With deedful hand and lance the furious fowl of the air
Flattothrat toflattothrat!
That the wild wind-walking hounds unhindered tear
Flattothrat toflattothrat!
And War toward Aias leaned his weight,
Flattothrat toflattothrait!"
Dionysus.
What's Flattothrat? Was it from Marathon
You gathered this wool-gatherer's stuflf, or where?
Aeschylus.
Clean was the place I found them, clean the place
I brought them, loath to glean with Phrynichus
The same enchanted meadow of the Muse.
But any place will do for him to poach,
Drink-ditties of Melêtus, Carian pipings,
And wakes, and dancing songs.—Here, let me show you!
Ho, some one bring my lyre! But no; what need
Of lyres for this stuff? Where's the wench that plays
The bones?—Approach, Euripidean Muse,
These songs are meet for your accompaniment!
Dionysus.
This Muse was once . . . no Lesbian; not at all!
Aeschylus (singing).
"Ye halcyons by the dancing sea
Who babble everlastingly,
While on your bathing pinions fall
The dewy foam-sprays, fresh and free;
And, oh, ye spiders deft to crawl
In many a chink of roof and wall,