Strep. Not yet, not yet, till I wrap this around me, lest I be wet through. To think of my having come[1] from home without even a cap, unlucky man!
Soc. Come then, ye highly honoured Clouds, for a display to this man.[2] Whether ye are sitting upon the sacred snow-covered summits of Olympus, or in the gardens of father Ocean form a sacred dance with the Nymphs, or draw in golden pitchers the streams of the waters of the Nile,[3] or inhabit the Mæotic lake, or the snowy rock of Mimas,[4] hearken to our prayer, and receive the sacrifice, and be propitious to the sacred rites.[5] [The following song is heard at a distance, accompanied by loud claps of thunder.]
Cho. Eternal Clouds! let us arise to view with our dewy, dear-bright nature, from loud-sounding father Ocean to the wood-crowned summits of the lofty mountains, in order that we may behold clearly the far-seen watch-towers, and the fruits, and the fostering sacred earth, and the rushing sounds of the divine rivers, and the roaring, loud-sounding sea; for the unwearied eye of Æther sparkles with glittering rays. Come, let us shake off the watery cloud from our immortal forms and survey the earth with far-seeing eye.
Soc. O ye greatly venerable Clouds, ye have clearly heard me when I called. [Turning to Strepsiades.] Did you hear the voice, and the thunder which bellowed at the same time, feared as a god?
Strep. I too worship you, O ye highly-honoured,[6] and am
- ↑ Cf. vs. 813. Aves, 5. Ran. 741. Vesp. 835. Eun. Alc. 842. Med. 1051. See Valckn. Adon. p. 384, C. Herm. Vig. n. 19, 159. Krüger, Gr. Gr. § 55, 1, obs. 6. Bernhardy, W. S. pp. 855, 358. Monk, Alc. 848.
- ↑ "Gewährt den Genuss ihm eueres Anblicks." Droysen.
- ↑ "Or in the azure vales
Of your own father Ocean sporting weave
Your misty dance, or dip your golden urns
In the seven mouths of Nile." Cumberland. - ↑ "Mimas is a mountain in Thrace, mentioned also by Homer." Dindorf.
- ↑ Cf. Equit. 759, 823, 1188. Lys. 1142. Krüger, Gr. Gr. § 59, 2, obs. 3, and index to Krüger's Thucydides, voc. καί.
- ↑ "And I too am your Cloudships' most obedient.
And under sufferance trump against your thunder." Cumberland.
