ἔνδοι Πραξινόα, 'Is Praxinoa at home?' Arist. Acharn. 395 παῖ παῖ: τίς οὖτος; ἔνδον ἔστ᾽ Εὐριπίδης; The words may be taken as addressed to the servant; then Praxinoa, overhearing, answers herself; or Gorgo, not standing on ceremony, opens the door and looks in without knocking.
ὡς χρόνῳ, 'what an age since you have been here'; Eurip. Phoeniss. 305 χρόνῳ σὸν ὄμμα μυρίαις ἐν ἁμέραις προσεῖδον.[2] ὅρη δίφρον, 'see to a chair for her.' Cf. Soph. Ajax 1165.
[3] ποτίκρανον a cushion = προσκεφάλαιον.
[4]
ὢ τᾶς ἀλεμάτω, 'this gadabout spirit' (Mat. Arnold); cf. iv. 40. ἠλέματος = 'vain,' 'trifling'; almost = ἠλίθιος: cf. Timo, xv (Brunck):
“
οἱ δέ μιν ἠΰτε γλαῦκα πέρι σπίζαι τερατοῦντο
ἠλέματον δεικνύντες ὁθούνεκεν ὀχλοαρέσκης.
οὐ μέγα πρῆγμα τάλας: τί πλατύνεαι ἠλίθιος ὥς;
”
'ad me certe quod attinet non video quid aptius reponi possit et minori cum mutatione quam ἀλεμάτω ut illa quae haec dicit stultitiae seipsam accuset quod, dum pompae nihil ad se pertinentis spectatrix esse vult, stulta curiositate inducta in discrimen vitae venerit' (Stephanus); the emendation was made before this by Scaliger.
[5] 'I've scarcely got here alive from all the crowd and all the carriages.' The genitives depend on ἐσώθην, cf. Eurip. Alc. 770 κακῶν γὰρ μυρίων ἐρρύετο.
[6] κρηπῖδες…χλαμύδες, 'riding boots and uniforms' (? 'gentlemen in khaki').
[7]
ἑκαστάτω ὅσσον, 'and you live such a dreadful way off.' The construction is explained by such phrases as θαυμαστὸν ὅσον, etc.; the superlative being found also in Lucian, Tox. xii. φιλίας πλεῖστον ὅσον ἀποδέοντας: cf. i. 45. σς and ω can be easily confused both in uncial and minuscule, as can εμ and ον. ἑκαστατέρω is read by Hermann, but is equally a vox nihili. Greek forms double superlative as κυδίστατος: more commonly double comparatives, ἀσσοτέρω, χειρότερος, ἀμεινότερος: but a comparative termination added to a superlative, as ἑκαστατέρω would be, is unparalleled. Meineke read ἑκαστέρω ὦ μέλ（ε）. The first mime of Herondas opens in much the same way; see especially v. 10 sqq.:
“
ἤδη γάρ εἰσι πέντε κου δοκέω μῆνες
ἐξ οὗ σὲ Γυλλὶς οὐδ᾽ ὄναρ μὰ τὰς Μοίρας
πρὸς τὴν θύρην ἐλθοῦσαν εἶδέ τις ταύτην.
Μακρὴν ἀποικέω τέκνον ἐν δὲ ταῖς λαύραις
ὁ πηλὸς ἄχρις ἰγνύων προσέστηκεν:
ἐγὼ δὲ δραίνω μυῖ᾽ ὅσον.
”
[8] ταῦτα vid. xiv. 3, note; where the quoted examples show that Meineke is incorrect in stating that ταῦτα, used to mean 'propterea,' is always accompanied by a particle ἄρα, δή, τοι, etc. Tr. 'That is why that intractable creature came to the ends of the earth and took this rat-hole--house indeed!--to prevent us being neighbours.'
See Liddell and Scott on παρήορος.[9] ὅπως, κ.τ.λ. explains the ταῦτα. Meineke puts a colon at τῆνος and explains, 'that's the fault of that fellow--'; a construction by no means justified by Eurip. And. 168 οὔκ ἐσθ᾽ ῞Εκτωρ τάδε: Menand. 354 τοῦθ᾽ ἑταῖρός ἐστιν οὕτως. (In Soph. O. T. 1329 a comma not a full stop stands at ἦν: see Jebb.)
[10] ποτ᾽ ἔριν, 'out of spite.'
φθονερὸν κακόν, 'the jealous brute.' αἰὲν ὁμοῖος, 'always the same.'[14] τὰν πότνιαν Persephone. μὰ τὴν ῞Αιδεω κούρην, Herond. i. 32.
[15] ἀπφῦς μὰν τῆνος, 'well that daddy the other day--we call everything "the other day"--was a-buying soap and rouge in the bazaar, and came back with salt, the overgrown blunderer.'
λέγομες δὲ πρόαν θην, κ.τ.λ. is to be taken as a comment of the constant use of the word πρόαν （πρᾶν） in common speech. Theocritus himself uses it thirteen times (cf. use of καλός, note on viii. 187). πάντα is awkward; but it should probably be taken as direct object with πρόαν as 'tertiary predicate,' not as an ellipse of εἶναι (λέγομες δὲ προαθρεῖν πάντα, Seidler, is ingenious but not necessary; 'we told him to be very careful').[16] ἀπὸ σκανᾶς cf. Theophr. Char. 18 ἐξ ἀγορᾶς ὀψωνήσας τὰ κρέα.
ἀγοράσδων probably represents ἠγόραζε = 'tried to buy.' Herod. i. 69 πέμψαντες ἐς Σάρδις χρυσὸν ὠνέοντο, κ.τ.λ.[19] κυνάδας （κυνάς） : dog's hair, substantival; vid. Index, Adjectives.
[20] ἅπαν ῥύπον, 'mere filth.' ἅπαν, adverbial; cf. iii. 18. note.
ἔργον ἐπ᾽ ἔργῳ in apposition to sentence; 'trouble on trouble.' Cf. xxv. 94; Quint. Smyr. v. 602 ἐπὶ πένθεϊ πένθος.[22] βᾶμες = βῶμεν, through the form βάομεν.
ἐς…Πτολεμαίω sc. αὐλάν: cf. xiii. 11.
[23]
τὸν ῎Αδωνιν. The festival commemorated the untimely death of Adonis and the grief of Aphrodite. Figures of the two were exhibited in costly work, and a dirge sung by the popular singer of the day. How far any religious significance which the festival may once have had gave way to mere holiday making, and courtly flattery can best be judged by this idyll. Nor is there more depth in Bion's Epit. Adon., written to suit a similar occasion. The admission of Musaeus is frank, that the festival of Adonis and Cypris was an opportunity eagerly seized not for worship but for flirting. Hero and Leander, 52:
“
ὅπῃ φάτις ἐστὶν ἑορτῆς
οὐ τόσον ἀθανάτοισιν ἄγειν σπεύδουσι θυηλὰς
ὅσσον ἀγειρομένων διὰ κάλλεα παρθενικάων.
”
[25] ὧν ἴδες, κ.τ.λ. : see note on ii. 82. The aorists are to be taken as gnomic. The expression is obviously proverbially from the use of the masculine and the generic μή in τῷ μὴ ἰδόντι.
ὧν. The first ὧν is genit. by attraction; the second depends on εἷπες ('tell of'), cf. Odyss. xi. 174 εἰπὲ δέ μοι πατρός τε καὶ υἱέος. Tr. 'The sights you see are tales to tell another.'[26] ὥρα cf. Arist. Eccl. 30 ὥρα βαδίζειν.
(The distribution of the verses between the two speakers is here very uncertain. I have followed Hiller, Ziegler, and Paley.) ἀεργοῖς, 'idle folks have always holiday.' Praxinoa does not fall in at once with Gorgo's invitation, and puts her off with excuses embodied in proverbial wisdom; in l. 27 she suddenly changes her mind and agrees to go.
[27]
'Eunoa, take up the spinning and put it down again out there if you dare--a nice soft bed for the cats--you lazy good-for-nothing.' So Hermann (Opusc. v), giving a capital sense. It is, however, also possible to make γαλέαι a term of reproach addressed to Eunoa: 'these lazy cats are always asleep.' Cf. Herond. vii. 4:
“
ταῖς γυναιξὶν οὐ θήσεις τὴν μέζον᾽ ἔξω σανίδα
Δριμύλ᾽; αὖ φωνέω πάλιν καθεύδεις;
”
The former explanation is preferable. νᾶμα (MSS.) is merely a false Doric form of νῆμα: it could not be taken as = water for washing.
[30] σμᾶμα, 'soap' (not in a cake but in some kind of paste).
μὴ δὴ πολὺ ἄπληστε I have left this--the reading of k (μὴ δέ, p)--believing that the exceedingly harsh scansion is intended to bring the verse near to the level of common speech. Herondas affords parallels, e. g. v. 7 τὸ μὲναἷμα: ib. 9 μοι αὐτόν (?): vi. 29 πρόσθεν ἢ αὐτή: ii. 53 ἢ ὅρους (spondee). Cf. next note.
[32]
παῦε. ὁκοῖα. The hiatus is justified by the pause; and is perhaps in imitation of colloquial speech; but cf. Odyss. xxiv. 351 Ζεῦ πάτερ ἦ ῥα ἔτ᾽ ἐστέ: ib. x. 536 μηδὲ ἐᾶν: A. Pal. ix. 70 παῦε: ἐπεί σε μένει καὶ κατόπιν δάκρυα.
“
'τηατ᾽ς ας γοοδ α ωαση ας τηε γοδς αλλοω.'
”
[33] κλᾴξ (= κλείς), 'where's the key of the big chest?' For the ellipse cf. Herond. iii. 60 κοῦ Κόκκαλος κοῦ Φίλλος; Throughout this idyll the conversation is seldom uninterrupted for more than a few lines: there are frequent intervals to be filled up by action, as here where Praxinoa dresses herself; l. 43 change of scene; 51-77, a long struggle through the crowd; and so on.
[34] ἐμπερόναμα the same as περόνατρις of l. 21; see Liddell and Scott under latter word.
[35] πόσσω…, 'how much did it cost you off the loom?' πόσσω is genit. of price. “'Ad usum verbi κατέβα perspiciendum opus est teneamus telam apud veteres in altum erectam stetisse, ita ut opus perfectum de tela deorsum depromeretur'” (Wuestemann).
[36] μὴ μνάσῃς, 'don't make me think of it,' i. e. I don't like to think of it. Beware of the active and do no not translate 'don't mention it.'
πλέον, κ.τ.λ. : construe κατέβα μνᾶν πλέον ἢ δύο καθαρῶ ἀργυρίω, so that μνᾶν and δύο are genit. of price. δύο as genit. is correctly used with the genit. plural (μνᾶν); with genit. dual δύοιν is always found; Krüger, i. 24; ii. 3; Thucyd. i. 74 δύο μοιρῶν. ἀργυρίω καθαρῶ, 'hard cash'; 'aridum argentum' (Plautus, Rudens, 726). Cf. the Irish expression 'dry money' ('£700 of dry money'--Spectator, Nov. 8, 1890); and the similar expressions, "ἀργυρίω καθαρῶ," 'Blankes Geld.' aridus, 'without moisture,' easily suggests the meaning 'nothing but.' Sonnenschein on Plautus, loc. cit.[37] ποτέθηκα (προσέθηκα, f), 'I gave my soul to the work on it.' Bion, vii. 8 ψυχὰν ποτὶ κέρδεα καὶ ποτὶ τέχνας βάλλομες.
[38] κατὰ γνώμαν, 'it has turned out all you could wish'; cf. xiv. 57 κατὰ νοῦν τεόν: xiii. 14 κατὰ θυμόν.
[40]
μορμώ, 'Bogey!' Cf. Callim. iii. 66:
“
ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε κουράων τις ἀπειθέα μητέρι τεύχοι
μήτηρ μὲν Κύκλωπας ἑῇ ἐπὶ παιδὶ καλιστρεῖ
…ὁ δὲ δώματος ἐκ μυχάτοιο
ἔρχεται…αὐτίκα τὴν κούρην μορμύσσεται.
”
[45] τὸ κακόν, 'this nuisance,' i.e. 'the crowd'; not 'this difficulty,' as Lang seems to take it. Cf. Arist. Birds 294 ὅσον συνείλεκται κακὸν ὀρνέων, 'what a plaguey lot of birds.'
μύρμακες, 'they are thick as ants'; cf. Aeschrio (Bergk, A. Lyr.) στενὸν καθ᾽ ῾Ελλήσποντον ἐμπόρων χώρην ναῦται θαλάσσης ἐστρέφοντο μύρμηκες.[46] Πτολεμαῖε, i. e. Ptolemy II, the reigning king, son of Ptolemy Soter; see Introduction.
[47]
ἐξ ὧ ἐν ἀθανάτοις, 'since your father was deified.' Herondas (i. 26) speaks similarly of the prosperity of Egypt under the Ptolemies:
“
τὰ γὰρ πάντα
ὅσ᾽ ἐστί κου καὶ γίνετ᾽ ἔστ᾽ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ,
πλοῦτος παλαίστρη δύναμις εὐδίη δόξα
θεαὶ φιλόσοφοι χρυσίον ϝεηνίσκοι.
θεῶν ἀδελφῶν τέμενος ὁ βασιλεὺς χρηστός:
Μουσῇον οἶνος ἀγαθὰ πάνθ᾽ ὅσ᾽ ἂν χρῄζῃς.
”
(This was written later than Theocr. xv; see Introd. p. 31.) Professor Mahaffy writes (Emp. of Ptol. p. 148), 'It is remarkable that among the many complaints of injustice found in the Petrie and Serapeum papyri made by poor people who seek redress from the law, there is not a single tale of horror. ... The effect which these papers produce upon a careful student is that they belong to an orderly and well-managed society where there is but little actual want and but little lawlessness.'
[48] Αἰγυπτιστί, 'in old Egyptian fashion.' ἀπατηλοὶ γὰρ οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι ὡς καὶ Αἰσχύλος φησί: δεινοὶ πλέκειν τοι μηχανὰς Αἰγύπτιοι.
[49] ἐξ ἀπάτας κεκροτημένοι, 'a mass of deceit' ('welded together of deceit'). ἐξ, cf. xvii. 21.
[50] κακὰ παίγνια it is easier to make this cognate accusative to ἔπαισδον and in apposition to οἷα, than to take it in apposition to the subject as a term of reproach. The latter way is however favoured by the parallel lines, Hesiod, Theog. 26 ποιμένες ἄγραυλοι, κάκ᾽ ἐλέγχεα, γαστέρες οἶον, and Epimenides' Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαί.
ἐριοί (k) or ἐρειοί (other MSS.) is an unknown word; it may be right, but though Theocritus has many ἅπαξ λεγόμενα they are all simple new formations: he does not go out of his way to find strange words. Convincing emendation is impossible. Meineke's ἐρινοί is perhaps the best (e conj. Spohn). To add one more to the existing many, I suggest ἑορταί: cf. Herond. vi. 17: “ ἐκποδὼν ἡμῖν φθείρεσθε νώβυστρ᾽ὦτα μοῦνον καὶ γλᾶσσαι ῟ γλῶσσαἰ
τὰ δ᾽ ἄλλ᾽ ἑορταί:
” 'idle good-for-naughts.'
[51] τί γενοίμεθα; 'what is to become of me?' Aesch. S. c. T. 297 τί γένωμαι; For the optative cf. Soph. Philoct. 895 τί δῆτα δρῷμ᾽ ἐγώ; and Mr. Sidgwick's Appendix to his edition of the Agamemnon. In Alexandrian writers the use of the bare optative in questions becomes frequent; Herond. v. 76 τίς οὐκ ἐμπτύοι; A. Pal. v. 245 καὶ τίς ὑποτλαίη;
πολεμισταί. πολεμιστὴς ἵππος οὐχ ὁ εἰς τοὺς πολέμους ἐπιτήδειος ἀλλ᾽ ὁ ἐν τοῖς ἀγῶσι σχῆμα φέρων ὡς εἰς πόλεμον εὐτρεπισμένος: ἦν γὰρ τοιοῦτον ἀγώνισμα (Photius). These gaily caparisoned horses were led, not ridden, as appears from l. 53.[53] ὀρθὸς ἀνέστα, 'has reared.'
[56] καὶ δή…, 'there we've got past, and they've gone to their position.'
[57]
συναγείρομαι, 'I am beginning to collect my nerves.' Cf. Ap. Rhod. i. 1233:
“
τῆς δὲ φρένας ἐπτοίησεν
Κύπρις, ἀμηχανίῃ δὲ μόγις συναγείρατο θυμόν.
”
Plato, Protag. 328 d μόγις πως ἐμαυτὸν ὡσπερεὶ συναγείρας εἶπον.
[58]
ἵππον καὶ τὸν ψυχρὸν ὄφιν. For the article with second only of two nouns cf. vi. 1; xxii. 140; vii. 132; xxii. 34; Epig. iii. 3. The second has always an attribute. Without attribute, Pind. P. iv. 118 ᾿Απόλλων ἅ τε Πυθώ: Moschus, v. 5:
“
ἀλλ᾽ ὅταν ἀχήσῃ πολιὸς βυθὸς ἁ δὲ θάλασσα
κυρτὸν ἐπαφρίζῃ.
”
[64] Plautus, Trinummus, i. 2. 72 “'sciunt quod Iuno fabulata est cum Iove.'”
[65] τὰς θύρας sc. τῆς αὐλῆς, at which they have now arrived.
[67] Εὐτυχίδος sc. χέρα, not 'take hold of Eutychis,' as this would require λαβοῦ. Eutychis is presumably Gorgo's maid as Eunoa is Praxinoa's.
πότεχ᾽ （πρόσεχε）, attend to her lest you lose yourself.
[68]
ἔχευ ἁμῶν, 'hold on to us with your teeth'; see ἀπρίξ in Liddell and Scott; Theognis 31:
“
κακοῖσι δὲ μὴ προσομίλει
ἀνδράσιν ἀλλ᾽ αἰεὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἔχεο.
”
[70]
εἴτι γένοιο, 'as you wish to be saved' (M. Arnold); a neat representation of the sense. For the construction cf. Herond. iii. 56:
“
ἀλλ᾽ εἴ τι σοι Λάμπρισκε καὶ βίου πρῆξιν
ἐσθλὴν τελοῖεν αἴδε ῾σξ. Μοῖσαἰ κἀγαθῶν κύρσαις.
”
(sc. 'Thrash this boy.') Ib. 79 εἴ τί σοι ζῴην παῦσαι. But in all three examples we have merely an extension of the use of an 'if clause' to express an object aimed at, 'if haply.' The optative is used in primary sequence as in Eurip. Rhesus 3 βᾶθι εἰ δέξαιτο: Lucian, i. 224 βαδιοῦμαι εἴ που εὑρεθείη.
[71] φυλάσσεο, 'mind my shawl,' i.e. not 'take charge of' but 'mind not to tear.'
[72] ἄθρως Doric for ἄθρους, the contracted form of ἀθρόος. The corrupted forms ἀθρέως k, ἀθρόως p seem simply to arise from a misreading, final ς being taken for S (= ως). See Sir E. M. Thompson's Palaeography, p. 95.
[73]
ἐν καλῷ, 'in a good place,' 'all right'; Eur. H. F. 201:
“
τὸ σῶμα δ᾽ οὐ δίδωσι τοῖς ἐναντίοις
ἐν εὐφυλάκτῳ δ᾽ ἐστί.
”
[74] 'And may you be "all right" year in, year out, and afterwards'; cf. Odyss. ix. 134 μάλα κεν βαθὺ λήιον αἰεὶ εἰς ὥρας ἀμῷεν. The noun is used always in the plural in the idiom. Contr. εἰς ἐνιαυτόν, εἰς ἔτος. φίλ᾽ ἀνδρῶν: cf. xxiv. 40.
[75] χρηστῶ genit. of exclamation; 'a good kind man.'
[76] βιάζευ, 'shove your way in.' [Ziegler here reads ἄγ᾽ ὤθει καί because the Scholiast has ἄγε βιάζου καὶ ὤθει, but the Scholiast constantly paraphrases one verb by two.]
[77] κάλλιστα, 'that's all right'--they get through the crush into the court--'all inside' as the man said when he shut the door on his bride. The point of the joke in the last phrase is lost; and its recovery is rendered doubly difficult by the uncertainty whether ἀποκλᾴξας means 'shut out' or 'shut up.'
(1) The former is the better attested, Lucian, 473 ad fin. of clients at the door, ὠθούμενοι καὶ ἀποκλειόμενοι πρὸς τῶν οἰκετῶν; cf. Epictet. xxxiii. 14 ὅταν φοιτῇς πρός τινα τῶν μέγα δυναμένων πρόβαλε ὅτι…ἀποκλεισθήσει, ὅτι ἐντιναχθήσονταί σοι αἱ θύραι. Haupt takes this meaning and adds the phrase to the number of those in which a ridiculous action is described introduced by 'as the man said who' (e.g. 'not such a bad shot after all, as the man said, who missed the dog and killed his mother-in-law'). (2) 'Shut up,' i.e. 'shut up alone'; not as Lang translates 'when he had shut himself in with his bride,' Charito, A. x. 2 τὴν ἔνδον ἀποκεκλειμένην. In this case understand a man shutting up his wife alone for 'safety,' cp. Ap. Rhod. i. 775 νηγατέῃσιν ἐεργόμεναι καλύβῃσι νύμφαι: 'all safe at home, as the man said, when he locked his bride in.' The 'paraprosdokian' would then lie in νυόν: it was unmarried girls who were generally so securely watched, Callim. frag. 118 ἡ παῖς ἡ κατάκλειστος τὴν οἴ φασι τεκόντες εὐναίους ὀαρισμοὺς ἔχθειν ἶσον ὀλέθρῳ. (3) We could take ἔνδοι = εἴσω, and make the sentence a command: 'Come in all of you, as the man said, when he had shut his wife out of the way.' This gives far the best sense if this meaning of ἔνδοι can be allowed in Theocritus; vid. Liddell and Scott (ἔνδον).
[79]
λεπτὰ καὶ ὡς χαρίεντα after Odyss. x. 222:
“
οἷα θεάων
λεπτά τε καὶ χαρίεντα καὶ ἀγλαὰ ἔργα πέλονται.
”
Cf. Odyss. v. 231.
ἔξυσ᾽ ἀσκήσασα, τίθει δ᾽ ἐνὶ δαίδαλα πολλά:
χρυσείῃς δ᾽ ἐνετῇσι κατὰ στῆθος περονᾶτο.
” Cf. Et. Magn. 260. 43 δείκανα: τὰ πολλὰ ὑφάσματα καὶ μορφὰς ἔχοντα: Hesych. δείκανα: ποικίλα ἱμάτια.
[81] ζῳογράφοι. The tapestries represented scenes in the story of Adonis and Venus. So Achill. Tat. liii. 4 describes a πέπλος wrought by ζῳογράφοι representing the story of Tereus and Philomela.
[82] 'How true to life they stand, how true they move.'
ἐνδινεῦντι is here intransitive; cf. 'animosa signa,' Propert. iv. 9. The whole passage resembles Herondas iv--a visit to the temple of Asclepius in Cos. See v. 33: μᾶ, χρόνῳ κοτ᾽ ἄνθρωποι | κἠς τοὺς λίθους ἕξουσι τὴν ζόην θεῖναι. v. 56: οὐχ ὁρῇς φίλη Κυννοῖ | οἷ᾽ ἔργα; καινὴν ταῦτ᾽ ἐρεῖς ᾿Αθηναίην | γλύψαι τὰ καλὰ…τὸν παῖδα δὴ τὸν γυμνὸν ἢν κνίσω τοῦτον | οὐχ ἕλκος ἕξει. This mime of Herondas is probably earlier than Theocritus.[84] ἀργυρέας. There is no other example of κλισμός in feminine, but all the good MSS. give ἀργυρέας here, and it is hard to explain the introduction of the form if it is erroneous.
[85] καταβάλλων for the use of the active cf. ii. 26; x. 40; Xen. Symp. iv. 23 “παρὰ τὰ ὦτα ἄρτι ἴουλος καθέρπει.”
[87] The ceaseless chatter and broad provincial accent of the women raises the wrath of a testy bystander. It is curious that the offended person should speak equally broad Doric, but so does even the singer of the dirge.
[88]
τρυγόνες cf. Alexis in Athenaeus iv. 133 b:
“
σοῦ δ᾽ ἐγὼ λαλιστέραν
οὐ πώποτ᾽ εἶδον οὔτε κερκώπην γύναι
οὐ κίτταν οὐ χελιδόν᾽ οὔτε τρυγόνα.
”
But not only the ceaselessness but the monotony of the ringdove's note is meant.
[89] μᾶ simply an exclamation, common in Herondas, 'my word!'
[90] πασάμενος, 'buy your slaves before you order them about'; cf. Soph. O. C. 839 μὴ ᾿πίτασσ᾽ ἃ μὴ κρατεῖς.
[91] Κορίνθιαι…ἄνωθεν, 'an old Corinthian family.' Syracuse was founded from Corinth.
[93] δωρίσδεν, 'I suppose Dorian folk may speak in Dorian.'
[94] 94, 95 On construction see vii. 126.
Μελιτῶδες = Persephone. ἁμῶν καρτερός, 'master over us.' πλὰν ἑνός, 'save only one': sc. 'the king.' κενεάν sc. χοίνικα (Herond. iii. 33 ἐκ τετρημένης ἠθεῖ), 'I am not afraid of you cutting down my rations.' Wuestemann's explanation is the only one available; 'that the daily rations of a slave--a modius or χοῖνιξ--was measured out and levelled down with a scraper.' (ἀπόψηστρον, Herond. vi. 30: ἀπομάκτρας τὰς σκυτάλας αἷς ἀποψῶσι τὰ μέτρα, Hesych.) A stingy bailiff would level it down till the measure was almost empty, and so could be said κενεὰν ἀπομάττειν: cf. Theophr. Char. 17 (30) φειδωνίῳ μέτρῳ τὸν πύνδακα ἐγκεκρουσμένῳ μετρεῖν αὐτὸς τοῖς ἔνδον τὰ ἐπιτήδεια σφόδρα ἀποψῶν.[97] ἁ τᾶς ᾿Αργείας. For order of words cf. vii. 11; xiii. 19; Plato, Epig. 5 τὸν Νυμφᾶν θεράποντα φιλόμβριον ὑγρὸν ἀοιδόν: Herond. iii. 38 τὴν μάμμην γρηὺν γυναῖκα.
[100] Catullus, lxiv. 96 'quaeque regis Golgos quaeque Idalium frondosum.'
ἐφίλασας cf. vii. 95.[101] ᾿Ερύκαν the same as Eryx (in Sicily).
χρυσῷ παίζοισ᾽, 'toying with gold'; a curious expression and hardly what Theocritus wrote (we should expect παίσδοισ᾽), but not improved by such conjectures as χρυσῶπις δῖ᾽ (Bergk), ῎Ερυκ᾽ ἂν Χρυσὼ παίζοισ᾽ (or παίζεις) ᾿Αφροδίτη (Ahrens), χρυσῷ στίλβοισ᾽ (Stadtmüller), or what is open to any one to suggest, χρυσῶ παῖς δῖ᾽.[106] 106, 107 ἀθανάταν…Βερενίκαν cf. xvii. 34 sqq. and Introduction.
ἀπὸ θνατᾶς Isocr. 119 b ἐπειδὴ ῾Ηρακλῆς μετήλλαξε τὸν βίον θεὸς ἐκ θνητοῦ γενόμενος.[110] Βερενικεία cf. Iliad xiii. 67 Τελαμώνιον υἱόν: Odyss. xviii. 353, etc.
[111] πάντεσσι καλοῖς. A neuter adjective used substantivally without article can have πάντα attached as attribute; cf. viii. 40; Demosth. viii. 9 ἐπὶ πᾶσι δικαίοις συμβουλεύειν.
[112] 'Beside him lie all the fruits of the season, all the fruits of the trees.'
δρυὸς ἄκρα division for ἀκρόδρυα: see Xen. Oecon. xix. 19. δρύες here 'trees' in general not 'oaks'; cf. Hesiod, ῎Εργ. 233. πὰρ μέν οἱ. We may either scan as a dactyl adding this to the passages when the ϝ of οἱ is neglected, (cf. Iliad vi. 101 οὐδε^ τι^ς οἱ: Ib. 90 πέπλο^ν ὅ οἱ δοκέει. Add Iliad ii. 665; xi. 339; xxiii. 865; xxiv. 72, in all of which γάρ precedes); or (2) we may scan as spondee πα_ρ με_ν ϝ᾽ and elide the οι. See Monro, Hom. Gram. 376; Odyss. ix. 360 ὣς ἔφατ᾽: αὐτὰρ ϝ᾽ αὖτις.[119] βρίθοντι see crit. note. βρίθοντες is impossible after χλωραὶ σκιάδες, even if δρόσοι…τιθέντες is allowed in Aesch. Agam. 545, where the words are far separated. Nicander (Ther. 329) has καταψηχθέντος ἀκάνθης, but on false analogy to adjectives in -εις (Odyss. xvi. 123 ὑλήεντι Ζακύνθῳ: Nicand. Alex. 48 ποιήεντος χαμελαίης). Nor can the occasional use of dual masculine forms be quoted in support of this: see Soph. O. C. 1678. Given βρίθοντι as the original the corruption is easily explained through the confusion of the sign for ες with ϊ. For hiatus cf. v. 10. Tr., 'and green bowers are built with weight of dill.' For construction cf. xiii. 29; Xen. Cyrop. i. 4. 28 “ἥκειν ἱδροῦντι τῷ ἵππῳ.” Fritzsche and Hartung mark a lacuna at σκιάδες, so that βρίθοντες ἀνήθῳ is end of the following line.
[122] ὄζον ἀπ᾽ ὄζω, 'flying from branch to branch'; cf. Arist. Acharn. 235 διώκειν γῆν πρὸ γῆς.
[123] ἐκ made of; cf. xxi. 11; A. Pal. v. 157 ζώνιον ἐξ ἀνθέων.
[125] 125, 126 ἁ Μίλατος ἐρεῖ. This seems by the rhythm and absence of conjunction to go with the preceding not the following line. What Miletus--the great wool-growing district--says is therefore 'μαλακώτεροι ὕπνω' (cf. v. 51), a commendation of the quality.
[127] ἄλλα, 'another' for this year's festival. Theocritus looks back at the previous year as Bion (Epit. Adon. ad fin.) looks forward to the next, λῆγε γόων Κυθέρεια, τὸ σάμερον ἴσχεο κομμῶν. δεῖ σε πάλιν κλαῦσαι, πάλιν εἰς ἔτος ἄλλο δακρῦσαι.
[128] τὰν μὲν…τὰν δέ. The passage suffers clearly by being over condensed; this line proceeds as if we had had already mention of a second κλίνη for Cypris.
[129] ἐννεακαίδεκα for ἐννεακαιδεκετής, ἐτῶν or the termination -ετης being easily understood from the preceding, cf. xxvi. 29; Iliad xxii. 349 δεκάκις τε καὶ εἰκοσινήριτ᾽ ἄποινα.
[130]
πυρρά fem. sing.; sc. θρίξ. Cf. Epit. Adon. 12:
“
καὶ τὸ ῥόδον φεύγει τῶ χείλεος ἀμφὶ δὲ τήνῳ
θνάσκει καὶ τὸ φίλαμα τὸ μήποτε Κύπρις ἀφήσει.
Κύπριδι μὲν τὸ φίλαμα καὶ οὐ ζώοντος ἀρέσκει
ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ οἶδεν ῎Αδωνις ὅ νιν θνάσκοντ᾽ ἐφίλασεν.
”
[132] ἅμα δρόσῳ, 'when the dew is fresh on the ground.'
[134]
ἐπὶ σφυρά, 'ut defluat vestis superior pars ad talos zona, sc. retenta. Parant se mulieres ad κομμὸν qualis deinceps canitur,' Paley; cf. Iliad xxii. 80. But κόλπον does not necessarily mean the folds about the breast; cf. Ap. Rhod. iv. 947:
“
παρθενικαὶ δίχα κόλπον ἐπ᾽ ἰξύας εἱλίξασαι
σφαίρῃ ἀθύρουσιν περιηγέϊ.
”
'Gathering the folds about the waist'; cf. Theocr. xxvi. 17.
[139] γεραίτερος cf. xxv. 48; Odyss. vii. 156 ὃς δὴ Φαιήκων ἀνδρῶν προγενέστερος ἦεν: Iliad v. 898 καί κεν δὴ πάλαι ἦσθα ἐνέρτερος Οὐρανιώνων, where the comparative seems equally to be used for the superlative.
[141] Δευκαλίωνες, 'Deucalion and his sons' (Hiller), or 'such men as were Deucalion' as Greek says, ῾Ηρακλέες τε καὶ Θησέες (Plato, Theaet. 169 b).
[142] Πελοπηιάδαι cf. Pind. N. viii. 21.
ἄκρα neut. for masc. 'the pride of Argos'; cf. xx. 31; x. 29, note; Aesch. Eumenid. 489 κρίνασα δ᾽ ἀστῶν τῶν ἐμῶν τὰ βέλτατα: Id. Persae 1 τάδε μὲν Περσῶν…πιστὰ καλεῖται.[143] ἵλαθι an Alexandrian form, Ap. Rhod. iv. 1600; Homer has ἵληθι.
ἐς νέωτα, 'next year.'[145] τὸ χρῆμα: in apposition to ἁ θήλεια. τὸ χρῆμα is something colloquial; 'ain't she wonderful? the woman's happy for her learning, most happy for her voice.'
[147] κεἰς οἶκον sc. ἀπιέναι, Arist. Frogs 1279 ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν ἐς τὸ βαλανεῖον βούλομαι. So in Shakespearian English 'he shall with speed to England' (Hamlet). Note how here as in Idyll i and elsewhere Theocritus brings us back at the close to the commonplace of daily life. 'So with the song still in her ears ends the incorrigible Gorgo' (M. Arnold).
[149] χαῖρε ῎Αδων the hiatus is allowed on the analogy (though false) of χαῖρε ἄναξ. xvii. 135.
῎Αδων a colloquial form of the name; cf. ᾿Αρτεμῖς = ᾿Αρτεμισία (Herond.); Αὐτοκλῖς = Αὐτοκλῆς (Inscr.).