But the Argives, as Hegesander tells us in his Commentaries, (the following are his exact words)—"The Argives call the contributions towards an entertainment which are brought by the revellers, χῶν; and each man's share they call αἶσα.”
69. And now, since this book also has come to a not unsuitable end, my good friend Timocrates, let us stop our discussion at this point, lest any one should think that we were formerly fishes ourselves, as Empedocles says that he was; for that great natural philosopher says—
For I myself have been a boy, a girl,
A bush, a bird, and fish which roams the sea.
Footnotes
[9] From δίνη, an eddy.
[10] There is a punning allusion here to κάραβος, a crawfish, and to Callimedon's nickname, Carabus.
[11] This was a parody on the first words of the crier's usual proclamation,—Ἀκούετε λαοὶ,—Hear, O people. Ναοὶ means temples.
[12] Κῆρυξ means, not only a crier, but also a prickly instrument of torture.
[13] There is meant here to be a pun on διδάσκω, which means "to teach," and also "to exhibit a play."
[14] There is an allusion here to Harmonia the wife of Cadmus.
[15] Zethus was the name of the brother of Amphion.
[16] καρκῖνος is also Greek for a crab.
[17] Ψάλλ᾽ ἐς κόρακας, parodying the common execration, Βάλλ᾽ ἐς κόρακας.
[18] Alluding to the intemperance of the suitors of Penelope, as described in the Odyssey.
[19] Schweigh, referring to the passage here alluded to, (Hist. An. i. 10,) proposes to transpose these characteristics, so as to attribute shamelessness to those who do not wink, and fickleness to those who do.
[20] Corone is not a woman's name, as some have fancied; the allusion is to the custom of some beggars, who, pretending to be ashamed to beg for themselves, carried about a talking jackdaw (κορώνη), and professed to be begging only for the use of the bird.
[21] From ἐπιτιμάω, to rebuke.
[22] Hom. Odyss. i. 22.
[23] Hom. Iliad, i. 424.
BOOK IX.
1.
But now let each becalm his troubled breast,
Wash, and partake serene the friendly feast;
While to renew these topics we delay
Till Heaven's revolving lamp restores the day,
both to you and me, O Timocrates. For when some hams were brought round, and some one asked whether they were tender, using the word τακερὸς,— In what author does τακερὸς occur? said Ulpian: and is there any authority, too, for calling mustard σίναπι instead of νᾶπυ̣ For I see that that condiment is being brought round in the dishes with the hams. And I see that the word κωλεὸς, a ham, a ham, is now used in the masculine gender, and not in the feminine only, as our Attic writers use it. At all events, Epicharmus, in his Megarian Woman, says—