Book 6
35
And Antiphanes says in his Ancestors— You know my ways; That there's no pride in me, but I am just Like this among my friends: a mass of iron To bear their blows, a thunderbolt to give them; Lightning to blind a man, the wind to move one; A very halter, if one needs be choked; An earthquake to heave doors from off their hinges; A flea to leap quick in; a fly to come And feast without a formal invitation; Not to depart too soon, a perfect well. I'm ready when I'm wanted, whether it be To choke a man or kill him, or to prove A case against him. All that others say, Those things I am prepared at once to do. And young men, mocking me on this account, Do call me whirlwind—but for me, I care not For such light jests. For to my friends I prove A friend in deeds, and not in words alone. But Diphilus in his Parasite, when a wedding-feast is about to take place, represents the parasite as speaking thus— Do you not know that in the form of curse These words are found, If any one do fail To point the right road to a traveller, To quench a fire; or if any one spoil The water of a spring or well, or hinders A guest upon his way when going to supper? And Eubulus says in his Œdipus— The man who first devised the plan of feasting At other folk's expense, must sure have been A gentleman of very popular manners; But he who ask'd a friend or any stranger To dinner, and then made him bear his share, May he be banish'd, and his goods all seized.
