"Aegyptus,
according
to the most widely spread reports, having
landed at Argos with his fifty daughters[507] .
Aristophanes
AESCHYLUS. I will take care not to carp at them verse by verse and word
for word;[505] but, an it please the gods, a simple little bottle will
suffice me for withering every one of your prologues.
EURIPIDES. You will wither my prologues with a little bottle?[506]
AESCHYLUS. With only one. You make verses of such a kind, that one can
adapt what one will to your iambics: a little bit of fluff, a little
bottle, a little bag. I am going to prove it.
EURIPIDES. You will prove it?
AESCHYLUS. Yes.
DIONYSUS. Come, recite.
EURIPIDES.
"Aegyptus,
according
to the most widely spread reports, having
landed at Argos with his fifty daughters[507] .
.."
AESCHYLUS. ... lost his little bottle.
EURIPIDES. What little bottle? May the plague seize you!
DIONYSUS. Recite another prologue to him. We shall see.
EURIPIDES. "Dionysus, who leads the choral dance on Parnassus with the
thyrsus in his hand and clothed in skins of fawns[508] .
