194

Timokles

ήδύ κατά τής καρδίας, / γλυκύτατον, ώσπερ άστρατείας και μύρου “what a face
you have, beloved goddess! And what an aroma, how delightful to my heart, most
sweet, like exemption from service and perfume!”; in non-erotic contexts cf. E.
Med. 1075 ώ μαλθακός χρως πνεύμα θ’ ήδιστον τέκνων; Tro. 758-9 (Andromache
embraces Astyanax before he is thrown from the ramparts of Troy) ώ χρωτός ήδύ
πνεύμα.
4 πάνθ’ έτοιμα As in the case of a χαμαιτύπη. Cf. Xenarch. 4.16-7 και τώνδ’
έκάστην έστιν άδεώς, εύτελώς, / μεθ’ ήμέραν, προς έσπέραν, πάντας τρόπους “and
you can (have sex with) any of them with no fear and cheaply, during the day, in the
evening, in anyway”; Philem. fr. 3.9 κοινάς άπασι και κατεσκευασμένας “available
to all and in a state of readiness”; fr. 3.15 άλλ’ εύθύς, ώς βούλει σύ χών βούλει
τρόπον. However, cf. Ar.K 499-501, where the prostitute is reluctant to satisfy a
customer’s special order.
5- 6 For love as a fight cf. Cat. 66.13 dulcia nocturnaeportans vestigia rixae /
quam de virgineis gesserat exuviis “bearing the sweet vestiges of nightly contests, in
which he had carried away the spoils of her virginity”; Ovid. Ars Amatoria 233-6
Militiae species amor est... / nox et hiems longaeque viae saevique dolores / mollibus
his castris et labor omnis inest “Love is a kind of warfare... Night, winter, long
expeditions, savage pains and every labor exists in this soft camp”.
5 άγωνιάσαι “struggle” (cf. Pl. Prt. 333e; Chrm. 162c; Isoc. 4.91). It is miti-
gated by the internal accusative τι of the preceding verse.
6 πληγάς λαβεϊν “πληγήναι”; cf. Cratin. fr. 92.1-2; Philyll. fr. 9.2-3; Ar. V.
1298, 1325; Pax 493; Ra. 673, 747; Ec. 324; Th. 5.50.4; Pl. Hp. Ma. 292c; D. 21.1;
Men. Dysc. 205. And cf. on fr. 9.6 λαμβάνειν δίκρουν ξύλον.
6 άπαλαϊσι χερσίν Softness of hands and legs, as a characteristic of young
girls and women in general, often has erotic overtones; cf. Ar. Ec. 901-4 μή φθόνει
ταϊσιν νέαισι· I τό τρυφερόν γάρ έμπέφυκε / τοΐς άπαλοΐσι μηροΐς, / κάπ'ι τοΐς
μήλοις έπαν- / θεΐ· “Don’t be jealous of young girls; for voluptuousness is rooted
in tender thighs and blooms in firm breasts”; Alex. fr. 49.2-3 ότι δει γυναίκας
έπιφερούσης δακτύλους / απαλούς, ύπ’ άκάνθης μηδέ έν τούτους παθεΐν “that
when a woman places her soft fingers on it, I they shouldn’t suffer any harm from
its thorn”.
ήδύ γε At the end of a trimeter also in Alex. fr. 129.2, as an elliptical comment
by an interlocutor on a preceding statement.
6- 7 For this eruption of joy cf. Chaereas’ celebrations immediately after his
successive intrusion in Thais’ home and his intercourse with Pamphila: Ter. Eun.
550-2 iamne erumpere hoc licet mi gaudium? pro luppiter, / nunc estprofecto inter-
fici quom perpeti me possum, / ne hoc gaudium contaminet vita aegritudine aliqua
“Can I at last let my joy burst out? By Jupiter! Now is truly the time for me to suffer
death, so that life cannot spoil this joy with any sorrow!”
7 νή τον Δία τον μέγιστον This formula, and also the simple νή τον Δία
(unlike νή Δία and μά τον Δία), always appears in the initial position of a trimeter;
cf. the formulas νή τον Ποσειδώ (e. g. Ar. Eq. 366, 899, 1035) and νή τήν Αθήναν