12–13
Justice
Hush, Pan: was not that Hermes making the proclamation?
Hermes
Be it known to all men that we purpose on this seventh day of March to hold a court of justice, and Fortune defend the right / All litigant parties to assemble on Areopagus, where Fustice will assign the juries and preside over the trials in person. The juries to be taken from the whole Athenian people; the pay to be sixpence for each case s the number of jurors to vary with the nature of the accusation. Any parties who had commenced legal proceedings and have died in the interim to be sent up by Aeacus. Any party doubting the justice of bis sentence may appeal; the appeal to be heard by Zeus.
Pan
Talk about noise! how they shout! And what a hurry they are in to get here! See how one hales another up the hill! Here comes Hermes himself. Well, I leave you to your juries and your evidence; you are accustomed to it. I will return to my cave, and there play over one of those amorous ditties with which I love to upbraid Echo. As to rhetoric and law-pleadings, I hear enough of those every day in this very court of Areopagus.
Hermes
We had better summon the parties, Justice.
Justice
True. Only look at the crowd, bustling and buzzing about the hilltop like a swarm of wasps!
First Athenian
I've got you, curse you.
Second Athenian
Pooh! a trumped-up charge.
Third Athenian
At last! you shall get your deserts this time.
5
Fourth Athenian
Your villany shall be unmasked.
Fifth Athenian
My jury first, Hermes.
Sixth Athenian
Come along: into court with you, rascal.
Seventh Athenian
You needn’t throttle me.
