Strep. I? Yea, by Neptune!
Soc. And what, pray, have you thought?
Strep. Whether any bit of me will be left by the bugs.
Soc. You will perish most wretchedly.
Strep. But, my good friend, I have already perished.
Soc. You must not give in, but must wrap yourself up; for you have to discover a device for abstracting, and a means of cheating. [Walks up and down while Strepsiades wraps himself up in the blankets.]
Strep. Ah me! would, pray, some one would throw over me a swindling contrivance from the sheep-skins.[1]
Soc. Come now; I will first see this fellow, what he is about. Ho you! are you asleep?
Strep. No; by Apollo, I am not!
Soc. Have you got any thing?
Strep. No; by Jupiter, certainly not!
Soc. Nothing at all?
Strep. Nothing, except what I have in my right hand.
Soc. Will you not quickly cover yourself up, and think of something?
Strep. About what? for do you tell me this, O Socrates!
Soc. Do you, yourself, first find out and state what you wish.
Strep. You have heard a thousand times what I wish. About the interest; so that I may pay no one.
Soc. Come then, wrap yourself up, and having given your mind play[2] with subtilty, revolve your affairs by little and little, rightly distinguishing and examining.
Strep. Ah me, unhappy man![3]
- ↑ "As Socrates is throwing (ἐπιβάλλει) the lamb or sheep-fleeces (ἀρνακίδας) upon Strepsiades, the latter, before he is finally covered up, delivers himself of a wish, suggested by the equivoque in the words ἀρνακὶς and ἄρνησις." Mitch. "From these lamb-fleeces knowledge how to fleece. It is a common Greek idiom to express a wish in the form of a question." Felton.
"O weh! wer schafft mir armen Kauz
Aus diesem Löcherkittel eine Lugidee!" Droysen. - ↑ See Liddell's Lex. in voc. "Slicing small your reason." Walsh. "Cutting the thought fine." Felton. This seems better to suit the following words, κατὰ μικρόν.
- ↑ Droysen. "The genitive φρουρᾶς denotes time. See Soph. Gr. Gr. § 196. and Kühner, Gr. Gr. § 273, 4." Felton.