This, O Ulpian, is what we mean by pelting (βαλλητὺς), but you, when you please, may tell us about the βαλλητὺς at Eleusis. And Ulpian replied,—But you have reminded me, my good friend Democritus, by your mention of saucepans, that I have often wished to know what that is which is called the saucepan of Telemachus, and who Telemachus was. And Democritus said,—Timocles the comic poet, and he was also a writer of tragedy, in his drama called Lethe, says—
And after this Telemachus did meet him,But that this Telemachus was a citizen of the borough of Acharnæ, the same poet shows us in his Bacchus, where he says—
And with great cordiality embraced him,
And said, "Nowlend me, I do beg, the saucepans
In which you boil'd your beans." And scarcely had
He finish'd saying this, when he beheld
At some small distance the renowned Philip,
Son of Chærephilus, that mighty man,
Whom he accosted with a friendly greeting,
And then he bade him send some wicker baskets.
A. Telemachus th' Acharnian still is speaking,And in his Icarians, a satyric drama, he says—
And he is like the new-bought Syrian slaves.
B. How so, what does he do? I wish to know.
A. He bears about with him a deadly dish.
So that we'd nothing with us; I myself,From this it is plain that Telemachus, being a person who was constantly eating dishes of beans, was always celebrating the festival Pyanepsia.
Passing a miserable night, did first
[p. 643] Sleep on the hardest bed; and then that Lion,
Thudippus, did congeal us all with fear;
Then hunger pinch'd us . . . . . .
And so we went unto the fiery Dion.
But even he had nought with which to help us;
So running to the excellent Telemachus,
The great Acharnian, I found a heap
Of beans, and seized on some and ate them up.
And when that ass Cephisodorus saw us,
He by a most unseemly noise betray'd us.