CHAPTER I
THE PLOT
Denique sit quidvis, simplex dumtaxat et unum. Horace.
The plot of the Ichneutae, so far as the play is extant, is simplex et unum. Apollo, having lost his oxen, arrives, in the course of searching for them, at Mt. Cyllene in Arcadia. Here he makes proclamation concerning his loss. In response Silenus and the Satyrs appear and undertake the quest of the oxen, it being agreed that their reward, if they succeed, shall consist of gold and of manumission from servitude. Apollo having departed, they speedily light on the tracks of the oxen. Silenus marshals the Satyrs for further search. Soon, however, a strange sound is heard, which terrifies the Satyrs, but not Silenus, who continues to incite them to activity. Almost immediately they halt in front of a dwelling, from which after a little delay the Nymph Cyllene appears. After upbraiding them for their noisy approach, she tells them, in reply to questions, that an infant son of Zeus by Maia, who is at present lying sick, is concealed within, a babe of abnormal growth, who has made a lyre out of a tortoise, which lyre it is that has produced the strange noise. She denies all knowledge of the oxen, but incidentally mentions that one of the appurtenances of the lyre (as far as I can judge from the defective text, the bag in which it is kept) is made of ox-hide. The circumstance excites the suspicion of the Satyrs, but Cyllene persists in her denials, maintaining that it is a blasphemous absurdity to bring a charge of theft against the child. Ultimately the Satyrs espy some ox-dung and insist, with a threat of personal violence, that Cyllene should produce the oxen. At this point the continuous text of the papyrus breaks off. From fragmentary remains however it is clear that the oxen are found and that Apollo returns to the stage. From other fragmentary remains, much more
