116-119

A noble man named Archias was recently convicted of making an illegal sacrifice. Even more so should Neaira be punished for her impiety. Apollodoros speculates about what the other side will argue as its defense, countering each potential argument. 

116

Ἀρχίαν: Archias tried to warn the Theban oligarchs about a plot by Theban exiles in Athens to liberate Thebes (379 BCE). This made him an unpopular figure in Athens and may have contributed to his prosecution on the (unrelated) charge described here.

ἱεροφάντην: the Hierophant was the chief priest of Demeter at Eleusis and played an important role in the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Σινώπῃ: Sinope was a well-known ἑταίρα in Athens.

Ἁλῴοις: the Haloa was a women’s festival in honor of Demeter, Persephone, and (most likely) Dionysos, celebrated in Eleusis on the twenty-sixth of Poseideon (December/January).

ἱερεῖον: a sacrificial victim.

ἱερεῖα: sacrificial victims.

τῆς ἱερείας: the priestess.

117

οὔκουν δεινόν “is it not an outrageous thing that” + acc. + infin.

τὸν μέν: Archias, looking forward to Νέαιραν δέ, below.

Εὐμολπιδῶν: the Eumolpidai were a prominent γένος from which the Hierophant was chosen.

ὅτι “because”

αἱ λῃτουργίαι ἃς ἐλῃτούργησε: instead of imposing taxes on everyone, the Athenians had a system of liturgies (λῃτουργίαι), mandatory public services taken on by the very richest members of Athenian society; they included things like financing a warship or equipping a chorus for a choral production. Recounting one’s liturgies in court was a common strategy to win the jury’s favor.

δόξαντα ἀδικεῖν “because he was judged to be guilty.”

τὸν αὐτὸν θεόν: i.e., Dionysos (who was connected with both the Haloa and the Anthesteria, where Phano was “married” to the god).

118

θαυμάζω “I wonder,” i.e., “I have no idea . . .” + indirect question (ironic)

πότερον ὡς “perhaps (they will say) that . . .” πότερον indicates that this is the first of two alternatives, the other being οὐ γυναῖκα εἶναι αὐτοῦ, below.

οὐ γυναῖκα εἶναι αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ παλλακὴν ἔχειν ἔνδον: this will apparently be Stephanos’ defense. A παλλακή is a concubine; it was permissible for a man to have a live-in παλλακή (of any status) to whom he was not married.

ἔχοντα: the understood subject is Stephanos; its object is αὐτήν.

119

ὡς ἔστιν ἀστὴ Νέαιρα αὑτηί: this stands roughly in apposition to ὡς…μεμαρτυρημένα and has the force of a clarification or explanation; it can be translated as “namely, that . . .”

αὐτὸν τοιοῦτόν τι μέλλειν ἀπολογεῖσθαι, ὡς “that he will argue in his defense something like this, that . . .”

οὐ γυναῖκα “not as a wife.”