good cheer, my boy; for it is not a contest to be decided by crowns, but by guineas." There was a man who once gave her daughter a mina, and never brought her anything more, though he came to see her very often. "Do you think, my boy," said she, "that now you have once paid your mina, you are to come here for ever, as if you were going to Hippomachus the trainer?" On one occasion, when Phryne said to her, with some bitterness, "What would become of you if you had the stone?" "I would give it to you," said she, "to sharpen your wit upon." For it was said that Gnathæna was liable to the stone, while the other certainly wanted it as Gnathæna hinted. On one occasion, some men were drinking in her house, and were eating some lentils dressed with onions ([Greek: bolbophakê]); as the maidservant was clearing the table, and putting some of the lentils in her bosom ([Greek: kolpon]), Gnathæna said, "She is thinking of making some [Greek: kolpophakê]."
Once, when Andronicus the tragedian had been acting his part in the representation of the Epigoni with great applause, and was coming to a drinking party at her house, and sent a boy forward to bid her make preparation to receive him, she said—
"O cursed boy, what word is this you've spoken?"
And once, when a chattering fellow was relating that he was just come from the Hellespont, "Why, then," said she, "did you not go to the first city in that country?" and when he asked what city, "To Sigeum,"[1] said she. Once, when a man came to see her, and saw some eggs on a dish, and said, "Are these raw, Gnathæna, or boiled?" "They are made of brass, my boy," said she. On one occasion, when Chærephon came to sup with her without an invitation, Gnathæna pledged him in a cup of wine. "Take it," said she, "you proud fellow." And he said, "I proud?" "Who can be more so," said she, "when you come without even being invited?" And Nico, who was nicknamed the Goat (as Lynceus tells us), once when she met a parasite, who was very thin in consequence of a long sickness, said to him, "How lean you are." "No wonder," says he; "for what do you think is all that I have had to eat these three days?" "Why, a leather bottle," says she, "or perhaps your shoes."
48. There was a courtesan named Metanira; and whento [Greek: sigê], silence.]
- ↑ This is a pun on the similarity of the name [Greek: Sigeion
