Kitap 14
3
Oh Myrtale, I brought you all a seaman could afford out of his pay. Recently I’ve been put in charge of the starboard hands, and you despise me! Not so long ago, when it was the feast of Aphrodite, didn’t I put a silver drachma at the feet of the goddess on your account? Then again I gave your mother two drachmas for a pair of shoes, and many’s the time I’ve slipped two or even four obols into the hand of Lyde here. All these together amounted to the whole worldly wealth of any sailor.
3
The onions, you mean, Dorio, and those fish from the Nile?
3
Yes, I’d nothing more to give you. I shouldn’t be an oarsman, if I were a man of means. Why, I’ve never to this day brought my mother a single head of garlic. I wish you’d told me what gifts you had from the Bithynian.
3
Well, first take a look at this dress. He bought it, and the thicker of my necklaces.
3
It came from him, did it? I knew you’d had it for a long time.
3
No, the one you knew was much thinner, and had no emeralds. Then there’s these earrings and that rug, and only the other day he gave me two minas, and paid our rent for us. That’s a little different from sandals from Patara or Gythian cheese, or rubbish like that!
4
But won’t you tell me what sort of a lover you find him? He must be well over fifty, he’s going thin at the front, and he has the colour of a crawfish. And haven’t you noticed his teeth? By Castor and Pollux, the graces have been kind to him, particularly when he sings, and tries to show his good taste! He’s like the proverbial donkey treating himself to a solo on the harp. Good luck to you, for he’s just what you deserve, and I hope your child takes after his father! For my part I’ll find a Delphis or a Cymbalium who’s more my own sort, or perhaps it’ll be your neighbour who plays the pipe, but I’ll certainly find somebody. We don’t all have rugs or necklaces or presents of two minas to give you.
