Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 2).djvu/222

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Hegemon himself, when he heard of it, had resolved to cease his recitation. But when the Athenians, being masters of the sea, brought all the actions at law concerning the islands or the islanders into the city, some one instituted a prosecution against Hegemon, and summoned him to Athens to answer it. And he came in court, and brought with him all the workmen of the theatre, and with them he appeared, entreating Alcibiades to assist him. And Alcibiades bade him be of good cheer, and ordered all the workmen to follow him; and so he came to the temple of Cybele, where the trials of prosecutions were held; and then wetting his finger with his mouth, he wiped out the indictment against Hegemon. And though the clerk of the court and the magistrate were indignant at this, they kept quiet for fear of Alcibiades, for which reason also the man who had instituted the prosecution ran away."

73. This, O Ulpian, is what we mean by pelting ([Greek: ballêtys]), but you, when you please, may tell us about the [Greek: ballêtys] at Eleusis. And Ulpian replied,—But you have reminded me, my good friend Democritus, by your mention of saucepans, that I have often wished to know what that is which is called the saucepan of Telemachus, and who Telemachus was. And Democritus said,—Timocles the comic poet, and he was also a writer of tragedy, in his drama called Lethe, says—

And after this Telemachus did meet him,
And with great cordiality embraced him,
And said, "Now lend me, I do beg, the saucepans
In which you boil'd your beans." And scarcely had
He finish'd saying this, when he beheld
At some small distance the renowned Philip,
Son of Chærephilus, that mighty man,
Whom he accosted with a friendly greeting,
And then he bade him send some wicker baskets.

But that this Telemachus was a citizen of the borough of Acharnæ, the same poet shows us in his Bacchus, where he says—

A. Telemachus th' Acharnian still is speaking,
     And he is like the new-bought Syrian slaves.
B. How so, what does he do? I wish to know.
A. He bears about with him a deadly dish.

And in his Icarians, a satyric drama, he says—

So that we'd nothing with us; I myself,
Passing a miserable night, did first