122 ARISTOPHANES.

mon, and Cleonymus, and Theorus? Why does he

strike his own temples, and the cliffs of Sunium,!

and the oaks? The oaks don’t perjure themselves.”
Strep. “There is something in what you say.”
The Clouds now addressed Strepsiades : —

“As you come our most excellent wisdom to seek,
There is not an Athenian, no, nor a Greek,

Shall be happy as you, if you only remember,
And think, and endure in your soul, and disdain
To feel heat in the summer, or cold in December,
Or weariness walking or standing, or pain

Of hunger, when others are wishing to dine,

And care nothing at all for amusement or wine,
But claim to be first all our speakers among’

In business and counsel and fence of the tongue.”

Strep. “Well, you'll find me as hard as an anvil.”

Soc. “And you won't believe in any gods besides
ours — Clouds, Chaos, and Tongue — these three?”

Strep. “1 won't even speak to the rest, if I should
meet them.”

The Clouds. “Tell us plainly what you want.”

Strep. “I want to be miles away the cleverest
speaker in Greece.”

Clouds. “So you shall; no man shall carry more
resolutions in the Assembly than you.”

Strep. “I don’t care about resolutions in the
Assembly; I want to slip through my creditors’
hands.”

1The promontory at the southeastern corner of Attica.