from cares, from fighting and from Lamachuses![4] How much sweeter,
oh Phales, oh, Phales, is it to surprise Thratta, the pretty woodmaid,
Strymodorus' slave, stealing wood from Mount Phelleus, to catch her
under the arms, to throw her on the ground and possess her, Oh, Phales,
Phales! If thou wilt drink and bemuse thyself with me, we shall
to-morrow consume some good dish in honour of the peace, and I will
hang up my buckler over the smoking hearth.

f[1] Married women did not join in the processions.
f[2] The god of generation, worshipped in the form of a phallus.
f[3] A remark which fixes the date of the production of 'The Acharnians,'
viz. the sixth year of the Peloponnesian War, 426 B.C.
f[4] Lamachus was an Athenian general, who figures later in this comedy.

CHORUS
It is he, he himself. Stone him, stone him, stone him, strike
the wretch. All, all of you, pelt him, pelt him!

DICAEOPOLIS
What is this? By Heracles, you will smash my pot.[1]

f[1] At the rural Dionysia a pot of kitchen vegetables was borne in
the procession along with other emblems.

CHORUS
It is you that we are stoning, you miserable scoundrel.

DICAEOPOLIS
And for what sin, Acharnian Elders, tell me that!