what a bad thing it is to let
yourself
be led away by other
women!
women!
Aristophanes
CINESIAS. Come down, dearest, come down for the child's sake.
MYRRHINE. Ah! what a thing it is to be a mother! Well, well, we must come
down, I suppose.
CINESIAS. Why, how much younger and prettier she looks! And how she looks
at me so lovingly! Her cruelty and scorn only redouble my passion.
MYRRHINE. You are as sweet as your father is provoking! Let me kiss you,
my treasure, mother's darling!
CINESIAS. Ah!
what a bad thing it is to let yourself be led away by other
women! Why give me such pain and suffering, and yourself into the
bargain?
MYRRHINE. Hands off, sir!
CINESIAS. Everything is going to rack and ruin in the house.
MYRRHINE. I don't care.
CINESIAS. But your web that's all being pecked to pieces by the cocks and
hens, don't you care for that?
MYRRHINE. Precious little.
CINESIAS. And Aphrodite, whose mysteries you have not celebrated for so
long? Oh! won't you come back home?
