In the early comedies of Aristophanes the mouth serves as a focal point in the denigration of professional speakers' bodies, both politicians' and poets'. These plays tend to depict loud, brash talkers as voracious consumers – not only of food and wine, but also of sex, money, and land. This type, embodied especially by the demagogue Cleon in Knights and Wasps, is a low-class cannibal, ready to gobble up comestibles and citizens' lifeblood indiscriminately. His speech is glutted with bodily references, and he is eager to consume his opponent in argument (e.g., Eq. 698–99). Conversely, glib, effete types like the students of Socrates in Clouds are typically the receivers of this abuse; they may be quick-tongued, but they are also subtle, slippery, and “gape-assed” (euruprōktoi). They drink water rather than wine (e.g., Eq. 349); but like the glutton they shun crude, simple food and choose the opson (i.e., the delicacy). They also exhibit enervating artistic and sexual tastes (e.g., Nub. 969–80). Both kinds of speakers risk debilitating association with female appetites, the one for his monstrous greed, the other for his louche inclinations.