< Page:Comedies of Aristophanes (Hickie 1853) vol1.djvu
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158

THE CLOUDS.

974—995.

thing indecent to those outside ; then, again, after rising from the ground, to sweep the sand together, and to take care not to leave an impression of the person for their lovers. And no boy used in those days to anoint himself below the navel; so that their bodies wore the appearance of blooming health. Nor used he to go to his lover, having made up his voice in an effeminate tone, prostituting himself with his eyes. Nor used it to be allowed when one was dining to take the head of a radish, or to snatch from their seniors dill or parsley, or to eat fish, or to giggle, or[1] to keep the legs crossed.

Unj. Aye, antiquated and Dipolia-like, and full of grasshoppers, and of Cecydes,[2] and of the Buphonian festival!

Just. Yet certainly these are those principles by which my system of education nurtured the men who fought at Marathon. But you teach, the men of the present day, from their earliest years, to be wrapped up in himatia; so that I am choked, when at the Panathenaia a fellow, holding his shield before his person, neglects Tritogenia, when they ought to dance. Wherefore, O youth, choose, with confidence, me, the better cause, and you will learn to hate the Agora, and to refrain from baths, and to be ashamed at what is disgraceful, and to be enraged if any one jeer you, and to rise up from seats before your seniors when they approach, and not to behave ill towards your parents, and to do nothing else that is base, because you are to form in your mind an image of Modesty:[3] and not to dart into the house of a dancing woman,

  1. ↑ "Among the remains of ancient art there is, perhaps, not one representing a man, woman, god, or dæmon sitting cross-legged." Felton.
  2. ↑ An ancient dithyrambic poet. He is mentioned by Cratinus in his Panoptæ. "The Dipolia was one of the oldest festivals in Attica in honour of Jupiter the protector of cities. Oxen were driven up to the sacrificial table, and that one which first came forward to eat the sacrificial bread was slaughtered by the priest, who then fled away as though he were a murderer (βουφόνος), The priest's axe was then brought to trial, condemned, and cast into the pit as a malefactor. More enlightened ages made light of ridiculing such ceremonies." Droysen.
  3. ↑ "As you mean to engrave on your heart the image of Honour." Walsh. "Quoniam Verecundiæ simulacrum (vitâ tuâ) expressurus es." Fritzsche.

    ⁠"Um der Keuscheit Bild an dir selbst niemals zu besudeln." Droysen.

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