Imatges de pàgina
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1369, 1370. où s'.... vewτépwv, well, then, repeat something from these new-fangled poets.

1375. ἔπος . . . . ἠρειδόμεσθ', then we went at it from word to word. 1382, 1383. ei ǎρTov. Old Strepsiades reverts to the care which he had taken of his ungrateful son in his infancy; when he could merely lisp, his father understood him and supplied his wants; when he said Bouv (a Greek baby-word for drink), he gave it him; and when he said paμμãv, something to eat, he gave him bread; and when other infantile necessities were intimated, he would help the youngster through his trouble.

1395, 1396. Tò. . . . ¿peßívlov, I would not give a chick-pea for the old man's skin. Construction, gen. of price. Gr. 893 (691) § 515.

1399-1405, ὡς . . . . κολάζειν. The young sophist is in an ecstasy with his newly-acquired powers. He cannot help comparing his present intellectual state with his former dulness and stupidity: once, when horses were his passion, he could not put three words together without blundering; but now his intellects have attained to such a marvellous growth, that he can prove it just to thrash his father;-a most gratifying thing to a father's heart.

1406, 1407. ἵππευε . . . . ἐπιτριβῆναι. Stepsiades gives up in despair. He would rather come down with the money for a chariot and four, than be thus beaten within an inch of his life.

1408, 1409. ἐκεῖσε . . . . ἔτυπτες ; Phidippides, however, is not to be cheated out of his argument. He is determined to prove his point; and he does it by a most ingenious piece of logic.

1423, 1424. ἧττον . . . . ἀντιτύπτειν ; Since the maker of this law was but a man like you and me, why shouldn't I, too, get a new law made for the future,—a law in favour of sons,—that they may take their turn in thrashing their fathers?

1429. πλὴν . . . . γράφουσιν ; except that they don't make popular decrees. The pioμa was a vote, or decree, passed by the people in the ἐκκλησία. The individual who proposed the ψήφισμα was said ypápe, literally, to write it, that is, to bring it forward in regular form, ready drawn.

1431. καπὶ . . . . καθεύδεις ; and go to roost at night ?

....

1434. Síkaιós eip' èyw, I have a right. For the personal construction of dikalos, cf. Gr. 1072 (821) § 677.

1436. μάτην TEOVÝEELS, I shall have had my floggings for nothing, and you will have died grinning at me.

1437. Sikala. Strepsiades is now thoroughly convinced of his errour, and admits the justice of his punishment; but still the son persists in carrying out, to a more monstrous length, the new principles and views of duty which he has acquired under the Socratic instruction.

1440. σκέψαι . . . . γνώμην, consider still another philosophical idea. Phidippides is mimicking the philosophical cant that he has before heard his father using, anò yàp oλoûμat, I will not; for I shall die if I hear another. yap often implies a whole clause; sometimes an answer to a question, sometimes an explanatory remark. Mitchell thinks the meaning here is, it will be death to me if I do not consider his new yvwun. But the reverse is more likely to be the true meaning, -it will be the ruin of me, if I do consider the new idea.

1441. καὶ . . . . πέπονθας, and yet perhaps you will not be troubled (that is, when you have heard my new idea) by having suffered what you have heretofore endured. The sentence is equivocal. It may mean either, the new notion will be so pleasing to you, that you will forget all your present troubles; or, it will be so much worse than any thing you have had before, that your present troubles will seem as nothing in the comparison. Strepsiades takes it in the former sense; and so did the French lady who remarks upon the proposition,-" Cela est plaisant. Il y a aujourd'hui bien des maris, qui se consoleroient d'être battus, si leurs femmes étoient battues."

The dialogue that follows is supposed to be aimed at Euripides, in several of whose plays sentiments of irreverence towards mothers were introduced, besides wholesale denunciations of all the sex. Strepsiades has still sense enough left to be shocked by his son's impiety towards his mother; in fact, this last extreme of sophistic wickedness is all that was wanting to work a complete moral cure in the old man.

1450. Bápalpov. This was properly the pit into which the bodies of executed criminals were thrown.

1457. Týρete, instigated.

1464-1471. In the ensuing dialogue between the father and son, Phidippides retorts, with considerable effect, the language that Strepsiades had used early in the play.

1473. διὰ τουτονὶ τὸν Δῖνον, on account of this Dinos, pointing to the image of Dinos or Vortex standing before the phrontistery.

1475. ἐνταῦθα . . . . φληνάφα, be mad and play the fool for yourself. Uttering these words, Phidippides leaves the scene.

1476, seqq. The old man, being left alone, exclaims upon his folly in giving up the gods for Socrates. Then, addressing himself to Hermes, asks his pardon and counsel how he shall punish these audacious sophists; ET' • Ypayáμevos, whether I shall prosecute them, bringing an action. These are legal terms. See Demosthenes de Corona, passim.

....

1483. ὀρθῶς . . . . δικοῤῥαφεῖν, you advise me rightly, not consenting that I should get entangled in a lawsuit,-addressed to Hermes again, whom he affects to be listening to, and to follow his advice. He calls his servant Xanthias to bring a pickaxe, and climb upon the roof of the phrontistery, and knock it in about their ears. Then, taking a lighted torch, he mounts a ladder, and sets fire to the building. The disciples are smoked out; and at last Socrates and Charephon come forth themselves to see what is the matter. They find Strepsiades at work on the roof.

1496. διαλεπτολογοῦμαι . . . . οἰκίας, I'm chopping logic with the rafters of the house.

1503. ἀεροβατώ . . . . ἥλιον. Strepsiades is mimicking and repeating the speech which Socrates made to him on his first introduction to the phrontistery, when the philosopher was suspended in the basket, prosecuting his lofty researches.

1506. Tí yàp μalóvт'. Addressed to Socrates and Chærephon. For the idiom, see above, note to 1. 402. 1510. μετρίως, enough.

METRES.

[The references in the following table are to Munk's Metres of the Greeks and Romans, translated from the German by Beck and Felton.]

PROLOGUS, 1–274.

Lines 1-263. Iambic trimeter acatalectic, with comic licence. See Munk, pp. 76, 162, 171, seqq.

263-274. Anapæstic trimeter catalectic. Munk, p. 101.

CHORUS.

Strophe, 275-290=Antistrophe, 299-313. Dactylic system. Munk, pp. 244-246.

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291-297. Anapæstic trimeter catalectic. M. p. 101. 313-438. Anapæstic trimeter catalectic.

Ib.

439-456. Anapæstic system. M. p. 246, seqq.

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p. 64 (a).

M. p. 101 (3).

M. p. 84 (3);

465. LUULU M.
M. p. 95 (2), (a).

L☺☺ M. p. 83 (1).

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476, 477. Anapæstic trimeter catalectic. M. p. 101. 478-509. Iambic trimeter.

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For the arrangement and explanation of the parts, see Munk's Metres, p. 336.

518-562. Eupolidean metre. M. p. 140. *=*=÷Uvex X

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575-594, 607-626. Troch. tetr. cat.

627-699. Iambic trimeter.

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709, 710. Iambic trimeter.

711-722. Anapæstic system.

723-803. Iambic trimeter.

805-810. Antistrophic to 700-706.

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M.

P. 75

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