Alcibiades

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. IV. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1916.

Even the lisp that he had became his speech, they say, and made his talk persuasive and full of charm. Aristophanes notices this lisp of his in the verses wherein he ridicules Theorus:—

Sosias
  1. Then Alcibiades said to me with a lisp, said he,
  2. Cwemahk Theocwus? What a cwaven’s head he has!
Xanthias
  1. That lisp of Alcibiades hit the mark for once!
[*](Wasps, 44 ff. The lisp of Alcibiades turned his r’s into l’s, and the play is on the Greek words κόραξ, raven, and κόλαξ, flatterer or craven.) And Archippus, ridiculing the son of Alcibiades, says:
    He walks with utter wantonness, trailing his long robe behind him, that he may be thought the very picture of his father, yes,
  1. He slants his neck awry, and overworks the lisp.
[*](Kock, Com. Att. Frag., i. p. 688)