132 ARISTOPHANES.

would be wanted. “Four days,” he said to himself,
“and then comes that day which I hate to think of.
All my creditors swear that they will give me no
mercy. I make the most reasonable propositions to
them. I say, ‘Would you mind postponing part of
the debt, and cancelling part, and not receiving the
rest?’ and they won’t listen to me. However, it will
be all right if Pheidippides has learnt his lesson
properly. I must go over to the Reflectory and see
how he has got on.” This he did, and had the
pleasure of having his son handed over to him,
changed into a pale-faced, cunning-looking fellow,
who gave promise of being exactly what he wanted.
He at once appealed to him for his help, explaining
that he was terribly afraid of the last day of the
month, when his creditors had declared that they
would sue him for the money which he owed to
‘them. Pheidippides explained to him that his fears .
were groundless. He had a device which would
upset the creditors’ calculations. These gentlemen
did not understand that this last day had been pur-
posely called the “old and the new”? by Solon, and
so made into two days, in order to give debtors a
loophole of escape. Relying on this new interpreta-
tion the old man received the threatenings of trades-
men, who called with requests for payment, with the

1The Athenian month was divided into three decades, and the last
day of the third was called “ the old and the new” as belonging partly
to the month that was ending, and partly to that which was beginning,