JUST MAN. Yes, and so I come to the god to make him the acts of gratitude that are his due.
CHREMYLUS. But with what object now do you bring this old cloak, which your slave is carrying? Tell me.
JUST MAN. I wish to dedicate it to the god.[790]
CHREMYLUS. Were you initiated into the Great Mysteries in that cloak?[791]
JUST MAN. No, but I shivered in it for thirteen years.
CHREMYLUS. And this footwear?
JUST MAN. These also are my winter companions.
CHREMYLUS. And you wish to dedicate them too?
JUST MAN. Unquestionably.
CHREMYLUS. Fine presents to offer to the god!
[790] As evidence of the sorry condition from which he had been raised.
[791] The clothes a man wore on the day that he was initiated into the Mysteries of Eleusis had, according to custom, to be dedicated to the gods, but only after they had been worn. Most people only decided to do this when they were full of holes and torn; it is because his visitor's cloak is in such a sorry condition that Chremylus takes it to be the cloak of an Initiate.
Studies
