Parodos
[Agon]
Why did you bring me from down yonder?
340
Pisthetaerus
To have you with me.
340
Euelpides
Say rather to have me melt into tears.
Pisthetaerus
Go on! you are talking nonsense. How will you weep with your eyes pecked out?
Chorus
Io! io! forward to the attack, throw yourselves upon the foe,
spill his blood; take to your wings and surround them on all sides. Woe to them! let us get to work with our beaks, let us devour them.
345
Nothing can save them from our wrath, neither the mountain forests, nor the clouds that float in the sky, nor the foaming deep.
350
Leader of the Chorus
Come, peck, tear to ribbons. Where is the chief of the cohort? Let him engage the right wing.
Euelpides
This is the fatal moment. Where shall I fly to, unfortunate wretch that I am?
Pisthetaerus
Wait! Stay here!
Euelpides
That they may tear me to pieces?
355
Pisthetaerus
And how do you think to escape them?
355
Euelpides
I don't know at all.
Pisthetaerus
Come, I will tell you. We must stop and fight them. Let us arm ourselves with these stew-pots.
Euelpides
Why with the stew-pots?
Pisthetaerus
The owl will not attack us then.
Euelpides
But do you see all those hooked claws?
Pisthetaerus
Take the spit
and pierce the foe on your side.
360
Euelpides
And how about my eyes?
360
