MNESILOCHUS

What tender and voluptuous songs! They surpass the most lascivious kisses in sweetness; I feel a thrill of delight pass up me as I listen to them. Young man, if you are one, answer my questions! (To Euripides) Whence comes this androgyne? 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! What could be more contradictory?. What relation has a mirror to a sword? (To Agathon) And you yourself, who are you? Do you pretend to be a man? Where is your equipment, pray? Where is the cloak, the footgear that belong to that sex? Are you a woman? Then where are your breasts? Answer me. But you keep silent. Just as you choose; your songs display your character quite sufficiently.

AGATHON

Old man, I hear the shafts of jealousy whistling by my ears, but they do not hit me. My dress is in harmony with my thoughts. A poet must adopt the nature of his characters. Thus, if he is placing women on the stage, he must contract all their habits in his person. If the heroes are men, everything in him will be manly. What we don't possess by nature, we must acquire by imitation. EURIPIDES

(after several biological jibes by his father-in-law) Leave off badgering him. I was just the same at his age when I began to write. (to Agathon) But listen to the cause that brings me here. Agathon, wise is he who can compress many thoughts into few words. Struck by a most cruel misfortune, I come to you as a suppliant. The women propose killing me today during the Thesmorphia, because I have dared to speak ill of them. (The Thesmorphia was an annual festival celebrated by the matrons of Athens.)

AGATHON

And what can I do for you in the matter?

EURIPIDES

Everything. Mingle secretly with the women by making yourself pass as one of themselves; then plead my cause with your own lips and I am saved. You and you alone are capable of speaking of me worthily.

AGATHON

But why not go and defend yourself?

EURIPIDES

Impossible. First of all, I am known. Further, I have white hair and a long beard. Whereas you are good-looking, charming and close-shaven. You are fair, delicate and have a woman's voice.

AGATHON

Never would I expose myself in your stead. It would be madness. It's up to you to submit to the fate that overtakes you. One must not try to trick misfortune, but resign oneself to it with good grace.

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