18-20

Narrative portion (διήγησις) of the speech, 18–84. It is unusually long for a διήγησις, but this digressiveness is characteristic of Apollodoros’ style.

Neaira was one of seven girls purchased and raised to be prostitutes by Nikarete, a freedwoman from Elis. She passed them off as her freeborn daughters, but then sold them when their earning days were over.

18

ἑπτά…ταύτας παιδίσκας: no article is needed with the demonstrative when definite numbers are used (S. 1178).

ἐκτήσατο: “purchased” as slaves

Ἠλείου: of Elis, a region in the Peloponnese

δεινή…συνιδεῖν: δεινός + infinitive = “clever, skilled at [doing something]”

καὶ δυναμένη: Dilts 2009, following Auger, brackets this as an explanatory gloss.

εὐπρεπῆ: modifies the preceding φύσιν; for 3^rd declension adjectives of the -ης/ες type, see S. 292.

συνιδεῖν < συνοράω (aor. συνεῖδον), “to discern with a keen eye” (Kapparis 1999: 208)

καὶ ταῦτα: a common way of amplifying what’s come before; translate as “what’s more” or “in addition.”

τέχνην ταύτην κατεσκευασμένη: “making this her profession” (LSJ κατασκευάζω A.3)

ἀπὸ τούτων: the demonstrative pronoun here is neuter.

βίον: here, “livelihood”

συνειλεγμένη < συλλέγω, “get, earn”

19

προσειποῦσα < προσεῖπον (used as second aorist of προσαγορεύω)

πράττοιτο: here with its middle sense “to obtain, to exact [money]” + double accusative (person and thing) (LSJ πράσσω VI)

πλησιάζειν: with a sexual sense: “to consort with”

ἡλικίαν: Kapparis 1999 translates this as “flourishing youth” (214) or “prime youth” (215).

συλλήβδην: i.e., all of them (but not all at the same time)

σώματα: the word σῶμα is often used as a synonym for “slave,” since slaves were conceptualized as (mere) bodies. Here, however, the word σώματα is better taken as “bodies.” 

ἀπέδοτο: “sold” (LSJ ἀποδίδωμι III)

Ἄντειαν καί...Νέαιραν: some of these prostitutes are mentioned in book 13 of Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistai; see Kapparis 1999: 208–9 for more detail.

20

ἣν μέν...καὶ ὡς: “which one...and how,” introducing indirect questions after δηλώσω below

ἂν βούλησθε…ᾖ: ἄν = ἐάν

ὕδατος: that is, the water in the κλεψύδρα (water clock, see the excavated example from the Athenian Agora), used to measure time in court

ἐπανελθεῖν < ἐπανέρχομαι, in speaking or writing, “to return to [a point]”