121—131.
THE ECCLESIAZUSÆ.
623
Prax. Come now, do you tie yours on, and quickly become a man: and I myself also, when I have placed the chaplets,[1] will tie on my beard along with you, if it should seem proper to me to make any speech.[2]
2nd Wom. Come hither, dearest Praxagora, see, you rogue, how laughable even the affair seems.
Prax. How laughable?
2nd Wom. Just as if one were to tie a beard on fried cuttle-fish.[3]
Prax. Purifier,[4] you must carry round—the cat.[5] Come forward to the front![6] Ariphrades,[7] cease talking! Come forward and sit down! [Here the women mimic the ceremonies of the lustration.] Who wishes to speak?[8]
8th Wom. I do.
Prax. Now put on the chaplet, and success to you![9]
8th Wom. (putting it on). Very well.
Prax. Speak away!
- ↑ "When speaking in the Assembly, it was customary to wear a chaplet. See Thesm. 380." Smith.
- ↑ "Hier leg' Ich auch die Kränze her; Ich will mich selbst
Nun auch bebarten, falls Ich etwa sprechen muss." Droysen. - ↑ "We find as curious a simile in Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, act i. sc. 4:
Quickly. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover's paring-knife?
Simple. No, forsooth: he hath but a little wee face, with a little yellow beard; a cane-coloured beard." Smith. - ↑ For this use of the article, see note on Ran. 40. "The person who made the lustration in the Assembly was called περιστίαρχος. Pollux viii. 104, περὶ περιστιάρχων. ἐκάθαιρον χοιριδίοις μικροῖς οὗτοι τὴν ἐκκλησίαν καὶ τὸ ϑέατρον. καθάρσιον δὲ ἐκαλεῖτο τοῦτο τὸ χοιρίδιον." Brunck.
- ↑ "A comic licence for τὸ χοιρίδιον." Brunck."The place of assembly was properly purified by a young pig! In default of the pig, the women take a cat for that purpose. The three lines spoken by Praxagora contain in short the essential forms observed on opening an Assembly. Cf. Acharn. 44." Droysen.
- ↑ "Come all within the circle." Smith. Cf. Ach. 43.
- ↑ "The character of Ariphrades, whom the poet ridicules by supposing him seated among the women, and out-talking even them, may be seen in Equit. 1281, and Vesp. 1280." Smith."Aristophanes therefore had been rebuking the same man thirty years ago." Droysen.
- ↑ "The usual question put by the κῆρυξ in the Assembly." Smith. Cf. Thesm. 379.
- ↑ See note on Thesm. 283.
