PISTHETAERUS. Oh! no, no, no!
CINESIAS. By Hermes! but indeed you shall. "I shall travel through thine ethereal empire like a winged bird, who cleaveth space with his long neck…."
PISTHETAERUS. Stop! easy all, I say![333]
CINESIAS. … as I soar over the seas, carried by the breath of the winds …
PISTHETAERUS. By Zeus! but I'll cut your breath short.
CINESIAS. … now rushing along the tracks of Notus, now nearing Boreas across the infinite wastes of the ether." (Pisthetaerus beats him.) Ah! old man, that's a pretty and clever idea truly!
PISTHETAERUS. What! are you not delighted to be cleaving the air?[334]
CINESIAS. To treat a dithyrambic poet, for whom the tribes dispute with each other, in this style![335]
PISTHETAERUS. Will you stay with us and form a chorus of winged birds as slender as Leotrophides[336] for the Cecropid tribe?
CINESIAS. You are making game of me, 'tis clear; but know that I shall never leave you in peace if I do not have wings wherewith to traverse the air.