Помимо всех этих людей, разве Деметрий Полиоркет явно не был влюблен в флейтистку Ламию, от которой у него была дочь по имени Фила? А Полемон в своем трактате о колоннаде, называемой «Пойкиле» в Сикионе, говорит, что Ламия была дочерью афинянина Клеанора и что она построила вышеупомянутую колоннаду для жителей Сикиона. Деметрий был также влюблен в Леэну, и она была также афинской куртизанкой; и во многих других женщин, помимо этого.
39. А комический поэт Махон в своей пьесе под названием «Хрии» говорит так: —
But as Leæna was by nature form'd
To give her lovers most exceeding pleasure,
And was besides much favour'd by Demetrius,
They say that Lamia also gratified
The king; and when he praised her grace and quickness,
The damsel answer'd: And besides you can,
If you do wish, subdue a lioness (λέαιναν).
Но Ламия всегда была очень остроумной и быстрой на ответ, как и Гнатаена, о которой мы упомянем сейчас. И снова Махон пишет так о Ламии: —
Demetrius the king was once displaying
Amid his cups a great variety
Of kinds of perfumes to his Lamia:
Now Lamia was a female flute-player,
With whom 'tis always said Demetrius
Was very much in love. But when she scoff'd
At all his perfumes, and, moreover, treated
The monarch with exceeding insolence,
He bade a slave bring some cheap unguent, and
He rubbed himself with that, and smear'd his fingers,
And said, "At least smell this, O Lamia,
And see how much this scent does beat all others."
She laughingly replied: "But know, O king,
That smell does seem to me the worst of all."
"But," said Demetrius, "I swear, by the gods,
That 'tis produced from a right royal nut."
40. А Птолемей, сын Агесарха, в своей «Истории Филопатора», давая список любовниц разных царей, говорит: — «Филипп Македонский продвинул танцовщицу Филину, от которой у него был Аридей, который был царем Македонии после Александра. А у Деметрия Полиоркета, помимо женщин, которые уже были упомянуты, была любовница по имени Мания; а у Антигона была одна по имени Демо, от которой у него был сын по имени Алкионей; а у Селевка Младшего было две, чьи имена были Миста и Ниса». Но Гераклид Лемб в тридцать шестой книге своей «Истории» говорит, что Демо была любовницей Деметрия; и что его отец Антигон был также влюблен в нее: и что он казнил Оксифемида как много согрешившего с Деметрием; и он также подверг пыткам и казнил служанок Демо.
41. Но касательно имени Мании, которое мы только что упомянули, тот же Махон говорит это: —
Some one perhaps of those who hear this now,
May fairly wonder how it came to pass
That an Athenian woman had a name,
Or e'en a nickname, such as Mania.
For 'tis disgraceful for a woman thus
To bear a Phrygian name; she being, too,
A courtesan from the very heart of Greece.
And how came she to sink the city of Athens,
By which all other nations are much sway'd?
The fact is that her name from early childhood
Was this—Melitta. And as she grew up
A trifle shorter than her playfellows,
But with a sweet voice and engaging manners,
And with such beauty and excellence of face
As made a deep impression upon all men,
She'd many lovers, foreigners and citizens.
So that when any conversation
Arose about this woman, each man said,
The fair Melitta was his madness (μανία). Aye,
And she herself contributed to this name;
For when she jested she would oft repeat
This word μανία; and when in sport she blamed
Or praised any one, she would bring in,
In either sentence, this word μανία.
So some one of her lovers, dwelling on
The word, appears to have nicknamed the girl
Mania; and this extra name prevailed
More than her real one. It seems, besides,
That Mania was afflicted with the stone.
* * * * *
COURTESANS.
42. И что Мания была также превосходна в остроумных ответах, Махон говорит нам в этих стихах о ней: —
There was a victor in the pancratium,
Named Leontiscus, who loved Mania,
And kept her with him as his lawful wife;
But finding afterwards that she did play
The harlot with Antenor, was indignant:
But she replied,—"My darling, never mind;
I only wanted just to feel and prove,
In a single night, how great the strength might be
Of two such athletes, victors at Olympia."
They say again that Mania once was ask'd,
By King Demetrius, for a perfect sight
Of all her beauties; and she, in return,
Demanded that he should grant her a favour.
When he agreed, she turned her back, and said,—
"O son of Agamemnon, now the Gods
Grant you to see what you so long have wish'd for."[31]
On one occasion, too, a foreigner,
Who a deserter was believed to be,
Had come by chance to Athens; and he sent
For Mania, and gave her all she ask'd.
It happen'd that he had procured for supper
Some of those table-jesters, common buffoons,
Who always raise a laugh to please their feeders;
And wishing to appear a witty man,
Used to politest conversation,
While Mania was sporting gracefully,
As was her wont, and often rising up
To reach a dish of hare, he tried to raise
A joke upon her, and thus spoke,—"My friends,
Tell me, I pray you by the Gods, what animal
You think runs fastest o'er the mountain-tops?"
"Why, my love, a deserter," answer'd Mania.
Another time, when Mania came to see him,
She laugh'd at the deserter, telling him,
That once in battle he had lost his shield.
But this brave soldier, looking somewhat fierce,
Sent her away. And as she was departing,
She said, "My love, don't be so much annoy'd;
For 'twas not you, who, when you ran away,
Did lose that shield, but he who lent it you."
Another time they say a man who was
A thorough profligate, did entertain
Mania at supper; and when he question'd her,
"Do you like being up or down the best?"
She laugh'd, and said, "I'd rather be up, my friend,
For I'm afraid, lest, if I lay me down,
You'd bite my plaited hair from off my head."
43. Но Махон также собрал остроумные высказывания других куртизанок; и будет не неуместно перечислить некоторые из них сейчас. Соответственно, он упоминает Гнатаену так: —
COURTESANS.
Diphilus once was drinking with Gnathæna.
Said he, "Your cup is somewhat cold, Gnathæna;"
And she replied, "'Tis no great wonder, Diphilus,
For we take care to put some of your Plays in it."
Diphilus was once invited to a banquet
At fair Gnathæna's house, as men do say,
On the holy day of Venus' festival—
(He being a man above her other lovers
Beloved by her, though she conceal'd her flame).
He came accordingly, and brought with him
Two jars of Chian wine, and four, quite full,
Of wine from Thasos; perfumes, too, and crowns;
Sweetmeats and venison; fillets for the head;
Fish, and a cook, and a female flute-player.
In the meantime a Syrian friend of hers
Sent her some snow, and one saperdes; she
Being ashamed lest any one should hear
She had received such gifts, and, above all men,
Fearing lest Diphilus should get at them,
And show her up in one of his Comedies,
She bade a slave to carry off at once
The salt-fish to the men who wanted salt,
As every one did know; the snow she told him
To mix with the wine unseen by any one.
And then she bade the boy to fill the cup
With ten full cyathi of wine, and bear it
At once to Diphilus. He eagerly
Received the cup, and drain'd it to the bottom,
And, marvelling at the delicious coolness,
Said—"By Minerva, and by all the gods,
You must, Gnathæna, be allow'd by all
To have a most deliciously cool well."
"Yes," said she, "for we carefully put in,
From day-to-day, the prologues of your plays."
A slave who had been flogg'd, whose back was mark'd
With heavy weals, was once, as it fell out,
Reposing with Gnathæna:—then, as she
Embraced him, she found out how rough all over
His back did feel. "Oh wretched man," said she,
"In what engagement did you get these wounds?"
He in a few words answer'd her, and said,
"That when a boy, once playing with his playmates,
He'd fallen backwards into the fire by accident."
"Well," said she, "if you were so wanton then,
You well deserved to be flogg'd, my friend."
Gnathæna once was supping with Dexithea,
Who was a courtesan as well as she;
And when Dexithea put aside with care
Nearly all the daintiest morsels for her mother,
She said, "I swear by Dian, had I known
How you went on, Dexithea, I would rather
Have gone to supper with your mother than you."
When this Gnathæna was advanced in years,
Hastening, as all might see, towards the grave,
They say she once went out into the market,
And look'd at all the fish, and ask'd the price
Of every article she saw. And seeing
A handsome butcher standing at his stall,
Just in the flower of youth,—"Oh, in God's name,
Tell me, my youth, what is your price (πῶς ἴστης) to-day?"
He laugh'd, and said, "Why, if I stoop, three obols."
"But who," said she, "did give you leave, you wretch,
To use your Carian weights in Attica?"
Stratocles once made all his friends a present
Of kids and shell-fish greatly salted, seeming
To have dress'd them carefully, so that his friends
Should the next morning be o'erwhelm'd with thirst,
And thus protract their drinking, so that he
Might draw from them some ample contributions.
Therefore Gnathæna said to one of her lovers,
Seeing him wavering about his offerings,
"After the kids[32]
Stratocles brings a storm."
Gnathæna, seeing once a thin young man,
Of black complexion, lean as any scarecrow,
Reeking with oil, and shorter than his fellows,
Called him in jest Adonis. When the youth
Answer'd her in a rude and violent manner,
She looking on her daughter who was with her,
Said, "Ah! it serves me right for my mistake."
They say that one fine day a youth from Pontus
Was sleeping with Gnathæna, and at morn
He ask'd her to display her beauties to him.
But she replied, "You have no time, for now
It is the hour to drive the pigs to feed."
COURTESANS.
44. Он также упоминает следующие высказывания Гнатаении, которая была внучкой Гнатаены: —
It happen'd once that a very aged satrap,
Full ninety years of age, had come to Athens,
And on the feast of Saturn he beheld
Gnathænium with Gnathæna going out
From a fair temple sacred to Aphrodite,
And noticing her form and grace of motion,
He just inquired "How much she ask'd a night?"
Gnathæna, looking on his purple robe,
And princely body-guard, said, "A thousand drachmæ."
He, as if smitten with a mortal wound,
Said, "I perceive, because of all these soldiers,
You look upon me as a captured enemy;
But take five minæ, and agree with me,
And let them get a bed prepared for us."
She, as the satrap seem'd a witty man,
Received his terms, and said, "Give what you like,
O father, for I know most certainly,
You'll give my daughter twice as much at night."
There was at Athens once a handsome smith,
When she, Gnathænium, had almost abandon'd
Her trade, and would no longer common be,
Moved by the love of the actor Andronicus;
(But at this moment he was gone away,
After she'd brought him a male child;) this smith
Then long besought the fair Gnathænium
To fix her price; and though she long refused,
By long entreaty and liberality,
At last he won her over to consent.
But being but a rude and ill-bred clown,
He, one day sitting with some friends of his
In a leather-cutter's shop, began to talk
About Gnathænium to divert their leisure,
Narrating all their fond love passages.
But after this, when Andronicus came
From Corinth back again, and heard the news,
He bitterly reproach'd her, and at supper
He said, with just complaint, unto Gnathænium,
That she had never granted him such liberties
As this flogg'd slave had had allow'd to him.
And then they say Gnathænium thus replied:
That she was her own mistress, and the smith
Was so begrimed with soot and dirt that she
Had no more than she could help to do with him.
One day they say Gnathænium, at supper,
Would not kiss Andronicus when he wish'd,
Though she had done so every day before;
But she was angry that he gave her nothing.
Said he, on this, "Gnathæna, don't you see
How haughtily your daughter's treating me?"
And she, indignant, said, "You wretched girl,
Take him and kiss him if he wishes it."
But she replied, "Why should I kiss him, mother,
Who does no good to any one in the house,
But seeks to have his Argos all for nothing?"
Once, on a day of festival, Gnathænium
Went down to the Piræus to a lover,
Who was a foreign merchant, riding cheaply
On a poor mule, and having after her
Three donkeys, three maid-servants, and one nurse.
Then, at a narrow spot in the road, they met
One of those knavish wrestlers, men who sell
Their battles, always taking care to lose them;
And as he could not pass by easily,
Being crowded up, he cried—"You wretched man,
You donkey-driver, if you get not quickly
Out of my way, I will upset these women,
And all the donkeys and the mule to boot."
But quick Gnathænium said, "My friend, I pray you,
Don't be so valiant now, when you have never
Done any feat of spirit or strength before."
45. И впоследствии Махон дает нам следующие анекдоты: —
They say that Lais the Corinthian,
Once when she saw Euripides in a garden,
Holding a tablet and a pen attach'd to it,
Cried out to him, "Now, answer me, my poet,
What was your meaning when you wrote in your play,
'Away, you shameless doer?'" And Euripides,
Amazed, and wondering at her audacity,
Said, "Why, you seem to me to be yourself
A shameless doer." And she, laughing, answer'd,
"How shameless, if my partners do not think so?"
Glycerium once received from some lover
A new Corinthian cloak with purple sleeves,
And gave it to a fuller. Afterwards,
When she thought he'd had time enough to clean it,
She sent her maidservant to fetch it back,
Giving her money, that she might pay for it.
But, said the fuller, "You must bring me first
Three measures full of oil, for want of that
Is what has hindered me from finishing."
The maid went back and told her mistress all.
"Wretch that I am!" Glycerium said, "for he
Is going to fry my cloak like any herring."
Demophoon once, the friend of Sophocles,
While a young man, fell furiously in love
With Nico, called the Goat, though she was old:
And she had earn'd this name of Goat, because
She quite devour'd once a mighty friend of hers,
Named Thallus,[33]
when he came to Attica
To buy some Chelidonian figs, and also
To export some honey from th' Hymettian hill.
And it is said this woman was fair to view.
And when Demophoon tried to win her over,
"A pretty thing," said she, "that all you get
From me you may present to Sophocles."
Callisto once, who was nicknamed the Sow,
Was fiercely quarrelling with her own mother,
Who also was nicknamed the Crow. Gnathæna
Appeased the quarrel, and when ask'd the cause of it,
Said, "What else could it be, but that one Crow
Was finding fault with the blackness of the other?"
Men say that Hippe once, the courtesan,
Had a lover named Theodotus, a man
Who at the time was prefect of the granaries
And she on one occasion late in th' evening
Came to a banquet of King Ptolemy,
And she'd been often used to drink with him
So, as she now was very late, she said,
"I'm very thirsty, papa Ptolemy,
So let the cup-bearer pour me four gills
Into a larger cup." The king replied,
"You must have it in a platter, for you seem
Already, Hippe,[34]
to have had plenty of hay."
A man named Morichus was courting Phryne,
The Thespian damsel. And, as she required
A mina, "'Tis a mighty sum," said Morichus,
"Did you not yesterday charge a foreigner
Two little pieces of gold?" "Wait till I want you,"
Said she, "and I will take the same from you."
'Tis said that Nico, who was call'd the Goat,
Once when a man named Pytho had deserted her,
And taken up with the great fat Euardis,
But after a time did send again for her,
Said to the slave who came to fetch her, "Now
That Pytho is well sated with his swine,
Does he desire to return to a goat?"
COURTESANS.
46. До этого момента мы перечисляли вещи, упомянутые Махоном. Ибо наша прекрасная Афина произвела на свет такое количество куртизанок (о которых я расскажу вам столько анекдотов, сколько смогу), какое не произвел ни один другой густонаселенный город. Во всяком случае, Аристофан Византийский насчитал сто тридцать пять, а Аполлодор — еще большее число; и Горгий перечислил еще больше, говоря, что, среди многих других, эти выдающиеся были пропущены Аристофаном — а именно одна, которую прозвали Паройнос, и Лампирида, и Евфросина: и эта последняя была дочерью валяльщика. И, помимо них, он пропустил Мегисто, Агаллиду, Таумариду, Теоклею (и ее прозвали Вороной), Ленаэтоцистос, Астру, Гнатаену и ее внучку Гнатаению, и Сигу, и Синориду (которую прозвали Свечой), и Евклею, и Гримею, и Триаллиду, и Химеру, и Лампаду. Но комический поэт Дифил был сильно влюблен в Гнатаену (как уже было сказано и как сообщает Линкей Самосский в своих «Комментариях»); и поэтому однажды, когда на сцене он сыграл очень плохо и был выгнан (ἠρμένος) из театра, и, несмотря на это, пришел к Гнатаене, как будто ничего не случилось; и когда он, после того как прибыл, умолял Гнатаену помыть ему ноги, «Зачем тебе это?» сказала она; «разве тебя не принесли (ἠρμένος) сюда?» И Гнатаена была очень быстра на ответы. И были другие куртизанки, которые были высокого мнения о себе, уделяя внимание образованию и проводя часть своего времени за литературой; так что они были очень быстры на свои реплики и ответы.
Соответственно, когда однажды Стильпон на пиру обвинял Гликеру в соблазнении юношей города (как упоминает Сатир в своих «Жизнеописаниях»), Гликера ответила ему и сказала: «Ты и я обвиняемся в одном и том же, о Стильпон; ибо говорят, что ты развращаешь всех, кто приходит к тебе, обучая их бесполезным и любовным софизмам; и они обвиняют меня в том же самом: ибо если люди тратят свое время и с ними плохо обращаются, нет никакой разницы, живут ли они с философом или с блудницей». Ибо, согласно Агафону,
It does not follow, because a woman's body
Is void of strength, that her mind, too, is weak.
47. И Линкей записал много ответов Гнатаены. Был паразит, который имел обыкновение жить за счет старухи и держал себя в очень хорошем состоянии; и Гнатаена, увидев его, сказала: «Мой юный друг, ты кажешься в очень хорошем состоянии». «Что же тогда ты думаешь», сказал он, «что я был бы, если бы спал один?» «Ну, я думаю, ты бы умер с голоду», сказала она. Однажды, когда Павсаний, которого прозвали Лакк, танцевал, он упал в бочку. «Погреб», говорит Гнатаена, «упал в бочку». Однажды кто-то положил очень мало вина в охладитель для вина и сказал, что ему шестнадцать лет. «Его очень мало для его возраста», сказала она, «чтобы быть таким старым». Однажды на попойке несколько молодых людей дрались из-за нее и били друг друга, и она сказала тому, кто проигрывал: «Будь бодр, мой мальчик; ибо это не состязание, которое решается коронами, а гинеями». Был человек, который однажды дал ее дочери мину и никогда не приносил ей ничего больше, хотя он приходил видеть ее очень часто. «Ты думаешь, мой мальчик», сказала она, «что теперь, когда ты однажды заплатил свою мину, ты должен приходить сюда вечно, как будто ты идешь к тренеру Гиппомаху?» Однажды, когда Фрина сказала ей с некоторой горечью: «Что бы стало с тобой, если бы у тебя был камень?» «Я бы дала его тебе», сказала она, «чтобы ты наточила на нем свой ум». Ибо говорили, что Гнатаена была подвержена камню, в то время как другой, конечно, он был нужен, как намекала Гнатаена. Однажды несколько мужчин пили в ее доме и ели чечевицу, приготовленную с луком (βολβοφάκη); когда служанка убирала со стола и клала немного чечевицы за пазуху (κόλπον), Гнатаена сказала: «Она думает о том, чтобы приготовить немного κολποφάκη».