Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 2).djvu/289

 *

]

A hollow-bodied vessel, made of earth, Form'd by the potter's wheel in rapid swing, Baked in another mansion of its mother, Which holds within its net the tender milk-fed Offspring of new-born flocks untimely choked? B. By Hercules, you'll kill me straight if you Do not in plain words say a "dish of meat." A. 'Tis well. And shall I speak to you of drops Flowing from bleating goats, and well compounded With streams proceeding from the yellow bee, Sitting on a broad receptacle provided By the chaste virgin born of holy Ceres, And now luxuriating beneath a host Of countless finely-wrought integuments; Or shall I say "a cheesecake?" B. Prithee say A cheesecake. A. Shall I speak of rosy sweat From Bacchic spring? B. I'd rather you'd say wine. A. Or shall I speak of dusky dewy drops? B. No such long paraphrase,—say plainly, water. A. Or shall I praise the cassia-breathing fragrance That scents the air? B. No, call it myrrh,—forbear Those sad long-winded sentences, those long And roundabout periphrases; it seems To me by far too great a labour thus To dwell on matters which are small themselves, And only great in such immense descriptions.

71. And Alexis, in his Sleep, proposes a griphus of this kind—

A. It is not mortal, nor immortal either, But as it were compounded of the two, So that it neither lives the life of man, Nor yet of God, but is incessantly New born again, and then again deprived Of this its present life; invisible, Yet it is known and recognised by all. B. You always do delight, O lady, in riddles. A. No, I am speaking plain and simple things. B. What child then is there which has such a nature? A. 'Tis sleep, my girl, victor of human toils.

And Eubulus, in his Sphingocarion, proposes griphi of this kind, himself afterwards giving the solution of them—

A. There is a thing which speaks, yet has no tongue; A female of the same name as the male; The steward of the winds, which it holds fast; Rough, and yet sometimes smooth; full of dark voices