SLSL "A Small Rain"

[Dave Monroe]

   "Around them frogs intoned a savage chorus,
gradually it seemed to them [...] working itself into
a pedal bass for a virtuoso duet of small breathings,
cries; he puffing occasionally at the cigar throughout
the performance, the ball cap tilted carelessly, she
evoking a casually protective feeling, a never totally
violated Pasiphae ...." (SL, "The Small Rain," p. 50)


Aristophanes, The Frogs (405 BCE) ...

FROGS  (off stage) Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax, 
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax! 
We children of the fountain and the lake 
Let us wake 
Our full choir-shout, as the flutes are ringing out, 
Our symphony of clear-voiced song. 
The song we used to love in the Marshland up above, 
In praise of Dionysus to produce, 
Of Nysaean Dionysus, son of Zeus, 
When the revel-tipsy throng, all crapulous and gay, 
To our precinct reeled along on the holy Pitcher day, 
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax. 

DIONYSUS O, dear! O, dear! now I declare 
I've got a bump upon my rump, 

FROGS Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax. 

DIONYSUS But you, perchance, don't care. 

FROGS Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax. 

DIONYSUS Hang you, and your ko-axing tool 
There's nothing but ko-ax with you. 

FROGS That is right, Mr. Busybody, right! 
For the Muses of the lyre love us well; 
And hornfoot Pan who plays on the pipe his jocund
lays; 
And Apollo, Harper bright, in our Chorus takes
delight; 
For the strong reed's sake which I grow within my lake

To be girdled in his lyre's deep shell. 
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax. 

DIONYSUS My hands are blistered very sore; 
My stern below is sweltering so, 
'Twill soon, I know, upturn and roar 
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax. 
O tuneful race, O pray give o'er, 
O sing no more. 

FROGS Ah, no! ah, no! 
Loud and louder our chant must flow. 
Sing if ever ye sang of yore, 
When in sunny and glorious days 
Through the rushes and marsh-flags springing 
On we swept, in the joy of singing 
Myriad-diving roundelays. 
Or when fleeing the storm, we went 
Down to the depths, and our choral song 
Wildly raised to a loud and long 
Bubble-bursting accompaniment. 

FROGS AND DIONYSUS Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax. 

DIONYSUS This timing song I take from you. 

FROGS That's a dreadful thing to do. 

DIONYSUS Much more dreadful, if I row 
Till I burst myself, I trow. 

FROGS AND DIONYSUS Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax. 

DIONYSUS Go, hang yourselves; for what care I? 

FROGS All the same we'll shout and cry, 
Stretching all our throats with song, 
Shouting, crying, all day long, 

FROGS AND DIONYSUS Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax. 

DIONYSUS In this you'll never, never win. 

FROGS This you shall not beat us in. 

DIONYSUS No, nor ye prevail o'er me. 
Never! never! I'll my song, 
Shout, if need be, all day long, 
Until I've learned to master your ko-ax. 
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax. 
I thought I'd put a stop to your ko-ax (212-73) 

http://classics.mit.edu/Aristophanes/frogs.html

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
>
> the "savage chorus" of "stupid frog cries" (50)

And see as well ...

http://www.bartleby.com/8/9/1.html

http://www.bartleby.com/8/9/

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0032

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0031

http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc13w1.html

http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/gretaham/Teaching/greekciv/sg14.htm


"a never totally violated Pasiphae"

http://www.theoi.com/Ouranos/Pasiphae.html

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062%3Aid%3Dpasiphae

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0004%3Aid%3Dpasiphae

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?lang=en&full=0&alts=1&group=typecat&lookup=Pasiphae

http://www.hermetic.com/osiris/legendofpasiphae.htm

http://www.vaultsoftime.com/vaults24/modern6/

http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/images/436.html

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/features/planets/jupiter/pasiphae.html

Just feeling kinda classical, is all ...

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com