Strep. ‘I am not able to shout out, ὦ πόποι’.
Soc. No, no, Streppy: but Euripides often uses ὄπα. He takes it from Homer, and it is akin to ἐπ, not to our ὀπ and much less to πόποι. What does ἔπη mean?
Strep. It means such lines as the diviners sing.
Soc. So it does in Attic, but Homer uses it for ῥήματα, words; indeed we also sometimes.
Strep. Yes, yes, I do know it. All is right.
Soc. I think you do: well, and ὂψ means a voice, φωνὴ.
Strep. How you learned men like to puzzle us! I often have heard ὀπι, ὄπα in the Tragedies, but never quite understood it. What a pity they do not say φωνὴ when they mean φωνή.
Soc. We have at last made one step. Now what is μέροψ? μέροπες ἄνθρωποι.
Strep. Μείρω, I divide, ὄπα, φωνὴν, voice; ‘voice-dividing’: what can that mean?
Soc. You have heard a wild dog howl, and a tame dog bark: tell me how they differ.