Shall I let thee taste the wine unmixed, to start with?SilenusA reasonable offer; for of a truth a taste invites the purchase.OdysseusWell, I haul about a cup as well as the skin.Silenus Come, let it gurgle in, that I may revive my memory by a pull at it.OdysseusThere then!SilenusYe gods! what a delicious scent it has!OdysseusWhat! didst thou see it?SilenusNo, i’ faith, but I smell it.OdysseusTaste it then, that thy approval may not stop at words.SilenusZounds! Bacchus is inviting me to dance; ha! ha!OdysseusDid it not gurgle finely down thy throttle?SilenusAye that it did, to the ends of my fingers.OdysseusWell, we will give thee money besides.SilenusOnly undo the skin, and never mind the money.OdysseusBring out the cheeses then and lambs.SilenusI will do so, with small thought of any master. For let me have a single cup of that and I would turn madman, giving in exchange for it the flocks of every Cyclops and then throwing myself into the sea from the Leucadian rock, once I have been well drunk and smoothed out my wrinkled brow. For if a man rejoice not in his drinking, he is mad; for in drinking there is love with all its frolic, and dancing withal, and oblivion of woe. Shall not I then purchase so rare a drink, bidding the senseless Cyclops and his central eye go hang? Exit Silenus.ChorusHearken, Odysseus, let us hold some converse with thee.OdysseusWell, do so; ours is a meeting of friends.