of his own flesh?"

[8] "Red lead."

[9] Cf. Aristoph. "Ach." 1029.

[10] {andreikelon}. Cf. Plat. "Rep." 501 B, "the human complexion";
"Crat." 424 E.

"Frankly," she answered, "it would not please me better to touch paste
than your true self. Rather would I see your own 'true flesh colour'
than any pigment of that name; would liefer look into your eyes and
see them radiant with health than washed with any wash, or dyed with
any ointment there may be."

"Believe the same, my wife, of me then," Ischomachus continued (so he
told me); "believe that I too am not better pleased with white enamel
or with alkanet than with your own natural hue; but as the gods have
fashioned horses to delight in horses, cattle in cattle, sheep in
their fellow sheep, so to human beings the human body pure and
undefiled is sweetest;[11] and as to these deceits, though they may
serve to cheat the outside world without detection, yet if intimates
try to deceive each other, they must one day be caught; in rising from
their beds, before they make their toilet; by a drop of sweat they
stand convicted; tears are an ordeal they cannot pass; the bath
reveals them as they truly are."

[11] See "Mem." II. i. 22.

What answer (said I) did she make, in Heaven's name, to what you said?