Kitap 13
47
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, This is a pun on the similarity of the name σίγειον to σιγὴ, silence. 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.
