Boy. No, by Jove, but dried figs,[1] my dear little papa, for they are sweeter.
Cho. I would not, by Jove, if you were even to hang!
Boy. Then, by Jove, I will not conduct you any longer.
Cho. For from this small pay I with two others am obliged to get my barley-meal, and wood, and provision:[2] while you ask me for figs!
Boy. Come now, father, if the Archon should not hold his court of justice to-day, whence shall we buy a breakfast? Are you able to mention any good hope for us two, or "Helle's sacred strait?"[3]
Cho. Apapæ! alas! apapæ! alas! by Jove, I do not know whence we shall have a dinner.
Boy. "Why then,[4] wretched mother, did you bring me forth, in order that you may give me troubles to feed upon?"
Cho. "I wore thee, then, a useless ornament,[5] my little wallet."
Boy. Alas! alas! "It is our fortune to groan."[6]
Phil. (peeping out). My friends, I have been pining away this long while, as I listened to you through the crevice. But indeed I am not able any longer to sing. What shall I do? I am guarded by these; for I have been wishing this long while to go with you to the balloting urns and work
- ↑ See note on vs. 145.
- ↑ "Every thing eaten, with the exception of what was prepared from corn, was originally comprehended under the name of opson. Plato expressly comprises under it salt, olives, cheese, onions, cabbage, figs, myrtle-berries, walnuts, and pulse; and it is evident that roots, such as radishes, turnips, &c., and all preparations of meat and fish, were also included. But by decrees the usage of this word was changed, so that at length it signified only fish, the favourite food of the Athenian epicures." Böckh.
- ↑ According to the Scholiast, from Pindar. The former part is a parody upon Soph. Ant. vs. 2. Compare also El. 958.
- ↑ This and the three following verses, according to the Scholiast, are from the Theseus of Euripides. They are supposed to be spoken by one of the boys about to be devoured by the Minotaur.
- ↑ ἀνόνητον ἄγαλμ᾽ οἴκοισι τεκὼν, Eur. Theseus, Fragm. iii. Cf. also Hec. 766.
- ↑ Adapted from Sophocles: see Col. 1672. Aj. 982. El. 959. "Although as a comic poet, Aristophanes is, generally speaking, in the relation of a parodist to the tragedians, yet he never attacks Sophocles." Schlegel. This dictum may be justly questioned. See vss. 111, 306, 335, 1297; Equit. 1234, 1249; Aves, 100, 1337; Eccles. 563.
