A man of Athens fell into debt and was pressed for the money by his creditor1; but he had no means of paying at the time, so he begged for delay. But the creditor refused and said he must pay at once. Then the debtor2 fetched a sow-the only one he had-and took her to market to offer her for sale. It happened that his creditor was there too. Presently a buyer came along and asked if the sow produced good litters. "Yes," said the debtor, "very fine ones, and the remarkable3 thing is that she produces females at the Mysteries and males at the Panathenea." (These were two Greek festivals. The Athenians always sacrifice a sow at one, and a boar at the other, while at the Dionysia they sacrifice a kid.) At that the creditor, who was standing4 by, put in, "Don't be surprised, sir. Why still better, at the Dionysia this sow has kids!"

　　一個(gè)雅典人欠了別人的錢，債主三番幾次來催他還錢，但他當(dāng)時(shí)根本沒有辦法還錢，所以請(qǐng)求延期幾天?？墒?，債主卻不答應(yīng)，讓他立刻還錢。迫不得已，欠債人把家中僅有的母豬帶到市場上去賣。碰巧，債主也在那個(gè)市場里。過了一會(huì)兒，有一個(gè)買主走上前來，問這頭母豬是否還能下小豬崽。“當(dāng)然了，”欠債人回答說，“能生下很好的小豬崽，而且更驚人的事，她還能在女神節(jié)生下小母豬，在帕納西尼亞節(jié)生下小公豬。”（這是希臘的兩個(gè)節(jié)日，雅典人總是在女神節(jié)殺一只小母豬祭祀，在帕那尼西亞節(jié)殺一只小公豬祭祀，而在狂歡節(jié)殺一只小山羊做祭祀品。）債主聽到他說的話，立刻站起來插話道：“一點(diǎn)都不奇怪，先生，為什么呢，因?yàn)楦鼌柡Φ氖?，在狂歡節(jié)時(shí)，她還會(huì)生下小山羊呢！”