BEAUTY.
21. And Cynulcus said:—And do you dare to talk in this
way, you who are not "rosy fingered," as Cratinus says, but
who have one foot made of cow-dung? and do you bring
up again the recollection of that poet your namesake, who
spends all his time in cookshops and inns? although Isocrates
the orator has said, in his Areopagitic Oration, "But
not one of their servants ever would have ventured to eat or
drink in a cookshop; for they studied to keep up the dignity
of their appearance, and not to behave like buffoons." And
Hyperides, in his oration against Patrocles, (if, at least, the
speech is a genuine one,) says that they forbade a man who had
dined at a cookshop from going up to the Areopagus. But
you, you sophist, spend your time in cookshops, not with
your friends ([Greek: hetairôn]), but with prostitutes ([Greek: hetairôn]), having a
lot of pimps and procuresses about you, and always carrying
about these books of Aristophanes, and Apollodorus, and
Ammonius, and Antiphanes, and also of Gorgias the Athenian,
who have all written about the prostitutes at Athens.
Oh, what a learned man you are! how far are you from imitating Theomandrus of Cyrene, who, as Theophrastus, in his treatise on Happiness, says, used to go about and profess that he gave lessons in prosperity. You, you teacher of love, are in no respect better than Amasis of Elis, whom Theophrastus, in his treatise on Love, says was extraordinarily addicted to amatory pursuits. And a man will not be much out who calls you a [Greek: pornographos], just as they call Aristides and Pausanias and Nicophanes [Greek: zôgraphoi]. And Polemo mentions them, as painting the subjects which they did paint exceedingly well, in his treatise on the Pictures at Sicyon. Think, my friends, of the great and varied learning of this grammarian, who does not conceal what he means, but openly quotes the verses of Eubulus, in his Cercopes—
I came to Corinth; there I ate with pleasure
Some herb called basil (ocimum), and was ruin'd by it;
And also, trifling there, I lost my cloak.
And the Corinthian sophist is very fine here, explaining to his pupils that Ocimum is the name of a harlot. And a great many other plays also, you impudent fellow, derived their names from courtesans. There is the Thalassa of Diodes, the Corianno of Pherecrates, the Antea of Eunicus or Philyllus, the Thais, and the Phanion of Menander, the Opora of
