Soc. It is no use, by Jupiter! Having reclined yourself down here—
Strep. What must I do?
Soc. Think out some of your own affairs.
Strep. Not here, pray, I beseech you; but, if I must, suffer me to excogitate these very things on the ground.
Soc. There is no other way.[1] [Exit Socrates.]
Strep. Unfortunate man that I am! what a penalty shall I this day pay to the bugs![2]
Cho. Now meditate[3] and examine closely; and roll yourself about in every way, having wrapped yourself up; and quickly, when you fall into a difficulty, spring to another mental contrivance. But let delightful sleep be absent from your eyes.
Strep. Attatai! attatai!
Cho. What ails you? why are you distressed?
Strep. Wretched man, I am perishing! The Corinthians,[4] coming out from the bed, are biting me, and devouring my sides, and drinking up my life-blood, and tearing away my testicles, and digging through my breech, and will[5] annihilate me.
Cho. Do not now be very grievously distressed.
Strep. Why, how, when my money is gone, my complexion gone, my life gone, and my slipper gone? And furthermore in addition to these evils, with singing the night-watches,[6] I am almost gone myself. [Re-enter Socrates.]
- ↑ Comp. Vesp. 1166. Pax, 110. Krüger, Gr. Gr. § 68, 36, obs, 7.
- ↑ "Curse it! What swingeing damages the bugs will get!" Walsh.
- ↑ "Jetzt, Freund, studirt! jetzt meditirt!
Nimm den Verstand zusammen
Und grüble rastlos.
Doch schnell, wenn zu bunt es dir werden will,
Spring ab und über
Zu andrem Forschen. Ferne nur
Bleibe dera Auge der holde Schlaf." Droysen. - ↑ "He calls them Corinthians, with a play on their proper name, κόρεις." Droysen.
- ↑ "Instead of the future ὀλῶ, the Attics occasionally use ὀλέσω; the later writers pretty often." Krüger. Brunck has mistaken it for a present tense.
- ↑ The Athenian sentinels used to sing at their posts, in order to prevent their falling asleep unawares during their night-watches. "It would seem that a short choral ode has dropped out here."
