For the first, indeed, a most hateful weasel slew, having snatched him away, catching him outside his hole. But another, in turn, ruthless men brought to his doom, having, by a new art, discovered a wooden engine, which they call a trap, being a destruction to mice. The third was beloved by me and his revered mother—him has Puff-Cheeks suffocated, leading him into the deep. But come, let us be armed, and go forth against them, having equipped our bodies in variegated arms.
Thus having spoken, he persuaded them all to be armed, and them did Mars, who has a care for war, urge on [to the fight]. First indeed they placed greaves around their shins, having broken off, and deftly worked, green bean [shells], which[1] they themselves, coming by night, had devoured. And they had breastplates made of reed-strengthened skins,[2] which, having stripped a weasel, they had skillfully made. But their shield was the boss of a lamp, while their spear was a good long needle, the all-brazen work of Mars. But the helmet on their foreheads was the shell of a nut.
Thus indeed were the mice armed; but when the frogs perceived [it], they swam up out of the water, and coming into one place, they assembled a council concerning evil war. But while they were considering whence [was] the tumult, and what the gathering, a herald came near, bearing a staff in his hands, Pot-Stalker, the son of great-souled Cheese-Scooper, bearing news of the evil report of war, and he spoke thus:
- ↑ i. e. the beans, for κύαμους must be taken both for the shell and the bean. Compare Chapman's version:
"First on each leg the green shales of a bean
They closed for boots, that sat exceeding clean;
The shales they broke ope, but chaling by night,
And eat the beans; their jacks, art exquisite
Had shown in them, being cats' skins, every where
Quilted with quills: their fenceful bucklers were,
The middle rounds of can' sticks; but their spear
A huge long needle was—" - ↑ Ernesti wonders how the mice could have got at the weasel skin, and how one skin would suffice for so many. Hence he would read θυρσῶν, "intelligens caules in qua significatione θυρσὸς scribi, Eustathius tradit. Caules plantarum demorsos stramineis vinculis junxere." He would then omit the following verse. I must confess that even Chapman's ingenious translation fails to satisfy me as to καλαμοστέφεων βυρσῶν.
