and mean them, there can be little doubt as to the tendency of that erotic element which he was the first to introduce. In fact, not only is marriage a favourite subject of ridicule, but it is one on which the writers of this period make some of their happiest remarks. There are few things in Antiphanes as good as the passage in the Philopator, where one man, meeting another, enquires after a friend, and hears that he has got married.
τί σὺ λέγεις; he exclaims in horror. ἀληθινῶς
γεγάμηκεν, ὃν ἐγὼ ζῶντα περιπατοῦντά τε
κατέλιπον;
Alexis is seldom as amusing as when he proclaims (Incert. 34) marriage worse than disfranchisement.
εἶτ’ οὐχὶ κρεῖττόν ἐστι τῷ γ’ ἔχοντι νοῦν
ἄτιμον εἶναι μᾶλλον ἢ γυναῖκ’ ἔχειν;
πολλῷ γε· τοὺς μὲν γοῦν ἀτίμους οὐκ ἐᾷ
ἀρχὴν λαχόντας ὁ νόμος ἄρχειν τῶν πέλας·
ἐπὰν δὲ γήμῃς, οὐδὲ σαυτοῦ κύριον