Note 986 — Chapter VII · THE AUDIENCE
Reading edition
Aristoph. Nub. 537-9, Pax 765, 766, 962-7. Cp. also Eupolis, Προσπάλτιοι, fr. 244 (Kock) Ἡράκλεις, τοῦτ’ ἔστι σοι | τὸ σκῶμμ’ ἀσελγὲς καὶ Μεγαρικὸν καὶ σφόδρα | ψυχρόν. γελῶσιν, ὡς ὁρᾷς, τὰ παιδία. Arist. Pax 50-3 ἐγὼ δὲ τὸν λόγον γε τοῖσι παιδίοις | καὶ τοῖσιν ἀνδρίοισι καὶ τοῖς ἀνδράσι | καὶ τοῖς ὑπερτάτοισιν ἀνδράσιν φράσω | καὶ τοῖς ὑπερηνορέουσιν. [Rogers, Introd. to the Ecclesiazusae, takes this passage, in which women are not mentioned, to prove that they were not present. But the point of the jest is in the enumeration of men in an ascending scale of manliness, and to mention women, even if they were present, would have spoiled it. The other passages which he quotes, Eccles. 165 ff., 435 ff., 1144 ff., and the situation in the Thesmoph., are satisfied if we suppose a large preponderance of men; but they do not require us to assume the exclusion of women.]