Key to Reading Unit 15

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Unit Key 14

Unit Key 16

Unit 15

1. Having married a rich wife I have become my own fate (lit. a god to myself).

2. The treasure has been shown [to be] coal.

3. Croesus maintained the murder of his son unawares (or: was not aware that he was maintaining; ἑαυτόν is to be understood with ἐλάνθανε.)

4. I see that, for most men, former prosperity breeds insolence.

5. A woman is somehow an ally to [another] woman.

6. I have the same disposition as all mortal men (lit. I have experienced that thing which all mortals [experience]): I am not ashamed at liking myself best (lit. most of all.)

7. In the middle of our conversation (lit. at the same time as us saying these things) the sons of Eucrates came in from the wrestling-school, one of them already a young man (lit. from the number of the ephebes), the other about fifteen years old, and after greeting us sat down on the couch beside their father. A chair was brought in for me. As if reminded [of something] at the sight of his sons, Eucrates said, 'Tychiades, [what] I'm going to tell you [is] the truth. I very much loved my late wife, the mother of these [lads], and I showed [this] by what I did for her, not only while she was alive but also after her death (lit. she died), by burning with [her] all her ornaments and the clothing in which she took pleasure when she was alive. On the seventh day after her death I was lying on the couch here, just as [I am] now, [trying to] relieve my grief; for I was quietly reading Plato's book on the soul (i.e. the Phaedo). Meanwhile (i.e. while I was thus reading), Demaenete (Eucrates' dead wife) her very self entered (historic pres., as also καθίζεται) and sat down near [me], just as Eucratides here is now [sitting].'

And he (i.e. Eucratides) immediately shivered just like a child (lit. very childishly); he had been very pale for a long time already in consequence of the account.
'When I saw her,' said Eucrates, ' I embraced her and, wailing aloud, began to weep. But she would not let me cry aloud; instead (lit. but) reproached me because, although I had gratified her in everything else, I had not burned one [of a pair] of gold-embroidered sandals. She maintained that this had fallen under the chest, and for this reason we had not found it and had only burned the other. While we were still talking, some cursed little Maltese dog under the couch let out a yelp, and she vanished at the noise (lit. yelp). The sandal, however, was subsequently discovered under the chest and burned. Is it proper, Tychiades, to continue (lit. still) to refuse to believe in such things (lit. these things i.e. ghosts) when they take palpable form and appear each day?' (Adapted from Lucian Philopseudes 27).
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Key to Reading Unit 15

(c) Gavin Betts, Alan Henry 2001