Scene From A Satyr Play, on an Athenian vase of about 470-460 B.C. That these are not real satyrs is shown by
the loin-cloth to which are fastened their tails and phalli, and the piper and bystander at the right indicate that this
illustrates a stage production. The satyrs are carrying pieces of a throne which they are assembling, and we have
the title of a satyr play by Aeschylus called Thalamopoioi, which might be roughly translated 'The Interior
Decorators'.
I on the prow held a great fitted beam,
while my sons were labouring at the oars
whitening grey sea-water into foam:
and all this in search of you my lord.
We had sailed close in to the South Cape
when a wind out of the sun's eye hit the beam
and threw us up on the Etnaean rock
among the one-eyed sons of the sea-god
the murderous Cyclopes of desert rocks.It is obvious at once that this kind of verse is intended as simple entertainment. If one spotted a double entendre in
this or some other passage, one would not feel ashamed of oneself. Later, Euripides shows a flair for comedy of
character at the same time. The Cyclops defends his cannibalism and his way of life.
Wealth, little man, is the god of the wise.
The rest is fine words and pretentiousness.
I bid my father's headlands of the sea
go fly away. Why should I pretend?
I don't fear Zeus' thunderbolt, my friend,
I don't see Zeus is stronger than I am.
That's all I care about; you want to know why?
Then listen. When he pours the rain down
I have a dry shelter under this rock.
I dine on a roast calf, I dine on game,
I lie back and I wet my belly well,
drink milk by the bucket, screw my cloak,
and make thunder as Zeus makes thunder.
And when the Thracian -wind comes with the snow
I wrap ray body up in pelts of beasts,
and make my fire up, snow doesn't worry me.
Earth produces grass by necessity
whether it likes or not, and fattens my flock.
I sacrifice to no god but myself
and to my belly here, to this great god.The Cyclops is preposterous, and meets an unhappy end, of course, but the poet does feel some sympathy. At least
he gives the Cyclops some good lines and some interesting arguments. It may be that the sudden excitement of the
sophistic movement, the professional arguers and perverse philosophers who arrived in Athens during Euripides'
lifetime, is nicely caught in this spirited composition. Plato is full of jokes and parodies; I do not think we are a