ABSTRACT
AESCHYLUS has just defeated Euripides in the verse-weighing round of their contest. In 1407-10 he issues a final challenge, that with two lines he could outweigh Euripides' whole household. But as it stands the challenge is incomplete; to finish it we need something like 'and my poetry would easily appear the heavier'. Perhaps Aeschylus is interrupted by the next speaker, or, it has been suggested, by a thunderclap heralding the arrival of Pluto. But when a speaker in Aristophanes is interrupted the words of the interruption normally have some bearing on the speech interrupted. In 1411 Dionysus refuses to judge between the contending poets. This refusal to judge suggests that he has just been asked to make the judgement. 1411 is not an answer to Aeschylus' challenge in 1407-10, still less to a line heralding the arrival of Pluto. It is an answer to some such remark as 'Now you must make your decision'.
