Note 21 — Women in Greek Poetry

Cf. Hes. Op. 700, seqq. A comparison of that passage with the types mentioned in Simonides, i.e. the γυνὴ γηΐνη and the γυνὴ ἐξ ὄνου, would seem to show that the sense of δειπνόλοχος is not so much ‘fishing for invitations to dinner,’ i.e. fond of going out (so L. and S.), as ‘waylaying dinners,’ i.e. making havoc of the food, like Plautus’ ‘pernae pestis.’ Wastefulness in household matters was much more likely to ‘burn up’ a Greek husband, and bring him to a ‘cruel old age,’ than any amount of frivolity or flirtation. For the idea cp. Aristoph. Eccl. 226.