No More Learning

[709] Presumably a man in extreme poverty.

[710] The ancients carried small coins in their mouth; this custom still
obtains to-day in the East.

[711] This Euripides was the son of the tragic poet.

[712] This Smaeus was a notorious debauchee; the phrase contains obscene
allusions, implying that he was ready both to ride a woman or to lick her
privates--[Greek: kel_etizein] or [Greek: lesbiazein].

[713] Geres, an old fop, who wanted to pass as a young man.

[714] According to Greek custom, these were left at the entrance of the
banqueting-hall.

[715] The names of his slaves.

[716] A specimen of the _serenades_ ([Greek: paraklausithura]) of the
Greeks.

[717] An Attic deme. There is an obscene jest here; the word [Greek:
anaphlan] means to masturbate.

[718] [Greek: Ton Sebinon], a coined name, representing [Greek: ton se
binounta], 'the man who is to tread you. '

[719] The passage is written in the language of the Bar. It is an
allusion to the slowness of justice at Athens.

[720] i. e.
the new law must be conformed to all round.

[721] It was customary to paint phials or little bottles on the coffins
of the poor; these emblems took the place of the perfumes that were
sprinkled on the bodies of the rich.

[722] i. e. unless I am your slave; no doubt this tax of five hundredths
was paid by the master on the assumed value of his slave. --We have,
however, no historical data to confirm this.

[723] Nickname of the notorious brigand. The word means 'one who
stretches and tortures,' from [Greek: prokrouein], and refers to his
habit of fitting all his captives to the same bedstead--the 'bed of
Procrustes'--stretching them if too short to the required length, lopping
their limbs as required if they were too long. Here a further pun is
involved, [Greek: prokrouein] meaning also 'to go with a woman first. '

[724] Athenian law declared it illegal for a woman to contract any debt
exceeding the price of a _medimnus_ of corn; this law is now supposed to
affect the men.

[725] Merchants were exempt from military service; in this case, it is
another kind of service that the old woman wants to exact from the young
man.

[726] A Thracian brigand, who forced strangers to share his daughters'
bed, or be devoured by his horses.

[727] Dead bodies were laid out on a layer of origanum, which is an
aromatic plant.

[728] The young man is here describing the formalities connected with the
laying out of the dead.

[729] Who had married his mother Jocasta without knowing it.

[730] A hideous spectre that Hecate was supposed to send to frighten men.