roses powdered on our cheeks, Our bodies burning naked through the fold Of shining Amorgos' silk and meet the men With our dear Venus-plats plucked trim and neat. Their stirring love will rise up furiously, They'll beg our arms to open. That's our time! We'll disregard their knocking beat them off And they will soon be rabid for a Peace I'm sure of it.

And what if they do? No threat shall creak our hinges wide, no torch Shall light a fear in us; we will come out To Peace alone.

LYSISTRATA All right then— we have to give up all male penises. [The women react with general consternation]

How can it ever be right to wreck A man because he's time by the clock As an elderly man grizzled and gray, Who long ago struggled at your side Mopping the copious Manly sweat from his brow When he bravely fought at Marathon In defense of our city.

Frogs embraces two transcendent issues, the decline of Athens as a great power, as the long Peloponnesian War (431-404) approached its end, and the decline of tragedy as a great form of art, with the recent deaths of the last two preeminent tragedians.

For I have been called among the deep thinkers the worse cause on this very account, that I first contrived how to speak against both law and justice; and this art is worth more than ten thousand staters, that one should choose the worse cause, and nevertheless be victorious.

The Chorus of Eleusinian Initiates lead Dionysus and Aeschylus off in a torchlight procession recalling the inspirational finale of Aeschylus' Oresteia.

In the first half of the play he is the anti-heroic and burlesque figure long familiar in comedy and satyr drama.

But even in this perilous situation, the popular leader Cleophon managed to persuade the Athenians to reject the chance of a negotiated peace offered by Sparta after Arginusae, so that it is hardly surprising that the Athenians responded so warmly to the parabasis of Frogs, where the Chorus aptly upbraids them for choosing as leaders and fighters not the best men but the worst, just as they have traded their gold and silver coinage for base metal (686-705, 717-37).

The night I wedded her, I went to bed smelling of fresh wine, fleeces, figs and great affluence, and she on her side reeked of lubricant, saffron seeds, tongue kisses, wealth, gluttony and the Goddess of Sex.