And Antiphanes says in his Ancestors—
You know my ways;But Diphilus in his Parasite, when a wedding-feast is about to take place, represents the parasite as speaking thus—
That there's no pride in me, but I am just
Like this among my friends: a mass of iron
To bear their blows, a thunderbolt to give them;
Lightning to blind a man, the wind to move one;
A very halter, if one needs be choked;
An earthquake to heave doors from off their hinges;
A flea to leap quick in; a fly to come
And feast without a formal invitation;
Not to depart too soon, a perfect well.
I'm ready when I'm wanted, whether it be
To choke a man or kill him, or to prove
A case against him. All that others say,
Those things I am prepared at once to do.
And young men, mocking me on this account,
Do call me whirlwind—but for me, I care not
For such light jests. For to my friends I prove
A friend in deeds, and not in words alone.
Do you not know that in the form of curseAnd Eubulus says in his Œdipus—
These words are found, If any one do fail
To point the right road to a traveller,
To quench a fire; or if any one spoil
The water of a spring or well, or hinders
A guest upon his way when going to supper?
The man who first devised the plan of feasting
At other folk's expense, must sure have been
A gentleman of very popular manners;
But he who ask'd a friend or any stranger
To dinner, and then made him bear his share,
May he be banish'd, and his goods all seized.
