the rest of you this way, to our house. LYCONIDES By my troth, you’ve made an unfair division; they’ve got the fattest lamb. STROBILUS But the fattest music-girl shall be given you then. Do you, therefore, go along with him, Phrygia Phrygia : Phrygia was an appropriate girl for a tibicina, music-girl, or female player on the flute, as that instrument was originally introduced from Phrygia , or Lydia , which adjoined it. Eleusium would probably derive her name from Eleusis in Attica , where the mysteries of Ceres were celebrated. Players on the tibiae were much in request on festive occasions, especially at weddings, as in the present instance. The tibicina were probably hired in the market-place, the same way as the cooks. . And do you, Eleusium, step in-doors here, to our house. LYCONIDES O you crafty Strobilus, have you pushed me off here upon this most miserly old fellow, where if I ask for anything, I may ask even to hoarseness before anything’s found me? STROBILUS ’Tis very foolish, and ’tis thanklessly done, to do a service to you, when what you do goes for nothing. LYCONIDES But how so? STROBILUS Do you ask? In the first place then, there will be no confusion for you there in the house; if you want anything to use, bring it from your own home, don’t lose your trouble in asking for it. But here, at our house, there’s great confusion, and a large establishment— furniture, gold, garments, silver vessels. If anything’s lost here (as I know that you can easily You can easily : Facile, easily, seems a preferable reading to facere. If the latter reading is adopted, there are three consecutive verbs in the infinitive mood, which, even in the (occasionally) uncouth language of Plautus, sounds very uneuphoniously, Facere abstinere posse. keep hands off—if nothing’s in your way), they may say, The cooks have stolen it; seize them, bind them, beat them, thrust them in the dungeon In the dungeon : Puteus here signifies the black hole or dungeon underground (called also ergastulum ), where the refractory slaves were put in confinement. . Nothing of that sort will happen to you, inasmuch as there will be nothing for you to steal. Follow me this way. LYCONIDES I follow. STROBILUS (knocking at the door of EUCLIO’S house.) Ho, there Staphyla, come out and open the door. STAPHYLA (from within.) Who calls there? STROBILUS Strobilus. (Enter STAPHYLA.) STAPHYLA What do you want? STROBILUS For you to take in these cooks, and this music-girl, and these provisions for the wedding. Megadorus bade me take these things to Euclio. STAPHYLA Are you about to make this wedding, Strobilus, in honor of Ceres In honor of Ceres : The old woman probably alludes to the Thesmophoria, where abstinence from wine was especially practised, and which were celebrated in a state of fasting and purification. Her question here tends to confirm the suspicion that she was more fond of the merum than the mixtum, reference to which has already been made ? STROBILUS Why? STAPHYLA Because I don’t see any wine brought. STROBILUS Why, that will be brought just now, when he himself comes back from the market. STAPHYLA There’s no firewood here in our house. LYCONIDES There are the beams. STAPHYLA I’ faith, there are. LYCONIDES There is wood, then; don’t you be seeking it out of doors. STAPHYLA What, you unpurified fellow You unpurified fellow : Impurate. You that are unpurified, in spite of your everlastingly stewing over the fire. She alludes, figuratively, to the process of smelting and purifying metals by the action of fire. , although your business is with the fire, for the sake of a dinner, or of your own hire, do you request us to set our house on fire? LYCONIDES I don’t ask you. STROBILUS Take them in-doors. STAPHYLA Follow me.