Soc. I told you, no! you forgetful fellow. It is ANOTHER ὀπ. Now I will ask you in a different way. Do you know why we call fishes ἔλλοπες?
Strep. I suppose, because they are cased in scales.
Soc. That is not it. (And yet I am not sure. Perhaps the fellow is right, after all.) Well, we will not speak any more of ἔλλοπες. But did you never hear in Euripides, οὐκ ἔχω γεγωνεῖν ὄπα? What does that mean?
Strep. 'I am not able to shout out, ὦ πόποι'.
Soc. No, no, Streppy: but Euripides often uses ὄπα. He takes it from Homer, and it is akin to ἐπ, not to our ὀπ and much less to πόποι. What does ἔπη mean?
Strep. It means such lines as the diviners sing.
Soc. So it does in Attic, but Homer uses it for ῥήματα, words; indeed we also sometimes.
Strep. Yes, yes, I do know it. All is right.
Soc. I think you do: well, and ὂψ means a voice, φωνὴ.
Strep. How you learned men like to puzzle us! I often have heard ὀπι, ὄπα in the Tragedies, but never quite understood it. What a pity they do not say φωνὴ when they mean φωνή.
Soc. We have at last made one step. Now what is μέροψ? μέροπες ἄνθρωποι.
