Page:Comedies of Aristophanes (Hickie 1853) vol2.djvu/245

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79—101.
THE ECCLESIAZUSÆ.
621

6th Wom. By Jupiter the Preserver,[1] he would be a fit person, if there ever was one, to cheat[2] the commonwealth, clothed in the leathern garment of Argus.

Prax. But come! so that we may also transact what is next, whilst[3] the stars are still in the heavens; for the assembly, to which we are prepared to go, will take place with the dawn.[4]

1st Wom. Yea, by Jove! wherefore you ought to take your seat under the Bema,[5] over against the Prytanes.

7th Wom. (holding up some wool). By Jove, I brought these here, in order that I might card when the Assembly was[6] full.

Prax. Full, you rogue?[7]

7th Wom. Yes, by Diana! for how should I hear any worse, if I carded? My children are naked.

Prax. "Carded," quoth 'a! you who ought to exhibit no part of your person to the meeting! [Turning to the others.] Therefore we should be finely off, if[8] the Assembly chanced to be full, and then some of us strode over and took up her dress[9] and exhibited her Phormisius.[10] Now if we take our seats first, we shall escape observation when we have wrapped our garments close round us: and when we let our beards hang down, which we will tie on there, who would not think us men on seeing us? At any rate Agyrrhius'[11] has the

  1. To the examples cited on Nub. 366, add Eccles. 761, 1045, 1103. Plut. 877, 1186, 1189. Thesm. 858. Ran. 738, 1433. Aves, 15, 514.
  2. There is an allusion to the Inachus of Sophocles, in which Argus was introduced keeping watch over Io; but the whole passage is very obscure.
  3. See Equit. 111. Demosth. p. 15, 5. Blomf. gloss. Pers. 434. Harper, Powers of the Greek Tenses, p. 135. Hermann, Vig. n. 363, Append, p. 748, and for the preposition, see Bernhardy, W. S. p. 240.
  4. "Hebt mit frühem Morgen an." Droysen.
  5. Cf. Ach. 683. Pax, 680.
  6. "Wenn das Volk versammelt ist." Droysen.
  7. Cf. vs. 124, 742. Lys. 910, 914.
  8. See note on Thesm. 789.
  9. "Wenn das Volk
    Bei einander wär', und eine zum Uebersteigen sich
    Aufnähme den Rock und zeigte ihren Phormisios." Droysen.
  10. "Phormisius, who was joined in the embassy with Epicrates (vs. 71), was remarkable for his hairy person." Droysen.
  11. "Agyrrhius, the upstart, had been an influential man in the state for more than twelve years past, and, as we may infer from Demosthenes' speech against Timocrates, a respectable character. He