Quotes from The Acharnians
10 notable lines from Aristophanes · 425 BCE
Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right. I shall not please, but I shall say what is true.
Quotations follow the Jeffrey Henderson translation (Harvard University Press, 1998) — our recommended edition.
Open up, open up! I need some rags from your old plays — the really pathetic ones.
Dicaeopolis to Euripides We attribute too much to the Laconians; as for myself, I know that they are not the cause of all our troubles.
Dicaeopolis, to the Acharnian chorus · trans. Athenian Society (anon.) And so for three gay women Greece is set ablaze.
Dicaeopolis, on the causes of the war · trans. Athenian Society (anon.) What cares have not gnawed at my heart and how few have been the pleasures in my life! Four, to be exact, while my troubles have been as countless as the grains of sand on the shore!
Dicaeopolis, opening monologue · trans. Athenian Society (anon.) Oh! by Bacchus! what a bouquet! It has the aroma of nectar and ambrosia; this does not say to us, "Provision yourselves for three days." But it lisps the gentle numbers, "Go whither you will."
Dicaeopolis, tasting the thirty-year truce · trans. Athenian Society (anon.) I think of my fields, long for peace, curse town life and regret my dear country home, which never told me to 'buy fuel, vinegar or oil.'
Dicaeopolis, opening monologue · trans. Athenian Society (anon.) Were my head on the block I would uphold what I say and rely on the approval of the people.
Dicaeopolis, defending his private peace · trans. Athenian Society (anon.) With what joy I return to my farmstead, thanks to the truce I have concluded, freed from cares, from fighting and from Lamachuses!
Dicaeopolis, celebrating the rural Dionysia · trans. Athenian Society (anon.) You see this empty cup! I triumph! I triumph!
Dicaeopolis, at the drinking contest · trans. Athenian Society (anon.)