Friday, July 19, 2024

 

No More Poverty

Aristophanes, Assemblywomen 605-606 (tr. Jeffery Henderson):
No one will be doing anything out of poverty, because everyone will have all the necessities:
bread, salt fish, barley-cakes, cloaks, wine, garlands, chickpeas.

οὐδεὶς οὐδὲν πενίᾳ δράσει· πάντα γὰρ ἕξουσιν ἅπαντες,
ἄρτους, τεμάχη, μάζας, χλαίνας, οἶνον, στεφάνους, ἐρεβίνθους.
Alan H. Sommerstein on line 606:
[T]his short list neatly demonstrates now Athenians thought of the good things of life in terms of consumables, not of possessions that last (cf. Davidson passim, esp. 213-249); every item on it, except "warm cloaks" (khlainai, cf. 416), is something whose enjoyment lasts, at most, for the duration of a banquet. On the other hand, they are not luxuries either; even the fish (on which see Davidson 3-35) are only in "slices", not the whole large fish that a gourmet would seek to buy (cf. Ach. 880-894, Wasps 493, Peace 810-3. Eupolis fr. 160), and all the other items are the plainest of everyday fare and are indeed included in the provision initially made for the citizens of Plato's ideal state (Rep. 372a-d), which Glaucon complains is fit only for pigs.
Davidson = James Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes (London: Fontana Press, 1998).



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