Strep. See, see! "Olympian Jupiter!" What folly! To think of your believing in Jupiter,[1] as old as you are!
Phid. Why, pray, did you laugh at this?
Strep. Reflecting that you are a child, and have antiquated notions. Yet, however, approach, that you may know more; and I will tell you a thing, by learning which[2] you will be a man. But see that you do not teach this to any one.
Phid. Well, what is it?
Strep. You swore now by Jupiter.
Phid. I did.
Strep. Seest thou, then, how good a thing is learning? There is no Jupiter, O Phidippides!
Phid. Who then?
Strep. Vortex reigns,[3] having expelled Jupiter.
Phid. Bah! Why do you talk foolishly?
Strep. Be assured that it is so.
Phid. Who says this?
Strep. Socrates the Melian,[4] and Chærephon, who knows the footmarks of fleas.
Phid. Have you arrived at such a pitch of phrensy,[5] that you believe madmen?
Strep. Speak words of good omen, and say nothing bad of clever men and wise; of whom, through frugality, none ever shaved or anointed himself, or went to a bath to wash[6] himself; while you squander my property in bathing, as if I
- ↑ Brunck and others put a comma after μωρίας and read τὸν Δία νομίζειν, which is a gross error. The exclamatory infinitive is always accompanied by its article, when another exclamation has gone before. Xen. Cyrop. ii. 2, 3, τῆς τύχης· τὸ ἐμὲ νῦν κληθέντα δεῦρο τυχεῖν. See note on vs. 268.
- ↑ See Krüger's Gr. Gr. § 51, 9, obs. 1. For ὅπως, see note on Lys. 316.
- ↑ See Süvern, Clouds, p. 12. Socrates borrowed this idea from Anaxagoras.
- ↑ "In this witty and malicious expression he is brought into comparison with the well-known atheist Diagoras of Melos, as if the poet had said, Σωκράτης ὁ ἄθεος." Süvern.
- ↑ "So weit gekommen in seiner Tollheit ist er schon,
Dass er übergeschnappten Narren glaubt." Droysen. - ↑ Comp. Plut. 85, and Süvern, Clouds, p. 5. The same is related of the painter Nicias, and of Archimedes.
