Tuesday, August 29, 2023
Blessings of Peace
Aristophanes, Peace 1127-1139, anonymous translation in Aristophanes, The Eleven Comedies, Vol. 1 (London: The Athenian Society, 1912), p. 217, with notes:
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Oh! joy, joy! no more helmet, no more cheese nor onions!3 No, I have no passion for battles; what I love is to drink with good comrades in the corner by the fire when good dry wood, cut in the height of the summer, is crackling; it is to cook pease on the coals and beechnuts among the embers, it is to kiss our pretty Thracian4 while my wife is at the bath.
3 This was the soldier's usual ration when on duty.
4 Slaves often bore the name of the country of their birth.
ἥδομαί γ᾽ ἥδομαι
κράνους ἀπηλλαγμένος
τυροῦ τε καὶ κρομμύων.
οὐ γὰρ φιληδῶ μάχαις, 1130
ἀλλὰ πρὸς πῦρ διέλκων μετ᾿ ἀνδρῶν ἑταίρῶν φίλων,
ἐκκέας τῶν ξύλων ἅττ᾿ ἂν ᾖ δανότατα τοῦ θέρους
ἐκπεπρεμνισμένα, 1135
κἀνθρακίζων τοὐρεβίνθου τήν τε φηγὸν ἐμπυρεύων,
χἄμα τὴν Θρᾷτταν κυνῶν
τῆς γυναικὸς λουμένης.
