< Page:Comedies of Aristophanes (Hickie 1853) vol1.djvu
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196

THE WASPS.

322—345.

some evil. O Zeus, Zeus, thunder greatly, and either suddenly make me smoke,[1] or Proxenides,[2] or the son of Sellus, this false tree-vine. Have the heart,[3] O king, to grant me this favour, having pitied my sufferings; or with a red-hot thunderbolt quickly reduce me to ashes; and then take me up and blow me away and cast me into hot pickle; or make me, pray, the stone, upon which they count the shells.[4]

Cho. Why, who is he that confines you thus,[5] and shuts the doors? Tell us, for you will speak to well-inclined persons.[6]

Phil. My son; but do not bawl, for he is sleeping here in the front of the house. Lower the tone of your voice.

Cho. As a pretext for what, O foolish fellow, does he wish to treat you thus?[7]

Phil. He suffers me not, my friends, to act the dicast, nor to do any ill, but he is ready to feast me. But I am not willing.

Cho. Has the wretch, the haranguing Cleon,[8] dared to utter this? For this man would never have dared to say this, if he were not a conspirator. But in consequence of this,[9] it is

  1. ↑ Vide Æschyl. Suppl. vs. 759, ed. Scholef.

    ⁠"μέλας γενοίμαν κάπνος
    ⁠νέφεσσι γειτονῶν Διὸς,
    ⁠τὸ πᾶν δ᾽ ἄφαντος."

    Καπνὸς was a nickname for Theogenes. See Av. 822, 1127.

  2. ↑ Proxenides is mentioned in The Birds, vs. 1126, and dignified by the epithet ὁ Κομπασεύς. Sellus occurs in this play, vs. 1242; Αἰσχίνης ὁ Σέλλου.
  3. ↑ Vide Monk ad Alc. vs. 287.
  4. ↑ The χοιρίνη was a small sea muscle. Perhaps the porcelain shell. It was occasionally used by Athenian dicasts m voting, instead of the regular ψῆφοι.
  5. ↑ "Qui te sic cohibet." Brunck. Mitchell mistranslates it.
  6. ↑ See note on Lys. 993. The verse is a quotation from the Electra of Sophocles.
  7. ↑ "Π. = ἐπισχεσία, a pretext, excuse, τοῦ δ᾽ ἔφεξιν; = τίνος χάριν; Ar. Vesp. 338." Liddell, Lex.
  8. ↑ There is considerable difficulty in this epithet. It would be well if it could be understood to mean, "aping the powerful eloquence of our Cleon." See Mitchell's note. For χανεῖν, see Lob. ad Aj. 1227. The next line is omitted in Dindorf's 3rd edition; as also 339, supra.
  9. ↑ "ἐκ τούτων = in consequence of this, on these grounds, for these reasons: also synonymous with μετὰ ταῦτα. On the contrary, ἐκ τούτου = hereupon, therefore." Krüger.
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