Ichneutae

Sophocles

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

  1. so you’ll listen, even if you’re altogether deaf.
Cyllene emerges from the cave.[*](Cyllene is a mountain in Arcadia, associated with Hermes. Here she is personified as a nymph, as natural features often are in Greek poetry.)
Cyllene
  1. Satyrs, why have you rushed up here making all this noise, on this mountain covered with green woods full of animals? Have you got yourselves a new job? You used to bring joy to your master[*](Dionysus), who would put on a fawn skin and carry a thyrsus in his hands. You would dance around the god shouting Evoe, along with the nymphs, who are his family, and a crowd of children. But now I don’t know what you’re doing. Where is this whirlwind
  2. of new craziness taking you? I heard something odd: first, nearby, orders like you’d give to hunting dogs when they get near a wild animal’s den in a thicket; then, at the same time, --- stretched out from the mouth to the thief ---. Then --- announcement ---. After that they went away, feet stomping, and a confused sound came from nearby. It would be different if ---
  3. So I heard the sounds of wrong notes --- you sick --- you did to a nymph that had nothing to do with it?