Strep. O foolish youth, you have rolled me out of my possessions; since I have been cast in suits, and others say that they will have surety given them for the interest.
Phid. (awaking). Pray, father, why are you peevish, and toss about the whole night?
Strep. A bailiff[1] out of the bed-clothes is biting me.
Phid. Suffer me, good sir, to sleep a little.
Strep. Then, do you sleep on; but know that all these debts will turn on your head. [Phidippides falls asleep again.] Alas! would that the match-maker[2] had perished miserably, who induced me to marry your mother. For a country life used to be most agreeable to me, dirty, untrimmed, reclining at random, abounding in bees, and sheep, and oil-cake. Then I, a rustic, married a niece of Megacles, the son of Megacles, from the city, haughty, luxurious, and Cœsyrafied.[3] When I married her, I lay with her redolent of new wine, of the cheese-crate, and abundance of wool; but she, on the contrary, of ointment, saffron, wanton-kisses, extravagance, gluttony, and of Colias and Genetyllis.[4] I will not indeed say that she was idle; but she wove. And I used to show her this cloak by way of pretext, and say, "Wife, you weave at a great rate." [Servant re-enters.]
Ser. We have no oil in the lamp.
Strep. Ah me! why did you light the thirsty[5] lamp? Come hither, that you may weep!
Ser. For what, pray, shall I weep?
- ↑ "Demarchus, sive cogitatio de demarcho, quem metuo ne a me pignus sumat, mordet me tanquam cimex aut pulex in lecto." Berg.
- ↑ See Becker's Charicles, p. 351. "ὤφελον non nisi tum adhibetur, quum quis optat, ut fuerit aliquid, vel sit, vel futurum sit, quod non fuit, aut est, aut futurum est. ὤφελον ϑανεῖν, utinam mortuus essem; at non sum mortuus. ὤφελον μὴ ζῆν, utinam ne viverem; at vivo. ὤφελον μὴ ἀθάνατος ἔσεσθαι, utinam ne futurus sim immortalis; at futurus sum." Hermann. Cf. Krüger, Gr. Gr. § 54, 3, obs. 4.
- ↑ For the parentage and descent of this famous Cœsyra, see Walsh's note, and Thirlwall, Hist. Greece, vol. ii. p. 59.
- ↑ Colias was a name under which courtesans invoked Aphrodite. Genetyllis was also a name of Aphrodite, and may be compared with the "Venus Genetrix" of the Romans. See Liddel's Lex. in voc. Cf. Lys. vs. 2.
- ↑ "Aye, 'tis a drunken lamp; the more fault yours;
Whelp, you shall howl for this." Cumberland."Hiess Ich das Saufgeschirr dich brauchen?" Droysen.
