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LYCINUS Lexiphanes, the glass of fashion, with a book?
LEXIPHANES Yes, Lycinus; ’tis one of my own productions of this very season,With τητινόν cf. τῆτες, ascribed to Pompeianus of Philadelphia in Athenaeus, III, 98 8. quite recent.
LYCINUS Why, are you now writing us something indecent?Lucian pretends to confuse νεοχμός (recent, novel) with αὐχμός (drought)—an equivoque quite impossible, I think, to reproduce exactly in English. LEXIPHANES No, forsooth, and I did not say indecent. Come, it is full time you learned to apply that word of mine to things newly indited. It would seem that your ears are stopped with wax.
LYCINUS Excuse me, my friend. Between indecent and recent there is a great dealin common. But tell me, what is the theme of your work?
LEXIPHANES I am counter-banqueting the son of Aristo in it. LYCINUS There are many “Aristos,” but to judge from your “banquet’ I suppose you mean Plato.
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LEXIPHANES You rede me right, but what I said would have been caviare to the general.
