Old Woman.
Ah, ha! what a dense forest you have there! (Pointing.)
Old Man.
So was Myronides one of the best-bearded of men o’ this side; his backside was all black, and he terrified his enemies as much as Phormio.[1]
Chorus of Women.
I want to tell you a fable too, to match yours about Melanion. Once there was a certain man called Timon,[2] a tough customer, and a whimsical, a true son of the Furies, with a face that seemed to glare out of a thorn-bush. He withdrew from the world because he couldn’t abide bad men, after vomiting a thousand curses at ’em, He had a holy horror of ill-conditioned fellows, but he was mighty tender towards women.
A Woman.
Suppose I up and broke your jaw for you!
An Old Man.
I am not a bit afraid of you.
A Woman.
Suppose I let fly a good kick at you?
Old Man.
I should see your backside then.
- ↑ Myronides and Phormio were famous Athenian generals. The former was celebrated for his conquest of all Bœotia, except Thebes, in 458 B.C.; the latter, with a fleet of twenty triremes, equipped at his own cost, defeated a Lacedæmonian fleet of forty-seven sail, in 429.
- ↑ Timon, the misanthrope; he was an Athenian and a contemporary of Aristophanes. Disgusted by the ingratitude of his fellow-citizens and sickened with repeated disappointments, he retired altogether from society, admitting no one, it is said, to his intimacy except the brilliant young statesman Alcibiades.
