21-22

Lysias the sophist asked Nikarete to bring Metaneira to Athens in order to initiate her into the Eleusinian Mysteries. Neaira came along, too, and all three stayed with a man named Philostratos.

21

Λύσιας . . . ὁ σοφίστης: this is the famous rhetorician and logographer Lysias. While σοφίστης can be used pejoratively, here it simply refers to his profession as a teacher of oratory.

μυῆσαι < μυέω i.e., to initiate into the Eleusinian Mysteries, held in honor of Demeter and Persephone.

τὴν κεκτημένην αὐτήν: “her owner,” Nikarete, subject of λαμβάνειν, “was taking,” in indirect statement after ἡγούμενος. 

ἀναλώσῃ < ἀναλίσκω, “spend.”

καταθήσεσθαι < κατατίθημι; takes χάριν as its object. 

ἐδεήθη < δέομαι, “to beg," "ask.”

ὑπέσχετο < ὑπισχνέομαι, “to promise.”

22

αἰσχυνόμενος < αἰσχύνω + acc. person before whom one feels shame.

Βραχύλλου: Brachyllos was the husband of Lysias’ sister.

ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ: “in the same [house]”

διαιτωμένην < διαιτάω in both middle and passive means “lead one’s life," "live.”

ὡς Φιλόστρατον: ὡς + acc. personal name = “at the house of.”

Κολωνῆθεν: from Colonus, an Attic deme. Here is a map of all Attic demes.

νεωτέρα: comparative degree (G. 177, S. 313), with the sense of “too young.” Kapparis suggests that she was around twelve or thirteen (i.e., not yet of marriageable age) (1999: 215).

διὰ τὸ μήπω τὴν ἡλικίαν αὐτῇ παρεῖναι: “because the (proper) age was not yet present for her,” i.e., because she was not yet old enough. τό . . . παρεῖναι is an articular infinitive. ἡλικίαν serves here as the accusative subject of παρεῖναι < παρά + εἰμί (+ dat.).