Away with you to utter perdition! You are trifling with me.ERGASILUS So may holy GluttonySo may holy Gluttony: The Parasite very appropriately deifies Gluttony: as the Goddess of Bellyful would, of course, merit his constant worship. love me, Hegio, and so may she ever dignify me with her name, I did see—HEGIO My son? ERGASILUS Your son, and my good Genius.HEGIO That Elean captive, too?ERGASILUS Yes, by ApolloYes, by Apollo: In the exuberance of his joy at his prospects of good eating, the Parasite gives this, and his next five replies, in the Greek language; just as the diner-out, and the man of bon-mots and repartee, might in our day couch his replies in French, with the shrug of the shoulder and the becoming grimace. He first swears by Apollo, and then by Cora, which may mean either a city of Campania so called, or the Goddess Proserpine, who was called by the Greeks, Κορὴ,the maiden. He then swears by four places in Campania—Praeneste, Signia, Phrysinone, and Alatrium. As the scene is in Greece, Hegio asks him why he swears by these foreign places; to which he gives answer merely because they are as disagreable as the unsavoury dinner of vegetables which he had some time since promised him. This is, probably, merely an excuse for obtruding a slighting remark upon these places, which would meet with a ready response from a Roman audience, as the Campanians had sided with Hannibal against Rome in the second Punic war. They were probably miserable places besides, on which the more refined Romans looked with supreme contempt. HEGIO The slave, too? My slave Stalagmus, he that stole my son—? ERGASILUS Yes, by Cora. HEGIO So long a time ago?ERGASILUS Yes, by Praeneste! HEGIO Is he arrived?ERGASILUS Yes, by Signia! HEGIO For sure?ERGASILUS Yes, by Phrysinone! HEGIO Have a care, if you please.ERGASILUS Yes, by Alatrium! HEGIO Why are you swearing by foreign cities?ERGASILUS Why, because they are just as disagreable as you were declaring your fare to be.HEGIO Woe be to you! ERGASILUS Because that you don’t believe me at all in what I say in sober earnestness. But of what country was Stalagmus, at the time when ne departed hence?HEGIO A Sicilian. ERGASILUS But now he is not a Sicilian—he is a Boian; he has got a Boian woman.Got a Boian woman: There is an indelicate meaning in the expression Boiam terere. The whole line is intended as a play upon words. Boia means either a collar, which was placed round a prisoner’s neck, or a female of the nation of the Boii in Gaul. Boiam terere may mean either to have the prisoner’s collar on, or, paraphrastically, to be coupled with a Boian woman. Ergasilus having seen Stalagmus in the packet-boat with this collar on, declares that Stalagmus is a Sicilian no longer, for he has turned Boian having a Boian helpmate. A wife, I suppose, has been given to him for the sake of obtaining children.HEGIO Tell me, have you said these words to me in good earnest?ERGASILUS In good earnest. HEGIO Immortal Gods, I seem to be born again, if you are telling the truth.ERGASILUS Do you say so? Will you still entertain doubts, when I have solemnly sworn to you? In fine, Hegio, if you have little confidence in my oath, go yourself to the harbour and see.HEGIO I’m determined to do so. Do you arrange in-doors what’s requisite. Use, ask for, take from my larder what you like; I appoint you cellarman.ERGASILUS Now, by my troth, if I have not prophesied truly to you, do you comb me out with a cudgel.HEGIO I’ll find you in victuals to the end, if you are telling me the truth.ERGASILUS Whence shall it be?