Well, are you never going to begin?
I imagine, men of Olympus, that you
would gladly give considerable sums to obtain
an idea of what this matter may be with reference to which you are now summoned. This
being the case, you will do well to lend me your
ears with all eagerness. Now the present crisis,
deities, wellnigh declares, with audible voice, that
we must give all our energies to considering the
matters before us, but, as a matter of fact, we
seem to me to treat them with negligence. But
I should like-my Demosthenes fails me—to explain to you why I was so much disturbed as to
call an assembly. Yesterday, as you are aware,
Mnesitheos, the ship-master, offered a sacrifice
of thanksgiving for his ship that was almost lost
off Kaphereus, and we feasted in the Peiraieusas many of us, that is, as Mnesitheos had invited
to the banquet. After the libations you dispersed
in different directions, pursuing your own devices,
while I, seeing that it was not yet late, went up to
the city to stroll about at dusk in the Kerameikos,
pondering on the meanness of Mnesitheos. For
he offered up, by way of feast to sixteen gods,
one cock, aged and asthmatic at that, and four
grains of frankincense, pretty well decayed, so