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Knights by Aristophanes - an excerpt
Knights
by AristophanesDramatis Personae
DEMOSTHENES: a slave in the service of Demos NICIAS: a slave in the service of Demos A SAUSAGE SELLER: a low-born Athenian street merchant PAPHLAGONIAN: a slave in the service of Demos DEMOS: an elderly Athenian citizen CHORUS OF KNIGHTS.
[The action takes place in an Athenian street in the Pnyx, the part of the city where the public assemblies were held. At the back there is an entrance to the house belonging to Demos. From within the house comes the noise of a slave being beaten with a whip and crying out in pain.]
DEMOSTHENES [bursting out of the door] All right, that’s it, that’s just too much to take! I’ve had it! That bastard interloper! That miserable Paphlagonian! I wish the gods would obliterate him— him and his schemes. Since that awful day he came into this house, because of him we slaves keep getting beaten all the time.NICIAS [coming out behind Demosthenes, in obvious pain]
That man is the very worst—a first-class Paphlagonian—all those lies he tells!
DEMOSTHENES Hey, you poor man, how you doing?
NICIAS Not good. 10 The same as you.
DEMOSTHENES All right, come over here, so we can moan together, pipe a tune, a duet in the manner of Olympus.1
[Demosthenes and Nicias put their heads together and act as if they are both playing flutes, making whimpering sounds in harmony.]
1 Olympus was a musician from the 7th century who composed flute music.
DEMOSTHENES AND NICIAS What can we do-o-ooooo, [10] We’re just so black and blue-oo-oo.1
DEMOSTHENES Why waste our moaning? We should stop whining and look for some way to preserve our hides.
NICIAS How could we do that?
DEMOSTHENES Well, suggest something.
NICIAS No, you tell me—that way I can avoid fighting you about it.
[Here Demosthenes and Nicias briefly parody the grand tragic style.]
DEMOSTHENES No. By Apollo. No. 20 I shall not speak.
NICIAS Ah, if only you would tell me what I should say.
DEMOSTHENES Come. Screw your courage up and speak. And then I shall confide in you.
NICIAS But I dare not. How could I ever utter the delicate phrasings of Euripides— “Can’t thou not speak for me what I must say”?2
DEMOSTHENES No, I don’t want that. Don’t toss those herbs around. Instead find us some way we can dance off [20] and leave our master.3
1 The Greek simply has them repeating a series of mu sounds.
2 Nicias is here quoting Euripides, a line where Phaedra wishes to confess her passion for her stepson without actually saying the words.
3 Aristophanes is satirizing Euripides’ origins by reminding people of the false rumour that his mother, Cleito, sold vegetables. The previous lines also satirize Euripides’ style.
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