Lucian, Judicium vocalium, Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator), 8

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[8] But impunity emboldened him; κασσίτερος became καττίτερος, κάσσυμα and πίσσα shared its fate; and then he cast off all shame and assaulted βασίλισσα. I found myself losing the society in which I had been born and bred¹; at such a time equanimity is out of place; I am tortured with apprehension; how long will it be before σῦκα is τῦκα? Bear with me, I beseech you; I despair and have none to help me; do I not well to be angry? It is no petty everyday peril, this threatened separation from my long-tried familiars. My κίσσα, my talking bird that nestled in my breast, he has torn away and named anew; my φάσσα, my νῆσσαι, my κόσσυφοι —all gone; and I had Aristarchus’s own word that they were mine; half my μέλισσαι he has lured: to strange hives; Attica itself he has invaded, and wrongfully annexed its Hymettus (as he calls it); and you and the rest looked on at the seizure.

Judicium vocalium. Lucian. Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator). Medford, MA, USA. 2023-08-01.

Current edition Perseus

Trial in the Court of Vowels (English) (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 1. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.)

Editions (1)

Δίκη Συμφώνων Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 1. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913.) — 8 focus

[8] ὁπότε δὲ ἐκ τούτων ἀρξάμενον ἐτόλμησε καττίτερον εἰπεῖν καὶ κάττυμα καὶ πίτταν, εἶτα ἀπερυθριᾶσαν καὶ βασίλισσαν¹ βασίλιτταν ὀνομάζειν, οὐ μετρίως ἐπὶ τούτοις ἀγανακτῶ καὶ πίμπραμαι δεδιὸς μὴ τῷ χρόνῳ καὶ τὰ σῦκα τῦκά τις ὀνομάσῃ. καί μοι πρὸς Διὸς ἀθυμοῦντι καὶ μεμονωμένῳ τῶν βοηθησόντων σύγγνωτε τῆς δικαίας ὀργῆς· οὐ γὰρ περὶ μικρὰ καὶ τὰ τυχόντα ἐστὶν ὁ κίνδυνος, ἀφαιρουμένῳ τῶν συνήθων καὶ συνεσχολακότων μοι γραμμάτων.² κίσσαν μου, λάλον ὄρνεον, ἐκ μέσων ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν τῶν κόλπων ἁρπάσαν κίτταν ὠνόμασεν· ἀφείλετο δέ μου φάσσαν ἅμα νήσσαις τε καὶ κοσσύφοις ἀπαγορεύοντος Ἀριστάρχου· περιέσπασε δὲ καὶ μελισσῶν οὐκ ὀλίγας· ἐπʼ Ἀττικὴν δὲ ἦλθε καὶ ἐκ μέσης αὐτῆς ἀνήρπασεν ἀνόμως Ὑμησσὸν³ ὁρώντων ὑμῶν καὶ τῶν ἄλλων συλλαβῶν.

Translations (1)

The Consonants at Law Sigma Vs. Tau, in the Court of the Seven Vowels Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 1. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913.) — 8 focus

[8] Once I made a visit to Cybelus, which is rather an agreeable little village, settled, the story has it, by . Athenians. I took with me sturdy Rho, the best of ~ neighbours, and stopped at the house of a comic poet called Lysimachus, evidently a Boeotian by descent, though he would have it that he came from the heart of Attica. ¹ It was at that foreigner’s that I detected the encroachments of this fellow Tau. As long as it was but little that he attempted, venturing to mispronounce four (τέσσαρα—τέτταρα) and forty (τεσσαράκοντα—τετταράκοντα), and also to lay hands on to-day (σήμερον—τήμερον), and the like and say they were his own, thus depriving me of my kith and kin among the letters, I thought it was just his way and could put up with what I heard, and was not much annoyed over my losses.

Notes on the current edition

Trial in the Court of Vowels

1. For the probably corrupt passage § 7 fin.—§ 8 init. I accept Dindorf's rearrangement as follows: μέχρι μὲν γὰρ ὀλίγοις ἐπεχείρει, τετταράκοντα λέγειν ἀξιοῦν, ἔτι δὲ τήμερον καὶ τὰ ὅμοια ἐπισπώμενον, συνήθειαν ᾤμην ἴδια ταυτὶ λέγειν, καὶ οἰστὸν ἦν μοι τὸ ἄκουσμα καὶ οὐ πάνν τι ἐδακνόμην ἐπ' αὐτοῖς. 8. ὁπότε δ᾽ ἐκ τούτων ἀρξάμενον ἐτόλμησε καττίτερον εἰπεῖν καὶ κάττυμα καὶ πίτταν, εἶτα ἀπερυθριᾶσαν καὶ βασίλιτταν ὀνομάζειν, ἀποστεροῦν με τῶν συγγεγενημένων μοι καὶ συντεθραμμένων γραμμάτων, οὐ μετρίως ἐπὶ τούτοις ἀγανακτῶ.

Lucian Judicium vocalium 8

Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator)

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