Book 13
52
The same Hyperides also mentions my Ocimum, as you call her, O Cynulcus, in his second oration against Aristagoras, speaking thus—As Lais, who appears to have been superior in beauty to any woman who had ever been seen, and Ocimum, and Metanira. And Nicostratus, a poet of the middle comedy, mentions her also in his Pandrosus, where he says— Then go the same way to Aerope, And bid her send some clothes immediately, And brazen vessels, to fair Ocimum. And Menander, in his comedy called The Flatterer, gives the following catalogue of courtesans— Chrysis, Corone, Ischas, and Anticyra, And the most beautiful Nannarium,— All these you had. And Philetærus, in his Female Hunter, says— Is not Cereope now extremely old, Three thousand years at least? and is not Telesis, Diopithes' ugly daughter, three times that? And as for old Theolyte, no man Alive can tell the date when she was born. Then did not Lais persevere in her trade Till the last day of her life? and Isthmias, Neæra too, and Phila, grew quite rotten. I need not mention all the Cossyphæ, Galænse, and Coronæ; nor will I Say aught of Nais, as her teeth are gone. And Theophilus, in his Amateur of the Flute, says— Lest he should with disastrous shipwreck fall Into Meconis, Lais, or Sisymbrion, Or Barathrum, or Thallusa, or any other With whom the panders bait their nets for youths, Nannium, or Malthace.
