01-19-2010, 10:26 PM
Scott/Rocktupac wrote:
....this is a rather pointless digression, but it does demonstrate the fact that carelessness can creep in when interpreting sources. I'm afraid you are wrong in this particular instance! The priest doesn't have a slave ! Pisthetairus earlier orders HIS slave to fetch the basket, and the priest merely wonders where the slave has got to.....
There are just two slave characters - Xanthias, the slave of Pisthetairus and Manodorus/Manes, the slave of Euelpides.
As to the slave POSSIBLY wearing 'spolas'/armour, note that previously in the play the two slaves are ordered by Tereus ( the Bird leader):
"Take their suits of armour in the house—
hang the stuff up in the kitchen there,"
....but at first Pisthetairus refuses to take off his armour, until a pact is sworn - so the slaves might well be wearing/carrying 'armour/spolas' when Pishetairus orders his slave (Xanthias) to give the spolas to the poet...hypothetically, the slave could well be carrying/wearing armour ( 'wearing' so as to leave hands free to carry shield, spear etc).
...... Confusing, eh? :? wink: :wink:
Nevertheless, for the avoidance of doubt, on balance of probability, I would accept that the reference is probably to something like a sheepskin waistcoat, typical of peasants and slaves. However, it is curious that Aristophanes uses the 'Doric'/Peloponnesian form 'spolas' and not the usual Attic form 'stole'. Xenophon uses the 'Doric' word to specifically mean armour....a pointer that armour might be meant here too ? :wink:
Incidently, the 'spolas' is described as NOT woven (soooo... IF it were Pisthetairus armour/spolas being referred to here, it ain't linen!!! :wink: :lol: ) After receiving the spolas, the poet laments his lack of same):
POET [making up a quotation]
“Out there amid nomadic Scythians,
he wanders from the host in all his shame,
he who has no woven garment shuttle-made—
a spolas on, but no tunic to his name.”
I speak so you can understand.
PISTHETAIROS
Yes, I get it—you want the tunic, too.
[To the slave] Take it off. We must assist our poets.
Take it and get out.
Hpoefully we need digress no longer on the subject of Aristophanes......
Quote:I never said Pisthetaerus was a priest. I don't have it wrong. Read it again. Pisthetaerus orders a priest's slave (the priest is no longer around) to give the poet his (i.e. the slave's) spolas. Where is this wrong? The slave has a spolas and a tunic. My was point was that a priest's slave wearing armor (the spolas) is quite strange. What would a slave be doing wearing armor?
....this is a rather pointless digression, but it does demonstrate the fact that carelessness can creep in when interpreting sources. I'm afraid you are wrong in this particular instance! The priest doesn't have a slave ! Pisthetairus earlier orders HIS slave to fetch the basket, and the priest merely wonders where the slave has got to.....
There are just two slave characters - Xanthias, the slave of Pisthetairus and Manodorus/Manes, the slave of Euelpides.
As to the slave POSSIBLY wearing 'spolas'/armour, note that previously in the play the two slaves are ordered by Tereus ( the Bird leader):
"Take their suits of armour in the house—
hang the stuff up in the kitchen there,"
....but at first Pisthetairus refuses to take off his armour, until a pact is sworn - so the slaves might well be wearing/carrying 'armour/spolas' when Pishetairus orders his slave (Xanthias) to give the spolas to the poet...hypothetically, the slave could well be carrying/wearing armour ( 'wearing' so as to leave hands free to carry shield, spear etc).
...... Confusing, eh? :? wink: :wink:
Nevertheless, for the avoidance of doubt, on balance of probability, I would accept that the reference is probably to something like a sheepskin waistcoat, typical of peasants and slaves. However, it is curious that Aristophanes uses the 'Doric'/Peloponnesian form 'spolas' and not the usual Attic form 'stole'. Xenophon uses the 'Doric' word to specifically mean armour....a pointer that armour might be meant here too ? :wink:
Incidently, the 'spolas' is described as NOT woven (soooo... IF it were Pisthetairus armour/spolas being referred to here, it ain't linen!!! :wink: :lol: ) After receiving the spolas, the poet laments his lack of same):
POET [making up a quotation]
“Out there amid nomadic Scythians,
he wanders from the host in all his shame,
he who has no woven garment shuttle-made—
a spolas on, but no tunic to his name.”
I speak so you can understand.
PISTHETAIROS
Yes, I get it—you want the tunic, too.
[To the slave] Take it off. We must assist our poets.
Take it and get out.
Hpoefully we need digress no longer on the subject of Aristophanes......
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
