9
But when he went on and ventured to mispronounce tin (κασσίτερον—καττίτερον) and shoe-leather (κάσσυμα—κάττυμα), and tar (πίσσα—πίττα), and then, losing all sense of shame, to miscall queens (βασίλισσα—βασίλιττα), I am uncommonly annoyed and hot about all this, for I am afraid that in course of time someone may miscall a spade!An allusion to the English saying is here substituted for a similar allusion to its Greek equivalent, "to call a fig a fig” (τὰ σῦκα σῦκα ὀνομάζειν). Pardon me, in the name of Heaven, for my righteous anger, discouraged as I am and bereft of partisans. I am not risking a trifling, every-day stake, for he is robbing me of acquaintances and companions among the letters. He snatched a blackbird, a talkative creature, right out of my bosom, almost, and renamed it (κίσσα—κίττα); he took away my pheasant (¢décca—ddrra) along with my ducks (νήσσαι—νήτται) and my daws (κόσσυφοι—κόττυφοι), although Aristarchus forbade him; he robbed me of not a few bees (μέλισσα—μέλιττα), and he went to Attica and illegally plucked Hymessus (Ὑμησσός—Ὑμηττός) out of the very heart of her, in full view of yourselves and the other letters. But why mention this? He has turned me out of all Thessaly, wanting it called Thettaly, has swept me from the sea (θάλασσα—ϑάλαττα) and “has not even spared me the beets (σεύτλια—τεύτλια) in my garden, so that, to quote the proverb, he hasn’t even left me a peg (πάσσαλος—πάτταλος).
