BOOK XIV.

Why should he practise a perfumer's trade,Sitting beneath a high umbrella there,Preparing for himself a seat on whichTo gossip with the youths the whole day long?And presently afterwards he says—And no one ever saw a female cookOr any fishwoman; for every classShould practise arts which are best suited to it.LENDING MONEY.And after what I have already quoted, the orator proceeds to say—"And I was persuaded by this speech of his, considering also that this Æschines had been the pupil of Socrates, and was a man who uttered fine sentiments aboutvirtue and justice, and who would never attempt nor venture on the actions practised by dishonest and unjust men."95. And after this again, after he had run through the accusation of Æschines, and had explained how he had borrowed the money, and how he never paid either interest or principal, and how, when an action was brought against him, he had allowed judgment to go by default, and how a branded slave of his had been put forward by him as security; and after he had brought a good many more charges of the same kind against him, he thus proceeded:—"But, O judges, I am not the only person to whom he behaves in this manner, but he treats every one who has any dealings with him in the same manner. Are not even all the wine-sellers who live near him, from whom he gets wine for his entertainments and never pays for it, bringing actions against him, having already closed their shops against him? And his neighbours are ill-treated by him to such a degree that they leave their own houses, and go and rent others which are at a distance from him. And with respect to all the contributions which he collects, he never himself puts down the remaining share which is due from him, but all the money which ever gets into this pedlar's hands is lost as if it were utterly destroyed. And such a number of men come to his house daily at dawn, to ask for their money which he owes them, that passers-by suppose he must be dead, and that such a crowd can only be collected to attend his funeral."And those men who live in the Piræus have such an opinion of him, that they think it a far less perilous business to sail to the Adriatic than to deal with him; for he thinks that all that he can borrow is much more actually his own than what his father left him. Has he not got possession of the property of Hermæus the perfumer, after having seduced his wife, though she was seventy years old? whom he pretended to be in love with, and then treated in such a manner that she reduced her husband and her sons to beggary, and made him a perfumer instead of a pedlar! in so amorous a manner did he handle the damsel, enjoying the fruit of her youth, when it would have been less trouble to him to count her teeth than the fingers of her hand, they were so much fewer. And now come forward, you witnesses, who will prove these facts.—This, then, is the life of this sophist."These, O Cynulcus, are the words of Lysias. But I, in the words of Aristarchus the tragic poet,Saying no more, but this in self-defence,will now cease my attack upon you and the rest of the Cynics.Footnotes.[12]διφυὴς meaning, "of double nature."[13]Iliad, xxiv. 489.[14]Iliad, ii. 220.[15]Theognis.[16]It is not known from what play this fragment comes. It is given in the Variorum Edition of Euripides,Inc. Fragm.165.[17]From the Andromeda.[18]This is a blunder of Athenæus; for the passage alluded to is evidently that in the Iphigenia in Aulis of Euripides. The lines as quoted in the text here are—Δίδυμα γὰρ τόξα αὐτὸνἘντείνεσθαι χαρίτωνΤὸ μὲν ἐπ' εἰαίωνι τύχαΤὸ δ' ἐπὶ συγχύσει βιοτᾶς.The passage in Euripides is—Δίδυμ' Ἕρως ὁ χρυσοκόμαςΤόξ' ἐντείνεται χαρίτωνΤὸ μὲν ἐπ' εὐαίωνι πότμῳΤὸ δ' ἐπὶ συγχύσει βιοτᾶω.—Iph. in Aul.552.[19]Iliad, x. 401.[20]This fragment is from the Hippodamia.[21]Ode 67.[22]This is not from any one of the odes, which we have entire; but is only a fragment.[23]From κείρω, to cut the hair.[24]From the Æolus.[25]Iliad, iii. 156.[26]Ib. iii. 170.[27]Ib. xx. 234.[28]Ach. 524.[29]Pind. Ol. 13.[30]A σκολιὸν was a song which went round at banquets, sung to the lyre by the guests, one after another, said to have been introduced by Terpander; but the word is first found in Pind. Fr. lxxxvii. 9; Aristoph. Ach. 532. The name is of uncertain origin: some refer it to the character of the music, νόμος σκολιὸς, as opposed to νόμος ὔρθιος; others to the ῥυθμὸς σκολιὸς, or amphibrachic rhythm recognised in many scolia; but most, after Dicæarchus and Plutarch, from the irregular zigzag way it went round the table, each guest who sung holding a myrtle-branch, which he passed on to any one he chose.—Lid. & Scott, Gr. Lex.in voc.[31]These are the second and third lines of the Electra of Sophocles.[32]The Kids was a constellation rising about the beginning of October, and supposed by the ancients to bring storms. Theocritus says—χὤταν ἐφ' ἑσπερίοις ἐρίφοις νότος ὑγρὰ διώκῃ κύματα.—vii. 53.[33]Θάλλος means "a young twig."[34]There is a pun here on her name,—Ἵππη meaning a mare.[35]Λάκκος, a cistern; a cellar.[36]This is a pun on the similarity of the name Σίγειον to σιγὴ, silence.[37]Γραῦς means both an old woman, and the scum on boiled milk.[38]Ὑστέρα means both "the womb," and "the new comer."[39]Punning on the similarity of the name Αἰγεὺς to αἲξ, a goat.[40]Punning on the similarity of κατατράγω, to eat, and τράγος, a goat.[41]The Greek word is ψυχαγωγοῦσι, which might perhaps also mean to bring coolness, from ψῦχος, coolness.[42]The young man says πολλαῖς συμπέπλεχθαι (γύναιξι scil.), but Phryne chooses to suppose that he meant to say πολλαῖς πληγαῖς, blows.[43]This is a pun on the name Φειδίας, as if from φείδω, to be stingy.[44]Anticyra was the name of three islands celebrated as producing a great quantity of hellebore. Horace, speaking of a madman, says:Si tribus Anticyris caput insanabile nunquamTonsori Licino commiserit.—A. P. 300.[45]This probably means a large crane.[46]From κλαίω, to weep, and γέλως, laughter.[47]That is, With beautiful Eyelids; from χάρις, grace, and βλέφαρον, an eyelid.[48]The universal Friend.[49]Λήμη literally means the matter which gathers in the corner of the eyes; λήμαι, sore eyes. Παρόραμα means an oversight, a defect in sight; but there is supposed to be some corruption in this latter word.[50]Rharia was a name of Ceres, from the Rharian plain near Eleusis, where corn was first sown by Triptolemus, the son of Rharus. It is mentioned by Homer:—ἐς δ' ἄρα Ῥάριον ἷξε, φερέσβιον οὖθαρ ἀρούρηςτὸ πρίν, ἄταρ τότε γ' οὔτι φερέσβιον, ἀλλὰ ἕκηλονεἱστήκι πανάφυλλον, ἔκευθε δ' ἄρα κρῖ λευκὸνμήδεσι Δήμητρος καλλισφύρου.—Od. in Cerer. 450.[51]Anacreon.[52]Sophocles.[53]V. 3.[54]This is not from the Hippolytus, but is a fragment from the Auge.[55]From ἁρπάζω, to carry off.[56]"Of far greater importance was the public hospitality (προξενία) which existed between two states, or between an individual or a family on the one hand, and a whole state on the other.... When two states established public hospitality, it was necessary that in each state persons should be appointed to show hospitality to, and watch over the interests of all persons who came from the state connected by hospitality. The persons who were appointed to this office, as the recognised agents of the state for which they acted, were called πρόξενοι...."The office of πρόξενοσ, which bears great resemblance to that of a modern consul, or minister resident, was in some cases hereditary in a particular family. When a state appointed a proxenus, it either sent out one of its own citizens to reside in the other state, or it selected one of the citizens of the other, and conferred on him the honour of proxenus.... This custom seems in later times to have been universally adopted by the Greeks...."The principal duties of a proxenus were to receive those persons, especially ambassadors, who came from the state which he represented; to procure for them admission to the assembly, and seats in the theatre; to act as the patron of the strangers, and to mediate between the two states, if any dispute arose. If a stranger died in the state, the proxenus of his country had to take care of the property of the deceased. The proxenus usually enjoyed exemption from taxes; and their persons were inviolable both by sea and land."—Smith, Dict. Ant. v.Hospitium, p. 491.[57]Pindar, Ol. vi. 71.[58]Homer gives this epithet to Aurora, Iliad, i. 477, and in many other places.[59]Schweighauser says this word is to him totally unintelligible.[60]This would have been 18 per cent. Three drachmæ were about 36 per cent. The former appears to have been the usual rate of interest at Athens in the time of Lysias; for we find in Demosthenes that interest ἐπὶ δραχμῇ , that is to say, a drachma a month interest for each mina lent, was considered low. It was exceedingly common, however, among the money-lenders, to exact an exorbitant rate of interest, going even as high as a drachma every four days.—See Smith's Dict. Ant. v.Interest, p. 524.BOOK XIV.1.Mostpeople, my friend Timocrates, call Bacchus frantic, because those who drink too much unmixed wine become violent.To copious wine this insolence we owe,And much thy betters wine can overthrowThe great Eurytion, when this frenzy stung,Pirithous' roofs with frantic riot rung:Boundless the Centaur raged, till one and allThe heroes lose and dragg'd him from the hall;His nose they shorten'd, and his ears they slit,And sent him sober'd home with better wit.[61]For when the wine has penetrated down into the body, as Herodotus says, bad and furious language is apt to rise to the surface. And Clearchus the comic poet says in his Corinthians—If all the men who to get drunk are apt,Had every day a headache ere they drankThe wine, there is not one would drink a drop:But as we now get all the pleasure first,And then the drink, we lose the whole delightIn the sharp pain which follows.And Xenophon represents Agesilaus as insisting that a man ought to shun drunkenness equally with madness, and immoderate gluttony as much as idleness. But we, as we are not of the class who drink to excess, nor of the number of those who are in the habit of being intoxicated by midday, have come rather to this literary entertainment; for Ulpian, who is always finding fault, reproved some one just now who said, I am not drunk (ἔξοινος), saying,—Where do you find that word ἔξοινος? But he rejoined,—Why, in Alexis, who, in his play called the New Settler, says—He did all this when drunk (ἔξοινος).JESTERS.2. But as, after the discussion by us of the new topics which arise, our liberal entertainer Laurentius is every day constantly introducing different kinds of music, and also jesters and buffoons, let us have a little talk about them. Although I am aware that Anacharsis the Scythian, when on one occasion jesters were introduced in his company, remained without moving a muscle of his countenance; but afterwards, when a monkey was brought in, he burst out laughing, and said, "Now this fellow is laughable by his nature, but man is only so through practice." And Euripides, in his Melanippe in Chains, has said—But many men, from the wish to raise a laugh,Practise sharp sayings; but those sorry jestersI hate who let loose their unbridled tonguesAgainst the wise and good; nor do I class themAs men at all, but only as jokes and playthings.Meantime they live at ease, and gather upGood store of wealth to keep within their houses.And Parmeniscus of Metapontum, as Semus tells us in the fifth book of his Delias, a man of the highest consideration both as to family and in respect of his riches, having gone down to the cave of Trophonius, after he had come up again, was not able to laugh at all. And when he consulted the oracle on this subject, the Pythian priestess replied to him—You're asking me, you laughless man,About the power to laugh again;Your mother 'll give it you at home,If you with reverence to her come.So, on this, he hoped that when he returned to his country he should be able to laugh again; but when he found that he could laugh no more now than he could before, he considered that he had been deceived; till, by some chance, he came to Delos; and as he was admiring everything he saw in the island, he came into the temple of Latona, expecting to see some very superb statue of the mother of Apollo; but when he saw only a wooden shapeless figure, he unexpectedly burst out laughing. And then, comparing what had happened with the oracle of the god, and being cured of his infirmity, he honoured the goddess greatly.3. Now Anaxandrides, in his Old-Man's Madness, says that it was Rhadamanthus and Palamedes who invented the fashion of jesters; and his words are these:—And yet we labour much.But Palamedes first, and Rhadamanthus,Sought those who bring no other contribution,But say amusing things.Xenophon also, in his Banquet, mentions jesters; introducing Philip, of whom he speaks in the following manner:—"But Philip the jester, having knocked at the door, told the boy who answered, to tell the guests who he was, and that he was desirous to be admitted; and he said that he came provided with everything which could qualify him for supping at other people's expense. And he said, too, that his boy was in a good deal of distress because he had brought nothing, and because he had had no dinner." And Hippolochus the Macedonian, in his epistle to Lynceus, mentions the jesters Mandrogenes and Strato the Athenian. And at Athens there was a great deal of this kind of cleverness. Accordingly, in the Heracleum at Diomea[62]they assembled to the number of sixty, and they were always spoken of in the city as amounting to that number, in such expressions as—"The sixty said this," and, "I am come from the sixty." And among them were Callimedon, nicknamed the Crab, and Dinias, and also Mnasigeiton and Menæchmus, as Telephanes tells us in his treatise on the City. And their reputation for amusing qualities was so great, that Philip the Macedonian heard of it, and sent them a talent to engage them to write out their witticisms and send them to him. And the fact of this king having been a man who was very fond of jokes is testified to us by Demosthenes the orator in his Philippics.JESTERS.Demetrius Poliorcetes was a man very eager for anything which could make him laugh, as Phylarchus tells us in the sixth book of his History. And he it was who said, "that the palace of Lysimachus was in no respect different from a comic theatre; for that there was no one there bigger than a dissyllable;"[63](meaning to laugh at Bithys and Paris, who had more influence than anybody with Lysimachus, and at some others of his friends;) "but that his friends werePeucesteses, and Menelauses, and Oxythemises." But when Lysimachus heard this, he said,—"I, however, never saw a prostitute on the stage in a tragedy;" referring to Lamia the female flute-player. And when this was reported to Demetrius, he rejoined,—"But the prostitute who is with me, lives in a more modest manner than the Penelope who is with him."4. And we have mentioned before this that Sylla, the general of the Romans, was very fond of anything laughable. And Lucius Anicius, who was also a general of the Romans, after he had subdued the Illyrians, and brought with him Genthius the king of the Illyrians as his prisoner, with all his children, when he was celebrating his triumphal games at Rome, did many things of the most laughable character possible, as Polybius relates in his thirtieth book:—"For having sent for the most eminent artists from Greece, and having erected a very large theatre in the circus, he first of all introduced all the flute-players. And these were Theodorus the Bœotian, and Theopompus, and Hermippus, surnamed Lysimachus, who were the most eminent men in their profession. And having brought these men in front of the stage after the chorus was over, he ordered them all to play the flute. And as they accompanied their music with appropriate gestures, he sent to them and said that they were not playing well, and desired them to be more vehement. And while they were in perplexity, one of the lictors told them that what Anicius wished was that they should turn round so as to advance towards each other, and give a representation of a battle. And then the flute-players, taking this hint, and adopting a movement not unsuited to their habitual wantonness, caused a great tumult and confusion; and turning the middle of the chorus towards the extremities, the flute-players, all blowing unpremeditated notes, and letting their flutes be all out of tune, rushed upon one another in turn: and at the same time the choruses, all making a noise to correspond to them, and coming on the stage at the same time, rushed also upon one another, and then again retreated, advancing and retreating alternately. But when one of the chorus-dancers tucked up his garment, and suddenly turned round and raised his hands against the flute-player who was coming towards him, as if he was going to boxwith him, then there arose an extraordinary clapping and shouting on the part of the spectators. And while all these men were fighting as if in regular battle, two dancers were introduced into the orchestra with a symphony, and four boxers mounted the stage, with trumpeters and horn-players: and when all these men were striving together, the spectacle was quite indescribable: and as for the tragedians," says Polybius, "if I were to attempt to describe what took place with respect to them, I should be thought by some people to be jesting."5. Now when Ulpian had said thus much, and when all were laughing at the idea of this exhibition of Anicius, a discussion arose about the men who are called πλάνοι. And the question was asked, Whether there was any mention of these men in any of the ancient authors? for of the jugglers (θαυματοποιοὶ) we have already spoken: and Magnus said,—Dionysius of Sinope, the comic poet, in his play entitled the Namesakes, mentions Cephisodorus the πλάνος in the following terms:—They say that once there was a man at Athens,A πλάνος, named Cephisodorus, whoDevoted all his life to this pursuit;And he, whenever to a hill he came,Ran straight up to the top; but then descendingCame slowly down, and leaning on a stick.And Nicostratus also mentions him in his Syrian—They say the πλάνος Cephisodorus onceMost wittily station'd in a narrow laneA crowd of men with bundles of large faggots,So that no one else could pass that way at all.There was also a man named Pantaleon, who is mentioned, by Theognetus, in his Slave devoted to his Master—Pantaleon himself did none deceive (ἐπλάνα)Save only foreigners, and those, too, suchAs ne'er had heard of him: and often he,After a drunken revel, would pour forthAll sorts of jokes, striving to raise a laughBy his unceasing chattering.JESTERS.And Chrysippus the philosopher, in the fifth book of his treatise on Honour and Pleasure, writes thus of Pantaleon:—"But Pantaleon the πλάνος, when he was at the point of death, deceived every one of his sons separately, telling each of them that he was the only one to whom he was revealing the place where he had buried his gold; so that they afterwardswent and dug together to no purpose, and then found out that they had been all deceived."6. And our party was not deficient in men fond of raising a laugh by bitter speeches. And respecting a man of this kind, Chrysippus subsequently, in the same book, writes as follows:—"Once when a man fond of saying bitter things was about to be put to death by the executioner, he said that he wished to die like the swan, singing a song; and when he gave him leave, he ridiculed him." And Myrtilus having had a good many jokes cut on him by people of this sort, got angry, and said that Lysimachus the king had done a very sensible thing; for he, hearing Telesphorus, one of his lieutenants, at an entertainment, ridiculing Arsinoe (and she was the wife of Lysimachus), as being a woman in the habit of vomiting, in the following line—You begin ill, introducing τηνδεμουσαν,[64]—ordered him to be put in a cage (γαλεάγρα) and carried about like a wild beast, and fed; and he punished him in this way till he died. But if you, O Ulpian, raise a question about the word γαλεάγρα, it occurs in Hyperides the orator; and the passage you may find out for yourself.And Tachaos the king of Egypt ridiculed Agesilaus king of Lacedæmon, when he came to him as an ally (for he was a very short man), and lost his kingdom in consequence, as Agesilaus abandoned his alliance. And the expression of Tachaos was as follows:—The mountain was in labour; JupiterWas greatly frighten'd: lo! a mouse was born.And Agesilaus hearing of this, and being indignant at it, said, "I will prove a lion to you." So afterwards, when the Egyptians revolted (as Theopompus relates, and Lyceas of Naucratis confirms the statement in his History of Egypt), Agesilaus refused to cooperate with him, and, in consequence, Tachaos lost his kingdom, and fled to the Persians.7. So as there was a great deal of music introduced, and not always the same instruments, and as there was a good deal of discussion and conversation about them, (without always giving the names of those who took part in it,) I will enumerate the chief things which were said.For concerning flutes, somebody said that Melanippides, in his Marsyas, disparaging the art of playing the flute, had said very cleverly about Minerva:—Minerva cast away those instrumentsDown from her sacred hand; and said, in scorn,"Away, you shameful things—you stains of the body!Shall I now yield myself to such malpractices?"And some one, replying to him, said,—But Telestes of Selinus, in opposition to Melanippides, says in his Argo (and it is of Minerva that he too is speaking):—It seems to me a scarcely credible thingThat the wise Pallas, holiest of goddesses,Should in the mountain groves have taken upThat clever instrument, and then againThrown it away, fearing to draw her mouthInto an unseemly shape, to be a gloryTo the nymph-born, noisy monster Marsyas.For how should chaste Minerva be so anxiousAbout her beauty, when the Fates had given herA childless, husbandless virginity?intimating his belief that she, as she was and always was to continue a maid, could not be alarmed at the idea of disfiguring her beauty. And in a subsequent passage he says—But this report, spread by vain-speaking men,Hostile to every chorus, flew most causelesslyThrough Greece, to raise an envy and reproachAgainst the wise and sacred art of music.And after this, in an express panegyric on the art of flute-playing, he says—And so the happy breath of the holy goddessBestow'd this art divine on Bromius,With the quick motion of the nimble fingers.And very neatly, in his Æsculapius, has Telestes vindicated the use of the flute, where he says—And that wise Phrygian king who first poured forthThe notes from sweetly-sounding sacred flutes,Rivalling the music of the Doric Muse,Embracing with his well-join'd reeds the breathWhich fills the flute with tuneful modulation.CONCERTS.8. And Pratinas the Phliasian says, that when some hired flute-players and chorus-dancers were occupying the orchestra, some people were indignant because the flute-players did not play in tune to the choruses, as was the national custom, but the choruses instead sang, keeping time to the flutes. Andwhat his opinion and feelings were towards those who did this, Pratinas declares in the following hyporchema:—What noise is this?What mean these songs of dancers now?What new unseemly fashionHas seized upon this stage to Bacchus sacred,Now echoing with various noise?Bromius is mine! is mine!I am the man who ought to sing,I am the man who ought to raise the strain,Hastening o'er the hills,In swift inspired dance among the Naiades;Blending a song of varied strain,Like the sweet dying swan.You, O Pierian Muse, the sceptre swayOf holy song:And after you let the shrill flute resound;For that is but the handmaidOf revels, where men combat at the doors,And fight with heavy fists.[65]* * * * *And is the leader fierce of bloody quarrel.Descend, O Bacchus, on the son of Phrynæus,The leader of the changing choir,—Chattering, untimely, leading onThe rhythm of the changing song.* * * * *King of the loud triumphal dithyrambic,Whose brow the ivy crowns,Hear this my Doric song.

Why should he practise a perfumer's trade,Sitting beneath a high umbrella there,Preparing for himself a seat on whichTo gossip with the youths the whole day long?

Why should he practise a perfumer's trade,

Sitting beneath a high umbrella there,

Preparing for himself a seat on which

To gossip with the youths the whole day long?

And presently afterwards he says—

And no one ever saw a female cookOr any fishwoman; for every classShould practise arts which are best suited to it.

And no one ever saw a female cook

Or any fishwoman; for every class

Should practise arts which are best suited to it.

LENDING MONEY.

And after what I have already quoted, the orator proceeds to say—"And I was persuaded by this speech of his, considering also that this Æschines had been the pupil of Socrates, and was a man who uttered fine sentiments aboutvirtue and justice, and who would never attempt nor venture on the actions practised by dishonest and unjust men."

95. And after this again, after he had run through the accusation of Æschines, and had explained how he had borrowed the money, and how he never paid either interest or principal, and how, when an action was brought against him, he had allowed judgment to go by default, and how a branded slave of his had been put forward by him as security; and after he had brought a good many more charges of the same kind against him, he thus proceeded:—"But, O judges, I am not the only person to whom he behaves in this manner, but he treats every one who has any dealings with him in the same manner. Are not even all the wine-sellers who live near him, from whom he gets wine for his entertainments and never pays for it, bringing actions against him, having already closed their shops against him? And his neighbours are ill-treated by him to such a degree that they leave their own houses, and go and rent others which are at a distance from him. And with respect to all the contributions which he collects, he never himself puts down the remaining share which is due from him, but all the money which ever gets into this pedlar's hands is lost as if it were utterly destroyed. And such a number of men come to his house daily at dawn, to ask for their money which he owes them, that passers-by suppose he must be dead, and that such a crowd can only be collected to attend his funeral.

"And those men who live in the Piræus have such an opinion of him, that they think it a far less perilous business to sail to the Adriatic than to deal with him; for he thinks that all that he can borrow is much more actually his own than what his father left him. Has he not got possession of the property of Hermæus the perfumer, after having seduced his wife, though she was seventy years old? whom he pretended to be in love with, and then treated in such a manner that she reduced her husband and her sons to beggary, and made him a perfumer instead of a pedlar! in so amorous a manner did he handle the damsel, enjoying the fruit of her youth, when it would have been less trouble to him to count her teeth than the fingers of her hand, they were so much fewer. And now come forward, you witnesses, who will prove these facts.—This, then, is the life of this sophist."

These, O Cynulcus, are the words of Lysias. But I, in the words of Aristarchus the tragic poet,

Saying no more, but this in self-defence,

will now cease my attack upon you and the rest of the Cynics.

Footnotes.[12]διφυὴς meaning, "of double nature."[13]Iliad, xxiv. 489.[14]Iliad, ii. 220.[15]Theognis.[16]It is not known from what play this fragment comes. It is given in the Variorum Edition of Euripides,Inc. Fragm.165.[17]From the Andromeda.[18]This is a blunder of Athenæus; for the passage alluded to is evidently that in the Iphigenia in Aulis of Euripides. The lines as quoted in the text here are—Δίδυμα γὰρ τόξα αὐτὸνἘντείνεσθαι χαρίτωνΤὸ μὲν ἐπ' εἰαίωνι τύχαΤὸ δ' ἐπὶ συγχύσει βιοτᾶς.The passage in Euripides is—Δίδυμ' Ἕρως ὁ χρυσοκόμαςΤόξ' ἐντείνεται χαρίτωνΤὸ μὲν ἐπ' εὐαίωνι πότμῳΤὸ δ' ἐπὶ συγχύσει βιοτᾶω.—Iph. in Aul.552.[19]Iliad, x. 401.[20]This fragment is from the Hippodamia.[21]Ode 67.[22]This is not from any one of the odes, which we have entire; but is only a fragment.[23]From κείρω, to cut the hair.[24]From the Æolus.[25]Iliad, iii. 156.[26]Ib. iii. 170.[27]Ib. xx. 234.[28]Ach. 524.[29]Pind. Ol. 13.[30]A σκολιὸν was a song which went round at banquets, sung to the lyre by the guests, one after another, said to have been introduced by Terpander; but the word is first found in Pind. Fr. lxxxvii. 9; Aristoph. Ach. 532. The name is of uncertain origin: some refer it to the character of the music, νόμος σκολιὸς, as opposed to νόμος ὔρθιος; others to the ῥυθμὸς σκολιὸς, or amphibrachic rhythm recognised in many scolia; but most, after Dicæarchus and Plutarch, from the irregular zigzag way it went round the table, each guest who sung holding a myrtle-branch, which he passed on to any one he chose.—Lid. & Scott, Gr. Lex.in voc.[31]These are the second and third lines of the Electra of Sophocles.[32]The Kids was a constellation rising about the beginning of October, and supposed by the ancients to bring storms. Theocritus says—χὤταν ἐφ' ἑσπερίοις ἐρίφοις νότος ὑγρὰ διώκῃ κύματα.—vii. 53.[33]Θάλλος means "a young twig."[34]There is a pun here on her name,—Ἵππη meaning a mare.[35]Λάκκος, a cistern; a cellar.[36]This is a pun on the similarity of the name Σίγειον to σιγὴ, silence.[37]Γραῦς means both an old woman, and the scum on boiled milk.[38]Ὑστέρα means both "the womb," and "the new comer."[39]Punning on the similarity of the name Αἰγεὺς to αἲξ, a goat.[40]Punning on the similarity of κατατράγω, to eat, and τράγος, a goat.[41]The Greek word is ψυχαγωγοῦσι, which might perhaps also mean to bring coolness, from ψῦχος, coolness.[42]The young man says πολλαῖς συμπέπλεχθαι (γύναιξι scil.), but Phryne chooses to suppose that he meant to say πολλαῖς πληγαῖς, blows.[43]This is a pun on the name Φειδίας, as if from φείδω, to be stingy.[44]Anticyra was the name of three islands celebrated as producing a great quantity of hellebore. Horace, speaking of a madman, says:Si tribus Anticyris caput insanabile nunquamTonsori Licino commiserit.—A. P. 300.[45]This probably means a large crane.[46]From κλαίω, to weep, and γέλως, laughter.[47]That is, With beautiful Eyelids; from χάρις, grace, and βλέφαρον, an eyelid.[48]The universal Friend.[49]Λήμη literally means the matter which gathers in the corner of the eyes; λήμαι, sore eyes. Παρόραμα means an oversight, a defect in sight; but there is supposed to be some corruption in this latter word.[50]Rharia was a name of Ceres, from the Rharian plain near Eleusis, where corn was first sown by Triptolemus, the son of Rharus. It is mentioned by Homer:—ἐς δ' ἄρα Ῥάριον ἷξε, φερέσβιον οὖθαρ ἀρούρηςτὸ πρίν, ἄταρ τότε γ' οὔτι φερέσβιον, ἀλλὰ ἕκηλονεἱστήκι πανάφυλλον, ἔκευθε δ' ἄρα κρῖ λευκὸνμήδεσι Δήμητρος καλλισφύρου.—Od. in Cerer. 450.[51]Anacreon.[52]Sophocles.[53]V. 3.[54]This is not from the Hippolytus, but is a fragment from the Auge.[55]From ἁρπάζω, to carry off.[56]"Of far greater importance was the public hospitality (προξενία) which existed between two states, or between an individual or a family on the one hand, and a whole state on the other.... When two states established public hospitality, it was necessary that in each state persons should be appointed to show hospitality to, and watch over the interests of all persons who came from the state connected by hospitality. The persons who were appointed to this office, as the recognised agents of the state for which they acted, were called πρόξενοι...."The office of πρόξενοσ, which bears great resemblance to that of a modern consul, or minister resident, was in some cases hereditary in a particular family. When a state appointed a proxenus, it either sent out one of its own citizens to reside in the other state, or it selected one of the citizens of the other, and conferred on him the honour of proxenus.... This custom seems in later times to have been universally adopted by the Greeks...."The principal duties of a proxenus were to receive those persons, especially ambassadors, who came from the state which he represented; to procure for them admission to the assembly, and seats in the theatre; to act as the patron of the strangers, and to mediate between the two states, if any dispute arose. If a stranger died in the state, the proxenus of his country had to take care of the property of the deceased. The proxenus usually enjoyed exemption from taxes; and their persons were inviolable both by sea and land."—Smith, Dict. Ant. v.Hospitium, p. 491.[57]Pindar, Ol. vi. 71.[58]Homer gives this epithet to Aurora, Iliad, i. 477, and in many other places.[59]Schweighauser says this word is to him totally unintelligible.[60]This would have been 18 per cent. Three drachmæ were about 36 per cent. The former appears to have been the usual rate of interest at Athens in the time of Lysias; for we find in Demosthenes that interest ἐπὶ δραχμῇ , that is to say, a drachma a month interest for each mina lent, was considered low. It was exceedingly common, however, among the money-lenders, to exact an exorbitant rate of interest, going even as high as a drachma every four days.—See Smith's Dict. Ant. v.Interest, p. 524.

Footnotes.

[12]διφυὴς meaning, "of double nature."

[13]Iliad, xxiv. 489.

[14]Iliad, ii. 220.

[15]Theognis.

[16]It is not known from what play this fragment comes. It is given in the Variorum Edition of Euripides,Inc. Fragm.165.

[17]From the Andromeda.

[18]This is a blunder of Athenæus; for the passage alluded to is evidently that in the Iphigenia in Aulis of Euripides. The lines as quoted in the text here are—Δίδυμα γὰρ τόξα αὐτὸνἘντείνεσθαι χαρίτωνΤὸ μὲν ἐπ' εἰαίωνι τύχαΤὸ δ' ἐπὶ συγχύσει βιοτᾶς.The passage in Euripides is—Δίδυμ' Ἕρως ὁ χρυσοκόμαςΤόξ' ἐντείνεται χαρίτωνΤὸ μὲν ἐπ' εὐαίωνι πότμῳΤὸ δ' ἐπὶ συγχύσει βιοτᾶω.—Iph. in Aul.552.

[18]This is a blunder of Athenæus; for the passage alluded to is evidently that in the Iphigenia in Aulis of Euripides. The lines as quoted in the text here are—

Δίδυμα γὰρ τόξα αὐτὸνἘντείνεσθαι χαρίτωνΤὸ μὲν ἐπ' εἰαίωνι τύχαΤὸ δ' ἐπὶ συγχύσει βιοτᾶς.

Δίδυμα γὰρ τόξα αὐτὸν

Ἐντείνεσθαι χαρίτων

Τὸ μὲν ἐπ' εἰαίωνι τύχα

Τὸ δ' ἐπὶ συγχύσει βιοτᾶς.

The passage in Euripides is—

Δίδυμ' Ἕρως ὁ χρυσοκόμαςΤόξ' ἐντείνεται χαρίτωνΤὸ μὲν ἐπ' εὐαίωνι πότμῳΤὸ δ' ἐπὶ συγχύσει βιοτᾶω.—Iph. in Aul.552.

Δίδυμ' Ἕρως ὁ χρυσοκόμας

Τόξ' ἐντείνεται χαρίτων

Τὸ μὲν ἐπ' εὐαίωνι πότμῳ

Τὸ δ' ἐπὶ συγχύσει βιοτᾶω.—Iph. in Aul.552.

[19]Iliad, x. 401.

[20]This fragment is from the Hippodamia.

[21]Ode 67.

[22]This is not from any one of the odes, which we have entire; but is only a fragment.

[23]From κείρω, to cut the hair.

[24]From the Æolus.

[25]Iliad, iii. 156.

[26]Ib. iii. 170.

[27]Ib. xx. 234.

[28]Ach. 524.

[29]Pind. Ol. 13.

[30]A σκολιὸν was a song which went round at banquets, sung to the lyre by the guests, one after another, said to have been introduced by Terpander; but the word is first found in Pind. Fr. lxxxvii. 9; Aristoph. Ach. 532. The name is of uncertain origin: some refer it to the character of the music, νόμος σκολιὸς, as opposed to νόμος ὔρθιος; others to the ῥυθμὸς σκολιὸς, or amphibrachic rhythm recognised in many scolia; but most, after Dicæarchus and Plutarch, from the irregular zigzag way it went round the table, each guest who sung holding a myrtle-branch, which he passed on to any one he chose.—Lid. & Scott, Gr. Lex.in voc.

[31]These are the second and third lines of the Electra of Sophocles.

[32]The Kids was a constellation rising about the beginning of October, and supposed by the ancients to bring storms. Theocritus says—χὤταν ἐφ' ἑσπερίοις ἐρίφοις νότος ὑγρὰ διώκῃ κύματα.—vii. 53.

[32]The Kids was a constellation rising about the beginning of October, and supposed by the ancients to bring storms. Theocritus says—

χὤταν ἐφ' ἑσπερίοις ἐρίφοις νότος ὑγρὰ διώκῃ κύματα.—vii. 53.

[33]Θάλλος means "a young twig."

[34]There is a pun here on her name,—Ἵππη meaning a mare.

[35]Λάκκος, a cistern; a cellar.

[36]This is a pun on the similarity of the name Σίγειον to σιγὴ, silence.

[37]Γραῦς means both an old woman, and the scum on boiled milk.

[38]Ὑστέρα means both "the womb," and "the new comer."

[39]Punning on the similarity of the name Αἰγεὺς to αἲξ, a goat.

[40]Punning on the similarity of κατατράγω, to eat, and τράγος, a goat.

[41]The Greek word is ψυχαγωγοῦσι, which might perhaps also mean to bring coolness, from ψῦχος, coolness.

[42]The young man says πολλαῖς συμπέπλεχθαι (γύναιξι scil.), but Phryne chooses to suppose that he meant to say πολλαῖς πληγαῖς, blows.

[43]This is a pun on the name Φειδίας, as if from φείδω, to be stingy.

[44]Anticyra was the name of three islands celebrated as producing a great quantity of hellebore. Horace, speaking of a madman, says:Si tribus Anticyris caput insanabile nunquamTonsori Licino commiserit.—A. P. 300.

[44]Anticyra was the name of three islands celebrated as producing a great quantity of hellebore. Horace, speaking of a madman, says:

Si tribus Anticyris caput insanabile nunquamTonsori Licino commiserit.—A. P. 300.

Si tribus Anticyris caput insanabile nunquam

Tonsori Licino commiserit.—A. P. 300.

[45]This probably means a large crane.

[46]From κλαίω, to weep, and γέλως, laughter.

[47]That is, With beautiful Eyelids; from χάρις, grace, and βλέφαρον, an eyelid.

[48]The universal Friend.

[49]Λήμη literally means the matter which gathers in the corner of the eyes; λήμαι, sore eyes. Παρόραμα means an oversight, a defect in sight; but there is supposed to be some corruption in this latter word.

[50]Rharia was a name of Ceres, from the Rharian plain near Eleusis, where corn was first sown by Triptolemus, the son of Rharus. It is mentioned by Homer:—ἐς δ' ἄρα Ῥάριον ἷξε, φερέσβιον οὖθαρ ἀρούρηςτὸ πρίν, ἄταρ τότε γ' οὔτι φερέσβιον, ἀλλὰ ἕκηλονεἱστήκι πανάφυλλον, ἔκευθε δ' ἄρα κρῖ λευκὸνμήδεσι Δήμητρος καλλισφύρου.—Od. in Cerer. 450.

[50]Rharia was a name of Ceres, from the Rharian plain near Eleusis, where corn was first sown by Triptolemus, the son of Rharus. It is mentioned by Homer:—

ἐς δ' ἄρα Ῥάριον ἷξε, φερέσβιον οὖθαρ ἀρούρηςτὸ πρίν, ἄταρ τότε γ' οὔτι φερέσβιον, ἀλλὰ ἕκηλονεἱστήκι πανάφυλλον, ἔκευθε δ' ἄρα κρῖ λευκὸνμήδεσι Δήμητρος καλλισφύρου.—Od. in Cerer. 450.

ἐς δ' ἄρα Ῥάριον ἷξε, φερέσβιον οὖθαρ ἀρούρης

τὸ πρίν, ἄταρ τότε γ' οὔτι φερέσβιον, ἀλλὰ ἕκηλον

εἱστήκι πανάφυλλον, ἔκευθε δ' ἄρα κρῖ λευκὸν

μήδεσι Δήμητρος καλλισφύρου.—Od. in Cerer. 450.

[51]Anacreon.

[52]Sophocles.

[53]V. 3.

[54]This is not from the Hippolytus, but is a fragment from the Auge.

[55]From ἁρπάζω, to carry off.

[56]"Of far greater importance was the public hospitality (προξενία) which existed between two states, or between an individual or a family on the one hand, and a whole state on the other.... When two states established public hospitality, it was necessary that in each state persons should be appointed to show hospitality to, and watch over the interests of all persons who came from the state connected by hospitality. The persons who were appointed to this office, as the recognised agents of the state for which they acted, were called πρόξενοι...."The office of πρόξενοσ, which bears great resemblance to that of a modern consul, or minister resident, was in some cases hereditary in a particular family. When a state appointed a proxenus, it either sent out one of its own citizens to reside in the other state, or it selected one of the citizens of the other, and conferred on him the honour of proxenus.... This custom seems in later times to have been universally adopted by the Greeks...."The principal duties of a proxenus were to receive those persons, especially ambassadors, who came from the state which he represented; to procure for them admission to the assembly, and seats in the theatre; to act as the patron of the strangers, and to mediate between the two states, if any dispute arose. If a stranger died in the state, the proxenus of his country had to take care of the property of the deceased. The proxenus usually enjoyed exemption from taxes; and their persons were inviolable both by sea and land."—Smith, Dict. Ant. v.Hospitium, p. 491.

"The office of πρόξενοσ, which bears great resemblance to that of a modern consul, or minister resident, was in some cases hereditary in a particular family. When a state appointed a proxenus, it either sent out one of its own citizens to reside in the other state, or it selected one of the citizens of the other, and conferred on him the honour of proxenus.... This custom seems in later times to have been universally adopted by the Greeks....

"The principal duties of a proxenus were to receive those persons, especially ambassadors, who came from the state which he represented; to procure for them admission to the assembly, and seats in the theatre; to act as the patron of the strangers, and to mediate between the two states, if any dispute arose. If a stranger died in the state, the proxenus of his country had to take care of the property of the deceased. The proxenus usually enjoyed exemption from taxes; and their persons were inviolable both by sea and land."—Smith, Dict. Ant. v.Hospitium, p. 491.

[57]Pindar, Ol. vi. 71.

[58]Homer gives this epithet to Aurora, Iliad, i. 477, and in many other places.

[59]Schweighauser says this word is to him totally unintelligible.

[60]This would have been 18 per cent. Three drachmæ were about 36 per cent. The former appears to have been the usual rate of interest at Athens in the time of Lysias; for we find in Demosthenes that interest ἐπὶ δραχμῇ , that is to say, a drachma a month interest for each mina lent, was considered low. It was exceedingly common, however, among the money-lenders, to exact an exorbitant rate of interest, going even as high as a drachma every four days.—See Smith's Dict. Ant. v.Interest, p. 524.

1.Mostpeople, my friend Timocrates, call Bacchus frantic, because those who drink too much unmixed wine become violent.

To copious wine this insolence we owe,And much thy betters wine can overthrowThe great Eurytion, when this frenzy stung,Pirithous' roofs with frantic riot rung:Boundless the Centaur raged, till one and allThe heroes lose and dragg'd him from the hall;His nose they shorten'd, and his ears they slit,And sent him sober'd home with better wit.[61]

To copious wine this insolence we owe,

And much thy betters wine can overthrow

The great Eurytion, when this frenzy stung,

Pirithous' roofs with frantic riot rung:

Boundless the Centaur raged, till one and all

The heroes lose and dragg'd him from the hall;

His nose they shorten'd, and his ears they slit,

And sent him sober'd home with better wit.[61]

For when the wine has penetrated down into the body, as Herodotus says, bad and furious language is apt to rise to the surface. And Clearchus the comic poet says in his Corinthians—

If all the men who to get drunk are apt,Had every day a headache ere they drankThe wine, there is not one would drink a drop:But as we now get all the pleasure first,And then the drink, we lose the whole delightIn the sharp pain which follows.

If all the men who to get drunk are apt,

Had every day a headache ere they drank

The wine, there is not one would drink a drop:

But as we now get all the pleasure first,

And then the drink, we lose the whole delight

In the sharp pain which follows.

And Xenophon represents Agesilaus as insisting that a man ought to shun drunkenness equally with madness, and immoderate gluttony as much as idleness. But we, as we are not of the class who drink to excess, nor of the number of those who are in the habit of being intoxicated by midday, have come rather to this literary entertainment; for Ulpian, who is always finding fault, reproved some one just now who said, I am not drunk (ἔξοινος), saying,—Where do you find that word ἔξοινος? But he rejoined,—Why, in Alexis, who, in his play called the New Settler, says—

He did all this when drunk (ἔξοινος).

JESTERS.

2. But as, after the discussion by us of the new topics which arise, our liberal entertainer Laurentius is every day constantly introducing different kinds of music, and also jesters and buffoons, let us have a little talk about them. Although I am aware that Anacharsis the Scythian, when on one occasion jesters were introduced in his company, remained without moving a muscle of his countenance; but afterwards, when a monkey was brought in, he burst out laughing, and said, "Now this fellow is laughable by his nature, but man is only so through practice." And Euripides, in his Melanippe in Chains, has said—

But many men, from the wish to raise a laugh,Practise sharp sayings; but those sorry jestersI hate who let loose their unbridled tonguesAgainst the wise and good; nor do I class themAs men at all, but only as jokes and playthings.Meantime they live at ease, and gather upGood store of wealth to keep within their houses.

But many men, from the wish to raise a laugh,

Practise sharp sayings; but those sorry jesters

I hate who let loose their unbridled tongues

Against the wise and good; nor do I class them

As men at all, but only as jokes and playthings.

Meantime they live at ease, and gather up

Good store of wealth to keep within their houses.

And Parmeniscus of Metapontum, as Semus tells us in the fifth book of his Delias, a man of the highest consideration both as to family and in respect of his riches, having gone down to the cave of Trophonius, after he had come up again, was not able to laugh at all. And when he consulted the oracle on this subject, the Pythian priestess replied to him—

You're asking me, you laughless man,About the power to laugh again;Your mother 'll give it you at home,If you with reverence to her come.

You're asking me, you laughless man,

About the power to laugh again;

Your mother 'll give it you at home,

If you with reverence to her come.

So, on this, he hoped that when he returned to his country he should be able to laugh again; but when he found that he could laugh no more now than he could before, he considered that he had been deceived; till, by some chance, he came to Delos; and as he was admiring everything he saw in the island, he came into the temple of Latona, expecting to see some very superb statue of the mother of Apollo; but when he saw only a wooden shapeless figure, he unexpectedly burst out laughing. And then, comparing what had happened with the oracle of the god, and being cured of his infirmity, he honoured the goddess greatly.

3. Now Anaxandrides, in his Old-Man's Madness, says that it was Rhadamanthus and Palamedes who invented the fashion of jesters; and his words are these:—

And yet we labour much.But Palamedes first, and Rhadamanthus,Sought those who bring no other contribution,But say amusing things.

And yet we labour much.

But Palamedes first, and Rhadamanthus,

Sought those who bring no other contribution,

But say amusing things.

Xenophon also, in his Banquet, mentions jesters; introducing Philip, of whom he speaks in the following manner:—"But Philip the jester, having knocked at the door, told the boy who answered, to tell the guests who he was, and that he was desirous to be admitted; and he said that he came provided with everything which could qualify him for supping at other people's expense. And he said, too, that his boy was in a good deal of distress because he had brought nothing, and because he had had no dinner." And Hippolochus the Macedonian, in his epistle to Lynceus, mentions the jesters Mandrogenes and Strato the Athenian. And at Athens there was a great deal of this kind of cleverness. Accordingly, in the Heracleum at Diomea[62]they assembled to the number of sixty, and they were always spoken of in the city as amounting to that number, in such expressions as—"The sixty said this," and, "I am come from the sixty." And among them were Callimedon, nicknamed the Crab, and Dinias, and also Mnasigeiton and Menæchmus, as Telephanes tells us in his treatise on the City. And their reputation for amusing qualities was so great, that Philip the Macedonian heard of it, and sent them a talent to engage them to write out their witticisms and send them to him. And the fact of this king having been a man who was very fond of jokes is testified to us by Demosthenes the orator in his Philippics.

JESTERS.

Demetrius Poliorcetes was a man very eager for anything which could make him laugh, as Phylarchus tells us in the sixth book of his History. And he it was who said, "that the palace of Lysimachus was in no respect different from a comic theatre; for that there was no one there bigger than a dissyllable;"[63](meaning to laugh at Bithys and Paris, who had more influence than anybody with Lysimachus, and at some others of his friends;) "but that his friends werePeucesteses, and Menelauses, and Oxythemises." But when Lysimachus heard this, he said,—"I, however, never saw a prostitute on the stage in a tragedy;" referring to Lamia the female flute-player. And when this was reported to Demetrius, he rejoined,—"But the prostitute who is with me, lives in a more modest manner than the Penelope who is with him."

4. And we have mentioned before this that Sylla, the general of the Romans, was very fond of anything laughable. And Lucius Anicius, who was also a general of the Romans, after he had subdued the Illyrians, and brought with him Genthius the king of the Illyrians as his prisoner, with all his children, when he was celebrating his triumphal games at Rome, did many things of the most laughable character possible, as Polybius relates in his thirtieth book:—"For having sent for the most eminent artists from Greece, and having erected a very large theatre in the circus, he first of all introduced all the flute-players. And these were Theodorus the Bœotian, and Theopompus, and Hermippus, surnamed Lysimachus, who were the most eminent men in their profession. And having brought these men in front of the stage after the chorus was over, he ordered them all to play the flute. And as they accompanied their music with appropriate gestures, he sent to them and said that they were not playing well, and desired them to be more vehement. And while they were in perplexity, one of the lictors told them that what Anicius wished was that they should turn round so as to advance towards each other, and give a representation of a battle. And then the flute-players, taking this hint, and adopting a movement not unsuited to their habitual wantonness, caused a great tumult and confusion; and turning the middle of the chorus towards the extremities, the flute-players, all blowing unpremeditated notes, and letting their flutes be all out of tune, rushed upon one another in turn: and at the same time the choruses, all making a noise to correspond to them, and coming on the stage at the same time, rushed also upon one another, and then again retreated, advancing and retreating alternately. But when one of the chorus-dancers tucked up his garment, and suddenly turned round and raised his hands against the flute-player who was coming towards him, as if he was going to boxwith him, then there arose an extraordinary clapping and shouting on the part of the spectators. And while all these men were fighting as if in regular battle, two dancers were introduced into the orchestra with a symphony, and four boxers mounted the stage, with trumpeters and horn-players: and when all these men were striving together, the spectacle was quite indescribable: and as for the tragedians," says Polybius, "if I were to attempt to describe what took place with respect to them, I should be thought by some people to be jesting."

5. Now when Ulpian had said thus much, and when all were laughing at the idea of this exhibition of Anicius, a discussion arose about the men who are called πλάνοι. And the question was asked, Whether there was any mention of these men in any of the ancient authors? for of the jugglers (θαυματοποιοὶ) we have already spoken: and Magnus said,—Dionysius of Sinope, the comic poet, in his play entitled the Namesakes, mentions Cephisodorus the πλάνος in the following terms:—

They say that once there was a man at Athens,A πλάνος, named Cephisodorus, whoDevoted all his life to this pursuit;And he, whenever to a hill he came,Ran straight up to the top; but then descendingCame slowly down, and leaning on a stick.

They say that once there was a man at Athens,

A πλάνος, named Cephisodorus, who

Devoted all his life to this pursuit;

And he, whenever to a hill he came,

Ran straight up to the top; but then descending

Came slowly down, and leaning on a stick.

And Nicostratus also mentions him in his Syrian—

They say the πλάνος Cephisodorus onceMost wittily station'd in a narrow laneA crowd of men with bundles of large faggots,So that no one else could pass that way at all.

They say the πλάνος Cephisodorus once

Most wittily station'd in a narrow lane

A crowd of men with bundles of large faggots,

So that no one else could pass that way at all.

There was also a man named Pantaleon, who is mentioned, by Theognetus, in his Slave devoted to his Master—

Pantaleon himself did none deceive (ἐπλάνα)Save only foreigners, and those, too, suchAs ne'er had heard of him: and often he,After a drunken revel, would pour forthAll sorts of jokes, striving to raise a laughBy his unceasing chattering.

Pantaleon himself did none deceive (ἐπλάνα)

Save only foreigners, and those, too, such

As ne'er had heard of him: and often he,

After a drunken revel, would pour forth

All sorts of jokes, striving to raise a laugh

By his unceasing chattering.

JESTERS.

And Chrysippus the philosopher, in the fifth book of his treatise on Honour and Pleasure, writes thus of Pantaleon:—"But Pantaleon the πλάνος, when he was at the point of death, deceived every one of his sons separately, telling each of them that he was the only one to whom he was revealing the place where he had buried his gold; so that they afterwardswent and dug together to no purpose, and then found out that they had been all deceived."

6. And our party was not deficient in men fond of raising a laugh by bitter speeches. And respecting a man of this kind, Chrysippus subsequently, in the same book, writes as follows:—"Once when a man fond of saying bitter things was about to be put to death by the executioner, he said that he wished to die like the swan, singing a song; and when he gave him leave, he ridiculed him." And Myrtilus having had a good many jokes cut on him by people of this sort, got angry, and said that Lysimachus the king had done a very sensible thing; for he, hearing Telesphorus, one of his lieutenants, at an entertainment, ridiculing Arsinoe (and she was the wife of Lysimachus), as being a woman in the habit of vomiting, in the following line—

You begin ill, introducing τηνδεμουσαν,[64]—

ordered him to be put in a cage (γαλεάγρα) and carried about like a wild beast, and fed; and he punished him in this way till he died. But if you, O Ulpian, raise a question about the word γαλεάγρα, it occurs in Hyperides the orator; and the passage you may find out for yourself.

And Tachaos the king of Egypt ridiculed Agesilaus king of Lacedæmon, when he came to him as an ally (for he was a very short man), and lost his kingdom in consequence, as Agesilaus abandoned his alliance. And the expression of Tachaos was as follows:—

The mountain was in labour; JupiterWas greatly frighten'd: lo! a mouse was born.

The mountain was in labour; Jupiter

Was greatly frighten'd: lo! a mouse was born.

And Agesilaus hearing of this, and being indignant at it, said, "I will prove a lion to you." So afterwards, when the Egyptians revolted (as Theopompus relates, and Lyceas of Naucratis confirms the statement in his History of Egypt), Agesilaus refused to cooperate with him, and, in consequence, Tachaos lost his kingdom, and fled to the Persians.

7. So as there was a great deal of music introduced, and not always the same instruments, and as there was a good deal of discussion and conversation about them, (without always giving the names of those who took part in it,) I will enumerate the chief things which were said.For concerning flutes, somebody said that Melanippides, in his Marsyas, disparaging the art of playing the flute, had said very cleverly about Minerva:—

Minerva cast away those instrumentsDown from her sacred hand; and said, in scorn,"Away, you shameful things—you stains of the body!Shall I now yield myself to such malpractices?"

Minerva cast away those instruments

Down from her sacred hand; and said, in scorn,

"Away, you shameful things—you stains of the body!

Shall I now yield myself to such malpractices?"

And some one, replying to him, said,—But Telestes of Selinus, in opposition to Melanippides, says in his Argo (and it is of Minerva that he too is speaking):—

It seems to me a scarcely credible thingThat the wise Pallas, holiest of goddesses,Should in the mountain groves have taken upThat clever instrument, and then againThrown it away, fearing to draw her mouthInto an unseemly shape, to be a gloryTo the nymph-born, noisy monster Marsyas.For how should chaste Minerva be so anxiousAbout her beauty, when the Fates had given herA childless, husbandless virginity?

It seems to me a scarcely credible thing

That the wise Pallas, holiest of goddesses,

Should in the mountain groves have taken up

That clever instrument, and then again

Thrown it away, fearing to draw her mouth

Into an unseemly shape, to be a glory

To the nymph-born, noisy monster Marsyas.

For how should chaste Minerva be so anxious

About her beauty, when the Fates had given her

A childless, husbandless virginity?

intimating his belief that she, as she was and always was to continue a maid, could not be alarmed at the idea of disfiguring her beauty. And in a subsequent passage he says—

But this report, spread by vain-speaking men,Hostile to every chorus, flew most causelesslyThrough Greece, to raise an envy and reproachAgainst the wise and sacred art of music.

But this report, spread by vain-speaking men,

Hostile to every chorus, flew most causelessly

Through Greece, to raise an envy and reproach

Against the wise and sacred art of music.

And after this, in an express panegyric on the art of flute-playing, he says—

And so the happy breath of the holy goddessBestow'd this art divine on Bromius,With the quick motion of the nimble fingers.

And so the happy breath of the holy goddess

Bestow'd this art divine on Bromius,

With the quick motion of the nimble fingers.

And very neatly, in his Æsculapius, has Telestes vindicated the use of the flute, where he says—

And that wise Phrygian king who first poured forthThe notes from sweetly-sounding sacred flutes,Rivalling the music of the Doric Muse,Embracing with his well-join'd reeds the breathWhich fills the flute with tuneful modulation.

And that wise Phrygian king who first poured forth

The notes from sweetly-sounding sacred flutes,

Rivalling the music of the Doric Muse,

Embracing with his well-join'd reeds the breath

Which fills the flute with tuneful modulation.

CONCERTS.

8. And Pratinas the Phliasian says, that when some hired flute-players and chorus-dancers were occupying the orchestra, some people were indignant because the flute-players did not play in tune to the choruses, as was the national custom, but the choruses instead sang, keeping time to the flutes. Andwhat his opinion and feelings were towards those who did this, Pratinas declares in the following hyporchema:—

What noise is this?What mean these songs of dancers now?What new unseemly fashionHas seized upon this stage to Bacchus sacred,Now echoing with various noise?Bromius is mine! is mine!I am the man who ought to sing,I am the man who ought to raise the strain,Hastening o'er the hills,In swift inspired dance among the Naiades;Blending a song of varied strain,Like the sweet dying swan.You, O Pierian Muse, the sceptre swayOf holy song:And after you let the shrill flute resound;For that is but the handmaidOf revels, where men combat at the doors,And fight with heavy fists.[65]* * * * *And is the leader fierce of bloody quarrel.Descend, O Bacchus, on the son of Phrynæus,The leader of the changing choir,—Chattering, untimely, leading onThe rhythm of the changing song.* * * * *King of the loud triumphal dithyrambic,Whose brow the ivy crowns,Hear this my Doric song.

What noise is this?

What mean these songs of dancers now?

What new unseemly fashion

Has seized upon this stage to Bacchus sacred,

Now echoing with various noise?

Bromius is mine! is mine!

I am the man who ought to sing,

I am the man who ought to raise the strain,

Hastening o'er the hills,

In swift inspired dance among the Naiades;

Blending a song of varied strain,

Like the sweet dying swan.

You, O Pierian Muse, the sceptre sway

Of holy song:

And after you let the shrill flute resound;

For that is but the handmaid

Of revels, where men combat at the doors,

And fight with heavy fists.[65]

* * * * *

And is the leader fierce of bloody quarrel.

Descend, O Bacchus, on the son of Phrynæus,

The leader of the changing choir,—

Chattering, untimely, leading on

The rhythm of the changing song.

King of the loud triumphal dithyrambic,

Whose brow the ivy crowns,

Hear this my Doric song.

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