Heap the long-wished-for fruits of joy,
Lovely and necessary to all mortal men.
And after having begun in this manner, he proceeds to say—
But now I marvel, and wait anxiously
To see what will my masters say of me,
Who thus begin
My scolium with this amatory preface,
Willing companion of these willing damsels.
And it is plain here that the poet, while addressing the courtesans in this way, was in some doubt as to the light in which it would appear to the Corinthians; but, trusting to his own genius, he proceeds with the following verse—
We teach pure gold on a well-tried lyre.