When the time was ripe, we dined on our elbows.
Both faldstools and truckles were at hand. The
dinner was picked up; The phrase dmé cvpdopav to Lexiphanes meant “off contributions” (of the individual guests), but to anyone else in his day it meant “off catastrophes.” many different viands had
been made ready, pig’s trotters, spareribs, tripe, the
caul of a sow that had littered, panned pluck, spoonmeat of cheese and honey, shallot-pickle and other
such condiments, crumpets, stuffed fig-leaves, sweets.
Of submarine victuals, too, there were many sorts of
selacian, all the ostraceans, cuts of Pontic tunny in
hanapers, Copaic lassies, Copaic eels. vernacular fowl, muted
chanticleers, and an odd fish—the parasite. Yes,
and we had a whole sheep barbecued, and the
hind-quarter of an edentulous ox. Besides, there
was bread from Siphae, not bad, and novilunar buns,
too late for the fair, as well as vegetables, both
underground and over grown. And there was wine,
not vetust, but out of a leathern bottle, dry by
now but still crude.
 
Drinking-cups of all kinds stood on the dresser,





 

your brow-hider, your Mentor-made This is said to be the only reference to Mentor in extant Greek literature. The scholia allude to him as a maker of glassware, but various allusions in Latin writers from Cicero to Juvenal and Martial (especially Pliny, Nat. Hist., XX XIII, 147) make it clear that he was a silversmith whose productions were highly esteemed as antiques in Cicero’s time. When and where he lived is not indicated. dipper with a
convenient tail-piece, your gurgler, your longnecker, many “earth-borns” like what Thericles Thericles seems to have been a Corinthian potter, contemporary with Aristophanes (Athen., XI, 470). His name became attached to certain shapes, and even to imitations of these shapes in metal, made at Athens and Rhodes (Athen. XI, 469 8). Cicero (in Verrem, II, 4, 38) speaks of certain cups that are called Thericleian, made by the hand of Mentor with supreme craftsmanship. 
used to bake, vessels both ventricose and patulous,
some from Phocaeawards, other some from Cnidos
way, all airy trifles, By ἀνεμφόρητα Lexiphanes means “light enough to blow away,” but might be taken to mean “wind-blown.” Cf. ἀφόρητα, p. 307, n. 5. hymen-thin. There were also
boats, chalices, and lettered mugs, Caps with an inscription; Athenaeus, XI, 466c (Gulick V, 56). so that the
cupboard was full.
 
The calefactor, According to Athen., III, 98c, the name ἰπνολέβης was used by the “pinean Sophists” for the apparatus for heating water which the Romans called a μιλιάριον. however, slopped over on our
heads and delivered us a consignment of coals. But
we drank bottoms up and soon were well fortified.
Then we endued ourselves with baccharis, and
someone trundled in the girl that treads the mazy
and juggles balls; after which, one of us, scrambling
up to the coekloft, went looking for something to
top off with, The word ἐπιφόρημα means at once coverlet and (in Tonic) dessert. whilst another fell to thrumming and
another laughingly wriggled his hips.
 
Meantime, after lavation, came rollicking in to
us, self-invited, Megalonymus the pettifogger,
Chaereas the goldworker, he with the back of many
colours, and Eudemus the broken-ear.” Chaereas’ back bore the stripes of the lash; Eudemus wa a pugilist with "cauliflower" ears. I asked









 

them what possessed them to come late. Quoth
Chaereas: “I was forging trumpery for my daughter,
balls and chains, and that is why I have come in
on top of your dinner.” “For my part,” quoth
Megalonymus, “I was about other matters. The
day was incapable of justice, For ἄδικος ("unjust") as applied to a day in the sense that court was not held on it, cf. Athen. 98 B (Pompeianus). as ye wit, and incompetent for pleading; wherefore, as there was a truce
of the tongue, I was unable either to palaver or, as
is my diurnal habit, to solicit. Both the verbs of the original (rendered “palaver and “solicit”) refer to pleading in court and carry allusions to the custom of timing pleas by the water-clock. One of them (ῥησιμετρεῖν) is ridiculed in the Mistaken Critic, 24 (p.400). , Learning that the
magistrate was being grilled in public, Lexiphanes would be understood to mean “roasted,” but what he really meant was “visible.” Cf. Athen., 98 a (Pompeianus). I took an
unvalued For ἄχρηστα, usually "useless,” in the sense "unused,” cf. Athen., 98A (Pompeianus), 97E (Ulpian). cloak, of sheer tissue, and priceless In the Greek, ἀφόρητα (“unbearable”) in the sense “unworn,” cf. Athen., 98A (Pompeianus). boots,
and emitted myself.
 
Forthwith I hit upon the Torch-bearer and the
Hierophant, with the other participants in unutterable rites, Those of the Eleusinian Mysteries. haling Deinias neck and crop to
the office, bringing the charge that he had named
them, albeit he knew right well that from the time
when they were hallowed they were nameless
and thenceforth ineffable, as being now all Hieronymuses.” The adjective “of hallowed name” was itself used as a name. Unintentionally, Lexiphanes suggests that they have changed their names. “I do not know,” said I, “the Deinias that you
mention, but the name intrigues me.” No doubt because the name deinias was given to a variety of drinking pot (Athenaeus, XI, 467 D—E). “A clove-









 

engulfing haunter of gaming-houses,” quoth he;
“one of those bezonians, those joculators, a curlilocks, wearing lace boots or pantoffles, with manches
to his shirt.” The word here used for boots (€vSpoyéSas) had another meaning—a kind of woman’s cloak. “Well,’ said I, ‘did he in some
wise pay the piper; or did he take himself off after
setting his heel upon them?” “Verily,” said he,
“that fellow, the whilom swaggerer, is now ensconced; for, notwithstanding his reluctation, the
magistrate decked him out with wristlets and a
necklace and lodged him in the bilboes and the stocks.
Wherefore, being impounded, the sorry wretch
fusted for fear, and trumped, and was fain to give
weregelt.” In my opinion ypjpuara dvrifvya is misused here, for it means “blood-money,” or weregelt, rather than “ransom.”