THE BIRDS 275
Prometheus. How 's the sky ? lo
Opeu or overcast ? Are there any clouds ?
Peisthetairus [aloud atid angrily']. Be hanged !
Prometheus. Then I'll disguise myself no longer.
Peisthetairus. My dear Prometheus !
Prometheus. Hold your tongue, I beg ;
Don't mention my name ! If Jupiter should see me, Or overhear ye, I 'm ruined and undone.^ 15
But now, to give you a full complete account Of everything that 's passing, there in heaven — The present state of things. . . . But first I '11 trouble
you To take the umbrella, and hold it overhead, Lest they should overlook us.
Peisthetairus. What a thought ! 20
Just like yourself ! A true Promethean thought ! Stand under it, here ! Speak boldly ; never fear.
Prometheus. D' ye mind me ?
Peisthetairus. Yes, I mind ye. Speak away.
Prometheus [^emphatically']. Jupiter 's ruined.
Peisthetairus. Ruined ! How ? Since when ?
Prometheus. From the first hour you fortified and planted 25
Your atmospheric settlements. Ever since, There 's not a mortal offers anything In the shape of sacrifice. No smoke of victims ! No fumes of incense ! Absolutely nothing ! AVe 're keeping a strict fast — fasting perforce, 30
From day to day — the whole community.
And the inland barbarous gods in the upper coun- try ' Are broken out, quite mutinous and savage. With hunger and anger ; threatening to come down ^ See the Prometheus of Aeschylus, page 101, line 364.
