Book 11
1
Who ever heard of a fellow who takes out a girl, pays her five drachmas, and then turns his back on her in bed, weeping and groaning? I don’t think you enjoyed the wine, or really wanted to dine alone with me. You were crying all through dinner; I noticed it. And now you keep on whimpering like a baby. Why, Charmides? Don’t keep it from me, so that I can have this further pleasure Spoken in irony. out of the sleepless night I’ve spent with you.
1
I’m dying of love, Tryphena. It’s too terrible for me to bear any longer.
1
Obviously I’m not the one you love, or you wouldn’t show such little interest in me, and keep pushing me away when I tried to hug you, or have ended by placing your cloak as a barrier between us, for fear of my touching you. But for all that tell me who she is. Perhaps I can help you in your love, for I know how to be of service in such matters.
1
You are very well acquainted with each other; she’s a well-known member of your profession.
2
Tell me her name, Charmides.
2
Philematium, Tryphena.
2
Which one? There are two. Do you mean the one from the Piraeus, who lost her virginity only the other day, and is loved by Damylus, the son of one of this year’s Generals, or the other one, the one they call the “Trap”?
2
That’s the one. I’m a poor victim that’s fallen right into her trap.
2
Then you were crying for her?
2
Indeed I was.
2
Have you loved for long, or was your initiation recent?
2
Far from recent; it’s almost seven whole months since the Dionysia, and the time when I first saw her.
2
Did you have a good look at her all over? Or did you only see her face, and the parts of her body immediately visible, and just as much as you should of a woman who’s forty-five if she’s a day?
2
But she swears she’ll be twenty-two next March.
