222 ARISTOPHANES.

only to say the word, and the power of Zeus topples
down.”

Plu. “Do you really mean that I have all this
_ to do with sacrifices?”

Chrem. “Yes, indeed; and everything on earth
that has splendour or beduty about it comes from
you; and you are the cause of every art and every
craft that has ever been discovered. You make the
cobbler squat, and the brazier hammer, and the car-
penter ply his adze, and the goldsmith melt the gold
—you give him the gold. Aye, and you make one
man filch people’s clothes from the bath, and another
break into houses.”

Plu, “Dear me! I knew nothing of all this.”

Chrem. “You give all his glory to the Great
King,! call together the Public Assembly, man the
ships of war, pay the soldiers, make us bear Mr.
Vulgar’s manners and listen to Mr. Tees
stories.”

Plu. “Can I really do all this?”

Chrem. “Yes, indeed; and much more than this.
You are the one thing of which men can never have
enough. Of everything else they get a surfeit, —
of love, for instance.”

Car. “ And of bread.”

Chrem. ‘Of poetry.”

Car. “ And of sweetmeats.”

1 The king of Persia, — the only prince of whom the Greeks used
the term “ basileus.”