When I arrived at Thasos they met me with missiles of shit.
And then someone stood near me and said:
“Dirtiest of all men, who persuaded you to mount
this pristine stage with feet like yours?”
᾿Ες δὲ Θάσον μ’ ἐλθόντα μετεωρίζοντες ἔβαλλον
πολλοῖσι σπελέθοισι, καὶ ὧδέ τις εἶπε παραστάς·
‘ὦ πάντων ἀνδρῶν βδελυρώτατε, τίς σ’ ἀνέπεισεν
καλὴν ἐς κρηπῖδα ποσὶν τοιοῖσδ’ ἀναβῆναι;’
I like parody. Who doesn’t? Not enough people know about the Batrakhomuomakhia. But I knew nothing about Hegemon before today. Hegemon? Apparently the inventor of parody who does not merit a Wikipedia page of his own.
I like this because of the language, oh and the ugly feet thing. I empathize. In the rest of the passage, the speaker says that Athena came to him and encouraged him to sing
See The Oxford Classical Dictionary (=OCD), edited by S. Hornblower, A. Spawforth, Oxford 2012
p. 652, s.v. Hegemon, of Thasos
Fragments: Parody: P. Brandt, Corpusculum poesis epicae graece ludibundae 1 (1888), 37-49 Comedy: PCG5. 546-7
Interpretation: Meineke, FCG 1. 214 f.;
Wilamowitz, Hermes 1905, 173 f. (= Kl. Schr. 4 (1962), 220 f.;
A. Körte, RE 7/2 (1912), 2595 f. ‘Hegemon’ 3;
D. Panomitros, Parnassus 45 (2003), 145–62.
WGA