Honour to the powerful
Phoebus!
Aristophanes
AGATHON. And praise Artemis too, the maiden huntress, who wanders on the
mountains and through the woods. . . .
CHORUS. I, in my turn, celebrate the everlasting happiness of the chaste
Artemis, the mighty daughter of Latona!
AGATHON. . . . and Latona and the tones of the Asiatic lyre, which wed so
well with the dances of the Phrygian Graces. [552]
CHORUS. I do honour to the divine Latona and to the lyre, the mother of
songs of male and noble strains. The eyes of the goddess sparkle while
listening to our enthusiastic chants.
Honour to the powerful Phoebus!
Hail! thou blessed son of Latona!
MNESILOCHUS. Oh! ye venerable Genetyllides,[553] what tender and
voluptuous songs! They surpass the most lascivious kisses in sweetness; I
feel a thrill of delight pass up my rectum as I listen to them. Young
man, whoever you are, answer my questions, which I am borrowing from
Aeschylus' 'Lycurgeia. '[554] Whence comes this effeminate? What is his
country? his dress? What contradictions his life shows! A lyre and a
hair-net! A wrestling school oil flask and a girdle! [555] What could be
more contradictory? What relation has a mirror to a sword?
