Page:Comedies of Aristophanes (Hickie 1853) vol2.djvu/273

that no woman's arms be empty. But what will the men ^ do ? For the women will avoid the more ugly ones, and go to the handsome.-

Prax. But the uglier^ men shall watch for the handsomer ones as they are departing from dinner, and shall have an eye upon them in the pubHc places. And the women shall not be permitted to sleep with the handsome men, before they gratify"* the ugly and the little ones.

Blep. Then the nose of Lysicrates^ will now be as proud as that of the handsome men.

Prax. Yes, by Apollo ! And the plan will be a democratic one too, and a great mockery ^ of the more dignified and of those who wear rings, when a person wearing slippers'^ shall

μὲν ὑμέτερον is τὸ δὲ τῶν ἀνδρῶν (vs. 624) =οἱ ἄνδρες. Many similar examples will be found ap. Bernhardy, W. S. p. 327.

' " Jedoch, wie wird es den Mannern evgehen ? " Droyseii.

^ "Read ἐπὶ τοὺς δέ." Porson. So Brunck and Dindorf. But this is a deflection from the regular rule ; for whenever ὁ μὲν or ὁ δὲ is construed with a preposition, the μὲν and δὲ stand between the preposition and the governed case of the article. See Kriiger, Gr. Gr. § 50, 1, obs. 13. Bernhardy, W. S. p. 198. Hermann, Vig. n. 5, and note on vs. 586, su2}m. See, however, Vesp. 94. Lys. 593. Plut. 559. Kriiger, Gr. Gr. § 68, 5, obs. 1. A prose writer would have said ἐπὶ δὲ τούς.

' Dindorf s text here differs widely from that of Brunck, both in reading and punctuation.

• Porson, (ap. Gaisford ad Eur. Suppl. p. 206,) Elmsley, (Heracl.

vs. 959. Med. p. 119,) and Reisig (i. p. 65) alter the reading to πρὶν … χαρίσασθαι, on the pretence that Aristophanes never omits ἂν in this construction ; which is certainly a curious way of proving their rule. They ought to have shown that the omission is contrary to the philosophy of the language. " Many of these conjunctions are found with the conjunctive also without ἂν, even in classical prose, inasmuch as the thought is represented as not at all problem- atical. This is more freqviently the case with πρὶν and μέχρι (οὖ), especially in Thucydides and the poets." Kriiger. Cf Bernhardy, W. S. p. 400. Hermann ap. Harper, " Powers of the Greek Tenses," p. 131. Jelf, Gr. Gr. § 842, 2. Lys. 1005. Praxagora has no doubt, from the provisions of the law, but that the women will do so. For this use of χαρίζεσθαι, see Equit. 517. lluhnk. Tim. p. 274.

^ Cf vs. 736. Aves, 513. "He seems to have been remarkable on the same account as Juvenal's barber of Beneventum, and Shakspeare's Bardolph." Smith. For the construction, see note on Plut. 368. ^ Cf Vesp. 575.

' i. e. an old man. See Plut. 759. " Probably proper names are concealed under these words: ὅταν Ἐμβαδιᾳ γ' εἴτῃ Πρότερος." Bentley. Reiske thinks Ἐμβὰς may have been the nickname of some