[141]. Pac. 12. seq.
Ιδού,
Ἑνὸς μὲν, ὦνδρες[ὦνδρες], ἀπολελῦσθαί μοι δοκῶ.
Οὐδεις γὰρ ἂν φαίη με μάττοντ᾽ ἐσθίειν.
Upon which the Scholiast remarks: εἰώθασι γὰρ ἅμα τῳ μάρτειν, ἐσθίειν.
[142]. Athen. viii. 41.
[143]. Athen. viii. 43.
[144]. Mention is also made of female porters. Dem. in Ev. et Mnes. § 10.
[145]. The scene in which Callias’s eunuch-porter is introduced to us is painted in Plato’s liveliest manner. This ancient Bababalouk exhibits all the crabbedness of the keeper of an oriental harem; and as we listen to him bawling at Socrates through the door, we appear to be transported to the establishment of the Emir Fakreddin. Δοκεῖ οὖν μοι, ὁ θυρωρός, εὐνοῦχός[εὐνοῦχός] τις, κατήκουεν ἡμῶν· κινδυνεύει δὲ διὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν σοφιστῶν ἄχθεσθαι γοῦν ἐκρούσαμεν τὴν θύραν, ἀνοίξας καὶ ἰδων ἡμᾶς, Ἔα, ἔφη, σοφισταί[σοφισταί] τινες· οὐ σχολὴ αὐτῷ. Καὶ ἁμα ἀμφοῖν τοῖν χεροῖν τὴν θύραν πάνυ προθύμως ὡς οἷός τ᾽ ἦν ἐπήραξε. Καὶ ἡμεῖς πάλιν ἐκρούομεν. καὶ ὃς ἐγκεκλῃμένης τῆς θύρας ἀποκρινόμενος εἶπεν, Ὦ ἄνθρωποι, ἔφη, οὐκ ἀκηκόατε ὅτι οὐ σχολὴ αὐτῷ; Ἀλλ᾽ ὠγαθέ[ὠγαθέ], ἔφην ἐγώ, οὔτε παρὰ Καλλίαν ‘ἀλλ᾽ ὠγαθέ,’ ἥκομεν οὔτε σοφισταί ἐσμεν, ἀλλὰ θάῤῥει· Πρωταγόραν γάρ τι δεόμενοι ἰδεῖν ἢλθομεν. εἰσάγγειλον οὖν. Μόγις οὖν ποτὲ ἡμῖν ἄνθρωπος ἀνέωξε τὴν θύραν. Protag. t. i. p. 159, seq.
[146]. Odyss. υ. 149. Hist. of Greece, i. 186. Cf. Athen. iii. 73.