Ichneutae

Sophocles

Sophocles. Tracking Satyrs. Mahoney, Anne (Anne Elizabeth), translator.

  1. What kind of a way to hunt is that, bent over and leaning down to the ground? Where are you going? I don’t understand. You’re lying there like a hedgehog fallen on the ground, or an ape sticking his head forward and having a temper tantrum. What’s this? Where on earth did you learn this, and how?
  2. Tell me, because I certainly don’t understand what you’re doing.
Chorus
  1. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh!
Silenus
  1. What are you ooh-ooh-ing for? What are you afraid of? What do you see? What frightful thing are you looking at? Why are you carrying on like bacchantes? Is there a hawk nearby? From offstage, we hear a lyre being tuned. Since the player is in fact Hermes, it sounds divine, but no mortal has ever heard this instrument before, and the satyrs are terrified. They abruptly stop squealing. Do you want to know what it was? Why are you so quiet, when you were just now babbling away?