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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1379c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #62858 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62858) diff --git a/old/62858-0.txt b/old/62858-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8445b21..0000000 --- a/old/62858-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,14453 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Selected Essays of Plutarch, Vol. II., by Plutarch - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Selected Essays of Plutarch, Vol. II. - -Author: Plutarch - -Translator: Arthur Octavius Prickard - -Release Date: August 5, 2020 [EBook #62858] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELECTED ESSAYS OF PLUTARCH, VOL II *** - - - - -Produced by Turgut Dincer, David King, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - - Selected Essays of Plutarch - - - - - SELECTED ESSAYS OF PLUTARCH - - VOL. II - - TRANSLATED WITH INTRODUCTION - - BY - - A. O. PRICKARD - - ‘But the Author in whom he delighted most was Plutarch, of - whose works he was lucky enough to possess the worthier half; - if the other had perished Plutarch would not have been a popular - writer, but he would have held a higher place in the estimation of - the judicious.’—SOUTHEY, _The Doctor_, chapter vi, p. 1. - - OXFORD - AT THE CLARENDON PRESS - 1918 - - - - - PREFACE - - -This volume covers about one-eighth part of the miscellaneous works of -Plutarch known as the _Moralia_, much the same quantity as is contained -in Professor Tucker’s volume of this series which appeared in 1913. All -the pieces now offered are in the form of dialogue, except the short -treatise _On Superstition_, which seemed to justify its inclusion by a -certain affinity of thought. - -The text followed is that of Wyttenbach, issued by the Clarendon Press -in 1795-1800, or rather a text compounded of the Greek text there -printed, his own critical notes and revision of the old Latin version, -his commentary, where one exists, and his posthumous Index of Greek -words used by Plutarch (1830). A few corrections by C. F. Hermann, -Emperius, Madvig, and other scholars, have been introduced, for many of -which I am indebted, in the first place, as I have acknowledged more -particularly, to M. G. N. Bernardakis, the accomplished editor of the -_Moralia_ in the Teubner series (1888-96). A very few fresh corrections, -mostly on obvious points, have been admitted. - -The notes at the foot of the page are intended to show all deviations -from Wyttenbach’s text, so constituted, or to give references to the -authors of passages quoted by Plutarch; there may be a few exceptions, -where an illustrative reference or an obvious explanation is given. For -the plays and fragments of the Tragic Poets reference is made to -Dindorf’s _Poetae Scenici_; for Pindar and other lyric poets, to Bergk’s -_Poetae Lyrici Graeci_ (ed. 1900); for the fragments of Heraclitus, to -Bywater’s _Heracliti Ephesii reliquiae_ (Oxford, 1877); those of other -early philosophers will be found in their places in Diels’ -_Vorsokratiker_ (1903) or other collections. - -To four of the dialogues I have with some reluctance prefixed a short -running analysis. It is always a pity to anticipate what the author puts -clearly before us;[1] but there is here a real practical difficulty, -even for a careful reader, in being sure who is the speaker for the time -being; and as he is often introduced by the pronouns ‘I’ or ‘he’, no -typographical device quite serves. The other dialogues seem to explain -themselves sufficiently. There is no attempt to supply a commentary; but -it is hoped that the full index of proper names (which are very -numerous) will enable a reader to distinguish those as to whom it is -worth his while to inquire further from those who are only of passing -interest. I have given here a good many references to other works of -Plutarch, but more may usefully be sought, for instance in such an index -as is appended to Clough’s edition of the _Lives_. - -I may perhaps be allowed to mention that the dialogue _On the Face which -appears on the Orb of the Moon_ was translated by me, and tentatively -published in 1911, with the hope of obtaining some helpful criticism. -Having received several kind notices, and in particular a very full one -in _Hermathena_ by Dr. L. G. Purser, to which I am deeply indebted, I -have now ventured to reproduce this dialogue in somewhat fuller form -than the others, and to retain some of my original notes. I should add -that I have no competence to deal with any scientific matters as such. I -have added two longer notes on special points of interest. - -Sir Thomas Browne, writing in 1681-2 to his son Edward who was by way of -translating the _Lives_ of Plutarch, and in fact accomplished two of -them, assumes that he will in the main follow Amyot’s version, which -North had followed absolutely, and suggests that, with some corrections -and the removal of obsolete words, North’s work might still serve -‘especially with gentlemen, who if the expression bee playne looke not -into criticisme’. ‘If you have the Greek Plutarke,’ he writes, ‘have -also the Latin adjoyned unto it, so you may consult either upon -occasion, though you apply yourself to translate out of French, and the -English translation may be sometimes helpful.’ Very likely an acceptable -version of the _Moralia_ might now be produced out of Amyot and Philemon -Holland, a racy and scholarly translator from the Greek, with the -original and the old Latin at hand for reference. But Dr. Edward Browne -was a physician, of little leisure and of delicate health, and it might -hardly be respectful to Plutarch to adopt this procedure now; indeed it -seems to recall that of ‘the dog’ in the proverb, who ‘drinks from the -Nile’, running as he drinks, always with an eye on the crocodiles. -However this may be, some indulgence may fairly be claimed by a -translator of an author, who, however straight-forward himself, abounds -in allusion and latent quotation, and also in difficulties of text not -of his own making, and upon whom no commentary exists. I will mention, -for the sake of clearness, two instances as to which I have troubled -myself and, I fear, others a good deal: - -In the dialogue _On the Genius of Socrates_, chap. iii, end (577 A), the -speaker says that his brother Epaminondas is keeping out of the -patriotic enterprise in hand, on the ground that the more hot-headed -members of the party will not stop short of a general massacre and the -murder of many of the leading citizens. - -I have followed the Latin version in so rendering the words καὶ -διαφθεῖραι πολλοὺς τῶν διαφερόντων. But I have felt some -doubt—needlessly, I think—whether the Greek participle would bear this -meaning, and also whether the sense so given is strong and suitable. -Wyttenbach felt doubts too, for in his posthumous _Index_, s.v. διαφέρω, -the rendering given is ‘hostes vel amici’, i.e. ‘friends or foes’. The -sense is excellent, but seems hardly to be in the Greek; probably it was -a mere query or jotting. The Teubner editor prints τῶν ἰδίᾳ διαφόρων -ὄντων, i.e. ‘those with whom they had private differences’, giving -Cobet’s name for the last two words. I have not been able to trace the -reference in Cobet, but in _Novae Lectiones_, p. 565, he examines -instances where he thinks that ἰδίᾳ should be supplied or suppressed, as -the case may be, before compounds of διά. The sense seems good, but too -special to be introduced into a text without cogent evidence, since, -once given currency, it is difficult for a future critic to go back upon -it. Meanwhile, in Wyttenbach’s note on ii, 75 A, he collects many -instances where οἱ διάφοροι is used by Plutarch for ‘the enemy’, ‘the -other party’, and τῶν διαφερόντων may have grown out of τῶν διαφόρων -with τῶν repeated. I have thought it the more peaceable course to -preserve the old rendering. I only quote this instance, which is of no -great importance but is of some, as one where a _Variorum_ editor would -have stated at length and evaluated the possible alternatives. That a -translator should do so is perhaps a case of ‘putting the cart before -the horse’. - -The other instance is one of real interest, where the problem is perhaps -insoluble upon our present knowledge. In the long dialogue _On the -Cessation of the Oracles_, c. 20 (420 c.), where Cleombrotus has been -pressing a view that there may be daemons with a long, but yet a -limited, term of existence, against the Epicureans, whose own strange -theory of _Eidola_ he derides, Ammonius replies in words which appear -thus in the Latin: - -‘Recte, inquit, mihi pronunciare videtur Theophrastus, quid enim obstat -quin sententiam gravissimam et philosophiae convenientissimam recipiamus -dicentis: opinionem de Daemonibus, si reiciatur, multa eorum simul -abolere quae fieri possunt demonstratione autem carent; _sin admittatur -multa secum trahere impossibilia et quae non exstiterint_.’ - -Amyot and others write ‘Cleombrotus’ for ‘Theophrastus’, a change which, -in view of Plutarch’s carelessness as to personal names, seems not -unlikely, and helps a little. No doubt Theophrastus is quoted, but his -name need not have been mentioned, and may have been brought into the -text in the wrong place. The absurdity of the words which I have given -in italics seems evident, and I have returned to a suggestion of -Xylander,[2] by introducing a negative before πολλά, assuming that -Theophrastus is quoted, not for any opinion about daemons, but for a -canon of what is logically ‘probable’. More subtle solutions are -suggested, which could not be discussed here properly: the question -seems too intricate to be settled by a translator as he goes on his way. -We really want to know what Theophrastus said. - -The remarks on the absence of a commentary do not apply to the dialogue -on _Instances of Delay in Divine Punishment_, fully annotated by -Wyttenbach in 1772, nor to the essay _On Superstition_ and the greater -part of _The E at Delphi_, which are dealt with in his continuous -commentary. Nor should I omit to mention the great help afforded by -Kepler’s notes on the _Face in the Moon_ and his scholarly translation. - -The large number of poetical quotations in Plutarch often stop a -translator’s hand. Wherever it is possible, I have turned to standard -versions: for Homer to that of Worsley completed by Conington, for -Pindar’s extant Odes to that of Bishop George Moberly, which it has been -an especial pleasure to use; for some lines of the _Cyclops_ of -Euripides I have been fortunate enough to draw upon Shelley. There -remain a good many fragments, some of them of real poetical quality, and -some jingling oracles and the like; for the latter doggerel is the -proper vehicle, for the former the best attainable doggerel must serve. -The range of Plutarch’s poetical quotations seems strangely limited -considering their number. All are Greek, and most from the older poets; -indeed, with the exception of a few from the New Comedy, nearly all -might have been used by Plato. Those from the Tragedians are always to -the point, but he does not appear to care from which of the three he is -borrowing.[3] Homer and Hesiod always bring a welcome flavour of an -older world. Perhaps Pindar is the poet whom he quotes with most hearty -appreciation. Though he has given us many new poetical fragments, he -introduces us to few, if any, new poets. Of Bacchylides there are only -two slight quotations in all Plutarch’s works. A single reference to a -passage of Horace is all that shows a knowledge of the existence of -Roman poetry. - -Southey’s comparison between the _Moralia_ and the _Lives_ need not be -pressed; it is the scholar’s preference for the rare, which is his by -privilege, over the popular. But it is well to realize, as it is easy to -do with the help of indices, that the author’s hand is one in both. It -is agreed that the _Lives_ belong to Plutarch’s later years, and were -written at Chaeroneia, under the limitations of his own library; the -several books appeared at intervals, of what length we cannot say.[4] -The few indications of date mentioned in the introductions to the -dialogues now before us suggest the later part of Vespasian’s reign or -the years nearly following it, say from A.D. 80 on. The dialogue on the -_Instances of Delay in Divine Punishment_ from its simpler psychology -and demonology, and perhaps from some crudity in style, suggests a date -earlier than that of some of the others. Dr. Max Adler, in his lucid and -learned dissertation, has established the close connexion between the -_Face in the Moon_ and the _Cessation of the Oracles_, and thinks the -former to have been the earlier, and to have been utilized for the -latter piece.[5] - -Montaigne, who knew his Plutarch up and down, has said that he is one of -the authors whom he likes to take after the manner of the Danaids,[6] -which may be described as a method of ‘dip and waste’. You may dip -anywhere, as you may into the pages of _The Doctor_, and be sure of -finding something which you would wish to remember; but you may also -find, on re-reading the same passage, that you have not remembered it at -all, so that the waste is continual. The freshness need not be impaired -by a little more system; indeed it would be enhanced, at least for the -dialogues, for this reason, that they all represent real conversations -between real persons, and it is worth our while to put together our -impressions about each. The fullest materials for such an attempt will -be found in the _Symposiacs_ or dialogues over wine.[7] - -The _Symposiacs_ are arranged in nine books, each of which contains ten -conversations of unequal length, but all short, except the last which -has fifteen. On the other hand nine, viz. four of the fourth book and -five of the last, are missing, only the titles being preserved. All the -books are dedicated to Sossius Senecio, who was consul first in A.D. 99; -and as there is no reference to the dignity, we may perhaps infer that -all were written before that year.[8] There is not a single reference in -all the nine books to any public or personal event which might help us -to a date. We hear of the ‘year’ of officials of the Greek games, of -Plutarch’s return from a visit to Alexandria, and of a marriage in his -family, which Sossius Senecio attended, but we cannot follow these -clues.[9] Many of the discussions are about wine and wine-parties; in -others the range of subject is very wide, from ‘What Plato meant by -saying, if he did say, that God geometrizes’ to ‘Whether the table -should be cleared after dinner’, or ‘Why truffles grow after thunder’. A -good many are on medical subjects; in one of them the promising problem, -‘Whether new diseases can arise, and from what causes’, is well argued. -The physicians present show a full knowledge of the Natural History -found in the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and the laymen seem to -argue with them on equal terms. There is little or no pleasantry about -professional habits, the fees or the pedantry, except that in one party -a physician is host, and sets on the table an inordinately good dinner, -while certain young men of severe habits put him to a great deal of -trouble to produce some cheese to eat with their dry bread.[10] - -In the first dialogue of the First Book the question is raised, ‘Whether -philosophy may be discussed over wine’. The answer appears to be ‘Why -not?’ but probably none of the following dialogues would be called -‘philosophical’ by philosophers. Plutarch loved a vigorous set-to, with -no quarter given, ‘nothing for hate, but all for honour’, as much as did -Montaigne.[11] But he felt deeply about the matters at issue between -Stoics and Epicureans, the two schools which mattered. Believing himself -in a Providence, kindly and particular, associated by him with the -Apollo of Delphi, he disliked equally the Epicurean who flouted a -Providence, and the Stoic who lowered it by his pedantry and -contradictions. He would not have a scene over the wine. Even in the -daylight dialogues now before us, the cynic ‘Planetiades’ is skilfully -bowed out before there is trouble, and ‘Epicurus’ takes himself off -before the reported discussion begins, leaving the company surprised -rather than angry. - -The titles of the five lost dialogues of the last book (the others of -that book being all on literary subjects) are curious. Three are -connected with music; and I should have the permission of those who have -kindly helped me here to say that there is about Greek music a -considerable region of dim penumbra. Another raises a question discussed -in the _De Facie_ and answered there out of Aristotle and Posidonius, as -to the eclipses of sun and moon. Another is on the problem ‘Whether the -total number of the stars is more probably even than odd’. The speakers -(for a fragment is preserved) are quite aware that a game of -odd-and-even on such a scale might seem childish. It need not be so, if -the treatment were like that of the _Arenarius_ of Archimedes (all the -better if in his Doric); it would then have contained some long numbers -and some stiff reasoning. Of one thing we may be sure, that if Lamprias, -who is much to the fore in the Ninth Book, took a part, he was ready -with a received view, framed on the spot. - -M. Bernardakis[12] (who quotes a letter from M. Wessely) tells us that -in the Paris E there is a blank space here of 2-¼ leaves, but that in -the old Vienna MS., no. 148 (which contains the _Symposiacs_ only), -three whole pages have been cut out, leaving a gap between what remains -of the sixth dialogue and the fragment of the twelfth. Former editions -had printed continuously, and our gratitude is due to M. Bernardakis for -his restitution of the fragment to its proper place. The inference -appears to be that the Vienna MS. is here the parent, though why the -fragment stops short where it does is not clear. Probably the scribe was -daunted by the technical language, and either left a blank space to be -filled up by some one of greater experience, or so spoilt his sheets by -errors and erasures that it was better to cut them out. Some such cause -has been conjectured for the many gaps left in E, occurring where the -subject-matter is difficult. - -Some ninety different persons are mentioned by name as taking part in -the _Symposiac Dialogues_, and if we allow for the lost pieces, there -must have been at least a hundred. These may be arranged in groups: -Plutarch and his family—his grandfather, father, brothers, sons, -sons-in-law—the doctors (8), the grammarians (5), and so on. Many of -these reappear in the dialogues now before us, and much may be gained in -distinctness of personality by following out the references given.[13] -Ammonius, Plutarch’s teacher in the Platonic philosophy, comes out as a -masterful person, and a past-master in the art of tactful arrangement of -a debate. Theon (‘Our Comrade’, an appellation given to some half-dozen -others), to be distinguished from ‘Theon the Grammarian’, is a close and -much trusted family friend. Very few Roman names appear, but Sossius -Senecio, Mestrius Florus, and one or two others, must have been -intimates. - -None of the conversations in the _Symposiacs_ turn upon points which -were Plutarch’s interest when he wrote the _Lives_; the study of -character in stirring times, of the reaction of circumstances upon -character and of character upon circumstances, of the insoluble problem -which is always solving itself, as to ‘Virtue’ on the one hand and -‘Fortune’ on the other, determining success. The elaborate introduction -to the _Genius of Socrates_, put side by side with that to the _Life of -Pericles_, shows that the author wished to turn from subjects which made -good talk over wine in hours of leisure, to others of a more virile -stamp. The most convenient hypothesis would be that the success of the -_Symposiacs_ suggested to the author to try his hand on more elaborate -dialogue, and that, still later on, he settled to the _Lives_ in the -spirit, not of an historian, but of an artist, filling his canvas with -themes inspired by that great art, Virtue. The lost _Life of -Epaminondas_, his favourite hero, would have told us a great deal about -the artist himself. It was not Plutarch’s habit to sum up in such -brilliant character sketches as stand out in other historians: this has -been done for Epaminondas, on broad and generous lines, by Sir Walter -Raleigh, and before him, not less generously, by Montaigne; and much -material will be found scattered among Plutarch’s other _Lives_. - -Such an hypothesis can only be ventured in the broadest outline, for no -one date covers all the _Lives_ or all the _Dialogues_, and some of the -facts are perplexing. In the _Second Pythian Dialogue_ Diogenianus -appears as a very young man, and is introduced as the son of a father -known to the company; and Diogenianus of Pergamum takes part in several -of the _Symposiacs_, but there is no mention of a son old enough to be -brought with him. On the other hand, Boethus in the same dialogue is ‘on -his way to the camp of the Epicureans’; in one of the _Symposiacs_ he is -‘an Epicurean’ simply. In the last book of the _Symposiacs_ Theon’s sons -come in, but we do not hear of him elsewhere as a father of grown-up -sons. - -The dialogue _On the Face which appears on the Orb of the Moon_ is -unique as showing the interest taken by men of good general education in -scientific subjects in the first century of our era, and as evidence of -the point to which the natural sciences had then attained. Professional -science may be said to have been almost limited to the province of the -mathematician and his congeners. Natural History was part of the general -outfit of the ‘Philosophers’, and there was no idea of the ‘Conquest of -Nature’ for the relief of man’s estate, unless by the engineer or the -physician. With these limitations, the progress made may strike some -modern readers as surprisingly great, and a good example may be found in -the very precise knowledge of Hipparchus and Ptolemy of the delicate -phenomena of the moon’s movements. We are tempted to ask whether, if -Greeks had not settled these problems, which men of no other ancient -race attacked scientifically, they would have been settled to this day. -To come down to a humbler matter: if the properties of the conic -sections had not been discovered by Apollonius and his predecessors, -would they stand in their place, probably a modest one, on a modern -syllabus, and, meanwhile, could the mechanical arts have progressed -without them? And the conic sections are simple things compared with the -lines, surfaces, and solids determined once for all by Archimedes. -Archimedes was a mathematician by the grace of Nature, and an engineer -by the order of a prince; and the conic sections themselves were -examined, not from any practical interest in the cone, but because they -were found to furnish instances of the curves which might facilitate the -line of inquiry, suggested by Plato with such amazing foresight, as a -half-way house towards a solution of Apollo’s problem.[14] Of course -this can only be stated as a question—not a rhetorical question—and must -be left on the knees of the gods. The general subject is discussed in D. -Ruhnken’s admirable _De Graecia artium ac doctrinarum inventrice_, an -inaugural lecture delivered at Leyden in 1757 (just thirty years after -Newton’s death). - -A few lines about the scholar to whose prolonged labours upon Plutarch -we owe so much are only his due. Daniel Wyttenbach was born at Bern, -where his father was a divine of good Swiss family, in 1746. He studied -at Marburg and Göttingen, and passed to Holland, filling professorial -chairs at Amsterdam, and, from 1798, at Leyden. In Holland he was the -colleague and intimate friend of Valckenaer (1715-85) and David Ruhnken -(1723-98), himself by birth a German. By their advice, he turned from a -meditated edition of the Emperor Julian’s works to Plutarch. The two -advisers were not quite at one, and Wyttenbach seemed to crouch between -two burdens—Valckenaer wished him to produce a final edition of some one -work, Ruhnken (who would gladly have faced the task himself if he had -been a younger man) preferred that he should not stop short of all -Plutarch. In 1772 he produced his learned and complete commentary on the -_De sera numinum Vindicta_. About this time the Delegates of the Oxford -Press were anxious to produce a worthy edition of a great classic; and -in 1788 Thomas Burgess, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, afterwards -Bishop of St. Davids and of Salisbury, visited Holland and sought an -introduction to Wyttenbach, with whom an arrangement was concluded in -the autumn of that year. The issue of the volumes of text, with critical -notes and revised Latin version, began in 1795 and went on steadily till -1797; but there was much delay and many searchings of heart over the -last volume, containing the fragments, the dispatch of which was -hindered by the state of war and the occupation of Holland by foreign -troops. It was at last discovered in 1800 in the port of Hamburg, and -appears to have reached Oxford in that year. The first two volumes of -the commentary, to page 242 C, had preceded it in 1798, and were also -published in 1800. The last volume must have proceeded slowly, for it -had only reached 392 D, near the end of the _E at Delphi_, when, on -January 12, 1807, it was interrupted by an explosion due to the careless -use of fire on a barge loaded with gunpowder. The effects of the -conflagration which followed are visible in Leyden to this day. The -disaster was ill-timed for us, for the commentary stops just short of a -passage of great interest (see p. 75). Wyttenbach bore this trouble, -which he has graphically described in several letters, and also those -caused by ill health and narrowed means, with much fortitude. He died in -1820, and the last volume of the commentary was sent to Oxford and -published in 1821, followed by the two volumes of the _Index -Graecitatis_ in 1830. He was a most amiable man, and the letters which -passed between him and Ruhnken have much charm of feeling and -expression. Both wrote in admirable Latin; Wyttenbach’s style is always -fluent and picturesque, but has certain idiosyncrasies, which may delay -an English reader.[15] - -Of older scholars who had dealt with Plutarch, by far the most important -was Turnebus[16] (1512-65). Of Xylander (W. Holzmann, 1532-76), who -produced the Latin translation, the basis of his own commentary, and a -Greek text, Wyttenbach writes with much respect and sympathy, as he does -also of Reiske (1716-74), his own contemporary, who, however, was not -quite adequately equipped, in point of material or of critical -judgement. - -I should like to express my deep sense of the loss caused to classical -scholarship by the lamented death of Herbert Richards. I have more than -once referred to his critical notes on the _Moralia_, which have been -appearing lately in the _Classical Review_: many of the finer points of -Greek idiom do not concern a translator, but there are several most -valuable suggestions and criticisms which I have felt confidence in -adopting. - -A still more personal loss, which intimately concerns this volume, is -that of Ingram Bywater. He had promised a revision of it in its passage -through the press; and his vigilance as a Curator as well as his -jealousy for the severer traditions of scholarship, apart from his -personal kindness, would, I know, have made it a searching one. He did -not specially care for English translation, and his own masterly version -of the _Poetics_ of Aristotle is prefaced by something like a protest. -Nor did he feel much sympathy with what he would call the ‘Realien’. On -the realities of life no one had a saner or better informed judgement. -For natural science and its representatives he cherished a genuine -respect; and perhaps none of the tributes to his memory would have -touched him more than one which was paid in the pages of _Nature_ by an -old colleague and friend of the Exeter College days. But he had a -certain shyness of the intrusion of arguments based, say, upon geometry -or music, into problems of language already sufficiently perplexed. How -generously his noble library and his own stores of wisdom were thrown -open to those who sought them is known to many, as it is to myself. - -Yet another great loss to me has been that of the Rev. David Thomas, -Rector of Garsington, in Oxfordshire, a veteran mathematician, my near -neighbour and most kindly and helpful referee during many years. - -I cannot send out even so small a volume without a word of gratitude for -affectionate and lifelong help received from John Wordsworth, Bishop of -Salisbury 1885-1911. His own enduring contribution to secular -scholarship was made in 1874, and holds its place in the judgement of -Latin scholars. He was always shouldering new burdens, the last being -the mastering, for a definite purpose of friendship and public duty, of -the language and history of Sweden. But his great stores of books and of -knowledge were always in order, and always made available to others. He -would often preface any opinion of his own by ‘My father used to think -highly’ of such a book or such a person; and it was always well to be -reminded of that true scholar and most courteous gentleman of an older -day. - -I owe much, for help and advice, to living friends whom I should like to -thank, but may not. But I must be allowed to acknowledge, in no -conventional spirit, the great care bestowed on these pages by the -Reader for the Delegates of the Press, who has entered into difficulties -of matter as well as of language as few scholars can be expected to have -the patience to do.[17] - -The style of Plutarch has not received much favour with scholars. He -uses too many words, and writes in cumbrous sentences, and the words -often seem ill-shapen. But it has merits which are acknowledged by all -those who have dwelt much upon him. His style is a very honest one; at -the end of the longest sentence it is always found that he has said -something worth saying, and that no word can be retrenched as mere -verbiage. And he is so much in earnest that he often reaches an -eloquence, which burns, perhaps, with a dull glow, but which cannot be -quite lost in any translation. Indeed the modern languages have -sometimes an advantage in the fact that they do not possess -counterparts, as long and as elaborate, of the terms used in the -original. Of the first, and the best, of Plutarch’s translators, -Montaigne[18] has written an opinion, to which it should be added that, -in the judgement of very capable persons, Amyot[19] was a scholar of -real knowledge and penetration, though he is sometimes content to -paraphrase: - -‘Ie donne avecque raison, ce me semble, la palme à Iacques Amyot sur -touts nos escrivains françois, non seulement pour la naïfveté et pureté -du langage, en quoy il surpasse touts aultres, ny pour la constance d’un -si long travail, ny pour la profondeur de son sçavoir, ayant peu -developper si heureusement un aucteur si espineux et ferré (car on m’en -dira ce qu’on vouldra, ie n’entends rien au grec, mais ie veois un sens -si bien ioinct et entretenu partout en sa traduction, que, ou il a -certainement entendu l’imagination vraye de l’aucteur, ou ayant, par -longue conversation, planté vifvement dans son ame une generale idee de -celle de Plutarque, il ne luy a au moins rien presté qui le desmente ou -qui le desdie); mais, sur tout, ie luy sçais bon gré d’avoir seu trier -et choisir un livre si digne et si à propos pour en faire present à son -pais.’ - -Since this Preface was written, early in 1916, a study of Plutarch, -which should be of great value to his readers, has appeared in the _De -Plutarcho scriptore et philosopho_, by Professor J. J. Hartman of -Leyden. Professor Hartman is an enthusiast, and his book covers all the -works of Plutarch, the _Moralia_ and the _Lives_, their relations to one -another and to the author’s career. He is of opinion that the _Lives_ -were taken in hand after all, or nearly all, the writings included in -the _Moralia_ were completed, and then appeared in rapid succession of -books. He observes that many of the pieces of the _Moralia_ suggest the -date A.D. 107; the _Symposiacs_ he places somewhat later. Two -conclusions, of much importance as coming from so serious a student, may -be stated: the Christian teaching had never come into Plutarch’s hearing -(p. 114, &c.), and there is no suggestion of any tendency to Oriental or -Neoplatonic thought; Plutarch was the best living authority on Plato and -his works, and aimed at being the Plato of his own day (pp. 389, 680, -&c.). - -A large list of critical comments is appended to the general notice of -each work. Professor Hartman takes as his basis the Teubner edition, and -pays a well-merited tribute to the care and skill of M. Bernardakis (p. -237, &c.). His usual complaint is that the editor has lacked the -boldness to incorporate in the text ingenious emendations which he -mentions in notes. I had myself felt somewhat differently as to all -unsupported emendations, though I am glad to repeat my sense of the -great usefulness of the edition, my debt to which goes much beyond what -I have expressly acknowledged. - -Footnote 1: - - ‘Tout abregé sur un bon livre est un sot abregé.’—_Montaigne_, iii. 8. - -Footnote 2: - - Xylander reads οὐδέν, but οὐ before πολλά seems simpler, and makes - better logic. - -Footnote 3: - - See, e. g., p. 266. - -Footnote 4: - - On this point, and on Plutarch’s life generally, see the buoyant and - chivalrous pages of the late Mr. George Wyndham’s introduction to - North’s _Lives_ in the _Tudor Translations_. - -Footnote 5: - - See pp. 54, 253. I have searched such numbers of the _Dissertations_ - as appear to have reached this country from Vienna since 1910, without - coming upon the continuation of Dr. Adler’s argument. It will be of - great interest when it comes to hand, but could not adequately be - discussed here. - -Footnote 6: - - ‘Où je puyse comme les Danaïdes, remplissant et versant sans - cesse.’—i. 25. - -Footnote 7: - - The _Symposiacs_ were specially favourite reading of Archbishop - Trench, whose bright little volume of _Lectures_ is perhaps the best - introduction for English readers to the _Moralia_. - -Footnote 8: - - The same argument might perhaps be applied to the _Lives_, even as far - as that of Dion, but there is no elaborate dedication there. - -Footnote 9: - - Dr. Mahaffy has acutely pointed out that the tract _De Tranquillitate - animi_ must have been written before the accession of Titus in A. D. - 79, because it contains a remark (467 E) that no Roman Emperor had yet - been succeeded by his son. It is this sort of evidence of a date which - we seek, but do not find, in the _Symposiacs_. - -Footnote 10: - - Some of Plutarch’s characters exemplify the ‘sternness of the - judgements of youth’, as the younger Diogenianus.—See p. 94. - -Footnote 11: - - See Vol. I, p. 25. - -Footnote 12: - - See his Preface in Vol. I, p. xlii. - -Footnote 13: - - M. Chenevière’s study mentioned on p. 53 is very helpful but not - easily accessible. - -Footnote 14: - - See p. 14; see also _Apollonius of Perga_, by Sir Thomas Heath, - F.R.S., Introd., p. xxi. - -Footnote 15: - - ‘Forte’ is always used where we expect ‘fortasse’, and ‘nisi’ often - for ‘si non’. - -Footnote 16: - - Adrien Turnĕbus (i. q. Toranebus?) was a native of Les Andelys (Eure), - near Rouen, and the name is said to be of local origin. Montaigne, who - knew him personally, always writes Turnebus; the later form Turnèbe - seems to be due to false analogy. - -Footnote 17: - - I may now name Mr. Walter Sumner Gibson, M.A. of Balliol College, - formerly an assistant-master at Charterhouse, who died on the 20th - January, 1918, having in recent years acted as a Reader to the - Clarendon Press. - -Footnote 18: - - ii. 4. - -Footnote 19: - - 1514-93. - - - - - CONTENTS - - - On the Genius of Socrates 1 - - Three Pythian Dialogues 52 - - I. On the ‘E’ at Delphi 57 - - II. Why the Pythia does not now give 79 - Oracles in Verse - - III. On the Cessation of the Oracles 112 - - On the Instances of Delay in Divine 171 - Punishment - - From the Dialogue ‘On the Soul’ 214 - - On Superstition 219 - - Appendix: A Short Discourse of 236 - Superstition. By John Smith - - On the Face which appears on the Orb of 246 - the Moon - - Notes 309 - - Note on the Myths in Plutarch 313 - - Note on the Plurality of Worlds and the 318 - Five Regular Solids - - Index 321 - - - - - ON THE GENIUS OF SOCRATES - - - INTRODUCTION - - -The Dialogue on _The Genius of Socrates_, to follow the familiar Latin -title, is in the main a detailed and spirited account of a gallant -exploit, the recovery of the Cadmeia, or citadel of Thebes, -treacherously taken by the Spartans, with the aid of the Theban -oligarchs, two years before. The recovery was effected in the winter of -379-378 B.C. by a party of Theban patriots, returning from exile in -Athens, led by Pelopidas. The discussions as to the real meaning of the -‘daemonic Sign’ of Socrates form interludes which fill in the hours of -waiting, and serve to relieve the tension of the narrative. It is as -though Ulysses were heard discoursing to Menelaus within the Wooden -Horse on the personality of Pallas Athene, with Helen prowling around -outside. There is nothing strained or dramatic, in any disparaging -sense, in speculation thus rubbing shoulders with action. The simplicity -and good faith of the speakers, and the attractive personality of -Epaminondas, forbid any suspicion of affectation. Thus the Dialogue -serves a double purpose: it redeems the character of the leading -Thebans, and of Pelopidas in particular, from the habitual disparagement -of Xenophon and others; and it redeems the intellectual character of the -Boeotians from the reproach against which the most brilliant of Greek -poets, himself a son of Thebes, protests, ‘Swine of Boeotia’. For the -chief speaker on the Socratic question is Simmias, and Cebes is present, -Thebans whose names are for ever associated with the last hours of the -Athenian Master; and the story is brightened by glimpses into the home -of Epaminondas, and by hallowed memories of the Pythagorean brotherhood. - -Early in 382 B.C. the Spartans had dispatched a force against Olynthus, -the first division under Eudamidas, the second under his brother -Phoebidas. The latter lingered under the walls of Thebes; and, whether -led by personal ambition, or receiving secret orders from home, allowed -himself to intrigue with the oligarchical leaders, who, though their -party was not in power, were strong enough to be represented on the -board of Polemarchs by Leontides, another, or the other, being Ismenias. -Guided by Leontides, the Spartans, one hot summer day, seized the -Cadmeia; Leontides arrested his colleague Ismenias, and caused Archias -to be made Polemarch in his place. The popular leaders, some four -hundred in number, took refuge in Athens. The Spartans disclaimed the -action of Phoebidas, who was fined and superseded; and appropriated its -results, strengthening the garrison of the Cadmeia. A commission of -judges from the confederate states was appointed by Sparta to try -Ismenias on a vague charge of Medizing; he was condemned and executed. -Of the two Polemarchs, Archias was a man of pleasure, Leontides one of -severe private life, but an unscrupulous party leader. He caused the -lives of the refugees in Athens to be attempted, successfully in at -least one case, that of Androcleidas. Of the patriots, Pelopidas, who -had been formally exiled, was the leading spirit; Epaminondas, who -remained at home, held back for good reasons which are stated in the -course of the Dialogue (p. 9). One of the most useful confederates was -Phyllidas; he had himself, when on a visit to Athens, suggested the -enterprise, but he managed to retain the confidence of the party now in -possession of Thebes, and held the office of Secretary to the -Polemarchs. - -These facts are assumed to be familiar to his hearers by Capheisias, -brother of Epaminondas, who had himself joined the liberators without -any scruples, and later on had been sent to Athens on an embassy. His -story of the sequel is told to a mixed company of Athenians and Thebans. -It is a perfectly clear one, and needs no comment. - -The facts are again told by Plutarch in his _Life of Pelopidas_. The -_Lives_ were the work of his later years; and the present Dialogue, with -its fuller detail and more varied colouring, is an earlier attempt to -draw an historical picture, a work of art which will bear the close -inspection of those who love to hear of virtue, or valour, in action. - -The events are also narrated by Xenophon, who, from his usual -Lacedaemonian and anti-Theban bias, omits all mention of Pelopidas. -Thirlwall has preferred to base his account upon Plutarch; Grote follows -Xenophon, but with a strong protest against his narrowness. - -The conduct of Sparta justifies the allegation made by the Athenians in -416 B.C., ‘that in her political transactions she measured honour by -inclination and justice by expediency’ (Thuc. 5, 105). The most scathing -verdict upon it is delivered by Xenophon himself, who pauses in his -narrative to point the moral, that the fall and degradation of Sparta -began from this turning-point: - -‘It would be possible to mention many other instances, from Greek and -foreign history, proving that the Gods do not fail to notice the authors -of impious and wicked deeds; at present I shall only mention the case -before us. The Lacedaemonians, who had sworn that they would leave the -cities independent, and then seized the Acropolis of Thebes, were -punished entirely by those whom they had wronged, having previously been -beaten by no man then living. The Theban citizens who had introduced -them into the citadel, and who wished the city to be subject to the -Lacedaemonians that they themselves might enjoy absolute power, lost -their supremacy, which seven exiles were enough to overthrow.’ - -These remarks are in the spirit of the Greek Tragedians, who love to -bring into strong light an act or situation of pride and insolence as -the turning-point from prosperity to ruin. Thucydides, as is pointed out -by Grote in the masterly pages which end his fifty-sixth chapter, has -brought the cynical injustice of the Athenians towards Melos into -glaring prominence in order to prepare his readers for the disastrous -sequel. - -The problem of the true nature of the ‘Divine Sign’ of Socrates is one -of great interest and some mystery. The Latin word ‘Genius’, the -attendant spirit who makes each of us what he is, in fact, his self, is -familiar to us from Horace: - - _The Genius, guardian of each child of earth, - Born when we’re born and dying when we die._ - - (_Epist._ 2, 2, 187.) - -The conception is thoroughly Greek, and may be paralleled abundantly -from Plato as well as from Plutarch himself and contemporary writers. -But it is really misapplied here, and is in fact a mistranslation, since -the word used by Plato and Xenophon as well as by Plutarch is invariably -not the daemon, but the neuter adjective, ‘the daemonic sc. Sign’. The -passages of Plato and Xenophon are collected in the late James Riddell’s -edition of the _Apology_ of Plato.[20] It is to be observed that in all -the genuine works of Plato the operation of the Sign is negative and -deterrent, in Xenophon it is sometimes positive and hortatory. The -reader should consult the articles on Socrates by Professor Henry -Jackson in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_. Professor Jackson is inclined -to think that the evidence points to some abnormal condition of the -sense of hearing, and there are expressions in this Dialogue of Plutarch -which seem to bear out such a view. Apuleius’ treatise _On the God of -Socrates_ (which St. Augustine tells us that he would have entitled _On -the daemon of Socrates_ if he had dared) tells us much which is of -interest about the daemons, but not very much about Socrates. He -contributes, however, the pertinent remark that the Sign, according to -Socrates himself, was not ‘a voice’, but ‘a sort of voice’. - -There is no indication of the date of composition of this Dialogue. - -Not many points of topography arise. The Cadmeia stood on a low hill or -plateau rising from north to south on the eastern side of the Dirce -stream and reaching a height of some 200 feet, now occupied by the -modern town. The market-place was north-east of this, near the river -Ismenus. Of the seven famous gates the returning exiles may probably -have entered by the Electran, the one assailed by Capaneus in Aeschylus’ -story (_Seven against Thebes_, 423). - - - A DIALOGUE HELD AT ATHENS - - -[Sidenote: 573] CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE RETURN OF THE THEBAN -EXILES, 379 B.C. - - - SPEAKERS - - CAPHEISIAS, a Theban (brother of Epaminondas), who tells the story - of the return. - TIMOTHEUS., Athenian - ARCHIDAMUS., Athenian - THE SONS OF ARCHINUS., Athenian - LYSITHEIDES., Athenian - OTHER FRIENDS. - - -I. _Archidamus._ I once heard a painter, Capheisias, say a [Sidenote: B] -striking thing about the different people who come to view pictures, -which he put as a simile. Spectators with no technical knowledge, he -said, are like those who greet a large company in the mass; others, who -possess fine taste and a love of art, resemble those who have a personal -word for all comers. The former get only a general view of the works -before them, which is never accurate; the latter discuss each piece -critically and in detail, and no point of execution, good or bad, -escapes inspection and remark. Now I think that it is just the same with -the [Sidenote: C] actions of real life. Duller minds are satisfied if -they learn from history the summary account of what occurred and its -outcome; lovers of what is honourable and beautiful take keener delight -in hearing all particulars of the performances inspired by that great -Art Virtue. To the actual result, Fortune has much to say; but he who -dwells on causes and particulars sees Virtue at odds with circumstance, -acts of rational daring done in the face of danger, and calculation -meeting opportunity and passion. Take it that we belong to the second -class. Begin at the beginning of the enterprise, and give us all the -incidents and [Sidenote: D] all the speeches which were no doubt -delivered in your presence; and believe that I would not have hesitated -to go to Thebes on purpose to hear the story, but that the Athenians are -already beginning to think me too much of a Boeotian. - -_Capheisias._ Indeed, Archidamus, since you are so kind as to press for -the whole story, it would be my duty to make it, as Pindar[21] says, ‘a -call before all business’ to come here to tell it; but as we are brought -here on an embassy, and have nothing to do until we receive the answers -of the people, I feel that any reluctance or embarrassment on my part -towards so kind and good a friend might well wake up the old reproach -against the Boeotians that they hate discussion. It was already fading -[Sidenote: E] away, thanks to your Socrates; but our own care for -Lysis,[22] of blessed memory, showed us true enthusiasts. But see whom -we have present: is it convenient to them to listen to so long a story -and to so many speeches? The narrative is not a short one, since you -yourself bid me include the speeches. - -_Archidamus._ You do not know these friends, Capheisias? No, but you -should; sons of good fathers who were good friends to your people. This -is Lysitheides, nephew of Thrasybulus; [Sidenote: F] this is Timotheus, -Conon’s son; these are the sons of Archinus; the others are all of our -brotherhood; so your story finds a friendly and congenial audience. - -_Capheisias._ That is well. But what should you think a good point for -me to start from, in view of what you know already? - -_Archidamus._ We know fairly well, Capheisias, how things were at Thebes -before the return of the exiles. We had heard at Athens how Archias and -Leontides persuaded Phoebidas to [Sidenote: 576] seize the Cadmeia -during a truce; how they expelled some of the citizens and terrorized -others, and seized office for themselves in defiance of law. We were the -personal hosts here of Melon and Pelopidas, and constantly in their -company so long as they were in exile. Again, we had heard how the -Lacedaemonians fined Phoebidas for seizing the Cadmeia, removed him from -the command against Olynthus, and then replaced him at Thebes by -Lysanoridas and two others, and kept a stronger garrison than before in -the Citadel. We were aware, too, how Ismenias met an unworthy death, -since, immediately after his trial, Gorgidas wrote the whole account in -a letter to the [Sidenote: B] exiles here. Thus it remains for you to -tell us about the actual return of our friends and the capture of the -tyrants. - -II. _Capheisias._ Well then, Archidamus, during those days, all of us -who were concerned in the movement were accustomed to meet for -conference when necessary in the house of Simmias, who was recovering -from a wound in the leg; ostensibly passing the time in philosophical -talk, into which, as a blind, we often drew Archias and Leontides, men -not altogether strangers to [Sidenote: C] such discussion. For Simmias -had spent much time abroad, and wandered among men of other lands, and -had shortly before this returned to Thebes full of all sorts of stories -and outlandish accounts. These stories Archias used to enjoy when he -chanced to have leisure, taking his seat with the young men, and liking -us to pass the time in talk rather than attend to their proceedings. On -the day upon which the exiles were to reach the walls at dusk, a man -came in from here, sent by Pherenicus, known to none of our party except -Charon; he proceeded to explain that the younger exiles, twelve in -number, had taken hounds to hunt the Cithaeron country, intending to -reach Thebes towards evening. He had been sent, he said, in advance -[Sidenote: D] to tell us this, and to find out who was to provide the -house for their concealment on arrival, so that they might have notice -and go straight to it. While we were puzzling it over, Charon agreed to -provide his own house. So the man settled to return to the exiles as -fast as he could. - -III. Here the prophet Theocritus pressed my hand hard, and looking at -Charon, who was walking in front, said: ‘This man is no philosopher, -Capheisias; he has received no extraordinary training, as Epaminondas -your brother has; yet you see how he is naturally drawn by the laws -towards the nobler [Sidenote: E] course, volunteering to encounter the -greatest danger for our country’s sake. Whereas Epaminondas, who claims -to have been trained to virtue above all Boeotians, is dull and -spiritless;[23] what better opportunity than this will he ever have to -bring into play his fine gifts and training?’ I said: ‘Not so fast, -[Sidenote: F] Theocritus the eager! We are carrying out what we -ourselves resolved; but Epaminondas, failing to persuade us to drop the -plan, as he thinks would be best, naturally resists when invited to a -course of action which he dislikes and disapproves. Suppose a physician -undertook to cure a disease without the use of knife or fire: you would -not be using him fairly, to my thinking, if you compelled him to cut or -burn.[24] Very well; my brother, as you know, will not have any citizen -die without a trial, yet is eager to work with those who wish to free -the city from internal bloodshed and slaughter. As, however, he fails to -convince the majority, and as we have embarked on this course, he bids -you let him stand out, clear and guiltless of murder, and free to watch -opportunities; when justice and expediency [Sidenote: 577] meet, he will -strike in. He feels that, work once begun, there will be no limitations; -perhaps Pherenicus and Pelopidas will turn their attack against the -greatest criminals, but Eumolpidas and Samidas, men of fire and passion, -when night puts power in their hands, will not sheathe their swords -before they have filled the city with murder from end to end, and -dispatched many of our leading men. - -IV. While I was thus conversing with Theocritus, Galaxidorus kept trying -to check us;[25] Archias was near, and Lysanoridas the Spartan, both -walking quickly from the Cadmeia, [Sidenote: B] apparently towards the -same point as ourselves. So we broke off; Archias called Theocritus, and -drew him towards Lysanoridas; then he talked a long time with them -apart, having changed his direction a little towards the Amphion. Thus -we were in an agony: had some hint or information reached them, upon -which they were questioning Theocritus? In the meanwhile Phyllidas, whom -you know, Archidamus, and who was at that time acting as clerk to -Archias and the Polemarchs, and knew of the expected arrival of the -exiles,[26] being privy to our scheme, pressed my hand as it was his way -to do, and went on with bantering talk for every one’s benefit, about -the gymnasia and the wrestling; then, having drawn me some distance from -the others, he began to ask me about the exiles, and whether [Sidenote: -C] they were keeping to their day. When I said that they were, he -continued: ‘Then I have done right in preparing for to-day the party at -which I mean to entertain Archias, and to deliver him into their hand in -his cups.’ ‘Better than right, Phyllidas!’ I said; ‘and do you try to -collect all or as many as you can of our enemies to the same place.’ -‘That is not easy;’ said he, ‘indeed, it is impossible; for Archias, -expecting that a certain lady of high rank will come there to meet him, -does not wish Leontides to be present. We must therefore mark [Sidenote: -D] them down to separate houses. If Archias and Leontides are once -captured, I think that the others will take themselves off, or else will -remain quiet, glad to close with any offer of safety.’ ‘We will do so,’ -I said, ‘but what can Theocritus have to talk about with these people?’ -‘I cannot answer clearly or from knowledge,’ said Phyllidas, ‘but I -heard portents mentioned and prophecies disastrous to Sparta.’ -[27][Meanwhile Theocritus rejoined us, and] Pheidolaus of Haliartus came -up and said, ‘Simmias wants you to wait hereabouts a little. He is -closeted with Leontides, interceding for Amphitheus to get his sentence -of death commuted, if possible, to exile.’ - -V. ‘The very man!’ said Theocritus. ‘You might [Sidenote: E] have come -on purpose, for I was longing to hear what the discoveries were, and -about the general appearance of the tomb of Alcmena in your country when -it was opened, if you were really present yourself when Agesilaus sent -and removed the remains to Sparta.’ Pheidolaus answered: ‘I was not -present; and vexed and indignant I was with my citizens for leaving me -out. However, no vestige of a body was found, only a bracelet of brass, -not a large one, and two earthenware jars containing [Sidenote: F] earth -which had become solid as stone. Above the tomb lay a brass plate, with -many letters wonderful for their great antiquity; they afforded no -intelligible sense, though they came out clear to the eye when the brass -was washed. The characters were of a peculiar and barbaric type, most -closely resembling the Egyptian; and Agesilaus accordingly, as they -said, sent copies to the king of Egypt, asking him to show them to the -priests, on the chance of their understanding them. However, Simmias -may, perhaps, have something to tell you about all this, as he was at -that time in Egypt, and philosophy [Sidenote: 578] brought him much into -the society of the priests. But the people of Haliartus believe that the -great scarcity of crops and the advance of the lake were not accidental, -but were an angry visitation because they allowed the tomb to be dug -open.’ After a short pause Theocritus went on: ‘Nor yet are the -Lacedaemonians themselves clear of the wrath of heaven, as is shown by -the portents about which Lysanoridas was lately conferring with us. He -is now off to Haliartus to fill in the [Sidenote: B] tomb again and to -offer libations to Alcmena and Aleus, of course in accordance with some -oracle, not knowing who Aleus was. When he comes back from there he -intends to investigate the tomb of Dirce, which is unknown to the -Thebans, except those who have acted as Hipparchs. The outgoing -magistrate takes his successor in office, with no one else present, and -shows it him at night; they perform certain fireless rites over the -tomb, carefully obliterate all traces, and go off under cover of -darkness by separate ways. And much chance, I think, they will have of -finding it, Pheidolaus! For most of those who have served legally as -Hipparchs are now in exile; I might say all, except [Sidenote: C] -Gorgidas and Plato, whom they fear too much to examine. But the present -magistrates receive the spear and the seal in the Cadmeia, and know -absolutely nothing.’ - -VI. While Theocritus was saying this, Leontides was going out with his -friends. We entered, and began to pay our compliments to Simmias, who -was sitting on the couch, having been unsuccessful in his petition, I -think, for he seemed wrapped in thought and much annoyed. Looking hard -at us all, ‘Hercules!’ [Sidenote: D] he said, ‘what savage barbarous -manners! How right, and more than right, old Thales was, when he came -home from a long absence abroad, and his friends asked what was his -rarest discovery, “An aged tyrant”, he said! For every one, even if he -have not been personally wronged, is disgusted at mere oppression, and -harshness, and so is an enemy to lawless irresponsible dynasties. Well, -the God will see to this, perhaps; now, Capheisias, about your newcomer, -do you know who he is?’ ‘I do not know’, said I, ‘whom you mean.’ ‘Yet -Leontides tells us’, he said, ‘that a man has been seen by the tomb of -Lysis, rising to go when night was done. His retinue and [Sidenote: E] -equipment were stately. He had bivouacked there on a rough bed, for -piles of agnus castus and tamarisk were visible, and also remains of -burnt sacrifices and libations of milk. At dawn he asked those who met -him whether he should find the sons of Polymnis in the country.’ ‘But -who can the stranger be?’ I said; ‘from what you tell us it must be some -uncommon person, one in no private station.’ - -VII. ‘Certainly not’, said Pheidolaus. ‘However, when he comes we will -see to his reception. Now, as to those characters, Simmias, about which -we were puzzling just now. If you know more than we do, tell us; for it -is said that the Egyptian priests have made out the letters on the plate -which Agesilaus [Sidenote: F] took from us when he opened the tomb of -Alcmena.’ Simmias remembered at once. ‘I know nothing of that plate, -Pheidolaus;’ he said, ‘but Agenoridas the Spartan brought a number of -characters from Agesilaus to Memphis, to Chonuphis the prophet, with -whom Plato and I and Hellopion of Peparethus were staying to enjoy -Philosophy together. He had been sent by the king, who desired -Chonuphis, if he could make anything out of the inscription, to -interpret and return it quickly. After spending three days in -retirement, reading up characters from all countries in ancient books, -he wrote his answer to the king. [Sidenote: 579] He explained to us that -this inscription directs the holding of a competition in honour of the -Muses. The characters belonged to the system of the reign of Proteus, -the one learnt by Hercules the son of Amphitryon. The God therein -directs and charges the Greeks to observe a time of peace and leisure, -spending it in continuous philosophical debate, with the help of the -Muses and of Reason, for the decision of points relating to Justice, all -arms being laid aside. We thought at the time that what Chonuphis said -was good, and we thought so still more when, in our journey from Egypt -round Caria, we met certain Delians [Sidenote: B] who begged Plato, as a -geometrician, to solve the problem propounded in a mysterious oracle of -the God. The oracle was this: “The Delians and the other Greeks shall -have respite from their present ills when they have doubled the altar at -Delos.” The Delians were unable to guess the meaning, and, moreover, had -brought themselves into a ludicrous difficulty about the construction of -the altar. They had doubled each of the four sides,[28] and so -unconsciously produced a solid figure eight times greater than the -original, in ignorance of the factor which must be applied to the side, -in order to double the solid. [Sidenote: C] So they appealed to Plato -for help in the difficulty. Plato, remembering the Egyptian, said that -the God was rallying the Greeks on their neglect of liberal studies, -mocking our ignorance, and commanding us to take up geometry in real -earnest; that it required no slight or dim-sighted intellect, but a -first-rate training in linear geometry, to find two mean proportionals, -the only method by which a solid in the form of a cube can be doubled, -if all its dimensions are to be increased uniformly. Eudoxus of Cnidos, -he said, or Helicon of Cyzicus, would work this out for them.[29] -However, in his opinion, the God did not desire this; he was enjoining -all the Greeks to cease from war [Sidenote: D] and trouble and devote -themselves to the Muses, to soften their passions by discussions and -Mathematics, and to associate profitably with one another.’ - -VIII. While Simmias was speaking, our father Polymnis came in upon us. -He sat down by Simmias and said: ‘Epaminondas invites you and all -present, if you have no more pressing engagement, to wait hereabouts; he -wants to introduce to you the stranger, a man noble himself, and brought -here by a noble and generous errand. He comes from the Pythagoreans of -[Sidenote: E] Italy, to pour offerings on the tomb of old Lysis, in -accordance, as he says, with certain dreams and clear visions. He brings -a large sum in gold, thinking that Epaminondas ought to be reimbursed -for the care of Lysis in his old age, and on this he insists most -keenly, though we neither ask nor wish assistance for our poverty.’ -Simmias was pleased: ‘A really wonderful man,’ he said, ‘and worthy of -Philosophy; but what is the reason that he has not come straight to us?’ -‘He passed the night, I think,’ said he, ‘near the tomb of Lysis; -Epaminondas [Sidenote: F] was to take him on to the Ismenus to bathe, -and then they will come on to us here. Before he met us, he had made his -night’s lodging near the tomb, intending to take up the remains and -convey them to Italy, unless prevented by some divine warning in the -night.’ Having said this, my father was silent. - -IX. Then Galaxidorus spoke: ‘Hercules! how hard it is to find a man -quite free from vanity and superstition! Some are caught by these -weaknesses against their will, owing to want of experience or of -strength. Others, in order to appear singular and to be taken for -friends of the Gods, bring the divine into all they do, making dreams -and portents and such stuff a pretext for anything that enters their -head. Now, to men in public [Sidenote: 580] stations, who are compelled -to adapt their lives to a self-willed and petulant multitude, this may -have its advantage; superstition is a bit wherewith to check a populace, -and direct it to what is expedient. But to Philosophy such posturing is -unbecoming in itself, and, moreover, it contradicts her professions; she -undertakes to teach all that is good and expedient by the reason, and -then, as though in despite of reason, goes back upon the Gods and away -from the first principles of action; and, dishonouring demonstration, in -which her own excellence is supposed to lie, turns to prophecies and -visions seen in dreams, [Sidenote: B] things in which the weakest often -have as great success as the strongest. This, I think, Simmias, is why -your Socrates embraced a system of intellectual training which bore a -more philosophical stamp, choosing that simple artless type as being -liberal and most friendly to truth; and casting to the winds for the -sophists, as a mere smoke from Philosophy, all pretentious nonsense.’ -Theocritus broke in: ‘What, Galaxidorus, and has Meletus persuaded even -you too that Socrates despised [Sidenote: C] what was divine, for that -was the charge which he actually brought before the Athenians?’ ‘What -was divine—no;’ he said, ‘but he received Philosophy from Pythagoras and -Empedocles full of visions and myths and superstitions, and deeply -dipped in mysteries; and trained her to look at facts, and be sensible, -and pursue truth in soberness of reason.’ - -X. ‘Granted;’ said Theocritus, ‘but as to the Divine Sign of Socrates, -good friend, are we to call it a falsity or what? To me, nothing -recorded about Pythagoras seems to go so far towards the prophetic and -divine. For, in plain words, as Homer has drawn Athena to Odysseus - - _In all his toils a presence and a stay_,[30] - -even so, apparently, did the spirit attach to Socrates, from the first, -a sort of vision to go before and guide his steps in life, which alone - - _Passing before him shed a light around_[31] - -[Sidenote: D] in matters of uncertainty, too hard for the wit of man to -solve; upon these the spirit used often to converse with him, adding a -divine touch to his own resolutions. For more, and more important, -instances you must ask Simmias and the other companions of Socrates. But -I was myself present, having come to stay with Euthyphron the prophet, -when Socrates, as you remember, Simmias, was going up to the Symbolum -and the house of Andocides, asking some question as he walked and -playfully cross-examining Euthyphron. Suddenly he stopped and closed his -lips tightly[32] and was wrapt in thought for some time. Then he turned -back and took the way through the [Sidenote: E] Trunkmakers’ Street, and -tried to recall those of our friends who were already in advance, saying -that the Sign was upon him. Most of them turned in a body, amongst whom -was I, keeping close to Euthyphron. But some young members of the party, -no doubt to put the Sign of Socrates to the test, held on, and drew into -their number Charillus the flute-player, who had come to Athens with -myself, staying with Cebes. Now as they were going through the street of -the Statuaries near the Law Courts, they were met by a whole herd of -swine loaded with mud and hustling one another by press of numbers. -There was no [Sidenote: F] getting out of the way; on they charged, -upsetting some, bespattering others. At any rate, Charillus came home -with his clothes full of mud and his legs too, so that we always laugh -when we remember Socrates and his Sign, and wonder that this divine -presence of his should never fail him or forget.’ - -XI. Then Galaxidorus said: ‘Do you think then, Theocritus, that the Sign -of Socrates possessed a special and extraordinary power, not that some -fragment of the ready wit which we all share determined him by an -empiric process, turning the scale of his reasoning in cases which were -uncertain and incalculable? For as a single weight does not by itself -incline the balance, but, if added to one scale when the weights are -even, sinks the whole of that one on its own side, so [Sidenote: 581] a -cry, or any such feather-weight sign, will fit[33] a mind already -weighted, and draw it into action; and when two trains of thought are in -conflict, it reinforces one, and solves the difficulty by removing the -equality, so that there is a movement and an inclination.’ My father -broke in: ‘Well, but I have myself heard, Galaxidorus, from a certain -Megarian, who had it from Terpsion, that the Sign of Socrates was a -sneeze, proceeding either from himself or from other persons; if some -one else sneezed on his [Sidenote: B] right, whether behind or in front, -it encouraged him to the action; if on the left, it warned him off it. -Of his own sneezings there was one kind which confirmed his purpose when -he was still intending to act; another stopped him when he was already -acting and checked his impulse. The wonder to me is that if he made use -of a sneeze he did not so call it to his companions, but was in the -habit of saying that what checked or commanded him was a Divine Sign. -For that would be like vanity and idle boasting, not like truth and -simplicity, in which lay, as we suppose, his greatness and his -superiority to men in general, to be disturbed by a sound from outside -or a casual sneeze, and so be diverted from acting, and give up what he -had resolved. [Sidenote: C] Now the impulses of Socrates, on the other -hand, show firmness and intensity in every direction, as though issuing -from a right and powerful judgement and principle. Thus for a man to -remain in voluntary poverty all his life, when he might have had plenty, -and the givers would have been pleased and thankful, and never to swerve -from Philosophy in the face of all those hindrances; and at last, when -the zeal and ingenuity of his friends had made his way easy to safety -and retreat, not to be bent by their entreaties, nor yield to the near -approach of [Sidenote: D] death—all this is not like a man whose -judgement might be changed by random voices or sneezings; it is like one -led to what is noble by some greater and more sovereign authority. I -hear also that he foretold to some of his friends the disaster which -befell the power of Athens in Sicily. At a still earlier time, -Pyrilampes, the son of Antiphon, when taken prisoner in the pursuit near -Delium, after having received from us a javelin wound, as soon as he had -heard from those who had arrived from Athens to arrange the truce that -Socrates had returned home in safety by The Gullies[34] with Alcibiades -and Laches, often called upon him by name, and often on friends and -comrades of [Sidenote: E] his own who had fled with him by way of -Parnes, and been slain by our cavalry; they had disobeyed the Sign of -Socrates, he said, in turning from the battle by a different way instead -of following his lead. This, I think, Simmias too must have heard.’ -‘Often,’ said Simmias, ‘and from many persons. For there was no little -noise at Athens about the Sign of Socrates in consequence.’ - -XII. ‘Well, then, Simmias,’ said Pheidolaus, ‘are we to allow -Galaxidorus in his jesting way to bring down this great fact of -divination to sneezings and cries, which plenty of common [Sidenote: F] -ignorant persons apply to trifles in mere sport, whereas, when grave -dangers overtake them, or more serious business, we may quote -Euripides:[35] - - _These follies have a truce when steel is near_‘? - -Galaxidorus said: ‘I am quite ready to listen to Simmias on this -subject, Pheidolaus, if he has himself heard Socrates speak about it, -and to join you in believing; but as for all that you and Polymnis have -mentioned, it is not hard to refute it. For as in medicine a throb or a -pimple is a small matter, but is the indication of what is not small; -and as to a pilot the cry of a bird from the open sea, or the scudding -of a thin film of cloud, [Sidenote: 582] signifies wind and rougher -seas, so to a prophetic soul a sneeze or a voice is nothing great in -itself, but is the sign of a great conjuncture. There is no art in which -it is thought contemptible to forecast great things by small, many -things through few. Suppose a man ignorant of the meaning of letters -were to see a few insignificant-looking characters, and to refuse to -believe that one who knew grammar could, by their help, repeat the story -of great wars between old-world peoples, and foundings of cities, and -what kings did or suffered, and then were to say [Sidenote: B] that a -voice, or something like a voice, revealed and repeated each of these -things to that historian, a pleasant laugh would come over your face, my -friend, at the ignorance of that man. Now, consider, may it not be so -with us? In our ignorance of the meaning of different things by which -the prophetic art hits the coming event, are we simple enough to rebel -if a man of intellect uses them to reveal something not yet evident, and -says, moreover, that a Divine Sign, not a sneeze or a voice, directs him -to the facts? For now I turn to you, Polymnis, who wonder that Socrates, -a man who did so very much to make Philosophy human by simplicity and -absence of cant, should [Sidenote: C] have named his Sign, not a sneeze -or a voice, but, in full tragic phrase, his Divine Sign. I, on the -contrary, should be surprised if a man so excellent in Dialectic and -mastery of terms had said that the sneeze and not the Divine Sign gave -him the intimation. As if a man were to say that he had been wounded “by -the javelin”, not “by the thrower with his javelin”, or, again, that the -weight had been measured “by the balance”, not “by the weigher with his -balance”. For the work is not the work of the tool but of the owner of -the tool which he uses for the work; and the Sign is a kind of tool used -by the signifying power. But, as I said, if Simmias should have anything -to tell us we must listen, for his knowledge is more exact.’ - -XIII. Then Theocritus said: ‘Yes, but first let us see [Sidenote: D] who -these persons are who are coming in; or, rather, it is surely -Epaminondas bringing the stranger to us.’ We looked towards the doors, -and saw Epaminondas leading the way, then Ismenidorus, Bacchylidas, and -Melissus the flute-player, all of them our friends and confederates; -then the stranger followed, a man of much nobility of mien, but with a -gentle and kindly character apparent beneath it, and dressed in a grave -fashion. He took his seat by Simmias, my brother next to me, and the -rest as they found places. Then, when there was silence, Simmias called -on my brother: ‘Well, Epaminondas, how are we to address our friend? Who -and what is he, and [Sidenote: E] whence? That is the usual formula for -beginning an introduction and an acquaintance.’[36] Epaminondas replied: -‘Theanor is his name, Simmias, and his family is of Crotona, where he -belongs to the local school of Philosophy and does no discredit to the -great fame of Pythagoras; he has just taken the long journey from Italy -here, to confirm noble doctrines by noble acts.’ The stranger broke in: -‘Indeed, Epaminondas, you are now hindering the noblest of all actions. -For if to confer a benefit on friends be noble, it is no shame to -receive [Sidenote: F] one from them. A favour needs one to receive, no -less than one to bestow it; both must join to ensure a noble result. It -is like a ball well delivered; to allow it to drop idle to the ground is -to shame it. Now what mark is there for a ball, so agreeable for the -thrower to hit and so distressing to miss, as a man at whom one aims a -favour when he well deserves it? But in the one case the mark stands -still, and he who misses has himself to thank; in the other, he who -excuses himself and swerves aside does a wrong to the favour which never -reaches its goal. You have yourself heard fully from me the reasons of -my voyage here; but I should like to go through the story [Sidenote: -583] as fully to those now present, and let them be judges between us. - -‘When the Pythagoreans had been overpowered by faction in the different -cities, and their brotherhoods expelled, and when the party of Cylon had -piled up a fire round a house in Metapontum in which those still settled -there were holding a meeting, and had dispatched all those in the place -except Philolaus and Lysis, who were still young, and were strong enough -and active enough to push through the fire, Philolaus escaped thence to -Lucania and joined in safety the rest of our friends, who were by this -time rallying and holding their own against the Cylonians. Where Lysis -was, no one knew for a long time; however, Gorgias of Leontini, sailing -back from [Sidenote: B] Greece to Sicily, brought certain news to -Arcesus and his friends that he had met Lysis, who was staying near -Thebes. Arcesus longed to see the man, and was eager to sail straight -off himself; but being quite disabled by age and infirmity, gave orders -to bring Lysis alive to Italy if possible, or his remains if he should -have died. Then came wars, revolutions, and periods of tyranny which -made it impossible for the friends to perform the task in his lifetime. -But when the spirit of Lysis, now dead, had shown us clearly of his end, -and well informed persons told us of all the care and entertainment -which he had [Sidenote: C] received from your family, Polymnis; how -richly his age had been cared for in a poor house, and how he had been -adopted as father to your sons before his blessed end came, I was sent -out, a young man and alone, to represent many of my elders who have -money and wish to offer it to those who have not, in return for favour -and friendship richly bestowed. Lysis lies where you have honourably -laid him; yet the honour of that tomb is greater when recompense is made -for it to friends by friends dear and close.’ - -XIV. While the stranger was speaking thus, my father wept a long while -over the memory of Lysis, but my brother [Sidenote: D] with his usual -gentle smile said to me: ‘What is it to be, Capheisias? Are we to -surrender poverty to riches, and to say nothing?’ ‘No! no!’ said I, ‘the -dear “good nurse of young manhood”[37]—to her rescue! it is your turn to -speak.’ ‘See, father;’ he said, ‘that was the only side on which I used -to fear that our house might be captured by money. I mean through -Capheisias and his person, which needs beautiful clothes that he may -make a brave show before all his admiring friends, and needs food of the -best, and plenty of it, that he may have strength for the gymnasia and -wrestling matches. Now that he does not betray poverty, or throw off our -ancestral poverty like a coat of paint, but, boy though he is, goes -proudly [Sidenote: E] in thrift, and is content with what we have, to -what possible use could we put money? Shall we plate our armour, say, -with gold, and make the shield gay with purple and gold together, as -Nicias of Athens did?[38] Shall we buy you, father, a Milesian cloak, or -a dress with a purple border for mother? You know, we are not likely to -spend the present on our table, or to feast ourselves more sumptuously, -as having admitted a guest of such importance as wealth.’ ‘Away with it, -boy!’ said my father, ‘never may I see our life new-modelled like that!’ -[Sidenote: F] ‘No,’ my brother went on, ‘nor will we sit idle at home -and guard our wealth; that would be a “boonless boon”[39] indeed, and a -getting with no honour to it.’ ‘Of course’, said our father. ‘You know,’ -Epaminondas went on, ‘when Jason, the Thessalian Tagus, lately sent a -large sum of money here to us and begged us to take it, he thought me -something of a boor when I answered that he was making the first move in -wrong and robbery, when a lover of monarchy like himself tempted with -money a private citizen of a free self-governed state. From you, Sir, I -accept your generous intention, and admire it [Sidenote: 584] more than -I can say; it is beautiful and philosophical too; but you are bringing -medicines to friends who are not sick! Suppose that you had heard that -we were attacked in war, and had sailed with arms and ammunition to help -us, and on arrival had found that all was friendliness and peace; you -would not think it necessary to hand over the stores and leave them -where they were not needed. Even so, you have come to be our ally -against poverty, thinking that we were pinched by her, but there is none -so easy to be endured as she, our dear fellow-lodger. [Sidenote: B] So -no need for money or arms against her who vexes us not. Take back this -message to your brotherhood: that they themselves use their wealth most -nobly, but that there are friends here who make noble use of poverty: -and that, as to the entertainment of Lysis and his burial, Lysis has -paid the score in full for himself, not least by teaching us not to fret -at poverty.’ - -XV. Theanor broke in: ‘Then, if it is ignoble to fret at poverty, is it -not eccentric to fear and shun wealth?’ ‘Eccentric it is if it is -rejected on no rational grounds, but in order to pose or because of -insipid taste or affectation of some kind.’ ‘But what rational grounds’, -he said, ‘could bar the getting of wealth by good and honest means, -Epaminondas? Or rather—and surrender more gently than you did to the -Thessalian in [Sidenote: C] answering our questions about these -matters—tell me whether you think that the giving of money may sometimes -be right, but the receiving never; or that givers and receivers alike -are in all cases wrong?’ ‘No, no!’ said Epaminondas, ‘I hold that, as -with everything else, so with wealth; there is a giving and a getting -which are ugly, and a giving and a getting which are fine.’ ‘Then,’ said -Theanor, ‘when a man gives readily and heartily what he owes, is not -that beautiful?’ He assented. ‘But when one receives what another -beautifully gives, is not the taking beautiful? Or could there be a -fairer taking of [Sidenote: D] money than when it comes from one who -gives fairly?’ ‘There could not’, he said. ‘Then of two friends, -Epaminondas,’ said he, ‘if one is to give, it looks as if the other must -take. For in battles one must swerve away from a marksman in the enemy’s -ranks; in the conflict of benefits it is not fair to avoid or thrust -aside the friend who nobly gives. For, if poverty is no affliction, yet -wealth, on its side, is not a thing to be flouted and refused like -that.’ ‘It is not,’ said Epaminondas, ‘but there is a case where the -gift which may be nobly offered remains more honoured and more noble if -it is refused. Look at it with us in this way: you will allow that there -are many desires, and desires of many things; some inborn, as we call -them, which grow up about the body and are directed towards its -necessary pleasures; others adventitious, grounded on mere fancies, but -[Sidenote: E] gaining strength and power by time and use, where there is -vicious education, and often dragging down the soul more forcibly than -do those which are necessary. Now, by habits and training, men have -before now succeeded in drawing off and subjecting to reason, in great -measure, the innate affections. But the whole force of discipline, my -friend, must be brought to bear against those which are adventitious and -extraordinary; we must work them out, and hack them off, and use -restraints and checks to school them to reason. For if thirst and hunger -are forced out by rational resistance in the matter of food and -[Sidenote: F] drink, far easier surely is it to stunt, and in the end to -annihilate, love of wealth and love of glory by refusing and prohibiting -the things at which they aim. Do you not agree?’ The stranger assented. -‘Then, do you see a distinction’, Epaminondas went on, ‘between training -and the intended result of the training? Thus the result of athletic -exercise would be the contest against a competitor for the crown; -training would be the preparation of the body for this contest of the -gymnasia. So with virtue, do you allow that there are two things, the -result and the training?’ The stranger assented. ‘Now then,’ Epaminondas -resumed, ‘tell me first with respect to temperance; do you take -abstinence from base and lawless pleasures [Sidenote: 585] to be a -training, or rather a result and a proof of training?’ ‘A result and a -proof’, he said. ‘But it is a training or study in temperance—is it -not?—which still draws all of you on when you go to the gymnasia and -have stirred up your desires for food, as though they were wild beasts, -and then stand for a long time over bright tables with a variety of -dishes, and at last pass the good cheer for your servants to enjoy, -offering to your own now chastened appetites only what is plain and -simple, since abstinence from pleasures in things allowed is a training -for the soul against pleasures which are forbidden?’ ‘No doubt’, he -said. ‘Then there is, friend, a way of training ourselves for [Sidenote: -B] justice against the love of wealth and money; I do not mean never to -enter our neighbour’s premises by night and steal his goods, and never -to take his clothes at the bath; nor yet if a man does not betray -country and friends for money is he training himself against -covetousness (since here, perhaps, the law comes in and fear, to hinder -greediness from doing acts of wrong). No, the man who often and -voluntarily sets himself aloof from gains which are just and are allowed -by law is training and habituating himself in advance to keep his -distance from every gain which is unrighteous and forbidden. For as, -when it encounters great pleasures which are also strange and hurtful, -the mind cannot avoid a flutter unless it has often despised [Sidenote: -C] permitted enjoyments, so to pass by vicious gains and great -advancement when they come within reach is not easy, unless from a great -way off the love of gain has been fettered and chastened; whereas, if it -has been brought up to gain, and there has been no check on its license, -it makes a riotous growth towards all iniquity, and only with the -greatest effort is it withheld from grasping an advantage. But if a man -does not surrender himself to the favours of friends or to the bounties -of kings, but has said no even to an inheritance which Fortune offers, -and has put far off that love of wealth which springs up to meet a -treasure as it comes into sight, he finds that covetousness rises up -against him no longer, nor tempts him to what is wrong, nor disturbs his -understanding. He is gentle, and possesses himself for noble uses; he -has great thoughts and [Sidenote: D] shares with his soul the noblest -secrets. We, Capheisias and I, are lovers of such men, dear Simmias, and -we entreat the stranger to allow us so to train ourselves in poverty -that we may reach virtue such as that.’ - -XVI. My brother finished his argument, and then Simmias nodded his head -two or three times. ‘A great man,’ he said, ‘a great man is Epaminondas, -and thanks to Polymnis here for that, who procured for his sons from the -first the best training in Philosophy. However, with regard to this -question, Sir, do you and they settle it between you. Now about Lysis, -if we [Sidenote: E] may be allowed to hear. Do you mean to move him from -his tomb and to transfer him to Italy; or will you allow him to remain -here with us, where he shall find kind and friendly fellow-lodgers when -our time comes?’ Theanor smiled on him: ‘Lysis appears, Simmias, to love -this country, in which by the good offices of Epaminondas he has wanted -nothing that is honourable. For there is a certain holy rite connected -with our Pythagorean burials, which if we lack we do not seem to attain -our full and blessed consummation. So when we knew from dreams of the -death of Lysis (we distinguish by a certain sign which is revealed in -sleep whether an appearance belongs [Sidenote: F] to a dead person or a -living), this thought came over many of us: so Lysis has been buried in -another land with strange rites; he must be moved here to us, that he -may share in all that is customary. Coming with such an intention, and -guided straight to the tomb by people of the place, I was pouring -libations just at evening time, and calling on the soul of Lysis to -return and declare solemnly how we ought to act. The night went on and I -saw nothing, but thought I heard a voice: “Stir not what is best -unstirred; the body of Lysis has been buried with holy rites by friends; -his soul has already been parted from it and dismissed to another birth, -with another spirit for its partner.” Accordingly, when I met -Epaminondas at dawn [Sidenote: 586] and heard the manner in which he -buried Lysis, I recognized that he had been well trained by that great -teacher, even to the rules which must not be spoken, and had enjoyed the -guidance in life from the same spirit as he, unless I fail to guess the -pilot aright from the course steered. For “wide are the tracks”[40] of -our lives, and few there are of them by which the spirits lead men.’ -When Theanor had said this, he looked closely at Epaminondas, as though -scrutinizing him afresh without and within. - -[Sidenote: B] XVII. In the meantime the surgeon came up and loosened -Simmias’ bandage, intending to dress the limb. But Phyllidas came in -upon us with Hippostheneidas, and bidding me, and also Charon and -Theocritus, rise and follow him, led us to a corner of the colonnade, -his face showing great agitation. To my question, ‘Any news, Phyllidas?’ -he answered, ‘No news to me; I knew and told you all the time how weak -Hippostheneidas was, and implored you not to admit him as an associate -of our enterprise.’ We were dismayed at this, and Hippostheneidas said: -‘In Heaven’s name, Phyllidas, do not say that; do not take rashness to -be courage, and thereby ruin us and the city too; [Sidenote: C] but -allow the men to make their own return in safety if it is so appointed.’ -Phyllidas was nettled: ‘Tell me, Hippostheneidas,’ he said, ‘how many do -you think share the inner secrets of our plan?’ ‘Not less than thirty, -to my knowledge’, he said. ‘Very well,’ said Phyllidas, ‘there is all -that number, and you have taken on your single self to annul and check -the plan on which all had resolved, you sent a mounted messenger to the -men when already on their road, bidding them turn back and not press on -to-day, when most of the arrangements for their return have settled -themselves without us.’ When Phyllidas had said this we were all much -disturbed, but Charon fastened [Sidenote: D] his eyes very severely on -Hippostheneidas: ‘Villain!’ he said, ‘what have you done to us?’ -‘Nothing terrible,’ answered Hippostheneidas, ‘if you will drop your -harsh tone and listen to the calculations of a man of your own age, with -grey hairs like yourself. If we have resolved to give our countrymen an -exhibition of a courage which loves danger, and a spirit which makes -little of life, then there is much of the day still before us, -Phyllidas; let us not wait for the evening, but march at once against -the tyrants, our swords in our hands—let us slay, let us die, let us -never spare ourselves! But say we find no difficulty in this, whether of -action or of endurance, yet to rescue Thebes [Sidenote: E] from an armed -force, when encompassed by so many enemies, and to expel the Spartan -garrison at a cost of two or three lives, is not easy; for Phyllidas has -never prepared so much strong liquor for his parties and receptions that -all the fifteen hundred men of Archias’ bodyguard will be made drunk; -yet, even if we get rid of him, Herippidas is on for night duty and -sober, and Arcesus too. This being so, why hurry to bring home friends -and relatives to manifest destruction, and that when the very fact of -their return is not unknown to the enemy? Or why have [Sidenote: F] the -Thespians been ordered to be under arms for these two days past, and -ready whenever the Spartan officers call? Again, I hear that Amphitheus -is to be examined and put to death to-day, whenever Archias returns. Are -not these strong signs that our action is not unmarked? Is it not best -to pause, not for a long time, but long enough to make the auspices -right? For the prophets declare, that in sacrificing the ox to Demeter, -they found that the entrails prognosticated much commotion and public -danger. Again, and this needs the greatest caution on your part, Charon, -yesterday Hypatodorus son of Erianthes walked back with me from the -farm, quite a good and friendly [Sidenote: 587] person, but certainly -not in our secrets. “Charon is your friend, Hippostheneidas,” he said, -“but I do not know him well; tell him, if you think good, to be on his -guard against a certain danger revealed in a very strange and -disagreeable dream. Last night I thought that his house was in pangs as -of labour, and that he and the friends who shared his anxiety prayed and -stood around it, while it moaned and uttered inarticulate sounds. At -last the fire flared out strong and terrible from within, so that most -of the city was caught by the blaze, but the Cadmeia was only wrapped in -smoke, the fire not spreading [Sidenote: B] up to it.” The vision which -the man described was something like this, Charon; I was alarmed at the -time, and much more so when I heard to-day that the exiles are to be put -up at your house; I am now in an agony lest we may be bringing a load of -troubles upon ourselves, yet not doing any harm worth mentioning to the -enemies, but simply stirring them up. For I reckon the city to be on our -side, the Cadmeia with them, as it certainly is.’ - -XVIII. Theocritus broke in, stopping Charon who wanted to say something -to Hippostheneidas: ‘Well, Hippostheneidas, [Sidenote: C] nothing has -ever struck me as so encouraging for action (although I have myself -always found my sacrifices favourable for the exiles), as this vision; -strong, clear light over the city, rising, you tell us, out of a -friendly house; the head-quarters of our enemies wrapped in black smoke, -which always imports, at the best, tears and confusion; then -inarticulate utterances proceeding from our side, so that, even if any -one were to attempt to inform against us, only an indistinct rumour and -blind suspicion can attach to our enterprise, which will have succeeded -by the time it is evident. That the priests should find sacrifices -unfavourable is natural; officials and victim belong to those in power, -not to the people.’ While Theocritus was still speaking, I turned to -Hippostheneidas: ‘What messenger did you send [Sidenote: D] out to them? -Unless you have allowed a very long start we will give chase.’ ‘I do not -know,’ he said, ‘for I must tell you the truth, Capheisias, whether you -could possibly overtake the man; he has the best horse in Thebes. The -man is known to you; he is head groom in Melon’s chariot stables, and -through Melon knows our enterprise from its beginning.’ Meanwhile I had -espied the man, and said, ‘Hippostheneidas, do you not mean Chlidon, who -won the single-horse race in last year’s Heraea?’ ‘That is the man’, he -said. ‘And who is that,’ I said, ‘standing this long time at the outer -gates, and looking in at us?’ Then Hippostheneidas turned: ‘Chlidon,’ he -[Sidenote: E] said, ‘yes, by Hercules, I fear something has gone very -wrong.’ Meanwhile, the man saw that we were observing him, and drew up -quietly from the door. Hippostheneidas gave him a nod and bade him speak -out to all present. ‘I know these gentlemen, Hippostheneidas, perfectly -well; and finding you neither at home nor in the market-place, I guessed -that you had come to them, so I took the shortest way here, that you may -all know [Sidenote: F] everything which has happened. When you ordered -me to use all speed and meet the party in the hill country, I went home -to get my horse; but when I asked for the bridle, my wife could not give -it me, but stayed a long time in the store room. She searched and turned -out everything inside, and after fooling me to her heart’s content, at -last confessed that she had lent the bridle to our neighbour the evening -before, his wife having come in to ask for one. I was angry and used -strong words to her, upon which she took to horrible imprecations—“A bad -journey [Sidenote: 588] and a bad return to you all!” May Heaven throw -it all back upon herself, by Zeus, yes! At last, in my anger, I got as -far as blows; then a crowd of neighbours and women ran up; I have -behaved shamefully and have been treated no better, and have just -managed to make my way to you, that you may send some one else to the -exiles, for I am fairly off my head by this time and feel badly upset.’ - -XIX. We now experienced a strange revulsion of feeling. A little before -we were chafing at the check we had received; now that the crisis was -upon us short and sharp, and no delay possible, we found ourselves -passing into an anguish of alarm. However, I said a word of greeting and -encouragement to Hippostheneidas, to the effect that the very Gods were -calling us [Sidenote: B] on to action. After this Phyllidas went out to -arrange for his party, and to get Archias plunged straight into his -drink, Charon to see to his house, while Theocritus and I returned to -Simmias on the chance of getting a word with Epaminondas. - -XX. However, they were far on in an inquiry of no mean import, Heaven -knows, but one which Galaxidorus and Pheidolaus had started a little -earlier, the problem of the real nature [Sidenote: C] and potency of the -Divine Sign of Socrates, so called. What Simmias said in reply to the -argument of Galaxidorus we did not hear; but he went on to say that he -had himself once asked Socrates on the subject, and failed to get an -answer, and so had never asked again; but that he had often been with -him when he gave his opinion that those who claim intercourse with the -divine by way of vision are impostors, whereas he attended to those who -professed to hear a voice, and put serious questions to them. Hence it -began to occur to us, as we were discussing the matter among ourselves, -to suspect that the Divine Sign of Socrates might possibly be no vision -but a special sense for [Sidenote: D] sounds or words, with which he had -contact in some strange manner; just as in sleep there is no voice -heard, but fancies and notions as to particular words reach the -sleepers, who then think that they hear people talking. Only sleepers -receive such conceptions in a real dream because of the tranquillity and -calm of the body in sleep, whereas in waking moments the soul can hardly -attend to greater powers, being so choked by thronging emotions and -distracting needs that they are unable to listen and to give their -attention to clear revelations. But the mind of Socrates, pure and -passionless, and intermingling itself but [Sidenote: E] little with the -body for necessary purposes, was fine and light of touch, and quickly -changed under any impression. The impression we may conjecture to have -been no voice, but the utterance of a spirit, which without vocal sound -reached the perceiving mind by the revelation itself. For voice is like -a blow upon the soul, which perforce admits its utterance by way of the -ears, whenever we converse with one another. But the mind of a stronger -being leads the gifted soul, touching it with the thing thought, and no -blow is needed. To such a being soul yields as it relaxes or tightens -the impulses, which are never [Sidenote: F] violent, as when there are -passions to resist, but supple and pliant like reins which give. There -is nothing wonderful in this; as we see great cargo-vessels turned about -by little helms, and, again, potters’ wheels whirling round in even -revolution at the light touch of a hand. These are things without a soul -no doubt, yet so constructed as to run swiftly and smoothly, and -therefore to yield to a motive force when a touch is given. But the soul -of a man, being strained by countless impulses, as by cords, is far the -easiest of all machines to turn, if it be touched rationally; it accepts -the touch of thought, and moves as thought directs. For here the -passions and impulses are stretched towards the [Sidenote: 589] thinking -principle and end in it; if that principle be stirred they receive a -pull, and in turn draw and strain the man. And thus we are allowed to -learn how great is the power of a thought. For bones, which have no -sensation, and nerves and fleshy parts charged with humours, and the -whole resultant mass in its ponderous quiescence, do yet, as soon as the -soul sets something a going in thought and directs its impulse towards -it, rise up, alert and tense, a whole which moves to action in all its -members, as though it had wings. But it is hard, nay, perhaps, -altogether beyond our powers, to take in at one glance the [Sidenote: B] -system of excitation, complex strain, and divine prompting, whereby the -soul, after conceiving a thought, draws on the mass of the body by the -impulses which it gives.[41] Yet whereas a word thus intellectually -apprehended excites the soul, while no sort of voice is heard and no -action takes place, even so we need not, I think, find it hard to -believe that mind may be led by a stronger mind and a more divine soul -external to itself, having contact with it after its kind, as word with -word or light with reflection. For in actual fact we recognize the -thoughts of one another by groping as it were in darkness with the -assistance of voice; whereas the thoughts of spirits have light, they -shine upon men capable of receiving them, they need not verbs [Sidenote: -C] or nouns, those symbols whereby men in their intercourse with men see -resemblances and images of the things thought, yet never apprehend the -things themselves, save only those upon whom, as we have said, there -shines from within a peculiar and spiritual light. And yet what we see -happen in the case of the voice may partly reassure the incredulous. The -air is impressed with articulate sounds, it becomes all word and voice, -and brings the meaning home to the soul of the hearer. Therefore we need -not wonder if, in regard to this special mode of thought also, the air -is sensitive to the touch of higher beings, and is so modified as to -convey to the mind of godlike and extraordinary men the thought of him -who thought it. For as the strokes of miners[42] are caught on brazen -shields because of the reverberation, [Sidenote: D] when they rise from -below ground and fall upon them, whereas falling on any other surface -they are indistinct and pass to nothing, even so the words of spirits -pass through all Nature, but only sound for those who possess the soul -in untroubled calm, holy and spiritual men as we emphatically call them. -The view of most people is that spiritual visitations come to men in -sleep; that they should be similarly stirred when awake and in their -full faculties they think marvellous and beyond belief. As though a -musician were thought to use his lyre when the strings are let down, and -not to touch or use it when it is strung up and tuned! They do not see -the cause, their [Sidenote: E] own inner tunelessness and discord, from -which Socrates our friend had been set free, as the oracle given to his -father when he was yet a boy declared. For it bade him allow his son to -do whatever came into his mind; not to force nor direct his goings, but -to let his impulse have free play, only to pray for him to Zeus Agoraios -and to the Muses, but for all else not to meddle with Socrates; meaning -no doubt that he had within him a guide for [Sidenote: F] his life who -was better than ten thousand teachers and directors. - -XXI. This, Pheidolaus, is what has occurred to me to think about the -Divine Sign of Socrates, in his lifetime and since his death, dismissing -with contempt those who have suggested voices or sneezings or anything -of that sort. But what I have heard Timarchus of Chaeroneia relate on -this head it may perhaps be better to pass over in silence, as more like -myth than history. ‘Not at all;’ said Theocritus, ‘let us have it all. -Even myth touches truth, not too closely, perhaps, but it does touch it -at points. But first, who was this Timarchus? Explain, for I do not know -him.’ ‘Naturally, Theocritus,’ [Sidenote: 590] said Simmias, ‘for he -died quite young, having begged that he might be buried near Lamprocles, -the son of Socrates, who had died a few days before, his own friend and -contemporary. He then greatly wished to know what was really meant by -the Divine Sign of Socrates, and so, like a generous youth fresh to the -taste of Philosophy, having taken no one but Cebes and myself into his -plan, went down into the cave of Trophonius, after performing the usual -rites of the oracle. Two nights and one day he remained below; and when -most people had given him up, and his family was mourning for [Sidenote: -B] him, at early dawn he came up very radiant. He knelt to the God, then -made his way at once through the crowd, and related to us many wonderful -things which he had seen and heard. - -XXII. ‘He said that, when he descended into the oracular chamber, he -first found himself in a great darkness; then, after a prayer, lay a -long while not very clearly conscious whether he was awake or dreaming; -only he fancied that his head received a blow, while a dull noise fell -on his ears, and then the sutures parted and allowed his soul to issue -forth. As it passed upwards, rejoicing to mingle with the pure -transparent air, it appeared [Sidenote: C] first to draw a long deep -breath, after its narrow compression, and to become larger than before, -like a sail as it is filled out. Then he heard dimly a whirring noise -overhead out of which came a sweet voice. He looked up and saw land -nowhere, only islands shining with lambent fire, from time to time -changing colour with one another, as though it were a coat of dye, while -the light became spangled in the transition. They appeared to be -countless in number and in size enormous, not all equal but all alike -circular. He thought that as these moved around there was an answering -hum of the air, for the gentleness of [Sidenote: D] that voice which was -harmonized out of all corresponded to the smoothness of the motion. -Through the midst of the islands a sea or lake was interfused, all -shining with the colours as they were commingled over its grey surface. -Some few islands floated in a straight course and were conveyed across -the current; many others were drawn on by the flood, being almost -submerged. The sea was of great depth in some parts towards the south, -but [northwards[43]] there were very shallow reaches, and it often swept -over places and then left them dry, having no strong [Sidenote: E] ebb. -The colour was in places pure as that of the open sea, in others turbid -and marsh-like. As the islands passed through the surf they never came -round to their starting-point again or described a circle, but slightly -varied the points of impact, thus describing a continuous spiral as they -went round. The sea was inclined to the approximate middle and highest -part of the encompassing firmament by a little less than eight-ninths of -the whole, as it appeared to him. It had two openings which [Sidenote: -F] received rivers of fire pouring in from opposite sides, so that it -was lashed into foam, and its grey surface was turned to white. This he -saw, delighted at the spectacle; but as he turned his eyes downwards, -there appeared a chasm, vast and round as though hewn out of a sphere; -it was strangely terrible and deep and full of utter darkness, not in -repose but often agitated and surging up; from which were heard roarings -innumerable and groanings of beasts, and wailings of innumerable -infants, and with these mingled cries of men and women, dim sounds of -all sorts, and turmoils sent up indistinctly from the distant depth, -[Sidenote: 591] to his no small consternation. Time passed, and an -unseen person said to him, “Timarchus, what do you wish to learn?” -“Everything,” he replied, “for all is wonderful.” “We”, the voice said, -“have little to do with the regions above, they belong to other Gods; -but the province of Persephone which we administer, being one of the -four which Styx bounds, you may survey if you will.” To his question, -“What is Styx?” “A way to Hades,” was the reply, “and it passes right -opposite, parting the light at its very vertex, but reaching up, as you -see, from Hades below; where it touches the light in its revolution -[Sidenote: B] it marks off the remotest region of all. Now, there are -four first principles of all things, the first of life, the second of -motion, the third of birth, the fourth of death. The first is linked to -the second by Unity, in the Unseen: the second to the third by Mind, in -the sun: the third to the fourth by Nature, in the moon. Over each of -these combinations a Fate, daughter of Necessity, presides, and holds -the keys; of the first Atropus, of the second, Clotho, of the one -belonging to the moon Lachesis, and the turning-point of birth is there. -For the other islands contain Gods, but the moon, which belongs to -[Sidenote: C] earthly spirits, only avoids Styx by a slight elevation, -and is caught once in one hundred and seventy-seven secondary -measures[44]. As Styx moves upon her, the souls cry aloud in terror; for -many slip from off her and are caught by Hades. Others the moon bears -upwards from below, as they turn towards her; and for these death -coincides with the moment of birth, those excepted which are guilty and -impure, and which are not allowed to approach her while she lightens and -bellows fearfully; mourning for their own fate they slip away and are -borne downwards for another birth, as you see.” “But I see [Sidenote: D] -nothing,” said Timarchus, “save many stars quivering around the gulf, -others sinking into it, others, again, darting up from below.” “Then you -see the spirits themselves,” the voice said, “though you do not know it. -It is thus: every soul partakes of mind, there is none irrational or -mindless; but so much of soul as is mingled with flesh and with -affections is altered and turned towards the irrational by its sense of -pleasures and pains. But the mode of mingling is not the same for every -soul. Some are merged entirely into body, and are disturbed by passions -throughout their whole being during life. Others [Sidenote: E] are in -part mixed up with it, but leave outside their purest part, which is not -drawn in, but is like a life-buoy which floats on the surface, and -touches the head of one who has sunk into the depth, the soul clinging -around it and being kept upright, while so much of it is supported as -obeys and is not overmastered by the affections. The part which is borne -below the surface within the body is called soul. That which is left -free from dissolution most persons call mind, taking it to be something -inside themselves, resembling the reflected images in mirrors; but those -who are rightly informed know that it is outside themselves and address -it as spirit. The stars, Timarchus,” the voice went on, “which you see -extinguished, you are to [Sidenote: F] think of as souls entirely merged -in bodies; those which give light again and shine from below upwards, -shaking off, as though it were mud, a sort of gloom and dimness, are -those which sail up again out of their bodies after death; those which -are parted upwards are spirits, and belong to men who are said to have -understanding. Try to see clearly in each the bond by which it coheres -with soul.” Hearing this, he paid closer attention himself, and saw the -stars tossing about, some less, some more, as we see the corks which -mark out nets in the sea move over its surface; but some, like the -shuttles used in [Sidenote: 592] weaving, in entangled and irregular -figures, not able to settle the motion into a straight line. The voice -said that those who kept a straight and orderly movement were men whose -souls had been well broken in by fair nurture and training, and did not -allow their irrational part to be too harsh and rough. Those which often -inclined upwards and downwards in an irregular and confused manner, like -horses plunging off from a halter, were [Sidenote: B] fighting against -the yoke with tempers disobedient and ill-trained for want of education; -sometimes getting the mastery and swerving round to the right; again -bent by passions and drawn on to share in sins, then again resisting and -putting force upon them. The coupling bond, like a curb set on the -irrational part of the soul whenever it resists, brings on repentance, -as we call it, for sins, and shame for all lawless and intemperate -pleasures, being really a pain and a stroke inflicted by it on the soul -when it is bitted by that which masters and rules it, until at length, -being thus punished, it becomes obedient to the rein [Sidenote: C] and -familiar with it, and then, like a tame creature, without blow or pain, -understands the spirit quickly by signs and hints. These then are led, -late in the day and by slow degrees, to their duty. Out of those who are -docile and obedient to their spirit from the first birth, is formed the -prophetic and inspired class, to which belonged the soul of -Hermodorus[45] of Clazomenae, of which you have surely heard; how it -would leave the body entirely and wander over a wide range by night and -by day, and [Sidenote: D] then come back again, having been present -where many things were said and done far off, until the enemy found the -body, which his wife had betrayed, left at home deserted by its soul, -and burnt it. Now this part is not true; the soul used not to go out -from the body; but by always yielding to the spirit, and slackening the -coupling-band, he gave it constant liberty to range around, so that it -saw and heard and reported many things from the world outside. But those -who destroyed the body while he was asleep are paying the penalty in -Tartarus unto [Sidenote: E] this day. All this, young man, you shall -know more clearly in the third month from this; now begone!” When the -voice ceased, Timarchus wished to turn round, he said, and see who the -speaker was; but his head again ached violently, as though forcibly -compressed, and he could no longer hear or perceive anything passing -about him; afterwards, however, he came to [Sidenote: F] by degrees, and -saw that he was lying in the cave of Trophonius, near the entrance where -he had originally sunk down. - -XXIII. ‘Such was the tale of Timarchus. When he died, having returned to -Athens in the third month after hearing the voice, and when, in our -wonder, we told Socrates of the story, he blamed us for not reporting it -while Timarchus was still alive, since he would gladly have heard it -more clearly from himself, and have questioned him further. There, -Theocritus, you have all, tale and theory both. But perhaps we ought to -invite the stranger to join our inquiry; the subject comes nearly home -to inspired men.’ ‘Well, but’, the stranger answered, ‘Epaminondas, who -puts out from the same port, is not contributing his opinion.’ Our -father smiled: ‘That is just his character, Sir. Silent and cautious in -speaking, but a glutton for learning and listening. That is why -Spintharus of Tarentum, after spending no little time with him here, is -always saying, as you know, that he never met [Sidenote: 593] any man of -his own standing who knew more or who spoke less. So pray let us have -all your own thoughts on the subject.’ - -XXIV. ‘Then, for my part,’ said Theanor, ‘I think that the story of -Timarchus ought to be dedicated to the God, as holy and inviolable. But -it will be strange to me if any shall be found to discredit what Simmias -tells us about the matter; thus, while they designate swans, serpents, -dogs and horses as sacred, refusing to believe that men may be godlike -and friends of God, yet holding that God is not a friend of birds but a -friend of man. As, then, a man who loves horses does not care equally -for all individuals which make the class, but always picks out and -separates [Sidenote: B] some excellent member of the class, and trains -him by himself and feeds him and loves him beyond others; so it is with -ourselves; the higher powers extract, if the word may pass, the best out -of the herd, and deem them worthy of a very special training, directing -their course, not by reins nor by halters, but by reason, through signs -utterly incomprehensible to the general herd. Why, most dogs do not -understand the signals used in hunting, nor most horses those used in -the manège; but those who have learned know at once from a whistle or a -chirrup what they are required to do, and easily take the right -position. Homer clearly knows the distinction [Sidenote: C] to which I -refer. Some of his prophets he calls “readers of dreams” and “priests”, -others understand the conversation of the Gods themselves, he thinks, by -sympathy, and signify the future to us. For instance: - - _Thus they conferred: but Helenus, Priam’s son, - That scheme, which pleased them, in his heart divined._[46] - -And again: - - _So the everlasting voice I have heard and known._[47] - -The mind of kings and generals is made known to outsiders through the -senses, by special beacons or proclamation, or calls on the trumpet; and -so the divine message reaches few of us in and [Sidenote: D] through -itself, and that rarely; for ordinary men signals are employed and these -are the groundwork of what we call divination. The Gods, then, regulate -life only for a few, for those whom they wish to make blessed in a -single degree, and truly divine; but souls released from coming to the -birth, and now for ever at rest from a body, and dismissed into freedom, -are spirits who care for men, in Hesiod’s sense. For as athletes, when -age has brought them an end of training, do not wholly lose the spirit -of competition or of care for the body, but delight to see others in -practice, and cheer them on and run beside them, so [Sidenote: E] those -who have ceased from the struggles of life, made spirits because of the -excellence of their soul, do not utterly despise our earthly affairs, -our discussions and our interests: they have a kindly feeling for those -training with the same end before them, they share their eagerness for -virtue, encourage them, and join them in their bursts, whenever they see -them running with hope near at hand and already within touch. For the -spirit does not help [Sidenote: F] all men as they come. It is as with -swimmers upon the sea; spectators on the shore merely gaze in silence on -those who are out in the open, drifting far from land; whereas they run -along the beach towards those who are already nearing it, they dash in -to meet them, and with hand, and voice, and endeavour, hasten to the -rescue. Such, Simmias, is the way of a spirit; while we are dipped -beneath the tides of life, changing body for body, like relays on a -road, he allows us to struggle out for ourselves, to be brave and -patient, to try by our own virtue to reach the harbour in safety. But -when any soul through a myriad of births has striven once and again a -long-drawn strife well and stoutly, and when, with the cycle now -wellnigh complete, it [Sidenote: 594] takes the risks, and sets its hope -high, as it nears the landing-place, and presses upwards with sweat and -endeavour, the God thinks it no wrong that its own spirit should go to -the help of such a soul, but lets zeal go free, and the Gods are zealous -to encourage and to save, one this soul and one that. The soul hearkens -because it is so near, and it is saved; but if it does not hearken the -spirit leaves it, and its happy chance is gone.’ - -XXV. As he finished, Epaminondas looked at me. ‘It is nearly your time, -Capheisias, to go to the gymnasium and not fail your comrades; we will -take care of Theanor, and break up [Sidenote: B] our conference whenever -he likes.’ ‘Let us do so,’ I said, ‘but I think Theocritus here wants a -few words with you while Galaxidorus and I are present.’ ‘By all means’, -said he; he rose and led the way to the angle of the portico. We stood -round and tried to encourage him to join the scheme. He answered that he -perfectly well knew the day of the return of the exiles, and had -arranged with Gorgidas as to all that was necessary for our friends, but -that he refused to take the life of any citizen without trial, unless -there were an urgent necessity; also, looking to the body of the -Thebans, it was specially convenient that there should be some person -with hands clean [Sidenote: C] and beyond suspicion, when the time -should come to advise the people for the best. We agreed, and he -returned at once to Simmias and his party. We went down to the gymnasium -and met our friends, and, pairing off for wrestling matches, exchanged -information and plans for action. We saw also Archias and Philippus, -anointed and starting for the supper. For Phyllidas, [Sidenote: D] -fearing that they might put Amphitheus to death first, called on Archias -immediately after he had escorted Lysanoridas, and by suggesting hopes -that the lady he desired to meet would come to the place, persuaded him -to turn his mind to having a good time with the usual companions of his -revels. - -XXVI. It was now getting late, and the cold was intense, as the wind had -got up. Most people had therefore made for their homes more quickly than -usual. We had fallen in with Damocleidas, Pelopidas, and Theopompus, and -were taking them with us, as others took others of the exiles. For the -party had broken up immediately after crossing Cithaeron; and the bitter -[Sidenote: E] weather allowed them to muffle up their faces and pass -through the city in security. Some of them were met by a lightning flash -on the right without thunder, as they entered through the gates; and the -sign seemed favourable for safety and glory, with a bright issue to -follow and no danger. - -XXVII. So when we were all inside, two short of fifty, while Theocritus -was sacrificing by himself in an outbuilding, there was a loud knocking -at the door; and presently some one came in to say that two servants of -Archias, sent on an urgent message to Charon, were knocking at the -courtyard gate and calling for it to [Sidenote: F] be opened, and were -angry at the slowness of the response. Charon was much disturbed, and -gave orders to open to them at once, while he himself went to meet them, -the crown on his head showing that he had sacrificed and was at his -wine, and asked the messengers what they wanted. One of them replied: -‘Archias and Philippus sent us, you are to come to them as quickly as -you can.’ When Charon asked, ‘What is the reason of this hasty summons, -and is there anything new?’ ‘We know nothing further,’ answered the -messenger, ‘but what shall we tell them?’ ‘This, by Zeus,’ said Charon, -‘that as soon as I have put off this crown and got my cloak, I will -follow you. For, if I go straight off with you, there will be an alarm; -people will think that I am in [Sidenote: 595] custody.’ ‘Do so,’ they -said, ‘for we too have orders to convey from the magistrates to the -guard of the lower city.’ So they went off. When Charon came in and told -us this, we were all aghast, thinking we had been betrayed. Most of us -were inclined to suspect Hippostheneidas; he had tried to hinder the -return by sending Chlidon, and when that failed and the dread moment was -upon us, he had used his plausible tongue to betray the scheme, out of -fear; for he did not come with the rest into the house, but the whole -impression he gave us was of a coward and turncoat. However, we all -thought that Charon ought to go, and obey the [Sidenote: B] summons of -the magistrates. He ordered his son to come in, the handsomest boy in -Thebes, Archidamus, and the most painstaking in his gymnastics; barely -fifteen, but in strength and size far above others of his age. -‘Gentlemen,’ he said, ‘he is my only one, and, as you know, I love him -dearly; I place him in your hands, and charge you in the name of the -Gods, and in the name of the spirits, if I should appear a traitor to -your cause, slay him, and spare us not. For the rest, my gallant -friends, set yourselves to meet the event; do not give in like shabby -cowards, or allow this scum to slay your bodies; defend yourselves, keep -your souls [Sidenote: C] above defeat, they are our country’s!’ As -Charon said this, we were wondering at his spirit and noble heart, -though indignant at his idea of suspicion on our part, and bade him take -the boy away. ‘More than that, Charon,’ said Pelopidas, ‘we think that -you have not been well advised in that you have not already removed your -son to another house. What need for him to run our risks if taken with -us? You must send him away even now, so that, if anything happen to us, -one noble nursling may be left to be our avenger on the tyrants.’ ‘Not -so;’ said Charon, ‘here he shall stay and share your risks; for, even in -his interest, it is not [Sidenote: D] good that he should fall into the -enemy’s hands. But you, my boy, be daring beyond your years, taste the -struggles which must come, take risks with our many brave countrymen in -the cause of freedom and valour; much hope still is left, and I think -that a God is surely watching over us in our contest for the right.’ - -XXVIII. Tears came to many of us, Archidamus, at the words of Charon. -Dry-eyed himself and unmoved, he placed his son in the hands of -Pelopidas, and made his way through the doors with a word of greeting -and encouragement for each of us. Even more would you have admired the -bright and fearless bearing of the boy himself in the peril. Like -Neoptolemus,[48] he showed no [Sidenote: E] paleness or alarm, but drew -the sword of Pelopidas and seemed to study it. In the meantime, -Diotonus, a friend of Cephisodorus, came in to us, sword in hand, and -wearing a steel breastplate under his clothes; and when we told him of -Charon being sent for by Archias, blamed us for losing time, and -implored us to go straight to the houses, where we should be upon them -before they were ready; failing that, it would be better, he said, to go -out into the open and form our parties there out of the scattered and -uncombined units, rather than shut ourselves up in a chamber [Sidenote: -F] and wait like a swarm of bees to be cut out by the enemy. The prophet -Theocritus added his urgent appeal; his victims showed a clear and good -result, and assured him of safety. - -XXIX. While we were arming and making arrangements, Charon reappeared, -his face radiant. Smiling as he looked at us, he bade us take heart; -there was no danger and the business was moving on. ‘Archias’, he said, -‘and Philippus, when they heard [Sidenote: 596] that I had obeyed their -summons, were already heavy with drink, sodden alike in body and mind; -it was all they could do to stand upon their feet and move out towards -the door. When Archias said: “Charon, we hear that exiles have passed -into the city and are being concealed”, I was not a little troubled. -“Where are they said to be?” I asked, “and who are they?” “We do not -know,” replied Archias, “and therefore ordered you to come, on the -chance that you might have heard something more certain.” I took a -moment to recover my senses, as if after a blow, and began to put things -together. The information given could be no substantial story; the plot -had not been betrayed by any of those privy to it; for the tyrants could -not be in ignorance as to [Sidenote: B] the house if their information -came from any person with real knowledge; it must be merely a suspicion -or some indefinite rumour circulating in the city which had reached -them. So I answered: “I remember that in the lifetime of Androcleidas -there were often reports of the kind floating idly about and causing us -annoyance. But at the present time, Archias,” I went on, “I have heard -nothing of the sort; however, I will inquire into the story, if you so -desire, and, if I hear anything worth attention, you shall not fail to -know.” “By all means,” said Phyllidas, “look well into this matter and -leave no stone unturned. What is to prevent us? We must think nothing -beneath our notice, but must take all precautions and pay attention. -Forethought is good; safety is good!” As he said [Sidenote: C] this, he -took Archias by the arm and led him off into the house where they are -drinking. ‘Now, friends,’ he went on, ‘no delay for us, a prayer to the -Gods, and forth we go!’ When Charon had said this, we spent a while in -prayer and mutual encouragement. - -XXX. It was now the hour at which people are mostly at supper; the wind -was still rising and drove beneath it snow with drizzle, so that the -narrow streets were quite empty as we made our way through them. The -party told off against Leontides and Hypates, who lived near one -another, went out cloaked and carrying no arms but a sword apiece (among -[Sidenote: D] these were Pelopidas, Damocleidas, and Cephisodorus). -Charon, Melon, and the rest who were to attack Archias, wore -half-cuirasses, and thick wreaths, some of firwood, some of pine. Some -were in women’s tunics, which gave the effect of a drinking procession -with women. But our ill-fortune, Archidamus, which set all the weakness -and ignorance of the enemy on a level with all our daring and -preparation, and chequered our action from the outset with perilous -episodes like a stage play, met us at [Sidenote: E] the moment of -action, and sharp and terrible was the crisis with its dramatic -surprise. Charon, having satisfied Archias and Philippus, had returned -home and was putting us through our parts, when there came a letter from -this city; it was from Archias the priest to Archias of Thebes, an old -friend and guest, it would seem, with full news of the return and plot -of the exiles, of the house [Sidenote: F] to which they had repaired, -and of those who were acting with them. Archias was by this time -drenched with wine, and excited about the expected arrival of the -ladies; he took the letter, but when the bearer said that it was -addressed to him about certain urgent business: “Then urgent business -to-morrow!” he said, and thrust the letter under his head cushion; then -he asked for a cup, kept calling for wine, the whole time ordering -Phyllidas to go out to the door and see whether the women were near. - -XXXI. As they had beguiled their drinking with this hope, we joined the -company, and pushing our way through the servants to the banqueting hall -stood a short time at the door looking [Sidenote: 597] at each of the -party. Our crowns and dress and make-up, while apologizing for our -presence, caused a silence: but as soon as Melon rushed first up the -hall, his hand upon his sword-hilt, Cabirichus, the appointed president, -plucked him by the arm as he passed, and shouted out, ‘Phyllidas, is not -this Melon?’ Melon shook off his grasp, drawing his sword as he did so, -then, rushing upon Archias as with difficulty he found his feet, struck -and struck till he had killed him. Philippus received a neck wound from -Charon; he tried to defend himself with the drinking-cups [Sidenote: B] -which were near his hand, but Lysitheus threw him off the couch to the -ground and slew him. We tried to pacify Cabirichus, imploring him not to -assist the tyrants, but to join in our country’s deliverance, -remembering that he was a holy person and consecrated to the Gods for -her sake. As, however, from the wine he had taken, it was not easy to -carry his thoughts to the proper course, while he stood excited and -confused, and kept presenting the point of his spear (customarily worn -by our magistrates at all times), I myself seized it at the middle and -swung it over his head, crying to him to let go and save himself, or he -would be wounded. But Theopompus, standing near him [Sidenote: C] on the -right, struck him with his sword, and said: ‘Lie there with those whom -thou hast been flattering; never mayest thou wear a crown in a free -Thebes, nor sacrifice any longer to the Gods, in whose names thou hast -often called down curses on our country, and prayers for her enemies!’ -When Cabirichus was down, Theocritus, who was with us, snatched the -sacred spear out of the wound; and we slew a few of the servants who -ventured on resistance, while we shut up in the hall those who behaved -quietly, not wishing them to slip away and spread news of what had -happened, before we knew whether things had gone [Sidenote: D] well with -our comrades also. - -XXXII. Their history was this. Pelopidas and his party quietly -approached the courtyard door of Leontides, and told the servant who -answered their knock that they had come from Athens with letters for -Leontides from Callistratus. When he had given the message and received -orders to open, and had removed the bar and set the door a little ajar, -they burst in in a body, upset the man, and charged on through the court -to the bedroom of Leontides. His suspicions carrying him at once to the -truth he drew his dagger and rushed to defend himself; an unjust and -tyrannical man he was, but of sturdy courage and a [Sidenote: E] -powerful fighter. However, he did not make up his mind to throw down the -torch and close with the attacking party in the dark; but in the light, -and in their full view, as soon as they began to open the door, he smote -Cephisodorus on the groin, and closed with Pelopidas next, shouting -loudly all the time to call the attendants. These were held in check by -Samidas’ party, not venturing to come to blows with some of the best -known and bravest men in Thebes. Pelopidas and Leontides had to fight it -[Sidenote: F] out; it was a sword duel in the doorway of the chamber, a -narrow one, in the middle of which lay Cephisodorus, fallen and dying, -so that the others could not come in to the rescue. At last our man, -having received a slight wound in the head and having given many, and -thrown Leontides down, ran him through over the still warm body of -Cephisodorus. The latter saw the enemy falling, and placed his hand in -that of Pelopidas, saluted the others, and cheerfully breathed his last. -Leaving them, they turned against Hypates, and the door having been -opened to them there, in the same way, they cut him down while trying to -escape over a roof to the neighbours. - -[Sidenote: 598] XXXIII. Thence they hastened towards us, joining us -outside, near the Polystyle. After mutual greetings and talk, we -proceeded to the prison. Phyllidas called the head jailer out and said: -‘Archias and Philippus order you to bring Amphitheus to them at once.’ -He, remarking the strangeness of the hour, and that Phyllidas did not -seem composed as he spoke to him, but hot from the struggle and excited, -saw through our artifice: ‘When did the Polemarchs send for a prisoner -at such an hour, [Sidenote: B] Phyllidas,’ he asked, ‘and when by you? -What password do you bring?’ As he was speaking, Phyllidas, who carried -a cavalry lance, drove it through his ribs and brought the scoundrel to -the ground, where he was trampled and spat upon the next day by a number -of women. We burst open the doors of the prison, and called on the -prisoners by name; first Amphitheus, then our acquaintances among the -others. As they recognized the voices they leapt up from their pallet -beds, dragging their chains, while those whose feet were fast in the -stocks stretched out their hands, shouting and imploring us not to leave -them behind. As these were being released, many of those who lived near -came up, perceiving [Sidenote: C] what was going on and delighting in -it. The women, as soon as each heard about her own relation, dropped -Boeotian habits, and ran out to one another, asking questions from the -men who met them. Those who found their own fathers or husbands -followed, and no one tried to hinder them, for all who met them were -deeply affected by pity for the men, and by the tears and prayers of -modest women. - -XXXIV. While things were thus, learning that Epaminondas [Sidenote: D] -and Gorgidas were already forgathering with our friends near the temple -of Athena, I took my way to join them. Many loyal citizens had already -arrived, and more kept pouring in. When I had told them in detail the -story of what had happened, and while I was imploring them to rally to -the market-place, all agreed to summon the citizens at once ‘For -Liberty!’ The crowds now forming up found arms to their hand in the -warehouses full of spoils from all lands and in the factories of the -swordmakers living near. Hippostheneidas had also arrived with friends -and servants, bringing the trumpeters, who had, as it happened, been -quartered in the town for the feast of Hercules. All at once they began -to sound calls, some in the market-place, [Sidenote: E] others -elsewhere, from every direction, to cause a panic among the other side, -and make them think that the rising was general. Some lighted smoky -fires[49] and so escaped to the Cadmeia, drawing with them also the -aristocrats, so called, who were accustomed to pass the night on the low -ground near the fortress. Those who were above, seeing this disorderly -and confused stream of incomers, and ourselves about the market-place, -no quiet anywhere, but indistinct noise and bustle rising up to them -from all quarters, never made up their minds to come down, though there -were some five thousand of them. They [Sidenote: F] thoroughly lost -their heads in the danger, and Lysanoridas was a mere excuse: they -professed to wait for his return, which was due that day. In -consequence, he was afterwards sentenced to a heavy fine by the -Lacedaemonian senate. Herippidas and Arcesus were arrested at Corinth -later on and put to death. The Cadmeia was evacuated by them and -surrendered to us under treaty, and the garrison withdrawn. - -Footnote 20: - - See, however, an article by Mr. R. F. Macnaghten in the _Classical - Review_ of September 1914 (vol. 28, p. 185 foll.). - -Footnote 21: - - _Isthm._ 1, 2. - -Footnote 22: - - So C. F. Hermann (ap. Ed. Teub.) for δυσί τῶν ἱερῶν. - -Footnote 23: - - Here several words of the text have been lost. - -Footnote 24: - - Many words have been lost (three separate lacunae). - -Footnote 25: - - Reading διεκώλυεν for διακούων. - -Footnote 26: - - Supplying προσδοκῶν, as Ed. Teub. - -Footnote 27: - - Many words are here lost, to the general effect of those in the - brackets. - -Footnote 28: - - i. e. each of the four sides of each of the six faces. The Greek word - for ‘side’ and ‘face’ is the same. - -Footnote 29: - - This problem (mentioned by Plutarch also in the _E at Delphi_, see p. - 63) was in fact solved by Menaechmus, a pupil of Eudoxus, through - Conic Sections, and also by Archytas, whose method is much more - elaborate. See Preface, p. xiv. - -Footnote 30: - - _Il._ 10, 279; _Od._ 13, 300-1. - -Footnote 31: - - _Il._ 20, 95. - -Footnote 32: - - συμπιέσας for the MSS. reading συμπείσας (Reiske). - -Footnote 33: - - πταρμὸς ἤ (Ed. Teub.), for ἐφαρμόσει, is attractive, but it seems - better not to anticipate the word. - -Footnote 34: - - ἐπὶ ῥειτοῖς is K. O. Müller’s reading for ἐπὶ ρητις της of the MSS. - See Wordsworth’s _Athens and Attica_, p. 9. - -Footnote 35: - - Fr. 284 (the well-known fragment of the _Autolycus_ about Athletes) l. - 22. - -Footnote 36: - - Cp. _Od._ 1, 170, &c. - -Footnote 37: - - _Od._ 1, 27. - -Footnote 38: - - See _Life of Nicias_, c. 3. - -Footnote 39: - - Aeschylus, _Prometheus_, 545. - -Footnote 40: - - Cp. Bacchylides, Fr. 37 (_Life of Numa_, c. 4): ‘Broad is the road’, - i. e. ‘there is room for divergent opinions.’ - -Footnote 41: - - Compare _Life of Coriolanus_, c. 32, p. 229, with this difficult - passage. - -Footnote 42: - - Of the participle so translated only the termination remains. Reiske’s - μεταλλευόντων well completes this fine image. - -Footnote 43: - - This word is not in the Greek text. - -Footnote 44: - - See note on the Myths of Plutarch, p. 315. - -Footnote 45: - - Lucian (Musc. Encom. c. 7) tells the same story of Hermodorus. - Plutarch has probably made a slip, as elsewhere, in names. See p. 99. - -Footnote 46: - - _Il._ 7, 44-5. - -Footnote 47: - - l. 53. - -Footnote 48: - - i. e. in the Wooden Horse, _Od._ 11, 526-32. - -Footnote 49: - - Perhaps rather ‘the Laconizing party’, as the Teubner editor suggests. - - - - - THREE PYTHIAN DIALOGUES - - - INTRODUCTION - - -The three Dialogues of Plutarch entitled: - - I. On the E at Delphi, - - II. Why the Pythia does not now give her Oracles in Verse, - - III. On the cessation of the Oracles, - -may be conveniently treated as a group, and assumed to be a collection -of those ‘Pythian Dialogues’ which the author sent to his friend -Serapion. I and II certainly are so, III has a separate dedication. -Other Dialogues, e. g. that on _Delays in Divine Punishment_, are also -records of conversations which took place at Delphi; but these three are -concerned with questions suggested by the temple and prophetic office of -Apollo, as to which they give much curious information. If they leave us -unsatisfied as to matters of still deeper interest, and tell us nothing -about the policy of Delphi in the Persian wars, the counsel given to -Orestes, which is fiercely controversial matter, or the popular feeling -towards the oracle represented in the _Ion_ of Euripides, this is only -what we learn to put up with in reading Greek books. Indeed it is of a -piece with the purposes imputed to Apollo himself, who sets us problems -but does not supply their solution. ‘The king whose oracle is in Delphi -neither tells nor conceals, but signifies.’ - -We have few indications of date, or of mutual relations between the -three Dialogues. I is based upon the author’s recollection of a -conversation which took place ‘a long time ago’, about A. D. 66, the -date of Nero’s visit to Greece. A principal speaker is Ammonius the -Peripatetic philosopher of Lamprae, Plutarch’s instructor, who also -speaks, with the same authority, in III. In II, Serapion, the Athenian -poet, to whom the collection is dedicated in I, takes a leading part. -Theon, a literary friend, who appears frequently in the _Symposiacs_ and -in the _Face in the Moon_ comes into I and II. An interesting person is -Demetrius of Tarsus, another literary friend, who, in III, has just -returned from Britain, and who has been probably identified with -‘Demetrius the Scribe’, named on two bronze tablets found at York, and -now in the York Museum (see _Hermes_, vol. 46, p. 156). The year of -Callistratus at Delphi, which marks the date of III, is conjecturally -fixed as A. D. 83-4 (see Pontow in _Philologus_ for 1895, and cp. -_Sympos._ vii. 5). As Agricola’s term of office ended in A. D. 84 or 85, -Demetrius may have served under him. The general tranquillity of the -world depicted in III hardly gives us much to build upon. - -In I Plutarch and his brother Lamprias are both speakers. Lamprias -appears in his usual character, a good companion, light-hearted and -reckless; Plutarch speaks gravely and at length, and the debate is -closed by Ammonius. In III Lamprias, Plutarch not being named, speaks -gravely throughout, and, on the suggestion of Ammonius, closes the -debate. In II, neither brother is named, and the last speaker is Theon. - -In the Symposiac Dialogues one or other brother is usually present, -sometimes both. In the _Face in the Moon_ Lamprias alone takes part, and -he acts as moderator. - -It is not easy to interpret these facts. M. Gréard concludes that -Lamprias died early. If so, was the name, which was borne by the -grandfather and by one of the sons, transferred, for literary purposes, -to Plutarch himself? M. Chenevière, in his pleasant essay on Plutarch’s -friends (a Latin prize dissertation) suggests that, under whatever name, -the leading speaker always conveys Plutarch’s own views. - -Certain topics recur in this series of Dialogues. Thus the problem as to -the meaning of the E at Delphi, which is the main subject of I, is -glanced at, with some impatience, by Philippus the historian in III. - -The identification of Apollo with the sun, dismissed at the end of I as -a mere beautiful fancy, is questioned again in III and allowed to stand -over as unsettled. It is touched upon in II, c. 12. - -The hypothesis of a plurality of worlds, brought forward by Plutarch in -I. c. 11, with special reference to the views of Plato in the _Timaeus_, -reappears, again in connexion with the five regular solids, in III. - -It may be noticed that Plutarch was not, at the date of the conversation -narrated in I, a priest of the temple (see c. 16). - -Much of the matter of III reappears, with little variety of substance, -in the _Face in the Moon_, the attack on Aristotle’s theory of the -distribution of matter in the one corresponding to that upon the Stoics -in the other, and the accounts of the imprisonment of Cronus by his son -(or Briareus) being almost identical. It is probable that in both -Plutarch has drawn immediately upon Posidonius, and through him from -Xenocrates and others. The question is discussed with great thoroughness -by Dr. Max Adler (_Dissertationes Vindobonenses_, 1910). - -The situation of Delphi is one of extraordinary beauty, as well as -interest: - - Some few miles north-east of the ancient site of Cirrha the - mountainous range of Parnassus shoots out two little spurs towards - the sea, thus locking on three sides an inclined valley, as the - tiers of an ancient circus embrace the arena below. Upon the fourth - side a small river runs, by name the Pleistus, which has forced its - way between the eastern spur and Mount Cirphius, directly south and - opposite; crosses laterally at the foot of the glen; then, sweeping - round in a shining curve, before many leagues unites its waters to - the bay. The descending slope that forms the amphitheatre is broken - by ridges into three terraces, such as the traveller is wont to see - in hilly countries. On the highest rose the sanctuary; below was the - town and the cultivated hollow which poets called the Vale of - Delphi; above all towered the ridges of Parnassus itself,[50] sheer - walls of rock, rising inland towards the summit of the chain, - desolate, grand, and picturesque. Those who stood above the level of - the temple, and turned their gaze toward the south-west, might - perhaps have looked far over to the smiling gulf of Corinth, an - unbroken prospect of well-watered fields. Upon their left was the - famous plane-tree, and the spring of Castalia, whose stream, leaping - down between two rocks, out of a huge cleft that divided them, lost - itself in a dell below, till it fell finally into the Pleistus; and - mounting the rough ascent, just beyond the little torrent, might be - seen the sacred way, which, issuing from the same gorge as the - Pleistus, rounded the flank of the promontory of rock and climbed up - its warm side. Few are the shadows that pass over the valley; - through the long day the southern sun beats down on it, and the - brilliancy of the sky is immortalized in the name which the - inhabitants conferred upon the hills about, of Phaedriades, or - shining cliffs. - - But the property of the temple was not bounded by the extent of the - _view_. Above, on the heights, as far as Ligorea and Tithorea, both - Doric villages—towards the west, beyond the Stadium, and the hill on - which it nestled, to Amphissa and the pasturages along its - stream—all was part of the Ager Apollinis, sacred to the god and to - his priests for ever. - - From the Arnold Prize Essay for 1859, by Charles (afterwards Lord) - Bowen. - -The topographical and archaeological facts to be gathered from -authorities prior to modern excavations are collected by Dr. J. H. -Middleton in the _Journal of Hellenic Studies_ for 1888. The results of -the subsequent work of the French excavators, directed by M. Homolle, -may conveniently be studied in Dr. J. G. Frazer’s Commentary on -Pausanias, Book 10, where the history of the successive temples is -followed out. The dimensions of the temple itself, which stood on a -rocky plateau or terrace, were about 197 feet by 72 feet. The Sacred Way -ran round the temple, and close to it on its northern and western sides, -and was followed by the party described by Plutarch in the second of the -three Dialogues (c. 17) in order to reach the southern steps. - -Footnote 50: - - 8,000 feet above the sea. The Phaedriades rose to about 800 feet. - - - - - I - ON THE ‘E’ AT DELPHI - - - (In the Pronaos of the temple at Delphi the visitor was confronted - by certain inscriptions (γράμματα): ‘Know thyself’—‘Nothing too - much’—‘Go bail and woe is at hand’—all exhortations to wisdom or - prudence (Plato, _Charmides_, 163-4). To these is to be added, on - the sole authority of Plutarch’s Dialogue, the letter E, pronounced - EI.) - -THE SPEAKERS - - AMMONIUS, the Platonist philosopher, Plutarch’s teacher. - LAMPRIAS, Plutarch’s brother. - PLUTARCH. - THEON, a literary friend. - EUSTROPHUS, an Athenian. - NICANDER, a priest of the temple. - -Chap. 1. Dedication to Serapion at Athens. I am sending you, as an -instalment, some of my Pythian Dialogues. What is the problem put before -us by Apollo under the form of the letter E? I had always avoided the -question, but here is a report of a conversation with some visitors, of -whom Ammonius was one, in, or soon after, the year A. D. 66, when Nero -came to Greece. - -2. AMMONIUS was arguing that Apollo propounds subjects for philosophical -inquiry in the ordinances and emblems of his temple, not least in this -letter E. - -3. LAMPRIAS quoted the traditional account, that the Wise Men, who were -properly five, not seven, met here, and, after discussion, set up the -letter E, as a numeral, for a protest against the intrusion of a sixth -and seventh into their company. The ancient wooden E is still called -that of the Wise Men. - -4. AMMONIUS smiled, knowing Lamprias to be capable of improvising a -‘traditional view’. One of the company mentioned a Chaldaean visitor, -who had lately talked much nonsense about the number seven. The -officials of the temple know no view except that the letter is -significant as a word (‘if’ or ‘whether’). - -5. NICANDER confirmed this. ‘If’ is used with us in the formula of -questions put to the god, or, as ‘if only’, in prayers. - -6. THEON puts in a plea for ‘Dialectic’, i.e. Logic. ‘If’ is the -conjunction which holds together the conjunctive proposition or -syllogism, the special prerogative of _human_ intellect. Hercules, in -his early days, mocked at Logic and the E, and then removed the tripod -by force. - -7. EUSTROPHUS: ‘Bravo, Theon, a Hercules, all but the lion’s skin!’ He -appeals to the devotees of Mathematics to say a word for the -arithmetical virtues of the number five (a thrust at Plutarch himself, -who had yet to learn Academic moderation in his zeal for Mathematics). - -8-16. PLUTARCH _loq._: - -8. Yes, five has virtues: 5 = 2 + 3, the first even added to the first -odd. It is called ‘Marriage’. After multiplication it reproduces itself, -and so symbolizes the ‘Conflagration’ and ‘Renovation’ of Heraclitus -(and the Stoics), - -9. Which relate to the legends of Apollo and also of Dionysus. - -10. Five, when multiplied, gives alternately five itself and the perfect -ten. It is also essential in harmonies. - -11. Plato holds that, _if_ there are more worlds than one, there _may_ -be five, and no more. Aristotle that there is one world composed of five -elements, the five regular solids. - -12. The five senses are related to the five elements and the five -solids. - -13. We must not forget Homer, and his five-fold division of the -universe. But, going back: Four dimensions (point, line, plane, solid) -are all very well. But animate being requires a fifth. - -14. The true derivation is not 2 + 3 = 5 but 1 + 4 i.e., unity (which is -itself really a square) _plus_ the first square. - -15. There are five modes of being (see the _Sophist_, and _Philebus_ of -Plato). Some early inquirer saw this, and set up _two_ E’s. - -16. I ask the initiated whether five has not a special virtue in their -mysteries. (‘Yes,’ from NICANDER, ‘but it is a secret.’) Well I must -wait till I become a priest myself. - -17. AMMONIUS, though in sympathy with Mathematics, deprecates too much -exactness. There is much to be said for the number seven. But the ‘E’ is -really something different from all the suggestions. The God greets his -visitors with ‘Know Thyself.’ They answer, THOU ART. - -18. _We_ ‘are’ not at all, but always change from state to state, and so -(says Heraclitus) does all Nature. - -19. In true being is no past, present, or future; our common speech -confesses to our not being. - -20. But God IS, and is rightly addressed as ‘Thou Art’ or ‘Thou Art -One’. - -21. The identification of Apollo with the sun is a beautiful attempt to -grasp the spiritual through the sensible. Not so the stories of his -change into fire, and the like, which are better ascribed to some daemon -than to the God. ‘Know Thyself’ calls us back from these lofty -speculations: ‘Man, know thy nature and its limitations!’ - - - ON THE ‘E’ AT DELPHI - - -I. A day or two ago, dear Serapion, I met with some [Sidenote: 384 D] -rather good lines, addressed, Dicaearchus thinks, to Archelaus by -Euripides:[51] - - _No gifts, my wealthy friend, from humble me; - You’ll think me fool, or think I did but beg._ - -He who out of his narrow store offers trifles to men of great -possessions, confers no favour; no one believes that he gives something -for nothing, and he gets credit for a jealous and ungenerous temper. Now -surely as money presents fall far [Sidenote: E] below those of -literature and learning, so there is beauty in giving these, and beauty -in claiming a return in kind. At any rate, I am sending to you, and so -to my friends down there, some of our Pythian Dialogues, as a sort of -first-fruits; and, in doing so, confess that I expect others from you, -and more and better ones, since you enjoy a great city and abundant -leisure, with many books and discussions of every sort. Well then, our -kind Apollo, in the oracles which he gives his consultants, seems to -[Sidenote: F] solve the problems of life and to find a remedy, while -problems of the intellect he actually suggests and propounds to the born -love of wisdom in the soul, thus implanting an appetite which leads to -truth. Among many other instances, this is made clear as to the -consecration of the letter ‘E’. We may well guess that it was not by -chance, or by lot, that, alone among [Sidenote: 385] the letters, it -received pre-eminence in the God’s house, and took rank as a sacred -offering and a show object. No, the officials of the God in early times, -when they came to speculate, either saw in it a special and -extraordinary virtue, or found it a symbol for something else of serious -importance, and so adopted it. I had often myself avoided the question -and quietly declined it when raised in the school. However, I was lately -surprised by my sons in earnest discussion with certain strangers, who -were just starting from Delphi; it was not decent to put them off with -excuses, they were so anxious to receive some [Sidenote: B] account. We -sat down near the temple, and I began to raise questions with myself, -and to put others to them; and the place, and what they said, reminded -me of a discussion which we heard a long time ago from Ammonius and -others, at the time of Nero’s visit, when the same problem had been -started here in the same way. - -II. That the God is no less philosopher than he is prophet appeared to -all to come out directly from the exposition which Ammonius gave us of -each of his names. He is ‘Pythian’ (The Inquirer) to those who are -beginning to learn and to inquire; ‘Delian’ (The Clear One) and -‘Phanaean’ to those who are already getting something clear and a -glimmering of [Sidenote: C] the truth; ‘Ismenian’ (The Knowing) to those -who possess the knowledge; ‘Leschenorian’ (God of Discourse) when they -are in active enjoyment of dialectical and philosophic intercourse. ‘Now -since’, he continued, ‘Philosophy embraces inquiry, wonder, and doubt, -it seems natural that most of the things relating to the God should have -been hidden away in riddles, and should require some account of their -purpose, and an explanation of cause. For instance, in the case of the -undying fire, why the only woods used here are pine for burning and -laurel for fumigation; again, why two Fates are here installed, whereas -their number is everywhere else taken as three; why no woman is allowed -to approach the place of the oracles; questions about the tripod, and -the rest. These problems, [Sidenote: D] when suggested to persons not -altogether wanting in reason and soul, lure them on, and challenge them -to inquire, to listen, and to discuss. Look again at those inscriptions, -KNOW THYSELF and NOTHING TOO MUCH; how many philosophic inquiries have -they provoked! What a multitude of arguments has sprung up out of each, -as from a seed! Not one of them I think is more fruitful in this way -than the subject of our present inquiry.’ - -III. When Ammonius had said this, my brother Lamprias spoke: ‘After all, -the account which we have heard of the matter is simple enough and quite -short. They say that the famous Wise Men, also called by some -“Sophists”, were [Sidenote: E] properly only five, Chilon, Thales, -Solon, Bias, and Pittacus. But Cleobulus, tyrant of Lindos, and, later -on, Periander of Corinth, men with no wisdom or virtue in them, but -forcing public opinion by influence, friends, and favours, thrust -themselves into the list of the wise, and disseminated through Greece -maxims and sayings resembling the utterances of the five. Then the five -were vexed, but did not choose to expose the imposture, or to have an -open quarrel on the matter of title, and to fight it out with such -powerful persons. They met here [Sidenote: F] by themselves; and after -discussing the matter, dedicated the letter which is fifth in the -alphabet, and also as a numeral signifies five, thus making their own -protest before the God, that they were five, discarding and rejecting -the seventh and the sixth, as having no part or lot with themselves. -That this account is not beside the mark may be recognized by any one -who has heard the officials of the temple naming the golden “E” as that -of Livia the wife of Caesar, the brazen one as that [Sidenote: 386] of -the Athenians, whereas the original and oldest letter, which is of wood, -is to this day called that “Of the Wise Men”, as having been the -offering of all in common, not of anyone of them.’ - -IV. Ammonius gave a quiet smile; he had a suspicion that Lamprias had -been giving us a view of his own, making up history and legend at -discretion. Some one else said that it was like the nonsense which they -had heard from the Chaldaean stranger a day or so before; that there -were seven letters which were vowels, seven stars that have an -independent motion and [Sidenote: B] are unattached to the heavens; -moreover that ‘E’ is the second vowel from the beginning, and the sun -the second planet, after the moon, and that all Greeks, or nearly all, -identify Apollo with the sun. - -‘But all that’, he said, ‘is pernicious nonsense. Lamprias, however, -has, probably without knowing it, made a move[52] which stirs up all who -have to do with the temple against his view. What he told us was unknown -to any of the Delphians; they used to give the regular guides’ account, -that neither the appearance nor the sound of the letter has any -significance, but only the name.’ - -[Sidenote: C] V. ‘No, the Delphic Officials’, said Nicander the priest, -speaking for them, ‘believe that it is a vehicle, a form assumed by the -petition addressed to the God; it has a leading place in the questions -of those who consult him, and inquire, _If_ they shall conquer; _If_ -they shall marry; _If_ it is advisable to sail; _If_ to farm; _If_ to -travel. The God in his wisdom would bow out the dialecticians when they -think that nothing practical comes of the “_If_” part with its clause -attached; he admits as practical, in his sense of the word, all -questions so attached. Then, since it is our personal concern to -question him as prophet, but [Sidenote: D] a general concern to pray to -him as God, they hold that the letter embraces the virtue of prayer no -less than that of inquiry; “O, If I might!” says every one who prays, as -Archilochus,[53] - - If _it might be mine, prevailing, Neobule’s hand to touch_! - -When _If-so-be_ is used, the latter part is dragged in (compare -Sophron’s “Bereaved of children, I trow”, or Homer’s “As I will break -thy might, I trow”[54]). But _If_ gives the sense of prayer -sufficiently.’ - -VI. When Nicander had finished, our friend Theon, whom I am sure you -know, asked Ammonius whether Dialectic might [Sidenote: E] speak freely, -after the insulting remarks to which she had been treated. Ammonius told -him to speak out on her behalf. ‘That the God is a master of Dialectic,’ -Theon said, ‘is shown clearly by most of his oracles; for you will grant -that the solution of puzzles belongs to the same person as their -invention. Again, as Plato used to say, when a response was given that -the altar at Delos should be doubled,[55] a matter requiring the most -advanced geometry, the God was not merely enjoining this, but was also -putting his strong command upon the Greeks to practise geometry. Just -so, when the God puts out ambiguous [Sidenote: F] oracles, he is -exalting and establishing Dialectic, as essential to the right -understanding of himself. You will grant again, that in Dialectic this -conjunctive particle has great force, because it formulates the most -logical of all sentences. This is certainly the “conjunctive”, seeing -that the other animals know the existence of things, but man alone has -been gifted by nature with the power of observing and discerning their -sequence. That “it is day” and “it is light” we may take it that wolves -and dogs and birds perceive. But “if it is day it is light”, is -[Sidenote: 387] intelligible only to man; he alone can apprehend -antecedent and consequent, the enunciation of each and their connexion, -their mutual relation and difference, and it is in these that all -demonstration has its first and governing principle. Since then -Philosophy is concerned with truth, and the light of truth is -demonstration, and the principle of demonstration is the conjunctive -proposition, the faculty which includes and produces this was rightly -consecrated by the wise men to that [Sidenote: B] God who is above all -things a lover of truth. Also, the God is a prophet, and prophetic art -deals with that future which is to come out of things present or things -past. Nothing comes into being without a cause, nothing is known -beforehand without a reason. Things which come into being follow things -which have been, things which are to be follow things which now are -coming into being, all bound in one continuous chain of evolution. -Therefore he who knows how to link causes together into one, and combine -them into a natural process, can also declare beforehand things - - _Which are, which shall be, and which were of old._[56] - -Homer did well in putting the present first, the future next, and the -past last. Inference starts with the present, and works [Sidenote: C] by -the force of the conjunction: “If this is, that was its antecedent”, “If -this is, that will be.” As we have said, the technical and logical -requirement is knowledge of consequence; sense supplies the minor -premiss. Hence, though it may perhaps seem a petty thing to say, I will -not shrink from it; the real tripod of truth is the logical process -which assumes the relation of consequent to antecedent, then introduces -the fact, and so establishes the conclusion. If the Pythian God really -finds pleasure in music, and in the voices of swans, and the [Sidenote: -D] tones of the lyre, what wonder is it that as a friend to Dialectic, -he should welcome and love that part of speech which he sees -philosophers use more, and more often, than any other. So Hercules, when -he had not yet loosed Prometheus, nor yet conversed with the sophists -Chiron and Atlas, but was young and just a Boeotian, first abolished -Dialectic, made a mock at the “_If the first then the second_”[57], and -bethought him to remove the tripod by force, and to try conclusions with -the God for his art. At any rate, as time went on, he also appears to -[Sidenote: E] have become a great prophet and a great dialectician.’ - -VII. When Theon had done, I think it was Eustrophus of Athens who -addressed us: ‘Do you see with what a will Theon backs Dialectic? He has -only to put on the lion’s skin! Now then for you who put down under -number all things in one mass, all natures and principles divine as well -as human, and take it to be leader and lord in all that is beautiful and -honourable! It is no time for you to keep quiet; offer to the God a -first-fruits of your dear Mathematics, if you think that “E” rises above -[Sidenote: F] the other letters, not in its own right by power or shape, -or by its meaning as a word, but as the honoured symbol of an absolutely -great and sovereign number, the “Pempad”, from which the Wise Men took -their verb “to count”.’ Eustrophus was not jesting when he said this to -us; he said it because I was at the time passionately devoted to -Mathematics, though soon to find the value of the maxim, ‘NOTHING TOO -MUCH‘, having joined the Academy. - -VIII. So I said that Eustrophus’ solution of the problem by number was -excellent. ‘For since,’ I continued, ‘when all number is divided into -even and odd, unity alone is in its effect [Sidenote: 388] common to -both, and therefore, if added to an odd number makes it even, and vice -versa; and since even numbers start with two, odd numbers with three, -and five is produced by combination of these, it has rightly received -honour as the product of first principles, and it has further been -called “Marriage”, because even resembles the female, odd the male. For -when we divide the several numbers into equal segments, the even parts -asunder perfectly, and leaves inside a sort of recipient principle or -space; if the odd is treated in the same way, a middle part is always -left [Sidenote: B] over, which is generative. Hence the odd is the more -generative, and when brought into combination invariably prevails; in no -combination does it give an even result, but in all cases an odd. -Moreover, when each is applied to itself and added, the difference is -shown. Even with even never gives odd, or passes out of its proper -nature; it wants the strength to produce anything different. Odd numbers -with odd yield even numbers in [Sidenote: C] plenty because of their -unfailing fertility. The other powers of numbers and their distinctions -cannot be now pursued in detail. However, the Pythagoreans called five -“Marriage”, as produced by the union of the first male number and the -first female. From another point of view it has been called “Nature”, -because when multiplied into itself it ends at last in itself. For as -Nature takes a grain of wheat, and in the intermediate stages of growth -gives forms and shapes in abundance, through which she brings her work -to perfection, and, after them all, shows us again a grain of wheat, -thus restoring the beginning in the end of the whole process, so it is -with numbers. When other numbers are multiplied into themselves, they -end in different numbers after being squared; only those formed -[Sidenote: D] of five or of six recover and preserve themselves every -time. Thus six times six gives thirty-six, five times five twenty-five. -And again, a number formed of six does this only once, in the single -case of being squared. Five has the same property in multiplication, and -also a special property of its own when added to itself; it produces -alternately itself or ten, and that to infinity. For this number mimics -the principle which orders all things. As Heraclitus[58] tells us that -Nature successively produces the universe out of herself and herself out -of the universe, bartering “fire for things and things for fire, as -goods for gold [Sidenote: E] and gold for goods”, even so it is with the -Pempad. In union with itself, it does not by its nature produce anything -imperfect or foreign. All its changes are defined; it either produces -itself or the Decad, either the homogeneous or the perfect. - -IX. ‘Then if any one ask “What is all this to Apollo?”[59] Much, we will -answer, not to Apollo only but also to Dionysus, who has no less to do -with Delphi than has Apollo. Now we [Sidenote: F] hear theologians -saying or singing, in poems or in plain prose, that the God subsists -indestructible and eternal, and that, by force of some appointed plan -and method, he passes through changes of his person; at one time he sets -fire to Nature and so makes all like unto all, at another passes through -all phases of difference—shapes, sufferings, powers—at the present time, -for instance, he becomes “Cosmos”, and that is his most familiar name. -The wiser people disguise from the vulgar the change [Sidenote: 389] -into fire, and call him “Apollo[60]” from his isolation, “Phoebus[61]” -from his undefiled purity. As for his passage and distribution into -waves and water, and earth, and stars, and nascent plants and animals, -they hint at the actual change undergone as a rending and dismemberment, -but name the God himself Dionysus or Zagreus or Nyctelius or Isodaites. -Deaths too and vanishings do they construct, passages out of life and -new births, all riddles and tales to match the changes mentioned. So -they sing to Dionysus dithyrambic strains, charged with sufferings and a -change wherein are wanderings and dismemberment. [Sidenote: B] - - _In mingled cries_ (says Aeschylus)[62] _the dithyramb should ring, - With Dionysus revelling, its King._ - -‘But Apollo has the Paean, a set and sober music. Apollo is ever ageless -and young; Dionysus has many forms and many shapes as represented in -paintings and sculpture, which attribute to Apollo smoothness and order -and a gravity with no admixture, to Dionysus a blend of sport and -sauciness with seriousness and frenzy: - - _God that sett’st maiden’s blood - Dancing in frenzied mood, - Blooming with pageantry! - Evoe! we cry._ - -‘So do they summon him, rightly catching the character of either change. -But since the periods of change are not equal, that [Sidenote: C] called -“satiety” being longer, that of “stint” shorter, they here preserve a -proportion, and use the Paean with their sacrifice for the rest of the -year, but at the beginning of winter awake the dithyramb, and stop the -Paean, and invoke this God instead of the other, supposing that this -ratio of three to one is that of the “Arrangement” to the -“Conflagration”.[63] - -X. ‘But perhaps this has been drawn out at too great length for the -present opportunity. This much is clear, that they do associate the -Pempad with the God, as it now produces its own [Sidenote: D] self like -fire, and again produces the Decad out of itself like the universe. Now -take music, which the God favours so highly, are we not to suppose that -this number has its share here? - -‘Most of the science of harmonies, to put it in a word, is concerned -with consonances. That these are five and no more is proved by reason, -as against the man who is all for strings and holes, and wants to -explore these points irrationally by the senses; they all have their -origin in numerical ratios. The ratio of the fourth is four to three, of -the fifth three to two, of the octave two to one, of the octave and -fifth three to one, of the double octave four to one. The additional -consonance which writers of [Sidenote: E] harmony introduce under the -name of octave and fourth, does not merit admission, being -extra-metrical; to admit it would be to indulge the irrational side of -our sense of hearing, and to violate reason, or law. Passing by then -five arrangements of tetrachords, and the first five “tones”, or -“tropes”, or “harmonies”, whichever name is right, by variations of -which, made higher or lower, the remaining scales, high and low, are -produced, is it not true that, though intervals are many, indeed -infinite, the principles of melody are five only, quarter tone, -[Sidenote: F] half tone, tone, tone and a half, double tone? In sounds -no other interval of high and low, be it smaller or greater, can be used -for melody. - -XI. ‘Passing over many similar points, I will’, I said, ‘produce -Plato,[64] who, in discussing the question of a single universe, says -that if there are others besides ours, and it is not alone, then the -whole number of them is five and no more; not but that, if ours is the -only universe in being, as Aristotle[65] also thinks, even this one is -in a fashion composite and formed out of five; one of earth, one of -water, a third of fire, and a fourth of air, [Sidenote: 390] while the -fifth is called heaven or light or air, or by others “fifth substance”, -to which alone of all bodies circular motion is natural, not due to -force or other accidental cause. Therefore it is that Plato, observing -the five perfect figures of Nature—Pyramid, Cube, Octahedron, -Eicosahedron, and Dodecahedron—assigned them to the elements, each to -each. - -XII. ‘There are some who appropriate to the same elements our own -senses, also five in number. Touch, as they see, is [Sidenote: B] -resistent and earthy. Taste takes in properties by moisture in the -things tasted. Air when struck becomes audible voice or sound. There -remain two: smell, the object of our olfactory sense, is an exhalation -engendered by heat, and so resembles fire; sight is akin to air and -light, which give it a luminous passage, so there is a commixture of -both which is sympathetic. Besides these, the animal has no other sense, -and the universe no other substance, which is simple and not blended. A -marvellous [Sidenote: C] apportionment of the five to the five!’ - -XIII. Here, I think, I paused, and after an interval I went on: ‘What -has happened to us, Eustrophus? We have almost forgotten Homer,[66] as -if he had not been the first to divide the universe into five parts, -assigning the three in the middle to the three Gods, while he left -common and unapportioned the two extremes, Olympus and earth, one the -limit of what is below, the other of what is above. “We must cry back”, -as Euripides says.[67] Now those who exalt the number four as the basis -of the [Sidenote: D] genesis of every body, make out a fairly good case. -For every solid body possesses length, breadth, and depth; but length -presupposes a point as an unit; the line is called length without -breadth, and is length; the movement of a line in breadth produces a -plane surface, and that is three; add depth, and we get to a solid with -four factors. Any one can see that the number four carries Nature up to -this point, that is, to the formation of a complete body, which may be -touched, weighed, or struck; there it has left her, wanting in what is -greatest. [Sidenote: E] For that which has no soul is, in plain terms, -orphaned and incomplete and fit for nothing, unless it be employed by -soul. But the movement or disposition which sets soul therein—a change -introducing a fifth factor—restores to Nature her completeness, its -rational basis is as much more commanding than that of the Tetrad as the -animal is above the inanimate. Further, the symmetry and potency of the -whole five prevails, so as not to allow the animate to form classes -without limit, but gives five types for all living things. There are -Gods, we know, and [Sidenote: F] daemons, and heroes, and after these, -fourth in all, the race of men: fifth, and last, the irrational order of -brutes. Again, if you make a natural division of the soul itself, the -first and least distinct principle is that of growth; second is that of -sense, then comes appetite, then the spirited part; when it has reached -the power of reasoning and perfected its nature, it stays at rest in the -fifth stage as its upper limit. - -XIV. ‘Now as this number five has powers so many and so great, its -origin is also noble: not the process already described, out of the -numbers two and three, but that given by the combination of the first -principle of number with the first square. The first principle is unity, -the first square is four; from these [Sidenote: 391] as from idea and -limited substance, comes five. Or, if it be really correct, as some -hold, to reckon unity as a square, being a power of itself and working -out to itself, then the Pempad is formed out of the first two squares, -and so has not missed noble birth and that the highest. - -XV. ‘My most important point’, I went on, ‘may, I fear, bear hardly on -Plato, just as he said that Anaxagoras “was hardly used by the name -Selene”, when he had wished to appropriate the theory of her -illumination, really a very old one. Are not [Sidenote: B] these Plato’s -words, in the _Cratylus_?‘[68] ‘They certainly are,’ said Eustrophus, -‘but I fail to see the resemblance.’ ‘Very well then; you know, I -suppose, that in the “_Sophist_”[69] he proves that the supreme -principles are five: being, identity, difference, and after these, as -fourth and fifth, movement and position. But in the _Philebus_[70] he -divides on a different plan. He distinguishes the unlimited and the -limited, from whose combination comes the origin of all being. The cause -of combination he takes to be a fourth. The fifth, whereby things so -mingled are again parted and distinguished, he has left to us to guess. -I [Sidenote: C] conjecture that those on the one list are figures of -those on the other; to being corresponds that which becomes, to motion -the unlimited; to position the limited, to identity the combining -principle, to difference that which distinguishes. But if the two sets -are different, yet, on one view as on the other, there would be five -classes, and five modes of difference. Some early inquirer, it will -surely be said, saw into this before Plato, and consecrated two “E’s” to -the God, as a manifestation and symbol of the number of all things. But -further, having perceived that the good also takes shape under five -heads, firstly [Sidenote: D] moderation, secondly symmetry, thirdly -mind, fourthly the sciences and arts and true opinions which relate to -soul, fifthly every pleasure which is pure and unmingled with what -causes pain, he there leaves off, merely suggesting the Orphic verse, - - _In the sixth order let the strain be stayed!_ - -XVI. ‘Having said so much’, I went on, ‘to you all, I will sing one -short stave to Nicander and “his cunning men”.[71] - -‘On the sixth day of the new moon, when the Pythia is introduced into -the Prytaneum by one person, the first of your three castings of lot is -a single one, namely the five: the three [Sidenote: E] against the two.’ -‘It is so,’ said Nicander, ‘but the reason may not be disclosed to -others.’ ‘Then,’ I answered with a smile, ‘until such time as we become -priests, and the God allows us to know the truth, this much and no more -shall be added to what we have to say about the Pempad.’ Such, so far as -I remember, was the end of our account of the arithmetical or -mathematical reasons for extolling the letter ‘E’. - -XVII. Ammonius, as one who himself gave Mathematics no mean place in -Philosophy, was pleased at the course the conversation was taking, and -said: ‘It is not worth our while to answer our young friends with too -absolute accuracy on these points; I will only observe that any one of -the numbers will provide not a few points for those who choose to sing -its praises. [Sidenote: F] Why speak about the others? Apollo’s holy -“Seven” will take up all one day before we have exhausted its powers. -Are we then to show the Seven Wise Men at odds with common usage, and -“the time which runs”[72], and to suppose that they ousted the “Seven” -from its pre-eminence before the God, and consecrated the “Five” as -perhaps more appropriate? - -‘My own view is that the letter signifies neither number, nor [Sidenote: -392] order, nor conjunction, nor any other omitted part of speech; it is -a complete and self-operating mode of addressing the God; the word once -spoken brings the speaker into apprehension of his power. The God, as it -were, addresses each of us, as he enters, with his “KNOW THYSELF”, which -is at least as good as “Hail”. We answer the God back with “EI” (Thou -Art), rendering to him the designation which is true and has no lie in -it, and alone belongs to him, and to no other, that of BEING. - -XVIII. ‘For we have, really, no part in real being; all mortal nature is -in a middle state between becoming and perishing, and presents but an -appearance, a faint unstable image, of itself. If you strain the -intellect, and wish to grasp this, it [Sidenote: B] is as with water; -compress it too much and force it violently into one space as it tries -to flow through, and you destroy the enveloping substance; even so when -the reason tries to follow out too closely the clear truth about each -particular thing in a world of phase and change, it is foiled, and rests -either on the becoming of that thing or on its perishing; it cannot -apprehend anything which abides or really is. “It is impossible to go -into the same river twice”, said Heraclitus;[73] no more can you grasp -mortal being twice, so as to hold it. So sharp and so swift is change; -it scatters and brings together again, nay not again, no nor afterwards; -even while it is being formed it fails, [Sidenote: C] it approaches, and -it is gone. Hence becoming never ends in being, for the process never -leaves off, or is stayed. From seed it produces, in its constant -changes, an embryo, then an infant, then a child; in due order a boy, a -young man; then a man, an elderly man, an old man; it undoes the former -becomings and the age which has been, to make those which come after. -Yet we fear (how absurdly!) a single death, we who have died so many -deaths, and yet are dying. For it is not only that, as Heraclitus[74] -would say, “death of fire is birth of air”, and “death of air is birth -of water”; the thing is much clearer in [Sidenote: D] our own selves. -The man in his strength is destroyed when the old man comes into being, -the young man was destroyed for the man in his strength to be, so the -boy for the young man, the babe for the boy. He of yesterday has died -into him of to-day; he of to-day is dying into him of to-morrow. No one -abides, no one is; we that come into being are many, while matter is -driven around, and then glides away, about some one appearance and a -common mould. Else how is it, if we remain the same, that the things in -which we find pleasure now are different from those of a former time; -that we love, hate, admire, and censure [Sidenote: E] different things; -that our words are different and our feelings; that our look, our bodily -form, our intellect are not the same now as then? If a man does not -change, these various conditions are unnatural; if he does change, he is -not the same man. But if he is not the same man, he is not at all; his -so-called being is simply change and new birth of man out of man. In our -ignorance of what being is, sense falsely tells us that what appears is. - -XIX. ‘What then really is? That which is eternal, was never brought into -being, is never destroyed, to which no time ever brings change. Time is -a thing which moves and takes the fashion of moving matter, which ever -flows or is a sort of leaky vessel which holds destruction and becoming. -Of time we use the words “afterwards”, “before”, “shall be”, and -[Sidenote: F] “has been”, each on its face an avowal of not being. For, -in this question of being, to say of a thing which has not yet come into -being, or which has already ceased from being, that “it is”, is silly -and absurd. When we strain to the uttermost our apprehension of time, -and say “it is at hand”, “it is here”, or “now”, a rational development -of the argument brings it all to nothing. “Now” is squeezed out into the -future or into the past, as though we should try to see a point, which -of necessity passes away to right or left. But if the case be the -[Sidenote: 393] same with Nature, which is measured, as with time which -measures, nothing in it abides or really is. All things are coming into -being, or being destroyed, even while we measure them by time. Hence it -is not permissible, even in speaking of that which is, to say that “it -was”, or “it shall be”; these all are inclinations, transitions, -passages, for of permanent being there is none in Nature. - -XX. ‘But the God IS, we are bound to assert; he is, with reference to no -time but to that age wherein is no movement, or time, or duration; to -which nothing is prior or subsequent; no future, no past, no elder, no -younger, which by one long “now” has made the “always” perfect. Only -with reference to this that which really is, is; it has not come into -being, it is [Sidenote: B] not yet to be, it did not begin, it will not -cease. Thus then we ought to hail him in worship, and thus to address -him as “Thou Art”, aye, or in the very words of some of the old people, -“Ei Hen”, “Thou art one thing”.[75] For the Divine is not many things, -in the sense in which each one of us is made up of ten thousand -different and successive states, a scrap-heap of units, a mob of -individuals. No, that which is must be one, as that which is one is. -Variety, any difference in being, passes to one side to produce that -which is not. Therefore the first [Sidenote: C] of the names of the God -is right, and the second, and the third. “Apollo” (Not-many) denies -plurality and excludes multitude. Ieïus means one and one only; Phoebus, -we know, is a word by which the ancients expressed that which is clean -and pure, even as to this day the Thessalians, when their priests pass -their solemn days in strict seclusion outside the temple, apply to them -a verb formed from Phoebus. Now The One is transparent and pure, -pollution comes by commixture of this with that, just as Homer,[76] you -remember, says of ivory dyed red that it is stained, and dyers say of -mingled pigments that they are [Sidenote: D] destroyed, and call the -process “destruction”. Therefore it is the property of that which is -indestructible and pure to be one and without admixture. - -XXI. ‘There are those who think that Apollo and the sun are the same; we -hail them and love them for the fair name they give, and it is fitting -to do so; for they associate their idea of the God with that which they -honour and desire more than all other things which they know. But now -that we see them dreaming of the God in the fairest of nightly visions, -let us rise and encourage them to mount yet higher, to contemplate him -in a dream of the day, and to see his own being. Let them pay honour -also to the image of him and worship the principle of increase which is -about it; so far as what is of sense can lead to what is of mind, a -moving body to that which abides, it allows presentments and appearances -of his kind and blessed [Sidenote: E] self to shine through after a -fashion. But as to transitions and changes in himself, that he now -discharges fire, and so is drawn up, as they put it, or again presses -down and strains himself into earth and sea, winds and animals, and all -the strange passages into animals and also plants, piety forbids us so -much as to hear them. Otherwise the God will be a greater trifler than -the boy in Homer,[77] for ever playing with the universe the game which -the boy plays with a pile of sand, which is heaped together and sucked -away under his hand; moulding the universe when there is none, and again -destroying it when it has come into being. The opposite principle which -we find in the [Sidenote: F] universe, whatever its origin, is that -which binds being together and prevails over the corporeal weakness -tending to destruction. To my thinking the word “EI” is confronted with -this false view, and testifies to the God that THOU ART, meaning that no -shift or change has place in him, but that such things belong [Sidenote: -394] to some other God, or rather to some Spirit set over Nature in its -perishing and becoming, whether to effect either process or to undergo -it. This appears from the names, in themselves opposite and -contradictory. He is called Apollo, another is called Pluto; he is -Delius, the other Aidoneus; he is Phoebus, the other “Skotios”; by his -side are the Muses, and Memory, with the other are Oblivion and Silence; -he is Theorius and Phanaeus, the other is “King of dim Night and -ineffectual Sleep”.[78] The other is [Sidenote: B] - - _Of all the Gods to men the direst foe._[79] - -Whereas of him Pindar[80] has pleasantly said: - - _Well tried and mildest found, to men who live and die._ - -so Euripides[81] was right: - - _Draughts to the dead out-poured, - Songs which our bright-haired lord - Apollo hath abhorred._ - -And still earlier Stesichorus:[82] - - _Jest and song Apollo owns, - Let Hades keep his woes and groans._ - -Sophocles again,[83] in his actual assignment of instruments to each, is -quite clear, thus: - - _Nor harp nor lyre to wailing strains is dear_, - -for it was quite late, indeed only the other day, that the flute -[Sidenote: C] ventured to let itself speak “on themes of joy”; in early -times it trailed along in mourning, nor was its service therein much -esteemed or very cheerful; then there came a general confusion. It was -specially by mingling things which were of Gods with those which were of -daemons that the distinction of the instruments was lost. Anyhow, the -phrase “KNOW THYSELF” seems to stand in a sort of antithesis to the -letter “E”, and yet, again, to accord with it. The letter is an appeal, -a cry raised in awe and worship to the God, as being throughout all -eternity; the phrase is a reminder to mortal man of his own nature and -of his weakness.’ - -Footnote 51: - - Fr. 960. - -Footnote 52: - - i.e. at draughts, with a play on words. - -Footnote 53: - - Fr. 71. - -Footnote 54: - - _Il._ 17, 29. - -Footnote 55: - - See p. 14. - -Footnote 56: - - _Il._ 1, 70. - -Footnote 57: - - So Emperius, whose reading is that of the Paris MS. E. (See Paton _in - loco_.) - -Footnote 58: - - Fr. 22. - -Footnote 59: - - A reference to the complaint with which the first attempts of - Aeschylus and others to give literary form to the popular hymns in - honour of Dionysus were greeted. - -Footnote 60: - - i.e. ‘not many’. - -Footnote 61: - - See p. 76. - -Footnote 62: - - Fr. 392. - -Footnote 63: - - Terms used by Heraclitus (Fr. 24), adapted by the Stoics for the - periodic conflagration and renewal of the universe. - -Footnote 64: - - _Timaeus_, 31 A and 55 E foll. - -Footnote 65: - - _De Caelo_, 1, 8-9, 276 a 18. - -Footnote 66: - - _Il._ 15, 190. - -Footnote 67: - - See _Iph. Aul._ 865 and _Herc. Fur._ 1221. - -Footnote 68: - - P. 409 A. - -Footnote 69: - - Pp. 255-6. - -Footnote 70: - - P. 23 D and p. 66 C. - -Footnote 71: - - Cp. Pindar’s: - - _All vocal to the hearing of the wise, - All voiceless to the herd._—_Ol._ 2, 152-3. - -Footnote 72: - - From Simonides, a favourite phrase with Plutarch. - -Footnote 73: - - Fr. 41. - -Footnote 74: - - Fr. 25. - -Footnote 75: - - See on this remarkable passage E. Norden, _Agnostos Theos_, p. 231 f., - and the view of H. Diels, communicated to him. I have followed Norden - in reading εἶ, ἤ (he suggests with hesitation προσεπιθειάζειν) (and so - Paton and Diels). Diels thinks that οἱ παλαιοί may cover later - philosophers such as Xenophanes. - -Footnote 76: - - _Il._ 4, 141. - -Footnote 77: - - _Il._ 15, 362. - -Footnote 78: - - Pindar (probably from a Threnos). - -Footnote 79: - - _Il._ 9, 158. - -Footnote 80: - - Fr. 149. - -Footnote 81: - - _Suppl._ 975. - -Footnote 82: - - Fr. 50. - -Footnote 83: - - Fr. 728, probably from the _Thamyras_. - - - - - II - WHY THE PYTHIA DOES NOT NOW GIVE ORACLES IN VERSE - - -THE SPEAKERS - - - A. Introductory - - - BASILOCLES, a citizen of Delphi. - PHILINUS, a friend (perhaps also of Delphi). - - - B. Philinus narrates a Conversation between - - - PHILINUS. - DIOGENIANUS, a young visitor from Pergamum, son of a friend of the - same name. - THEON, a literary friend. - SERAPION, the Athenian poet. - BOETHUS, a geometrician, almost a convinced Epicurean. - TWO GUIDES of the temple of Delphi. - - -1. PHILINUS, coming out of the temple, explains to BASILOCLES why his -party has been so long in making the round of the sights. It included an -intelligent and inquisitive visitor, the younger Diogenianus, of -Pergamum. He continues:— - -2. DIOGENIANUS raised a point about the tint of the Corinthian bronze. -THEON interposed with a story: - -3. And discussed the properties of olive oil, which produces a crust on -metals. He refers to Aristotle’s view (which cannot be traced in his -extant works). - -4. He suggested special properties in the air of Delphi—density and -rarity—and quotes Homer for the combination of such opposites. - -5. A verse inscription catching the eye of DIOGENIANUS caused him to ask -why the verses of oracles are so poor. SERAPION suggested that perhaps -our standard ought to be revised by that of the God. BOETHUS told a -story about Pauson the painter. He added that there is no excuse in the -subject-matter, witness Serapion, who wrote excellent poetry on dry -science! - -6. SERAPION agreed that our standards are wrong—they lack severity. -Pleasure was cast out, once for all, from the seat of the Sibyl. - -7. THEON disclaimed the false theory of inspiration. The verses are not -the God’s, he only gives the impulse. But there is no pleasing the -Epicureans, whether the prophetess uses verse or prose. DIOGENIANUS -protested against levity on a subject of profound interest to all -Greeks. THEON asked that the question might be reserved, and the round -continued. - -8. Instances from Hiero’s statue, and others, of the jealous care of -Providence for human affairs. BOETHUS thought Chance, or Spontaneity, -sufficient to account for all, and was answered by PHILINUS, who -continued, - -9. And referred to the history of the first Sibyl. BOETHUS mocked, and -was met by DIOGENIANUS with instances of prophecies verified, - -10. Which BOETHUS would explain as successful guesses. - -11. SERAPION called for a distinction to be made between prophecies made -in general terms, and those which go into details. - -12. DIOGENIANUS asked the emblematic import of the frogs on the -Corinthian brazen bowl. SERAPION suggested a reference to the Sun rising -out of water. PHILINUS here detected an intrusion of the Stoic -‘Conflagration’ into the discussion. A casual remark raised the question -of the identity of the sun with Phoebus. ‘They are as different’, said -DIOGENIANUS, ‘as the sun and the moon, only the sun has permanently -eclipsed the God, the sensible, the spiritual.’ - -13. SERAPION asked a question which the guides had already answered: ‘No -wonder if they are bewildered by our high-flown talk.’ - -14. The statue of Rhodope, the courtesan, called forth a stern protest -from DIOGENIANUS. - -15. THEON, on an appeal from SERAPION, pointed out the greater scandal -of offerings made by Greeks for victories over Greeks. - -16. One of the GUIDES reminded the company of the story of Croesus and -the baker-woman. - -17. DIOGENIANUS begged that, instead of more anecdotes, the original -question might be discussed: ‘Why has the use of verse in oracular -answers been discontinued?’ The company seated itself in a new position, -and BOETHUS genially remarked on its appropriateness, the place of -origin of the heroic metre. - -18. SERAPION congratulated him on his improved tone, and PHILINUS -agreed. Philosophers have dropped verse, yet we do not infer that -Philosophy has died out. PHILINUS agreed. - -19-end. THEON spoke to the original question. - -19. He mentioned ancient oracles delivered in prose, - -20. And modern oracles given in verse. - -21. To sum up: Soul is the instrument of the God, body of soul; the -result must partake in the infirmity of body. The cases of reflecting -mirrors, and of the moon. Thus there are two separate emotions in the -prophetess—inspiration and Nature. - -22. Homeric instances of the choice of human instruments—Story of -Battus. - -23. Of the ancient oracles (1) many were delivered in prose, (2) the -fashion of the times was for verse (cp. c. 18). - -24. It is better that oracles should be given in current coin, not in -the depreciated coin of verse. History of poetical usage. - -25. In old times obscurity was thought dignified, now it provokes -impatience; and it has become vulgarized through charlatans. - -26. When cities and statesmen used to consult the oracle on questions of -high policy, circumlocution was necessary. - -27. Again, verse was a great help to memory, when intricate advice was -given, as to Battus. - -28. In these days of general rest, only homely questions are asked, and -are best answered in homely prose. - -29. Yet we fear lest the credit acquired in three thousand years by the -straight concise answers of the oracle should be lost! We gush out with -wealth, as the mythical Galaesus with milk. I am proud to have had some -hand in this. - -30. People who regret the old obscurity and bombast are like children -who admire a rainbow more than the sun which makes it. - - In Theon’s long concluding speech (c. 19, p. 403 A to the end) he is - no doubt expressing Plutarch’s own views. But the literary - references and the touch of levity are quite in Theon’s style; ‘my - young friend’, in c. 20, recalls the same phrase in c. 3. Later on, - Plutarch is, as Wyttenbach has observed, indicated by τὸν καθηγεμόνα - ταύτης τῆς πολιτείας. Professor Hartman (see Preface, p. xx) states - his conviction that Theon was an older friend of Plutarch and his - predecessor in the priesthood (pp. 166 and 617). In a Dialogue in - which the Epicureans are attacked (_Non posse suaviter_, p. 1088 D) - a long speech clearly belonging to Theon is introduced by the words - ‘I (Plutarch) said’. This slip is probably due to the author. (See, - on the general subject, Mr. John Oakesmith’s note on p. 149 of The - Religion of Plutarch.) - - - WHY THE PYTHIA DOES NOT NOW GIVE ORACLES IN VERSE - - -[Sidenote: 394 D] _Basilocles._ The shades of evening, Philinus, while -you are conducting the stranger round the votive gifts! Here am I, -[Sidenote: E] fairly tired out in waiting for you. - -_Philinus._ Yes, Basilocles, we made slow progress, sowing arguments as -we went and reaping them too; battle and war were beneath them, as they -sprang and sprouted in our faces, like the ‘sown men’ of old. - -_Basilocles._ Then shall I have to call in some one else of your -[Sidenote: F] company, or will you oblige us with the whole story? What -were the arguments, and who were the speakers? - -_Philinus._ I shall have to do that myself, Basilocles, it seems, for -you will not easily meet with any of the others in the town; I saw most -of them going back to the Corycium and the Lycuria with the stranger. - -_Basilocles._ A good sight-seer this stranger, and a mighty good -listener! - -_Philinus._ Say rather a good scholar and a good learner. Not that these -are his most admirable points; there is a gentleness [Sidenote: 395] -which is full of charm; and then his readiness to do battle and to raise -sensible points: nothing captious or hard in his way of taking the -answers. After a very short time in his company you would have to say -‘good father, good child’, for you know that Diogenianus was one of the -very best. - -_Basilocles._ I never saw him myself, but I have met many who spoke with -warm approval of his talk and his character, and in just the same terms -about this young man. But how did the argument begin, and what started -it? - -II. _Philinus._ The guides were going through their lectures, as -prepared, showing no regard for our entreaties that they would cut short -their periods and skip most of the inscriptions. The stranger was but -moderately interested in the form and workmanship of the different -statues; it appears that he has [Sidenote: B] seen many beautiful -objects of art. What he did admire was the lustre on the bronze, unlike -rust or deposit, but rather resembling a coat of deep shining blue, so -much so, that it rather well became the sea-captains, with whom the -round had begun, standing up out of the deep so naively with the true -sea tint. ‘Now was there’, he asked, ‘some receipt of pharmacy known to -the old artists in brass like that method of tempering swords of which -we read? It was forgotten in time, and then bronze had a truce from -works of war. As to the Corinthian bronze, that came by its beautiful -colour accidentally, not through art. A fire spread over a house in -which were stored some gold and silver and a large quantity of bronze. -The whole was fused into one stream of metal, which took its name -[Sidenote: C] from the bronze, as the largest ingredient.’ Theon broke -in: ‘We have heard a different story, with a spice of mischief in it. A -Corinthian bronze-worker found a chest containing much gold. Fearing -discovery, he chipped it off little by little, and quietly mixed the -bits with the bronze; the result was a marvellous blend, which he sold -at a high price, as people were delighted with the beauty of the colour. -However, the one story is as mythical as the other; what we may suppose -is that some method was known of mixing and preparing, much as now they -mix gold with silver, and get a peculiar and rare effect, [Sidenote: D] -which to me appears a sickly pallor and a loss of colour with no beauty -in it.’ - -III. ‘What has been the cause, then,’ said Diogenianus, ‘do you think, -of the colour of the bronze here?’ ‘Here is a case’, said Theon, ‘in -which, of the first and most natural elements which are or ever will be, -fire, earth, air, water, none approaches or touches the bronze, save air -only: clearly then, air is the agent; from its constant presence and -contact the bronze gets its exceptional quality, or perhaps - - _Thus much you knew before Theognis was_,[84] - -as the comic poet has it; but what you want to learn is the [Sidenote: -E] nature of air, and the property in virtue of which its repeated -contact has coloured the bronze.’ Diogenianus said that it was. ‘And I -too,’ Theon continued, ‘my young friend, let us follow the quest -together; and first, if you will agree, ask why olive oil produces a -more copious rust on the metal than other liquids; it does not, of -course, actually make the deposit, being pure and uncontaminated when it -is applied.’ ‘Certainly not;’ said the young man, ‘the real cause -appears to me to be something different; the oil is fine, pure, and -transparent, so the rust when it meets it is specially evident, whereas -with other liquids it becomes invisible.’ ‘Excellent,’ said Theon, ‘my -[Sidenote: F] young friend, that is prettily put. But consider also, if -you please, the cause given by Aristotle.’ ‘I do please’, he said. -‘Aristotle says that the rust, when it comes over other liquids, passes -invisibly through and is dispersed, because the particles are irregular -and fine, whereas in the density of oil it is held up and permanently -condensed. If, then, we can frame some such hypothesis for ourselves, we -shall not be wholly at a loss for a spell to charm away this -difficulty.’ - -IV. We encouraged him and agreed, so he (Theon) went [Sidenote: 396] on -to say that the air of Delphi is thick and close of texture, with a -tenseness caused by reflection from the hills and their resistance, but -is also fine and biting, as seems to be proved by the facts of digestion -of food. The tenuity allows it to enter the bronze, and to scrape up -from it much solid rust, which rust again is held up and compressed, -because the density of the air does not allow it a passage through; but -the deposit breaks out, because it is so copious, and takes on a rich -bright colour on the surface. We applauded this, but the stranger -remarked that either hypothesis alone was sufficient for the argument. -‘The fineness’, [Sidenote: B] he went on, ‘will be found to be in -contradiction to the density of which you speak, but there is no -necessity to assume it. The bronze, as it ages, exhales or throws off -the rust by its own inherent action; the density holds together and -solidifies the rust, and makes it apparent because of its quantity.’ -Theon broke in: ‘What is to prevent, Sir, the same thing being both fine -and dense, as silks or fine linen stuffs, of which Homer says - - _And from the close-spun weft the trickling oil will fall_,[85] - -where he indicates the minute and delicate workmanship of the fabric by -the fact that the oil would not remain, but trickled [Sidenote: C] or -glided off, the fineness at once and the density refusing it a passage. -And, again, the scraping up of the rust is not the only purpose served -by the tenuity of the air; it also makes the colour itself pleasanter to -the eye and brighter, it mingles light and lustre with the blue.’ - -V. Here there was an interval of silence; the guides were again getting -their speeches in hand. A certain oracle given in verse was mentioned—I -think it was one about the reign of Aegon the Argive—when Diogenianus -observed that he had often been surprised at the badness and common -quality of the verses in which the oracles are delivered. Yet the God is -Choirmaster of the Muses, and eloquent language is no less [Sidenote: D] -his function than beauty of ode or tune, and he should have a voice far -above that of Homer and Hesiod in verse. Here we have most of the -oracles saturated with bad taste and poverty of metre and diction. Then -Serapion, the poet, who was with us from Athens, said: ‘Then do we -really believe that these verses are the God’s, yet venture to say that -they fall behind Homer and Hesiod in beauty? Shall we not rather take -them for all that is best and most beautiful in poetry, and revise our -judgement of them prejudiced by familiarity with a bad standard?’ -Boethus, the geometer—you know the man, [Sidenote: E] already on his way -to the camp of Epicurus—broke in: ‘Have you ever heard the story of -Pauson the painter?’ ‘Not I’, said Serapion. ‘Well, it is worth hearing. -It appears that he had contracted to paint a horse rolling, and painted -him galloping. The owner was indignant; so Pauson laughed and turned the -canvas upside down, with the result that the lower parts became the -upper, and there was the horse rolling, not galloping. So [Sidenote: F] -it is, Bion tells us, with certain syllogisms when converted. Thus some -will tell us not that the oracles are quite beautiful because they are -the God’s, but that they are not the God’s because they are bad! That -point may be left unsettled. But that the verses used in the oracles are -bad poetry,’ he went on, ‘is made clear also in your judgement, my dear -Serapion, is it not so? For you write poems which are philosophical and -severe as to matter, but in force and grace and diction more like the -work of Homer and Hesiod than the utterances of the Pythia.’ - -VI. Then Serapion: ‘Yes, we are sick, Boethus, sick in ears and in eyes; -luxury and softness have accustomed us to think things beautiful as they -are more sweet, and to call them so. Soon we shall actually be finding -fault with the Pythia because [Sidenote: 397] she does not speak with a -more thrilling voice than Glauce the singing-girl, or use costly -ointments, or put on purple robes to go down into the sanctuary, or burn -on her censer cassia, mastic, and frankincense, but only bay leaves and -barley meal. Do you not see’, he went on, ‘what grace the songs of -Sappho have, how they charm and soothe the hearers, while the Sibyl -“with raving mouth”, as Heraclitus says, “utters words with no laughter, -no adornment, no spices”,[86] yet makes her voice carry to ten thousand -years, because of the God. And Pindar[87] tells us that Cadmus heard -from the God “right music”, not [Sidenote: B] sweet music, or delicate -music, or twittering music. What is passionless and pure gives no -admission to pleasure; she was cast out in this very place, together -with pain,[88] and the most of her has dribbled away, it seems, into the -ears of men.’ - -VII. When Serapion had done, Theon smiled. ‘Serapion’, he said, ‘has -paid his usual tribute to his own proclivities, making capital out of -the turn which the conversation had taken about pain and pleasure! But -for us, Boethus, even if these verses are inferior to Homer, let us -never suppose that the God has composed them; he only gives the initial -impulse according to the capacity of each prophetess. Why, suppose the -answers had [Sidenote: C] to be written, not spoken. I do not think we -should suppose that the letters were made by the God, and find fault -with the calligraphy as below royal standard. The strain is not the -God’s, but the woman’s, and so with the voice and the phrasing and the -metre; he only provides the fantasies, and puts light into her soul to -illuminate the future; for that is what inspiration is. To put it -plainly, there is no escaping you prophets of Epicurus—yes, you too, -Boethus, are drifting that way—you blame those old prophetesses because -they used bad poetry, and you also blame those of to-day because they -speak their answers in [Sidenote: D] prose, and use the first words -which come, that they may not be overhauled by you for headless, hollow, -crop-tailed lines.’ Then Diogenianus: ‘Do not jest, in Heaven’s name, -no! but help us to solve the problem which is common to us all. There is -not a Greek[89] living who is not in search of a rational account of the -fact that the oracle has ceased to use verse, epic or other.’ Theon -interrupted: ‘At the present moment, my young friend, we seem to be -doing a shabby turn by the guides, taking the bread out of their mouths. -Suffer them first to do [Sidenote: E] their office, afterwards you shall -discuss in peace whatever you wish.’ - -VIII. Our round had now brought us in front of the statue of Hiero, the -tyrant. Most of the stories the stranger knew well, but he -good-naturedly lent his ear to them. At last, when he heard that a -certain bronze pillar given by Hiero, which had been standing upright, -fell of its own accord on the very day when Hiero died at Syracuse, he -showed surprise. I set myself to remember similar instances, such as the -notable one of Hiero the Spartan, how before his death at Leuctra the -eyes fell out [Sidenote: F] of his statue, and the gold stars -disappeared which Lysander had dedicated after the naval battle of -Aegospotami. Then the stone statue of Lysander himself broke out into -such a growth of weeds and grass that the face was hidden. At the time -of the Athenian disaster at Syracuse, the golden berries kept dropping -off from the palm trees, and crows chipped the shield on the figure of -Pallas. Again, the crown of the Cnidians, which Philomelus, tyrant of -Phocis, had given to Pharsalia the dancing [Sidenote: 398] girl, caused -her death, as she was playing near the temple of Apollo in Metapontum, -after she had removed from Greece into Italy. The young men made a rush -at the crown, and in their struggle to get it from one another, tore the -woman to pieces. Now Aristotle used to say that no one but Homer made -‘words which stir, because of their energy’.[90] But I would say that -there have been votive offerings sent here which have movement in a high -degree, and help the God’s foreknowledge to signify things; that none of -them is void or without feeling, but all are full of Divinity. ‘Very -good!’ said Boethus; ‘so it is not enough to shut the God into a mortal -body once every month. We will also knead him into every morsel of stone -and brass, to [Sidenote: B] show that we do not choose to hold Fortune, -or Spontaneity, a sufficient author of such occurrences.’ ‘Then in your -opinion’, I said, ‘each of the occurrences looks like Fortune or -Spontaneity; and it seems probable to you that the atoms glided forth, -and were dispersed, and swerved, not sooner and not later, but at the -precise moment when each of the dedicators was to fare worse or better. -Epicurus helps you now by what he said or wrote three hundred years ago; -but the God, unless [Sidenote: C] he take and shut himself up in all -things, and be mingled with all, could not, you think, initiate -movement, or cause change of condition in anything which is!’ - -IX. Such was my answer to Boethus, and to the same effect about the -Sibyl and her utterances. For when we stood near the rock by the Council -Chamber, on which the first Sibyl is said to have been seated on her -arrival from Helicon, where she had been brought up by the Muses (though -others say that she came from the Maleans, and was the daughter of Lamia -the daughter of Poseidon), Serapion remembered the verses in which she -hymned herself; how she will never cease from [Sidenote: D] prophesying, -even after death, but will herself go round in the moon, being turned -into what we call the ‘bright face’, while her breath is mingled with -the air and borne about in rumours and voices for ever and ever; and her -body within the earth suffers change, so that from it spring grass and -weeds, the pasture of sacred cattle, which have all colour, shapes, and -qualities in their inward parts whereby men obtain forecasts of future -things. Here Boethus made his derision still more evident. [Sidenote: E] -The stranger observed that, although these things have a mythical -appearance, yet the prophecies are attested by many overturnings and -removals of Greek cities, inroads of barbarian hordes, and upsettings of -dynasties. ‘These still recent troubles at Cumae and Dicaearchia[91], -were they not chanted long ago in the songs of the Sibyl, so that Time -was only discharging his debts in the fires which have burst out of the -mountain, the boiling seas, the masses of burning rocks[92] tossed aloft -by the winds, the ruin of cities many and great, so that if you visit -them in broad daylight you cannot get a clear idea of the site, the -ground being covered with confused ruins? It is [Sidenote: F] hard to -believe that such things have happened, much harder to predict them -without divine power.’ - -X. ‘My good Sir,’ said Boethus, ‘what does happen in Nature which is not -Time paying his debts? Of all the strange unexpected things, by land or -sea, among cities and men, is there any which some one might not -foretell, and then, after it has happened, find himself right? Yet this -is hardly foretelling at all; it is telling, rather it is tossing or -scattering words into the infinite, with no principle in them. They -wander about, often Fortune meets them and throws in with them, but it -is all spontaneous. It is one thing, I think, when what has been -foretold happens, quite another when what will happen is foretold. Any -statement made about things then non-existent contains intrinsic error, -it has no right to await the confirmation [Sidenote: 399] which comes -from spontaneous happening; nor is it any true proof of having foretold -with knowledge that the thing happened after it was foretold, for -Infinity brings all things. No, the “good guesser”, whom the proverb[93] -has announced to be the best prophet, is like a man who hunts on the -trail of the future, by the help of the plausible. These Sibyls and -Bacises threw into the sea, that is, into time, without having any real -clue, nouns and verbs about troubles and occurrences of every -description. Some of these prophecies came about, but they were lies; -and what is now pronounced is a lie like them, even if, later on, it -should happen to turn out true.’ [Sidenote: B] - -XI. When Boethus had finished, Serapion spoke: ‘The case is quite fairly -put by Boethus against prophecies so indefinitely worded as those he -mentions, with no basis of circumstance: “If victory has been foretold -to a general, he has conquered. If the destruction of a city, it is -lost.” But where not only the thing which is to happen is stated, but -also the how, the when, after what event, with whose help, then it is -not a guess at things which will perhaps be, but a clear prediction of -things which will certainly be. Here are the lines[94] with reference to -the lameness of Agesilaus: [Sidenote: C] - - _Sure though thy feet, proud Sparta, have a care, - A lame king’s reign may see thee trip—Beware! - Troubles unlooked for long shall vex thy shore, - And rolling Time his tide of carnage pour._ - -And then those about the island[95] which the sea cast up off Thera and -Therasia, and also about Philip and his war with the Romans: - - _When Trojan race the victory shall win - From Punic foe, lo! wonders shall begin; - Unearthly fires from out the sea shall flash, - Whirlwinds toss stones aloft, and thunders crash, - An isle unnamed, unknown, shall stand upright, - The worse shall beat the stronger in the fight._ - -What happened within a short time—that the Romans mastered the -Carthaginians, and brought the war with Philip to a finish, [Sidenote: -D] that Philip met the Aetolians and Romans in battle and was defeated, -and, lastly, that an island rose out of the depths of the sea, with much -fire and boiling waves—could not all be set down to chance and -spontaneous occurrence. Why, the order emphasizes the foreknowledge, and -so does the time predicted to the Romans, some five hundred years before -the event, as that in which they were to be at war with all the races at -once, which meant the war with the slaves after their revolt. In all -this nothing is unascertainable, the story is not left in dim light to -[Sidenote: E] be groped out with reference to Fortune “in Infinity”, it -gives many securities, and is open to trial, it points the road which -the destined event is to tread. For I do not think that any one will say -that the agreement with the details as foretold was accidental. -Otherwise, what prevents some one else from saying that Epicurus did not -write his _Leading Principles_ for our use, Boethus, but that the -letters fell together by chance and just spontaneously, and so the book -was finished off?’ - -XII. While we were talking thus, we were moving forward. [Sidenote: F] -In the store-house of the Corinthians we were looking at the golden palm -tree, the only remnant of their offerings, when the frogs and -water-snakes embossed round the roots caused much surprise to -Diogenianus, and, for the matter of that, to us. For the palm tree is -not, like many others, a marshy or water-loving plant, nor have frogs -anything specially to do with the Corinthians. Thus they must be a -symbolical or canting device of that city, just as the men of Selinus -are said to have dedicated a golden plant of parsley (selinon), and -those of Tenedos the axe, because of the crabs found round the place -which they [Sidenote: 400] call Asterium, the only ones, it appears, -with the brand of an axe on the shell. Yet the God himself is supposed -to have a partiality for crows and swans and wolves and hawks, for -anything rather than beasts like crabs. Serapion observed that the -artist intended a veiled hint at the sun drawing his aliment and origin -from exhalations out of moist places, whether he had it from Homer, - - _Leaving the beauteous lake, the great sun scaled - The brazen sky_,[96] - -or whether he had seen the sun painted by the Egyptians as a newly-born -child seated on a lotus. I laughed: ‘Where have you got to again, my -good Sir,’ I said, ‘thrusting the [Sidenote: B] Porch in here, and -quietly slipping into our discussion their “Conflagrations” and -“Exhalations”? Thessalian women fetch the sun and the moon down to us, -but you are assuming that they are first born and then watered out of -earth and its waters. Plato[97] dubbed man “a heavenly plant”, rearing -himself up from a root on high, namely, his head; but you laugh down -Empedocles when he tells us how the sun, having been brought into being -by reflection of heavenly light around the earth - - _Beams back upon Olympus undismayed!_ - -Yet, on your own showing, the sun is a creature or plant of the marshes, -naturalized by you in the country of frogs or [Sidenote: C] -water-snakes. However, all this may be reserved for the Stoics and their -tragedies; here we have the incidental works of the artists, and let us -examine them incidentally. In many respects they are clever people, but -they have not in all cases avoided coldness and elaboration. Just as the -man who designed Apollo with the cock in his hand meant to suggest the -early morning hour when dawn is coming, so here the frogs may be taken -for a symbol of the spring season when the sun begins to have power over -the air and to break up winter; always supposing [Sidenote: D] that, -with you, we are to reckon Apollo and the sun one God, not two.’ ‘What?’ -said Serapion, ‘do you not agree? Do you hold the sun to be different -from Apollo?’ ‘As different as the moon from the sun;’ I replied, ‘only -she does not hide the sun often or from all the world,[98] whereas the -sun has made, we may almost say, all the world ignorant of Apollo, -diverting thought by sensation, to the apparent from the real.’ - -XIII. Next Serapion asked the guides the real reason why they call the -chamber not after Cypselus, the Dedicator, but [Sidenote: E] after the -Corinthians. When they were silent, being, as I privately believe, at a -loss for a reason, I laughed, and said: ‘What can these men possibly -know or remember, utterly dazed as they must be by our high celestial -talk? Why, it was only just now that we heard them saying that, after -the tyranny was overthrown, the Corinthians wished to inscribe the -golden statue at Pisa, and also this treasure-house, with the name of -the city. So the Delphians granted it as a right, and agreed; but the -Corinthians passed a vote to exclude the Eleians, who had shown jealousy -of them, from the Isthmian meetings, and from that time to [Sidenote: F] -this there has been no competitor from Elis. The murder of the -Molionidae by Hercules near Cleonae has nothing to do with the exclusion -of the Eleians, though some think that it has. On the contrary, it would -have been for them to exclude the Corinthians if that had been the cause -of collision.’ Such were my remarks. - -XIV. When we passed the chamber of the Acanthians and Brasidas, the -guide showed us a place where iron obelisks to Rhodopis the courtesan -once used to stand. Diogenianus showed annoyance: ‘So it was left for -the same state’, he said, [Sidenote: 401] ‘to find a place for Rhodopis -to deposit the tithes of her earnings, and to put Aesop, her fellow -servant, to death!’ ‘Bless you, friend,’ said Serapion, ‘why so vexed at -that? Carry your eyes upwards, and behold among the generals and kings -the golden Mnesarete, which Crates called a standing trophy of the -lewdness of the Greeks.’ The young man looked: ‘Was it then about Phryne -that Crates said that?’ ‘Yes, it was,’ said Serapion, ‘her name was -Mnesarete, but she took on that of Phryne (toad) as a nickname because -of her yellow skin. Many names, it would seem, are concealed by these -nicknames. There was Polyxena, mother of Alexander, afterwards said to -have been called Myrtale and Olympias and Stratonice. Then Eumetis -[Sidenote: B] of Rhodes is to this day called by most people Cleobuline, -after her father; and Herophile of Erythrae, when she showed a prophetic -gift, was addressed as Sibylla. You will hear the grammarians telling us -that Leda has been named Mnesinoe, and Orestes Achaeus. But how do you -propose’, he went on, looking hard at Theon, ‘to get rid of the charge -as to Phryne?’ - -XV. Theon smiled quietly: ‘In this way:’ he said, ‘by a cross charge -against you for raking up the pettiest of the [Sidenote: C] Greek -misdoings. For as Socrates,[99] when entertained in the house of -Callias, makes war upon the ointment only, but looks on at all the -dancing and tumbling and kisses and buffoonery, and holds his tongue, so -you, it seems to me, want to exclude from the temple a poor woman who -made an unworthy use of her charms; but when you see the God encompassed -by first-fruits and tithes of murders, wars, and raids, and his temple -loaded with Greek spoils and booty, you show no disgust; you have no -pity for the Greeks when you read on the beautiful offerings such deeply -disgraceful inscriptions as “Brasidas and the Acanthians from the -Athenians”, “Athenians from [Sidenote: D] Corinthians”, “Phocians from -Thessalians”, “Orneatans from Sicyonians”, “Amphictyones from Phocians”. -So Praxiteles, it seems, was the one person who offended Crates by -finding[100] room for his mistress to stand here, whereas Crates ought -to have commended him for placing beside those golden kings a golden -courtesan, a strong rebuke to wealth as having nothing wonderful or -worshipful about it. It would be good if kings [Sidenote: E] and rulers -were to set up in the God’s house offerings to Justice Temperance, -Magnanimity, not to golden and delicate Abundance, in which the very -foulest lives have their share.’ - -XVI. ‘You are forgetting to mention’, said one or other of the guides, -‘how Croesus had a golden figure of the baker-woman made, and dedicated -it here.’ ‘Yes,’ said Theon, ‘but that was not to flout the temple with -his luxury of wealth, but for a good and righteous cause. The story -is[101] that Alyattes, father of Croesus, married a second wife, and -brought up a fresh family. This woman made a plot against Croesus; she -gave poison to the baker and told her to knead a loaf with it and serve -[Sidenote: F] to Croesus. The baker told Croesus secretly, and set the -loaf before the wife’s children. And so, when Croesus became king, he -requited the baker-woman’s service in a way which made the God a -witness, and moreover did a good turn to him. Hence’, he said, ‘it is -quite proper to honour and love any such offering from cities as that of -the Opuntians. When the Phocian tyrants had melted up many of the gold -and silver offerings and struck coined money, which they distributed -among the cities, the Opuntians collected all the silver they could -find, and sent a large jar to be consecrated here to the God. I commend -the [Sidenote: 402] Myrinaeans also, and the Apollonians, who sent -hither sheaves of gold, and even more highly the Eretrians and -Magnesians, who endowed the God with firstfruits of men, as being the -giver of crops and also ancestral, racial, humane. Whereas I blame the -Megarians, because they were almost alone in setting up the God holding -a lance; this was after the battle in which they defeated and expelled -the Athenians when holding their city, after the Persian wars. Later on, -however, they offered to him a golden harp-quill, attaching it, as it -appears, to Scythinus, [Sidenote: B] who says of the lyre: - - _which the son of Zeus - Wears, the comely God Apollo, gathering first and last in one, - And he holds a golden harp-quill flashing as the very sun._’ - -XVII. Serapion wanted to put In some further remark on this, when the -stranger said: ‘It is delightful to listen to such speeches as we have -heard, but I feel myself obliged to claim fulfilment of the original -promise, that we should hear the cause which has made the Pythia cease -to prophesy in epic or other verse. So, if it be your pleasure, let us -leave to another time the remainder of the sights, sit down where we -are, and hear about that. For it is this more than anything else which -militates against the credibility of the oracle; it must be one of two -things, either the Pythia does not get near the spot where the Divinity -is, or the current is altogether exhausted, and [Sidenote: C] the power -has failed.’ Accordingly, we went round and seated ourselves on the -southern plinth of the temple, in view of the temple of Earth and the -fountain, which made Boethus at once observe that the very place where -the problem was raised lent itself to the stranger’s case. For here was -a temple of the Muses where the exhalation rises from the fountain; from -which they drew the water used for the lustrations, as Simonides[102] -has it: - - _Whence is drawn for holy washings - Water of the Muses bright._ - -And again, in a rather more elaborate strain, the same poet [Sidenote: -D] addressing Clio: - - _Holy patron of our washings, Goddess sought with many a vow, - By no golden robe encumbered, hear thy servants drawing now - Water, fragrant and delightful, from ambrosial depths below._ - -So Eudoxus was wrong in believing those who have made out that this was -called ‘Water of Styx’. But they installed the Muses as assessors in -prophecy and guardians of the place, by the fountain and the temple of -Earth where the oracle used to be, because the responses were given in -metre and in lyric strains. And some say further that the heroic metre -was heard for the [Sidenote: E] first time here: - - _Bring in your feathers, ye birds, ye bees, bring wax at his - bidding._ - -The God was in need, and dignity was waived![103] - -XVIII. ‘More reasonable, that, Boethus,’ said Serapion, ‘and more in -tune with the Muses. For we ought not to fight against the God, nor to -remove, along with his prophecy, his Providence and Godhead also, but -rather to seek fresh solutions for apparent contradictions, and never to -surrender the reverent belief of our fathers.’ ‘Excellent Serapion!’ I -said, ‘you are right. We were not abandoning Philosophy, as cleared out -of the way and done for, because once upon a time philosophers -[Sidenote: F] put out their dogmas and theories in verse, as Orpheus, -Hesiod, Parmenides, Empedocles, Thales, whereas later on they gave it -up, and have now all given it up—except you! In your hands Poetry is -returning home to Philosophy, and clear and noble is the strain in which -she rallies our young people. Astronomy again: she was not lowered in -the hands of Aristarchus, Timocharis, Aristyllus, Hipparchus, all -writing in prose, whereas Eudoxus, [Sidenote: 403] Hesiod, and Thales -used metre, if we assume that Thales really wrote the _Astronomy_ -attributed to him. Pindar actually expresses surprise at the neglect, in -his own day, of a mode of melody....[104] There is nothing out of the -way or absurd in seeking out the causes of such changes; but to remove -arts and faculties altogether, whenever there is disturbance or -variation in their details, is not fair.’ - -XIX. ‘And yet’, interposed Theon, ‘those instances have involved really -great variations and novelties, whereas of the [Sidenote: B] oracles -given here we know of many in prose even in old days, and those on no -trifling matters. When the Lacedaemonians, as Thucydides[105] has told -us in his history, consulted the God about their war with the Athenians, -he promised them victory and mastery, and that “he himself will help -them, invited or uninvited.” And again, that, if they did not restore -Pleistoanax[106], they shall plough with a silver share.[107] When the -Athenians consulted him about their expedition in Sicily, he directed -them to bring the priestess of Erythrae to Athens; now the woman’s name -was Peace. When Deinomenes the Siceliot inquired about his sons, the -answer was that all three should [Sidenote: C] reign as tyrants. “And -the worse for them, O Master Apollo”, rejoined Deinomenes. “That too”, -added the God, “to form part of the answer.” You know that Gelo had the -dropsy and Hiero the stone, while they reigned; Thrasybulus, the third, -was involved in revolutions and wars and soon lost his throne. Then -Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus, after putting many others to death in -cruel and unlawful ways, at last killed Timarchus, who had come to him -from Athens with money, after receiving him with hospitality and -kindness; he thrust his body into a crate and flung it out to sea. This -he did by the hands of Cleander of Aegina, no one else knew. Afterwards, -when [Sidenote: D] himself in trouble, he sent his brother Cleotimus, to -consult the oracle secretly about his own exile and retirement. The God -answered that he granted exile to Procles, and retirement either to the -place where he had ordered his Aeginetan friend to lodge the crate, or -where the stag sheds his horn. The tyrant understood the God to bid him -fling himself into the sea, or bury himself underground (for the stag -buries his horn deep out of sight, when it falls off). He waited a short -time, then, when his affairs became desperate, went into exile. But the -friends of Timarchus caught and slew him, and cast out the corpse into -the sea. [Sidenote: E] Now comes the strongest instance: the statutes by -which Lycurgus regulated the Lacedaemonian constitution were given to -him in prose. So Alyrius, Herodotus, Philochorus, and Ister, the men who -most zealously set about collecting metrical prophecies, have written -down oracular responses which were not in metre, and Theopompus, who was -exceptionally interested [Sidenote: F] about the oracle, has -administered a vigorous rebuke to those who do not hold that the Pythia -prophesied in metre in those days; yet, when he wanted to prove the -point, he has found an exceedingly small number of such answers, which -shows that the others, even at that early time, were put forth in prose. - -XX. ‘Some oracles, however, still run into metres, one of which has made -“necessary business”[108] a household word. There is in Phocis a temple -of “Hercules Woman-Hater”, where the practice is for the consecrated -priest not to associate with a woman during his year. So they appoint -comparatively old men to the priesthood. However, not very long ago, a -young man of good character, but ambitious, who was in love with -[Sidenote: 404] a girl, accepted the office. At first he put constraint -on himself and avoided her; but one day, when he was resting after wine -and dancing, she burst in, and he yielded. Then, in his fear and -confusion, he fled to the oracle, and proceeded to ask the God about his -offence, and whether it admitted of excuse or expiation. He received -this reply: - - _All needful business doth the God allow._ - -All the same, if it be granted that nothing is prophesied in our own -day, otherwise than in metre, the difficulty will be so much greater -about the ancients, who sometimes employed metre for the responses, -sometimes not. There is nothing strange, my [Sidenote: B] young friend, -in either one or the other, so long as we hold sound, pure views about -the God, and do not suppose that it is himself who formerly used to -compose the verses, or who now suggests the answers to the Pythia, -speaking as it were from under a mask. - -XXI. ‘However, it is worth our while to pursue this inquiry at greater -length another time. For the present, let us remember our results, which -are briefly these: Body uses many instruments, soul uses body and its -parts, soul has been brought into being as the instrument of God. The -excellence of an instrument is to imitate most closely the power which -uses it, with all its [Sidenote: C] own natural power, and to reproduce -the effect of his essential thought, but to exhibit it, not pure and -passionless and free from error, as it was in the creative artist, but -with a large admixture of foreign element. For in itself it is invisible -to us, but appearing “other” and through another medium it is saturated -with the nature of that medium. I pass over wax and gold and silver and -copper, and all other varieties of moulded substance, which take on one -common form of impressed likeness, but add to the copy, each its own -distinct speciality. I pass over the myriad distortions of images and -reflections from a single form in [Sidenote: D] mirrors, plane, hollow, -or convex. For nothing seems better to reproduce the type, no instrument -more obediently to use its own nature, than the moon. Yet taking from -the sun his bright and fiery rays, she does not transmit them so to us; -mingled with herself they change colour and also take on a different -power; the heat has wholly disappeared, and the light fails from -weakness before it reaches us. I think you know the saying found in -Heraclitus, that “The King whose seat is at [Sidenote: E] Delphi, speaks -not, nor conceals, but signifies.”[109] Take and add then to what is -here so well said, the conception that the God of this place employs the -Pythia for the hearing as the sun employs the moon for the seeing. He -shows and reveals his own thoughts, but shows them mingled in their -passage through a mortal body, and a soul which cannot remain at rest or -present itself to the exciting power unexcited and inwardly composed, -but which boils and surges and is involved in the stirrings and -troublesome passions from within. As whirlpools do not keep [Sidenote: -F] a steady hold on bodies borne round and round and also downwards, -since an outer force carries them round, but they sink down of their own -nature, so that there is a compound spiral movement, of a confused and -distorted kind, even so what we call inspiration seems to be a mixture -of two impulses, and the soul is stirred by two forces, one of which it -is a passive recipient, one from its own nature. We see that inanimate -and stationary bodies cannot be used or forced contrary to their own -nature, that a cylinder cannot be moved as if it were a sphere or a -cube, that a lyre cannot be played like a flute or a trumpet like a -harp, but that the artistic use of a thing is no other than the natural -use. Is it possible then that the animate and self-moving, which has -both impulse and reason, can be treated in any other way than is -agreeable to the habit, force, or natural condition which [Sidenote: -405] is already existent within it? Can an unmusical mind be excited -like a musical, an unlettered mind by literature, a mind untrained in -reasoning, whether speculative or disciplinary, by logic? It is not to -be spoken of. - -XXII. ‘Again, Homer is my witness: he assumes[110] that nothing, so to -speak, is brought about without a God; he does not, however, describe -the God as using all things for all ends, but according to the art or -faculty which each possesses. For do you not see, dear Diogenianus, that -Athena, when she wants to persuade the Achaeans, calls in Odysseus;[111] -when to wreck the truce, she looks for Pandarus;[112] when to rout the -Trojans, she [Sidenote: B] approaches Diomede?[113] Why? because Diomede -is a sturdy man and a fighter, Pandarus an archer and a fool, Odysseus a -clever speaker and a sensible man. For Homer was not of the same mind as -Pindar[114], if Pindar it was who wrote - - _Sail on a crate, if God so choose ‘twill swim._ - -He knew that different faculties and natural gifts are appointed for -different ends; each is moved in its own way, even if the moving force -be one for all. As then the force cannot move that which walks so as to -make it fly, nor that which lisps to speak clearly, nor the thin voice -to be melodious—why, Battus himself was sent as colonist of Libya to get -his voice, because he was a lisper, with a thin voice, but withal a -kingly, statesman-like, [Sidenote: C] prudent man—, even so it is -impossible for one who has no letters and knows no verse to talk like a -poet. And so she who now serves the God has been born as respectably as -any man here, and has lived as good and orderly a life; but having been -reared in the house of small farmer folk, she brings nothing with her -from art or from any practice or faculty whatsoever, as she goes down -into the sanctuary. As Xenophon[115] thinks that the bride should step -into her husband’s home having seen as little as may be, and heard as -little, so she, ignorant and untried in almost all things, and a true -virgin in soul, is associated with [Sidenote: D] the God. Yet we, who -think that the God, when he “signifies”, uses the cries of herons and -wrens and ravens, and never ask that they, as the messengers and heralds -of the God, should put things into clear rational phrases, do -nevertheless ask that the Pythia should use a voice and style as though -from the Thymele, not unembellished and plain, but with metre and -elevation, and trills, and verbal metaphors, and a flute accompaniment! - -XXIII. ‘What shall we say then about her older predecessors? Not one -thing, I think, but several. In the first place, [Sidenote: E] as has -been already said, they, too, for the most part, used to give the -responses in prose. In the second place, those times produced -temperaments and natural conditions which offered an easy and convenient -channel for the stream of poetry, to which were at once superadded, in -one and another, an eagerness, an impulse, a preparation of soul, all -resulting in a readiness which needed but a slight initial movement from -without to give the imagination a turn. So it was that not only were -astronomers and philosophers drawn, as Philinus says, in their several -directions, but also, when men were mellow with wine and sentiment, some -undercurrent of pity or joy would come, and they would [Sidenote: F] -glide into a song-like voice; drinking parties were filled with amorous -strains and songs, books with poems in writing. When Euripides -wrote:[116] - - _Love can teach, he makes - A poet of a stranger to the Muse_, - -he did not mean that Love implants a faculty for poetry or music; the -faculty is there already, but Love stirs and warms what was latent and -idle. Or are we to say, Sir Stranger, that no one now loves, that Love -has gone by the heels, because there is none who, to quote Pindar,[117] - - _Scatters with easy grace - The vocal shafts of love and joy._ - -[Sidenote: 406] That is absurd. Loves there are and many of them, and -they master men; but when they associate with souls which have no -natural turn for music, they drop the flute and the lyre, yet are vocal -still and fiery through and through, as much as of old. It is an -unhallowed thing to say, and an unfair, that the Academy was loveless, -or the choir of Socrates and Plato; yet, while we have their love -dialogues to read, they have left no poems. Why not declare at once that -Sappho was the only woman who [Sidenote: B] ever loved, if you are to -say that Sibylla alone had the gift of prophecy, or Aristonica, and the -others who delivered themselves in verse? Wine, as Chaeremon[118] used -to say, - - _Is mingled with the moods of them that drink_, - -and the prophetic inspiration, like that of love, uses the faculty which -is subjected to it, and stirs its recipients according to the nature of -each. - -XXIV. ‘Not but that, if we look also into the subject of the God and his -foreknowledge, we shall see that the change has taken place for the -better. For the use of language is like exchange in coined money. Here -also it is familiarity which gives currency, the purchasing power varies -with the times. There was a day when metres, tunes, odes were the coins -of language in use; all History and Philosophy, in a word, every -[Sidenote: C] feeling and action which called for a more solemn -utterance, were drawn to poetry and music. It is not only that now but -few understand, and they with effort, whereas then all the world were -listeners, and all felt pleasure in what was sung, - - _who fats his flock, - Who ploughs the soil, who snares the wingèd game_, - -as Pindar[119] has it. More than that, there was an aptitude for poetry, -most men used the lyre and the ode to rebuke, to encourage, to frame -myths and proverbs; also hymns to the Gods, prayers, thanksgivings, were -composed in metre and song, as genius or practice enabled them to do. -And so it was with prophecy; the God did not grudge it ornament and -grace, or drive from hence into disgrace the honoured Muse of the -tripod; [Sidenote: D] he rather led her on, awakening and welcoming -poetic natures; he gave them visions from himself, he lent his aid to -draw out pomp and eloquence as being fitting and admirable things. Then -there was a change in human life, affecting men both in fortune and in -genius. Expediency banished what was superfluous, top-knots of gold were -dropped, rich robes discarded; probably too clustering curls were shorn -off, and the buskin discontinued. It was not a bad training, to set the -beauty of [Sidenote: E] frugality against that of profusion, to account -what was plain and simple a better ornament than the pompous and -elaborate. So it was with language, it changed with the times, and -shared the general break-up. History got down from its coach, and -dropped metre. Truth was best sifted out from Myth in prose; Philosophy -welcomed clearness, and found it better to instruct than to astonish, so -she pursued her inquiry in plain language. The God made the Pythia leave -off calling her own fellow townsmen “fire-burners”, the Spartans -“serpent-eaters”, [Sidenote: F] men “mountaineers”, rivers -“mountain-drainers”. He cleared the oracles of epic verses, unusual -words, circumlocutions, and vagueness, and so prepared the way to -converse with his consultants just as laws converse with states, as -kings address subjects, as disciples hear their masters speak, so -framing language as to be intelligible and convincing. - -XXV. ‘For it should be clearly understood that the God is, in the words -of Sophocles,[120] - - _Unto the wise a riddling prophet aye, - To silly souls a teacher plain and brief._ - -[Sidenote: 407] The same turn of things which brought clearness brought -also a new standard of belief; it shared the general change. Whereas of -old that which was not familiar or common, but, in plain words, -contorted and over-phrased, was ascribed by the many to an implied -Divinity, and received with awe and reverence; in later times men were -content to learn things clearly and easily with no pomp or artifice; -they began to find fault with the poetical setting of the oracles, not -only as a hindrance to the perception of truth, because it mingled -indistinctness and [Sidenote: B] shadow with the meaning, but also -because by this time they were getting to mistrust metaphors, riddles, -and ambiguities, as so many holes or hiding-places provided for him who -should trip in his prophecy, that he might step into them and secure his -retreat. You might have heard it told by many, how certain persons with -a turn for poetry still sit about the place of oracles, waiting to catch -the utterances, and then weaving verses, metres, rhythms, according to -occasion, as a sort of vehicle. As to your Onomacrituses, and -Herodotuses, and Cinaethons,[121] and the censures which they brought -upon the oracles, by importing tragedy and pomp where they were out of -place, I let the charge pass, and do not admit it. Most, [Sidenote: C] -however, of the discredit which attached so copiously to poetry came -from the gang of soothsayers and scamps who strolled around the -ceremonies of the Great Mother and of Serapis, with their mummeries and -tricks, turning verses out of their own heads, or taking them at random -from handbooks, for servant boys and silly girls, such as are best -attracted by metre and a poetic cast of words; from all which causes -poetry seemed to put herself at the service of cheats, and jugglers, and -lying prophets, and was lost to truth and to the tripod. - -XXVI. ‘Thus I should not be surprised to find that the old people -sometimes required a certain ambiguity, circumlocution, [Sidenote: D] -indistinctness. For it was not then a case of “A” approaching the oracle -with a question, if you please, about the purchase of a slave, or “B” -about business; powerful states, haughty kings and tyrants, would -consult the God on public affairs, men whom it did not answer the -officials of his temple to vex and provoke by letting them hear what -they did not wish to hear. For the God does not obey Euripides,[122] who -sets up as a lawgiver with - - _Phoebus, none but he, - May give men prophecies._ - -[Sidenote: E] He uses mortal men as ministers and prophets, whom it is -his duty to make his care, and to protect, lest they perish at the hands -of the bad while serving him. He does not then choose to conceal the -truth; what he used to do was to give a twist to its manifestation, -which, like a beam of light, is refracted more than once in its passage, -and is parted into many rays as it becomes poetry, and so to remove -whatever in it was harsh and hard. Tyrants might thus be left in -ignorance, and enemies not be forewarned. For them he threw a veil in -the innuendoes [Sidenote: F] and ambiguities which hid the meaning from -others, but did not elude the intelligence of the actual consultants who -gave their whole mind to the answers. Hence, now that things have -changed, it is sheer folly to criticize and find fault with the God, -because he thinks right to give his aid no longer in the same manner but -in another. - -XXVII. ‘Another thing is this: Language receives no greater advantage -from a poetical form than this, that a meaning which is wrapped and -bound in metre is more easily remembered and grasped. Now in those days -much memory was required. Many things used to be explained orally; local -indications, the times when things were to be done, rites of Gods across -the seas, secret burying-places of heroes, hard to be discovered by -those setting off for lands far from Greece. You know about Chius -[Sidenote: 408] and Cretinus, and Nesichus, and Phalanthus, and many -other leaders of expeditions, how many clues they needed to find the -proper place appointed to each for settlement, while some of them missed -the way, as did Battus.[123] He thought that he would be turned out, not -understanding what the place was to which he had been sent; then he came -a second time loudly complaining. Then the God answered: - - _Thou that hast never been there, if thou know’st Libya the - sheepland - Better than I that have been, then wonderful wise is thy wisdom._ - -So he sent him out again. Then Lysander entirely failed to make out the -hill Orchalides,[124] otherwise called Alopecus, and the river Hoplites, - - _Also the dragon, earthborn, in craftiness coming behind thee_, - -and was defeated in battle and slain in those very spots by [Sidenote: -B] Neochorus, a man of Haliartus, who bore a shield with the device of a -serpent. There are many such answers given to the old people, all hard -to grasp and remember, which I need not give you at length, since you -know them. - -XXVIII. ‘Our present settled condition, out of which the questions now -put to the God arise, I welcome and accept. There is great peace and -tranquillity, war has been made to cease, there are no wanderings in -exile, no revolutions, no tyrannies, no other plagues or ills in Greece -asking for potent and extraordinary remedies. But when there is nothing -complicated or mysterious, or dangerous, only questions on petty -[Sidenote: C] popular matters, like school themes, “whether I should -marry”, “whether I should sail”, “whether I should lend”, and the most -serious responses given to states are concerning harvests and -cattle-breeding and public health, to clothe these in metre, to devise -circumlocutions, to introduce strange words on questions calling for a -plain, concise answer, is what an ambitious sophist might do, bedizening -the oracle for his own glory. But the Pythia is a lady in herself, and -when she descends thither and is in the presence of the God, she cares -for truth rather than for [Sidenote: D] glory, or for the praise or -blame of men. - -XXIX. ‘So perhaps ought we too to feel. As it is, in a sort of agony of -fear, lest the place should lose its reputation of three thousand years, -and a few persons should think lightly of it and cease to visit the -oracle, for all the world as if it were a sophist’s school, we -apologize, and make up reasons and theories about things which we -neither know nor ought to know. We smooth the critic down, and try to -persuade him, whereas we ought to bid him be gone— - - _He shall first suffer in a loss not light_—[125] - -[Sidenote: E] if that is the view which he takes of the God. Thus, while -you welcome and admire what the Wise Men of old have written up: “Know -thyself”, and “Nothing too much”, not least because of the brevity which -includes in a small compass a close hammer-beaten sense, you blame the -oracles because they mostly use concise, plain, direct phrases. It is -with sayings like those of the Wise Men as with streams compressed into -a narrow channel; there is no distinctness or transparency to the eye of -the mind, but if you look into what has been written or said about them -by those who have wished to learn the full meaning of each, you -[Sidenote: F] will not easily find longer treatises elsewhere. The -language of the Pythia illustrates what mathematicians mean by calling a -straight line the shortest between the same points; it makes no bending, -or curve, or doubling or ambiguity; it lies straight towards truth, it -takes risks,[126] its good faith is open to examination, and it has -never yet been found wrong; it has filled the shrine [Sidenote: 409] -with offerings from Barbarians and Greeks, and has beautified it with -noble buildings and Amphictyonic fittings. Why, you see for yourselves -many buildings added which were not here formerly, many restored which -were ruinous or destroyed. As new trees spring up by the side of those -in vigorous bearing, so the Pylaea flourishes together with Delphi and -is fed upon the same meat; the plenty of the one causes the other to -take on shapeliness and figure and a beauty of temples, and halls of -meeting and fountains of water, such as it never had in the thousand -years before. Now those who dwell about Galaxius [Sidenote: B] in -Boeotia felt the manifest presence of the God in the abundance and more -than abundance of milk: - - _From all the kine and every flock, - Plenteous as water from the rock, - Came welling, gurgling on its way - The milk that day. - Hot foot they hied them to the task, - To fill the pail, to fill the cask; - No beechen bowl or crock of clay, - No pot or pan had holiday; - Wine-skin or flagon, none might stay - Within, that day._[127] - -But to us he gives tokens brighter and stronger and more evident than -these, in having, after the days of drought, of desertion and poverty, -brought us plenty, splendour, and reputation. True, I am well pleased -with myself for anything which my own [Sidenote: C] zeal or service may -have contributed to this result in support of Polycrates and Petraeus, -well pleased too with him who has been our leader in this policy, to -whose thought and planning most of the improvements are due; but it is -wholly impossible that so great, so vast a change could have been -effected in this short time by merely human care, with no God present -here or lending his Divinity to the place of the oracle. - -XXX. ‘But as in those days there were some who found fault with the -responses for obliquity and want of clearness, so now there are those -who criticize them as too simple, which is childishness indeed and rank -stupidity! For as children show more glee and satisfaction at the sight -of rainbows or haloes or comets than in that of the sun or of the moon, -so do these [Sidenote: D] people regret the riddles, allegories, and -metaphors which are so many modes of refraction of prophetic art in a -mortal and fanciful medium. And if they do not fully inquire into the -cause of the change, they go away having passed judgement against the -God, rather than against ourselves or themselves, for having a power of -thought which is too feeble to attain to his counsels.’ - -Footnote 84: - - Again quoted by Plutarch, p. 777 C. - -Footnote 85: - - _Od._ 7, 107. - -Footnote 86: - - Fr. 7. - -Footnote 87: - - In a lost ‘Hymn’, Fr. 32. - -Footnote 88: - - See H. Richards in _Classical Review_, vol. 29, p. 233. - -Footnote 89: - - Reading Ἑλλήνων as Ed. Teub. fr. Stegmann. - -Footnote 90: - - _Rhet._ 3, 11. - -Footnote 91: - - Puteoli. - -Footnote 92: - - πετρῶν καταφλεγομένων (J. H. W. Strijd in _Class. Rev._ vol. 28, p. - 218). - -Footnote 93: - - Quoted by Menander, Fr. 243 (Meineke). - -Footnote 94: - - Quoted also in the _Life of Agesilaus_, c. 3, p. 597. - -Footnote 95: - - Palaea Kaumene, a volcanic island ejected in 196 B. C. See Tozer’s - _Islands of the Aegean_, p. 97 foll. - -Footnote 96: - - _Od._ 3, 1. - -Footnote 97: - - _Tim._ 90. - -Footnote 98: - - See p. 283. - -Footnote 99: - - Xen. _Sympos._ c. 2. - -Footnote 100: - - Reading χώρας for δωρεᾶς with Emperius (ap. Ed. Teub.). - -Footnote 101: - - See Herod. 1, 51. - -Footnote 102: - - Fr. 44. - -Footnote 103: - - Here the text is defective. - -Footnote 104: - - Here the text is defective. - -Footnote 105: - - I, 118. - -Footnote 106: - - MSS. have ‘Pausanias’. - -Footnote 107: - - These words are supplied from the text of Thucydides, 5, 10. - -Footnote 108: - - The word ἀναγκαῖον is suggested by the Teubner Editor. - -Footnote 109: - - Fr. 11. - -Footnote 110: - - _Od._ 2, 372. - -Footnote 111: - - _Il._ 2, 169 foll. - -Footnote 112: - - _Il._ 4, 86 foll. - -Footnote 113: - - _Il._ 5, beg. - -Footnote 114: - - The MSS. have ‘Pandarus’, but ‘Pindar’ is a likely correction. Yet - Plutarch cannot have supposed Pindar to have written this iambic line. - It is quoted by Aristophanes, _Peace_, 699, in connexion with the - stinginess of Sophocles _or_ Simonides, and the scholiast quotes from - Pindar a censure of that vice in a poet: so some confusion is - possible. - -Footnote 115: - - _Oeconom._ 7, 4 foll. - -Footnote 116: - - In the _Stheneboea_. - -Footnote 117: - - _Isthm._ 2, 3. - -Footnote 118: - - Fr. 16 (Nauck). - -Footnote 119: - - _Isthm._ 1, 69. - -Footnote 120: - - Fr. 707. - -Footnote 121: - - So Cobet (for Cinesons). - -Footnote 122: - - _Phoen._ 958. - -Footnote 123: - - See Herod. 4, 155 foll. and Pind. _Pyth._ 4. There is something amiss - with Plutarch’s text here. - -Footnote 124: - - See his _Life_, c. 29. - -Footnote 125: - - _Od._ 2, 190. - -Footnote 126: - - See additional note on p. 312. - -Footnote 127: - - Fragm. adespota, 90. - - - - - III - ON THE CESSATION OF THE ORACLES - - -A DIALOGUE INSCRIBED TO TERENTIUS PRISCUS - - -THE SPEAKERS - - LAMPRIAS, Plutarch’s brother. - CLEOMBROTUS, of Lacedaemon, a scientific traveller, and a - theologian, who had been up the Red Sea, and, lately, to Ammon. - DIDYMUS, a Cynic philosopher. - PHILIPPUS, an historian. - DEMETRIUS, a ‘grammarian’ of Tarsus, now returning from Britain. - AMMONIUS, the philosopher. - HERACLEON, of Megara, a young man. - -TIME: A little before the Pythian games of Callistratus’ year, perhaps -A. D. 83-4. - -1 and 2. CLEOMBROTUS mentions the undying lamp flame at Ammon, said to -require less oil each year, a proof that the years are growing shorter. - -3. DEMETRIUS thinks the cause inadequate and CLEOMBROTUS mentions other -instances of important phenomena due to insignificant causes. - -4. AMMONIUS points out that all the heavenly bodies are involved in the -hypothesis, and suggests other causes, as changes in temperature or in -the quality of the oil. - -5. LAMPRIAS invites Cleombrotus to tell the company about the oracle of -Ammon. DEMETRIUS suggests, as a subject nearer home, the failure of the -oracles in Boeotia (except those in the neighbourhood of Lebadeia). - -6. We were passing out of the temple, and were near the Hall of the -Cnidians, where HERACLEON and our other friends were waiting for us, in -silence. On a request from DEMETRIUS they agree to join in our -discussion. - -7. DIDYMUS the Cynic (‘Planetiades’) makes an angry protest: the wonder -being that Providence itself had not deserted this bad world long ago. -Heracleon and LAMPRIAS humour him, and he leaves the place quietly. - -8. AMMONIUS addresses Lamprias: ‘I too deprecate the tone of Didymus. -Still we may recognize other causes, besides providential action, for -the cessation of the oracles, e.g. the depopulation of Greece and -specially of Boeotia.’ - -9. LAMPRIAS: ‘We may believe in Gods, yet hold that their works may be -interrupted by specific causes. It is not necessary that the God should -personally operate in his oracles.’ - -10. CLEOMBROTUS agreed, but observed that the hypothesis was much -relieved by assuming the existence of daemons, a middle order between -Gods and men, and not immortal, - -11. But long-lived—say 9,720 years (as Hesiod)—‘What?’ interrupted -DEMETRIUS; ‘Hesiod was leading up to the Stoic “Conflagration”!’ - -12. CLEOMBROTUS refuses to split straws as to the duration of a daemon’s -life; the point is that there are such things as daemons. - -13. The daemons have been compared (by Xenocrates) to an isosceles -triangle (Gods to an equilateral, men to a scalene). Or again to the -moon, which is half earth, half star. - -14. Instances of daemonic rites, - -15. And daemonic stories, wrongly attributed to Gods, as that of Delphi -(PHILIPPUS shows surprise) and the flight of Apollo. - -16. HERACLEON (first addressing PHILIPPUS) allows that daemons, not -Gods, may be concerned with oracles, but then they must be sinless -beings—CLEOMBROTUS: “Sinless daemons—if so, they would no longer be -daemons”: - -17. And quotes stories to prove that daemons may be faulty, and one as -to the death of Pan to prove that they may be mortal. - -18. DEMETRIUS confirms this from his experiences in and about Britain. - -19. CLEOMBROTUS compares the Stoic view of Gods who are perishable with -the Epicurean ‘Infinity’. - -20. AMMONIUS defends Empedocles’ view of faulty daemons against the -Epicureans, who held that, if faulty, they must be short-lived. As the -Epicureans are not represented, he calls on Cleombrotus to continue his -argument for the migration of daemons. - -21. CLEOMBROTUS, first referring to Plato, has a story of an oriental -recluse, whom he had met about the Red Sea. He knew all the Delphi -legend, and referred it to the struggles of daemons, who took on the -names of the Gods to whom they were severally attached. - -22. ‘But how does Plato come in?’ asked HERACLEON. ‘Because’, replied -CLEOMBROTUS, ‘Plato allowed a possibility of more worlds than one, up to -five; the recluse asserted (giving no proof) that there were exactly one -hundred and eighty-three worlds.’ - -23. ‘The impostor!’ says LAMPRIAS; ‘that view is purely Greek, and was -put into a book by one Petron of Himera long ago.’ HERACLEON and -DEMETRIUS exchange remarks about Plato’s views on a plurality of worlds, -and agree to refer the matter to LAMPRIAS, who offers to give a cursory -account, the discussion then to revert to the original question. - -[24-end. Lamprias is the speaker, with an interposition by Ammonius in -c. 33 and again in c. 46, and by Demetrius, who answers a question in c. -45, and some shorter ones.] - -24. LAMPRIAS _loq._: It is _a priori_ likely that this world is not a -sole creation. - -25. There need be no fear of interference from outside, of world with -world. Aristotle’s view of the arrangement of matter stated, - -26. And considered. - -27. The idea of a middle point is applicable to each world severally, -not to the confederation of worlds. - -28. The case of the ‘stone outside the world’ (the moon?), which some -regard as no part of our earth, and therefore not bound to move towards -it. The paradoxical views of Chrysippus. - -29. The Stoic difficulty as to Zeus or Providence in the plural met. Why -not a choir of such powers, free to range from part to part of the -universe? - -30. Such a view of deities sociable and free to communicate with each -other is the grander one. - -31. (PHILIPPUS asks to have the bearing of the number five and the five -solid figures on Plato’s scheme explained.) - -32. LAMPRIAS: The matter is thus explained by Theodorus of Soli:[128] -There are five and no more solid figures having all the faces and all -the solid angles in each equal. These are— - -(_a_) The Pyramid (Tetrahedron) with four faces, each an equilateral -triangle, and four solid angles, - -(_b_) The Cube, six faces, each a square, and eight solid angles, - -(_c_) The Octahedron, eight faces, each an equilateral triangle, and six -solid angles, - -(_d_) The Dodecahedron, twelve faces, each a regular pentagon, and -twenty solid angles, - -(_e_) The Eicosahedron, twenty faces, each an equilateral triangle, and -twelve solid angles. - -[It follows that (_d_) having more, and blunter, solid angles than any, -most nearly approximates to the Sphere. (And, in fact, if the content of -the Sphere be 100, that of (_d_) is 66·5, that of (_e_) only 60·5, that -of (_c_) 36·75, and so on). Plato (_Timaeus_, pp. 53-5, where see -Archer-Hind) shows that each equilateral triangle may easily be broken -into six ‘primary scalenes’, i. e. triangles with angles 90°, 60°, 30°, -which again will reproduce themselves _ad infinitum_ (Euclid, 6, 8). -Hence, if a universe be constructed out of (_a_) or (_c_) or (_e_) or -their plane faces, or of all of these, it can, in case of dissolution, -be reconstructed. This does not apply to the Cube, the faces of which, -however, yield isosceles right-angled triangles, also available as -‘constituents’ in infinite number, nor yet to (_d_) which is therefore -reserved for another purpose, as to which see Burnet (_Early Greek -Philosophers_, c. 7, sect. 148).] - -The solid figures may be used to construct five different worlds, or -omitting (_d_) for the four ‘elements’ (fire, &c.). - -33. AMMONIUS criticizes; he points out that the difficulty about the -figure (_d_) has been ignored. - -34. LAMPRIAS drops the subject for the present, and turns to the five -categories of being in the _Sophistes_ and _Philebus_. It is reasonable -to assume that the physical universe may correspond. - -35. Consider the Pythagorean first principles of number and the origin -of the number five out of the first odd and the first even. - -36. Five senses, five fingers, five planets (the sun with the two inner -planets taken as one). - -37. The relation of the five solid figures to Plato’s theory of creation -further considered. But we are on slippery ground here. - -38. LAMPRIAS is invited to return to the original question, as to the -oracles and the migration of daemons. - -39. LAMPRIAS resumes: - -Why should the prophetic gift be associated with daemons, i.e. souls -which have left the body, rather than with those still in the flesh, -though it may be more energetic after death? Compare the processes of -Memory. - -40. Divination touches on the future through bodily conditions assisted -by emanations and the like. - -41. The special virtues of certain vapours or streams, as the Cydnus at -Tarsus. - -42. The story of the first discovery of the Adytum of Delphi by the -shepherd Coretas. There must be sympathy of soul with prophecy, as of -the eye with light. The identification of Apollo with the sun. - -43. The local prophetic currents may shift their place about, as rivers -and lakes are known to do. - -44. Physical commotions, especially earthquakes, may be expected to -cause such shiftings. - -45. DEMETRIUS has been too long away from home to answer as to the -Cydnus, but he tells a story about the oracle of Mopsus, which had -convinced a sceptical magistrate. - -46. AMMONIUS and PHILIPPUS have points to raise. That of the latter is -as to the identity of the sun with Apollo, and is allowed to stand over. -AMMONIUS protests against the ascription of all prophecy to material -causes, but wishes to hear the view of LAMPRIAS. - -47. LAMPRIAS observes that Plato had made a similar protest against -Anaxagoras. _Both_ sets of causes must be recognized. - -48. And so in the case of prophetic utterances. - -49. The actual procedure of Delphi, and the tests applied to the victim, -justified. - -50. The influences to which the prophetess is subject. - -51. Story of a prophetess who was wrongly pressed when the conditions -were adverse. The force of the exhalation affects different persons -differently. It is essentially daemonic, but not exempt from change or -decay. - -52. The subject is difficult, and must remain open to discussion, as -also the question raised by Philippus about Apollo and the sun. - - - ON THE CESSATION OF THE ORACLES - - -I. There is a story, Terentius Priscus, that certain eagles [Sidenote: -409] or swans, in flight from the extremities of earth to its middle -[Sidenote: F] point, met at Delphi near the Navel, as we call it; that -later on Epimenides of Phaestus came to examine into the story in the -God’s house, and, receiving an indistinct and ambiguous response, wrote - - _No central boss there is of land or sea, - The Gods may know one, but from man ’tis hid._ - -As for the inquirer, he was properly punished by the God for putting an -old story to the proof as though fingering a picture. [Sidenote: 410] - -II. However, shortly before the Pythian games of Callistratus’ year, it -happened that two holy men, travelling from opposite ends of the -inhabited globe, met at Delphi; Demetrius the grammarian, on his -homeward voyage from Britain to Tarsus, and Cleombrotus the -Lacedaemonian, who had wandered much in Egypt and about the land of the -Troglodytes, and had sailed far up the Red Sea, not for commerce, but -because he loved sights and information. Possessing a competence, and -being indifferent to having more, he would use his leisure [Sidenote: B] -in such ways, putting together facts as material for a Philosophy which -was to end in what he himself called Theology. Having lately been at the -temple of Ammon, he made it clear that he was far from admiring its -general arrangements, but he told us a story worthy of serious interest -as related by the priests, about the lamp which is never extinguished. -They say that it consumes less oil each successive year, and claim this -as a proof of an inequality in the years which makes each less in -duration [Sidenote: C] than its predecessor. Of course, the shorter the -period the less the consumption. - -III. All present found this wonderful, and Demetrius observed that it -was quite absurd to hunt out such great results from trifles; not, as -Alcaeus puts it, to take the claw and paint the lion from it, but with a -wick and a lamp to shift the whole order of the heavens, and make a -clean sweep of Mathematics. ‘Nothing of that sort will disturb those -gentlemen;’ said Cleombrotus, ‘they will never give in to the -mathematicians on the point of accuracy; they would think it easier for -them to be wrong in their time about movements and periods so [Sidenote: -D] very remote, than for themselves to be wrong in measuring the oil, -when they had their attention jealously fixed all the time on so strange -a phenomenon. Besides, Demetrius, not to allow small things as -indications of great ones would be to stop the way against many arts; -many proofs will be put out of account, and many predictions. Yet you -grammarians prove a fact of no less importance than that the heroes of -old shaved with the razor, because you meet with the word “razor” in -Homer,[129] and again, that they lent money at interest, because he has - - _Since of a debt there owing I have need, - Long-standing and not small_,[130] - -where the word for “to owe” imports increase! Again, when [Sidenote: E] -he calls night “swift”,[131] you fasten lovingly on the word, and -actually say that it implies that the shadow is conical, as thrown by a -spherical body. Then Medicine tells us that an abundance of spiders -prognosticates a summer of pestilence, and so does a crow’s-foot on the -fig leaves in spring. Who is going to allow this, unless he grants that -small things may be indications of great ones? Who will endure that the -magnitude of the sun should be measured by “half-gallon or half-pint”, -or that the acute angle made on the sundial here by the gnomon with the -surface should be a measure of the elevation of the [Sidenote: F] -visible poles above the horizon? Such, at any rate, were the accounts to -be heard from the prophets down there, so that we must have some other -answer to give if we wish to keep for the sun his constitutional order -without deviation.’ - -IV. ‘Not for the sun only,’ cried Ammonius the philosopher, who was -present, ‘but for the whole heavens! For his passage from solstice to -solstice must of necessity be curtailed and not [Sidenote: 411] cover so -large a portion of the firmament as mathematicians say, its southern -parts constantly shrinking towards the more northerly. Our summer, too, -must become shorter, and its temperature colder, as his course curves -inwards, and he covers wider parallels among the tropical -constellations. Again, the gnomons at Syene must cease to throw no -shadow at the summer solstice; many fixed stars would be found to have -closed in, some of them touching others and being mingled with them as -the interval disappeared. If, on the other hand, they shall [Sidenote: -B] assert that the other bodies remain as they are, the sun alone being -irregular in his movements, they will be unable to state the cause which -accelerates him alone out of so many bodies, and will throw most of the -phenomena into confusion, those of the moon entirely, so that there will -be no need of measures of oil to prove the difference; eclipses will -prove it, when the sun comes into contact with the moon more frequently, -and the moon with the earth’s shadow. The rest is clear, and there is no -need to unravel any further the imposture of the theory.’ ‘For all -that,’ said Cleombrotus, ‘I saw the measures with my own eyes, for they -showed me several; that of the current year [Sidenote: C] fell -considerably short of the oldest.’ Ammonius rejoined: ‘Then it has -escaped all the others who keep up unextinguished fires, and preserve -them for a number of years which we may call infinite. Assume, however, -that what is said is true; is it not better to take the cause to be -atmospheric chills or moisture, which might probably weaken the fire so -that it would not consume or need so much fuel; on the other hand, times -of dryness or heat? Before now I have heard it said of fire that it -burns better and with more strength in winter, being [Sidenote: D] -contracted and condensed by the cold, whereas in hot times it loses -power, and becomes attenuated and feeble; again, that in sunlight it is -less efficient, attacking the fuel sluggishly and consuming it more -slowly. Most likely of all, the true cause may be in the oil. There is -no improbability in thinking that it was in old days unsubstantial and -watery, being produced from a young plant, but afterwards, when well -matured and condensed, it had more force and better nutritive power in -an equal quantity. I am supposing that we are bound to save this -hypothesis for the servants of Ammon, absurd and unnatural as it is.’ - -[Sidenote: E] V. When Ammonius had done, ‘Rather’, said I, ‘tell us all -about the oracle, Cleombrotus; for the old reputation of the divine -power there was great, nowadays it seems to be somewhat dwindling.’ As -Cleombrotus was silent, and cast his eyes downwards, Demetrius said: -‘There is no need to raise questions about what is happening there, when -we see the growing enfeeblement of the oracles nearer home, I might -rather say the cessation of all save one or two; the question is from -what cause has their power thus passed away? Why mention others, when -Boeotia, in old times full of voices with her oracles, has now been -quite deserted, as though by sources of [Sidenote: F] water, and a great -drought of prophecy has possessed the land? Nowhere, except round -Lebadeia, has Boeotia anything to give to those who wish to draw water -from prophetic art; for the rest, silence or utter desertion is the -order. Yet in the times of the Persian wars it was in no less repute -than that of [Sidenote: 412] Amphiaraus, and Mys, as it would seem, -tried both.[132] So the prophet of the Ptoan Oracle, in former times -accustomed to use Aeolian, uttered a response in the tongue of the -Barbarians, which none of the local persons present understood, but Mys -alone; however, the Barbarian caught the inspiration, and the injunction -did not need to be translated into Greek. As to the slave sent to the -shrine of Amphiaraus, he seemed to see in his sleep a minister of the -God, who first spoke to turn him out telling him that the God was not -present, then used his hands to push him, and, when he persisted, took a -great stone and smote him on the head. This was all a [Sidenote: B] -prediction in act of what was to come about; for Mardonius was defeated -by the Greeks under no king but a regent and a lieutenant of a king, and -he fell struck by a stone,[133] just as the Lydian appeared in his sleep -to be struck. At that time the oracle at Tegyrae was flourishing; there -they say that the God was born, and of the streams which flow past it -one, as some tell, is called the “Palm”, the other the “Olive” to this -day. Again, in the Persian wars, when Echecrates was prophet, the God -promised victory and might in war to [Sidenote: C] the Greeks. Then in -the Peloponnesian war, when the Delians had been turned out of their -island, it is said that an oracle was brought from Delphi, ordering them -to discover the place where Apollo was born, and to perform certain -sacrifices there. When they were in wonder and perplexity at the idea -that the God had not been born among them but elsewhere, the Pythia -added that a crow should reveal to them the spot. They went away and -reached Chaeroneia, where they heard the landlord of the inn conversing -with certain strangers on their way to Tegyrae about the oracle. These -strangers, on leaving, addressed the woman in saying farewell as Corone -(Crow). Then they [Sidenote: D] understood the oracle, and having -sacrificed at Tegyrae, managed shortly to effect their return. There -have been more recent manifestations at these prophetic shrines, but now -they have failed; so that it may well be worth while here, in the home -of the Pythian, to discuss the cause of the change.’ - -VI. By this time we were away from the temple, and had reached the doors -of the Hall of the Cnidians. Passing inside, we saw the friends for whom -we were making, seated and waiting for us. There was a general stillness -because of the hour; people were anointing themselves or watching the -athletes. Then Demetrius, with a quiet smile, said: ‘Shall [Sidenote: E] -I tell a story, or shall I speak the truth? My belief is that you have -no problem in hand worth a thought; I see you seated much at your ease, -with relaxation on your faces.‘ ‘Oh yes;’ broke in the Megarian -Heracleon, ‘we are not inquiring whether the verb “to throw” loses a -lambda in the future, nor as to the positive forms of “worse”, “better”, -“worst”, [Sidenote: F] “best”. Those are the questions, those and others -like them, which bring frowns and wrinkles! All others we may examine -like philosophers, with brows steady, and quietly, not looking death and -daggers at the company.’ ‘Then take us as we are,’ said Demetrius, ‘and -with us the subject upon which we have actually fallen, one which is -proper to the place, and concerns us all for the God’s sake. And mind! -no wrinkled eyebrows when you attack it!’ - -VII. We mingled our companies and sate down in and out [Sidenote: 413] -of each other, and Demetrius had propounded the subject, when up sprang -the Cynic Didymus, by nickname Planetiades, struck the ground two or -three times and shouted out: ‘Oho! Oho! a mighty difficult subject, -which needs much inquiry, you have brought us! A wonder indeed that, -with so much wickedness poured over the earth, not only “Modesty and -Sense of Justice”, to quote Hesiod,[134] have deserted human life, but -Divine Providence, too, has packed up its oracles and is gone from -everywhere. I throw out the opposite problem for you to discuss. Why -have they not ceased long ago? Why has not Hercules or some other God -withdrawn the tripod, [Sidenote: B] filled every day with foul ungodly -questions, propounded to the God by some as if he were a sophist whom -they were to catch out, by others to ask about treasures or inheritances -or marriages which law forbids. The result is that Pythagoras is proved -mighty wrong when he said that men are always at their best when they -approach the Gods.[135] Accordingly, things which it were decent to -cloak and deny in the presence of an older man, diseases and affections -of the soul, these they lay bare and open before the God!’ He wanted to -go on, but Heracleon plucked at his cloak, and I, almost his greatest -[Sidenote: C] intimate present, said: ‘Dear Planetiades, leave off -provoking the God. He is easy to be entreated and gentle: - - _Mildest to mortal men pronounced to be_, - -as Pindar[136] says. And whether he be sun, or lord and father of the -sun, lord and father beyond all that is visible, it is not likely that -he should deem us modern men unworthy of a voice from himself, being to -them the cause of birth and nurture and being and thinking. It is not -seemly, either, that Providence, our thoughtful kindly mother, who -produces and maintains all things for us, should remember our misdeeds -in one matter only—prophecy, and should take away what she [Sidenote: D] -originally gave. As if in those old days there were not more bad men -because men were more, when oracles were set up in so many parts of the -inhabited world! Come here, and sit down again! Swear a Pythian truce -with wickedness, whom you are chastising in word every day; join us in -seeking some other cause for the alleged failure of the oracles.’ My -words had some effect; Planetiades went away by the doors and in -silence. - -VIII. There was a short interval of quiet, then Ammonius [Sidenote: E] -addressed me. ‘Lamprias,’ he said, ‘take care what we are doing, and -give your mind to the discussion, lest we find ourselves making out that -the God is no true cause. He who thinks that the cessation of the -oracles is due to something other than the will of a God, suggests the -thought that they come into being and exist, not because of the God, but -in some other way. For if prophecy be the work of a God, there is no -greater or stronger power to remove and abolish it. Now the argument of -Planetiades displeased me in many points, especially as to the -inconsistency which he makes out in the God, at one time [Sidenote: F] -turning away from vice and disowning it, at another admitting it; as -though a king or tyrant were to shut out bad men at one door, and admit -them to interviews by another. Start with the operation most proper to -the Gods, which is great, yet never excessive, always sufficient in -itself; and tell me that [Sidenote: 414] Hellas has had the largest -share in the general depopulation caused by former revolutions and wars -over the whole perhaps of the inhabited globe, and could now scarcely -provide all round three thousand hoplites, the number which the single -state of Megara sent out to Plataea.[137] Why, for the God to have left -many places of his oracle would be merely to expose the desolation of -Greece. Then I will put myself in your hands for ingenuity. For who -would get the good if there were an oracle at Tegyrae as there formerly -was, or near Ptoum, where it is a day’s work to meet one man minding his -flocks. This very spot, most venerable of all and most renowned “for -time and fame”, was for a long time made desert and unapproachable by a -savage beast, a female dragon as the story goes; but this is to invert -the facts of its lying idle; the [Sidenote: B] wilderness invited the -beast, the beast did not make the wilderness. But when, in the good -pleasure of the God, Hellas revived in her cities, and the place had men -in plenty, two prophetesses were employed, who were lowered in turn, and -a third was appointed to relieve. Now there is only one, and we do not -complain, for she is enough for those who need her. So we have no cause -to blame the God; the prophetic establishment now subsisting suffices -for all, and sends away all with what they want. Agamemnon used to -employ seven heralds, yet [Sidenote: C] scarcely could control the -numerous assembly, whereas in a few days you will see in the theatre -here that a single voice reaches all present, and even so it is with -prophecy; then it used more voices to reach more persons, now we should -fairly wonder at the God if he allowed his prophecy to flow to waste -like water, or like the rocks to find an echo for the voices of -shepherds and their flocks.’ - -IX. When Ammonius had said this, and I remained silent, Cleombrotus -addressed me: ‘Have you now granted’, he said, [Sidenote: D] ‘that the -God makes and also destroys the oracles?’ ‘By no means’, I said. ‘I -maintain that no prophetic shrine or oracle is destroyed by the God’s -agency. It is as with many other things which he makes or provides; -Nature brings in destruction and negation; or rather Matter, which is -negation, unweaves and breaks up that which is brought into being by the -more powerful cause. Even so I think there are times of obscuration and -withdrawal of prophetic forces. The God gives many fair things to men, -but gives nothing immortal, so that, in the words of Sophocles:[138] - - _The works of Gods may die, but not the Gods._ - -I say that their essence and their power must be sought in [Sidenote: E] -Nature and in Matter, the origin being rightly reserved to the God. It -would be simple and childish to suppose that the God himself creeps into -the bodies of the prophets and speaks from there, using as instruments -their mouths and voices, like those ventriloquists once called -“Eurycleis”, now “Pythones”. He who mixes up the God with mortal needs -does not spare [Sidenote: F] his majesty nor preserve the dignity and -the greatness of his excellence.’ - -X. Then Cleombrotus: ‘You are right. Yet it is hard to grasp and to -define how, and up to what point, we may make use of Providence; and -therefore those who make the God the cause of nothing at all, and also -those who make him the common cause of all, go wide of moderation and -decency. It is well said, on the one hand, that Plato, in discovering -the element which underlies created qualities, now called “Matter” or -“Nature”, relieved philosophers from perplexities [Sidenote: 415] many -and great. It seems to me, on the other, that those who have inserted -the class of daemons between Gods and men, to draw and knit together the -fellowship of the two orders after a fashion, have cleared away more -perplexities and greater; whether the view belongs to Zoroaster and the -Magi, or comes from Thrace and Orpheus, or from Egypt, or from Phrygia, -as we conjecture from seeing in both those countries many elements of -death and mourning in the rites celebrated there, mingled with those of -initiation. Among the Greeks, Homer appears still to use both names -indifferently, and sometimes [Sidenote: B] to call the Gods daemons. -Hesiod first clearly and distinctly laid down four classes of reasonable -beings, Gods, then daemons, then heroes, last of all men; and here he -appears to admit transition, the golden race of men passing into daemons -many and great, the demigods at last into heroes.[139] Others make out a -change for bodies and souls alike. As water is seen to be produced out -of earth, air from water, and fire from air, and the substance is borne -upwards, even so the better souls receive their change from men into -heroes, from heroes into daemons. From the daemons again, a few in a -long course of time, upborne [Sidenote: C] through virtue, become full -partakers of divine nature. To some it happens not to have control of -themselves; so they subside and again enter mortal bodies, and endure a -life as dim and unillumined as an exhalation. - -XI. ‘Hesiod thinks that in certain periods of time the daemons die. -Speaking in the person of the Naïd he darkly indicates the time: - - _Full ages nine of men that live their prime - Lives the hoarse crow, four crows the stag outlives, - Three stags the ancient raven, ravens nine - The phoenix, but the phoenix, ten times told, - We fair-haired nymphs, daughters of Zeus most dread._[140] - -[Sidenote: D] Those who take the word “age” wrong bring this to a very -large total; it means a year, so that the sum comes out nine thousand -seven hundred and twenty for the years of life of the daemons. Most -mathematicians think it to be less; not even Pindar[141] has called it -greater, when he tells us that the nymphs live - - _Their term appointed even as the trees_, - -and therefore names them Hamadryads.’ He was still [Sidenote: E] -speaking when Demetrius broke in: ‘What was that, Cleombrotus? The year -called an “age of man”? Human life, whether “at its prime” or, as -some[142] read “in its old age” is not of that length. Those who read -“at its prime”, follow Heraclitus[143] in taking “an age” to be thirty -years, the time in which the parent sees his offspring a parent. Those -who read “in its old age” instead of “at its prime” give a hundred and -eight years to the “age”, taking the middle term of human life to be -fifty-four, the number made up of unity, the two first surfaces, the two -first squares and the two [Sidenote: F] first cubes,[144] the number -taken by Plato[145] in his “Generation of the Soul”. Hesiod’s whole -story seems to have been framed with a veiled reference to the -“Conflagration”, when all things moist will probably disappear and with -them the Nymphs, - - _Who in fair glades their habitation have - By river sources and in grassy meads._‘[146] - -XII. Then Cleombrotus: ‘I hear of this from many, and now I see the -Stoic “Conflagration”, which already spreads over the verses of -Heraclitus and Orpheus, catching those of Hesiod [Sidenote: 416] too! I -have no patience with this “World-Conflagration”, and then the -impossibility of the thing! When one can remember the periods, as it is -easiest to do with the crow and the hind, one sees how exaggeration -passes in. The year has within itself the beginning and the end - - _Of all things which the circling seasons bear, - And parent earth_,[147] - -so there is nothing against usage in calling it an “age of man”. You -allow yourselves, I believe, that Hesiod means human life by “the age”. -Is it not so?’ Demetrius agreed. ‘Well, [Sidenote: B] but this is also -clear,’ said Cleombrotus, ‘that the same words are often used for the -measure and the things measured, as pint, quart, gallon, bushel. As then -we call unity a number, being the smallest measure of number and its -origin, so he has called our first measure of human life by the same -word as the thing measured—“an age”. The numbers which the others invent -have none of the clarity or distinctness usual in numbers. As to the -nine thousand seven hundred and twenty, it has come about by taking the -sum of the first four numbers, starting with [Sidenote: C] unity, and -multiplying it by four, or four by ten.[148] Thus we get forty in either -way, which, when five times multiplied [triangle-wise][149] by three, -gave the number proposed. But about these matters there need be no -difference between us and Demetrius. Whether the time be longer or -shorter, determinate or not, in which the soul of a daemon shifts and -the life of a demigod, the point will have been proved, before any judge -he chooses, on the evidence of wise and ancient witnesses, that there -are certain natures on the borderland between Gods and men, subject to -mortal affections and enforced changes, who may rightly receive our -worship according to the custom of our fathers, and be thought of as -daemons and called so. - -XIII. ‘Xenocrates, the companion of Plato, used triangles [Sidenote: D] -in illustration of the doctrine; he compared the equilateral to a divine -nature, the scalene to a mortal, and the isosceles to a daemonic; the -first equal in all relations, the second unequal in all, the third equal -in some, unequal in others, like the daemonic nature with its mortal -passions and divine power. Nature has put forward images, which our -sense can perceive, visible likenesses; the sun and the stars standing -for Gods, flashes and comets and meteors for mortal men, an image which -Euripides[150] drew in the lines: [Sidenote: E] - - _In all his bloom, like to a falling star - His light was quenched, his spirit passed, to air._ - -But there is a being which is mixed, and really an imitation of the -daemons, the moon. Men, seeing her circumference so much in accord with -that order of beings, the manifest wanings and waxings and phases which -she undergoes, have called her, some an earthlike star, others an -Olympian earth, others “the portion of Hecate”, who belongs at once to -heaven and earth. As, then, if one were to remove the lower air, -withdrawing all [Sidenote: F] between earth and moon, an empty -unconnected space would be left, and the unity and continuity of the -whole dissolved, even so those who refuse to leave us the daemons break -off all intercourse and mutual dealing between Gods and men, by removing -that order in Nature which could “interpret”, in Plato’s[151] words, and -“minister”, or else they compel us to mingle all things into one mass, -forcing the God into human passions and business, and drawing him down -to our needs, [Sidenote: 417] as Thessalian witches are said to draw the -moon. Only their imposture found credit with women, when Aglaonice the -daughter of Hegetor, who knew her astronomy, chose an eclipse of the -moon, and then pretended to do magic and draw her down. But as for us, -let us never listen when we are told that there are prophecies with no -divine agency, or rites and orgiastic services which the Gods do not -heed; nor on the other hand suppose that the God is in and out and -present there, taking part in the business. Let us leave all this to -those [Sidenote: B] rightful ministers of the Gods, their ushers or -clerks. Let us hold that there are daemons who watch the performance of -rites, and inspire the mysteries, while others go about to avenge crimes -of insolence and pride, and to others Hesiod[152] has given a venerable -name, - - _of wealth - The saintly givers; such their kingly trust_. - -Observe that to do so is kingly. For there are, as among men, so among -daemons, degrees of excellence, and in some subsists still some slight, -faint, almost excremental remnant of passion and absence of reason; in -others this is strong and hard to do away, its traces and symbols being -in many places preserved and sporadically found in sacrifices and rites -and tales of wonder. [Sidenote: C] - -XIV. ‘Now as to the mystic rites, in which the most evident and -transparent indication may be had of the truth about daemons, “peace be -upon my lips”, as Herodotus[153] says. Feasts and sacrifices, days -sinister and gloomy, so to call them, when are meals of raw flesh, and -rendings and fastings and beaten breasts, and in many places unholy -spells over the sacrifices: - - _Whoopings wild, and cries of frenzy, necks together tossed in - air_,[154] - -all these, I would say, belong to no God, but are modes of appeasement -and soothing to avert bad daemons. The human sacrifices which used to be -performed were neither asked for nor accepted by Gods, we cannot believe -it; yet kings and [Sidenote: D] captains would not have endured to give -up their own children by way of initiating the rites, or to cut their -throats, without a purpose; it was to soothe and satisfy the heavy -displeasure of beings cruel and hard to be moved, or in some cases their -frantic low passions, worthy of tyrants, when bodily approach was -impossible or not desired. As Hercules besieged the town of Oechalia for -the sake of a maiden, so strong and violent daemons, requiring in vain a -human soul still enveloped in the body, bring pestilences to cities and -sterility of land, and stir up wars and seditions, until they succeed in -getting that on which their affection is set. Some have fared otherwise; -[Sidenote: E] thus in a long stay in Crete I came to know of an absurd -festival observed there: the headless form of a man is shown, and you -are told that this was Molus, father of Meriones, who assaulted a maiden -and was found without a head. - -XV. ‘Now all the crimes of violence, all the wanderings of Gods, all -tales of hiding, banishment, servitude, which are [Sidenote: F] said or -sung in myth or hymn, are adventures which happened not to Gods but to -daemons, and are recorded to show their excellence or power; -Aeschylus[155] was wrong when he wrote - - _Apollo pure, the God exil’d from heav’n_, - -and so was the Admetus in Sophocles[156] wrong: - - _Mine was the cock who called him to the mill._ - -Widest of the truth of all are the theologians of Delphi, who, thinking -that a battle once took place here between the God and a serpent for the -possession of the oracle, allow poets and speech-writers contending in -the theatres to tell these stories, [Sidenote: 418] expressly belying -their own most sacred rites.’ Philippus, the historian, who chanced to -be present, here expressed surprise, and asked: ‘What rites such -competitors belied?’ ‘Those relating to the oracle,’ was the reply, -‘whereby the city, admitting to initiation those from here to Tempe has -now banished all Greeks dwelling beyond Thermopylae.[157] For the booth -set up afresh every nine years near the court of the temple is not like -any den or serpent’s haunt, but is an imitation of the dwelling of a -tyrant or king. And the assault made upon it in silence through what -they call “Dolon’s Way”, by [Sidenote: B] which the Aeolidae bring the -boy, both of whose parents are living, with lighted torches, put fire to -the booth, overturn the table, and then flee through the gates of the -temple without turning back; and lastly the wanderings of the boy and -his servile offices, and the purification rites at Tempe, all convey a -suspicion of some great crime of shocking audacity. For it is quite -absurd, my friend, that Apollo, after killing a beast, should flee to -the extremities of Greece in quest of purification, and then should pour -libations there and do all which men do to [Sidenote: C] appease and -soften the wrath of daemons (fiends and avengers as they are called, -because they pursue the memories of old unforgotten stains). The story -which I once heard about that flight and removal is strangely absurd and -surprising; but if there be any truth in it, let us never believe that -what passed about the oracle in these old times was any trifling or -ordinary matter. However, fearing to seem to do what Empedocles -describes: - - _Stringing sundry myths, nor ever keeping to a single path_, - -I will ask you to allow me to affix the proper conclusion to my first -tale, for we have just reached it. Many have said it before [Sidenote: -D] us; let us dare to say it now. When the daemons who have to do with -oracles and prophecies fail, all such things fail too, and lose their -force if the daemons flee or shift their place; then, if they return -after an interval, the things speak aloud, like instruments of music -when those who can play them are present to play.’ - -XVI. When Cleombrotus had finished, Heracleon spoke: ‘There is no -profane or uninitiated person present, no one who holds views about the -Gods discordant with our own; but let us keep jealous watch on -ourselves, Philippus, lest without our own knowledge we assume strange -and even monstrous [Sidenote: E] hypotheses.’ ‘Well said,’ answered -Philippus, ‘but what shocks you specially in what Cleombrotus is -advancing?’ ‘That the oracles should be administered,’ said Heracleon, -‘not by Gods, who may well be quit of earthly concerns, but by daemons, -assistants of the God, seems to me a not unfair assumption; but then to -pluck, I had almost said by the handful, out of the verses of -Empedocles, sins, infatuations, and God-inflicted wanderings, and to -fasten them upon these daemons, and to suppose that in the end they die -like men, this I do think a somewhat bold and barbarian view.’ Here -Cleombrotus [Sidenote: F] asked Philippus who and whence the young man -was, and, after learning his name and city, said: ‘No, Heracleon, it is -by no means “without our own knowledge” that we have reached strange -propositions; but in discussing great matters it is not possible to -attain what is probable in opinion without starting from great -premisses. But you, though you do not know it yourself, are taking back -what you grant. You allow that there are daemons; but when you require -that they should not be faulty [Sidenote: 419] nor yet mortal, it is no -longer daemons that you retain. For in what do they differ from Gods if -as to their being they are immortal, and as to virtue are passionless -and impeccable?’ - -XVII. As Heracleon remained silent and in deep thought, he went on: -‘Faulty daemons come to us not from Empedocles only, but from Plato and -Xenocrates and Chrysippus; yes, and Democritus,[158] when he prays to -meet “fair-falling phantoms”, shows that he knew of others which were -disagreeable, with definitely vicious intentions and impulses. As to -death in such beings, I have heard a story from a man who was no fool or -[Sidenote: B] romancer. Some of you have heard Aemilianus the orator; -Epitherses was his father, my fellow-townsman and teacher in grammar. He -said that he was once on a voyage to Italy, and embarked on board a ship -carrying cargo and many passengers. It was already evening when the -breeze died down off the Echinades Islands; and the ship drifted till it -was near Paxi. Most on board were awake, and many still drinking after -supper. Suddenly a voice was heard from the island of Paxi; some one was -calling Thamus in a loud voice, so that they all wondered. [Sidenote: C] -Thamus was an Egyptian pilot, not even known by name to many of the -passengers. Twice he was called, and remained silent; the third time he -paid attention to the caller, who raised his voice and said: “When you -reach the Palodes, tell them that Great Pan is dead.” Hearing this, -Epitherses said, all were in consternation, and began discussing with -one another whether “it were better to do as was ordered, or to refuse -to meddle and to let it be. They decided in the end that, if there were -a breeze, Thamus should sail past quietly, but if there should be calm -about the place, he should hail, and report. When he was off the -Palodes, as there was neither wind nor wave, [Sidenote: D] Thamus at the -helm looked to land and repeated the words he had heard: “Great Pan is -dead.” He had no sooner done this than a great groaning was heard, -proceeding not from one but from many, mingled with cries of wonder. As -there were many present, the story was soon spread in Rome, and Thamus -was sent for by Tiberius Caesar, who so entirely credited the story, -that he caused inquiry to be made about Pan. The scholars, of whom there -were many round him, conjectured that he was the son born of Hermes and -Penelope.’[159] (Philippus [Sidenote: E] was able to produce several -witnesses from the company who had heard the old Aemilianus.) - -XVIII. Demetrius told us that, among the islands near Britain, many were -deserted and lay scattered (Sporades), some of them bearing the names of -daemons and demigods. He himself, by the Emperor’s command, made a -voyage of inquiry and observation to the nearest of the deserted -islands, which had a few inhabitants, all sacred persons and never -molested by the Britons. Just after his arrival, there was a great -confusion in the atmosphere, many portents from the sky with gusts of -wind and fiery blasts. When these calmed [Sidenote: F] down, the -islanders said that ‘one of the mightier ones has ceased to be.’ For as -a lamp when lighted, so they explained, has no unpleasant effect, but -when extinguished is disagreeable to many people, so it is with great -souls: their kindling into life is easy and free from pain; their -extinction and death often breed winds and tempests, ‘such as you see -now’, and infect the air with pestilence and sickness. They added that -there is one island in particular where Cronus is a prisoner, being -guarded in his sleep by Briareus; for sleep has been devised to be a -chain to bind him, and there are many daemons about him as satellites -and attendants.[160] - -XIX. Cleombrotus spoke next: ‘I have stories of the same [Sidenote: 420] -kind which I might tell; but it is enough for our hypothesis that there -is nothing which actually contradicts it or makes such things -impossible. Yet we know’, he continued, ‘that the Stoics not only hold -the view which I am advancing with [Sidenote: B] reference to daemons, -but also recognize one out of the great multitude of Gods who is eternal -and immortal; the others, they think, have come into being, and will -perish. From the flouts and laughter of the Epicureans, which they -venture to employ against Providence also, calling it a mere myth, we -have nothing to fear. We maintain that their “Infinity” is a myth; so -many worlds, not one of which is governed by divine reason, all produced -spontaneously, and so subsisting. If it be permissible to laugh in -speaking of Philosophy, we may laugh at the dumb, blind, soulless images -which they shepherd during countless cycles of years, to reappear and -anon return in all directions, some issuing from bodies still living, -some [Sidenote: C] from those long ago burned or rotted. Thus they drag -into physiology cyphers and shadows; yet if one asserts that daemons -exist not in physical nature only, but as matter of theory, able to -remain in being for long periods of time, they show irritation.’ - -XX. When these views had been stated, Ammonius spoke: ‘I think’, he -said, ‘the dictum of Theophrastus was right. For what prevents our -accepting a view which is dignified and highly philosophical? To -disallow it is to reject many things possible but incapable of positive -proof; to allow it is not[161] necessarily to import many which are -impossible and [Sidenote: D] baseless. However, the only argument which -I have heard the Epicureans employ against the daemons as introduced by -Empedocles, that, if they are faulty and liable to sins, they cannot be -blessed beings and long-lived, because vice implies much blindness and a -liability to destructive accidents, is a foolish one. For, on this -showing, Epicurus will be a worse man than Gorgias the sophist, and -Metrodorus than Alexis the writer of comedies. For Alexis lived twice as -long as Metrodorus, and Gorgias more than a third as long again as -Epicurus. It is in another sense that we call virtue strong and -[Sidenote: E] vice weak, not with regard to the duration or dissolution -of body. Look at the lower animals: many which are sluggish in limb and -dull in spirit, loose or disorderly in habits, live longer terms than -the sensible and ingenious. Hence the Epicureans do wrong in ascribing -the immortality of God to the caution and resistance which he opposes to -destructive forces. No, the immunity from suffering and death should be -laid in the nature of the blessed being, and should imply no trouble on -his part. Perhaps, however, it is inconsiderate to argue against persons -not present. It is now for Cleombrotus to resume his [Sidenote: F] -argument lately interrupted, about the migration and exile of the -daemons.’ - -XXI. Then Cleombrotus: ‘Very well; I shall be surprised, however, if it -does not appear to you much stranger than what we have already said. Yet -its basis lies in Nature, and Plato struck the note, not stating his -view in plain terms, but as an obscure theory, cautiously throwing out a -hint in enigmatical form; for all which even he has been met with a -great outcry [Sidenote: 421] from the other philosophers. Now since we -are here with a bowl in our midst of mingled myths and theories—and -where should a man meet with kinder listeners before whom to try -theories as foreign coins are tried?—I do not hesitate to give you the -benefit of the story of a certain outlandish man. It was after many -wanderings and after paying heavy search fees, that I found him at last -with difficulty, and enjoyed his conversation and kindly welcome. It was -near the Red Sea, where once every year he associated with men, spending -the rest of his time, as he used to say, with nomad nymphs and deities. -He was the handsomest man I ever saw, and kept free from sickness -[Sidenote: B] of any sort, treating himself once a month with the -medicinal and bitter fruit of a grass. He was practised in the use of -many tongues; to me he would mostly use a Doric, which was very nearly a -song. While he was speaking, there was a fragrance in all the place from -the sweet breath passing out of his mouth. His general learning and -information were with him all the time; but one day in every year he was -inspired with prophecy, and would then go down to the sea and foretell -the future; potentates and secretaries of kings would come to visit him -and then go away. He used to refer prophecy to daemons; [Sidenote: C] he -paid the greatest attention to Delphi, and there were none of the -stories told of Dionysus, or of the rites performed here, of which he -had not heard. But he would say that all those stories belonged to -mighty sufferings of daemons, and among them this of the Python; only -that his slayer was not exiled for nine years nor to Tempe, but was -turned out into another universe, returning thence after nine -revolutions of the Great Year, purified and “Phoebus” indeed, to resume -possession of the oracle, which had been guarded in the meanwhile by -Themis. That the stories of the Typhons and Titans were [Sidenote: D] -similar; there had been battles of daemons against daemons, followed by -banishment of the defeated or expiation of offenders by a God, for -instance, Typhon is said to have sinned against Osiris, and Cronus -against Uranus; deities whose honours have become dim or been altogether -forgotten since they were removed to another universe. Thus I hear that -the Solymi, who dwell near the Lycians, hold Cronus in special honour; -but when he had slain their princes, Arsalus, Dryus, and Trosobius, he -was banished and removed (whither they cannot say). So he passed out of -account, but Arsalus and his fellows are called “stern Gods”, and the -Lycians publicly [Sidenote: E] and in private make execrations in their -names. Many stories like these may be had out of theological -collections.’ ‘But if we call certain daemons by the recognized names of -Gods,’ the stranger said, ‘it should be no wonder, for to whatever God -each has been assigned, to share his power and honour, after him he -likes to be called; even as among ourselves one is “of Zeus”, one “of -Athena”, one “of Apollo,” one “of Dionysus”, one “of Hermes”; only some -have by accident been rightly called, most have received names quite -inappropriate, [Sidenote: F] misapplied names of Gods.’ - -XXII. Here Cleombrotus paused. All present found his story a marvellous -one, but Heracleon asked how it bore upon Plato, and in what sense he -had given the note. ‘You perfectly remember’, said Cleombrotus, ‘that he -rejected, on the face of it, an infinity of worlds, but felt a -difficulty as to [Sidenote: 422] a limited number, and was ready to go -up to five,[162] thus conceding probability to those who assume one -world for each element, but himself keeping to one. This appears to be -peculiar to Plato, the other philosophers[163] regarding with horror any -plurality, because, if you do not limit matter to one world, when you -pass outside unity you arrive at once at an unlimited and perplexing -infinity.’ ‘But did your stranger’, I asked, ‘limit the number of worlds -as Plato does, or did you neglect to find this out when you were with -him?’ ‘Was it [Sidenote: B] likely,’ said Cleombrotus, ‘when he -graciously put himself at my disposal? On these points, if on nothing -else, I was, of course, an attentive and eager listener. What he said -was that there is not an infinite number of worlds, nor yet one, nor yet -five, but one hundred and eighty-three, arranged in a triangle with -sixty worlds in each side. Of the three left over, each is placed at one -angle. Each world keeps a light touch on its neighbours while they -revolve as in a dance. The area inside the triangle is the common hearth -of all, and is called the “Plain of Truth”, and within it the formulae, -and ideas, and patterns, [Sidenote: C] of things which have been and -things which are, lie undisturbed. Eternity is around them, and from it, -like a stream drawn off from it, Time passes to the worlds. Once in ten -thousand years human souls, if they have lived good lives, are allowed -to see and inspect this sight; and the best of the initiations performed -here are a dream of that review and that initiation. In our -philosophical discourses we are working on the memory of the fair things -which are seen there, or else our discourse is vain. This’, he said, ‘is -the tale I heard from him; he spoke as a man does in the mystery of an -initiation, and offered no demonstration or evidence.’ - -XXIII. I turned to Demetrius: ‘How’, I said, ‘do the [Sidenote: D] lines -about the Suitors run, where they wondered to see Ulysses handling the -bow?’ When he had remembered them, ‘Just’, I said, ‘what it comes into -my head to say about your stranger: - - _Surely the rogue some pilfering expert is_[164] - -in doctrines and theories from everywhere. He had travelled widely in -letters, and he was no Barbarian, but a Greek steeped deeply in Greek -learning. The number of his worlds proves it against him, for it is not -Egyptian nor yet Indian, but Dorian of Sicily, and comes from a man of -Himera named Petron. [Sidenote: E] His own pamphlet I never read and I -do not know whether it is extant; but Hippys of Rhegium, mentioned by -Phanias of Eresus, records it as his view or theory that there are one -hundred and eighty-three worlds all in touch with one another “by -elements”, whatever that may mean; he gives no further explanation or -proof of any sort.’ ‘What proof could there be’, broke in Demetrius, ‘in -matters of that sort, where Plato, without a word to make it reasonable -or likely, simply laid down his theory?’ ‘And yet’, said Heracleon, -[Sidenote: F] ‘we hear you grammarians referring the view to Homer,[165] -on the ground that he distributes the whole into five worlds, Heaven, -Water, Air, Earth, Olympus. Two of these he leaves “common”, namely, -Earth with all the lower portion of the whole, Olympus with all the -upper. The three in the middle have been allotted to the three Gods. So -also Plato,[166] apparently assigning to the different aspects of the -whole the bodily forms [Sidenote: 423] and figures which are the most -beautiful and the first, spoke of five worlds, one each for earth, -water, air, fire, but kept for last that which includes the others, the -world of the Dodecahedron, an expansible and versatile body, and -assigned to it the figure which suits the psychical periods and -movements.’ Demetrius said: ‘Why not let sleeping Homers lie for the -present? We have had enough of myths. But as to Plato, he is very far -from calling the five different aspects of the world five worlds; and, -where he is combating those who assume an infinite number, states his -own opinion that this is the only one, and is the sole creation of God -and beloved by him, brought into being [Sidenote: B] out of the -corporeal whole, entire, complete, and self-sufficing. Hence it may -appear strange that he should himself state the truth, yet supply to -others the fundamental principle of a view which is improbable and -irrational. To give up the defence of a single world was in a sort to -grant the assumption of the infinity of the whole. To make the definite -number of worlds five, neither more nor less, was quite against reason -and removed from all probability. Unless’, he added, turning to me, ‘you -have anything to say?’ ‘It seems to me’, I said, ‘to come to this, that -you have now dropped our discussion about oracles, as concluded, and are -taking up a fresh one of equal [Sidenote: C] importance.’ ‘We have not -dropped the old one,’ said Demetrius, ‘only we do not decline the new -when it fastens on us. For we do not mean to linger upon it, only to -touch on it sufficiently to ask how far it is probable; then we will -return to the original subject.’ - -XXIV. ‘In the first place then,’ I said, ‘the reasons which prevent the -making of an infinite number of worlds do not prevent the making of more -worlds than one. It is possible that both prophecy and a Providence may -find place in several worlds, and that the intrusion of Chance may be -very small, while most things, and those the greatest, observe order in -[Sidenote: D] their origin and their transition, none of which -suppositions is consistent with Infinity. In the next place, it is most -consonant with reason that God should not have made the world a sole -creation and left it to itself. For, being perfectly good, he is lacking -in no virtue, least of all in the virtues of Justice and Friendliness, -for these are most beautiful and becoming Gods. Now it is the nature of -God to have nothing which is idle or without use. Therefore there are -other Gods and worlds outside, towards which he exercises the social -virtues; for Justice, or Gratitude, or Benevolence, cannot be exercised -towards himself or any part of himself, it must be towards [Sidenote: E] -others. So it is not likely that this world should toss about in the -infinite void without friends, without neighbours, without -communication; since we see Nature herself wrapping up individuals in -classes and species, as though in jars or seed-vessels. There is nothing -in the whole list of things which has not some common formula, nor can -anything be called by a distinctive name which does not possess, -generically or individually, certain qualities.[167] But the world is -not spoken of as possessing generic qualities; it has qualities then as -an individual, which distinguish it from others akin to and resembling -itself. For [Sidenote: F] if there is not in the world such a thing as -one man, one horse, one star, one God, one daemon, what is to prevent -there being in Nature not one world, but several? If any one says that -Nature has one earth and one sea, he fails to see the obvious fact of -similar parts. For we divide earth into parts, all with one common name, -and sea likewise. But a part of the world is no longer a world; it is -composed of parts naturally different. - -XXV. ‘Again, the chief fear which has led some to use [Sidenote: 424] up -the whole of matter on our world, that nothing may be left outside to -disturb its coherence by resistance or thrusts, is a needless one. For -suppose several worlds, to each of which is apportioned its own being, -and matter definitely measured and limited, then nothing will be left -outside without place or formation, like an extruded remnant, to put -pressure from without. For the law which has control of the matter -allotted to each world will not allow anything to be thrust out and -wander to strike upon another world, or anything from another to strike -its own, because Nature admits neither quantity without limit, nor -movement without law and arrangement. [Sidenote: B] Or, even if any -stream be drawn off and pass from worlds to other worlds, it must needs -be homogeneous and kindly, mingling itself mildly with all, as the stars -when they blend their rays. And the worlds themselves must have delight, -as they gaze on one another in friendliness, and must also provide for -the Gods in each, who are many and good, times of intercourse and common -cheerfulness. There is nothing impossible in all this, no fairy tale and -no paradox; unless, mark me, the views of Aristotle[168] are to bring it -into suspicion on physical grounds. For if each body has its own place, -as he says it has, earth must necessarily move towards the centre -[Sidenote: C] from every side, and the water rest upon it, underlying -the lighter elements because of its weight. If, then, there are many -worlds, the result will be that earth is in many places above fire and -air, and in many below them; and the same with air and water too, which -will be here in natural places, there in unnatural. Which being -impossible, as he thinks, there must neither be two worlds nor more than -two, but this one only, composed of all matter, and established -according to Nature and to the several qualities of matter. - -XXVI. ‘However, all this is more plausible than true. Look at it in this -way,’ I went on, ‘dear Demetrius: when [Sidenote: D] he says that some -bodies move downward towards the middle, others upwards from the middle, -others around the middle, with reference to what does he take the -middle? Not to the void surely, for on his view there is none. But in -the view of those who allow a void, it has no middle, just as it has no -first or last, for these are limits, but the infinite has no limits. Or -if a man were to force himself, by sheer thinking, to conceive any -middle point in an infinite void, what is the resulting difference in -the movements of the different bodies towards it? Bodies have no force -in the void, nor yet have bodies any choice or impulse to make them aim -at the middle and tend towards it from all sides. Besides, where there -are bodies with [Sidenote: E] no soul, and a place which is incorporeal -and without difference of parts, it is as impossible to conceive of any -movement towards it arising out of themselves, as of any attraction upon -them arising out of it. It remains that the middle is spoken of not in a -local sense but in a corporeal. For granted that this world has unity of -structure with many dissimilar elements, the different parts have -necessarily different movements towards different objects. This is clear -from the consideration [Sidenote: F] that different elements, where -their substance is transferred, change their places at the same time; -rarefaction distributes in a circular movement the matter raised upwards -from the middle; consolidation and condensation press matter downward -towards the middle and force it together. - -XXVII. ‘On this subject more words are needless here. Whatever you -assume to be the effective cause of these vicissitudes and changes, it -will hold each world together within itself. Each world has earth and -sea, each has a middle point [Sidenote: 425] of its own, its own -vicissitudes and changes of the bodies upon it, and a nature and a force -which preserve everything and keep it in its place. As for what is -outside, whether it be nothing or an infinite void, it presents no -middle point, as we have said; while, if there be many worlds, each has -a middle point of its own, and therefore a special movement of bodies to -or from or about that middle (to follow the distinction made by these -thinkers). To insist that, where there are many middle points, weights -press from all sides to one, is as though we should insist that, whereas -there are many men, the blood from all should flow together into a -single vein, and the brains of all be enveloped in a single pia mater; -and to make it a grievance [Sidenote: B] that all hard bodies in nature -should not be together in one place, and all rarefied bodies in another. -That would be preposterous, and equally so to complain that wholes -should have their parts disposed in their natural order within each of -them. It might be absurd to call that a world which has a moon low -down[169] within it, like a man with his brain lodged in his ankles or -his heart in his temples. But to make several independent worlds, and -then to differentiate the parts in sets to follow their wholes, and so -divide them, is not absurd. Earth, [Sidenote: C] sea, and heaven will be -in their natural and proper arrangement within each. Above, below, -around, middle have no relation to another world or to the outside, each -world has them all in and for itself. - -XXVIII. ‘As to the “stone” which some assume to be outside the world, it -is not easy to form a conception of it, either as at rest or in motion. -For how is it either to remain at rest, being weighty, or to move -towards the world, like other heavy bodies, being no part of it nor -reckoned in with its substance? Earth embraced in another world, and -attached to it, need cause [Sidenote: D] no difficulty, when it does not -part from the whole because of its weight, and shift hitherwards, since -we see the natural strain by which each of the parts is held in its -place. For if we look, not to the world but outside it, to get our -conception of “below” and “above”, we shall find ourselves in the same -difficulties as Epicurus, who made all his atoms move to places under -our feet, as though either the void had feet, or infinite space -permitted us to conceive of “above” or “below” within itself! Hence, -again, we must feel surprise at Chrysippus, or indeed be quite at a loss -as to what possessed him to say that the world has been settled “in the -middle”, and that its substance, having occupied this middle place from -all eternity, [Sidenote: E] works therewith for permanence and in fact -for indestructibility. These are his words in the Fourth Book of his -work on “_Things Possible_”, where he falsely dreams of a middle of the -infinite, and assigns, still more preposterously, to that non-existent -middle the cause of the stability of the world; and yet he had often -said in other works, that substance is controlled and maintained by the -movements towards and away from its own middle point. - -XXIX. ‘Then as to the other arguments of the Stoics, who can find them -alarming? They ask how we are to keep one Destiny and one Providence if -there are many worlds, and whether we shall not have many “Diès” and -many “Zenès”. [Sidenote: F] In the first place, if it is absurd that we -should have Zeus in the plural number, surely their scheme will be far -more absurd; for they make, in the revolutions of infinite worlds, sun, -moon, Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, all multiplied to infinity. Then, what -makes it necessary that there should be many “Diès”, if there are more -worlds than one, rather than one principal God the emperor of the whole, -possessing intelligence and reason, sovereign in each world, such a one -as he who is called with us lord and father of all? Or what is to -prevent all worlds [Sidenote: 426] from being subject to the Destiny and -Providence of Zeus, and that he should overlook and control each in -turn, supplying to each the principles, the seeds, the formulae of all -which is brought about? It cannot be that here we often have a single -body composed of diverse bodies, as an assembly, an army, a choir, each -of whose component bodies has life, thought, apprehension (and this is -the view of Chrysippus), and yet that it should be impossible that in -the Whole there should be ten worlds or fifty, or a hundred, all based -on a common [Sidenote: B] formula, and ranged under a single principle. -Nay, such a disposition is altogether worthy of Gods. We have not to -make them sovereigns of a hive out of which they never pass; to guard, -nor to enclose or imprison them in matter, which is what the Stoics do -when they make the Gods atmospheric phases, or powers of the waters or -the fire, infused therein, brought into being with their world and again -burnt up with it, not leaving them unattached or free, as charioteers or -steersmen might be; but rather, as statues are nailed or soldered to -their bases, shut into the corporeal and clamped thereto, to share with -it till there come destruction and general dissolution and change. - -XXX. ‘Yet the other theory is loftier and more magnificent, [Sidenote: -C] that the Gods are masterless and self-controlled, as the Tyndaridae -when they help sailors in storm. - - _They visit them, the waves they bind - By soothing pow’r, and tame the wind_, - -not going on board themselves to share the peril, but appearing from -above and delivering men; even so the Gods visit the worlds, now one and -now another; drawn on by joy as they contemplate, and steering each in -its natural course. [Sidenote: D] For the Zeus of Homer[170] had not -very far to carry his eye from Troy to the parts of Thrace, and the -wandering tribes about the Ister; but the real Zeus has beautiful -passages and becoming to himself among worlds more than one, not looking -out upon an infinite void, nor having his mind intent upon himself and -nothing else (as was the view of some), but surveying many works of Gods -and men, and movements and periodic orbits of stars. The divine nature -is no foe to changes, but takes much delight in them, if we may judge -from the bodies which [Sidenote: E] appear in the heavens, their changes -and periods. Now Infinity is altogether without feeling or reason; it -has no room to admit a God, all goes by chance and spontaneously. But -the Providence which cares for worlds defined and limited in number -appears to me to involve nothing less dignified or more laborious than -that which has entered a single body, and attached itself thereto, to -refashion or shape it anew in infinite particulars.’ - -XXXI. Having said so much, I paused. Philippus, after a short interval, -went on: ‘Whether the truth about these [Sidenote: F] things be so, or -not, I could not, for my own part, assert with confidence. But if we are -to force the God outside one world, why make him the artificer of five -worlds and no more; and what is the bearing of that number on the -plurality of worlds? I would rather be informed on this point than as to -the inner meaning of the consecration of the letter “E” in this place. -That letter is neither triangle, nor square, nor “perfect”, nor cubic, -nor has it any other apparent elegance for those who love and admire -such things. The process out of the elements, at which the Master -obscurely hinted, is hard to grasp [Sidenote: 427] in every respect, and -shows none of that probability which must have drawn him on to say that -it is likely that out of five solid bodies having equal angles and equal -faces and enclosed by figures of equal area, when set into matter, the -same number of perfect worlds was at once produced.’ - -XXXII. ‘Yes,’ said I, ‘yet Theodorus of Soli seems to treat the argument -very fairly, in expounding the Mathematics of Plato. This is his method: -the Pyramid, the Octahedron, the Eicosahedron and the Dodecahedron, the -solid figures which Plato ranks first, are all beautiful because of the -symmetry and equality of their formulae; nothing better than these or -equal to them has been left over for Nature to compose [Sidenote: B] or -to frame. They have not, however, all been constructed on a single plan, -nor have all a similar origin. The Pyramid is the finest and smallest, -the largest and the one of most parts is the Dodecahedron; of the -remaining two the Eicosahedron is more than double the Octahedron in -number of triangles.[171] It follows that it is impossible for all to -take their origin at once from one and the same matter. For those which -are fine and small, and more simple in their structures, must be the -first to obey him who stirs and fashions the mass; they must sooner -cohere and be completed than those whose parts are abundant, and the -figures complex, and their construction more laborious, [Sidenote: C] as -the Dodecahedron. It follows that the Pyramid is the only primal body, -and that none of the others is so; they are left behind by Nature in the -becoming. For this strange result there is, however, a remedy, the -division and distribution of matter into five worlds. Here the Pyramid -(for it first formed substance), there the Octahedron, in a third world -the Eicosahedron. But from the figure which first took substance in each -the rest will take their origin, all change arising by concretion or -dissolution of parts, as Plato himself shows.[172] He goes thoroughly -into nearly all the cases, but for us a brief survey will suffice. Since -air is formed when fire is extinguished, and when rarefied [Sidenote: D] -again yields fire out of itself, we must observe what happens to the -seeds of either element, and the changes. The seeds of fire[173] are the -Pyramid with its twenty-four primary triangles; the seeds of air are the -Octahedron with its forty-eight. Therefore one element of air is formed -by the commixture and coherence of two of fire; and one of air is -exchanged into two of [Sidenote: E] fire, or by close pressure into -itself passes away into the form of water. Thus, universally, that which -is first formed readily allows the others to come into being by -transmutation. It is not the case that one is first; different elements -in different structures give the initial and prerogative movement into -being, yet the common name is kept throughout.’ - -XXXIII. ‘Bravo, Theodorus!’ said Ammonius; ‘he has worked out his task -with spirit. Yet I shall be surprised if he is not found to be using -assumptions which are mutually destructive. He wants to have it that all -five solids do not attain their structure together, the finest and -easiest of [Sidenote: F] composition always breaking first into being. -Then, as though following upon this, and not conflicting with it, he -lays it down that it is not all matter which admits the finest and -simplest element first, but that sometimes the heavy and complex objects -are the first to emerge out of matter. But to pass over this, whereas it -is assumed that there are five primal bodies, and therefore an equal -number of worlds, he makes out probability for four only; he has -discarded the Cube as if playing at [Sidenote: 428] counters, since -Nature does not adapt it to pass into the others or them into itself, -because the triangles are not of the same kind. In the other cases the -basis of formation is the semi-(equilateral) triangle; to the Cube the -right-angled isosceles is peculiar, which is incapable of converging -towards the others or joining with them to form one solid angle. If -then, there are five bodies and five worlds, and in each the primary -belongs to some one, then where the Cube has been the first to come into -being, the rest will be nowhere, for it is unable to change into any of -them. I pass by the fact that they make the element of the Dodecahedron -also a different thing from that scalene [Sidenote: B] out of which -Plato constructs the Pyramid, the Octahedron, and the Eicosahedron. And -so’, added Ammonius, with a laugh, ‘you must either resolve these -difficulties, or give us something of your own about the common -problem.’ - -XXXIV. ‘I have nothing more probable to offer, at least at the moment;’ -I said, ‘yet perhaps it is better to show cause for one’s own view than -for that of others. I say then, going back to the beginning, that if we -assume two natures, one sensible, liable to changes of becoming and -perishing, and to various movements at different times, the other -essential, intellectual, always behaving alike under the same -conditions, it is strange, friend, that the intellectual should admit of -distinction and division within itself, while with regard to that which -is bodily, and subject to affections, there should be trouble and -[Sidenote: C] dissatisfaction if we refuse to leave it one, -self-coherent and self-convergent, but separate and part it. Surely it -is rather the permanent and divine which should hold together and -shrink, as far as may be, from all dissection and analysis. Yet the -force of “the Other” has gripped them, and has worked greater -divergences than those of place in things intellectual, I mean those -made by Reason and Idea. Hence Plato,[174] opposing those who make out -the Whole to be one, tells us of Being, and the [Sidenote: D] Same, and -the Different, and, besides all these, of Movement and Rest. Given then -these five, it would not be wonderful if these five corporeal elements -have been made by Nature copies and images of them severally, none free -from admixture or transparent, but each element so far as it could best -participate in each principle. Thus the Cube is clearly a body congenial -to Rest, because of the stability and firmness of its surfaces. No one -can fail to detect the fire-like, active character of the Pyramid in the -fineness of its sides and the sharpness of its angles. The nature of the -Dodecahedron, which embraces [Sidenote: E] the other figures, might well -be taken for an image of Being in relation to all that is corporeal. Of -the remaining two, the Eicosahedron is found most to partake of the idea -of the Different, the Octahedron of that of the Same. Therefore the -latter represented air, which holds all being in one constant form, the -former water, which when mixed assumes new qualities the most numerous. -If then Nature requires throughout equality before the law, it is -probable that worlds have been created neither more nor less in number -than the patterns, in order that each pattern in each world may hold -that primacy and power which it has had in the composition of the -elementary bodies. - -[Sidenote: F] XXXV. ‘So much for that! May it reassure any one who is -surprised at our dividing the natural processes of becoming and mutation -into so many classes! Now comes another point, which I will ask you all -to consider with me. Of the ultimate first principles, by which I mean -unity and the undelimited two, the latter, as the element of all -shapelessness and disorder, has been called Infinity; but unity by its -nature limits and arrests what is void and irrational and undetermined -in [Sidenote: 429] Infinity, and imparts shape, and fits it to receive -and endure that definition of things apprehended by the senses which is -implied in counting. These principles appear first in connexion with -number; but I would rather say, universally, that plurality is not -number until unity supervenes, as form upon matter, and cuts off from -undetermined Infinity, more on this side, less on that. For plurality in -each case only becomes number when it is determined by unity. Again, if -unity be struck off, the undetermined two throws all into a confusion -without balance or limit or measure. Now since form is not a withdrawal -[Sidenote: B] of underlying matter but is shape and order thereof, both -principles must necessarily be found in number, and hence arises the -first and greatest difference or dissimilarity. The undetermined -principle is the constructive cause of the even, the better one of the -odd. Two is the first of the even numbers, three of the odd; out of them -comes five, in its composition common to both lists, in its effect, odd. -For when the sensible and corporeal was to be divided into several -parts, in virtue of the inherent cogency of the Other, their number must -not be the first even nor yet the first odd, but the third, that formed -out of these, so that it may take its origin from both [Sidenote: C] -principles, that which constructs the even and that which constructs the -odd; for neither could possibly be separated from the other; each -possesses the nature and power of a principle. Both principles then -being paired, the better one checked the indeterminate when it was -dividing up the corporeal; and prevailed; when matter was being -distributed between the two it set unity in the middle, and did not -allow an equal division of the whole. So a plurality of worlds has been -brought into being by the “Other” quality in the undetermined, and by -difference; but that plurality is odd, made so by the operation of “the -Same” and “the Determinate”, and odd in such a sense that Nature was not -allowed to advance beyond what was best. For if the unity had been -without admixture [Sidenote: D] and pure, matter would have been exempt -from any breaking up whatever; but as it has been mingled with the -discriminative power of the two, separation and division were so far -accepted; but there it stopped, the even overcome by the odd. - -XXXVI. ‘Hence again the ancients were accustomed to use the words “to -take fives” for to count. I think, too, that the word for “all” -(_panta_) has been logically formed as though from “five” (_pente_) -because the number five is composed of the first numbers. For the others -when multiplied by other numbers come out to a product different from -themselves; but five if taken an even number of times gives a perfect -ten, if an odd, it reproduces itself. I pass over the facts [Sidenote: -E] that five is composed of the first two squares, one and four, and -that its own square is equal to the sum of the two before it, forming -with them the most beautiful of right-angled triangles, and that it is -the first number to give sesquiplicate ratio. For perhaps they are not -germane to the subject before us. This, however, is more germane, that -the number five has a divisory virtue, and Nature divides most things by -five. In [Sidenote: F] ourselves are five senses, and there are five -parts of the soul, those of growth, sense, appetite, passion, reason. We -have five fingers on each hand; seed is most fertile when it parts into -five (no instance has been recorded of a woman bearing more than five at -a birth); Rhea is said in Egyptian mythology to have given birth to five -Gods,[175] a veiled reference to the production of the five worlds out -of one matter. Turning to the universe, the surface of earth is divided -into five zones, and the Heavens are divided by five circles, two -Arctic, two [Sidenote: 430] Tropic, one in the middle, the Equinoctial. -Five are the orbits of the planets, if we take those of the sun and -Venus and Mercury as one. Lastly, the universe has been composed in the -Enharmonic Scale, just as our melody is made up of the arrangement of -five Tetrachords, lowest, middle, conjunct, disjunct, highest. And the -intervals are five: diesis, semitone, tone, tone and a half, double -tone. Thus it seems that Nature loves to make all things on the -principle of five, rather than, as Aristotle[176] used to say, of the -Sphere. - -XXXVII. ‘What is the real reason, some one will ask, why Plato[177] -referred the number of five for his worlds to the five solid figures, -saying that “God used the fifth formation on the universe to mark it -out”? In the sequel, when he raises the [Sidenote: B] problem of -plurality of worlds, whether we should properly speak of one or of five -as naturally existing, he shows clearly that the suggestion came from -the solids. If, then, we are to adjust what is actually probable to his -conception, let us consider that difference in movement must in each -case follow difference in the solids and their shapes, as Plato[178] -himself teaches, when he [Sidenote: C] shows that what is rarefied or -condensed suffers a change of place simultaneously with alteration of -substance. If from air fire be formed, the Octahedron being resolved and -broken up into Pyramids, or again if air from fire, when compressed and -thrust into an Octahedron, it is impossible that either should remain -where it was before; they fly off rapidly to another place, forcing a -way out and battling with whatever resists and presses upon them. The -result is shown still more clearly by an illustration from grain “tossed -and winnowed by the fans and implements used for cleaning corn”; -Plato[179] says that [Sidenote: D] in like manner the elements toss -matter about and are tossed by it; like approaches like, different -objects take different places, before the whole comes out finally -marshalled. Thus then, matter being what any universe must be from which -God is absent, the first five properties, each with its own tendency, at -once began to move apart, not being entirely or purely separated, -because, when all things were mixed up together, the vanquished -particles always followed their conquerors, in despite of Nature. Hence -they produced in the kinds of bodies, as they were borne in different -directions, parts and divisions as many as themselves: one not of pure -fire but [Sidenote: E] resembling fire, one not of unmixed air but -resembling air, one not of earth simple and absolute but resembling -earth. Most general was the association of air with water, because they -passed out saturated with the many other classes. For God did not -separate nor disperse being; but taking it up dispersed by its own -operation and borne about in so many streams of disorder, he ordered and -disposed it in symmetry and proportion. [Sidenote: F] Then he set reason -in each to be a governor and guardian, and created as many worlds as -there were kinds of primal bodies. Let so much then be inscribed to -Plato for Ammonius’ sake. For myself, I could never speak with -confidence as to the number of worlds and affirm that there are so many: -but I think the view that there are more than one, yet not an indefinite -but a limited number, as reasonable as either of the other views, when I -see how scattered and divided matter naturally is, that it does not -abide in one place, nor yet [Sidenote: 431] is suffered by reason to -pass into Infinity. Here, if anywhere, let us remember the Academy rule, -and clear ourselves of excessive credulity, and treading on this -slippery ground when reasoning about Infinity, only make sure that we -keep our footing.’ - -XXXVIII. When I had finished, ‘Lamprias gives us sound advice’, said -Demetrius. ‘The Gods by many forms—not “of sophistries”, as it is in -Euripides,[180] but of things—deceive us, when we dare to pronounce -opinions about these [Sidenote: B] great matters as if we knew. But “we -must cry back”, to quote the same authority,[181] to the assumption from -which our argument started. The statement that the oracles, when the -daemons move off and desert them, lie idle and speechless, like musical -instruments with none to play on them, raises another and a greater -question as to the cause and power whereby they make the prophets and -prophetesses subject to fits of inspiration and fancy. For it is -impossible to allege the desertion as a cause of the silence unless we -are first satisfied in what sense they preside and by their presence -make the oracle active and vocal.’ ‘What?’ rejoined Ammonius, ‘do you -suppose that the daemons are anything but souls which move around, as -Hesiod[182] says “garmented in mist”? In my view, as man differs from -man when he plays tragedy or [Sidenote: C] plays comedy, so soul differs -from soul after it has fashioned for itself a body convenient to its -present life. It is not then irrational or even wonderful that souls -meeting souls should create within them fancies of that which is to be, -just as we convey to one another, not only through voice, but often by -written signs, by a touch, a glance, many intimations of things past, -and forewarnings of things future. Or perhaps you have something -different to tell us, Lamprias? For a rumour reached us lately that you -had held a long discussion on these subjects with strangers at Lebadeia; -but our informant [Sidenote: D] did not clearly remember any of it.’ ‘Do -not be surprised at that,’ I said, ‘for there were many interruptions -and much was going on, because it was a day of consultation and -sacrifice, which made our conversation fragmentary and intermittent.’ -‘But now’, said Ammonius, ‘you have listeners with full leisure, and -eager to inquire and to be told. There is no question of rivalry or -faction, and you see what a frank full hearing has been accorded to -every view.’ - -XXXIX. The others joined in encouraging me, and after a few minutes of -silence I went on: ‘I must begin by saying [Sidenote: E] that it so -happens that you, Ammonius, have given me a sort of opening for bringing -forward now what I then said. For if the souls which have been separated -from the body or have never had commerce with one at all, are daemons as -you say, and God-like Hesiod[183] also: - - _Holy visitants of Earth and guardians sure of mortal men_, - -on what principle do we deprive souls while in their bodies of that -faculty whereby the daemons know and declare beforehand things to be? It -is not likely that any power or new part accrues to souls when they -leave the body, which they did not possess before. Rather, they always -have it, but in a weak degree while they are intermingled with the body; -it is sometimes quite invisible and veiled, sometimes weak and dim, and, -as with those who see through a mist or who try to move in a marshy -place, inoperative and dull, demanding much attention to the virtue that -is in them, and much pains to raise and remove and purify the -obstructing veil. The sun when he chases the clouds away does not then -become bright; he is bright always, [Sidenote: 432] but to us through -the mist his light appears dim and struggling. Even so the soul does not -assume the prophetic power when it passes out of the body as out of a -cloud; it has it even now, but is blinded by its close admixture with -the mortal state. We should not be surprised or incredulous, if only -because we see the great energy which Memory, as we call the faculty in -the soul which answers to prophecy, exhibits, in preserving and -protecting things that are past, or rather things that now are,[184] -since of things past none is or has substance; all things [Sidenote: B] -come into being and at the same time perish, all actions, words, and -feelings, as time like a river bears each along. But this faculty of the -soul, I know not how, gets a grasp of them, and invests with appearance -and being that which is not present. The oracle given to the Thessalians -about Arne[185] bade them attend to - - _That which a deaf man hears, a blind man sees._ - -But Memory is the hearing of things to which the ear is deaf, the seeing -of things to which the eye is blind. Wherefore, as I said, it is no -marvel that, as it grasps things which no longer are, so it should -anticipate things which have not yet come into being. For these touch it -more nearly, and with these it has sympathy; it confronts the future and -attaches itself [Sidenote: C] thereto, whereas it is quit of things past -and finished, saving only to remember them. - -XL. ‘Having then this inborn power yet dimmed and hardly appearing, -souls nevertheless break out and are uplifted, in dreams some of them or -when nearing initiation, as the body becomes pure, and takes on a -temperature, so to speak, which is suitable, or whether it be that the -rational and intellectual part is relaxed and discharged from the -present things, and so with the irrational and imaginative they reach -towards futurity. That line of Euripides[186] is not true: - - _The best of prophets he who guesses well._ - -No, the prophet is the sensible man, he who follows the rational part of -his soul in the road where it leads him with probability. Divination, -like a scroll with no writing or method, in itself [Sidenote: D] -indeterminate, but capable of receiving fancies and presentiments by the -feelings, gets touch with the future, yet not by inference, when it -passes most completely outside the present. It passes out through such a -temperament and disposition of the body as produce a change called by us -inspiration. Often the body attains this disposition of itself; but the -earth sends up many streams of many potencies, some which bring trances, -diseases, or death, others beneficial, mild, and serviceable, as is -proved on those who chance upon them. Of all the currents the stream, or -breath, of prophecy is most divine and holy, [Sidenote: E] whether it be -drawn from the air direct, or come mingled with the moisture of a -spring; for when absorbed into the body it produces in souls a -temperament unfamiliar and strange, the special quality of which it is -hard to state in clear words, though reason suggests many conjectures. -Probably, by heat and dispersion, it opens certain passages to admit -imaginings of the future, just as the fumes of wine bring many other -stirrings, and unveil words and thoughts which were stored away and -unheeded, [Sidenote: F] - - _For in the wine-god’s votary’s mood, - As in the madman’s, lies much prophecy_, - -says Euripides;[187] when the soul, warmed and set on fire, rejects the -caution which human prudence brings, to avert inspiration, as it so -often does, and to quench it. - -XLI. ‘After all, it might be not unreasonably asserted that a dryness -introduced with the heat subtilizes the current and makes it ethereal -and pure. “Best a dry soul”, says Heraclitus;[188] moisture not only -dulls sight and hearing, but if it [Sidenote: 433] touch a mirror or -raises[189] a mist upon it, takes away brightness and lustre. As the -opposite to this, it is not impossible that, by a sort of chilling and -condensation of the breath of air, the organ of prognostication is made -tense and keen, like steel out of the bath. Or again, as tin when melted -in with copper, itself rarefied and full of apertures, welds it together -and condenses it, and yet in the result makes it brighter to the eye and -purer, so there is nothing to prevent the prophetic exhalation, -[Sidenote: B] wherein is something congenial and akin to souls, from -filling up their rarefied places, and inserting itself, and pressing all -together. For certain things are congenial and proper to certain other -things; thus an infusion of the bean into the dyer’s bath seems to -assist its efficacy for purple, of nitre for saffron. - - _Scarlet is mingled for the pearly weft_, - -says Empedocles. But about Cydnus, and the sacred sword of Apollo at -Tarsus, we used to hear the story from you, dear Demetrius, how Cydnus -cleans that steel best, and no other water suits the sword. And again, -at Olympia, water from [Sidenote: C] Alpheus is poured on the ashes to -make them adhere to the altar in a mass, and the water of no other river -which has been found has the power of cementing the ash. - -XLII. ‘It is not to be wondered at, then, that of the many streams which -the earth sends up, these alone affect souls with inspiration and give -them imagination of the future. Certainly legend agrees with reason as -to this. In this very place it is related that the prophetic virtue was -first made manifest by the accidental falling into it of a shepherd, who -thereupon uttered sounds as of one inspired. These passed at first -unheeded by those present; but afterwards, when the things which the man -foretold had happened, there was astonishment. The most learned of the -Delphians even mention [Sidenote: D] the man’s name, which was Coretas. -I am, however, myself strongly of opinion that a soul acquires a -temperature congruous with the prophetic current, such as the eye has -with light sympathetic to it. Though the eye possesses the power of -seeing, this cannot act without light; and the prophetic organ of the -soul needs, as the eye does, a congenial medium to help in kindling its -flame, or whetting its edge. Hence most of the older generations used to -think that Apollo and the sun were one and the same God, while those who -knew and honoured that beautiful and wise proportion, “as body to soul, -so sight [Sidenote: E] to intellect, so light to truth”, would add the -conjecture “so the power of the sun to the nature of Apollo”, declaring -the sun to be his offspring and scion, the ever becoming of the ever -subsisting. For the sun kindles and enhances and helps to excite the -visual power of the sense, as the God that of prophecy in the soul. - -XLIII. ‘It was natural, however, that those who take the view that they -are one and the same God should have dedicated this oracle to Apollo and -Earth in common, thinking that the sun produces in the earth the -disposition and temperament from which come the prophetic exhalations -out of her. We [Sidenote: F] then, like Hesiod,[190] who understood the -matter better than some philosophers, when he called her - - _Unshaken base of all_, - -consider her to be eternal and imperishable. But of the powers which are -about her it is to be expected that some should fail here, and others -come into being there, and that there should be shiftings from place to -place, and cross-currents, and that such cycles should often revolve -within her if we take time as a whole; and the phenomena point to such -an inference. For in the case of lakes and rivers, and still more -frequently in that of hot springs, there have been failure and entire -disappearance in some places, in others a retreat so to call it, and an -absorption; [Sidenote: 434] then they reappear at intervals of time in -the same places, or bubble up in their neighbourhood. Again, we hear of -mines where the ore has been exhausted and then renewed, as in the -silver mines of Attica, and the copper lodes of Euboea, out of which the -chilled sword-blades used to be manufactured, as Aeschylus[191] has said - - _Th’ Euboean blade, self-tempered, in his hand._ - -Then there is the rock at Carystus where it is only lately that the -yield of delicate thread-like filaments of mineral has ceased. I think -some of you will remember having seen towels, and nets, and caps made of -these, which were non-inflammable. [Sidenote: B] Any which were soiled -by use were placed in a flame out of which they came bright and clear. -Now there has been an entire disappearance of these, and scarcely a few -fibres or thin filaments run in streaks about the mines. - -XLIV. ‘Yet Aristotle[192] holds that exhalation is the operative cause -within the earth of all these things, that is, of the natural effects -which necessarily fail, shift place, and break out concomitantly. The -same view must be taken of prophetic currents; the power which they have -is not perennial nor ageless, it is liable to changes. Probably they are -extinguished by excessive storms of rain, and dispersed by thunderbolts -[Sidenote: C] falling upon them; above all, when the earth is shaken, -and subsidence or conglomeration takes place in her depths, the -exhalations are shifted or wholly lost to view; thus the effects of the -great earthquake which actually overturned the town are said to be -permanent here. In Orchomenus they say that there was a pestilence in -which many men perished, and that the oracle of Teiresias then wholly -failed, and remains to this day idle and voiceless. If the like happened -also to those in Cilicia, as we hear it did, there is no one, Demetrius, -who could tell us about it more clearly than you.’ - -XLV. Demetrius said: ‘I cannot say how things are now, for it is a long -time since I left home, as you know; the [Sidenote: D] oracle of Mopsus -was in full force when I was there, and also that of Amphilochus. I can -tell you of a very remarkable thing which happened to that of Mopsus, in -my presence. The propraetor of Cilicia was himself still of two minds -about religious questions; from the weakness of his scepticism, I -imagine, for his general character was violent and bad; but he had about -him certain Epicureans, professed mockers at all such things on the -strength of their fine physiology. He sent in a freedman, equipping him -like a spy going into an enemy’s land, with sealed tablets inside which -was written the question, but no one knew what it was. The man spent a -night in the [Sidenote: E] sanctuary, as the custom was, and went to -sleep. The following day he reported a dream, which was this. He thought -that a handsome man stood over him, and said the one word “Black”, -nothing more, and went straight away. This appeared to us strange, and -caused much perplexity. However, that propraetor was struck with -consternation, and worshipped; then he opened the tablets and showed us -this question written inside: “Shall I sacrifice a white bull or a -black?” Even the Epicureans [Sidenote: F] were confounded at this, and -he himself completed his sacrifice, and ever afterwards held Mopsus in -reverence.’ - -XLVI. After saying this, Demetrius was silent. As I wished to bring the -discussion to a head, I glanced again at Philippus and Ammonius, who -were sitting together. They appeared to me to wish to exchange some -remarks, and again paused. Then Ammonius spoke: ‘Philippus has also -something to say on our past discussion; his own view, as that of most -people, is that Apollo is not a different God from the sun, but the -same. [Sidenote: 435] My own difficulty is a greater one, and turns on -greater matters. Just now we managed to let the argument take its own -way with due solemnity, to transfer prophetic art simply from Gods to -daemons. But now it seems to me that we are thrusting the latter out in -their turn, chasing them hence from oracle and tripod, and resolving the -origin—I would rather say the existence and power—of prophecy into -winds, and vapours, and exhalations. What we have heard about -temperatures, and [Sidenote: B] heatings and sharpenings, withdraws no -doubt the credit from the Gods, but thereby suggests the inference as to -cause which the Cyclops in Euripides[193] draws: - - _The earth by force, whether it will or no, - Bringing forth grass, fattens my flocks and hinds._ - -Only he says that he does not sacrifice to Gods, - - _but to myself, - And this great belly first of deities_, - -whereas we sacrifice and pray to get our oracles; and why do we do it, -if souls carry within themselves a power of prophecy, which power is -stirred up by temperature of some sort in air or breeze? And then the -condition of the priestesses, what does [Sidenote: C] that mean, and the -refusal to respond unless the whole victim from the hoof-joint up be set -quivering when it is sprinkled? For it is not enough, as in other -sacrifices, for it to shake the head, the shivering must be in all the -parts, and with a tremulous sound; otherwise they tell you that the -oracle is not giving responses, and do not bring in the Pythia. Now, if -they ascribe the cause mainly to a God or daemon, it is reasonable to do -and think thus, but on your view it is not reasonable. For the -exhalation, if it be there, will produce the transport whether the -sacrifice quiver or not, and will affect the soul, [Sidenote: D] not -only of the Pythia, but equally of any chance comer who has physical -contact with it. Thus it is mere folly to employ one woman only for the -oracles, and to take trouble to keep her chaste and holy all her life. -For that Coretas who fell in, as the Delphians tell you, and was the -first to make evident the virtue of the place, was in no respect -different, as I think, from the other goatherds and shepherds, always -supposing that this is not a story and an idle fiction, which I think it -is. Then, when I reckon up the great benefits of which this oracle has -been the cause to the Greeks, in wars, in the founding of cities, in -[Sidenote: E] times of pestilence and of failure of crops, I think it -dreadful to ascribe its discovery and origin, not to God and Providence, -but to Chance and automatic causes. It is this point’, he added, ‘that I -want Lamprias to argue; will you not wait?’ ‘Indeed I will,’ said -Philippus, ‘and so will the others, the discussion has stirred us all.’ - -XLVII. I turned to him. ‘Stirred us, Philippus? It has confounded me, to -think that before so large and so grave a company I should seem so to -forget my years as with a show of plausible rhetoric to upset and -disturb any view about religion which is established in truth and -holiness. I will [Sidenote: F] defend myself by producing Plato, as -witness and advocate in one. Plato[194] found fault with old Anaxagoras -because he attached himself too much to physical causes, and because, in -his constant pursuit of the working of necessary law in all which -affects bodies, he dismissed the better causes or principles, the Final -and the Efficient. He himself, first of the philosophers or more than -any of them, went into both sets, attributing to God the origin of all -things which are according to reason, but [Sidenote: 436] refusing to -deprive matter of the causes necessary for their production; he -recognized that in some such way the whole sensible universe is -organized, yet is not pure nor free from admixture, but has its origin -in matter involved with reason. Now look at this first in the case of -the artists. Take, for instance, the famous base or stand, called by -Herodotus[195] “cup-stand”, of the bowl here; it had its physical -causes, iron, steel, fire to soften and water to temper it, without all -which the object could not possibly be produced; but the more potent -principle [Sidenote: B] which stirred the others and was working through -them, was furnished to it by Art and Reason. Now the name of the maker -or artificer has been inscribed on these several figures or works of -imitation: - - _Here Polygnotus, son of Aglaophon, - The Thasian, painted towering Ilion’s sack._ - -You may see it for yourself. But without pigments crushed and compounded -it would be impossible to present such a composition to the eye. Does -then the man who seeks to grasp the physical principle, investigating -and laying down the effects and [Sidenote: C] the changes of a mixture -of Sinopic red earth with yellow, or Melian gray with black, rob the -painter of his glory? Or he who follows out the processes of tempering -or softening steel, how it is weakened by fire and submits itself to be -drawn and hammered, then, plunged into fresh water and compressed and -densified by the cold, because of the softness and rarefication induced -by the fire, acquires temper and consistence—“the iron’s might” -Homer[196] calls it—does he any the less preserve for the artist his -part in the causation? I think not! There [Sidenote: D] are those who -criticize the properties of medical appliances; they do not overthrow -the art of Medicine. As, for the matter of that, Plato[197] in proving -that we see by means of the flash of our eyes mingling with that of the -sun, and hear by the pulsations of the air, did not rule out the fact -that we have received our sight and our hearing in accordance with -Reason and Providence. - -XLVIII. ‘The whole matter, as I maintain, stands thus. All becoming has -two causes, of which the most ancient theologians and poets chose to -turn their attention to the stronger only, pronouncing over all things -the universal refrain: - - _Zeus first, Zeus middle, all things are of Zeus_,[198] - -while they never approached the necessary or physical causes. Their -successors, called physicists, did the very reverse; they [Sidenote: E] -strayed away from that beautiful and divine principle, and refer -everything to bodies, and pulsations, and changes, and temperaments. -Hence the systems of both are deficient; they have ignored or neglected, -the latter the person through whom and the agent by whom, the former the -things from which and the means through which. He who first distinctly -grasped both, and attached by necessary law the subject affected to the -rational Maker and Mover, relieves us as well as himself from any charge -of contempt or detraction. We do not make [Sidenote: F] prophecy a -godless or irrational thing, when we assign to it for its matter the -soul of man, and for its instrument, or harp-quill, the inspiring -current and the exhalation. For, in the first place, the earth which -breeds the exhalations, and the sun who gives to earth all power of -temperature or of change, are reckoned Gods in the traditions of our -fathers. Further, in leaving daemons to preside over and guard this -temperature, as though it were a melody, to relax the strings in due -course [Sidenote: 437] or to tighten, to clear away that excess of -ecstasy and agitation which it causes in the worshippers, and to leave -excitement a painless and harmless compound, we shall not be thought to -do what is irrational or impossible. - -XLIX. ‘Nor can we allow that in offering the previous sacrifice, or -crowning the victim, or pouring on it lustral draughts, we do anything -repugnant to this view. For when the priests and holy men sacrifice the -victim, and sprinkle it, and watch its movement and its trembling, they -do not profess to get from it an intimation of anything but the one fact -that the God is giving answers. For the thing offered in sacrifice must -be pure both in body and in soul, and free from any injury or taint. As -to body, it is not very difficult to make [Sidenote: B] out visible -proof; the test of soul is to offer corn to the bulls, pease to the -he-goats; an animal which refuses is reckoned out of health. For the -she-goat it is cold water; a soul in a normal state cannot be apathetic -and motionless under the sprinkling. For my own part, even if it be -certain that trembling is a sign that the God is ready to give -responses, the contrary that he [Sidenote: C] is not, I see no -disastrous consequence. As I said before, every natural force produces -its result better or worse according to season; if the right season is -escaping us, it is to be expected that the God should signify the fact. - -L. ‘I think, further, that the exhalation is not always the same, it has -times of relaxation and of intensity. In proof, I can bring forward -witnesses, many of them strangers, and all the members of the temple -staff. For the room in which they place consultants of the God, is, at -intervals, which are not frequent or fixed, but come as it may happen, -filled with fragrance and a sweet gale, such as the most costly spices -might emit, which are thrown up, as out of a well, from the sanctuary. -[Sidenote: D] We may suppose that they burst out by the action of heat -or of some other force within. Or, if this does not seem to you -convincing, you will at least grant that the Pythia herself appears to -show at different times different states and moods of that part of the -soul which is in contact with the current, and does not present -throughout one temperament, like a melody which never changes. Many -conscious troubles and excitements, more which are unnoticed, seize her -body and stream on into the soul; and when she is charged with these, it -is better for her not to go in, not to present herself to the God when -she is not perfectly pure, like an instrument well strung and tuneful, -but is passionate and disordered. Wine does not always affect [Sidenote: -E] the hard drinker in the same way, nor the flute one susceptible to -its music; the same men are stirred to tipsy revelling, now less now -more, according to difference of temperament. The imaginative part of -the soul seems, more than any other, to be controlled by variations in -the body, and to change with it. This is clearly shown by dreams; -sometimes we find ourselves among many visions of every sort in our -sleep, at others again there is a perfect calm and relief from such -illusions. We know [Sidenote: F] ourselves Cleon here of Daulia, who -says that in the many years which he has lived he has never once seen a -dream-vision. In an older generation the same is recorded of Thrasymedes -of Heraea. The cause is bodily temperament, just as, on the other side, -there is that of melancholic persons, all dreams and phantoms; although -these are supposed to have the gift of dreaming right, for their -imagination turns them this way or that, [Sidenote: 438] just as those -who shoot often, often hit. - -LI. ‘When then the imaginative and prophetic faculty of the soul is -attempered to the current as to a drug, the inspiration must be brought -about in the persons who are to prophesy, when not, not; otherwise the -result will be a distortion by no means free from trouble and -disturbance, as we know was the case with the Pythia who lately died. A -deputation came from abroad to consult the God; the victim remained -motionless and impassive under the first sprinkling, then the priests in -[Sidenote: B] excess of zeal persisted, and at last it did give in when -drenched with their shower-bath. What happened to the Pythia? -Unwillingly and with no alacrity, they say, she went down into the -vault. In her very first answers she made it clear by the hoarseness of -her voice that she could not bear up; she was like a ship driven by the -wind, filled with a dumb bad spirit. At last she became all agitation; -with a terrible cry she made towards the door of exit, and dashed -against it, so that not only the members of the deputation fled, but -also the prophet Nicander and the holy persons present. However, after a -short [Sidenote: C] time, they went in and recovered her. She was then -in her senses, and lived on for a few days. For these reasons, they keep -the person of the Pythia free from intercourse, and from any sort of -communication or contact with strangers; and they take the signs before -proceeding to the oracle, thinking that it is quite clear to the God -when she has the temperament and condition which will allow her to -undergo the inspiration with impunity. For the force of the exhaled air -does not affect all persons, nor the same persons always in the same -way; it only provides fuel, a foundation, as has been explained, for -[Sidenote: D] those who are fit to be subjected to the change. It is -essentially divine and daemonic, not however exempt from failure, or -destruction, or age, nor is it capable of enduring through that infinite -space of time in which all things between moon and earth are exhausted, -according to our theory. Some go on to say that the things also which -are above the moon do not endure, but fail in presence of the eternal -infinite, and suffer abrupt changes and new births. - -LII. ‘These things’, I continued, ‘I commend to your repeated -consideration, and my own, as offering many openings for objection and -many suggestions of an opposite view, which the present opportunity does -not allow us to follow out in their [Sidenote: E] entirety. Let them -stand over then, and also the problem raised by Philippus about the sun -and Apollo.’ - -Footnote 128: - - Whose account is, for convenience, somewhat recast and amplified. The - fact is understated. ‘There cannot be more than five solids, each of - which has all its faces with the same number of sides, and all its - solid angles formed with the same number of plane angles.’ Todhunter, - _Spherical Trigonometry_, c. 151. - -Footnote 129: - - _Il._ 10, 173, and Leaf’s note. - -Footnote 130: - - _Od._ 3, 367-8. - -Footnote 131: - - _Il._ 10, 394. See p. 265. - -Footnote 132: - - Herodotus, 8, 133-5. I have followed W.’s reconstruction. - -Footnote 133: - - See _Life of Aristides_, c. 19. - -Footnote 134: - - _W. and D._ 199. - -Footnote 135: - - See p. 231. - -Footnote 136: - - Fr. 149: see above, p. 77. - -Footnote 137: - - Herod. 9, 28 (and see ib. c. 21). - -Footnote 138: - - Fr. 729. Cp. _O. C._ 607. - -Footnote 139: - - The words ‘and here—heroes’ have been supplied from a quotation in - Eusebius, _Praep. Evan._ 5, 4. - -Footnote 140: - - From a fragment, Gaisford, _Poetae Minores_, ii, p. 489 (cp. Ausonius, - _Id._ 18; and Sir T. Browne, _Vulgar Errors_, 3, 9). - -Footnote 141: - - Fr. 165. - -Footnote 142: - - As Ausonius, loc. cit. - -Footnote 143: - - Fr. 87. - -Footnote 144: - - 1 + 2 × 1 + 3 × 1 + 2^2 + 3^2 + 2^3 + 3^3 = 54. - -Footnote 145: - - See _Timaeus_, 35. - -Footnote 146: - - _Il._ 20, 8-9. - -Footnote 147: - - See Heraclitus, Fr. 34. - -Footnote 148: - - Inserting, with Mezirius, ἢ δεκάκις before τεσσάρων. - -Footnote 149: - - The meaning is simply that 40 × 3^5 = 9720, and ‘triangle-wise’ seems - irrelevant. - -Footnote 150: - - Fr. 961 (from the _Phaethon_). - -Footnote 151: - - _Sympos._ 202 F. - -Footnote 152: - - _W. and D._ 125. Cp. Plato, _Crat._ 397. - -Footnote 153: - - 2, 171. - -Footnote 154: - - Pindar, Fr. 208 (cp. _Sympos._ 7, 5, 4). - -Footnote 155: - - _Suppl._ 214. - -Footnote 156: - - Fr. 730. - -Footnote 157: - - See additional note, p. 312. - -Footnote 158: - - Cp. _Life of Timoleon_, c. 1. - -Footnote 159: - - Cp. Herod. 2, 145. - -Footnote 160: - - See p. 54. - -Footnote 161: - - Reading οὐ πολλά (‘nihil secum trahit impossibile’. Xylander). See - Preface, p. vi. - -Footnote 162: - - _Timaeus_, 55. - -Footnote 163: - - As Aristotle, _De Caelo_, I, 8, 276 a 18. - -Footnote 164: - - _Od._ 21, 397. - -Footnote 165: - - _Il._ 15, 189. - -Footnote 166: - - _Tim._ 31 A, 55 C. - -Footnote 167: - - Reading, with Madvig (partly anticipated by Emperius) ... ὃ μὴ κοινῶς - ποιὸν ἢ ἰδίως ἐστίν· ὁ δὲ κόσμος οὐ λέγεται κοινῶς εἶναι ποιός· ἰδίως - τοίνυν ... - -Footnote 168: - - See e. g. _De Caelo_, 1, 6, 275 b 29, and Burnet, _Early Greek - Philosophy_, p. 397 note; see also p. 270 foll. - -Footnote 169: - - Inserting κάτω, with Meziriac. - -Footnote 170: - - _Il._ 13, 1 foll. - -Footnote 171: - - See p. 115. - -Footnote 172: - - _Tim._ 55 E, foll. - -Footnote 173: - - There is a play on the words for ‘fire’, ‘Pyramid’. - -Footnote 174: - - _Soph._ 249 B. - -Footnote 175: - - _Is. et Osir._ c. 12. - -Footnote 176: - - _De Caelo_, 2, 4, 286 b 10. - -Footnote 177: - - _Tim._ 55 C. - -Footnote 178: - - _Tim._ 57 C. - -Footnote 179: - - _Tim._ 52 E. - -Footnote 180: - - Fr. 925. - -Footnote 181: - - See p. 70. - -Footnote 182: - - _W. and D._ 124. - -Footnote 183: - - _W. and D._ 122. - -Footnote 184: - - μᾶλλον δὲ ὄντα. Cp. Plato, _Philebus_, 33, διὰ μνήμης πᾶν ἔστι τὸ - γεγονός. - -Footnote 185: - - See Thuc. 1, 12. - -Footnote 186: - - Fr. 963. - -Footnote 187: - - _Bacchae_, 297-8. - -Footnote 188: - - Fr. 75. - -Footnote 189: - - The text is corrupt, but probably contained ὁμίχλην. Cp. Plato, - _Sympos._ 736 A. - -Footnote 190: - - _Theogon._ 117. - -Footnote 191: - - Fr. 371. - -Footnote 192: - - _Meteor._ 1, 3, 340 b 29. - -Footnote 193: - - _Cyclops_, I. 332-3 (Shelley’s tr.). - -Footnote 194: - - _Phaedo_, 97 C. - -Footnote 195: - - 1, 25, where the work is ascribed to Glaucus. - -Footnote 196: - - _Od._ 9, 393. - -Footnote 197: - - _Rep._ 6, 18, 507 C. - -Footnote 198: - - Cp. Plato, _Laws_, 716 E. - - - - - ON THE INSTANCES OF DELAY - IN DIVINE PUNISHMENT - - - INTRODUCTION - - -The Dialogue on _Delay in Divine Punishment_ stands somewhat apart from -the others. It deals gravely with grave matters, the ways of Providence -with man, and the ‘last things’. The method is ingenious and -satisfactory. An Epicurean, after scoffing at Providence in a manner -which deeply offends the company, leaves them abruptly. We are reminded -of the departure of the Cynic Didymus at Delphi (p. 124), and of the -immortal episode of Thrasymachus in the First Book of the _Republic_ of -Plato. The small family party which remains, Plutarch, his brother -Timon, his son-in-law Patrocleas, and an intimate friend Olympicus, take -up the points suggested by the attack, not contentiously, or in the -language of the Schools, but with a view to ascertain whether there is -anything in them which concerns reasonable men. The friends successively -raise these points: the slowness of the Gods in punishing, and their -purposes in the delay; the justice of visiting the sins of parents upon -children, or of a city upon a new generation of citizens; the -persistence of the soul after physical death here. In all cases it is -Plutarch who supplies the answer, whereas, in the other long Dialogues, -there is some distribution of parts and an interplay of character. In -the tone of the dissertations, which is sustained, and little relieved -by humour, the piece most nearly resembles the essay _On Superstition_. -Plutarch’s argument is marked by truly academic caution, and an -admission of man’s ignorance and limitations, which might have come from -the pen of Bishop Butler. - -When Plutarch has sufficiently established ‘to demonstration’ the -‘probability’ of his position, he adds, at the urgent desire of the -company, a myth, which he had already offered to produce. The ‘myth’ is -a device of which Plato has many examples, intended to give symmetry to -the Dialogue, ‘that it may not go about without a head’. But it is more -than a literary device; it is a satisfaction of the desire for something -poetical and constructive which mere Dialectic can never feed. The myth -about Thespesius here must be compared with that of Timarchus in the -_Genius of Socrates_ and with the traveller’s tale of the Island of -Cronus in the _Face in the Moon_.[199] Of Platonic myths, we are first -reminded of that of Er, which closes the _Republic_, and raises to a -higher plane the question whether the just man or the unjust has the -best of it. There are necessarily strong points of resemblance to the -magnificent judgement myth of the _Gorgias_, and much of the imagery -recalls the _Phaedo_. The _Timaeus_ is not perhaps so conspicuously -before Plutarch’s mind here as it is in other works. While there is so -much which can be referred to Plato, there is nothing to suggest that -Plutarch set himself to make a patchwork out of the stores of his -retentive memory, still less that he sought to imitate the master from -whose genius his industrious and curious mind lay poles apart. His -honesty and his common-sense forbade any such attempt. - -It is fortunate that we possess a fragment (redeemed for Plutarch by -Wyttenbach) of a Dialogue with the same speakers, and perhaps intended -to follow immediately, in which, as though in ‘calculated contrast’, -writes M. Gréard (p. 292), to the grim details contained in the Dialogue -before us, we have a delightful picture of what awaits the just beyond -the grave, the truly ‘initiate’. As all the questions discussed in the -main Dialogue are raised in old Greek writers, Homer, Pindar, the -Tragedians, supplemented by the philosophers, and the myth, in its stern -imagery, is on all fours, for instance, with the _Eumenides_ of -Aeschylus, so the comfortable vision of the initiate in the fragment is -anticipated by Greeks who wrote four hundred or five hundred years -before. Thus we have the lines of the _Frogs_ of Aristophanes (154 -foll., tr. G. Murray): - - _Then you will find a breath about your ears - Of Music, and a light about your eyes - Most beautiful—like this—and myrtle groves, - And joyous throngs of women and of men, - And clapping of glad hands._ - -And the still more famous picture of Pindar (_Ol._ 2, 68-74, tr. G. -Moberly): - - _But who in Godlike strife - Have dared to keep their secret souls from sin, - Thrice tried in either life, - E’en to old Saturn’s tower their bright way win. - There with melodious din - Light breezes, East and West, - Fan with soft breath the Islets of the Blest; - And golden flowerets breathe, - Some from the Island-trees, - Some floating on the ambient seas, - With which their twinèd arms and brows they wreathe._ - -Perhaps it would hardly be untrue to say that the whole of Plutarch’s -daring speculation owes its origin to the words of Heraclitus, with -which the fragment closes, as to the surprises which await man after -death. - -There is one distinct note of date, in the Sibylline prophecy quoted in -c. 22, that the emperor of that day should die in his bed. Vespasian, -who was doubtless meant, died in June, A.D. 79, and the great eruption -of Vesuvius (by which, however, Puteoli does not appear to have suffered -specially) took place in August of the same year. The Dialogue must have -been written later than these events. On the whole, if we may venture a -conjecture where all is uncertain, we may perhaps suppose it to have -followed the _Symposiacs_ at a comparatively short interval, and to have -been an early attempt to apply the method of dialogue to elaborate -discussion of great themes. It has characteristics of its own which -enable us to understand how Erasmus (_Adagia_)[200] felt doubts as to -its genuineness, though we have the confident assurance of Wyttenbach -that there is Plutarch’s seal upon it. - -Readers should consult Mr. Oakesmith’s pages on this work (_The Religion -of Plutarch_, pp. 103 foll.), and, on the myth, Bishop Westcott’s Essay -on _The Myths of Plato_ (reprinted in _History of Religious Thought in -the West_), or Professor J. A. Stewart on _The Myths of Plato_. - - - ON THE INSTANCES OF DELAY IN DIVINE PUNISHMENT - - -A DIALOGUE - - -THE SPEAKERS - - - PATROCLEAS, Plutarch’s son-in-law. - PLUTARCH. - TIMON, Plutarch’s brother. - OLYMPICUS, a friend (see _Sympos._ 3, 6). - -I. Having spoken to this effect, Quintus, before any one [Sidenote: 548 -B] replied—we had just reached the far end of the colonnade—Epicurus -took himself off. We stopped our walk for a while, in silent surprise at -the oddness of the man, then glanced at one another, turned back, and -resumed it. Patrocleas was the first to speak: ‘Which is it to be,’ he -said, ‘are you for dropping the inquiry, or shall we answer the argument -as though the speaker of it were present, though he is not present?’ -Timon interposed: ‘Well, suppose he had thrown a spear and gone away, it -would not do quietly to let it lie. Brasidas,[201] we are [Sidenote: C] -given to believe, drew the spear out of his wound, and with it struck -and slew the thrower. Now perhaps it is no business of ours to punish -those who have discharged a monstrous or a false argument at us; enough -if we eject it from ourselves before it has taken hold.’ ‘Then what is -it’, I asked, ‘which has moved you most, in what he said? for there were -a number of things, a disorderly mass, which the man drew from all -quarters, to let them off against Divine Providence in his rage and -fury.’ - -II. Then Patrocleas: ‘The slowness and procrastination of Divine Justice -in the punishment of wicked men appears to [Sidenote: D] me especially -terrible. At the present moment, after what we have just heard, I seem -to come “all fresh and new” to this (Epicurean) view; but long ago I -used to feel indignant when I heard Euripides[202] telling how - - _The Gods delay, the Gods are ever slow._ - -Yet it does not become the God to be slack in anything, least of all in -dealing with wicked men; they are never slack or procrastinating in -evil-doing, but are borne on by the passions at racing speed into their -iniquities. Again, “Vengeance, when [Sidenote: E] it follows most -closely upon the wrongs,” to use the words of Thucydides,[203] at once -blocks the road against those who are in the fullest enjoyment of -successful vice. No debt so surely as the debt of justice, if left -unpaid till the morrow, at once depresses the person wronged by -enfeebling his hopes, and enhances the boldness and self-trust of the -miscreant; whereas the punishments which meet audacious acts promptly -are checks against future offences, and have a sovereign virtue to -encourage the sufferers. Thus I often feel distressed when I recall the -saying [Sidenote: F] of Bias. It appears that he told a certain wicked -man that he had no fear of his escaping retribution, he did fear that he -himself might not be there to see. What did the Messenians gain by the -punishment of Aristocrates, when they had been already slain? He had -lost the battle at the Trench[204] by treachery, reigned over the -Arcadians for more than twenty years undiscovered, and was at last found -out and punished, but the Messenians were no more. What consolation to -the Orchomenians, who had lost children, friends, and kinsmen through -the treason of Lyciscus, was the disease which fastened upon him long -years afterwards, and devoured his body? He had once and again dipped -both feet into the river, with prayers and imprecations [Sidenote: 549] -as he wetted them, that they might rot away if he had done any wrong or -treachery. At Athens, when the corpses of the “Accursed” were thrown -out, and set beyond the frontier, it was not possible even for the -children’s children of the victims to see it done. Hence it is strange -that Euripides[205] should have used such thoughts as these to deter men -from wickedness: - - _Justice shall never strike thee to the heart— - Fear not her footfall—no, nor any man - That does the wrong; with silent foot and slow, - When the day comes, she’ll stalk the sinners down._ - -[Sidenote: B] The very phrases—are they not?—which bad men might use to -give themselves encouragement and assurance to set hand to lawless acts, -since they show injustice yielding her harvest ripe and ready, and -punishment lagging late and far behind the enjoyment.’ - -III. When Patrocleas had done, Olympicus spoke next: ‘Take another -point, Patrocleas; what a grave absurdity these delays and hesitations -on the part of Heaven involve! The slowness takes away all assurance of -a Providence; and when misfortune comes to bad men, not on the heels of -each wicked [Sidenote: C] deed, but later on, they set it down to -mischance, and call it a calamity, not a punishment; they do not profit -by it, they are annoyed at the things which befall them, but do not -repent of the things which they have done. It is so with a horse; the -touch of whip or spur which follows immediately on a stumble or blunder -sets him up and brings him to his duty; whereas tugs and checks and -ratings later on, after an interval, seem to him to have some purpose -which is not education, they irritate, but do not school him. And so -with vice; if punishment [Sidenote: D] from switch or rein follow every -trip and tumble, vice will have the best chance of becoming thoughtful -and lowly, and getting the fear of God, as of a Judge who stands over -men in their acts and their passions, and does not wait till the day -after to-morrow. Whereas, the Justice which moves calmly, “with a slow -foot”, as Euripides put it, and falls upon the wicked “when the day -comes”, resembles an automaton rather than a Providence, in her vague, -procrastinating, unmethodical procedure. Thus I do not see what use -there is in those “mills of the Gods” which [Sidenote: E] “grind -slowly”, we are told,[206] for they make the form of Justice dim, and -the fears of the wicked evanescent.’ - -IV. When all this had been said, and while I was deep in thought, Timon -said: ‘Shall I intervene and with my own hand add the crowning stone of -difficulty to our argument, or shall I allow it first to win through for -itself against what we have already heard?’ ‘What need’, I said, ‘to let -in the “third wave” and sluice the argument anew, if it prove unable to -force aside the first objections and escape them? In the first place, -then, we will start from our own ancestral hearth, from the [Sidenote: -F] reserve, I mean, which the philosophers of the Academy show in -speaking of what is divine; and reverently clear ourself from any claim -to speak with knowledge about these matters. It is a graver mistake than -for unmusical persons to discuss music, or civilians a campaign, if we -mere men are to scrutinize the things which belong to Gods and daemons; -the inartistic trying to track the inner thought of the artist, by -fanciful and random conjecture. If it is hard for a layman to guess at -the reasoning which led a doctor to use the knife later and not sooner, -or to apply a lotion to-day and not yesterday, surely it is not easy for -a mortal to speak with any certainty about God, more than this—that -[Sidenote: 530] he best knows the proper time for the curative treatment -of vice, and applies the due punishment, as a medicine, to each man -accordingly; for vice admits of no measure common to all, the proper -time is not the same for every case. That the medical treatment of the -soul which we call “Right” and “Justice” is of all arts the greatest, we -have the testimony of thousands of witnesses, Pindar[207] among them. He -acclaims the sovereign ruler of all the Gods as “in art most excellent”, -because Justice is of his workmanship, and to her it pertains to -determine the “when” and the “how” and the degree of punishment for -every offender. And Plato[208] tells us that Minos, who is a son of -Zeus, has become a learner of this art; showing that it is not possible -for one who has not learnt, and acquired [Sidenote: B] the knowledge, to -go straight in questions of right, or to apprehend the guiding -principle. Even the laws which men frame are not everywhere, and on the -face of them, reasonable; some enactments appear simply ludicrous. In -Lacedaemon, for instance, the Ephors, when they first enter office, make -proclamation that no one is to grow a moustache, and that “men should -obey the laws, that the laws may not be hard upon them”. The Romans, -when they release slaves “into freedom” give them a tap with a light -reed. When they draw a will, they make one set of persons “heirs” and -“sell” the property to others, which appears strange. Strangest of all -is the enactment [Sidenote: C] of Solon, that the man who takes neither -side in a party contest, but stands out, should lose the franchise. One -might go on to mention many legal absurdities, where the intention of -the lawyers and the reason of the provisions are out of our knowledge. -Then, if human codes are so inscrutable, what wonder that, in speaking -of the Gods, we cannot lightly lay down the principle upon which they -punish some offenders later, some sooner? - -V. ‘All this is no pretext for evading the issue; but it is a plea for -indulgence; that the argument, having its harbour of refuge in sight, -may rear itself confidently from the depths to meet the difficulty. Now -first consider that, as Plato[209] shows, [Sidenote: D] God sets himself -before us for a pattern of all good things, and implants in those who -are able to follow God that human virtue which is, in a sort, likeness -to himself. For Universal Nature, while yet unorganized, found the -beginning of its change to a world of order in assimilation to the idea -and excellence of God, and in a measure of participation therein. The -same Plato[210] tells us that Nature kindled in us the sense of sight, -in order that the soul, by gazing in wonder at the bodies which move -through heaven, may become accustomed to welcome what is shapely and -well ordered, to abhor ill-regulated and [Sidenote: E] roving passions, -and to eschew, as the origin of all vice and naughtiness, whatever is -random and fortuitous. For man has no greater natural enjoyment of God -than to imitate and pursue all that in him is fair and good, and so to -attain to virtue. Therefore is God slow and leisurely in inflicting -punishment on the bad, not that he fears mistake on his own part if he -punish quickly, or any repentance; rather he is putting away from us all -brutish vehemence in the punishments we inflict, and teaching [Sidenote: -F] us not to choose the moment of heat and agitation, when - - _High over reason temper leaps supreme_,[211] - -to spring upon those who have vexed us, as though glutting a thirst or a -hunger; but to copy his own gentleness and long-suffering, to be orderly -and staid when we set our hand to punishment, taking Time for a -counsellor who will never have Repentance for his consort. For it is a -smaller evil, as Socrates [Sidenote: 551] used to say, to drink turbid -water in our greediness, when we find it by the way, than with the -reason still muddied, full of wrath and frenzy, before it has settled -down and run clear, to glut ourselves in the punishment of a body which -is of one race and tribe with our own. It is not, as Thucydides would -tell us, the retribution following most closely on the injury received, -but that most remote from it, which really exacts what is its due. For -as temper, according to Melanthius,[212] - - _Does dreadful deeds, and banishes good sense_, - -so reason, on the contrary, employs justice and moderation, setting -passion and temper afar. So it is that even human examples make men -gentle, as when we hear that Plato stood long over his servant with rod -uplifted, correcting, as he said [Sidenote: B] himself, his own temper; -or, again, as Archytas, informed of some disorderly behaviour of his -workmen in the field, and feeling himself unusually irritated and harsh, -did nothing, but just said, as he went away, “Well for you that I am -feeling angry.” If sayings like these and anecdotes about men drain away -what is rough and violent in our anger, much more when we see God, in -whom is no fear nor any sort of repentance, yet reserving punishment and -abiding his time, may we well become [Sidenote: C] cautious in such -matters, and deem the gentleness and lofty patience which he exhibits a -god-like part of virtue. By his punishment he corrects a few, by the -slowness of his punishment he helps and admonishes many. - -VI. ‘Let us now turn our attention to a second point, which is this: All -kinds of human retribution deal out pain for pain and stop there. -“Suffering for the doer”[213] is their principle, and beyond it they do -not go. So they follow sin like a howling pack which hunts on the heels -of the offences. Whereas God, we may suppose, when he sets his hand to -punish a soul that is sick, [Sidenote: D] scrutinizes its passions, if -perhaps they may be bent aside, and a way opened to repentance; he fixes -a time, in cases where the wickedness seated within is not absolute or -inflexible. He knows how large a portion of virtue, proceeding from -himself, souls carry with them when they pass to birth, how powerful -within the noble principle naturally is, and how ineffaceable; that it -may flower into vice contrary to nature, when nurture and company are -bad and corrupting, yet is afterwards cured in some persons and recovers -its own proper state. And so he [Sidenote: E] does not bring down -punishment equally upon all. What is incurable he at once removes out of -the life and prunes away, because, happen what may, it is injurious to -others, most injurious of all to a man’s self, to consort with -wickedness all his time. Where the sinful principle may be supposed to -exist through ignorance of the good rather than from deliberate -preference for the base, he gives them time for reformation; but if they -persist, they, too, receive punishment in full; for he has no fear, we -may be sure, lest they escape him at the last. Now consider how many -changes take place in human character and life. And this is why that in -them which changes is called “tropos” (turning) and “ethos” (_ēthos_), -because habit (_ĕthos_) finds its way in so often, and masters them so -mightily. I think [Sidenote: F] myself that the ancients called Cecrops -“double-shaped”, not, as some say, because from a good king he became a -very dragon of a tyrant, but, on the contrary, because he was, to begin -with, perverse and terrible, and afterwards became a mild and humane -ruler. This instance may be an uncertain one, but we know of Gelon at -any rate, and Hiero in Sicily, and Pisistratus son of Hippocrates, how -they won power by wickedness, but all used [Sidenote: 552] it -virtuously; came to rule through unlawful ways, but turned out fair and -patriotic rulers; introduced the reign of law and of careful -agriculture, found their subjects men of jest and gossip, and made them -sober and industrious. Gelon, moreover, fought nobly at the head of his -people, won a great battle against the Carthaginians, and refused them a -peace when they sued for one, until he had bound them in a covenant to -give up the practice of sacrificing their children to Cronus. Then, in -Megalopolis, there was a tyrant Lydiadas, who changed [Sidenote: B] his -ways in the actual course of his reign, and in disgust with his own -injustice restored to the citizens their laws, and fell gloriously -fighting for the country against its enemies. Suppose some one had slain -Miltiades while tyrant in the Chersonese, as he first was, or had got a -conviction for incest against Cimon, or had robbed Athens of -Themistocles by a prosecution for his riotous passage through the -market-place, as was done with Alcibiades later on, where would be our -Marathons, our Eurymedons, that noble Artemisium, [Sidenote: C] - - _where Athens’ sons - Set firm the shining base of Liberty?_[214] - -For great natures produce nothing petty; their vehemence and energy -cannot rest for very intensity, they toss about on the surge before they -settle into their solid and abiding character. As then one ignorant of -husbandry would not welcome the prospect of a piece of land full of -thick undergrowth and weeds, with many wild creatures on it, and streams -of water, and deep mud; whereas, to one who has learned to use his -senses and to discriminate, those very things suggest strength and -fatness and everything that is good in the soil, so it is with great -natures. They break out early into many strange bad growths, [Sidenote: -D] out of which we, in our intolerance, think it our duty to cut away -and stunt all that is rough and prickly; but the Judge who is better -than we and who sees the good and generous crop to come, waits for Time, -the fellow-worker with Reason and Virtue, and that ripeness whereby -Nature yields the proper fruit. - -VII. ‘So much for this. Now do you not think that some of the Greeks are -right in copying the Egyptian law which enacts that a pregnant woman who -has been condemned to death should be kept in custody until she has -borne a child?’ ‘Certainly’, they said. I went on: ‘Next, suppose a -person not pregnant with children, but able, if time be given, to bring -into [Sidenote: E] the light of the sun some secret action or design, -either by denouncing a hidden evil, or by becoming the promoter of a -salutary policy or the inventor of some needful expedient, is it not the -better course to let punishment wait on convenience rather than to -inflict it too soon? It seems to me to be so.’ ‘And to us’, said -Patrocleas. ‘And rightly,’ said I, ‘for consider that if Dionysius had -paid the penalty at the beginning of his reign, no Greek settler would -have been left in Sicily, because the Carthaginians would have -devastated it. So neither Apollonia, nor Anactorium, nor the Leucadian -peninsula would have been occupied by Greeks if Periander had [Sidenote: -F] been punished without such a long interval. I think that Cassander -also had a respite in order that Thebes might be re-established. Most of -the foreigners who helped to seize this temple crossed over with -Timoleon into Sicily; and when they had conquered the Carthaginians, and -put an end to the tyrannies, met deservedly miserable deaths themselves. -Surely Heaven uses some bad men to punish others, like executioners, and -afterwards crushes them, and this has been the case, I think, [Sidenote: -553] with most tyrants. For as the gall of the hyaena, the refuse of the -seal, and other products of disgusting animals, have their specific use -in disease, so there are some who need the sharp tooth of chastisement; -on whom the God inflicts a bitter and implacable tyrant, or a harsh -rough ruler, and only removes this torment when he has relieved and -purged their ailment. Such a medicine was Phalaris to the Agrigentines, -and Marius to the Romans. To the Sicyonians the God declared in plain -terms that their state needed beadles with whips, because they had taken -by force from the men of Cleonae a boy named Teletias, who was to be -crowned at the Pythian games, as being their own citizen, and torn him -in pieces. The Sicyonians got [Sidenote: B] Orthagoras for a tyrant, and -after him Myron and Cleisthenes, who put an end to their bad ways, while -the Cleonaeans, who never found such a remedy, have come to nothing. -Listen to Homer,[215] who says somewhere - - _So sprung from meaner sire a nobler son, - Skilled in all art and excellence._ - -Yet that son of Copreus has left us no brilliant or signal achievement, -while the posterity of Sisyphus and Autolycus and Phlegyas burst into -flower of glory and virtue in the persons of great kings. Pericles at -Athens came of a house which was under a curse. Pompey the Great, at -Rome, was the son of Strabo, whose corpse the Romans cast out and -trampled [Sidenote: C] in their hatred. What is there strange then if -God acts like the farmer, who does not cut down the thistle till he has -picked the asparagus, or like the Libyans who do not burn the dry stalks -before they have collected the gum; who spares to destroy a bad and -rough-grown root of a noble race of kings till the due fruit has issued -from it? For it were better for the Phocians that Iphitus should lose -tens of thousands of cattle and horses, or that even more gold should -leave Delphi, and silver too, than that Ulysses should never have been -born, or Asclepius, or [Sidenote: D] the other brave men and mighty -benefactors who have come of bad and vicious lines. - -VIII. ‘But do you not all think it better that punishments should fall -in the fitting time and manner than hastily and at once? There is the -case of Callippus, who was slain by his friends with the very dagger -which he had used to slay Dion in the guise of a friend. Again, there is -Mitys[216] of Argos, killed in a party quarrel, whose brazen statue in -the market-place fell on the murderer during a public performance and -killed him. And I think you know all about Bessus the Paeonian, -Patrocleas, and Ariston of Oeta, the commander of foreign troops?’ -[Sidenote: E] ‘Indeed I do not,’ he replied, ‘but I want to hear.’ -‘Ariston,’ I said, ‘with the consent of the tyrants, took down the -ornaments of Eriphyle, deposited here, and carried them off to his wife -for a present. Then his son, enraged with his mother for some reason, -set fire to the house, and burnt up all who were within it. Bessus, it -appears, slew his own father, and for a long time escaped detection. -Afterwards, having come to some friends for supper, he put his spear -through a swallows’ nest and brought it down, and destroyed the young -birds. All present exclaimed, as well they might: “Man, what has -[Sidenote: F] possessed you to do such a monstrous thing?” To which he -replied: “Have they not been telling lies against me this long time, -shrieking that I have killed my father?” Astonished at such a speech, -they informed the king, an inquiry was held, and Bessus suffered. - -IX. ‘So far’, I said, ‘we have been speaking, as was agreed, upon the -assumption that some respite is really granted to wicked men. For what -remains, you must suppose that you are listening to Hesiod,[217] laying -down, not with Plato[218] that punishment is [Sidenote: 554] “suffering -which waits on wrongdoing”, but that it is a contemporary growth, -springing up with sin, from the same place and the same root, - - _Bad counsel to the counsellor is worst_, - -and - - _Who plots ’gainst others, plots his heart away._ - -The corn-beetle is said to carry in herself an antidote compounded on a -principle of opposites, but wickedness as it grows breeds its own pain -and punishment, and suffers the penalty, not by and by, but in the very -moment of insolence. In the body, every criminal who is punished[219] -carries forth his own [Sidenote: B] cross; but vice fabricates for -herself, out of herself, all the instruments of her chastisement; she -manufactures a terrible life, piteous and shameful, with terrors and -cruel pains, with regrets and troubles unceasing. But there are persons -just like children, who see evildoers on the stage crowned and -caparisoned, as often happens, in gold and purple, and dancing heartily; -and gape and gaze, as though these men were happy indeed; until they are -seen goaded and lashed, and fire issuing out of those gay and costly -robes. Most bad men are wrapped as in a vesture [Sidenote: C] of great -houses, and eminent offices and powers; and so it is unperceived that -they are being punished, until, before you can think, they are stabbed -or hurled down a rock, which is not to be called punishment, but the end -or consummation of punishment. For as Herodicus of Selymbria, who fell -into a hopeless decline, and, for the first time in human history, -combined gymnastics with medicine, made death, in Plato’s[220] words, “a -long affair for himself”, and for similar invalids, so has it been with -bad men. They thought to escape the blow at the time; the penalty comes, -not after more time, but over more time, and is lengthened, not -retarded. They were not punished after they [Sidenote: D] came to old -age, but became old under punishment. I speak of length of time in a -sense relative to ourselves, since to the Gods any span of human life is -as nothing. “Now”, instead of “thirty years ago”, for the torture or -hanging of a criminal, is as though we were to speak of “afternoon” not -“morning”; the rather that he is confined in life, a prison where is no -change of place, no escape, yet many feastings the while, and business -affairs, and gifts, and bounties, and amusements, just as men play dice -or draughts in jail, with the rope hanging over their heads. - -X. ‘Yet where are we to stop? Are we to say that prisoners [Sidenote: E] -awaiting execution are not under punishment until the axe shall fall? -Nor he who has drunk the hemlock, and is walking about while he waits to -feel the heaviness in the legs which precedes the chill and stiffness of -approaching insensibility? Yet we must say so, if we think that the last -moment of the punishment is the punishment, and leave out of account the -sufferings of the intervening time, the fears, and forebodings, and -movements of [Sidenote: F] remorse, in which every sinner is involved. -This would be like saying that a fish when he has swallowed the hook has -not been caught until he has been roasted by the cook, or at least -sliced up, before our eyes. Every man is in the grasp of Justice when he -has done a wrong, he has nibbled away the sweets of Injustice which are -the bait; but he has the hook of conscience sticking there and, as it -pays him out,[221] - - _Like spear-struck thunny makes the ocean boil._ - -For the forwardness and the audacity of vice of which we hear [Sidenote: -555] are strong and ready till the crimes are committed, then passion -fails them like a dying breeze, and leaves them weak and abject, a prey -to every fear and superstition. Thus the dream of Clytaemnestra in -Stesichorus[222] is fashioned true to the reality of what happens. It -was like this: - - _She thought a serpent came on her, his crest - Dabbled with gore, and, lo, from out it peered, - Child of the race of Pleisthenes, the King._ - -For phantoms of dreams, and visions of midday, and oracles, and -thunderbolts, and whatever has the appearance of being caused by a God, -bring storms and terrors upon those who are in such a mood. So it is -told that Apollodorus, in his sleep, saw [Sidenote: B] himself being -flayed by Scythians and then boiled, and that his heart murmured out of -the cauldron the words, “I am the cause of this to thee.” And, again, he -saw his daughters all on fire, and running around him with their bodies -burning. Then Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, a little before his death, -saw Aphrodite throwing blood at his face out of a sort of bowl. The -friends of Ptolemy “Thunderbolt”[223] beheld him called to justice by -Seleucus before a jury of vultures and wolves, and [Sidenote: C] dealing -out large helpings of flesh to his enemies. Pausanias had wickedly sent -for Cleonice at Byzantium, a maiden of free birth, that he might enjoy -her person in the night, then, as she approached, he killed her out of -some panic or suspicion; and he would often see her in his dreams, -saying to him: - - _To judgement go; man’s lust works woe to man._ - -When the phantom never ceased to trouble him, he sailed, as it appears, -to Heracleia, where is the Place of Summons of Souls, and with soothing -rites and libations set himself to call up the soul of the girl; she -appeared to him and told him that he “will cease from his troubles when -he reaches Lacedaemon”; and, directly he got there, he died.[224] - -XI. ‘Then, if nothing remains for the soul after death, but [Sidenote: -D] death is a limit beyond which is neither grace nor punishment, we -should rather say that bad men who are punished quickly, and who die -off, are used gently and indulgently by Heaven. For if it could be held -that there is no other evil for the bad while life and time last, yet -even so, when injustice is tried and proved an unfruitful, thankless -business, which yields no return for many and great struggles, the mere -sense of these upsets the soul. You will remember the story of -Lysimachus, how, under [Sidenote: E] great stress of thirst, he -surrendered himself and his power to the Getae, and, when now their -prisoner, said as he drank: “Wretch that I am, for so brief a pleasure -to have lost so great a kingdom!” And yet to resist the physical -compulsion of appetite is very hard. But when a man, by grasping at -money, or in envy of political reputation and power, or for the pleasure -of some union, has wrought a lawless dreadful deed, and afterwards, when -the thirst or frenzy of passion has left him, sees, as [Sidenote: F] -time goes on, the disgrace and terror of iniquity becoming permanent, -with nothing useful, or necessary, or delightful gained, then is it not -natural that he should often reckon up and feel how hollow is the glory, -how ignoble and thankless the pleasure, for which he has upset all that -is greatest and noblest in human codes of right, and filled his own life -with shame and confusion? Simonides[225] used to say in jest that he -found the chest of silver always full, but that of gratitude empty; and -so bad men, when they look into the wickedness within them, find that, -through the pleasure which has a short-lived return, it is [Sidenote: -556] left void of hope, but filled to the brim with fears and pains and -joyless memory, with suspicion of the future, and distrust of the -present. So Ino on the stage,[226] when she is repenting of what she has -done: - - _Say, maidens, how may I start clear, and dwell - Here in the house of Athamas, as though - I had done nothing of the deeds I did?_ - -Such thoughts we may suppose that the soul of every bad man rakes up -within itself, while it calculates how it may escape [Sidenote: B] from -the memory of its misdoings, and cast out conscience, and become pure, -and lead another life as from the beginning. There is no confidence, -nothing free from caprice, nothing permanent or solid, in the designs of -wickedness, unless, save the mark! we are to call wicked-doers -philosophers of a sort! But where love of wealth or pleasure, as of -great prizes, and envy undiluted, are lodged by the side of hate and -ill-temper, there, if you look deep, you will find superstition seated, -and softness to meet toil, and cowardice to meet death, and a rapid -shifting of impulses, and a vain-gloriousness which comes of arrogance. -They fear those who censure them, and equally fear those who [Sidenote: -C] praise, as being victims whom they have deceived, and who are the -bitterest enemies of the bad, just because they praise so heartily those -whom they take to be good. For hardness in vice, as in bad steel, is -unsound, its rigidity is soon broken. Hence more and more, as time goes -on, they discover their own condition; they are vexed and discontented, -and spurn their own life away. We see that a bad man, when he has -restored a pledge, or gone bail for an acquaintance, or given a -patriotic subscription or a contribution which brings him glory and -credit, is immediately seized with repentance, and grieves at [Sidenote: -D] what he has done, so shifty and unsettled is his judgement. We see -others when applauded in the theatre at once groaning inwardly, as -ambition subsides into greed of money. And did not, think you, those who -sacrificed men to get a tyranny, or to advance a conspiracy, as -Apollodorus did, or who robbed their friends of money, as Glaucus the -son of Epicydes did, repent, and hate themselves, and suffer pain at -what had been done? For my own part, if I may be allowed to say so, I -think that the doers of unholy deeds need no God nor man to punish them; -their own life is sufficient, when ruined by vice, and thrown into all -disorder. [Sidenote: E] - -XII. ‘But keep an eye on the discussion,’ I said, ‘for it may be running -out beyond our limits.’ ‘Perhaps it is,’ said Timon, ‘if we look on, and -consider the length of what remains to be said. For now I am going to -call up the final difficulty, as a champion who has been standing out, -since those which came forward first have pretty well had their round -out. Turn to the charge so boldly thrown at the Gods by Euripides,[227] - - _The parents’ trips upon their offspring turned_, - -and take it that we too who have so far been silent adopt his -arraignment. If, on the one hand, the doers paid the penalty [Sidenote: -F] themselves, then there is no need to punish those who did no wrong, -seeing that justice does not allow even the doers to be punished twice -for the same offences. If, on the other, the Gods, out of indolence, -have allowed the punishment to drop, as against the wicked, and then -exact it late in the day from the guiltless, the set-off of tardiness -against injustice is all wrong. You will remember the story of what -happened to Aesop in this place; how he came with gold from Croesus, to -sacrifice to the God magnificently, and make a distribution among the -Delphians, four minae apiece. There was some angry difference, it -appears, between him and the brotherhood; so he [Sidenote: 556] -performed the sacrifice, but sent the money back to Sardis, judging the -men unworthy of the bounty. They worked up a charge of sacrilege against -him, thrust him down from the rock called Hyampeia, and killed him. -Then, in his wrath at this, the God brought sterility on their land, and -every form of strange disease; so that they went round the Assemblies of -the Greeks asking by repeated proclamation that any who chose to come -forward should punish them on Aesop’s behalf. In the third generation, -Iadmon,[228] a Samian, came, no blood relation of Aesop, but a -descendant of those who had bought him at Samos; and to him they paid -certain penalties, and [Sidenote: B] were set free from their troubles. -From that time the punishment of sacrilegious criminals was transferred -to Nauplia from Hyampeia. Not even those most devoted to Alexander, -among whom we reckon ourselves, commend him for throwing the city of -Branchidae into ruins, and putting its inhabitants to the sword, because -of the treacherous surrender by their forefathers of the temple at -Miletus. Then Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, derided with open laughter -the Corcyraeans who asked “why he plundered their island?” “Because, of -course,” he said, “your fathers sheltered Ulysses.” And, in like manner, -when the Ithacans complained of his soldiers taking their sheep, “Why, -[Sidenote: C] your king”, he said, “came to us, and blinded the shepherd -too!”[229] Now is it not even more monstrous of Apollo to destroy the -Pheneatae[230] of the present day, by blocking the pit which took their -water, and deluging all their land, because, a thousand years ago, as -the story goes, Hercules snatched away the prophetic tripod and brought -it to Pheneus? And what of his promise to the Sybarites of release from -their troubles when they should have propitiated the wrath of the -Leucadian Hera “by three destructions”? Again, it is not long since the -[Sidenote: D] Locrians have ceased to send those maidens to Troy, - - _Who with no trailing robes, feet bared, as slaves, - At early dawn must sweep Athene’s fane, - No veils, though grievous eld were drawing near_,[231] - -because of the misbehaviour of Ajax. Where do you find the -reasonableness and justice here? Certainly we do not praise the -Thracians, because they still brand their own wives to avenge Orpheus, -or the Barbarians living about the Eridanus for wearing black, in -mourning for Phaethon as they say. It would have been still more -ridiculous, I think, if the men living when Phaethon perished thought -nothing about it, and then those [Sidenote: E] born five generations or -ten generations after the sad occurrence began to change into mourning -clothes for him! Yet there is nothing but stupidity in that, nothing -terrible or beyond cure; but the angers of the Gods pass underground at -the time, like certain rivers, then afterwards breakout to injure quite -different persons, and bring the direst ruin at the last. What reason is -there in that?’ - -XIII. At the first check, I, in terror lest he should go back to the -beginning and introduce more and greater cases of [Sidenote: F] anomaly, -at once proceeded to ask him: ‘Come,’ I said, ‘do you take all these -things for true?’ ‘Suppose that they are not all true, but that some -are, do you not think that the same perplexity comes in?’ ‘Perhaps’, -said I, ‘it is as with persons in a violent fever, who feel the same -heat, or nearly the same, whether they are wrapped in one cloak or in -many, yet we must give some relief by removing the excess. If you will -not allow this, drop the point (though to my thinking, most of the -instances look like myths and inventions); but call to mind the recent -Theoxenia, and that “fair portion” which is set aside and [Sidenote: -558] assigned by proclamation to the descendants of Pindar, and how -impressive that seemed and how pleasant. Who could fail to find pleasure -in that graceful honour, so Greek and so frankly of the old world, -unless he be one whose - - _Black heart of adamant - Was wrought in chilly fire_, - -in Pindar’s[232] own words? Then I pass over’, I said, ‘the similar -proclamation made at Sparta, in the words, - - _After the Lesbian bard_,[233] - -in honoured memory of old Terpander, for the case is the same. But I -appeal to you, who claim, as I understand, precedence among the -Boeotians as Opheltiadae, and among the Phocians [Sidenote: B] because -of Daiphantus; and who stood by me formerly, when, speaking in support -of the claim of the Lycormae and Satilaeans through their ancestor to -receive the honour and wear the crown due to the Heraclidae, I argued -that those sprung of Hercules had the strongest right to be confirmed in -the honours and prizes, because their ancestor received no worthy prize -or return for his good deeds to the Greeks.’ ‘And a noble contention it -was,’ he said, ‘and worthy indeed of Philosophy!’ ‘Then pray drop’, I -said, ‘that vehement tone in your arraignment, and do not make it any -grievance that some born of bad or vicious ancestors are punished; or -else never rejoice or applaud in the other case, when noble birth is -honoured. For [Sidenote: C] if the gratitude due to virtue is to be kept -active for the benefit of the family, it is logical and right also that -the punishment for crimes should never be exhausted or fail, but should -run a parallel course, so that payment should follow deserts under -either head. Any one who finds pleasure in seeing honour done to the -descendants of Cimon at Athens, but makes it a grievance that those of -Lachares or Ariston are banished, is too soft and too careless, or, as I -would rather say, is quarrelsome and captious in all his attitude to -Heaven. He challenges, if the children of an unjust and evil man appear -to prosper, and he challenges if the families of the bad are abased or -extinguished; he blames [Sidenote: D] the God equally if the children of -a good father are in trouble, or of a bad one. - -XIV. ‘There,’ I said, ‘let all this serve for so many dykes or barriers -against those bitter and aggressive assailants! Now, let us go back, and -pick up the end of the thread in this dark place with its windings and -wanderings; I mean our argument about the God. Let us guide ourselves -with quiet caution towards what is likely and reasonable, since -certainty and truth are beyond us, even as to our own actions. For -instance, why do we order the children of persons who have died of -consumption [Sidenote: E] or dropsy to sit with both feet dipped into -water until the corpse is consumed? The idea seems to be that, if this -is done, the disease does not shift its seat or approach them. Or again, -why is it that, if one goat have taken the herb eryngium[234] into her -mouth, the whole flock halts until the goatherd comes and takes it out? -And there are other occult properties, with ways, whether of contact or -of dissemination, by which they pass, with incredible speed and over -incredible intervals, through one to another. Yet we find intervals of -time wonderful, but [Sidenote: F] not those of place; although it is -really more wonderful that a disease which began in Aethiopia[235] -infected Athens, where Pericles died and Thucydides took it, than that, -when Delphians and Sybarites had been wicked, the punishment circled -round to attack their children. There is correspondence of forces from -last to first, and there are connecting links, the cause of which, -unknown, it may be, to us, produces in silence its proper effect.[236] - -XV. ‘Not but that the public visitations of cities by the wrath of -Heaven can be readily accounted for on the score of [Sidenote: 559] -justice. A city is a thing one and continuous, like an animal, which -does not cease to be itself in the changes due to growth, nor become, as -time goes on, different from what it was; it is always consentaneous and -at one with itself, and awaits all the consequences, whether censure or -gratitude, of what it does or did, so long as the association, which -makes it one and complex, preserves its unity. To divide it, according -to time, into many cities, or, rather, into an infinite number of them, -is like making many men out of one, because he is now elderly, was -formerly younger, and, still further back, was a boy. Or [Sidenote: B] -rather, the whole idea is like those tricks of Epicharmus out of which -the “Increasing Fallacy” of the Sophists sprang. The man who formerly -received the loan does not own it now, for he has become a different -person. The man who was asked to dinner yesterday, comes an unbidden -guest to-day, for he is some one else. Yet the stages of growth produce -greater variations in each one of ourselves than they do in cities as -wholes. Any one who had seen Athens thirty years ago would recognize it -to-day; manners, movements, amusements, business, popular gratitude, and -resentments, all quite as of old. Whereas a man would hardly be -recognized in figure by friend or relation who should meet him after an -interval, while the changes in character so easily produced by -anything—a word, an [Sidenote: C] exertion, a feeling, a law—produce an -effect of strangeness and novelty even to one always in his company. Yet -he is spoken of as one man from birth to the end; and we insist that a -city, which remains the same in exactly the same sense, is liable for -the reproaches incurred by ancestors, by the same title as it claims -their reputation and power. Otherwise we shall have everything, before -we know it, in the river of Heraclitus,[237] which he says a man cannot -enter twice, because Nature disturbs and alters all things in her own -changes. - -XVI. ‘But if a city is a thing one and continuous, I take it that a -family also depends from a single origin which assures [Sidenote: D] a -certain pervading force of association. An offspring is never separated -from its begetter, as is a piece of man’s handicraft; it has been made -out of him, not by him; thus it has in itself some permanent portion of -him, and whether it be punished or honoured, receives what is its due. -If it were not that I might seem to trifle, I would say that graver -injustice was done to the statue of Cassander when it was melted down by -the Athenians, and to the corpse of Dionysius when it was thrust out -beyond the frontier by the Syracusans, than to the descendants of those -men in the punishments which they received. For there is nothing of the -nature of Cassander in the statue, and the soul [Sidenote: E] of -Dionysius has quitted the corpse; whereas in Nisaeus, and Apollocrates, -and Antipater and Philip, and similarly in the other sons of bad men, -the determining part of their parents is inborn in them, and is there; -it is not quiescent or inactive, since by it they live and are -nourished, are directed, and think. There is nothing strange or -remarkable if, being of them, they have what was theirs. In a word, as -in Medicine, what is [Sidenote: F] serviceable is also just. It is -ridiculous to talk of the injustice of cauterizing the thumb when the -pain is in the hip, or scarifying the region of the stomach for a tumour -inside the liver, or of oiling the ends of the horns of cattle, if there -is softening of the hoofs. So it is with punishments; to think that -there is any other justice than what heals the mischief, or to be -indignant if the treatment be applied to one set of persons through -another set (as in opening a vein to relieve weak eyes) is to see -nothing beyond the range of sense, to fail [Sidenote: 560] to remember -that a schoolmaster who chastises one boy teaches a lesson to many boys, -and that a general who executes one man in ten, brings all to their -duty. And thus not only one part through another part, but also soul -through soul receives certain dispositions, be they of deterioration or -amendment, in a truer sense than body through body. In the case of body, -the affection arising must be the same, and the alteration produced must -be the same; whereas soul is led by its own imaginings in the way of -assurance or fear, and so becomes permanently worse or else better.’ - -XVII. While I was still speaking, Olympicus broke in: ‘It seems to me’, -he said, ‘that your argument relies on a great [Sidenote: B] fundamental -assumption—the permanence of the soul.’ ‘Subject to your consent, it -does,’ I replied, ‘or rather to your consent already given; for, from -the initial supposition that God dispenses to us according to our -deserts, the discussion has proceeded to its present stage.’ ‘Then’, he -said, ‘you think that, because the Gods survey and administer all our -affairs, it follows that our souls are either wholly imperishable, or, -permanent for a certain time after death.’ ‘Oh no! good friend,’ I said, -‘but the God is so petty, so important a trifler, that, dealing with men -like us, who have nothing in us divine or like him in any way, or -persistent, or solid, but who wither away altogether “like leaves”, as -Homer[238] said, and [Sidenote: C] perish within a short span, he makes -us of so great account! That would be like the gardens of Adonis which -women nurse and tend in crockery pots; souls of a day springing up -within a pampered flesh wherein no strong living root finds room, and -then at once snuffed out on the first pretext. But, if you will, let the -other Gods be, and look at our own God here. Knowing that the souls of -those who die perish at once, like mists or smoke-wreaths exhaled from -the bodies, does he, think you, require men to bring so many -propitiations for the departed, [Sidenote: D] and such great honours to -the dead, deceiving and tricking his believers? For myself, I will never -give up the permanence of the soul, unless some one like Hercules shall -come, and remove the tripod of the Pythia, and lay waste the place of -the oracles. But in our own time so long as many such prophecies are -given as once were delivered to Corax the Naxian, it is nothing less -than impious to condemn the soul to death.’ Here Patrocleas asked: ‘But -what was the prophecy delivered, and who was this Corax? The fact and -the name are equally strange to [Sidenote: E] me.’ ‘Not at all,’ I said, -‘the fault is mine for using a by-name instead of the real one. The man -who killed Archilochus in battle was called Calondas, it appears; Corax -was a by-name given to him. Turned out, at first, by the Pythia, as -having slain a man sacred to the Muses, then, having put in a plea of -justification, accompanied by prayers and supplications, he was ordered -to go to the “dwelling of Tettix” and propitiate the soul of -Archilochus. This place was Taenarus; for thither, they say, Tettix the -Cretan went with an expedition, and there he founded a city, and dwelt -near the “Place of the [Sidenote: F] Passage of Souls”. So, when the -Spartans had been ordered to propitiate the soul of Pausanias, the -“Conductors of Souls” were sent for out of Italy, and, after having done -sacrifice, ousted the ghost from the temple. - -XVIII. ‘Thus’, I continued, ‘the argument which assures the Providence -of God and also the permanence of the human soul, is one only; it is -impossible to remove either and to keep the other. But if the soul -exists after death, it becomes more probable that a requital is made to -it in full both of honours [Sidenote: 561] and of punishments. Like an -athlete, it is engaged in a contest during life; the contest done, it -then receives in its own self all its due. However, what rewards or what -chastisements it there receives in its own self, are nothing to us that -are alive, they are disbelieved or are unmarked. But those which pass -through children or family are manifest to those who are here, and turn -away many bad men and pull them up short. But to prove that there is no -more disgraceful and grievous punishment than for a man to see his own -descendants suffering on his account; and that when the soul of an -offender against piety or law looks after death, and sees, not the -overthrow of statues or [Sidenote: B] memorials effaced, but sons or -friends or kinsmen involved in great misfortunes, all because of itself, -and paying its penalties, it could not be content, no, not for all the -honours which are given to Zeus, to become a second time unjust and -profligate, I can tell you a story which I have lately heard; yet I -hesitate lest it may appear to you a myth, so I confine myself to -showing the probability.’ ‘On no account!’ said Olympicus, ‘give us the -whole of that story too.’ As the others made the same petition, ‘Let me -make good’, said I, ‘the probability of the view, then we will start the -myth, if myth indeed it be. - -XIX. ‘Now Bion says that it would be more ridiculous [Sidenote: C] if -God were to punish the sons of wicked men, than for a doctor to drug a -descendant or a son for the disease of a grandfather or a father. But -the cases are dissimilar in one respect, though closely alike in -another. The treatment of one person does not relieve another from -disease; no patient with eye disease or fever was ever the better for -seeing an ointment or a plaster applied to another. The punishments of -the wicked are exhibited to all, because the effect of the reasonable -operation of justice is to restrain some through the punishment of -others. But the point of resemblance between the parallel adduced -[Sidenote: D] by Bion and our problem he failed to observe; it is this: -when a man has fallen into a sickness which is bad but not incurable, -and afterwards through intemperance and self-indulgence has surrendered -his body to the malady and has died of it, then, if there be a son, not -evidently diseased but only with a tendency to the same disease, a -physician, or relative, or trainer, or a kind master who has learnt the -state of the case, will put him upon a strict diet and remove made -dishes and drinks and women, and use regular courses of physic, and -harden his body by exercises, and will thus disperse and expel the -symptoms, and [Sidenote: E] not allow the little seed of a great trouble -to reach any size. Is not that the tone which we adopt, entreating sons -of fathers or mothers with a tendency to diseases to pay attention to -themselves, and to watch out, and not be careless, but to get rid at -once of the first beginnings in the system, taking them in time while -they are easy to move and loosely seated?’ ‘It is indeed’, they said. -‘Then we are doing nothing out of place, but a necessary act, one which -is useful and not ludicrous, when we introduce the sons of epileptic or -bilious or gouty sires to gymnastic exercise, diet, and drugs, not when -they are [Sidenote: F] suffering from a disease but in order that they -may not take it; for a body which proceeds out of a vitiated body -deserves no punishment but rather medical care and watching; if any one -in his cowardice and softness chooses to miscall that punishment, -because it removes pleasures and applies the sharp prick of pain and -trial, we have nothing more to say to him. Now then, does a body, the -issue of a faulty body, deserve treatment and care, and yet we must -endure to see the likeness of a kinsman’s [Sidenote: 562] vice springing -up within a young character, and making its growth there, and to wait -until it be spread over his system and manifest itself in his passions, - - _And show the evil fruit - Of mind awry_, - -as Pindar[239] says? - -XX. ‘Or is the God in this to be less wise than Hesiod,[240] who exhorts -and charges: - - _Ne’er after gloomy burial, of life - Sow thou the seed, but fresh from heavenly feasts_, - -meaning that the act of generation admits not only of vice and virtue, -but also of grief and joy and the rest, and therefore he would bring men -cheerful and pleasant and open-hearted to the task? But the other matter -does not come out of Hesiod, nor is it the effect of human wisdom, but -of the God, [Sidenote: B] to see through likenesses and differences of -temperament, before they stand revealed by a plunge through the passions -into great crimes. For the cubs of bears while still tiny, and the young -of wolves and apes, show at once the character of their kind, there is -no disguise or pretence; but the nature of man is plunged at once into -customs and rules and laws, and often conceals the bad points and -imitates the good, so that the inborn stain of vice is entirely effaced -and removed, or else is undetected for a long time; it assumes a sheath -or cloke of [Sidenote: C] cleverness, which we fail to see through. We -perceive the wickedness with an effort each time that the blow or prick -of the several misdoings touches us. In a word, we think that men become -unjust when they commit an injustice, become intemperate when they do a -violence, become cowardly when they run away. It is as though we should -think that the scorpion grows a sting when he strikes, or vipers their -venom when they bite, which would be simple indeed! Take any single bad -man, he does not become bad when he appears bad; he has the vice from -the first, but it comes out as he gets opportunity and power, the thief, -of thieving, the born tyrant, of forcing the laws. But God, by his own -nature, apprehends [Sidenote: D] soul better than body; and we may be -sure that he is neither ignorant of the disposition and nature of each, -nor waits to punish violence of the hands, or insolence of the tongue, -or profligacy of the body. For he has himself suffered no wrong; is not -angry with the robber because he has met with violence, does not hate -the profligate because he has been assaulted; but, as a remedial -measure, he often chastises the man whose tendency is to adulterous -crime, or to greed, or to injustice, thus destroying vice before it has -taken hold, as he might an epilepsy. - -XXI. ‘Yet we were indignant a little while ago, that the wicked are -punished so late and so slowly. And now we complain [Sidenote: E] -because God sometimes cuts short the habit and disposition before any -wrong is done, not knowing that the thing to come is often worse and -more alarming than the thing done, what is hidden than what is apparent, -and unable to calculate the reasons why it is better to leave some alone -even after they have committed an offence, and to be beforehand with -others who are still meditating one; exactly as drugs are of no use for -certain persons when sick, but are of service to others who are not -actually sick, but are in a state still more dangerous. [Sidenote: F] So -it is not always a case of - - _The parents trip upon their offspring turned - By Heav’n’s high hand._[241] - -If a good son be born of a bad sire, as a healthy child of a sickly -parent, he is relieved from the penalty of race, saved by adoption out -of vice. But the young man who throws back to the likeness of a tainted -race ought, surely, to take to the debts on his inheritance, that is, to -the punishment due to wickedness. Antigonus was not punished because of -Demetrius, nor—to go back to the heroes of old—Phyleus for Augeas, nor -Nestor [Sidenote: 563] for Neleus. These all came of bad sires, but were -good. But where natural disposition has embraced and adopted the family -failing, in those cases Justice pursues and visits to the uttermost the -likeness in vice. For as warts and spots and moles of parents disappear -in their children, but return on the persons of grandchildren; as again -a Greek woman had borne a black child, and when charged with adultery, -discovered that she was of Ethiopian parentage in the fourth degree; and -as, yet again, out of the sons of Nisibeus, lately dead, who was -reported to be related to the “Sown Men” of Thebes, one reproduced -[Sidenote: B] the mark of a spear on his body—family likeness -re-emerging from the depths, after such long intervals—, even so it is -often the case that characteristics and affections of the soul are -concealed and submerged in the early generations, but afterwards break -out again in later individuals, and Nature restores the familiar type, -for vice or for virtue.’ - -XXII. When I had spoken thus I remained silent. Olympicus laughed -quietly, and said: ‘We are not applauding you, lest we should seem to be -letting you off the myth, as though the demonstration of your view were -sufficient without it; when we have heard it, we will give judgement.’ -So I went on to tell them: ‘Thespesius of Soli, a kinsman and friend of -that Protogenes who has been with us here, after an early life -[Sidenote: C] of great profligacy, quickly ran through his fortune, -changed his ways perforce, and took to the pursuit of wealth; when he -had the usual experience of the profligates who do not keep their wives -when they have them, but cast them away and try wrongfully to get their -favours when united to other men. He stopped at nothing disgraceful if -it led to enjoyment or gain, and in a short time got together an -inconsiderable fortune and a mighty reputation for evil. What hit him -hardest was an answer [Sidenote: D] delivered to him by the oracle of -Amphilochus. It appears that he had sent to ask the God “whether he will -do better the rest of his life?”[242] The answer was that he “will live -better when he has died”. And sure enough this, in a way, so fell out -not long afterwards. He fell over from a high place, upon his head; -there was no wound, but he appeared to die of the mere blow, and on the -third day, at the very time of the funeral, revived. He quickly -recovered his strength, and came to himself, and the change of life -which followed was incredible. For the Cilicians know of no man more -fair in all business relations, or more holy in religious duties, so -formidable a foe or so faithful a friend. [Sidenote: E] Hence those who -were brought into contact with him were very curious to hear the cause -of the difference, thinking that a character so completely remodelled -must have been the result of no trifling experience. And so it truly -was, according to the story related by him to Protogenes, and other -equally considerate friends. For, when sentience left his body, he felt -affected by a change, as a helmsman might do when first plunged -overboard into the depth of the sea; then, recovering a little, he -seemed to himself to breathe all over and to look around, while his soul -opened like one great eye. But he saw [Sidenote: F] nothing of what he -had been seeing before, only stars of vast size, at infinite distances -from one another, each emitting a ray of marvellous colour and of a -tonic force, so that the soul, riding smoothly on the light, as though -over a calm sea, was carried easily and quickly in every direction. -Passing over most of the sights he saw, he said that the souls of those -who die make a flame-like bubble where the air parts as they rise -[Sidenote: 564] from below, then the bubble quickly bursts, and they -emerge with human form but light in bulk, with a movement which is not -the same for all. Some bound forth with marvellous agility, and dart -upwards in a straight line, while others whirl round together like -spindles, now with an upward tendency, now a downward, borne on by a -mingled confused agitation, which after a very long time, and then with -difficulty, is reduced to calm. Most of them he did not recognize, but -seeing two or three persons of his acquaintance, he tried to approach -them and speak. They would not hear him, and [Sidenote: B] appeared not -to be themselves, but to be distraught and scared out of their senses, -shunning all sight or touch, while they roamed about, first by -themselves; then they would meet and embrace others in like case, and -whirl round in random indefinite figures of every sort, uttering -unmeaning sounds, like cries of battle mingled with those of lamentation -and terror. Others above, on the extremity of the firmament, were -cheerful to behold, often drawing near to one another in kindness, and -turning away from those other turbid souls; and they would signify, as -it seemed, their annoyance by [Sidenote: C] out drawing close together, -but joy and affability by opening and dispersing. There he saw, he said, -the soul of a kinsman, but not very certainly, for the man had died -while he was himself a child. However, the soul drew towards him, and -said, “Hail Thespesius!” He was surprised at this, and said that his -name was not Thespesius, but Aridaeus. “Formerly so,” was the reply, -“but from now Thespesius. For you are not really dead, but, by some -appointment of Heaven, have come hither with your sentient part, the -rest of your soul is left within the body, as a light anchor. Let this -be a sign to you now and hereafter; the souls of the dead make no -shadow, and their eyes do not [Sidenote: D] blink.”[243] When Thespesius -heard this, he drew himself together in deeper thought, and as he gazed, -he saw a sort of dim and shadowy line which wavered as he moved, while -the others were transparent within, all set around with brightness, yet -not all equally. Some were like the full moon at her purest, and emitted -one smooth, continuous, uniform colour; over others there ran scales, so -to call them, or slender weals; others were quite dappled and strange to -look upon, branded with black spots like those on serpents; others again -showed open blunted scars. Then [Sidenote: E] the kinsman of Thespesius -(for nothing forbids us to designate the souls in this way by the names -of men) began to explain it all to him, as thus: “Adrasteia, daughter of -Zeus and Necessity, has been appointed to punish all crimes in the -highest place; no criminal has there ever yet been, so small or so -great, as to pass unseen or to escape by his might. But there are three -modes of punishment, and each mode has its proper guardian minister. -Some men are punished, at once in the body and through their body, and -these swift Retribution handles; her [Sidenote: F] method is a gentle -one, and passes over many crimes which ask for expiation. Those whose -cure is a heavier matter are passed after death to Justice by the -daemon. The wholly incurable Justice rejects; and these the third, and -the fiercest, of the satellites of Adrasteia, whose name is Erinnys, -chases, as they wander and try to escape in all directions; and it is -pitiful and cruel how she brings them all to nothing and plunges them -into the gulf which is beyond speech or sight. As to the [Sidenote: 565] -other two modes of justification,” he went on, “that which is wrought by -Retribution during life resembles the usage of barbarian countries. For -as in Persia they pluck off and scourge the robes and the hats of men -under punishment, while their owners implore them to stop, so -punishments through money or upon the person get no close grip, they do -not fasten on the vice itself, but are mostly for appearance and appeal -to the senses. But whoever makes his way here from earth unchastened and -unpurged, Justice firmly seizes him, with his soul naked and manifest, -having no place into which to skulk, [Sidenote: B] that he may hide and -veil his wickedness, but eyed from all sides, and by all, and all over. -And first she shows him to good parents, if such he has, or to -ancestors, a contemptible and unworthy sight. If these are all bad, he -sees them punished and is seen by them, and so is justified during a -long time, while each of his passions is dislodged by pains and toils, -which as much exceed in greatness and intensity those which are through -the flesh, as a day dream may be clearer than that which comes in sleep. -Scars and weals left by particular passions[244] are more [Sidenote: C] -persistent in some men than in others. And look”, he said, “at those -motley colours upon the souls, which come from every source. There is -the dusky, dirty red, which is the smear made by meanness and greed; the -fiery blood-red of cruelty and harshness. Where you see the bluish grey, -there intemperance in pleasures has been rubbed away, and a heavy work -it was; malice and envying have been there to inject that violet beneath -the skin, as cuttle-fishes their ink. For down on earth vice brings out -the colours, while the soul is turned about by the passions and turns -the body, but here, when these have been smoothed away, the final result -of purgation, and chastisement is this, that the soul becomes radiant -all over [Sidenote: D] and of one hue. But as long as the colours are in -it, there are certain reversions to passion, with throbbings and a -pulsation which in some is faint and easily passes off, in others makes -vigorous resistance. Of these souls, some, being chastised again and -again, attain their fitting habit and disposition; others are -transferred into the bodies of beasts by masterful ignorance and the -passionate love of pleasure;[245] for ignorance, through weakness of the -reasoning part and inactivity of the speculative, inclines on its -practical side towards generation; while the love of pleasure, requiring -an instrument for intemperance, [Sidenote: E] craves to unite the -desires with their satisfaction, and to have share in corporeal -excitement, since here is nothing save a sort of ineffectual shadow, and -a dream of pleasure without its fulfilment.” Having said this, he began -to lead him on, moving rapidly yet covering, as it seemed, a space of -infinite extent with unfaltering ease, borne upwards on the rays of -light, as though by wings, until he reached a great chasm which yawned -downwards. There he was deserted by the supporting force, and saw the -other souls in the same case. Packing together, like birds, and borne -down and around, they [Sidenote: F] circled about the chasm, which they -did not venture to cross outright. You might see it within, resembling -the caves of Bacchus, dressed in wood and greenery, and gay with -blossoms of flowers of every sort; and it exhaled a mild and gentle -breeze which wafted odours of marvellous delight, and produced such an -atmosphere as wine throws off for its votaries; for the souls feasted on -the fragrant smells and were relaxed into mutual kindliness. All around -a bacchic humour prevailed, and laughter, and every joy which the Muses -can give where men sport and are merry. By this way, he said, Dionysus -went up to the Gods, and [Sidenote: 566] afterwards brought Semele; it -is called “the Place of Lethe”. Here he did not allow Thespesius to -linger, even though he would, but kept drawing him away by force, -explaining to him as he did so that the sentient mind becomes wasted and -sodden by pleasure, while the irrational and corporeal part is watered -and pampered and suggests recollection of the body, and, from that -recollection, a yearning and desire which makes for generation -(genesis), so named because it is a leaning towards earth -(Ge-neusis)[246] when the soul is weighed down by moisture. Having -travelled another journey as long as the first, he seemed to be gazing -into a mighty bowl, with rivers discharging into [Sidenote: B] it, one -whiter than foam of the sea, or snowflakes, another with the purple -flush of the rainbow, others tinged with different hues. From a distance -each showed its proper ray, but as he drew near the rim became -invisible, and the colouring was dulled, and the more brilliant hues -deserted the bowl, leaving only the whiteness. And there he saw three -daemons seated close together in a triangle, mingling the streams in -certain measures. Now the soul-conductor of Thespesius told him that -thus far Orpheus advanced, when he was questing [Sidenote: C] for the -soul of his wife, and, from not rightly remembering, put out an untrue -account among men, namely that “there was an oracle at Delphi, held by -Apollo and Night in common, whereas Night has nothing in common with -Apollo. Really,” he said, “this oracle is shared by Night and the moon, -having nowhere an earthly bound, or a single habitation, but roaming -over men everywhere in dreams and phantoms. From here it is that dreams, -which are mingled, as you see, with what is deceitful and embroidered, -get so much simplicity and truth as they scatter abroad. The oracle of -Apollo”, he continued, [Sidenote: D] “you have not seen, nor will you -ever be able to see it, for the earthly element of the soul does not -mount upwards or allow that; it is attached closely to the body and -bends downwards.” And as he spoke, he led him on, and he tried to show -him the light coming, as he said, from the tripod, resting on Parnassus -between the breasts of Themis. Earnestly desiring to see, he saw nothing -for the brightness. But he heard, as he passed, a woman’s shrill voice -chanting in verse many things, among them the time of his own death. The -daemon told him that the voice was that of the Sibyl,[247] who was -singing about things to be, as she was carried round on the face of the -moon. He [Sidenote: E] desired to hear more, but was thrust off by the -whirling of the moon to the opposite side, as though caught in the -eddies, and only heard scraps, one of which was about Mount Vesuvius and -the future destruction by fire of Dicaearcheia, and a fragment of song -about the emperor of that day, how that - - _so good a man - Shall die upon his bed, and end his reign._[248] - -After that, they turned to the sight of those under punishment. At first -they met only with repulsive and piteous spectacles. Afterwards, when -Thespesius found friends and relations and intimates, whom he could -never have conceived of as punished, enduring sore sufferings and -penalties both ignominious and [Sidenote: F] painful, and pitying -themselves to him and weeping aloud; and at last saw his own father -emerging from a certain pit, all over brands and scars, reaching out his -hand towards his son and not permitted to be silent, but compelled by -the warders to confess his infamous conduct to some strangers who had -come with gold—how he had poisoned them, and had escaped detection there -on earth, but had been convicted here, how he had already suffered part, -and was now led to suffer the remainder—, then he did not dare to -supplicate [Sidenote: 567] or to entreat for his father, so great was -his consternation and horror. Wishing to turn about and flee, he saw no -longer that gracious and familiar guide, but was thrust forward by -others of terrible visage, because it was necessary that he should go -through it all. There he beheld the shadows of those who had been -notoriously wicked, and who had been punished on the spot, not savagely -handled as were the former ones, because[249] their trouble was in the -irrational seat of the passions. [Sidenote: B] But those who had passed -through life under a veil or cloak of the appearance of virtue, were -compelled by others, who stood around, laboriously and painfully to turn -their soul inside out, writhing and bending themselves back unnaturally, -as the scolopendrae[250] of the sea, when they have gorged the hook, -turn themselves inside out. Others they would flay, and fold the skin -back, to show how scarred and mottled they were beneath it, because the -vice was seated in the rational and directing part. Other souls he said -that he saw intertwined like vipers, by twos or threes or more together, -gnawing one another out of spite and rancour for what they had suffered -[Sidenote: C] in life, or done. And there were lakes lying side by side, -one of boiling gold, one of lead, exceeding cold, and one of iron, which -was rough. Over these stood daemons, as it might be smiths, with tongs, -picking up by turns the souls of those whose wickedness came of greed -and grasping, and plunging them in. When they had become all fiery and -transparent in the burning gold, they were thrust into the bath of lead; -and when frozen till they became hard as hailstones, they were shifted -on to the iron, and there they became hideously black, [Sidenote: D] and -were broken up and crushed, so hard and brittle were they, and their -shapes were changed. Then they were conveyed, just as they were, back to -the gold, enduring dire pains in the transition. Most pitiful of all, he -said, was the case of those who seemed already quit of Justice and then -were seized up anew. These were the souls whose penalty had come round -to any descendants or children. For whenever any one of these last came -up and met them, he would fall upon them in anger, and shout aloud, and -show the marks of his sufferings, reviling and pursuing, while the -parent soul sought to flee and hide [Sidenote: E] itself, but could not; -for the torturers would run swiftly after and bring them to Justice, and -force them through all from the beginning, while they bewailed -themselves because they knew the punishment before them. And there were -some, he said, to whom a number of their offspring were attached, -clinging to them just like bees or bats, and jibbering in wrathful -recollection of what they had suffered on account of their parents. Last -of all, while he was looking at the souls returning to a second -birth—how they were violently bent and transformed into animals of every -sort by the executioners of this task, [Sidenote: F] who used certain -implements and blows, here squeezing together the limbs entire, here -twisting them aside, here planing them away and getting rid of them -altogether, to fit into other characters and other lives—, there -appeared among these the soul of Nero, already in torment, and pierced -with red-hot nails. For it the executioners had prepared the form of a -viper, as Pindar describes it, wherein the beast is to be conceived, and -live, after having devoured its own mother. And then, he said, there -shone out a great light, and from the light came a voice commanding them -to shift Nero to some other milder species, and to fashion a beast to -sing around marshes and pools, for that he had paid the penalty of his -crimes; and moreover some benefit was due to him from the Gods, because -he had freed [Sidenote: 568] the best and most God-loving race, that of -Hellas. Up to this point, Thespesius had been, he said, a spectator. But -as he was about to return, he suffered a horrible fear. For a woman of -marvellous form and stature seized hold of him: “Come here, fellow!” she -said, “that thou mayest have a better memory of these things.” Then she -brought near him a rod, such as painters use, red-hot, but another woman -prevented her. He, sucked up by a sudden violent wind, as out of a -blow-pipe, fell on to his own body, and just opened his eyes on the edge -of the tomb.’ - -Footnote 199: - - See p. 313. - -Footnote 200: - - On the proverb ‘Post Lesbium Cantorem’. - -Footnote 201: - - i. e. in the battle of Amphipolis. See Thuc. 5, 10 and Plut. _Life of - Nicias_, c. 9. - -Footnote 202: - - _Orestes_, 420. - -Footnote 203: - - 3, 38. - -Footnote 204: - - See Pausanias, 4, 17. - -Footnote 205: - - Fr. 969. - -Footnote 206: - - The author of this famous line is unknown. - -Footnote 207: - - Fr. 57. - -Footnote 208: - - _Minos_, 319 C. - -Footnote 209: - - No specific passage can be identified with the words in the text. For - the sequel cp. _Timaeus_, 30 A. - -Footnote 210: - - Cp. _Rep._ 6, 508 A. - -Footnote 211: - - See p. 181 n. 1. - -Footnote 212: - - This line is a continuation of the quotation from Melanthius above. - -Footnote 213: - - Cp. Aesch. _Cho._ 313, &c. - -Footnote 214: - - Quoted several times as from Pindar (see Fr. 77), but perhaps rather - Simonides. - -Footnote 215: - - _Il._ 15, 641. - -Footnote 216: - - Cp. Aristot. _Poet._ c. 9. - -Footnote 217: - - _W. and D._ 266, 265. - -Footnote 218: - - _Laws_, 5, 728 C. - -Footnote 219: - - i.e. under Roman law. See Smith’s _Dict. Ant._, _s.v._ Crux. - -Footnote 220: - - _Rep._ 406 B. - -Footnote 221: - - See H. Richards in _Class. Rev._ vol. 29, p. 235, and, for the - quotation, the _Life of Lucullus_, c. 1. - -Footnote 222: - - Fr. 42, and see Jebb’s Introd. to the _Electra_ of Sophocles. - -Footnote 223: - - See _Life of Aristides_, c. 6. also Dion Chrys. _Orat._ 64. - -Footnote 224: - - See _Life of Cimon_, c. 6. - -Footnote 225: - - Again quoted, _De Curiosit._ 520 A. - -Footnote 226: - - Eur. _Ino_, Fr. 403. - -Footnote 227: - - Fr. 970. - -Footnote 228: - - See Herod. 2, 134. - -Footnote 229: - - i. e. Polyphemus. See _Od._ 9, 375 foll. - -Footnote 230: - - See Herod. 66, 74, and Pausan. 4, 252, and 8, 18. - -Footnote 231: - - From an unknown poet; Euphorion and Arctinus are suggested. - -Footnote 232: - - Fr. 123. - -Footnote 233: - - Hence a proverb applied to what was second-rate. - -Footnote 234: - - Arist. _H. A._ 9, 3, 610 b 29. - -Footnote 235: - - See Thuc. 2, 48; also _Plague and Pestilence in Literature and Art_, - by Raymond Crawfurd, M.D., chap. 2 and Appendix. - -Footnote 236: - - Cp. Plato, _Laws_, 4, 715 A. - -Footnote 237: - - Fr. 41. - -Footnote 238: - - _Il._ 6, 146. - -Footnote 239: - - Fr. 211. - -Footnote 240: - - _W. and D._ 735-6. - -Footnote 241: - - Eur. Fr. 970. - -Footnote 242: - - I have transposed the verbs as suggested in Wyttenbach’s Commentary. - -Footnote 243: - - Cp. Dante, _Purg._ 3, 19 foll. The idea is Pythagorean (see _Quaest. - Graec._ 40, p. 300). - -Footnote 244: - - Cp. Plato, _Gorg._ 524 D. - -Footnote 245: - - See H. Richards in _Class. Rev._, vol. 29, p. 236. - -Footnote 246: - - Cp. p. 215, n. 1. - -Footnote 247: - - Cp. p. 89. - -Footnote 248: - - Probably a Sibylline verse. See Suetonius, _Life of Vespasian_. - -Footnote 249: - - Reading ἅτε δή with C. F. Hermann. - -Footnote 250: - - Cp. Aristot. _Hist. Anim._ 2, 14, 505 b 13, and 10, 37, 621 a 6. - - - - - FROM THE DIALOGUE ‘ON THE SOUL’ - A FRAGMENT - - -[Preserved by Stobaeus, _Florileg._ 119.[251]] - - -I. When Timon had spoken thus, Patrocleas replied: ‘Your argument is as -forcible as it is ancient, yet there are difficulties. For if the -doctrine of immortality is so very old, how is it that the fear of death -is “oldest of terrors”[252]? Unless, of course, it is this which has -engendered all other terrors. For there is nothing “fresh or new” in our -mourning for the dead, or in the use of those sad sinister forms of -speech, “Poor man!” “Unfortunate man!”’ - -II. ‘But there’, said Timon, ‘we shall find a confusion of ideas between -what perishes and what does not. Now when we speak of the dead as having -“passed away” and being “gone”, there is clearly no suggestion of -anything actually harsh, only of a change or transition of some sort. -Where that change takes place for those who undergo it, and whether it -be for worse or better, let us consider by looking into the other words -used. Our actual word for death[253], in the first place, does not -appear to point to a movement downward, or beneath the earth, but rather -to a mounting upward towards God of that which passes. Thus we may -reasonably suppose that the soul darts out and runs upward, as though a -bent spring had been released, when the body breathes it out, and itself -draws an upward vital breath. Next, look at the opposite of death, which -is generation; this word, on the contrary, expresses a tendency -downward, an inclination to earth[254] of that which at the time of -death again speeds upward. Hence, too, we call our natal day by a name -which means a beginning of evils and of great troubles.[255] Perhaps we -shall see the same thing even more clearly from another set of words. A -man when he dies is said to be “released”, and death called a -“release”—if you ask the question “from what?”, a release from -body[256]—for body is called dĕmas, because the soul is kept in bondage -in it, contrary to nature, nothing being forcibly detained in a place -which is natural to it. A further play upon this “bondage” and “force” -gives the word “life”, as Homer,[257] I think, uses Hesperus for the -feminine “evening”, and so, in contrast to “life”, the dead is said to -come to his rest, released from a great and unnatural stress. So with -the change and reconstitution of the soul into the Whole; we say that it -has perished when it has made its way thither; while here it does not -know this unless at the actual approach of death, when it undergoes such -an experience as those do who are initiated into great mysteries. Thus -death and initiation closely correspond, word to word,[258] and thing to -thing. At first there are wanderings, and laborious circuits, and -journeyings through the dark, full of misgivings where there is no -consummation; then, before the very end, come terrors of every kind, -shivers, and trembling, and sweat, and amazement. After this, a -wonderful light meets the wanderer; he is admitted into pure meadow -lands, where are voices, and dances, and the majesty of holy sounds and -sacred visions. Here the newly initiate, all rites completed, is at -large; he walks at large like the dedicated victim with a crown on his -head, and joins in high revelry; he converses with pure and holy men, -and surveys the uninitiate unpurified crowd here below in the dirt and -darkness, trampled by its own feet and packed together; through fear of -death remaining in its ills, because it does not believe in the -blessings which are beyond. For that the conjunction of soul with body, -and its imprisonment, are against nature, you may clearly see from -this.’ - -III. ‘From what?’ said Patrocleas. ‘From the fact that of all our -experiences sleep is the most agreeable. First, it always extinguishes -any perception of pain, because its pleasure is mingled with so much -that is familiar, secondly, it overpowers all other appetites, even the -most vehement. For even those who are devoted to the body become -disinclined for pleasure when sleep comes on, and when they slumber -reject loving embraces. Why dwell on this? When sleep takes possession, -it excludes even the pleasure which comes from learning, and discussion, -and philosophic thought, as though a smooth deep stream swept the soul -along. All pleasure, perhaps, is by its essence and nature a respite -from pain, but of sleep this is absolutely true. For, though nothing -exciting or delightful should approach from without, yet we feel -pleasure in a sound sleep; sleep seems to remove a condition of toil and -hardness. And that condition is no other than that which binds soul to -body. In sleep the soul is separated, and speeds upward, and is gathered -unto itself after having been strained to fit the body, and dispersed -among the senses. Yet some assert that, on the contrary, sleep immingles -soul with body. They are wrong. The body bears its witness the other -way, by its lack of sensation, its coldness, and heaviness, and pallor -proving that the soul leaves it in death, and shifts its quarters in -sleep. This produces the pleasure; it is a release and respite for the -soul, as though it laid down a burthen which it must again resume and -shoulder. For when it dies it runs away from the body for good; when it -is asleep, it plays truant. Therefore death is sometimes accompanied by -pains, sleep always by pleasure; in the former case the bond is snapped -altogether, in the latter it gives, and is slackened, and becomes -easier, as the senses are loosened like parting knots, and the strain -which ties soul to body is gone.’ - -IV. ‘Then how is it’, said Patrocleas, ‘that we do not feel discomfort -or pain from being awake?’ ‘How is it’, said Timon, ‘that when the hair -is cut, the head feels lightness and relief, yet there was no sense of -oppression at all while the hair was long? Or that men released from -bonds feel pleasure, yet there is no pain when the chains are on? Or why -is there a stir of applause when light is brought suddenly into a -banquet, yet its absence did not appear to cause pain or trouble to the -eye? There is one cause, my friend, in all these cases; that gradual -habituation made the unnatural familiar to the sense, so that it felt -absolutely no distress then, but felt pleasure when there was release -and a restoration to nature. The strangeness is seen at once when the -proper condition comes, the presence of what pained and pressed by -contrast with the pleasure. It is exactly so with the soul: during its -association with mortal passions, and parts, and organs, that which is -unnatural and strange produces no apparent pressure because of that long -familiarity; yet when discharged from the activities of the body, it -feels ease, and relief, and pleasure. By them it is distressed, and -about these it toils, and from these it craves leisure and rest. For all -that concerns its own natural activities—observation, reasoning, memory, -speculation—it is unwearied and insatiable. Satiety is nothing but a -weariness of pleasure, when soul feels with body. To its own pleasures -soul never cries “Enough”; but while it is involved in body, it is in -the plight of Ulysses.[259] As he clung to the fig-tree, and hugged it, -not from love of the tree, but fearing Charybdis down below, so soul -clings to body and embraces it, from no goodwill to it or gratitude, but -in horror of the uncertainty of death, - - _For life the gods conceal from mortal men_, - -says the wise Hesiod.[260] They have not strained soul to body by fleshy -bonds, one bond they have contrived and one encompassing device, the -uncertainty of what comes after death, and our slowness to believe; -since, “if the soul were persuaded”, as Heraclitus[261] says, “of all -the things which await men when they have died, no force would keep it -back.”’ - -Footnote 251: - - Where it is ascribed to Themistius. It was reclaimed for Plutarch by - Wyttenbach in the Preface to his edition of the _De Sera Numinum - Vindicta_—Leiden 1772. - -Footnote 252: - - In the Dialogue (_Ne suaviter quidem_, c. 26) in which the Epicureans - are attacked, the ‘hope of eternal existence’ or ‘desire to be’, is - spoken of as the ‘oldest and greatest of loves’. - -Footnote 253: - - θάνατος—ἀναθεῖν εἰς θεόν. - -Footnote 254: - - γένεσις—γῆ, νεῦσις. Cp. p. 210, l. 6. - -Footnote 255: - - γενέθλιον—γένεσις ἄθλων. - -Footnote 256: - - Reading ἂν δὲ ἔρῃ, καὶ σώματος for ἂν δὲ ἔρημαι σώματος. See the - Lex.-Plat. _s.v._ ἔρομαι. - -Footnote 257: - - e.g. _Od._ 1, 423. - -Footnote 258: - - τελευτᾶν—τελεῖσθαι. - -Footnote 259: - - _Od._ 12, 432 foll. - -Footnote 260: - - _W. and D._ 42. - -Footnote 261: - - Fr. 122. - - - - - ON SUPERSTITION - - - INTRODUCTION - - -The drift of Plutarch’s remarkable Treatise on Superstition is well -given in the opening words of Bacon’s famous Essay: ‘It were better to -have no opinion of God at all than such an opinion as is unworthy of -him. For the one is unbelief, the other is contumely, and certainly -superstition is the reproach of the Deity.’ The word—the same which, in -its adjective, St. Paul applies, almost in a good sense, to the -Athenians of his day[262]—is correctly defined by Theophrastus, in his -‘character’ of the superstitious man, as timidity with regard to the -supernatural, and this timidity at once passes into cowardice. There is -in this treatise a fighting spirit and a directness of attack unusual in -Plutarch, who mostly speaks with academic balance about conflicting -schools of thought. Thus it has been suggested that one or other of his -writings against the Epicureans may be intended to supply the required -study ‘On Atheism’. There are many passages in the _Lives_ and also in -the _Moralia_ where the author is seen to mediate between credulity and -scepticism, superstition and atheism; usually showing a tendency to ‘the -more benign extreme’; there is more to be lost by an undue hardening of -the intellect than by a wise hospitality to beliefs and ideas which lie -beyond strict proof. Here the attack is one-sided and uncompromising. At -the end of the treatise true piety is exhibited as a middle path between -superstition and atheism. This is not to be understood of a quantitative -excess or defect. Piety in excess may induce a habit which deserves the -name of superstition, such as has been the fair butt of satirists in all -ages, and of humorists like Theophrastus. But Plutarch is thinking not -of excess, but of perversion, a piety directed to wrong powers, or to -powers conceived of in the wrong way. There is a striking instance in -the _Life of Pelopidas_ (c. 21), when some of the prophets invited that -great soldier to obey the warning of a dream by slaying his daughter, -for which there were ancient precedents. ‘But some on the other side -urged, that such a barbarous and impious oblation could not be pleasing -to any superior beings; that Typhons and Giants did not preside over the -world, but the general father of Gods and men; that it was absurd to -imagine any Divinities or powers delighted in slaughter or sacrifices of -men; or, if there were any such, they were to be neglected, as weak and -unable to assist; such unreasonable and cruel desires could only proceed -from, and live in, weak and depraved minds.’ - -The situation is saved by the good sense of the augur Theocritus, the -same who plays a quaint and gallant part in the enterprise described in -_The Genius of Socrates_; and a chestnut colt takes the place of the -daughter. And there is no doubt on which side of the argument Plutarch’s -sympathies lie. - -An admirable running commentary on Plutarch’s treatise is supplied by -the _Discourse on Superstition_ of John Smith, the Cambridge Platonist -(1618-52), here printed as an Appendix to it. Like Bacon, John Smith has -written also a _Discourse on Atheism_, from which it may be sufficient -for the present purpose to quote the words of the Son of Sirach appended -as his conclusion: - -‘O Lord, Father and God of my life, give me not a proud look, but turn -away from thy servants a Giant-like minde’ (Ecclus. 23, 4). - -See, for this whole treatise, Dr. Oakesmith’s Chapter IX, pp. 179 foll. - - - - - ON SUPERSTITION - - -[Sidenote: 164 E] The stream of ignorance and of misconception about the -Gods passed, from the very first, into two channels; one branch flowed, -as it were, over stony places, and has produced atheism in hard -characters, the other over moist ground, and this has produced -superstition in the tender ones. Now any error of judgement, especially -on such matters, is a vicious thing, but if passion be added it is more -vicious. For all passion is ‘deceit accompanied by inflammation’; and as -dislocations are more [Sidenote: F] serious when there is also a wound, -so are distortions of the soul when there is passion. A man thinks that -atoms and a void are the first principles of the universe; the -conception is a false one, but does not produce ulceration or spasm, or -tormenting pain. Another conceives of wealth as the greatest [Sidenote: -165] good; this falsity has poison in it, preys on his soul, deranges -it, allows him no sleep, fills him with stinging torments, thrusts him -down steep places, strangles him, takes away all confidence of speech. -Again, some think that virtue is a corporeal thing, and vice also; this -is a gross piece of ignorance perhaps, but not worthy of lament or -groans. But where there are such judgements and conceptions as these: - - _Alas, poor Virtue! so thou art but words, - And as a thing I was pursuing thee_[263]— - -dropping, he means, the injustice which makes money, and the -intemperance which is parent of all pleasure—, these it is worth our -while to pity and to resent also, because their presence [Sidenote: B] -in the soul breeds diseases and passions in numbers, very worms and -vermin. - -II. And so it is with the subjects of our present discourse. Atheism, -which is a faulty judgement that there is nothing blessed or -imperishable, seems to work round through disbelief in the Divine to -actual apathy; its object in not acknowledging Gods is that it may not -fear them. Superstition is shown by its very name to be a state of -opinion charged with emotion and productive of such fear as debases and -crushes the man; he thinks that there are Gods, but that they are -[Sidenote: C] grievous and hurtful. The atheist appears to be unmoved at -the mention of the Divine; the superstitious is moved, but in a wrong -and perverted sense. Ignorance has produced in the one disbelief of the -power which is helping him, in the other a superadded idea that it is -hurting. Hence atheism is theory gone wrong, superstition is ingrained -feeling, the outcome of false theory. - -III. Now all diseases and affections of the soul are discreditable, but -there is in some of them a gaiety, a loftiness, a distinction, which -come of a light heart; we may say that none of these is wanting in a -strong active impulse. Only there is this common charge to be laid -against every such affection, that by stress of the active impulse it -forces and [Sidenote: D] constrains the reason. Fear alone, as deficient -in daring as it is in reason, keeps the irrational part inoperative, -without resource or shift. Hence it has been called by two names, -‘Deima’ and ‘Tarbos’,[264] because it at once constricts and vexes the -soul. But of all fears that which comes of superstition is most -inoperative, and most resourceless. The man who never sails fears not -the sea, nor the non-combatant, war; the home-keeping man fears no -robbers, the poor no informers, the plain citizen no envy, the dweller -among the Gauls[265] no earthquake, among the Ethiopians no thunder. The -man who fears the Gods fears everything, land, sea; air, sky; darkness, -light; sound, silence; to dream, to wake. Slaves forget [Sidenote: E] -their masters while they sleep, sleep eases the prisoner’s chain; angry -wounds, ulcers that raven and prey upon the flesh, and agonizing pains, -all stand aloof from men that sleep: - - _Dear soothing sleep, that com’st to succour pains, - How sweet is thy approach in this my need._[266] - -Superstition does not allow a man to say this; she alone has no truce -with sleep, and suffers not the soul to breathe awhile, and [Sidenote: -F] take courage, and thrust away its bitter heavy thoughts about the -God. The sleep of the superstitious is a land of the ungodly, where -blood-curdling visions, and monstrous whirling phantoms, and sure -penalties are awake; the unhappy soul is hunted by dreams out of every -spell of sleep it has, lashed and punished by itself, as though by some -other, and receives injunctions horrible and revolting. Then when they -have risen out of sleep, they do not scorn it all, or laugh it down, or -perceive that none of the things which vexed them was real, but, escaped -from the shadow of an illusion with no harm in it, they fall upon a -vision of the day and deceive themselves outright, and spend [Sidenote: -166] money to vex their souls, meeting with quacks and charlatans who -tell them: - - _If nightly vision fright thy sleep, - Or hags their hellish revel keep_,[267] - -call in the wise woman, and take a dip into the sea, then sit on the -ground, and remain so a whole day. - - _Ah! Greeks, what ills outlandish have ye found_,[268] - -namely, by superstition—dabbling in mud, plunges into filth, keepings of -Sabbaths, falling on the face, foul attitudes, weird prostrations. Those -who were concerned to keep music regular used to enjoin on singers to -the harp to sing ‘with [Sidenote: B] mouth aright’. But we require that -men should pray to the gods with mouth aright and just; not to consider -whether the tongue of the victim be clean and correct, while they -distort their own and foul it with absurd outlandish words and phrases, -and transgress against the divine rule of piety as our fathers knew it. -The man in the comedy has a passage which puts it happily to those who -plate their bedsteads with gold and silver: - - _The one free gift of gods to mortals, sleep, - Why make it for thyself a costly boon?_[269] - -[Sidenote: C] So we may say to the superstitious man, that the Gods gave -sleep for oblivion of troubles and a respite from them; why make it for -thyself a cell of punishment, a chamber of abiding torment, whence the -miserable soul cannot run away unto any other sleep? Heraclitus[270] -says that ‘waking men have one world common to all, but in sleep each -betakes him to a world of his own.’ The superstitious has no world, no, -not a common world, since neither while he is awake does he enjoy his -reason, nor when he sleeps is he set free from his tormentor; reason -ever drowses, and fear is ever awake; there is no escape, nor change of -place. - -IV. Polycrates was a terrible tyrant in Samos, Periander [Sidenote: D] -at Corinth, yet no one continued to fear them when he had removed to a -free and democratic state. But when a man fears the sovereignty of the -Gods as a grim inexorable tyranny, whither shall he migrate, where find -exile, what sort of land can he find where no Gods are, or of sea? Into -what portion of the world wilt thou creep and hide thyself, and believe, -thou miserable creature, that thou hast escaped from God? There is a law -which allows even slaves, if they have despaired of liberty, to petition -to be sold, and so change to a milder master. Superstition allows no -exchange of Gods, nor is it possible to find a God who shall not be -terrible to him who fears those of his country and his clan, who shivers -at the ‘Preservers’ and trembles in alarm before the beneficent beings -from whom we ask wealth, plenty, peace, concord, a successful [Sidenote: -E] issue for our best of words and works. And then these men reckon -slavery a misfortune, and say: - - _A dire mishap it is, for man or maid, - To pass to service of some ill-starred lord._[271] - -Yet how much more dire is it, think you, for them to pass to lords from -whom is no flight, or running away, no shifting. The slave has an altar -to flee unto, even for robbers many temples are inviolable, and -fugitives in war, if they lay hold of shrine or temple, take courage. -The superstitious shudders in alarm at those very things beyond all -others, wherein those who fear the worst find hope. Never drag the -superstitious man from temples; within them is punishment and -retribution [Sidenote: F] for him. Why more words? ‘Death is the limit -of life to all mankind.’[272] Yes, but even death is no limit to -superstition; superstition crosses the boundaries to the other side, and -makes fear endure longer than life. It attaches to death the -apprehension of undying ills, and when it ceases from troubles, it -[Sidenote: 167] thinks to enter upon troubles which never cease. Gates -are opened for it into a very depth of Hades, rivers of fire and streams -which flow out of Styx mingle their floods; darkness itself is spread -with phantoms manifold, obtruding cruel visions and pitiful voices; -there are judges and tormentors, and chasms and abysses which teem with -myriad evil things. Thus has superstition, that God-banned fear of Gods, -made that inevitable to itself by anticipation, of which it had escaped -the suffering in act.[273] - -V. None of these horrors attaches to atheism. Yet its ignorance is -distressing; it is a great misfortune to a soul [Sidenote: B] to see so -wrong and grope so blindly about such great matters, because the light -is extinguished of the brightest and most availing out of many eyes when -the perception of God is lost. But to the opinion now before us there -does attach from the very first, as we have already said, an emotional -element, cankering, perturbing, and slavish. Plato[274] says that music, -whose work it is to make men’s lives harmonious and rhythmical, was -given to them by Gods, not for wanton tickling of the ears, but to clear -the revolutions and harmonies of the soul from the disturbing impulses -which rove within the body, such as most often run riot, where the Muse -is not or the Grace, [Sidenote: C] and do violence and mar the tune; to -bring them to order, to roll them smooth, to lead them aright, and -settle them. - - _But they whom Zeus not loves_ (says Pindar)[275] - _Turn to the sound a dim disdainful ear - What time the Muses’ voice they hear._ - -Yes, they grow savage and rebellious, as the tigers, they say, are -maddened and troubled at the sound of the drum, and at last tear -themselves to pieces. A lesser evil then it is for those who, through -deafness and a dulled ear, are apathetic and insensible to music. -Tiresias was unfortunate that he could not see his children and familiar -friends, but far worse was the [Sidenote: D] case of Athamas and of -Agave, who saw them as lions and stags. Better, I think, it was for -Hercules in his madness not to see his sons, or feel their presence, -than to treat his dearest ones as enemies. - -VI. What then? Comparing the feeling of the atheists with that of the -superstitious, do we not find a similar difference? The former see no -Gods at all, the latter think that they exist as evil beings. The former -neglect them, the latter imagine that to be terrible which is kind, that -tyrannical which is fatherly, loving care to be injury, the -‘unapproachable’[276] to be savage and brutal. Then, trusting to -coppersmiths, or marble workers, or modellers in wax, they fashion the -forms of the Gods in human shape, and these they mould and frame and -worship; while [Sidenote: E] they despise philosophers and men who know -life, if they point them to the majesty of God consisting with goodness, -and magnanimity, and patience, and solicitude. Thus in the former the -result is insensibility and want of belief in all that is fair and -helpful, in the latter confusion and fear in the presence of help. In a -word, atheism is an apathy for the Divine which fails to perceive the -good, superstition is an excess of feeling which suspects that the good -is evil. They fear the Gods, and they flee to the Gods for refuge; they -flatter and they revile them; they invoke and they censure them. It is -man’s common lot not to succeed always or in all. [Sidenote: F] - - _They, from sickness free and age, - Quit of toils, the deep-voiced rage - Of Acheron for ay have left behind_, - -as Pindar[277] says; but human sufferings and doings flow in a mingled -stream of vicissitude, now this way, now that. - -VII. Now look with me at the atheist, first when things cross his -wishes, and consider his attitude. If he is a decent, quiet person, he -takes what comes in silence, and provides his own means of succour and -consolation. If he be impatient and querulous, he directs all his -complainings against Fortune, and [Sidenote: 168] the way things happen; -he cries out that nothing goes by justice or as Providence ordains, all -is confused and jumbled up; the tangled web of human life is unpicked. -Not so the superstitious: if the ill which has befallen him be the -veriest trifle, still he sits down and builds on to his annoyance a pile -of troubles, grievous and great and inextricable, heaping up for himself -fears, dreads, suspicions, worries, a victim to every sort of groaning -and lamentation; for he blames not man, nor fortune, nor [Sidenote: B] -occasion, nor himself, but for all the God. From that quarter comes -pouring upon him, he says, a Heaven-sent stream of woe; he is punished -thus by the Gods not because he is unfortunate, but because he is -specially hated by them, all that he suffers is his own proper deserts. -Then the atheist, when he is sick, reckons up his own surfeitings, -carouses, irregularities in diet, or over-fatigues, or unaccustomed -changes of climate or place. Or, again, if he have met with political -reverses, become unpopular or discredited in high quarters, he seeks for -the cause in himself or his party. - - _Where my transgression? or what have I done? what duty - omitted?_[278] - -But to the superstitious every infirmity of his body, every [Sidenote: -C] loss of money, any death of a child, foul weather and failures in -politics, are reckoned for blows from the God and assaults of the fiend. -Hence he does not even take courage to help himself, to get rid of the -trouble, or to remedy it, or make resistance, lest he should seem to be -fighting the Gods, and resisting when punished. So the doctor is thrust -out of the sick man’s chamber, and the mourner’s door is closed against -the sage who comes to comfort and advise. ‘Man,’ he says, ‘let me take -my punishment, as the miscreant that I am, an accursed [Sidenote: D] -object of hate to Gods and daemons.’ It is open to a man who has no -conviction that there are Gods, when suffering from some great grief and -trouble, to wipe away a tear, to cut his hair, to put off his mourning. -How are you going to address the superstitious in like case, wherein to -bring him help? He sits outside, clothed in sackcloth, or with filthy -rags hanging about him, as often as not rolling naked in the mud, while -he recites errors and misdoings of his own, how he ate this, or drank -that, or walked on a road which the spirit did not allow. At the very -best, if he have taken superstition in a mild form, he sits in the house -fumigating and purifying himself. The old women ‘make a peg of him’, as -Bion says, and on it they hang—whatever [Sidenote: E] they choose to -bring! - -VIII. They say that Tiribazus, when arrested by the Persians, drew his -scimitar, being a powerful man, and fought for his life; then, when they -loudly protested that the arrest was by the king’s orders, at once -dropped his point, and held out his hands to be tied. Is not this just -what happens in the case before us? Other men make a fight against -mischances and thrust all aside, that they may devise ways of escape and -evade what is unwelcome to themselves. But the superstitious man listens -to nobody, and addresses himself thus: ‘Poor wretch, [Sidenote: F] thy -sufferings come from Providence, and by the order of the God.’ So he -flings away all hope, gives himself up, flies, obstructs those who try -to help him. Many tolerable troubles are made deadly by various -superstitions. Midas[279] of old, as we are to believe, dispirited and -distressed by certain dreams, was so miserable that he sought a -voluntary death by drinking bulls’ blood. Aristodemus, king of the -Messenians, during the war with the Lacedaemonians, when dogs were -howling like wolves, and rye grass sprouting around his ancestral -hearth, in utter despair at the extinction of all his hopes, cut his own -throat. Perhaps it would have been better for Nicias[280], the Athenian -[Sidenote: 169] general, to find the same release from superstition as -Midas or Aristodemus, and not, in his terror of the shadow when the moon -was eclipsed, to sit still under blockade, and afterwards, when forty -thousand had been slaughtered or taken alive, to be taken prisoner and -die ingloriously. For there is nothing so terrible when the earth blocks -the way, or when its shadow meets the moon in due cycle of revolutions; -what is terrible is that a man should plunge[281] into the darkness of -superstition, [Sidenote: B] and that its dark shadow should confound a -man’s reason and make it blind in matters where reason is most needed. - - _Glaucus, see! the waves already from the depth of ocean stirred, - And a cloud is piling upwards, right above the Gyrean point, - Certain presage of foul weather._[282] - -When the helmsman sees this, he prays that he may escape out of the -peril, and calls on the Gods that save; but, while he prays, his hand is -on the tiller, and he lowers the yard-arm, - - _Furls his mainsail, and from billows black as Erebus he - flees._[283] - -Hesiod[284] tells the farmer to pray to Zeus below the earth and holy -Artemis before he ploughs or sows, but to hold on to [Sidenote: C] the -plough-handle as he prays. Homer[285] tells us that Ajax, before meeting -Hector in single combat, commanded the Greeks to pray for him to the -Gods; then, while they were praying, he was arming. Agamemnon, when he -had given orders to the fighters: - - _Let each his spear set, and prepare his shield_, - -then begs of Zeus: - - _Grant that this hand make Priam’s halls a heap._[286] - -For God is the hope of valour, not the subterfuge of cowardice. The -Jews, on the other hand, because it was a sabbath, sat on in uncleansed -clothes, while their enemies planted their ladders and took the walls, -never rising to their feet, as though entangled in the one vast draw-net -of their superstition.[287] - -IX. Such then is superstition in disagreeable matters and on [Sidenote: -D] what we call critical occasions, but it has no advantage, even in -what is more pleasant, over atheism. Nothing is more pleasant to men -than feasts, temple banquets, initiations, orgies, prayers to the Gods, -and solemn supplications. See the atheist there, laughing in a wild -sardonic peal at the proceedings, probably with a quiet aside to his -intimates, that those who think this all done for the Gods are crazed -and possessed; but that is the worst that can be said of him. The -superstitious man wants to be cheerful and enjoy himself, but he cannot. - - _Rife too the city is with heavy reek - Of victims slain, and rife with divers cries, - The wail for healing and the moan for death._[288] - -[Sidenote: E] So is the soul of the superstitious. With the crown on his -head he grows pale; while he sacrifices he shudders; he prays with a -quivering voice and offers incense with hands that shake; he shows all -through that Pythagoras[289] talks nonsense when he says: ‘We reach our -best when we draw near to the Gods.’ For it is then that the -superstitious are at their miserable worst; the halls and temples of the -Gods which they approach are for them dens of bears, lairs of serpents, -caverns of monsters of the sea! - -X. Hence it comes upon me as a surprise when men say that [Sidenote: F] -atheism is impiety, but that superstition is not. Yet Anaxagoras had to -answer a charge of impiety for saying that the sun is a stone, whereas -no one has called the Cimmerians impious for thinking that there is no -sun at all. What do you say? Is the man who recognizes no Gods a profane -person, and does not he, who takes them for such beings as the -superstitious think, hold a far more profane creed? I know that I would -rather men said about me that there is not, and never has come -[Sidenote: 170] into existence, a Plutarch, than that there is a man -Plutarch unstable, shifty, readily provoked, revengeful over accidents, -aggrieved at trifles; who, if you leave him out of your supper party, if -you are busy and do not come to the door, if you pass him without a -greeting, will cling to your flesh like a leech and gnaw it, or will -catch your child, and thrash him to pieces, or will turn some beast, if -he keep one, into your crops, and ruin the harvest. When Timotheus was -singing of Artemis at Athens in the words: - - _Wanderer, frenzied one, wild and inebriate!_ - -[Sidenote: B] Cinesias the composer rose from his place with ‘Such a -daughter be thine!’ Yet the like of this, and worse things too, do the -superstitious hold about Artemis: - - _She would burn a hanging woman, - She a mother in her pangs; - She would bring pollution to you - From the chamber of a corpse. - In the crossways swoop upon you, - Fix on you a murderer’s shame._[290] - -Nor will their views about Apollo, or Hera, or Aphrodite be a whit more -decent, they fear and tremble at them all. Yet what was there in Niobe’s -blasphemy about Latona, compared to what [Sidenote: C] superstition has -persuaded fools to believe about that goddess, how she felt herself -insulted and actually shot down the poor woman’s - - _Six daughters, beauteous all, six blooming sons_,[291] - -so greedy of calamities for another woman, so implacable! For if the -Goddess had really been full of wrath and resentment of wickedness, and -felt aggrieved at insults to herself, disposed to resent, rather than to -smile at human folly and ignorance, why then she ought to have shot down -those who lyingly imputed to her such savage bitterness, in speech or -books. Certainly we denounce the bitterness of Hecuba as savage and -beastly: [Sidenote: D] - - _In whose mid-liver I my teeth would set, - And cling and gnaw._[292] - -But of the Syrian Goddess superstitious men believe that if one eats -sprats or anchovies, she munches his shins, fills his body with sores, -and rots his liver.[293] - -XI. How then? Is it impious to say bad things about the Gods, but not -impious to think them? Or is it the thought of the blasphemer which -makes his voice amiss? We men scout abusive language as the outward sign -of ill-feeling. We reckon for enemies those who speak ill of us because -we think that they also think ill. Now you see the sort of things which -the superstitious think about the Gods; they take them to be capricious, -[Sidenote: E] faithless, shifty, revengeful, cruel, vexed about trifles, -all reasons why the superstitious must perforce hate and fear the Gods. -Of course he does, when he thinks that they have been, and will be -again, authors of his greatest ills. But if he hates and fears the Gods, -he is their enemy. Yet he worships, and sacrifices, and sits before -their shrines. And no wonder; men salute tyrants also, and court them, -and set up their figures in gold. But ‘in silence’ they hate them, -‘wagging the head’.[294] Hermolaus remained Alexander’s courtier, -Pausanias served on Philip’s [Sidenote: F] bodyguard, Chaereas on that -of Caligula; but each of them would say while he attended on his master - - _Sure thou shouldst rue it if my arm were strong._[295] - -The atheist thinks there are no Gods, the superstitious wishes that -there were none; he believes against his will, for he fears to -disbelieve. And yet, as Tantalus would gladly slip from beneath the -stone swinging over his head, so is it with the superstitious and his -fear, a pressure no less sore. He would reckon the atheist’s mood a -blessed one, for there is freedom in it. As things are, the atheist is -quite clear of superstition; the superstitious is at heart an atheist, -only too weak to believe what he wishes to believe about the Gods. - -[Sidenote: 171] XII. Again, the atheist is in no sense responsible for -superstition, whereas superstition provides atheism with a principle -which brings it into being, and then an apology for its existence which -is neither true nor honest, but is in a sense colourable. For it is not -because they find anything to blame in sky, or stars, or seasons, or -cycles of the moon, or movements of the sun around the earth, ‘those -artificers of day and night’,[296] or espy confusion and disorder in the -breeding of animals or the increase of fruits, that they condemn the -universe to godlessness. No! Superstition and its ridiculous doings and -emotions, words, [Sidenote: B] gestures, juggleries, sorceries, -coursings around and beatings of cymbals, purifications which are -impure, and cleansings which are filthy, weird illegal punishments and -degradations at temples—these give certain persons a pretext for saying -that better no Gods than Gods, if Gods accept such things and take -pleasure in them, Gods so violent, so petty, so sore about trifles. - -XIII. Were it not better then for those Gauls[297] and Scythians to have -had no notion at all about Gods, neither imagination nor record of them, -than to think that there are Gods who take [Sidenote: C] pleasure in the -blood of slaughtered men and who accept that as the supreme form of -solemn sacrifice? What? Were it not an advantage to the Carthaginians to -have had a Critias or a Diagoras for their first lawgiver and to -recognize neither God nor daemon, than to offer such sacrifices as they -did offer to Cronus?[298] It was not the case which Empedocles puts -against those who sacrifice animals: - - _Father, uplifting his son, not marking the change of the body, - Prays as he takes the dear life, poor fool._ - -Knowing and recognizing their own children, they used to sacrifice -them—nay, the childless would buy children from poor parents and cut -their throats as though they were lambs or chickens—, and the mother -would stand by dry-eyed and with [Sidenote: D] never a groan. If she -should groan or weep, she would have to lose the merit, and the child -was sacrificed all the same, while the whole space in front of the -shrine was filled with the rattle of drums and the din of fifes, in -order that the sound of the wailing might be drowned. Suppose that -Typhons, say, or Giants, had turned out the Gods and were our rulers, in -what sacrifices but these would they delight, or what other solemnities -would they require? Amestris,[299] wife of Xerxes, buried twelve men -alive, as her own offering to Hades, who, as Plato[300] tells us, is -[Sidenote: E] kind and wise and detains souls by persuasion and reason, -and so has been named ‘Hades’. Xenophanes,[301] the natural philosopher, -when he saw the Egyptians beating their breasts and wailing at their -feasts, gave them a home lesson: ‘If these are Gods, do not mourn them; -if men, why sacrifice to them? - -XIV. There is no sort of disease so capricious and so varied in -emotions, such a medley of opposite, or rather conflicting, opinions, as -is that of superstition. We must flee from it then, but as safety and -advantage point, not like men who run for their lives from robbers or -beasts or fire, never looking round or using their heads, and plunge -into pathless wastes with pits and [Sidenote: F] precipices. For that is -how some flee from superstition and plunge into a rough and flinty -atheism, overleaping Piety seated in the middle space. - -Footnote 262: - - Polybius (6, 56) points to ‘Deisidaimonia’ as the force which has held - the Roman Commonwealth together, and kept the Romans honest. - -Footnote 263: - - See Nauck, p. 910 (Hercules speaks). - -Footnote 264: - - δεῖμα—δέω: τάρβος—ταράσσω. - -Footnote 265: - - Cf. Aristot. _Eth. Nic._ 3, 7. - -Footnote 266: - - Eur. _Or._ 211-12. - -Footnote 267: - - Nauck, p. 910, Fragm. 375 (probably from Aeschylus). - -Footnote 268: - - Eur. _Tro._ 759. - -Footnote 269: - - Meineke 4, p. 670. - -Footnote 270: - - Fr. 95. - -Footnote 271: - - Nauck, Fragm. adespota, 376. - -Footnote 272: - - Dem. _de Cor._, s. 97. - -Footnote 273: - - A difficult passage. I follow W.’s suggested restoration. - -Footnote 274: - - _Tim._ 47 C, &c. - -Footnote 275: - - _Pyth._ 1, 25. - -Footnote 276: - - Or perhaps ‘that which knows no wrath’. - -Footnote 277: - - Fr. 143, quoted twice elsewhere by Plutarch. - -Footnote 278: - - Pythag. _Carm. Aur._ 42. - -Footnote 279: - - See _Life of T. Q. Flamin._ c. 20. - -Footnote 280: - - _Life of Nicias_, c. 23. Thuc. 7, 50, 86. - -Footnote 281: - - i.e. as the moon plunges into the shadow of the earth. See p. 269. - -Footnote 282: - - Archilochus, Fr. 54, Bergk. - -Footnote 283: - - Nauck, Fragm. adespota, 377. - -Footnote 284: - - _W. and D._ 465 foll. - -Footnote 285: - - _Il._ 7, 193 foll. - -Footnote 286: - - _Il._ 2, 382, 414. - -Footnote 287: - - 1 Maccab. 2, 32 foll. - -Footnote 288: - - Soph. _O. T._ 4. - -Footnote 289: - - See p. 123. - -Footnote 290: - - In the main from Wyttenbach’s reconstruction of this desperate - passage. - -Footnote 291: - - _Il._ 24, 604. - -Footnote 292: - - _Il._ 24, 212. - -Footnote 293: - - Cp. Menander, Fragm. of _Demiurgus_, Meineke 4, p. 102. - -Footnote 294: - - Soph. _Ant._ 291. - -Footnote 295: - - _Il._ 22, 20. - -Footnote 296: - - Plat. _Tim._ 40 E. - -Footnote 297: - - See Strabo, 4, c. 4. - -Footnote 298: - - Cp. p. 183. - -Footnote 299: - - Herod. 7, 114. - -Footnote 300: - - _Crat._ 403 A, 404 B. - -Footnote 301: - - Cp. Arist. _Rhet._ 2, 23, 27, 1400 b 5, where the Eleatae are named. - - - - - APPENDIX - A SHORT DISCOURSE OF SUPERSTITION - - - By JOHN SMITH - - - THE CONTENTS OF THE ENSUING DISCOURSE - - -_The true Notion_ of Superstition _well express’d by_ Δεισιδαιμονία, -i.e. _an over-timorous and dreadful apprehension of the Deity._ - -_A false opinion of the Deity the true cause and rise of_ Superstition. - -Superstition _is most incident to such as Converse not with the Goodness -of God, or are conscious to themselves of their own unlikeness to him._ - -_Right apprehensions of God beget in man a Nobleness and Freedome of -Soul._ - -Superstition, _though it looks upon God as an angry Deity, yet it counts -him easily pleas’d with flattering Worship._ - -_Apprehensions of a Deity and Guilt meeting together are apt to excite -Fear._ - -_Hypocrites to spare their Sins seek out waies to compound with God._ - -_Servile and Superstitious Fear is encreased by Ignorance of the certain -Causes of Terrible Effects in Nature, &c., as also by frightful -Apparitions of Ghosts and Spectres._ - -_A further Consideration of_ Superstition _as a Composition of Fear and -Flattery._ - -_A fuller Definition of_ Superstition, _according to the Sense of the -Ancients._ - -Superstition _doth not alwaies appear in the same Form, but passes from -one Form to another, and sometimes shrouds it self under Forms seemingly -Spiritual and more refined._ - - - Of Superstition - - -Having now done with what we propounded as a _Preface_ to our following -_Discourses_, we should now come to treat of the _main Heads and -Principles of Religion_. But before we doe that, perhaps it may not be -amiss to enquire into some of those _Anti-Deities_ that are set up -against it, the chief whereof are ATHEISM and SUPERSTITION; which indeed -may seeme to comprehend in them all kind of Apostasy and Praevarication -from Religion. We shall not be over-curious to pry into such foule and -rotten carkasses as these are too narrowly, or to make any subtile -anatomy of them; but rather enquire a litle into the Original and -Immediate Causes of them; because it may be they may be nearer of kin -then we ordinarily are aware of, while we see their Complexions to be so -vastly different the one from the other. - -And first of all for SUPERSTITION (to lay aside our Vulgar notion of it -which much mistakes it) it is the same with that Temper of Mind which -the Greeks call Δεισιδαιμονία, (for so Tully frequently translates that -word, though not so fitly and emphatically as he hath done some others:) -It imports _an overtimorous and dreadfull apprehension of the Deity_; -and therefore with _Hesychius_ Δεισιδαιμονία and Φοβοθεΐα are all one, -and Δεισιδαίμων is by him expounded ὁ εἰδωλολάτρης, ὁ εὐσεβής, καὶ -δειλὸς παρὰ θεοῖς, _an Idolater, and also one that is very prompt to -worship the Gods, but withall fearfull of them_. And therefore _the true -Cause and Rise of Superstition_ is indeed nothing else but _a false -opinion_ of the Deity, that renders him dreadfull and terrible, as being -rigorous and imperious; that which represents him as austere and apt to -be angry, but yet impotent, and easy to be appeased again by some -_flattering devotions_, especially if performed with sanctimonious -shewes and a solemn sadness of Mind. And I wish that that Picture of God -which some Christians have drawn of him, wherein Sowreness and -Arbitrariness appear so much, doth not too much resemble it. According -to this sense, Plutarch hath well defined it in his book περὶ -δεισιδαιμονίας in this manner, δόξαν ἐμπαθῆ καὶ δέους ποιητικὴν ὑπόληψιν -οὖσαν ἐκταπεινοῦντος καὶ συντρίβοντος τὸν ἄνθρωπον, οἰόμενον τε εἶναι -θεοὺς εἶναι δὲ λυπηροὺς καὶ βλαβερούς, _a strong passionate Opinion, and -such a Supposition as is productive of a fear debasing and terrifying a -man with the representation of the Gods as grievous and hurtfull to -Mankind_. - -Such men as these converse not with the _Goodness_ of God, and therefore -they are apt to attribute their impotent passions and peevishness of -Spirit to him. Or it may be because some secret advertisements of their -Consciences tell them how _unlike_ they themselves are _to God_, and how -they have provoked him; they are apt to be as much displeased with him -as too troublesome to them, as they think he is displeased with them. -They are apt to count this Divine Supremacy as but a piece of tyranny -that by its Soveraign Will makes too great encroachments upon their -Liberties, and that which will eat up all their Right and Property; and -therefore are lavishly afraid of him, τὴν τῶν θεῶν ἀρχὴν ὡς τυραννίδα -φοβούμενοι σκυθρωπὴν καὶ ἀπαραίτητον, _fearing Heaven’s Monarchy as a -severe and churlish Tyranny from which they cannot absolve themselves_, -as the same Author speaks: and therefore he thus discloseth the private -whisperings of their minds, ᾅδου τινες ἀνοίγονται πύλαι βαθείαι, καὶ -ποταμοῖ πυρὸς ὁμοῦ καὶ στυγὸς ἀπορρῶγες ἀναπετάννυνται, &c., _the broad -gates of hell are opened, the rivers of fire and Stygian inundations run -down as a swelling flood, there is thick darkness crowded together, -dreadfull and gastly Sights of Ghosts screeching and howling, Judges and -tormentors, deep gulfes and Abysses full of infinite miseries_. Thus he. -The Prophet _Esay_ gives us this Epitome of their thoughts, chap. 33: -_The Sinners in Zion_ are afraid, fearfulness hath surprized the -hypocrites: who shall dwell with the devouring fire? who shall dwell -with everlasting burnings? Though I should not dislike these dreadful -and astonishing thoughts of future torment, which I doubt even good men -may have cause to press home upon their own spirits, while they find -Ingenuity less active, the more to restrain sinne; yet I think it little -commends God, and as little benefits us, to fetch all this horror and -astonishment from the Contemplations of a Deity, which should alwayes be -the most serene and lovely: our apprehensions of the Deity should be -such as might _ennoble_ our Spirits, and not _debase_ them. A right -knowledge of God would beget a _freedome_ and _Liberty_ of Soul within -us, and not _servility_; ἀρετῆς γὰρ ἐλπὶς ὁ Θεός εστιν οὐ δουλείας -πρόφασις, as Plutarch hath well observ’d; our thoughts of a Deity should -breed in us hopes of Vertue, and not gender to a spirit of bondage. - -But that we may pass on. Because this unnaturall resemblance of God as -an angry Deity in impure minds, should it blaze too furiously, like the -Basilisk would kill with its looks; therefore these Painters use their -best arts a little to sweeten it, and render it less unpleasing. And -those that fancy God to be most hasty and apt to be displeased, yet are -ready also to imagine him so impotently mutable, that his favour may be -won again with their uncouth devotions, that he will be taken with their -formall praises, and being thirsty after glory and praise and solemn -addresses, may, by their pompous furnishing out all these for him, be -won to a good liking of them: and thus they represent him to themselves -as Lucian, in his _De Sacrificiis_ [c. I] speaks too truly, though it -may be too profanely, ὡς κολακευόμενον ἥδεσθαι, καὶ ἀγανακτεῖν -ἀμελούμενον. And therefore _Superstition_ will alwaies abound in these -things whereby this Deity of their own, made after the similitude of -men, may be most gratified, slavishly crouching to it. We will take a -view of it in the words of _Plutarch_, though what refers to the JEWS, -if it respects more their rites than their Manners, may seem to contain -too hasty a censure of them. _Superstition_ brings in πηλώσεις, -καταβορβορώσεις, σαββατισμούς, ῥίψεις ἐπὶ πρόσωπον, αἰσχρὰς προκαθίσεις, -ἀλλοκότους προσκυνήσεις, _wallowings in the dust, tumblings in the mire, -observations of Sabbaths, prosternations, uncouth gestures, and strange -rites of worship_. Superstition is very apt to think that Heaven may be -bribed with such false-hearted devotions; as Porphyrie, _Lib._ 2, περὶ -ἀποχῆς, hath well explained it by this, that it is ὑπόληψις τοῦ δεκάζειν -δύνασθαι τὸ θεῖον, _an apprehension that a man may corrupt and bribe the -Deity_; which (as he there observes) was the Cause of all those bloudy -sacrifices and of some inhumane ones among the Heathen men, imagining -διὰ τῶν θυσιῶν ἐξωνεῖσθαι τὴν ἁμαρτίαν like him in the Prophet that -thought by the fruit of his body and the firstlings of his flock to -expiate the sinne of his Soul. _Micah_ 6. - -But it may be we may seeme all this while to have made too Tragicall a -Description of _Superstition_; and indeed one Author whom we have all -this while had recourse to, seemes to have set it forth, as anciently -Painters were wont to doe those pieces in which they would demonstrate -most their own skill; they would not content themselves with the shape -of one Body onely, but borrowed severall parts from severall Bodies as -might most fit their design and fill up the picture of that they desired -chiefly to represent. _Superstition_ it may be looks not so foul and -deformed in every Soul that is dyed with it, as he hath there set it -forth, nor doth it every where spread it self alike: this πάθος that -shrowds it self under the name of _Religion_, wil _variously_ discover -it self as it is seated in Minds of a _various_ temper, and meets with -_variety of matter_ to exercise it self about. - -We shall therefore a little further inquire into it, and what the -Judgments of the soberest men anciently were of it; the rather that a -learned Author of our own seems unwilling to own that Notion of it which -we have hitherto out of _Plutarch_ and others contended for; who though -he have freed it from that gloss which the late Ages have put upon it, -yet he may seem to have too strictly confined it to a Cowardly Worship -of the ancient Gentile Daemons, as if _Superstition and Polytheism_ were -indeed the same thing, whereas _Polytheism_ or _Daemon-worship_ is but -one branch of it, which was partly observed by the learned _Casaubon_ in -his Notes upon that Chapter of _Theophrastus_ περὶ δεισιδαιμονίας, when -it is described to be δειλία πρὸς τὸ δαιμόνιον, which he thus -interprets, Theophrastus _voce_ δαιμόνιον _et Deos et Daemones complexus -est, et quicquid divinitatis esse particeps malesana putavit -antiquitas_. And in this sense it was truly observed by _Petronius -Arbiter_, - - _Primus in orbe Deos fecit Timor_— - -The whole progeny of the ancient Daemons, at least in the Minds of the -Vulgar, sprung out of _Fear_, and were supported by it: though -notwithstanding, this Fear, when in a Being void of all true sense of -Divine goodness, hath not escaped the censure of _Superstition_ in -_Varro’s_ judgment, whose Maxim it was, as S. _Austin_ tells us, _Deum a -religioso vereri, a superstitioso timeri_: which distinction _Servius_ -seems to have made use of in his Comment upon _Virgil_, _Aeneid_ 6, -where the Poet describing the torments of the wicked in hell, he runs -out into an Allegoricall exposition of all, it may be too much in favour -of _Lucretius_, whom he there magnifies. His words are these, _Ipse -etiam Lucretius dicit per eos super quos jamjam casurus imminet lapis_, -Superstitiosos _significare, qui inaniter semper verentur, et de Diis et -Cœlo et locis superioribus male opinantur; nam_ Religiosi _sunt qui per -reverentiam timent_. - -But that we may the more fully unfold the _Nature_ of this πάθος, and -the effects of it, which are not alwaies of one sort, we shall first -premise something concerning the Rise of it. - -The _Common Notions_ of a Deity, strongly rooted in Mens Souls, and -meeting with the Apprehensions of _Guiltiness_, are very apt to excite -the _Servile_ fear: and when men love their own filthy lusts, that they -may spare them, they are presently apt to contrive some other waies of -appeasing the Deity and compounding with it. Unhallowed minds, that have -no inward foundation of true Holiness to fix themselves upon, are easily -shaken and tossed from all inward peace and tranquillity; and as the -thoughts of some Supreme power above them seize upon them, so they are -struck with the lightning thereof into inward affrightments, which are -further encreas’d by a vulgar observation of those strange, stupendious, -and terrifying Effects in Nature, whereof they can give no certain -reason, as Earthquakes, Thundrings, and Lightnings, blazing Comets and -other Meteors of a like Nature, which are apt to terrifie those -especially who are already unsetled and Chased with an inward sense of -guilt, and, as Seneca speaks, _inevitabilem metum ut supra nos aliquid -timeremus incutiunt_. _Petronius Arbiter_ hath well described this -business for us, - - _Primus in orbe Deos fecit Timor, ardua cœlo - Fulmina cum caderent, discussaque moenia flammis, - Atque ictus flagraret Athos_— - -From hence it was that the _Libri fulgurales_ of the _Romanes_, and -other such volumes of _Superstition_, swelled so much, and that the -_pulvinaria Deorum_ were so often frequented, as will easily appear to -any one a little conversant in _Livy_, who everywhere sets forth this -Devotion so largely, as if he himself had been too passionately in love -with it. - -And though as the _Events_ in Nature began sometimes to be found out -better by a discovery of their immediate Natural Causes, so some -particular pieces of Superstitious Customs were antiquated and grown out -of date (as is well observ’d concerning those _Charms_ and _Februations_ -anciently in use upon the appearing of an Eclipse, and some others) yet -often affrights and horrours were not so easily abated, while they were -unacquainted with the Deity, and with the other mysterious events in -Nature, which begot those Furies and unlucky Empusas ἀλάστορας καὶ -παλαμναίους δαίμονας, in the weak minds of men. To all which we may adde -the frequent _Spectres_ and frightfull _Apparitions_ of Ghosts and -_Mormos_: all which extorted such a kind of Worship from them as was -most correspondent to such Causes of it. And those Rites and Ceremonies -which were begotten by Superstition, were again the unhappy Nurses of -it, such as are well described by _Plutarch_ in his _De defect. -Oracul._, Ἑορταὶ καὶ θυσίαι, ὥσπερ ἡμέραι ἀποφράδες, καὶ σκυθρωπαί, ἐν -αἷς ὠμοφαγίας, &c. _Feasts and Sacrifices, as likewise observations of -unlucky and fatall dayes, celebrated with eating of raw things, -lacerations, fastings, and howlings, and many times filthy Speeches in -their sacred rites_, and frantick behaviour. - -But as we insinuated before, This Root of _Superstition_ diversely -branched forth it self, sometimes into _Magick_ and _Exorcismes_, other -times into Pædanticall Rites and idle observations of _Things_ and -_Times_, as _Theophrastus_ hath largely set them forth in his Tract περὶ -δεισιδαιμονίας: in others it displayed itself in inventing as many _new -Deities_ as there were severall Causes from whence their affrights -proceeded, and finding out many φρικτὰ μυστήρια appropriate to them, as -supposing they ought to be worshipt _cum sacro horrore_. And hence it is -that we hear of those inhumane and Diabolicall sacrifices called -ἀνθρωποθυσίαι, frequent among the old Heathens (as among many others -_Porphyry_ in his _De abstinentia_ hath abundantly related) and of those -dead mens bones which our Ecclesiastick writers tell us were found in -their Temples at the demolishing of them. Sometimes it would express -itself in a prodigall way of sacrificing, for which _Ammianus -Marcellinus_ (an heathen Writer, but yet one who seems to have been well -pleased with the simplicity and integrity of Christian Religion) taxeth -_Julian_ the Emperor for Superstition. _Iulianus, Superstitiosus magis -quam legitimus sacrorum observator, innumeras sine parsimonia pecudes -mactans, ut æstimaretur, si revertisset de Parthis, boves iam -defuturos_: like that Marcus Caesar, of whom he relates this common -proverb, οἱ λευκοὶ βέες Μάρκῳω τῷ Καίσαρι, ἄν συ νικήσῃς, ἡμεῖς -ἀπωλόμεθα. Besides many other ways might be named wherein _Superstition_ -might occasionally shew it self. - -All which may best be understood, if we consider it a little in that -Composition of _Fear_ and _Flattery_ which before we intimated: and -indeed _Flattery_ is most incident to _base_ and _slavish_ minds; and -when the fear and jealousy of a Deity disquiet a wanton dalliance with -sin, and disturb the filthy pleasure of Vice, then this fawning and -crouching disposition will find out devices to quiet an angry conscience -within, and an offended God without, (though as men grow more expert in -this cunning, these fears may in some degree abate). This the ancient -Philosophy hath well taken notice of, and therefore well defin’d -δεισιδαιμονία by κολακεία, and useth these terms promiscuously. Thus we -find Max. Tyrius in his Dissert. 4 concerning the difference between a -_Friend_ and a _Flatterer_. ὁ μὲν εὐσεβής, φίλος θεῷ, ὁ δὲ δεισιδαίμων, -κόλαξ θεοῦ· καὶ μακάριος ὁ εὐσεβής, ὁ φίλος θεοῦ, δυστυχὴς δὲ ὁ -δεισιδαίμων. ὁ μὲν θαρσῶν τῇ ἀρετῇ, πρόσεισι τοῖς θεοῖς ἄνευ δέους· ὁ δὲ -ταπεινὸς διὰ μοχθηρίαν, μετὰ πολλοῦ δέους, δύσελπις, καὶ δεδιὼς τοὺς -θεοὺς ὥσπερ τοὺς τυράννους. The sense whereof is this, _The Pious man is -God’s friend, the Superstitious is a flatterer of God: and indeed most -happy and blest is the condition of the Pious man, God’s friend, but -right miserable and sad is the state of the Superstitious. The Pious -man, emboldened by a good Conscience and encouraged by the sense of his -integrity, comes to God without fear and dread: but the Superstitious -being sunk and deprest through the sense of his own wickedness, comes -not without much fear, being void of all hope and confidence, and -dreading the Gods as so many Tyrants._ Thus _Plato_ also sets forth this -_Superstitious_ temper, though he mentions it not under that name, but -we may know it by a property he gives of it, viz.: _to colloque with -Heaven_, Lib. 10, _de Legibus_, where he distinguisheth of Three kinds -of Tempers in reference to the Deity, which he then calls πάθη, which -are, _Totall Atheism_, which he saies never abides with any man till his -Old age; and _Partial Atheism_, which is a Negation of Providence; and a -Third, which is a perswasion concerning the Gods ὅτι εὐπαράμυθοί εἰσι -θύμασι καὶ εὐχαῖς, _that they are easily won by sacrifices and prayers_, -which he after explaines thus, ὅτι παραιτητοί εἰσι τοῖσιν ἀδικοῦσιν, -δεχόμενοι δῶρα, &c., _that with gifts unjust men may find acceptance -with them_. And this Discourse of _Plato’s_ upon these three kinds of -Irreligious πάθη _Simplicius_ seems to have respect to in his comment -upon _Epictetus_, cap. 38, which treats about _Right Opinions_ in -Religion; and there having pursued the two former of them, he thus -states the latter, which he calls ἀθεΐας λόγον as well as the other two, -as a conceit θεοὺς παρατρέπεσθαι δώροις, καὶ ἀναθήμασι, καὶ κερματίου -διαδόσεσιν, _quod muneribus et donariis et stirpis distributione a -sententia deducuntur_, such men making account by their devotions to -draw the Deity to themselves, and winning the favour of Heaven, to -procure such an indulgence to their lusts as no sober man on earth would -give them; they in the meanwhile not considering ὡς μεταμέλειαι, καὶ -ἱκετεῖαι, καὶ εὐχαί, καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, ἀναλογοῦσι τῷ κάλῳ, that -_Repentance, Supplications, and Prayers, &c., ought to draw us nearer to -God, not God nearer to us; as in a ship, by fastning a Cable to a firm -Rock, we intend not to draw the Rock to the Ship, but the Ship to the -Rock_. Which last passage of his is therefore the more worthy to be -taken notice of, as holding out so large an Extent that this Irreligious -temper is of, and of how subtil a Nature. This fond and gross dealing -with the Deity was that which made the scoffing _Lucian_ so much sport, -who in his Treatise _De Sacrificiis_ tells a number of stories how the -Daemons loved to be feasted, and when and how they were entertained, -with such devotions which are rather used Magically as Charms and Spells -for such as use them, to defend themselves against those Evils which -their own Fears are apt perpetually to muster up, and to endeavour by -bribery to purchase Heaven’s favour and indulgence, as _Juvenal_ speaks -of the Superstitious Aegyptian, - - _Illius lacrimae mentitaque munera præstant - Ut veniam culpae non abnuat, ansere magno - Scilicet et tenui popano corruptus Osiris._ - -Though all this while I would not be understood to condemn too severely -all servile fear of God, if it tend to make men avoid true wickedness, -but that which settles upon these lees of Formality. - -To conclude, Were I to define _Superstition_ more generally according to -the ancient sense of it, I would call it _Such an apprehension of God in -the thoughts of men, as renders him grievous and burdensome to them, and -so destroys all free and cheerfull converse with him; begetting in the -stead thereof a forc’d and jejune devotion, void of inward Life and -Love._ It is that which discovers itself _Pædantically_ in the worship -of the Deity, in anything that makes up but onely the _Body_ or _outward -Vesture_ of Religion; though then it may make a mighty bluster; and -because it comprehends not the true Divine good that ariseth to the -Souls of men from an _internall frame_ of Religion, it is therefore apt -to think that all its _insipid devotions_ are as so many _Presents_ -offered to the Deity and _gratifications_ of him. How _variously_ -Superstition can discover and manifest itself, we have intimated before: -To which I shall only adde this, That we are not so well rid of -_Superstition_, as some imagine when they have expell’d it out of their -Churches, expunged it out of their Books and Writings, or cast it out of -their Tongues, by making Innovations in names (wherein they sometimes -imitate those old _Caunii_ that _Herodotus_ speaks of, who that they -might banish all the forrein Gods that had stollen in among them, took -their procession through all their Country, beating and scourging the -Aire along as they went;) No, for all this, _Superstition_ may enter -into our chambers, and creep into our closets, it may twine about our -secret Devotions, and actuate our Formes of belief and Orthodox -opinions, when it hath no place else to shroud itself or hide its head -in; we may think to flatter the Deity by these, and to bribe it with -them, when we are grown weary of more pompous solemnities: nay it may -mix it self with a seeming Faith in Christ; as I doubt it doth now in -too many, who laying aside all sober and serious care of true Piety, -think it sufficient to offer up their Saviour, his Active and Passive -Righteousness, to a severe and rigid Justice, to make expiation for -those sins they can be willing to allow themselves in. - - - - - ON THE FACE WHICH APPEARS ON THE ORB OF THE MOON - A DIALOGUE - - - INTRODUCTION - - -Plutarch’s Dialogue on _The Face in the Moon_ is not a scientific -treatise, and its author would have disclaimed any intention of writing -to advance science. It is discussion for the sake of discussion, the -‘good talk’ of which Plutarch wished that Athens should have no -monopoly, any more than she had when the Boeotian Simmias and Cebes were -among the trusted friends of Socrates, or, later, when ‘plain living and -high thinking’ could be exhibited in lofty perfection in the Theban home -of Epaminondas. A mixed company, which includes an astronomer, another -mathematician, a literary man, and professed philosophers (there is no -Epicurean here), with Lamprias, Plutarch’s brother, for president, -discusses the movements and physical nature of the moon, from many -points of view. Reference is made throughout to a previous discussion at -which Lamprias, and Lucius, another of the speakers, had been present, -when a person called ‘Our Comrade’ had dealt faithfully with the -Peripatetic view, endorsed by the Stoics, that the moon is not of -substance like our earth, but is a fiery or starlike body. This -discussion had wandered into mystical theories as to the moon’s office -in the birth and death of human souls, and her connexion with ‘daemons’. -Sylla has joined the present company with a myth to relate bearing on -these deep subjects, which had come to him at Carthage as a traveller’s -tale. Its production is delayed until the end of the Dialogue, which it -closes after the manner of a Platonic myth; the phrases with which it is -opened and dismissed may be compared with those of the _Gorgias_. This -double device, of referring part of the matter to a former conversation -(as the _E at Delphi_ is a recollection of an old discourse by -Ammonius), and part to a new and strange tale, skilfully relieves this -elaborate Dialogue. Some difficulty is caused by the imperfect, or -doubtful, condition of the text of the opening chapter, as no complete -explanation seems to be given as to the place or time of the former -discussion. Probably this abruptness is intentional, but the text -requires careful attention. - -Perhaps this Dialogue throws more light on the views about the solar -system accepted or under discussion in the first century of our era than -a scientific treatise could have done. No reference is made to the great -astronomical work of Ptolemy, which belongs to the second century, and -closed most questions until the sixteenth. The estimate, e.g. of the -moon’s distance (56 earth’s radii) is not Ptolemy’s (59). Some of the -geographical details, as that of the Caspian Sea, seem to show that -Ptolemy’s geographical work was not known to the Author. - -It may be useful to enumerate some of the simpler of the accepted views -about the heavens : - -(1) That the earth is a Sphere was known to Pythagoras and allowed by -Plato (_Phaedo_ 110 B), and affirmed by Aristotle, _De Caelo_, 2, 14, -297 b 18. The moon, and, according to Aristotle, the stars, are also -spherical. - -(2) That the moon derived her light from the sun was a discovery due to -Anaxagoras (fifth century B.C.). - -(3) The true cause of eclipses was known to the Pythagoreans, and is -stated by Aristotle, and, with more precision, by Posidonius. - -(4) The inclination of the equator to the sun’s path is stated by -Oenopides of Chios (a little after Anaxagoras). - -(5) That the moon revolves round the earth at a moderate distance is -stated by Empedocles. - -(6) The other planets (including the sun) revolve round the earth at a -distance vastly less than that of the fixed stars. (No actual estimate -of the distances or sizes is given even by Ptolemy, who is not able to -state a parallax for any, or an angular diameter.) - -(7) That the planets share in the (apparent) daily motion of the stars, -and also have an (apparent) motion of their own in the reverse direction -was held by Pythagoras. - -All these refer to physical facts and can be stated without the use of -mathematical language, though many of the discoverers were expert -mathematicians. Gradually, and certainly from the time of the great -astronomer Hipparchus (about 130 B.C.), attention came to be fixed upon -the accurate mathematical interpretation of observed _apparent_ facts; -in a favourite phrase, the object was ‘to save the phenomena’, -irrespective of physical and actual fact. - -In the case of the moon, the two lines of inquiry are less sharply -divided than in that of other bodies. Very correct statements as to her -size and distance from the earth may be gathered from Plutarch’s -Dialogue. A guess is even hazarded that she is lighter than the earth, -bulk for bulk, because of the action of fire in the past. - -The mathematical account of the movements of the moon has its history. -As we have seen, it was early realized that she revolved round and near -the earth in a circular orbit. Soon it appeared that there were -irregularities in this movement. The ‘First Anomaly’, a difference of -speed observed at different parts of the orbit, was well understood by -Hipparchus. It could be expressed, so as to ‘save the phenomena’, by -either of two methods, both resting on the assumption that no curve -except a circle was admissible, and both superseding the ingenious but -cumbrous arrangement of ‘concentric Spheres’ known to Aristotle. One was -that of ‘movable eccentrics’, where the orbit of the planet was round a -point outside the earth, itself shifting. The other, which prevailed, -and was finally adopted by Ptolemy, was that of epicycles, circles -described round points in the primary orbit, by means of which the -planet’s motion could be retarded or quickened at will, and its position -modified. By this device, the visible _movement_ could be, and was, -recorded with great accuracy, but sometimes at the expense of physical -truth. Thus the epicyclic arrangement for the moon’s orbit involved, if -closely looked into, the consequence that her distance from us at -nearest must be half that at the farthest, and her angular diameter -double! Kepler, after the work of a lifetime (1571-1630), discovered the -cause of this ‘anomaly’ in the shape of the orbit, which is elliptical, -not circular, and substituted ‘eccentricity’ for ‘anomaly’ as the -key-word. Newton (1642-1727) proved that a body revolving round another -_must_ move in an ellipse, with the larger body at one focus. Thus the -wheel had come full circle, and physical and mathematical inquiry met -after two thousand years of separation. The ‘Second Anomaly’ due to the -action of the sun (the ‘Evection’) was indicated by Hipparchus, worked -out as a phenomenon by Ptolemy, and its physical cause explained by -Newton. The inclination of the moon’s path to the sun’s was known to -Hipparchus as 5°, and the recession of her nodes was familiar to him. A -third anomaly now known as ‘Variation’ is instructive because its -discovery has been claimed for an Arabian astronomer of about A.D. 1000. -After an exhaustive discussion during the last century (1836-71), it -seems to be proved that the claim rested upon a mistake, and that the -sole credit is due to Tycho Brahe (see Dreyer, p. 252). In fact, -whatever in astronomy does not belong to modern science is Greek, after -allowing for what the Greeks may have learnt in early ages from -Chaldaeans or Egyptians. The Romans contributed nothing, the Indians -learnt much from scientific men who accompanied Alexander, and used it -skilfully, but did not advance it. And the modern makes a really -continuous whole with the ancient Greeks, for it is not only astronomy -which should be considered, but the essential preliminaries, such as the -study of the Conic Sections, which, in its geometrical form, is purely -Greek. - -One authority to whom Plutarch twice refers by name requires special -mention. This was Aristarchus of Samos, who belongs to the middle or -later part of the third century B.C. He is the author of a work on ‘The -Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon’ which is extant. It was well -edited by Wallis for the Oxford Press in 1688, and more recently (1913) -and in a modern form, by Sir Thomas Heath, F.R.S., who has prefixed an -invaluable history of astronomy prior to Aristarchus. The book is -rigorously mathematical, and contains six ‘hypotheses’, and eighteen -propositions deduced from them. The second of the hypotheses, ‘That the -earth is in the relation of a point and centre to the sphere in which -the moon moves’, is quoted by Plutarch, apparently as being accepted by -Hipparchus. The sixth, ‘That the moon subtends one-fifteenth part of a -sign of the Zodiac (i. e. 2°)‘, raises a curious point which is fully -considered by Sir T. Heath. That Aristarchus should at any time have -thus exaggerated (multiplied by four) a measurement which seems open to -some sort of simple observation, and have based good work upon it, seems -very strange, firstly, because he must have considered the matter, -(since he is aware that the same figure may stand for sun and moon); -and, secondly, because Archimedes (287-212 B.C.), whose knowledge and -good faith are beyond question, says that ‘Aristarchus discovered that -the sun appeared to be about one seven hundred and twentieth part of the -circle of the Zodiac (30´)‘, which is roughly correct.[302] - -The fourth hypothesis runs: ‘That when the moon appears to us halved, -its distance from the sun is then less than a quadrant by one-thirtieth -of a quadrant (i.e. is 87°).’ From this is directly deduced (Hypothesis -6 is not here used) Prop. 7, an elaborate proof that ‘the distance of -the sun from the earth is greater than eighteen times, but less than -twenty times, the distance of the moon from the earth’, quoted by -Plutarch in c. 10. The fact assumed does not appear to be open to -observation; perhaps Aristarchus, or a predecessor, arrived at it by -comparing the average times taken by the moon over the first and second -quarters of her orbit. The true (theoretical) figure is 89° 50´. The -sequel is very interesting. Hipparchus, a century later, adopted the -result in calculating the parallax of the sun, which he found to be 3´ -of arc (more than twenty times too much). This was adopted by Ptolemy in -the second century A.D., and remained the official estimate until nearly -A.D. 1700, though both Hipparchus and Kepler had protested, the latter -stating as his opinion that the parallax could not be greater than one -minute of arc, or the distance less than twelve millions of miles. -Shortly before A.D. 1700 improved knowledge of the orbit and distances -of Mars enabled the sun’s parallax to be reduced to 9-1/2 seconds of -arc, and his distance stated at eighty-seven millions of miles, which is -not very inadequate. It was a great achievement of Aristarchus, though -he led the world into error, to state a reasoned figure at all, and to -think in such mighty units. - -His cosmical speculation is even more daring. It is known to us from -this Dialogue (c. 6) and also from Archimedes, who records it in his -(extant) _Arenarius_ without comment. Aristarchus proposed to ‘disturb -the hearth of the universe’ by his hypothesis that the heaven of the -stars is fixed, while the earth has a daily motion on her axis and an -annual motion round the sun. It was a brilliant intuition, possible in -an age of comparatively simple knowledge, which could not easily have -been advanced when the complexity of the several orbits was increasingly -realized (see Dreyer, pp. 147-8). Dr. Dreyer (p. 145) makes the -interesting suggestion that Aristarchus took the idea from some early -form of the system of ‘movable eccentrics’, and, further (p. 157), that -if that system had prevailed against that of epicycles, it must have -flashed, sooner or later, upon some bright mind, that there was one -eccentric point, namely, one in the sun, central to the orbits of all -the planets. - -It is to be observed that ‘Heraclides of Pontus’ (at one time a pupil of -Plato’s) discovered the movement of the two inner planets round the sun. -It is possible (as contended by Sciaparelli) that he believed all the -planets to move round the sun, and the sun round the earth, in fact -anticipated Tycho Brahe. Further, there is a statement that he -anticipated Aristarchus as to the movement of the earth; but Sir T. -Heath, who examines the evidence very fully, concludes that the evidence -has been misread. Aristarchus certainly contended for the diurnal -rotation of the earth, but this was rejected by Hipparchus and passed -out of account for many centuries. - -The history of the emergence of the heliocentric theory has a curiously -close counterpart in that of the circulation of the blood. Harvey -communicated his discovery to the College of Physicians on April 17, -1616, but he had kept it back for twelve years out of deference to the -great and deserved authority of Galen, which it was dangerous to -dispute, as Copernicus held back his ‘Treatise of Revolutions’ for -thirty years, because it was very dangerous, even for the nephew of a -Bishop, himself the Canon of a cathedral far north of the Alps, to -question the findings of Ptolemy. ‘Yet for years the profession had been -in latent possession of a knowledge of the circulation. Indeed a good -case has been made out for Hippocrates, in whose works occur some -remarkably suggestive sentences’ (see _The Growth of Truth_, the -Harveian Oration of 1906, by Sir William Osler, M.D., F.R.S.). Bacon, -who ‘writes philosophy like a Lord Chancellor’—i.e. seeks to eliminate -error from facts stated, and then to apply the law (see De Morgan, -_Bundle of Paradoxes_, p. 50)—, would have none of the Copernican -hypothesis. Nor would Sir Thomas Browne, though he preferred Dr. -Harvey’s discovery ‘to that of America’. But truth will out, at her own -time and through the ministers of her choice. - -Behind the horseplay of the Stoics and Academics, on the subject of the -centre of the universe and the laws which light and heavy bodies obey, -there seems to lie some real groping after a general cosmic law, such as -gravitation. Thus the earth and the moon draw bodies, each from its own -surface to its own centre, and if the earth draws the moon, it is as a -part of herself, once ejected and now reclaimed. - -There is no direct evidence of the time or place when this Dialogue is -supposed to take place, nor of the date of its composition. Much of the -matter is common to it with the Dialogue _On the cessation of the -Oracles_, one passage of which has been thought (by Adler) to be an -extract from it. Lamprias takes the principal place in both, and -Plutarch is not present, at least under his own name. The solar eclipse -mentioned in c. 19 as recent would give a clue if it could be -identified. Ginzel (_Spezieller Kanon_) has selected three for special -consideration, viz., those of April 30, A.D. 59, March 20, A.D. 71, and -January 5, A.D. 75. By the kindness of J. K. Fotheringham, Esq., -D.Litt., Fellow of Magdalen College, who has made the laborious -computation, I am able to state the respective magnitude of these -eclipses at Chaeroneia as 11·08, 11·82, 10·38 (totality = 12). Thus -Ginzel’s preference for No. 2 is confirmed; it was there a large partial -eclipse, and the time of greatest phase was 11 hours 4·1 minutes local -solar time. Several stars would become visible, 66/67 of the sun’s -diameter being obscured; a few might be visible during No. 1, none -during No. 3. - - - PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE - - -1. SEXTIUS SYLLA, the Carthaginian, mentioned in the _Life of Romulus_ -(c. 15) as ‘a man wanting neither learning nor ingenuity’, who had -supplied Plutarch with a piece of archaeological information. Elsewhere -(_De cohib. ira_, c. 1) he is addressed as ‘O most eager Sylla!’ In -another Dialogue he declines to be led into a discussion on all -cosmology by answering the question ‘whether the egg or the bird comes -first?’ (_Sympos._ 2, 3). - -He has a story, or myth, to tell about the moon, which he is impatient -to begin. This story, which he had heard from a friend in Carthage, is -mainly geographical in interest. The details remind us of those quoted -from Pytheas about his journeys to Britain and the Northern Seas. The -whole conception of the globe is clearly earlier than that of Ptolemy -(see especially as to the Caspian Sea, c. 26). The myth also introduces -us to the worship of Cronus as practised at Carthage, and connects it -with the wonders of the moon, and her place in the heavenly system. - -In c. 17 SYLLA raises a good point, about the half-moon, which was being -passed over. - -2. LAMPRIAS, a brother, probably an elder brother, of Plutarch directs -the course of the conversation, and himself expounds the Academic view, -referring to Lucius for his recollections of a recent discussion at -which both had been present, when the Stoic doctrines on physics had -been criticized. - -In some of the Symposiacs and other dialogues Lamprias takes a similar -place; in others both brothers take part. Lamprias probably died early. - -‘Evidently a character, a good trencherman, as became a Boeotian, one -who on occasion could dance the Pyrrhic war dance, who loved well a -scoff and a jest ... and who, if he thrust himself somewhat brusquely -into discussions which are going forward, was quite able to justify the -intrusion.’—Archbishop Trench. - -3. APOLLONIDES, astronomer and geometrician; perhaps the latter would be -the more correct designation. In another Dialogue (_Sympos._ 3, 4) a -‘tactician’ of the name appears. - -As Apollonius, the great mathematician (living about 200 B.C.) was also -a geometrician who contributed to astronomical theory, not himself an -astronomer, it seems likely that the name Apollonides has been coined by -Plutarch for ‘one of the clan of Apollonius’, i. e. a young professor of -geometry. Apollondes is treated rather brusquely by Lamprias, certainly -with less respect than Menelaus. He seems to have cast in his lot with -the Stoics in their physical opinions. - -4. ARISTOTLE, a Peripatetic. Perhaps the name was given to him to mark -the School to which he belonged. In the Dialogue _On the Delays in -Divine Punishment_ an ‘Epicurus’ is a representative Epicurean. - -5. PHARNACES, a Stoic, who sturdily supports his physical creed against -all comers. - -6. LUCIUS, an Etruscan pupil of Moderatus the Pythagorean, spoken of in -one place (_Sympos._ 8, 7 and 8) as ‘Lucius our comrade’. He is -elsewhere reticent as to the inner Pythagorean teaching, but is -courteous and ready to discuss ‘what is probable and reasonable’. - -Kepler is inclined to complain of his professorial tone and -longwindedness in the present Dialogue. This is hardly fair, as he is -for the most part reporting a set discourse heard elsewhere, and that by -request. Lamprias has to give him time to remember the points (c. 7). In -c. 5 he asks that justice may be done to the Stoics. He associates -himself with the Academics on physical matters. - -7. THEON (see Preface, p. xii), represents literature (as he does in -other Dialogues, notably in that on the _E at Delphi_). He is a welcome -foil to the more severe disputants. In c. 24 he interrupts by moving the -previous question—‘Why a moon at all?’ and is congratulated on the -cheerful turn which he has given to the discussion. Theon may sometimes -recall to readers of Jules Verne’s pleasant _Voyage autour de la lune_ -the sallies of Michel Ardan the poet. - -8. MENELAUS, a distinguished astronomer who lived and observed at -Alexandria. Observations of his, which include some taken in the first -year of Trajan, A.D. 98, are recorded by Ptolemy (_Magna Syntaxis_, 7, -3, p. 170) and other writers. - - - ANALYSIS - - -[The opening chapters are lost. There must have been an introduction of -the speakers, with some explanation as to time and place, a reference to -a set discussion at which some of the speakers had been present, and a -promise of Sylla to narrate a myth, bearing upon the moon and her -markings, which he had heard in Carthage. This conversation had taken a -turn, prematurely as SYLLA thinks, towards the mythical or supernatural -aspects of the moon.] But see note (1) on p. 309. - -c. 1. It is agreed that the current scientific or quasi-scientific views -on the markings of the moon’s face shall be first considered, then the -supernatural. - -cc. 2-4. LAMPRIAS mentions - -(i) The view that the markings are due to weakness of human eyesight. -This is easily refuted. - -(ii) The view of Clearchus, the Peripatetic, that they are caused by -reflexion of the ocean on the moon’s face. But ocean is continuous, the -markings are broken; they are seen from all parts of the earth, -including ocean itself (and the earth is not a mere point in space, but -has dimensions of its own); and, thirdly, they are not seen on any other -heavenly body. - -c. 3. The mention of Clearchus brings up the view, adopted from him by -the Stoics, that the moon is not a solid or earth-like body, but is fire -or air, like the stars. This view had been severely handled in the -former conference. - -c. 6. PHARNACES complains that the Academics always criticize, never -submit to be criticized. Let them first answer for their own paradox in -confusing ‘up’ and ‘down’, if they place a heavy body, such as the moon -is now said to be, above. LUCIUS retorts: ‘Why not the moon as well as -the earth, a larger body, yet poised in space?’ PHARNACES is -unconvinced. - -cc. 7-15. To give Lucius time to remember his points, LAMPRIAS reviews -the absurd consequences from the Stoic tenet that all weights converge -towards the centre of our earth. Why should not every heavy body, not -earth only, attract its parts towards its own centre? Again, if the moon -is a light fiery body, how do we find her placed near the earth and -immeasurably far from the sun, planets, and stars? How can we assume -that earth is the middle point of the Whole, that is, of Infinity? -Lastly, allow that the Moon, if a heavy body, is out of her natural -place. Yet why not? She may have been removed by force from the place -naturally assigned to her to one which was better. Here the tone of the -speaker rises as he lays down, often following the thought and the words -of Plato’s _Timaeus_, the theory of creative ‘Necessity’ and ‘The -Better’. - -c. 16. LUCIUS is now ready to speak, but ARISTOTLE intervenes with a -reference to the view, held by his namesake, that the stars are composed -of something essentially different from the four elements, and that -their motion is naturally circular, not up or down. LUCIUS points out -that it is degrading to the moon to call her a star, being inferior to -the stars in lustre and speed, and deriving her light from the sun. For -this, the view of Anaxagoras and of Empedocles, is the only one -consistent with her phases as we see them (not that quoted from -Posidonius the Stoic). - -cc. 17, 18. To an inquiry from SYLLA whether the difficulty of the -half-moon (i. e. how does reflexion, being at equal angles, then carry -sunlight to the earth, and not off into space beyond us?) had been met, -Lucius answers that it had. The answer given was: (i) Reflexion at equal -angles is not a law universally admitted or true; (ii) there may be -cross lights and a complex illumination; (iii) it may be shown by a -diagram, though this could not be done at the time (such a diagram is -supplied by Kepler), that some rays would reach the earth; (iv) the -difficulty arises at other phases also. He repeats the argument drawn -from the phases as we see them; and ends with an analogy: Sunlight acts -on the moon as it does on the earth, not as on the air; therefore the -moon resembles earth rather than air. - -c. 19. This is well received, and LUCIUS refers (a second analogy) to -solar eclipses, and in particular to a recent one, to show that the -moon, like the earth, can intercept the sun’s light, and is therefore, -like it, a solid body. The fact that the track of the shadow is narrow -in a solar eclipse is explained. - -c. 20. LUCIUS continues his report, and describes in detail what happens -in a lunar eclipse. If the moon, he concludes, were fiery and luminous, -we should only see her at eclipse times, i. e. at intervals, normally of -six months, occasionally of five. - -c. 21. PHARNACES and APOLLONIDES both rise to speak. APOLLONIDES raises -a verbal point about the word ‘shadow’; PHARNACES observes that the moon -does show a blurred and fiery appearance during an eclipse, to which -LAMPRIAS replies by enumerating the successive colours of the moon’s -face during eclipse, that proper to herself being dark and earth-like, -not fiery. He concludes that the moon is like our earth, with a surface -broken into heights and gullies, which are the cause of the markings. - -c. 22. APOLLONIDES objects that there can be no clefts on the moon with -sides high enough to cast such shadows. LAMPRIAS replies that it is the -distance and position of the light which matter, not the size of objects -which break it; - -c. 23. And goes on himself to supply a stronger objection—that we do not -see the sun’s image in the moon—and the answer. This is twofold: (_a_) -general, the two cases differ in all details; (_b_) personal to those -who, like himself, believe the moon to be an earth, and to have a rough -surface. Why should we see the sun mirrored in the moon, and not -terrestrial objects or stars? - -c. 24. Sylla’s myth is now called for, and the company sits down to hear -it. But THEON interposes: Can the moon have inhabitants or support any -life, animal or vegetable? If not, how is she ‘an earth’, and what is -her use? - -c. 25. Theon’s sally is taken in good part, and gravely answered at some -length by LAMPRIAS. - -c. 26. The mention of life on the moon calls up SYLLA, who again feels -that he has been anticipated. He begins his myth, heard from a stranger -met in Carthage, who had himself made the northward voyage and returned. -Once in every thirty years (or year of the planet Saturn) an expedition -is sent out from Carthage to certain islands in the Northern Atlantic -where Cronus (Saturn) reigns in banishment. The stranger had charged -Sylla to pay special honour to the moon, - -cc. 27-29. instructing him as to the functions of Persephone in bringing -about the second death—the separation of mind from soul—which takes -place on the moon, and the genesis of ‘daemons’, - -c. 30. to whom are assigned certain functions on earth. SYLLA commends -the myth to his hearers. - - - - - OF THE FACE WHICH APPEARS - ON THE ORB OF THE MOON - - -I. Here Sylla said:[303] ‘All this belongs to my story, and comes -[Sidenote: 920 B] out of it. But I should like to ask in the first place -whether you really backed on to those views about the moon’s face which -are in every one’s hand and on every one’s lips.’ ‘Of course we did,’ I -answered, ‘it was just the difficulty which we found in these which -thrust us off upon the others. In chronic diseases, patients grow weary -of the common remedies and plans of treatment, and turn to rites and -charms and dreams. Just so in obscure and perplexing enquiries, when the -common, received, familiar accounts are not convincing, [Sidenote: C] we -cannot but try those which lie further afield; we must not despise them, -but simply repeat to ourselves the spells which the old people used, and -use all means to elicit the truth. - -II. ‘To begin, you see the absurdity of calling the figure which appears -in the moon an affection of our eyesight, too weak to resist the -brightness, or, as we say, dazzled; and of not observing that this ought -rather to happen when we look at the sun, who meets us with his fierce -strong strokes. Empedocles has a pretty line giving the difference -between the two: - - _The sun’s keen shafts, and moon with kindly beams._ - -Thus he describes the attractive, cheerful, painless quality of her -light. Further, the reason is given why men of dim and weak eyesight do -not see any distinct figure in the moon; [Sidenote: D] her orb shines -full and smooth to them, whereas strong-sighted persons get more -details, and distinguish the features impressed there with clearer sense -of contrast. Surely the reverse should happen if it were a weakness and -affection of the eye which produced the image; the weaker the organ the -clearer should be the appearance. The very irregularity of the surface -is sufficient to refute this theory; this image is not one of continuous -and confluent shadow, but is well sketched in the words of Agesianax: -[Sidenote: E] - - _All round as fire she shines, but in her midst, - Bluer than cyanus, lo, a maiden’s eye, - Her tender brow, her face in counterpart._ - -For the shadowy parts really pass beneath the bright ones which they -encircle, and in turn press and are cut off by them; thus light and -shade are interwoven throughout, and the face-form [Sidenote: F] is -delineated to the life. The argument was thought to meet your Clearchus -also, Aristotle, no less unanswerably; for yours he is, and an intimate -of your namesake of old, although he perverted many doctrines of the -Path.’ - -III. Here Apollonides interposed to ask what the view of Clearchus was. -‘No man’, I said, ‘has less good right than you to ignorance of a -doctrine which starts from geometry, [Sidenote: 921] as from its native -hearth. Clearchus says that the face, as we call it, is made up of -images of the great ocean mirrored in the moon. For our sight[304] being -reflected back from many points, is able to touch objects which are not -in its direct line; and the full moon is of all mirrors the most -beautiful and the purest in uniformity and lustre. As then you geometers -think that the rainbow is seen in the cloud when it has acquired a moist -and smooth consistence, because our vision is reflected on to the -sun,[305] so Clearchus held that the outer ocean is seen [Sidenote: B] -in the moon, not where it really is, but in the place from which -reflexion carried our sight into contact with it and its dazzle. -Agesianax has another passage: - - _Or ocean’s wave that foams right opposite, - Be mirrored like a sheet of fire and flame._’ - -IV. This pleased Apollonides. ‘What a fresh way of putting a view; that -was a bold man, and there was poetry in him. But how did the refutation -proceed on your side?’ ‘In this way’, I answered. ‘First, the outer -ocean is uniform, a sea with one continuous stream, whereas the -appearance of the dark places in the moon is not uniform; there are -isthmuses, so to call them, where the brightness parts and [Sidenote: C] -defines the shadow; each region is marked off and has its proper -boundary, and so the places where light and shade meet assume the -appearance of height and depth, and represent very naturally human eyes -and lips. Either, therefore, we must assume that there are more oceans -than one, parted by real isthmuses and mainlands, which is absurd and -untrue; or, if there is only one, it is impossible to believe that its -image could appear thus broken up. Now comes a question which it is -safer to ask in your presence than it is to state an answer. Given that -the habitable world is “equal in breadth and length”,[306] is it -possible that the view of the sea as a whole, thus reflected from the -moon, [Sidenote: D] should reach those sailing upon the great sea -itself, yes, or living on it as the Britons do, and this even if the -earth does, as you said that it does, occupy a point central to the -sphere in which the moon moves?[307] This’, I continued, ‘is a matter -for you to consider, but the reflexion of vision from the moon is a -further question which it is not for you to decide, nor yet for -Hipparchus. I know, my dear friend [that Hipparchus is a very great -astronomer], but many people do not accept his view on the physical -nature of vision, since it is probably a sympathetic [Sidenote: E] -blending and commixture, rather than a succession of strokes and recoils -such as Epicurus devised for his atoms. Nor will you find Clearchus -ready to assume with you that the moon is a weighty and solid body. Yet -“an ethereal and luminous star”, to use your words, ought to break and -divert the vision, so there is no question of reflexion. Lastly, if any -one requires us to do so, we will put the question, how is it that only -one face is seen, the sea mirrored on the moon, and none in any of all -[Sidenote: F] the other stars? Yet reason demands that our vision should -be thus affected in the case of all or of none. But now,’ I said, -turning to Lucius, ‘remind us which of our points was mentioned first.’ - -V. ‘No;’ said Lucius, ‘to avoid the appearance of merely insulting -Pharnaces, if we pass over the Stoic view without a word of greeting, do -give some answer to Clearchus, and his assumption that the moon is a -mere mixture of air and mild fire, that the air grows dark on its -surface, as a ripple courses over a calm sea, and so the appearance of a -face is produced.’ - -‘It is kind of you, Lucius,’ I said, ‘to clothe this absurdity in -sounding terms. That is not how our comrade dealt with it. He said the -truth, that it is a slap in the face to the moon when they fill her with -smuts and blacks, addressing her in one breath [Sidenote: 922] as -Artemis and Athena,[308] and in the very same describing a caked -compound of murky air and charcoal fire, with no kindling or light of -its own, a nondescript body smoking and charred like those thunderbolts -which poets[309] address as “lightless” and “sooty”. That a charcoal -fire, such as this school makes out the moon to be, has no stability or -consistence at all, unless [Sidenote: B] it find solid fuel at once to -support and to feed it, is a point not so clearly seen by some -philosophers as it is by those who tell us in jest that Hephaestus has -been called lame because fire progresses no better without wood than -lame people without a stick! If then the moon is fire, whence has it all -this air inside it? For this upper region, always in circular motion, -belongs not to air but to some nobler substance, which has the property -of refining and kindling all things. If air has been generated, how is -it that it has not been vaporized by the fire and passed away into some -other form, but is preserved near fire all this time, like a nail fitted -into the same place and wedged there for ever? If it is rare and -diffused, [Sidenote: C] it should not remain stable, but be displaced. -On the other hand, it cannot subsist in a solidified form, because it is -mingled with fire, and has neither moisture with it nor earth, the only -agents by which air can be compacted. Again, rapid motion fires the air -which is contained in stones, and even in cold lead, much more then that -which is in fire, when whirled round with such velocity. For they are -displeased with Empedocles, when he describes the moon as a mass of air -frozen like hail and enclosed within her globe of fire. Yet they -themselves hold that the moon is a globe of fire which encloses air -variously distributed, and this though they do not allow that she has -[Sidenote: D] clefts in herself, or depths and hollows (for which those -who make her an earth-like body find room), but clearly suppose that the -air lies upon her convex surface. That it should do so is absurd in -point of stability, and impossible in view of what we see at full moon; -for we ought not to be able to distinguish black parts and shadow then; -either all should be dull and shrouded, or all should shine out together -when the moon is caught by the sun. For look at our earth; the air which -lies in her depths and hollows, where no ray penetrates, remains in -shadow unilluminated; that which is outside, diffused over the earth, -has light and brilliant colouring, because from its rarity it easily -mingles, and takes up any quality or influence. [Sidenote: E] By light, -in particular, if merely touched, or, in your words, grazed, it is -changed all through and illumined. This is at once an excellent ally to -those who thrust the air into depths and gullies on the moon, and also -quite disposes of you, who strangely compound her globe of air and fire. -For it is impossible [Sidenote: F] that shadow should be left on her -surface when the sun touches with his light all that part of the moon -which is framed within our own field of vision.’ - -VI. Here Pharnaces, while I was still speaking, broke in: ‘Round it goes -again, the old scene-shifter of the Academy brought out against us; they -amuse themselves with arguing against other people, but in no case -submit to be examined on their own views, they treat their opponents as -apologists, not accusers. I can speak for myself at any rate; you are -not going to draw me on to-day to answer your charges against the -Stoics, unless we first get an account of your conduct in turning the -universe upside down.’ Lucius smiled: ‘Yes, my friend,’ he said, ‘only -do not threaten us with the writ of heresy, such as Cleanthes used to -think that the Greeks should have [Sidenote: 923] had served upon -Aristarchus of Samos, for shifting the hearth of the universe, because -that great man attempted “to save phenomena” with his hypothesis that -the heavens are stationary, while our earth moves round in an oblique -orbit, at the same time whirling about her own axis. We Academics have -no view of our own finding, but do tell me this—why are those, who -assume that the moon is an earth, turning things upside down, any more -than you, who fix the earth where she is, suspended in mid air, a body -considerably larger than the moon? [Sidenote: B] At least mathematicians -tell us so, calculating the magnitude of the obscuring body from what -takes place in eclipses, and from the passages of the moon through the -shadow. For the shadow of the earth is less as it extends, because the -illuminating body is greater, and its upper extremity is fine and -narrow, as even Homer,[310] they say, did not fail to notice. He called -night “pointed” because of the sharpness of the shadow. Such, at any -rate, is the body by which the moon is caught in her eclipses, and yet -she barely gets clear by a passage equal to three of her own diameters. -Just consider how many moons go to make an earth, if the earth cast a -shadow as broad, at its shortest, as three moons. Yet you have fears for -the moon lest she should tumble, while as for our earth, Aeschylus[311] -has perhaps satisfied you that Atlas [Sidenote: C] - - _Stands, and the pillar which parts Heaven and Earth - His shoulders prop, no load for arms t’ embrace._ - -Then, you think that under the moon there runs light air, quite -inadequate to support a solid mass, while the earth, in Pindar’s[312] -words, is compassed “by pillars set on adamant”. And this is why -Pharnaces has no fear on his own account of the earth’s falling, but -pities those who lie under the orbit of the moon, Ethiopians, say, or -Taprobanes, on whom so great a weight might fall! Yet the moon has that -which helps her against falling, in her very speed and the swing of her -passage round, as objects placed in slings are hindered from falling by -the [Sidenote: D] whirl of the rotation. For everything is borne on in -its own natural direction unless this is changed by some other force. -Therefore the moon is not drawn down by her weight, since that tendency -is counteracted by her circular movement. Perhaps it would be more -reasonable to wonder if she were entirely at rest as the earth is, and -unmoved. As things are, the moon has a powerful cause to prevent her -from being borne down upon us; but the earth, being destitute of any -other movement, might naturally be moved[313] by its own weight; being -heavier than the moon not merely in proportion to its greater bulk, -[Sidenote: E] but because the moon has been rendered lighter by heat and -conflagration. It would actually seem that the moon, if she is a fire, -is in need of earth, a solid substance whereon she moves and to which -she clings, so feeding and keeping up the force of her flame. For it is -impossible to conceive fire as maintained without fuel. But you Stoics -say that our earth stands firm without foundation or root.’ ‘Of course,’ -said Pharnaces, ‘it keeps its proper and natural place, namely the -essential middle point, that place around which all weights press and -[Sidenote: F] bear, converging towards it from all sides. But all the -upper region, even if it receive any earth-like body thrown up with -force, immediately thrusts it out hitherward, or rather lets it go, to -be borne down by its own momentum.’ - -VII. At this point, wishing Lucius to have time to refresh his memory, I -called on Theon: ‘Theon, which of the tragic poets has said that -physicians - - _Purge bitter bile with bitter remedies?_’ - -Theon answered that it was Sophocles.[314] ‘And physicians must be -allowed to do so,’ I said, ‘we cannot help it. But philosophers must not -be listened to, if they choose to meet paradoxes with paradoxes, and, -when contending against strange views, to invent views which are more -strange and wonderful still. [Sidenote: 924] Here are these Stoics with -their “tendency towards the middle”! Is there any paradox which is not -implicit there? That our earth, with all those depths and heights and -inequalities, is a Sphere? That there are people at our antipodes who -live like timber-worms or lizards, their lower limbs turned upper-most -as they plant them on earth? That we ourselves do not keep perpendicular -as we move, but remain on the slant, swerving like drunkards? That -masses of a thousand talents’ weight, borne through the depth of the -earth, stop when they reach the middle point, though nothing meets or -resists them; or, if mere momentum carry them down beyond the middle -point, they wheel round and turn back of themselves? That [Sidenote: B] -segments of beams[315] sawn off at the surface of the earth on either -side, do not move downwards all the way, but as they fall upon the -surface receive equal thrusts from the outside inwards and are jammed -around the middle? That water rushing violently downwards, if it should -reach this middle point—an incorporeal point as they say—would stand -balanced around it for a pivot, swinging with an oscillation which never -stops and never can be stopped? Some of these a man could not force -himself [Sidenote: C] to present to his intellect as possible, even if -untrue! This is to make - - _Up down, down up, where Topsy-Turvy reigns_,[316] - -all from us to the centre down, and all below the centre becoming up in -its turn! So that if a man, by the “sympathy” of earth, were to stand -with the central point of his own body touching the centre, he would -have his head up and his feet up too! And if he were to dig into the -space beyond, the down part of his body would bend upwards, and the soil -would be dug out from above to below; and if another man could be -conceived meeting him, the feet of both would be said to be up, and -would really become so! - -VIII. ‘Such are the monstrous paradoxes which they shoulder and trail -along, no mere wallet, Heaven help us! but [Sidenote: D] a conjurer’s -stock-in-trade and show-booth; and then they call other men triflers, -because they place the moon, being an earth, up above, and not where the -middle point is. And yet if every weighty body converges to the same -point with all its parts, the earth will claim the heavy objects, not so -much because she is middle of the whole, as because they are parts of -herself; and the inclination of falling bodies will testify, [Sidenote: -E] not to any property of earth[317], as middle of the universe, but -rather to a community and fellowship between earth and her own parts, -once ejected, now borne back to her. For as the sun draws into himself -the parts of which he has been composed, so earth receives the stone as -belonging to her, and drawn down towards herself; and thus each of such -objects becomes united with her in time and grows into herself. If there -is any body neither assigned originally to the earth, nor torn away from -it, [Sidenote: F] but having somehow a substance and nature of its own, -such as they would describe the moon to be, what is there to prevent its -existing separately, self-centred, pressed together and compacted by its -own parts? For it is not proved that earth is the middle of the -universe, and, further, the way in which bodies here are collected and -drawn together towards the earth suggests the manner in which bodies -which have fallen together on to the moon may reasonably be supposed to -keep their place with reference to her. Why the man who forces all -earth-like and heavy objects into one place, and makes them parts of one -body, does not apply the same law of coercion to light bodies, I cannot -see, instead of allowing all those fiery structures to exist apart; nor -why he does not collect all the stars into the same place, and hold -distinctly that there must be a body common to all upward-borne and -fiery units. - -[Sidenote: 925] IX. ‘But you and your friends, dear Apollonides, say -that the sun is countless millions of stades distant from the highest -circle, and that Phosphor next to him, and Stilbon, and the other -planets, move in a region below the fixed stars and at great intervals -from one another; and yet you think that the universe provides within -itself no interval in space for heavy and earth-like bodies. You see -that it is ridiculous to call the moon no earth because she stands apart -from the region below, and then to call her a star while we see her -thrust so many [Sidenote: B] myriads of stades away from the upper -circle as though sunk into an abyss. She is lower than the stars by a -distance which we cannot state in words, since numbers fail you -mathematicians when you try to reckon it, but she touches the earth in a -sense and revolves close to it, - - _Like to the nave of a wagon, she glances_, - -says Empedocles,[318] - - _which near the mid axle...._ - -For she often fails to clear even the shadow of earth, rising but -little,[319] because the illuminating body is so vast. But so nearly -does she seem to graze the earth and to be almost in its embrace as she -circles round, that she is shut off from the sun by it unless [Sidenote: -C] she rises enough to clear that shaded, terrestrial region, dark as -night, which is the appanage of earth. Therefore I think we may say with -confidence that the moon is within the precincts of earth when we see -her blocked by earth’s extremities. - -X. ‘Now leave the other fixed stars and planets, and consider the -conclusion proved by Aristarchus in his _Magnitudes and Distances_;[320] -that the distance of the sun is to the distance of the moon from us in a -ratio greater than eighteen to one, [Sidenote: D] less than twenty to -one. Yet the highest estimate of the distance of the moon from us makes -it fifty-six times the earth’s radius, and that is, even on a moderate -measurement, forty thousand stades. Upon this basis, the distance of the -sun from the moon works out to more than forty million three hundred -thousand stades. So far has she been settled from the sun because of her -weight, and so nearly has she approached the earth, that, if we are to -distribute estates according to localities, the “portion and inheritance -of the earth” invites the moon to join her, and the moon has a next -claim to chattels and persons [Sidenote: E] on earth, in right of -kinship and vicinity. And I think that we are not doing wrong in this, -that while we assign so great and profound an interval to what we call -the upper bodies, we also leave to bodies below as much room for -circulation as the breadth from earth to moon. For he who confines the -word “upper” to the extreme circumference of heaven, and calls all the -rest “lower”, goes too far, and on the other hand he who circumscribes -“below” to earth, or rather to her centre, is preposterous. On this side -and on that the necessary interval must be granted,[321] since the -vastness of the universe permits. Against the claim that everything -after we leave the earth is “up” and poised on high, sounds the -counterclaim that everything [Sidenote: F] after we leave the circle of -the fixed stars is “down”! - -XI. ‘Look at the question broadly. In what sense is the earth “middle”, -and middle of what? For the Whole is infinite; now the Infinite has -neither beginning nor limit, so it ought not to have a middle; for a -middle is in a sense itself a limit, but infinity is a negation of -limits. It is amusing to hear a man labour to prove that the earth is -the middle of the universe, not of the Whole, forgetting that the -universe itself lies under the same difficulties; for the Whole, in its -[Sidenote: 926] turn, left no middle for the universe. “Hearthless and -homeless”[322] it is borne over an infinite void towards nothing which -it can call its own; or, if it find some other cause for remaining, it -stands still, not because of the nature of the place. Much the same can -be conjectured about the earth and the moon; if one stands here unshaken -while the other moves, it is in virtue of a difference of soul rather -than of place and of nature. Apart from all this, has not one important -point escaped them? If anything, however great, which is outside the -centre of the earth is “up”, then no part of the universe is “down”. -Earth is “up”, and so are the things on the earth, absolutely [Sidenote: -B] every body lying or standing about the earth becomes “up”; one thing -alone is “down”, that incorporeal point which has of necessity to resist -the pressure of the whole universe, if “down” is naturally opposed to -“up”. Nor is this absurdity the only one. Weights lose the cause of -their downward tendency and motion here, since there is no body below -towards which they move. That the incorporeal should have so great a -force as to direct all things towards itself, or hold them together -about itself, is not probable, nor do they mean this. No! it is found on -all grounds[323] to be irrational, and against the facts, that “up” -should be the whole universe, and “down” nothing but an incorporeal and -indivisible limit. The other view is reasonable, which we state thus, -that a large space, possessing breadth, is apportioned both to “the -above” and to “the below”. - -XII. ‘However, let us assume, if you choose, that it is [Sidenote: C] -contrary to nature that earth-like bodies should have their motions in -heaven; and now let us look quietly, with no heroics, at the inference, -which is this, not that the moon is not an earth, but that she is an -earth not in its natural place. So the fire of Aetna is fire -underground, which is contrary to nature, yet is fire; and air enclosed -in bladders is light and volatile by nature, but has come perforce into -a place unnatural to it. And the soul, the soul itself,’ I went on, ‘has -it not been imprisoned in the body contrary to nature, a swift, and, as -you hold, a fiery soul in a slow, cold body, the invisible within the -sensible? Are we therefore to say that soul in body is nothing, and not -rather that Reason, that divine thing, has been made subject to weight -and density, that one which ranges all heaven [Sidenote: D] and earth -and sea in a moment’s flight has passed into flesh and sinews, marrow -and humours, wherein is the origin of countless passions?[324] Your Lord -Zeus, is he not, so long as he preserves his own nature, one great -continuous fire? Yet we see him brought down, and bent, and fashioned, -assuming, and ready to assume, any and every complexion of change. Look -well to it, my friend, whether when you shift all things [Sidenote: E] -about, and remove each to its “natural” place, you are not devising a -system to dissolve the universe and introducing Empedoclean strife, or -rather stirring up the old Titans against Nature, in your eagerness to -see once more the dreadful disorder and dissonance of the myth? All that -is heavy in a place by itself, and all that is light in another, - - _Where neither sun’s bright face is separate seen, - Nor earth’s rough brood, nor ocean any more_, - -[Sidenote: F] as Empedocles says! Earth had nothing to do with heat, -water with wind; nothing heavy was found above, nothing light below; -without commixture, without affection were the principles of all things, -mere units, each desiring no intercourse with each or partnership, -performing their separate scornful motions in mutual flight and -aversion, a state of things which must always be, as Plato[325] teaches, -where God is absent, the state of bodies deserted by intelligence and -soul. So it was until the day when Providence brought Desire into -Nature, and [Sidenote: 927] Friendship was engendered there, and -Aphrodite, and Eros, as Empedocles tells us and Parmenides too and -Hesiod,[326] so that things might change their places, and receive -faculties from one another in turn, and, from being bound under stress, -and forced, some to be in motion some to rest, might all begin to give -in to the Better, instead of the Natural, and shift their places and so -produce harmony and communion of the Whole. - -XIII. ‘For if it be true that no other part of the universe departed -from Nature, but that each rests in its natural place, not needing any -transposition or rearrangement, and never from the first having needed -any, I am at a loss to know what there is for Providence to do, or of -what Zeus, “in art most excellent”,[327] is the maker and the -artist-father. There would [Sidenote: B] be no need of tactics in an -army if each soldier knew of himself how to take and keep place and post -at the proper time; nor of gardeners or builders if the water of its own -nature is to flow over the parts which need it, and moisten them, or if -bricks and beams should of themselves adopt the movements and -inclinations which are natural, and arrange themselves in their fitting -places. If such a theory strike out Providence [Sidenote: C] altogether, -and if it be God’s own attribute to order and discriminate things, what -marvel is it that Nature has been so disposed and partitioned that fire -is here and stars there, and again that earth is planted where it is and -the moon above, each held by a firmer bond than that of Nature, the bond -of Reason? Since, if all things are to observe natural tendencies, and -to move each according to its nature, let the sun no longer go round in -a circle, nor Phosphorus, nor any of the other stars, because it is the -nature of light and fiery bodies to move upwards, not in a circle! But -if Nature admits of such local variation as that fire, here seen to -ascend, yet when it reaches heaven, joins in the general rotation, what -marvel if heavy [Sidenote: D] and earthlike bodies too, when placed -there, assume another kind of motion, mastered by the circumambient -element? For it is not according to Nature that light things lose their -upward tendency in heaven, and yet heaven cannot prevail over those -which are heavy and incline downwards. No, heaven at some time had power -to rearrange both these and those, and turned the nature of each to what -was better. - -XIV. ‘However, if we are at last to have done with notions enslaved to -usage,[328] and to state fearlessly what appears to be true, it is -probable that no part of a whole has any order, or position, or movement -of its own which can be described in absolute terms as natural. But when -each body places itself at the disposal of that on account of which it -has come into being, [Sidenote: E] and in relation to which it naturally -exists or has been created, to move as is useful and convenient to it, -actively and passively and in all its own states conforming to the -conservation, beauty, or power of that other, then, I hold, its place, -movements and disposition are according to Nature. In man certainly, who -has, if anything has, come into being according to Nature, [Sidenote: F] -the heavy and earth-like parts are found above, mostly about the head, -the hot and fiery in the middle regions; of the teeth one set grows from -above, the other from below, yet neither contrary to Nature; nor can it -be said of the fire in him that when it is above and flashes in his eyes -it is natural, but when it is in stomach or heart, unnatural; each has -been arranged as is proper and convenient. - - _Mark well the tortoise and the trumpet-shell_, - -says Empedocles, and, we may add, the nature of every shell-fish, and - - _Earth uppermost, flesh under thou shalt see._ - -Yet the stony substance does not squeeze or crush the growth[329] -[Sidenote: 928] within, nor again does the heat fly off and be lost -because of its lightness; they are mingled and co-ordinated according to -the nature of each. - -XV. ‘And so it is probably with the universe, if it be indeed a living -structure; in many places it contains earth, in many others fire, water, -and wind, which are not forced out under stress, but arranged on a -rational system. Take the eye; it is not where it is in the body owing -to pressure acting on its light substance, nor has the heart fallen or -slipped down [Sidenote: B] into the region of the chest because of its -weight; each is arranged where it is because it was better so. Let us -not then suppose that it is otherwise with the parts of the universe; -that earth lies here where it has fallen of its own weight, that the -sun, as Metrodorus of Chios used to think, has been pressed out into the -upper region because of his lightness, like a bladder, or that the other -stars have reached the places which they now hold as if they had been -weighed in a balance and kicked the beam. No, the rational principle -prevailed; and some, like eyes to give light, are inserted into the face -of the Whole and revolve; the sun acts as a heart, and sheds and -distributes out of himself heat and light, as it were blood and breath. -[Sidenote: C] Earth and sea are to the universe, according to Nature, -what stomach and bladder are to the animal. The moon, lying between sun -and earth, as the liver or some other soft organ between heart and -stomach, distributes here the gentle warmth from above, while she -returns to us, digested, purified, and refined in her own sphere, the -exhalations of earth. Whether her earth-like solid substance contributes -to any other useful purposes, we cannot say. We do know that universally -the Better prevails over the law of Stress. How can the view of the -Stoics lead us to any probable result? That view is, that the luminous -and subtle part of the atmosphere has by its rarity formed the -[Sidenote: D] sky, the dense and consolidated part stars, and that, of -the stars, the moon is the dullest and the grossest. However, we may see -with our eyes that the moon is not entirely separated from the -atmosphere, but moves within a great belt of it, having beneath itself a -wind-swept region, where bodies are whirled, and amongst them comets. -Thus these bodies have not been placed in the scales according to the -weight or lightness of each, but have been arranged upon a different -system.’ - -XVI. This said, as I was passing the turn to Lucius, the [Sidenote: E] -argument now reaching the stage of demonstration, Aristotle said with a -smile: ‘I protest that you have addressed your whole reply to those who -assume that the moon herself is half fire, and who say of all bodies in -common that they have an inclination of their own, some an upward one, -some a downward. If there is a single person who holds that the stars -move in a circle according to Nature, and are of a substance widely -[Sidenote: F] different from the four elements, it has not occurred to -our memory, even by accident; so that I am out of the discussion, and -you also, Lucius.’ ‘No, no, good friend’, said Lucius. ‘As to the other -stars, and the heaven in general, when your school asserts that they -have a nature which is pure and transparent, and removed from all -changes caused by passion, and when they introduce a circle of -eternal[330] and never-ending revolution, perhaps no one would -contradict you, at least for the present, although there are countless -difficulties. But when the theory comes down and touches the moon, it no -longer retains in her case the “freedom from passion” and the beauty of -form of that body. Leaving out of account her other irregularities and -points of difference, this very face which appears upon her has come -there either from some passion proper to herself or by admixture of some -other substance. [Sidenote: 929] Indeed, mixture implies some passion, -since there is a loss of its own purity when a body is forcibly filled -with what is inferior to itself. Consider her own torpor and dullness of -speed, and her heat, so faint and ineffectual, wherein, as Ion[331] -says— - - _The black grape ripens not_; - -to what are we to assign this, but to weakness in herself and passion, -if passion can have place in an eternal and Olympian body? It comes to -this, dear Aristotle; look on her as earth, and she appears a very -beautiful object, venerable and highly adorned; but as star, or light, -or any divine or heavenly body, I fear she may be found wanting in -shapeliness and grace, and do no credit to her beautiful name, if out of -all the multitude in heaven she alone goes round begging light of -others, as Parmenides says, [Sidenote: B] - - _For ever peering toward the sun’s bright rays._ - -Now when our comrade, in his dissertation, was expounding the -proposition of Anaxagoras, that “the sun places the brightness in the -moon”, he was highly applauded. But I am not going to speak of things -which I learned from you or with you, I will gladly pass on to the -remaining points. It is then probable that the moon is illuminated not -as glass or crystal by the sunlight shining in and through her, nor yet -by way of accumulation of light and rays, as torches when they multiply -their light. For then we should have full moon at the beginning of the -month just as much as at the middle, if she does not conceal or block -the sun, but allows him[332] to pass through [Sidenote: C] because of -her rarity, or if he, by way of commixture, shines upon the light around -her and helps to kindle it with his own. For it is not possible to -allege any bending or swerving aside on her part at the time of her -conjunction, as we can when she is at the half, or is gibbous or -crescent. Being then “plumb opposite”, as Democritus puts it, to her -illuminant, she receives and admits the sun, so that we should expect to -see her shining herself and also allowing him to shine through her. Now -she is very far from doing this; she is herself invisible at those -times, and she often hides him out of our sight. - - _So from above for men_, - -as Empedocles says, [Sidenote: D] - - _She quenched his beams, shrouding a slice of earth - Wide as the compass of the glancing moon_; - -as though his light had fallen, not upon another star, but upon night -and darkness. - -‘The view of Posidonius, that it is because of the depth of the moon’s -body that the light of the sun is not passed through to us, is wrong on -the face of it. For the air, which is unlimited, and has a depth many -times that of the moon, is filled throughout with sunlight and -brightness. There is left then that of Empedocles, that the illumination -which we get from the moon [Sidenote: E] arises in some way from the -reflexion of the sun as he falls upon her. Hence her light reaches us -without heat or lustre, whereas we should expect both if there were a -kindling by him or a commixture of lights. But as voices return an echo -weaker than the original sound, and missiles which glance off strike -with weaker impact, - - _E’en so the ray which smote the moon’s white orb_ - -reaches us in a feeble and exhausted stream, because the force is -dispersed in the reflexion.’ - -XVII. Here Sylla broke in: ‘All these things no doubt [Sidenote: F] have -their probabilities; but the strongest point on the other side was -either explained away or it escaped our comrade’s attention; which was -it?’ - -‘What do you mean?’ said Lucius. ‘The problem of the half-moon, I -suppose?’ - -‘Precisely,’ said Sylla, ‘for as all reflexion takes place at equal -angles, there is some reason in saying that when the moon is in -mid-heaven at half-moon, the light is not carried from her on to the -earth, but glances off beyond it; for the sun, being [Sidenote: 930] on -the horizon, touches the moon with his rays, which will therefore, being -reflected at equal angles, fall on the further side and beyond us, and -will not send the light here; or else there will be a great distortion -and variation in the angle, which is impossible.’ - -‘I assure you’, said Lucius, ‘that point was mentioned also;’ and here -he glanced at Menelaus the mathematician, as he went on: ‘I am ashamed, -dear Menelaus,’ he said, ‘in your presence to upset a mathematical -assumption which is laid down as fundamental in all the Optics of -Mirrors. But I feel obliged to say’, he continued, ‘that the law which -requires reflexion in all cases to be at equal angles is neither -self-evident [Sidenote: B] nor admitted. It is impugned in the instance -of convex mirrors, when magnified images are reflected to the one point -of sight. It is impugned also in that of double mirrors, when they are -inclined towards one another so that there is an angle between them, and -each surface returns a double image from one face, four images in all, -two on the right, two on the left, two from the outer parts of the -surfaces, two dimmer ones deep within the mirrors.[333] Plato[334] gives -the cause why this takes place. He has told [Sidenote: C] us that if the -mirrors be raised on either side, there is a gradual shifting of the -visual reflexion as it passes from one side to the other. If then some -images proceed directly to us, while others glance to the opposite side -of the mirrors, and are returned thence to us, it is impossible that -reflexion in all cases takes place at equal angles. They observe[335] -that these images meet in one point, and further claim that the law of -equal angles is disproved by the streams of light which actually proceed -from the moon to the earth, holding the fact to be [Sidenote: D] far -more convincing than the law. However, if we are so far to indulge the -beloved geometry as to make her a present of this law, in the first -place it may be expected to hold of mirrors which have been made -accurately smooth. But the moon has many irregularities and rough parts, -so that the rays proceeding from a large body, when they fall on -considerable eminences, are exposed to counter-illuminations and -reciprocal dispersion; the cross-light is reflected, involved, and -accumulated as though it reached us from a number of mirrors. In the -next place, even if we allow that the reflexions are produced at equal -[Sidenote: E] angles upon the actual surface of the moon, yet, when the -distance is so great, it is not impossible that the rays may be broken -in their passage, or glance around, so that the light reaches us in one -composite stream. Some go further, and show by a figure that many lights -discharge their rays along a line inclined to the hypothenuse; but it -was not possible to construct the diagram while speaking, especially -before a large audience.[336] - -XVIII. ‘Upon the whole question,’ he went on, ‘I am at a loss to see how -they bring up the half-moon against us; the point fails equally upon her -gibbous and crescent phases. For if the moon were a mass of air or fire -which the sun illuminated, [Sidenote: F] he would not have left half her -sphere always in shadow and darkness as seen by us; but even if he -touched her in his circuit only in a small point, the proper consequence -would follow, she would be affected all through, and her entire -substance changed by the light penetrating everywhere with ease. When -wine touches water on its extreme surface, or a drop of blood falls into -liquid, the whole is discoloured at once, and turned to crimson. But the -air itself, we are told, is not filled with sunshine by emanations or -beams actually mingling with it, but by a change and alteration caused -by something like a prick or touch. Now, how can they suppose that when -star touches star or light light, it does not mingle with or alter the -substance throughout, but only illuminates [Sidenote: 931] those points -which it touches superficially? The circular orbit of the sun as he -passes about the moon, which sometimes coincides with the line dividing -her visible and invisible parts, and at other times rises to right -angles with that line so as to cut those parts in two, and in turn be -cut by her, produces her gibbous and crescent phases by the varying -inclination and position of the bright part relatively to that in -shadow. This proves beyond all question that the illumination is contact -not commixture, not accumulation of light but its circumfusion. But the -fact that she is not only illuminated herself but also sends [Sidenote: -B] on the image of her brightness to us, allows us to insist the more -confidently on our theory of her substance. For reflexions do not take -place on a rarefied body, or one formed of subtle particles, nor is it -easy to conceive light rebounding from light, or fire from fire; the -body which is to produce recoil and reflexion must be heavy and dense, -that there may be impact upon it and resilience from it. To the sun -himself the air certainly allows a passage, offering no obstructions or -resistance; whereas if timber, stones, or woven stuffs be placed to meet -his light many cross rays are caused, and there is illumination all -[Sidenote: C] round them. We see the same thing in the way his light -reaches the earth. The earth does not pass his ray into a depth as water -does, nor yet throughout her whole substance as air does. Just as his -orbit passes round the moon, gradually cutting off a certain portion of -her, so a similar orbit passes round the earth, illuminating a similar -part of it and leaving another unilluminated, for the part of either -body which receives light appears to be a little larger than a -hemisphere. Allow me to speak geometrically in terms of proportion. Here -are three bodies approached by the sun’s light, earth, moon, air; we see -that the moon is illuminated like the earth, not like the air; but -bodies naturally affected in the same way by the same must be themselves -similar.’ - -XIX. When all had applauded Lucius, ‘Bravo!’ said I, [Sidenote: D] ‘a -beautiful proportion fitted to a beautiful theory; for you must not be -defrauded of your own.’ ‘In that case,’ he said, with a smile, ‘I must -employ proportion a second time, in order that we may prove the moon -like the earth, not only as being affected in the same way by the same -body, but also as producing the same effect on the same. Grant me that -no one of the phenomena relating to the sun is so like another as an -eclipse to a sunset, remembering that recent concurrence[337] of sun and -moon, which, beginning just after noon, showed us [Sidenote: E] plainly -many stars in all parts of the heavens, and produced a chill in the -temperature like that of twilight. If you have forgotten it, Theon here -will bring up Mimnermus and Cydias, and Archilochus, and Stesichorus and -Pindar[338] besides, all bewailing at eclipse time “the brightest star -stolen from the sky” [Sidenote: F] and “night with us at midday”, -speaking of the ray of the sun as “a track of darkness” and, besides all -these, Homer[339] saying that the faces of men are “bound in night and -gloom” and “the sun is perished out of the heaven”, i.e. around the -moon, and how this occurs according to Nature, “when one moon perishes -and one is born”. The remaining points have been reduced, I think, by -the accuracy of mathematical methods to the one[340] certain principle -that night is the shadow of earth, whereas an eclipse of the sun is the -shadow of the moon when it falls within our vision. When the sun sets he -is blocked from our sight by the earth; when he is eclipsed, by the -moon. [Sidenote: 932] In both cases there is overshadowing; in his -setting it is caused by the earth, in his eclipses by the moon, her -shadow intercepting our vision. From all this it is easy to draw out a -theory as to what happens. If the effect is similar, the agents are -similar; for the same effects upon the same body must be due to the same -agents. If the darkness of eclipses is not so profound, and does not -affect the atmosphere so forcibly, let us not be surprised; the bodies -which cause respectively night and eclipse are similar in nature, but -unequal in size. The Egyptians, I believe, say that the moon’s bulk is -one two-and-seventieth part of the earth’s, Anaxagoras made her as large -as Peloponnesus; but [Sidenote: B] Aristarchus[341] proves that the -diameter of the earth bears to that of the moon a ratio which is less -than sixty to nineteen, and greater than a hundred and eight to -forty-three. Hence the earth because of its size removes the sun -entirely from our sight, the obstruction is great and lasts all night; -whereas if the moon sometimes hides the sun entirely, yet the eclipse -does not last long and has no breadth; but a certain brightness is -apparent around the rim, which does not allow the shadow to be deep and -absolute. Aristotle,[342] I mean the ancient philosopher, after giving -other reasons why the moon is more [Sidenote: C] often visibly eclipsed -than the sun, adds this further one, that the sun is eclipsed by the -interposition of the moon,[343] [the moon by that of the earth and of -other bodies also.] But Posidonius gives this definition of what occurs: -an eclipse of the sun is a concurrence of the shadow of the moon with -our vision[344] ... for there is no eclipse, except to those whose view -of the sun can be intercepted by the shadow of the moon. In allowing -that the shadow of the moon reaches to us, I do not know what he has -left himself to say. There can be no shadow of a star; shadow means -absence of light, and it is the nature of light to remove shadow, not to -cause it. - -XX. ‘But tell me’, he went on, ‘what proof was mentioned [Sidenote: D] -next?’ ‘That the moon was eclipsed in the same way’, I said. ‘Thank you -for reminding me’, he said. ‘But now am I to turn at once to the -argument, assuming that you are satisfied, and allow that the moon is -eclipsed when she is caught in the shadow, or do you wish me to set out -a studied proof, with all the steps in order?’ ‘By all means,’ said -Theon, ‘let us have the proof in full. For my own part, I still somehow -need to be convinced; [Sidenote: E] I have only heard it put thus, that -when the three bodies, earth, sun, and moon, come into one straight line -eclipses occur, the earth removing the sun from the moon, or the moon -the sun from the earth; that is, the sun is eclipsed when the moon, the -moon when the earth, is in the middle of the three, the first case -happening at her conjunction, the second at the half-month.’ - -Lucius replied: ‘These are perhaps the most important points mentioned; -but first, if you will, take the additional argument drawn from the -shape of the shadow. This is a cone, such as is caused by a large -spherical body of fire or light overlapping a smaller body also -spherical. Hence in eclipses the lines which mark off the dark portions -of the moon from the bright give circular sections. For when one round -body approaches [Sidenote: F] another, the lines of mutual intersection -are invariably circular like the bodies themselves. In the second place, -I think you are aware that the first parts of the moon to be eclipsed -are those towards the East, of the sun those towards the West, -[Sidenote: 933] and the shadow of the earth moves from East to West, -that of[345] the moon on the contrary to the East. This is made clear to -the senses by the phenomena, which may be explained quite shortly. They -go to confirm our view of the cause of the eclipse. For since the sun is -eclipsed by being overtaken, the moon by meeting the body which causes -the eclipse,[346] it is likely, or rather it is necessary, that the sun -should be overtaken from behind, the moon from the front, the -obstruction beginning from the first point of contact with the -obstructing body. The moon comes up with the sun from the West as she -races against him, the earth from the East because it is moving from the -opposite direction. As a third point, I will ask you to [Sidenote: B] -notice the duration and the magnitude of her eclipses. If she is -eclipsed when high up and far from the earth, she is hidden for a short -time; if near the earth and low down when the same thing happens to her, -she is firmly held and emerges slowly out of the shadow; and yet when -she is low her speed is greatest, when high it is least. The cause of -the difference lies in the shadow; for being broadest about the base, -like all cones, and tapering gradually, it ends in a sharp, fine head. -Hence, if the moon be low when she meets the shadow, she is caught in -the largest circles of the cone, and crosses its most profound and -darkest part; if high, she dips as into a shallow pond, because the -shadow is thin, and quickly makes her way out. [Sidenote: C] I omit the -points of detail mentioned as to bases and permeations, which can also -be rationally explained as far as the subject-matter allows. I go back -to the theory put before us founded on our senses. We see that fire -shines through more visibly and more brightly out of a place in shadow, -whether because of the density of the darkened air, which does not allow -it to stream off and be dispersed, but holds its substance compressed -where it is, or whether this is an affection of our senses; as hot -things are hotter when contrasted with cold, and pleasures are more -intense by contrast with pains, so bright things stand out more clearly -by the side of dark, setting the imagination on the alert by the -contrast. The former cause appears the more [Sidenote: D] probable, for -in the light of the sun everything in the nature of fire not only loses -its brightness, but is outmatched and becomes inactive and blunted, -since the sun’s heat scatters and dissipates its power. If then the moon -possess a faint, feeble fire, being a star of somewhat turbid substance, -as the Stoics themselves say, none of the effects which she now exhibits -ought to follow, but the opposite in all respects; she ought to appear -when she is now hidden, and be hidden when she now appears; be hidden, -that is, all the time while she is dimmed by the surrounding [Sidenote: -E] atmosphere, but shine brightly out at intervals of six months, or -occasionally at intervals of five, when she passes under the shadow of -the earth. (For of the 465 full moons at eclipse intervals, 404 give -periods of six months, the remainder periods of five.) At such intervals -then the moon ought to appear shining brightly in the shadow. But, as a -fact, she is eclipsed and loses her light in the shadow, and recovers it -when she has cleared the shadow; also she is often seen by day, which -shows that she is anything but a fiery or starlike body.’ - -[Sidenote: F] XXI. When Lucius had said this, Pharnaces and Apollonides -sprang forward together to oppose. Apollonides made way to Pharnaces, -who observed that this is a very strong proof that the moon is a star or -fire; for she does not disappear entirely in eclipses, but shows through -with a grim ashy hue peculiar to herself. Apollonides objected to the -word ‘shadow’, a term always applied by mathematicians to a region which -is not [Sidenote: 934] lighted, whereas the heavens admit of no shadow. -‘This objection’, I said, ‘is contentious, and addressed to the name, -not to the thing in any physical or mathematical sense. If any one -should prefer to call the region blocked by the earth not “shadow”, but -“an unlighted place”, it is still necessarily true that the moon when it -reaches that region is darkened. It is merely childish’, I went on, ‘not -to allow that the shadow of the earth reaches it, since we know that the -shadow of the moon, falling upon the sight and reaching to the earth, -causes an [Sidenote: B] eclipse of the sun. I will now turn to you, -Pharnaces. That ashy charred colour in the moon, which you say is -peculiar to her, belongs to a body which has density and depth. For no -remnant or trace of flame will remain in rarefied bodies, nor can -burning matter come into existence, without a substantial body, deep -enough to allow of ignition and to maintain it, as Homer[347] has -somewhere said: - - _When fire’s red flower was flown, and spent the flames, - Which smoothed the embers._ - -For burning matter is evidently not fire but a body submitted to fire, -and altered by it, which fire is attached to a solid stable mass and is -permanent there, whereas flames are the kindling [Sidenote: C] and -streaming away of rarefied fuel which is quickly dissolved because it is -weak. - -‘Thus no such clear proof could exist that the moon is earth-like and -dense, as this cinder-like colour, if it really were her own proper -colour. But it is not so, dear Pharnaces; in the course of an eclipse -she goes through many changes of complexion, and scientific men divide -these accordingly by time and hour. If she is eclipsed at early evening, -she appears strangely black till three and a half hours have elapsed; if -at midnight, she emits that red and flame-like hue over her surface -which we know; after seven and a half hours the redness begins to be -removed, and at last towards dawn she takes a bluish or light-grey hue, -[Sidenote: D] which is the real reason why poets and Empedocles invoke -her as “grey-eyed”. Now, people who see the moon assume so many hues as -she passes through the shadow do wrong in fastening upon one, the -cinder-like, which may be called the one most foreign to her, being -rather an admixture and remnant of light which shines round her through -the shadows, than her own peculiar complexion, which is black and -earth-like. But whereas we see on our earth that places in shadow which -are near purple or scarlet cloths, or near lakes, or rivers open to the -sun, partake in the brilliance of these colours and offer many varied -splendours because of the reflexions, what wonder [Sidenote: E] if a -great stream of shadow, falling upon a celestial sea of light, not -stable or calm but agitated by myriads of stars and admitting of -combinations and changes of every kind, presents to us different colours -at different times impressed on it by the moon? For a star or a fire -could not show when in shadow as black or grey or blue. But our hills -and plains and seas are coursed over by many-coloured shapes coming from -the sun and [Sidenote: F] by shadows also and mists, resembling the hues -produced by white light over a painter’s pigments. For those seen on the -sea Homer has endeavoured to find such names as he could, as “violet” -for the sea, and “wine-dark” and again “purple wave”, and elsewhere -“grey sea” and “white calm”. But the varying colours which appear on -land at different times he has passed over as being infinite in number. -Now, it is not likely that the moon has one surface as the sea has, but -rather that she resembles in substance the earth, of which Socrates[348] -[Sidenote: 935] of old used to tell the legend, whether he hinted at the -moon, or meant some other body. For it is nothing incredible or -wonderful if, having nothing corrupt or muddy in her, but enjoying light -from heaven, and being stored with a heat not burning or furious, but -mild and harmless and natural, she possesses regions of marvellous -beauty, hills clear as flame, and belts of purple, her gold and silver -not dispersed within her depths, but flowering forth on the plains in -plenty, or set [Sidenote: B] around smooth eminences. Now, if a varying -view of these reaches us from time to time through the shadow, owing to -some change and shifting of the surrounding air, surely the moon does -not lose her honour or her fame, nor yet her Divinity, when she is held -by men to be holy earth of a sort and not, as the Stoics say, fire which -is turbid, mere dregs of fire. Fire is honoured in barbarous fashions by -the Medes and Assyrians, who fear what injures them, and pay observance -or rites of propitiation to that, rather than to what they revere. But -the name of earth, we know, is dear and honourable to every Greek, we -reverence her as our fathers did, like any other God. But, being men, we -are very far from thinking of the moon, that [Sidenote: C] Olympian -earth, as a body without soul or mind, having no share in things which -we duly offer as first-fruits to the Gods, taught by usage to pay them a -return for the goods they give us, and by Nature to reverence that which -is above ourselves in virtue and power and honour. Let us not then think -that we offend in holding that she is an earth, and that this her -visible face, just like our earth with its great gulfs, is folded back -into great depths and clefts containing water or murky air, which the -light of the sun fails to penetrate or touch, but is obscured, and sends -back its reflexion here in shattered fragments.’ - -XXII. Here Apollonides broke in: ‘Then in the name of [Sidenote: D] the -moon herself,’ he said, ‘do you think it possible that shadows are -thrown there by any clefts or gullies, and from thence reach our sight, -or do you not calculate what follows, and am I to tell you? Pray hear me -out, though you know it all. The diameter of the moon shows an apparent -breadth of twelve fingers at her mean distance from us. Now, each of -those black shadowy objects appears larger than half a finger, and is -therefore more than a twenty-fourth part of the diameter. [Sidenote: E] -Very well; if we were to assume the circumference of the moon to be only -thirty thousand stades, and the diameter ten thousand, on that -assumption each of these shadowy objects on her would be not less than -five hundred stades. Now, consider first whether it be possible for the -moon to have depths and eminences sufficient to cause a shadow of that -size. Next, if they are so large, how is it that we do not see them?’ - -At this, I smiled on him and said, ‘Well done, Apollonides, to have -found out such a demonstration! By it you will prove that you and I too -are greater than the Aloades[349] of old, not [Sidenote: F] at any time -of day, however, but in early morning for choice, and late afternoon; -when the sun makes our shadows prodigious, and thereby presents to our -sense the splendid inference, that if the shadow thrown be great, the -object which throws it is enormous. Neither of us, I am sure, has ever -been in Lemnos, but we have both heard the familiar line,[350] - - _Athos the Lemnian heifer’s flank shall shade._ - -For the shadow of the cliff falls, it seems, on a certain brazen -[Sidenote: 936] heifer over a stretch of sea of not less than seven -hundred stades. Will you think then that the height which casts the -shadow is the cause, forgetting that distance of the light from objects -makes their shadows many times longer? Now consider the sun at his -greatest distance from the moon, when she is at the full, and shows the -features of the face most expressly because of the depth of the shadow; -it is the mere distance of the light which has made the shadow large, -not the size of the several [Sidenote: B] irregularities on the moon. -Again, in full day the extreme brightness of the sun’s rays does not -allow the tops of mountains to be seen, but deep and hollow places -appear from a long distance, as also do those in shadow. There is -nothing strange then if it is not possible to see precisely how the moon -too is caught by the light, and illuminated, and yet if we do see by -contrast where the parts in shadow lie near the bright parts. - -XXIII. ‘But here’, said I, ‘is a better point to disprove the alleged -reflexion from the moon; it is found that those who stand in reflected -rays, not only see the illuminated but also the illuminating body. For -instance, when light from water [Sidenote: C] leaps on to a wall, and -the eye is placed in the spot so illuminated by reflexion, it sees the -three objects, the reflected rays, the water which caused the reflexion, -and the sun himself, from whom proceeds the light so falling on the -water and reflected. All this being granted and apparent, people require -those who contend that the earth receives the moon’s light by reflexion, -to point out the sun appearing in the moon at night, as he appears in -the water by day when he is reflected off it. Then, as he does not so -appear, they suppose that the illumination is caused by some process -other than reflexion, and that, failing reflexion, [Sidenote: D] the -moon is no earth.’ - -‘What answer then is to be given to them?’ said Apollonides, ‘for the -difficulty about reflexion seems to apply equally to us.’ ‘Equally no -doubt in one sense,’ I answered, ‘but in another sense not at all so. -First look at the details of the simile, how “topsy turvy”[351] it is, -rivers flowing up stream! The water is below and on earth, the moon is -above the earth and poised aloft. So the angles of reflexion are -differently formed; in the one case the apex is above in the moon, in -the other below on the earth. They should not then require that mirrors -should produce every image and like reflexions at any distance, since -[Sidenote: E] they are fighting against clear fact. But from those like -ourselves who seek to show that the moon is not a fine smooth substance -like water, but heavy and earth-like, it is strange to ask for a visible -appearance of the sun in her. Why, milk does not return such mirrored -images, nor produce optical reflexion, the reason being the unevenness -and roughness of its parts. How can the moon possibly send back the -vision off [Sidenote: F] herself as the smoother mirrors do? We know -that even in these, if any scratch or speck or roughness is found at the -point from which the vision is naturally reflected it is obscured; the -blemishes are seen, but they do not return the light. A man who requires -that she should either turn our vision back to the sun, or else not -reflect the sun from herself to us, is a humorist; he wants our eye to -be the sun, the image light, man heaven! That the reflexion of the sun’s -light conveyed to the moon with the impact of his intense brilliance -should be borne back to us is reasonable enough, whereas our sight is -weak and slight and merely fractional. What wonder if it deliver a -stroke which has no resilience, or, if it does rebound, no continuity, -but is broken up and fails, having no store of light to make up for -dispersion about the rough and uneven [Sidenote: 937] places. For it is -not impossible that the reflexion should rebound to the sun from water -and other mirrors, being still strong and near its point of origin; -whereas from the moon, even if there are glancings of a sort, yet they -will be weak and dim, and will fail by the way because of the long -distance. Another point: concave mirrors return the reflected light in -greater strength than the original, and thus often produce [Sidenote: B] -flames; convex and spherical mirrors one which is weak and dim, because -the pressure is not returned from all parts of the surface. You have -seen, no doubt, how when two rainbows appear, one cloud enfolding -another, the enveloping bow shows the colours dim and indistinct, for -the outer cloud lying further from the eye does not return the reflexion -in strength or intensity. But enough! Whereas the light of the sun -reflected from the moon loses its heat entirely, and only a scanty and -ineffectual remnant of its brilliance reaches us, do you really think it -possible that when sight has the double course to travel, [Sidenote: C] -any remnant whatever should reach the sun from the moon? No! say I. Look -for yourselves’, I went on. ‘If the effects of the water and of the moon -on our sight were the same, the full moon ought to show us images of -earth and plants and men and stars, as other mirrors do. If, on the -other hand, our vision is never carried back on to these objects, -whether because of its own feebleness or of the roughness of the moon’s -surface, then let us never demand that it should be carried by reflexion -on to the sun. - -XXIV. ‘We have now’, I said, ‘reported all that was said then, and has -not escaped our memory. It is time to call on Sylla, or rather to claim -his story, as he was allowed to be a listener on terms. So, if it meet -your approval, let us cease our walk, and take our places on the benches -and give him a seated [Sidenote: D] audience.’ This was at once agreed, -and we had taken our seats, when Theon said: ‘I want as much as any of -you, Lamprias, to hear what is now to be said, but first I should like -to hear about the alleged dwellers in the moon, not whether there are -any such, I mean, but whether there can be; for if the thing is -impossible, then it is also absurd that the moon should be an earth; it -will appear that she has been created for no end or use, if she bears no -fruit, offers no abode to human beings, no existence, no livelihood, the -very things for which we say that she has been created, in Plato’s[352] -words, “our nurse, and of [Sidenote: E] day and night the unswerving -guardian and maker”. You see that many things are said about this, some -in jest, some seriously. For instance, that the moon hangs poised over -the heads of those who dwell beneath her, as if they were so many -Tantali; while as for those who dwell on her, they are lashed on like -Ixions by the tremendous speed. Yet hers is not a single motion, but, as -[Sidenote: F] it is somewhere put, she is a Goddess of the Three Ways. -She moves in longitude over the Zodiac, in latitude, and in depth; one -movement is revolution, another a spiral, the third is strangely named -“Anomaly” by scientific men, although there is nothing irregular or -confused to be seen in her returns to her stations. Therefore it is no -wonder if a lion[353] did once fall on to Peloponnesus, owing to the -velocity; the wonder is that we do not see every day - - _Fallings of men, lives trampled to the dust_,[354] - -men tumbling off through the air and turning somersaults. Yet [Sidenote: -938] it is ridiculous to raise a discussion about their remaining there, -if they can neither come into being nor subsist at all. When we see -Egyptians and Troglodytes, over whose heads the sun stands for the space -of one brief day at the solstice and then passes on, all but shrivelled -up by the dryness of the air around them, is it likely, I ask you, that -people in the moon can endure twelve summers in each year, the sun -standing plumb straight above them at every full moon? Then as to winds -and clouds and [Sidenote: B] showers, without which plants can neither -receive nor maintain existence, it is out of the question to conceive of -their being formed, because the surrounding atmosphere is too hot and -too rare. For even here the highest mountain tops do not get our fierce -and conflicting storms, the air being already in turmoil from its -lightness escapes any such condensation. Or are we really to say that, -as Athena dropped a little nectar and ambrosia into Achilles’ mouth when -he was refusing nourishment, even so the moon, who is called and who is -Athena,[355] feeds man by sending up ambrosia day by day, in which form -old Pherecydes [Sidenote: C] thinks that the Gods take food! For as to -that Indian root, of which Megasthenes tells us that men, who neither -eat nor drink but are without mouths,[356] burn a little, and make a -smoke, and are nourished by the smells, how is it to be found growing -there if there is no rain on the moon?’ - -XXV. When Theon had finished: ‘Well and kindly done,’ I said, ‘to unbend -our brows by your witty argument; it makes us bold in reply, since we -have no very harsh or severe criticism to expect. It is a true saying -that there is little to choose between those who are vehemently -convinced in such matters and those who are vehemently offended at them -and incredulous, and will not look quietly into the possibilities. To -begin, supposing that men do not inhabit the moon, it does not follow -[Sidenote: D] that she has come into being just for nothing. Why, our -earth, as we see, is not in active use or inhabited in her whole extent; -but a small part of her only, mere promontories or peninsulas which -emerge from the abyss, is fertile in animals and plants; of the other -parts, some are desert and unfruitful owing to storms and droughts, -while most are sunk under the ocean. But you, lover and admirer of -Aristarchus that you are, do not attend to Crates and his reading: - - _Ocean, the birth and being of us all, - Both men and Gods, covers the most of earth._[357] - -‘However, this is a long way from saying that all has been brought into -being for nothing. The sea sends up soft exhalations, [Sidenote: E] and -delightful breezes in midsummer heat; from the uninhabited and icebound -land snows quietly melt which open and fertilize all; earth stands in -the midst, in Plato’s[358] words, “unswerving guardian and maker of day -and night”. Nothing then prevents the moon too, though barren of animal -life, from allowing the light around her to be reflected and to stream -[Sidenote: F] about, and the rays of the stars to flow together and to -be united within her; thus she combines and digests the vapours -proceeding from earth, and at the same time gets rid of what is -scorching and violent in the sun’s heat. And here we will make bold to -yield a point to ancient legend, and to say that she has been held to be -Artemis, a maiden and no mother, but in other ways helpful and -serviceable. For, surely, nothing which has been said, dear Theon, -proves it to be impossible that she is inhabited in the way alleged. For -her revolution is one very gentle and calm; which smoothes the air, and -duly [Sidenote: 939] blends and distributes it, so that there is no fear -of those who have lived there falling or slipping off her. If not this, -neither are the changes and variety of her orbit due to anomaly or -confusion, but astronomers make us see a marvellous order and progress -in it all, as they confine her within circles which roll around other -circles, according to some not herself stirring, according to others -moving gently and evenly and with uniform speeds. For these circles and -revolutions, and their relations to one another, and to us, work out -with very great accuracy the phenomena of her varying height and depth -and her [Sidenote: B] passages in latitude as well as in longitude. As -to the great heat and continuous charring caused by the sun, you will no -longer fear these if you will set against the [eleven][359] summer -conjunctions the full-moons, and the continuity of the change, which -does not allow extremes to last long, tempering both extremes, and -producing a convenient temperature, while between the two the -inhabitants enjoy a climate nearly resembling our spring. In the next -place, the sun sends down to us, and drives home through her thick and -resisting atmosphere, heat fed [Sidenote: C] by exhalations; but there a -fine and transparent air scatters and distributes the stream of light, -which has no body or fuel beneath it. As to woods and crops, here where -we live they are nourished by rains, but in other places, as far up as -round your Thebes and Syene, the earth drinks water which comes out of -herself, not from rain; it enjoys winds and dews, and would not, I -think, thank us for comparing it in fruitfulness with our own, even -where the rainfall is heaviest. With us, plants of the same order, if -severely pinched by winter frosts, [Sidenote: D] bring forth much -excellent fruit, while in Libya, and with you in Egypt, they bear cold -very badly and shrink from the winters. Again, while Gedrosia, and -Troglodytis which reaches down to ocean, are unproductive and treeless -in all parts because of the drought, yet, in the adjacent and -surrounding sea, plants grow to a marvellous size and luxuriate in its -depths; some of these called “olive-trees”, some “laurels”, some “hair -of Isis”. But the “love-come-back” as it is called, if taken out of the -earth, not only lives when hung up for as long as you please, but also -sprouts. Some are sown close on [Sidenote: E] to winter, some in the -height of summer, sesame or millet for instance; thyme or centaury, if -sown in a good rich soil and watered, changes its qualities and -strength; both rejoice in drought and reach their proper growth in it. -But if, as is said, like most Arabian plants, they do not endure even -dews, but fade and perish when moistened, what wonder, I ask, if roots -and seeds and trees grow on the moon which need no rains or snows, but -are fitted by Nature for a light and summer-like atmosphere? Why, again, -may it not be probable that breezes ascend warmed by the moon and by the -whirl of her revolution, and that she is accompanied by quiet breezes, -which shed dews and moisture around, and when [Sidenote: F] distributed -suffice for the grown plants, her own climate being neither fiery nor -dried up, but mild and engendering moisture. For no touch of dryness -reaches us from her, but many effects of moisture and fertility, as -increase of plants, putrefaction of flesh, turning of wine to flatness, -softening of wood, easy delivery to women. I am afraid of stirring -Pharnaces to the fray [Sidenote: 940] again, now that he is quiet, if I -enumerate as cases of restoring moisture the tides of the ocean (as his -own school describes them), and the fillings of gulfs when their flood -is augmented by the moon. So I will rather turn to you, dear Theon, for -you told us in explaining these words of Alcman,[360] - - _Dew feeds them, born of Zeus and Lady Moon_, - -that here he calls the atmosphere Zeus, and says that it is liquefied -and turned into dew by the moon. Probably, my friend, her nature is -opposite to the sun’s, since not only does he naturally consolidate and -dry things which she softens and [Sidenote: B] disperses, but she also -liquefies and cools his heat, as it falls upon her from him, and mingles -with herself. Certainly they are in error who hold that the moon is a -fiery and charred body; and those who require for animals there all the -things which they have here, seem to lack eyes for the inequalities of -Nature, since it is possible to find greater and more numerous -divergencies and dissimilarities between animals and animals than -between them and the inanimate world. And grant that men without mouths -and nourished on smells are not to be found—I do not [Sidenote: C] think -they are—, but the potency which Ammonius himself used to expound to us -has been hinted at by Hesiod[361] in the line - - _Nor yet in mallow and in asphodel - How great the virtue._ - -But Epimenides made it plain in actual experience, teaching that Nature -always keeps the fire of life in the animal with but little fuel, for if -it get as much as the size of an olive, it needs no more sustenance. Now -men in the moon, if men there be, are compactly framed, we may believe, -and capable of being nourished on what they get; for the moon herself -they say, [Sidenote: D] like the sun who is a fiery body many times -larger than the earth, is nourished on the humours coming from the -earth, as are the other stars too in their infinite numbers. Light, like -them, and simple in their needs, may we conceive those animals to be -which the upper region produces. We do not see such animals, nor yet do -we see that they require a different region, nature, climate. Supposing -that we were unable to approach the sea or touch it, but merely caught -views of it in the distance, [Sidenote: E] and were told that its water -is bitter and undrinkable and briny, and then some one said that it -supports in its depths many great animals with all sorts of shapes, and -is full of monsters, to all of whom water is as air to us, he would seem -to be making up a parcel of fairy tales; just so is it with us, it -seems, and such is our attitude towards the moon, when we refuse to -believe that she has men dwelling on her. Her inhabitants, I think, must -wonder still more greatly at this earth, a sort of sediment and slime of -the universe appearing through damps, and mists, and clouds, a place -unlighted, low, motionless; and must ask whether it breeds and supports -animals with motion, respiration [Sidenote: F] and warmth. And if they -should anyhow have a chance of hearing those lines of Homer:[362] - - _Grim mouldy regions which e’en Gods abhor_, - -and— - - _‘Neath hell so far as earth below high heaven_,[363] - -they will say they are written about a place exactly such as this, and -that Hades is a colony planted here, and Tartarus, and that there is -only one earth—the moon—being midway between the upper regions and these -lower ones.’ - -XXVI. I had scarcely finished speaking when Sylla broke in: ‘Stop, -Lamprias, and shut the door on your oratory, lest you run my myth -aground before you know it, and make confusion of my drama, which -requires another stage and a different setting. Now, I am only its -actor, but I will first, if you see no objection, name the poet, -beginning in Homer’s[364] words: [Sidenote: 941] - - _Far o’er the brine an isle Ogygian lies_, - -distant from Britain five days’ sail to the West. There are three other -islands equidistant from Britain and from one another, in the general -direction of the sun’s summer setting. The natives have a story that in -one of these Cronus has been [Sidenote: B] confined by Zeus, but that -he, having a son for gaoler,[365] has been settled beyond those islands -and the sea, which they call the Gulf of Cronus. To the great continent -by which the ocean is fringed is a voyage of about five thousand stades, -made in row-boats, from Ogygia, of less from the other islands, the sea -being slow of passage and full of mud because of the number of streams -which the great mainland discharges, forming alluvial tracts and making -the sea heavy like land, whence an opinion prevailed that it was -actually frozen. The coasts of the mainland are inhabited by Greeks -living around a bay as large as the Maeotic, with its mouth nearly -opposite that of the Caspian [Sidenote: C] Sea. These Greeks speak of -themselves as continental, and of those who inhabit our land as -islanders, because it is washed all round by the sea. They think that -those who came with Hercules and were left behind by him, mingled later -on with the subjects of Cronus, and rekindled, so to speak, the Hellenic -life which was becoming extinguished and overborne by barbarian -languages, laws, and ways of life, and so it again became strong and -vigorous. Thus the first honours are paid to Hercules, the second to -Cronus. When the star of Cronus, called by us the Shining One, by them, -as he told us, the Night Watcher, has reached Taurus again after an -interval of thirty years, having for a long time before made preparation -for [Sidenote: D] the sacrifice and the voyage, they send forth men -chosen by lot in as many ships as are required, putting on board all the -supplies and stuff for the great rowing voyage before them, and for a -long sojourn in a strange land. They put out, and naturally do not all -fare alike; but those who come safely out of the perils of the sea land -first on the outlying islands, which are inhabited by Greeks, and day -after day, for thirty days, see the sun hidden for less than one hour. -This is the night, with a darkness which is slight and of a twilight -hue, and has a light over it from the West. There they spend ninety -days, [Sidenote: E] meeting with honourable and kindly treatment, and -being addressed as holy persons, after which they pass on, now with help -from the winds. There are no inhabitants except themselves, and those -who have been sent before them. For those who have joined in the service -of the God for thirty years are allowed to sail back home, but most -prefer to settle quietly in the place where they are, some because they -have grown used to it, some because all things are there in plenty -without pain or trouble, while their life is passed in sacrifices and -festivals, or given to literature or Philosophy. For the natural beauty -[Sidenote: F] of the isle is wonderful, and the mildness of the -environing air. Some, when they are of a mind to sail away, are actually -prevented by the God, who manifests himself to them as to familiars and -friends, not in dreams only or by signs, for many meet with shapes and -voices of spirits, openly seen and heard. Cronus himself sleeps within a -deep cave resting on rock which looks like gold, this sleep being -devised for him by Zeus in place of chains. Birds fly in at the topmost -part of the rock, and bear him ambrosia, and the whole island is -pervaded by the fragrance shed from the rock as out of a well. The -spirits of whom we hear serve and care for Cronus, having been his -comrades in [Sidenote: 942] the time when he was really king over Gods -and men. Many are the utterances which they give forth of their own -prophetic power, but the greatest and most important they announce when -they come down as dreams of Cronus; for the things which Zeus -premeditates, Cronus dreams, when sleep has stayed[366] the Titanic -motions and stirrings of the soul within him, and that which is royal -and divine alone remains, pure and unalloyed. [Sidenote: B] - -‘Now the stranger, having been received here, as he told us, and serving -the God at his leisure, attained as much skill in astronomy as is -attainable by the most advanced geometry; of other Philosophy he applied -himself to the physical branches. Then, having a strange desire and -yearning to see “the Great Island” (for so it appears they call our -world), when the thirty years were passed, and the relief parties -arrived from home, he said farewell to his friends and sailed forth, -carrying a complete equipment of all kinds, and abundant store of -provision for the way in golden beakers. All the adventures which befell -him, and all the men whose lands he visited, how he met with [Sidenote: -C] holy writings and was initiated into all the mysteries, it would take -more than one day to enumerate as he did, well and carefully and with -all details. Listen now to those which concern our present discussion. -He spent a very long time in Carthage.[367]... He there discovered -certain sacred parchments which had been secretly withdrawn when the -older city was destroyed, and had lain a long time in the earth -unnoticed; and he said that of all the Gods who appear to us we ought -specially to honour the moon with all our substance (and so he charged -me to do), because she was most potent in our life. - -XXVII. ‘When I marvelled at this, and asked for clearer [Sidenote: D] -statements, he went on: “Many tales, Sylla, are told among the Greeks -about the Gods, but not all are well told. For instance, about Demeter -and Cora, they are right in their names, but wrong in supposing that -they both belong to the same region; for the latter is on earth, and has -power over earthly things, the former is in the moon and is concerned -with things of the moon. The moon has been called both Cora and -Persephone, Persephone because she gives light, Cora because we also use -the same Greek word for the pupil of the eye, in which the image of the -beholder flashes back, as the sunbeam is seen in the moon. In the -stories told about [Sidenote: E] their wanderings and the search there -is an element of truth. They yearn for one another when parted, and -often embrace in shadow. And what is told of Cora, that she is sometimes -in heaven and in light, and again in night and darkness, is no untruth, -only time has brought error into the numbers; for it is not during six -months, but at intervals of six months, [Sidenote: F] that we see her -received by the earth, as by a mother, in the shadow, and more rarely at -intervals of five months; for to leave Hades is impossible to her, who -is herself a ‘bound of Hades’, as Homer[368] well hints in the words, - - _Now to Elysian plains, earth’s utmost bound._ - -For where the shadow of the earth rests in its passage, there Homer -placed the limit and boundary of earth. To that limit comes no man that -is bad or impure, but the good after death are conveyed thither, and -pass a most easy life, not, however, one blessed or divine until the -second death.”‘ - -XXVIII. ‘But what is that, Sylla?’ ‘Ask me not of these things, for I am -going to tell you fully myself. The common [Sidenote: 943] view that man -is a composite creature is correct, but it is not correct that he is -composed of two parts only. For they suppose that mind is in some sense -a part of soul, which is as great a mistake as to think that soul is a -part of body; mind is as much better a thing and more divine than soul, -as soul is than body. Now the union of soul with body makes up the -passion or emotion, the further union with mind produces reason; the -former is the origin of pleasure and pain, the latter of virtue and -vice. When these three principles have been compacted, the earth -contributes body to the birth of man, the moon soul, the sun reason, -just as he contributes her light to the moon. The death which we die is -of two kinds; the one [Sidenote: B] makes man two out of three, the -other makes him one out of two; the one takes place in the earth which -is the realm of Demeter, and is initiation unto her,[369] so that the -Athenians used in ancient times to call the dead “Demetrians”, the other -is in the moon, and is of Persephone; Hermes is the associate on earth -of the one, of the other in heaven. Demeter parts soul from body quickly -and with force; Persephone parts mind from soul gently and very slowly, -and therefore has been called[370] “Of the Birth to Unity”, for the best -part of man is left in oneness, when separated by her. Each process -happens according to [Sidenote: C] Nature, as thus: It is appointed that -every soul, irrational or rational, when it has quitted the body, should -wander in the region between earth and moon, but not all for an equal -time; unjust and unchaste souls pay penalties for their wrongdoings; but -the good must for a certain appointed time, sufficient to purge away and -blow to the winds, as noxious exhalations, defilements from the body, -which is their vicious cause, be in that mildest part of the air which -they call “The Meadows of Hades”; then they return as from long and -distant exile back to their country, they taste [Sidenote: D] such joy -as men feel here who are initiated, joy mingled with much amazement and -trouble, yet also with a hope which is each man’s own. For many who are -already grasping at the moon she pushes off and washes away, and some -even of those souls which are already there and are turning round to -look below are seen to be plunged again into the abyss. But those which -have passed above, and have found firm footing, first go round like -victors wreathed with crowns of feathers called “crowns of constancy”, -because they kept the irrational part of the soul obedient to the curb -of reason, and well ordered in life. Then with countenance like a -sunbeam, and soul borne lightly upwards by fire, as here, namely that of -the air about [Sidenote: E] the moon, they receive tone and force from -it, as iron takes an edge in its bath; for that which is still volatile -and diffuse is strengthened and becomes firm and transparent, so that -they are nourished by such vapour as meets them, and well did -Heraclitus[371] say that “Souls feed on smell in Hades.” - -XXIX. First they look on the moon herself, her size, her beauty, and her -nature, which is not single or unmixed, but as it were a composition of -earth and star. For as the earth has become soft by being mixed with air -and moisture, and as the blood infused into the flesh produces -sensibility, so the moon, they say, being mingled with air through all -her depth, is endowed with soul and with fertility, and at the same time -[Sidenote: F] receives a balance, lightness set against weight. Even so -the universe itself, duly framed together of things having some an -upward tendency, some a downward, is freed from all movement of place. -This Xenocrates apprehended, it would seem, by some divine reasoning, -having received the suggestion from Plato. For it is Plato[372] who -showed that every star has been compounded of earth and fire by means of -intermediate natures given in proportion, since nothing reaches the -senses into which earth and light do not enter. But Xenocrates says that -the stars and the sun are compounded out of fire and the [Sidenote: 944] -first density, the moon out of the second density and her own air, and -earth out of water, fire, and the third density; and that as an -universal law, neither the dense alone nor the rarefied alone is capable -of receiving soul. So much then for the substance of the moon. But her -breadth and bulk are not what geometricians say, but many times greater. -The reason why she but seldom measures the shadow of the earth with -[three of] her own diameters, is not its smallness, but her heat, -whereby she increases her speed that she may swiftly pass through and -beyond the dark region, bearing from out it the souls of the good, as -they hasten and cry aloud, for being in the shadow they no longer hear -the harmony of heaven. At the same [Sidenote: B] time there are borne up -from below through the shadow the souls of those who are to be punished, -with wailing and loud cries. Hence comes the widespread custom of -clanking vessels of brass during eclipses, with a din and a clatter to -reach the souls. Also the face, as we call it, terrifies them, when they -are near, so grim and weird is it to their sight. Really it is nothing -of the kind; but as our earth has gulfs deep and great, one here which -streams inwards towards us from the Pillars of Hercules, [Sidenote: C] -outwards the Caspian, and those about the Red Sea, even such are those -depths and hollows of the moon. The largest of them they call the Gulf -of Hecate, where the souls endure and exact retribution for all the -things which they have suffered or done ever since they became spirits; -two of them are long, through which the souls pass, now to the parts of -the moon which are turned toward heaven, now back to the side next to -earth. The parts of the moon toward heaven are called “the Elysian -plain”, those toward earth “the plain of Persephone Antichthon”. - -XXX. ‘However, the spirits do not pass all their time upon her, they -come down here to superintend oracles, take part [Sidenote: D] in the -highest rites of initiation and mysteries, become guardian avengers of -wrongdoing, and shine forth as saving lights in war and on the sea. In -these functions, whatever they do in a way which is not right, from -anger or to win unrighteous favour, or in jealousy, they suffer for it, -being thrust down to earth again and imprisoned in human bodies. From -the better of them, the attendants of Cronus said that they are -themselves sprung, as in earlier times the Dactyli of Ida, the -Corybantes [Sidenote: E] in Phrygia, the Trophoniades in Udora of -Boeotia, and countless others in many parts of the inhabited world; -whose temples and houses and appellations remain to this day. Some there -are whose powers are failing because they have passed to another place -by an honourable exchange. This happens to some sooner, to others later, -when mind has been separated from soul; the separation comes by love for -the image which is in the sun; through it there shines upon them that -desirable, beautiful, divine, and blessed presence for which all Nature -yearns, yet in different ways. For it is through love of the sun that -the moon [Sidenote: F] herself makes her circuit, and has her meetings -with him to receive from him all fertility. That Nature which is the -soul remains on the moon, preserving traces and dreams of the former -life, and of it you may take it that it has been rightly said: - - _Winged as a dream the soul takes flight away._[373] - -Not at the first, and not when it is quit of the body does this happen -to it, but afterwards when it becomes deserted and solitary, set free -from mind. Of all that Homer has told us I think that there is nothing -more divine than where he speaks of those in Hades: - - _Next was I ware of mighty Hercules, - His ghost—himself among the immortals dwells._[374] - -For the self of each of us is not courage, nor fear, nor desire, any -more than it is a parcel of flesh and of humours; it is that whereby we -understand and think. The soul being shaped by [Sidenote: 945] the mind -and itself shaping the body and encompassing it upon all sides, stamps -its form upon it, so that even if it is separated from both for a long -time, yet it possesses the likeness and the stamp, and is rightly called -an image. Of these, the moon, as has been said, is the element, for they -are resolved into her just as are the bodies of the dead into earth; the -temperate speedily, those who embraced a life of quiet and Philosophy; -for, having been set free by mind, and having no further use for the -passions, they wither away. But of the ambitious, [Sidenote: B] and -active, and sensuous, and passionate, some are distracted as though in -sleep, dreaming out their memories of life, as the soul of Endymion; but -when their restless and susceptible nature starts them out of the moon -and draws them to another birth, she does not suffer it, but draws them -back and soothes them. For no trifling matter is it, nor quiet, nor -conventional, when in the absence of mind, they get them a body by -passionate endeavour; Tityi and Typhones, and that Typhon who seized -Delphi and confounded the oracle there by insolence and force, came of -such souls as these, deserted by reason, and left to the [Sidenote: C] -wild wanderings of their emotional part. But in course of time the moon -receives even these unto herself and brings them to order; then, when -the sun again sows mind, she receives it with vital power and makes new -souls, and, thirdly, earth provides a body; for earth gives nothing -after death of what she received for birth; the sun receives nothing, -save that he receives back the mind which he gives, but the moon both -receives and gives, and compounds, and distributes in diverse functions; -she who compounds has Ilithyia for her name, she who distributes, -Artemis. And of the three Fates Atropus has her station about the sun -and gives the first impulse of generation; Clotho moving about the moon -combines and mingles, lastly Lachesis, upon the earth, lends her hand, -and she has most to do with Fortune; for that which is without soul is -powerless in itself and is affected by others, mind is free from -affection and sovereign; soul a compound and a middle [Sidenote: D] -term, has, like the moon, been formed by the God, a blend and mixture of -things above and things below, and thus bears the same relation to the -sun which the earth does to the moon.’ - -‘Such’, said Sylla, ‘is the story which I heard the stranger relate, but -he had it from the chamberlains and ministers of Cronus, as he himself -used to say. But you and your friends, Lamprias, may take the story in -what way you will.’ - - - - - NOTES - - -(1) c. 1, 920 B. The opening of the Dialogue is abrupt; compare that of -‘On the Instances of Delay in Divine Punishment’. Many of the Symposiacs -open as abruptly, and there a former conversation is sometimes resumed -by the same speakers. It seems not impossible that there had been a -previous Dialogue on the Face in the Moon, and, again, that the περὶ -ψυχῆς preceded the _De Sera numinum Vindicta_. - -Wyttenbach reads τῷ γ᾽ ἐμῷ for the MSS. τῷ γὰρ ἐμῷ, but suggests τῷ παρ᾽ -ἐμοί, which seems better. Sylla is not the author, but the depository, -of the myth. - -For εἰ δεῖ τι ... προσανακρούσασθαι he reads εἰ δή τι ... -προσανεκρούσασθε. The past indicative is required by the τί δὲ οὐκ -ἐμέλλομεν which follows, the reference being to the previous discussion -(see Introduction). The combination εἰ δή or εἰ δή τι is a frequent one. -If δή was altered to δεῖ, the further alteration of the verb would -follow. Sylla’s language is nautical, as in c. 26, ‘Did you really stop -rowing, and back-water on to the received views?’ - -(2) c. 3. 921 A. _For our sight._ ὄψις is an old correction for ἴτυς of -the MSS., and is required by the context. - -(3) c. 4. 921 C. _Equal in breadth and length._ Empedocles (Fr. 17, 20) -has a line - - καὶ Φιλότης ἐν τοῖσιν, ἴση μῆκός τε πλάτος τε. - -This poetical quotation is introduced to indicate that the world is not -a mere point, but has sensible dimensions. In literal truth, the -habitable world was held to be twice as long as it was wide (i. e. N. to -S.). - -The words as to the earth occupying ‘a point central to the sphere (i. -e. orbit) of the moon’ are quoted from the Second Hypothesis of -Aristarchus (see Introduction). It has been proposed (by Dr. Max Adler) -to substitute the name of Clearchus for that of Hipparchus. But the -quarrel of Lamprias is not with philosophers but with astronomers and -mathematicians, represented by Apollonides and Menelaus. The greatest of -them is of absolute authority as to angles of reflexion, &c., not so -when he propounds a physical theory of vision, which many find -unsatisfactory. For the theory itself see the quasi-Plutarchean _De -Placitis_, 4, 13. - -For the words καίτοι γε φίλε πρίαμ᾽ (omitted in the translation), -Turnebus proposed καίτοι γε φίλε Λαμπρία, which is very attractive as to -the letters, but impossible, unless the text be wholly reconstructed, -because Lamprias is himself the speaker. - -For discrepancies between the mathematically correct theory of reflexion -and its physical application see chapters 17 and 23. - -(4) c. 7, 924 B. _That segments of beams...._ The sense intended by the -translation is this: A beam is sawn into two segments on the earth’s -surface. The two segments, which at first are separated by a short -interval, move simultaneously towards the earth’s centre, but in -converging, not parallel, lines, and jam each other long before they -reach it. (This is suggested by Aristotle, _de Caelo_, 2, 14, 296 b 18.) - -For ἀποκρίπτεσθαι Dr. Purser suggests ἀποθρύπτεσθαι, which I have -rendered; ἀποκύπτεσθαι (Aristoph. Lysis. 1003), ‘to crouch aside’, seems -possible. - -(5) c. 9, 925 B. Perhaps the line of Empedocles may run ἅρματος -ὡσπερανεὶ (L. C. P.) χνόη ᾄσσεται. - -(6) c. 10, 925 E. The MSS. have ἀλλὰ καὶ κινητικὸ ταύτῃ διάστημα τὸ -δέον, for which Madvig (_Adv. Crit._, vol. i, p. 665) makes the -admirable correction: ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐκείνῃ καὶ ταύτῃ δυίστημα δοτέον. - -(7) c. 14, 927 F. _The growth within._ I read αὔξησιν, which is -sometimes confused with ἕξιν. Cp. Ar. _Eth. N._ 3, 14, 149 b 4. - -(8) c. 19, 932 C. [_the moon ... bodies also_]. The words in brackets -have been supplied from the substance of the passage of Aristotle -mentioned in the footnote. - -(9) c. 19, 932 C. Posidonius’ definition is introduced because it -contains an admission that the moon casts a shadow, and is therefore an -earthlike, not a starlike, body. It has been proposed to alter σκιᾶς -into σκιᾷ, and the construction with σύνοδος could be justified by -Platonic examples (see R. Kunze in _Rhein. Mus._ vol. 64, p. 635), but -the assumed corruption is improbable. E appears[375] to read οἷς not ἧς; -the clause introduced by the relative seems to contain a limitation of -the phenomenon to ‘those who experience the obscuration’, i.e. those in -the track of the shadow over the earth’s surface. In this case, the -words may either have come from a marginal gloss on τόδε τὸ πάθος, or -should be transposed with those words, as suggested by Dr. Purser. This -will be consistent with the account of a solar eclipse given by -Cleomedes (2, 3, p. 172), doubtless after Posidonius; it is not αὐτοῦ -τοῦ θεοῦ πάθος ἀλλὰ τῆς ἡμετέρας ὄψεως, whereas an eclipse of the moon -is αὐτῆς τῆς θεοῦ πάθος, irrespective of the place of the terrestrial -observer. - -(10) c. 24, 937 F. _A lion._ Kepler suggests that there was an old -confusion between λῖς, a lion, and λᾶς, a stone. - -(11) c. 24, 938 C. _without mouths._ The MSS. have εὐστόμους, but -ἀστόμους is an old correction adopted by W. Pliny, _N. H._ 7, 2, 25, -quotes Megasthenes for a mouthless people living near the sources of the -Ganges. See also Müller, _Fragm. Hist. Graec._ 2, 427 (Adler). For the -notion of living by smell cp. Heraclitus (Fr. 38). - -(12) c. 26, 941 A. This interesting passage should be read by the side -of _De Defectu Oraculorum_, c. 18, p. 19 F (p. 135 above), which has a -close verbal resemblance, and is perhaps extracted from it (Adler). -Briareus may have been named in the full text here, as the son of -Cronus. In Hesiod, _Theogon._ 147, he is the son of Uranus, and so -Eustathius on Hom. _Il._ 1, 403, but a little later on Eustathius -mentions Cronus as his father on the authority of Arrian. παρακάτω -κεῖσθαι of the MSS. is difficult. Adler would read Βριάρεων δὲ τὸν υἱὸν -ὡς ἔχοντα φρουρὰν τῶν τε νήσων ἐκείνων καὶ τῆς θαλάττης, ἣν Κρόνιον -πέλαγος ὀνομάζουσιν, παρακατῳκίσθαι. Dr. Purser points out that the -Straits of Gibraltar were first called the Pillars of Cronus, afterwards -the Pillars of Briareus, and lastly the Pillars of Hercules (_Schol. ad -Dionys. Perieg._ 64 in Müller’s _Fragm. Hist. Gr._ 3, 640). - -I have followed the reading of Emperius πέραν κατῳκίσθαι, but without -much confidence. Cronus could not well, as Dr. Purser points out, have -been _in_ one of the islands, and also _beyond_ it. - -(13) c. 26, 942 C. I venture to suggest that the text may have run -something as follows: - -Πλεῖστον γὰρ ἐν Καρχηδόνι χρόνον διέτριψεν ἅτε δὴ παρ᾽ ἡμῖν μέταλλα -ἔχων, ὃς καί τινας, ὅθ᾽ ἡ προτέρα πόλις ἀπώλλυτο, κτλ. - -The long sojourn of the stranger in Carthage would be explained if he -owned mines there. - -In the sequel φαινομένων may perhaps stand for Φοινικικῶν and χρῆναι for -χρηστήρια εἶναι. - -408 F (p. 110, l. 19). πρὸς δὲ πίστιν ἐπισφαλὴς καὶ ὑπεύθυνος. If -ἐπισφαλής stands, it should rather mean ‘liable to take good faith (like -an infection)‘, a very common use of the adjective and its adverb in -Plutarch. See e. g. 661 B, 631 C. This seems rather a forced oxymoron -here. Wyttenbach doubted, and Madvig proposed ἀνεπισφαλής, a word said -to be found in Themistius. - -On the passage see J. H. W. Strijd in _Class. Rev._, xxviii, p. 219. - - - Supplemental Notes 1918 - - -418 A (p. 132, above). ... πυθυμένου (Φιλίππου) τίσιν ἀντιμαρτυρεῖν -θεοῖς οἴεται τοὺς ἀνταγωνιζομένους, Τούτοις, ἔφη, τοῖς περὶ τὸ -χρηστήριον, οἷς ἄρτι τοὺς ἔξω Πυλῶν πάντας Ἕλληνας ἡ πόλις κατοργιάζουσα -μέχρι Τεμπῶν ἐλήλακεν. - -I have followed Amyot, whose version is perhaps more intelligible than -the Latin, but involves the change of θεοῖς to θείοις (Turnebus) and the -transposition of Tempe and Thermopylae. If θεοῖς can be retained, the -reference will be to Dionysus and Apollo, the two gods connected with -the sanctuary (pp. 67, 138, &c.) and the purgation of the latter at -Tempe, commemorated by periodical rites. θείοις appears to correspond -more closely to ἱεροῖς above. - -926 C-D (pp. 271-2). διὰ τοῦτο οὖν σώματι ψυχὴν μὴ λέγομεν εἶναι μηδέν, -οὐ χρῆμα θεῖον ὑπὸ βρίθους ἢ πάχους, οὐρανόν τε πάντα καὶ γῆν καὶ -θάλασσαν ἐν ταὐτῷ περιπολοῦντα, καὶ διιστάμενον εἰς σάρκας ἥκειν καὶ -νεῦρα, καὶ μυελούς, καὶ παθέων μυρίων μεθ᾽ ὑγρότητος. For διιστάμενον W. -proposes διιπτάμενον. I have, with great hesitation, followed -Herwerden’s μηδὲ νοῦν (Emperius μηδὲ νοῦ χρῆμα), as the substantive -agrees with the participle, but the whole passage is difficult. ὑπὸ -βρίθους ἢ πάχους seems to be out of place (can ὑπό stand for something -equivalent to ἄνευ or to Madvig’s ἀθῷον ὑπό)? - -In the paper mentioned on p. 54 Dr. Max Adler adduces an interesting -passage from Maximus Tyrius (diss. 22, 6) closely parallel to this, as -proving that Plutarch was drawing upon Posidonius. The participle -διιπταμένη occurs. - -Footnote 302: - - In c. 22 Apollonides is made to state the angular diameter of the moon - at 12 ‘fingers’, i. e. one degree. - -Footnote 303: - - See Note (1), p. 309. - -Footnote 304: - - See Note (2), p. 309. - -Footnote 305: - - Arist. _Probl._ 12, 3. - -Footnote 306: - - See Note (3), p. 309. - -Footnote 307: - - See Aristarchus, _Magnitudes and Distances_, Hypothesis 2. - -Footnote 308: - - See the Homeric _Hymn to Hermes_, 99-100, where the moon is the - daughter of Pallas (‘the Pallantean orb sublime’, Shelley), cp. p. - 294. - -Footnote 309: - - As Homer, _Od._ 23, 330; 24, 539; Hesiod, _Theog._ 515. - -Footnote 310: - - e. g. _Il._ 10, 394. Cp. Heraclides Ponticus, 15. - -Footnote 311: - - _P. V._ 349. - -Footnote 312: - - Fr. 88. - -Footnote 313: - - W. reads μένειν (E has κινεῖν), but renders by ‘cieri’. - -Footnote 314: - - Fr. 733. - -Footnote 315: - - See note (4), p. 310. - -Footnote 316: - - Professor Henry Jackson has pointed out that the words form a - hexameter line. For the Greek word see p. 291. Its introduction here - is due to M. Bernardakis. - -Footnote 317: - - Reading τῇ γῇ, with Madvig. - -Footnote 318: - - See note (5), p. 310. - -Footnote 319: - - αἰρομένη MSS. - -Footnote 320: - - Prop. 7. - -Footnote 321: - - See note (6), p. 310. - -Footnote 322: - - Cf. _Il._ 9, 63. - -Footnote 323: - - Reading ὅλως (Emperius, ap. Ed. Teub.), for ὅμως. - -Footnote 324: - - See additional note, p. 312. - -Footnote 325: - - See e. g. _Tim._ 32 C. - -Footnote 326: - - _Theog._ 120, 195. - -Footnote 327: - - Pindar, Fr. 57: see p. 179. - -Footnote 328: - - Reading ἕξει, with Emperius. - -Footnote 329: - - See note (7), p. 310. - -Footnote 330: - - Reading ᾀἱδίου, with Emperius. - -Footnote 331: - - Ion Chius, Fr. 57 (Nauck). - -Footnote 332: - - Reading διίησιν, with Madvig. - -Footnote 333: - - I have followed the paraphrase of the Greek words suggested by - Wyttenbach. For the physical facts see Ganot’s _Physics_, 516. - -Footnote 334: - - _Timaeus_, 46 A-C (Plato does not discuss plane folding mirrors). - -Footnote 335: - - Reading χωρεῖν for χωροῦντες. - -Footnote 336: - - Kepler has supplied such a diagram (in his translation, p. 131). - -Footnote 337: - - See p. 253. - -Footnote 338: - - Pindar, Fr. 107. Paean 9 (see _Oxy. Pap._ 1908, 841). - -Footnote 339: - - _Od._ 20, 352 and 357; 14, 162; 19, 307. - -Footnote 340: - - Reading τὸ ἕν for τόν. - -Footnote 341: - - Prop. 17. - -Footnote 342: - - _De Caelo_, 2, 13, 293 b 20. - -Footnote 343: - - See note (8), p. 310. - -Footnote 344: - - See note (9), p. 310. - -Footnote 345: - - Reading ἡ δὲ τῆς Σελήνης with Mr. W. R. Paton, see _Class. Rev._ vol. - 26, p. 269. - -Footnote 346: - - Strictly speaking, both cases are of ‘overtaking’, but the results - follow as stated. - -Footnote 347: - - _Il._ 9, 212. - -Footnote 348: - - See Plato, _Phaedo_, 110 B-C. - -Footnote 349: - - _Od._ 311. - -Footnote 350: - - Soph. (_Lemnians_), Fr. 348. - -Footnote 351: - - τραπέμπαλιν is due here to Meineke, ap. Ed. Teub., see p. 267. - -Footnote 352: - - _Tim._ 40 B. - -Footnote 353: - - See note (10), p. 311. - -Footnote 354: - - Aesch. _Suppl._ 937. - -Footnote 355: - - See p. 262 and note. - -Footnote 356: - - See n. (11), p. 311. - -Footnote 357: - - _Il._ 14, 246. The second line appears to have been added by Crates - and is not in our texts. - -Footnote 358: - - _Tim._ 40 C. - -Footnote 359: - - Kepler would read ‘twelve’. - -Footnote 360: - - Fr. 48. - -Footnote 361: - - _W. and D._ 41. - -Footnote 362: - - _Il._ 20, 64. - -Footnote 363: - - _Il._ 8, 16. - -Footnote 364: - - _Od._ 7, 244. - -Footnote 365: - - See n. (13), p. 311. - -Footnote 366: - - Reading ἐπειδὰν παύσῃ, with Madvig. - -Footnote 367: - - See n. (14), p. 312. - -Footnote 368: - - _Od._ 9, 563. - -Footnote 369: - - i. e. the words τελεῖν, τελευτᾶν are allied, see p. 215. - -Footnote 370: - - Plato, _Tim._ 31 B and end. - -Footnote 371: - - Fr. 38. - -Footnote 372: - - _Tim._ 31 B. - -Footnote 373: - - _Od._ 11, 222. - -Footnote 374: - - _Od._ 11, 600. - -Footnote 375: - - From a note made in 1910, which cannot at present (1916) be verified. - - - - - NOTE ON THE MYTHS IN PLUTARCH - - -The three ‘myths’ which are found in these Dialogues are all avowedly -Platonic; they are introduced and dismissed in Platonic formulae, and -much of the imagery is drawn from Plato. Yet the treatment is Plutarch’s -own, and the style, though dignified and elevated after his fashion, -never suggests an imitation of Plato which could only be parody. New -matter is brought in, mostly gleaned from the astronomy of his day. The -movements of the heavenly bodies have been an inspiration to later poets -of verse and prose: - - _Minerva breathes on me, Apollo guides, - And the nine Muses point me to the Bears._ - -To Plutarch the subject was rather one of earnest curiosity, as he turns -to account the details and their theological application, read by him in -the philosophers of, or nearly of, his own age. - -The purpose of the Platonic myth is to carry the argument beyond and -above the region of logic and analysis, into that of poetry and -constructive truth, upon matters where strict proof was impossible. The -reader may be referred to Bishop Westcott’s Essay on _Religious Thought -in the West_, and to Professor J. A. Stewart’s book on _The Myths of -Plato_. - -(1) It will be convenient to look first into the myth of Thespesius in -Plutarch’s Dialogue _On the Instances of Delay in Divine Punishment_ -(see pp. 205-13 of this book). The motive is identical with that of the -myth of Er in the _Republic_, yet with a difference. Plato gives us an -experience from the world beyond death, granted to one who had been -taken for dead during several days, in order to carry to a higher plane -his argument for the victory here and hereafter of Justice over -Injustice. Plutarch, as a moral teacher and ‘physician of souls’, -concerned to restore individuals who have fallen, and to keep the -falling on their feet, gives us the picture of ‘The Rake Reformed’, -taking an extreme instance of a vicious character restored to sanity by -glimpses of penalties and of bliss beyond this life, in order to deter -and encourage others under temptation. The name Aridaeus, changed to -Thespesius, ‘The Divine’, as an earnest of the reformation, reminds us -of Ardiaeus the tyrant, in Plato. The language naturally falls into that -of the Judgement-myth in the _Gorgias_. It is introduced by a similar -form of words: - -‘Now listen while I tell you a very beautiful story (λόγος) which you I -think will call a myth (μῦθος), for all that I am about to say I wish to -be regarded as true’ (Plato). - -‘I can tell you a story which I have lately heard, yet I hesitate lest -it may appear to you a myth.... Let me first make good the “probability” -of my view, then we will start the myth, if myth indeed it be’ -(Plutarch). - -The details in Plutarch are fuller and grimmer, and the language, though -solemn, lacks the stately reticence of Plato. We are often reminded of -words and thoughts in the _Eumenides_ of Aeschylus. The celestial -imagery is vague, and does not seem to suggest any special source more -modern than Plato. It has a general resemblance to a passage in the -_Phaedo_ (c. 58, p. 109 D, E). - -‘We, dwelling in a hollow of the Earth, think that we dwell upon the -Earth itself; and the air we call Heaven, and think that it is that -Heaven wherein are the courses of the stars: whereas, by reason of -weakness and sluggishness, we cannot go forth out of the air; but if a -man could journey to the edge thereof, or having gotten wings could fly -up, it would come to pass that even as fishes here which rise out of the -sea do behold the things here, he, looking out, would behold the things -there, and if his strength could endure the sight thereof, would see -that there are the True Heaven, and the True Light, and the True Earth’ -(Tr. J. A. Stewart). - -The daemons are only mentioned as Ministers or Ushers in the -after-world; there is no threefold division of the man into body, soul, -and mind, only one into body and soul; there is one reference to Delphi -and its oracle, where a popular belief that Night and Apollo were -partners is corrected. An attentive reading will bring out a resemblance -of words and phrases to those familiar to us in the Sixth Book of the -_Aeneid_, the subject of E. Norden’s fruitful and convincing study. - -(2) The beautiful story of Timarchus, the young friend of Socrates’ son, -who passed into a trance in the cave of Trophonius, and saw things of -the unseen world which were to be fully revealed to him three months -later, i. e. in actual death, comes into the Dialogue _On the Genius of -Socrates_ (pp. 36-40) to explain the special correspondence during life -between the God and those gifted souls who possess mind, and become -daemons or spirits after death. Here the three-fold division into body, -soul, and mind (see p. 303) is maintained. A practical application of -the myth is drawn by Theanor, the young Pythagorean visitor. - -As the supposed Dialogue takes place in B. C. 378, we do not expect to -find in it the astronomy of Plutarch’s day, though he would not have -shrunk from any anachronism. The general imagery is again that of the -_Phaedo_, but there is a sea on which circular bodies, the stars which -are men’s souls, float. The current which bears them is circular, yet -not completely circular, not ending in the point where it started, but -describing a continuous spiral (just as the moon does with reference to -the earth’s path). This sea is inclined to the middle and highest point -of the firmament by ‘a little less than eight-ninths of the whole’. This -is puzzling; it may suggest the inclination of the ecliptic to the -equator, or, again, that of the Milky Way to the ecliptic. Doubtless -some explanation will be forthcoming. An interesting detail is ‘Styx, a -way to Hades’, clearly the shadow in a lunar eclipse, since the moon -‘only avoids Styx by a slight elevation, and is caught once in one -hundred and seventy-seven secondary measures’, the exact number of -periods of twenty-four hours contained in six lunar months, the normal -interval between two eclipses (see p. 286). ‘Secondary measures’ is a -curious expression, since Plutarch elsewhere (Plat. Quaest. 3, p. 1006 -E) calls periods of a day and a night ‘the primary measures’. It seems -not impossible that δευτέροις here has replaced some word which the -scribe could not make out, such as νυχθημέροις. We have the four -principles of birth and death, as in the _Face in the Moon_; only there -Clotho takes the moon for her sphere of office, and Lachesis the earth, -here Lachesis takes the moon, Clotho the sun, Atropus the ‘unseen’. -Neither list agrees with the assignment of functions by Xenocrates (see -the end of Dr. M. Adler’s Dissertation mentioned below). - -(3) Sylla’s tale in the _Face in the Moon_ (pp. 299-308), a traveller’s -story picked up in Carthage from one of those curious characters found -on the outer margin of the Greek world in whom Plutarch delighted, is -brought in with admirable dramatic fitness, shown in Sylla’s eagerness -to produce it at the very outset, in the preparation for it by the -skirmish between Theon and Lamprias, and in the vivacity of the -narrative. It is dismissed with a Platonic formula: - -‘Such is the story which I heard the stranger relate.... But you and -your friends, Lamprias, may take the story in what way you will.’ -Compare: ‘I am persuaded, O Callicles, that these things that are told -are true.... Perchance this shall seem to you an old wife’s fable, and -thou wilt despise it: well mightest thou despise it, if by searching we -could find out aught better and truer’ (_Gorgias_, 526 D, 527 A). The -astronomy of the myth is in the main that of the preceding Dialogue, and -Sylla shows considerable familiarity with Plato and also with -Xenocrates. It is perhaps noticeable how little interest Plutarch shows -in geographical detail, contenting himself with such vague and -antiquated views as sufficed for a setting to the story. He appears not -to name Pytheas at all in the _Lives_, and only once (on a question of -the tides) in the _Moralia_. - -The whole Dialogue has been the subject of a careful study by Dr. Max -Adler of Vienna (_Dissertationes Vindobonenses_, 1910). Without entering -into his general view of the structure, we may observe that Dr. Adler -seems to be very successful in establishing the close connexion between -it and the Dialogue _On the Cessation of the Oracles_, which he is -probably right—though he reserves the proofs—in regarding as based upon -it, and later in date. This comes out especially in the passages about -the captivity of Cronus (cp. p. 301 with pp. 135-6), and the argument -about ‘the Middle’ (cp. p. 270 with p. 144). He produces a happy -quotation from Maximus Tyrius to establish beyond doubt that the source -of an important passage about mind (pp. 271-2) was in Posidonius. His -general conclusion as to the myth, is that it too is in the main from -Posidonius, and that when Plutarch draws upon Xenocrates, it is through -Posidonius. The latter appears to have been a writer of great industry -and encyclopaedic learning, quoted as an authority on matters of -history, physical geography, and what we should now call anthropology; -not an original force in Philosophy, but successful in reconciling -systems and making them available for human needs; one the aim of whose -life-work was, in the words of one of his most recent exponents, _to -make men at home in the universe_ (_Stoics and Sceptics_, by Edwyn -Bevan, p. 98). - -Any one who will read Sylla’s myth, with a good map of the moon’s -surface before him, will be able to locate for himself the ‘Gulf of -Hecate’, and the long valleys leading to the Elysian plains, which, on -her side remote from earth, enjoy diffused sunlight. There need be no -idea of shafts or tunnels driven through the solid body of the moon. - -Cicero’s _Dream of Scipio_, written more than a century before -Plutarch’s Dialogue, and also drawn from Posidonius, will be found an -admirable companion piece, enforcing, in language of singular beauty and -elevation, those duties to country and ancestors which find inadequate -expression in the Greek thought of the first century of our era. - - - - - NOTE ON THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS AND THE FIVE REGULAR SOLIDS - - -The opinion that our World, or universe, is not the only one in the -Whole, is attributed, in general terms, to many of the early Greek -philosophers, notably to Anaximander. The exact meaning of a ‘Cosmos’, -in this connexion, is perhaps not easy to fix. Aristotle is clear that -the circle of the fixed stars is one and constant, but the author of the -Stoical treatise on the Cosmos, found among his works, takes stars to be -a part of the (one) Cosmos. An earth, such as ours with her atmosphere -and moon, is essential, and a sun, or access to sunlight, and perhaps -some planets. In the _Dream of Scipio_ our solar system, with the earth -in its centre, is described with great distinctness as a unit in space. -The planets are always regarded as luminous points, stars somewhat out -of place (see p. 268), possessing no definite magnitude or solid -substance. - -In theory the number of Cosmi might be infinite, but a shrinking from -the vague ‘Infinity’, in later times associated with the Epicureans, led -Plato, for instance, to restrict the number to a possible five. That he -based this number upon that of the five regular solids may seem -fanciful, but the solid angles and forms observed in crystals might -reasonably suggest the hypothesis that the ultimate constituents of the -crust of the earth would be found in the most perfect solid structures -known to theory. In theory there is much that is attractive in these -five solids. To one coming fresh from a study of Plane Polygonal -Figures, which exist in infinite number, and, when regular, approximate -more and more closely to the Plane Circle, it comes as a surprise to -find that, in the next higher degree, the number of solid bodies so -approximating to the Sphere is five only. Again, it seems almost a -paradox that, of these five, the nearest approximation to the Sphere is -attained, not by the body with twenty fine faces, but by that which -shews only twelve, and those comparatively blunted and unshapely -(pentagons). It was perhaps from such considerations that the -Dodecahedron was held of special importance by the Pythagoreans. Plato’s -study of the several faces of these solids, as available for -construction or reconstruction of a world, leaves nothing to be desired, -assuming that a solid body can be built out of plane figures, an -assumption which appears to belong to the same habit of thought as that -which makes the point the square of unity, and the lineal measure -corresponding to the number two the first rectangle. As the pentagon -defies the analysis available for the equilateral triangle or for the -square, the Dodecahedron remains over, a model or pattern of a -stitch-work world, as viewed from outside (_Phaedo_ 110 B and _Timaeus_ -55 C; see also Burnet’s _Early Greek Philosophy_, p. 341 foll.). It may -not be amiss to be reminded that Kepler, mathematician as well as -astronomer, spent many toilsome years in the endeavour to arrange the -members of our solar system upon a plan based on the five solids. ‘If -Kepler went out “to seek his father’s asses”, he found a kingdom, for it -was in the course of these speculations, and through them, that he -discovered not only his own “Third Law”, but also the truth, overlooked -by Copernicus, that the orbit of each planet lies in a plane which -passes through the centre of the sun.’ (Dreyer, _Planetary Systems_, p. -410.) - -The discussion of the plurality of worlds, in the modern sense, begins -with the very attractive work of Fontenelle, brought out, in its -original form, in 1686, a year before Newton’s _Principia_, being a -series of conversations between the Author and a witty and accomplished -Marquise, as to the habitability of the several members of the solar -system. The argument which followed is distinguished by many great -names, those of Newton himself, Bentley, Huyghens, the Herschels, Dr. -Chalmers, till it was brought to a head in the middle of the nineteenth -century by Dr. Whewell and Sir David Brewster, writing respectively -against and for the hypothesis. The subject was then one (as readers of -Anthony Trollope will remember) upon which any one might be called upon -to take a side in a London drawing-room. In more recent times interest -has been concentrated upon Mars, who now possesses the distinction of -having two satellites. We are only concerned to invite the reader to -compare the religious argument addressed to the Stoics by Plutarch (p. -142 foll.) with the religious argument drawn by Dr. Chalmers and Sir -David Brewster from the enrichment of the providential scheme for man -upon our earth which would follow the conception of other earths -tenanted by other beings perhaps of a higher order. - -But it is natural that any such speculation should begin with the moon, -and in fact we find the question of her habitability discussed by Theon -and by Lamprias (pp. 293-9). With the later treatises on this subject, -beginning with Lucian’s witty flight of fancy, we are not concerned. But -an exception must be made for the very able works of Savinien de Cyrano, -known to us as Cyrano de Bergerac, whose _Histoire comique des États et -Empires de la Lune_ appeared, probably, in 1650, and was followed by a -similar work about the sun. Cyrano appears to be familiar with Plutarch: -thus he meets in the moon the ‘daemon of Socrates’, who has also been -the tutelary spirit of Epaminondas, of Cato of Utica, and of Brutus. The -idea (due in the first place to Heraclitus) of being fed on smells, is -worked out with much vivacity. But with so original and daring a writer, -it is not quite easy to settle how much is due to any hint from others -and how much to himself. A modern reader will not need to be reminded -that Cyrano was not a person of whom it was wise to give an outspoken -opinion in his lifetime. But I had wished to speak with nothing but -respect of a man of real learning and genius, who, from whatever cause, -did not bring to perfection any work worthy of himself. - -See, on the general subject, an Essay by the late Professor Henry J. S. -Smith in _Oxford Essays_, 1855. - - - - - INDEX - OF PERSONS AND PLACES MENTIONED BY PLUTARCH IN THESE DIALOGUES - - -¶ In this Index the Greek spelling of ei (Lat. ī) has been usually -retained. - -All dates are B. C. unless otherwise stated. - -The dates are often approximate and conventional. - -Other numerals refer to pages of this volume. - -For the speakers in each Dialogue see that Dialogue _passim_ and the -Introductions. - -(The ‘Three Pythian Dialogues’ are quoted under that designation See p. -52.) - - A. - - Academy, Academic, the School founded by Plato in ‘the most beautiful - suburb of Athens’ (Thuc. ii. 34), 65, 104, 178, 264. - - Acanthus, Acanthian, a town of the Chalcidice, 94, 95. - - Achaeans, 102. - - Achaeus, 95. - - Achĕron, a river of the lower world, 227. - - Achilles, 294. - - Admētus, king of Pherae in Thessaly, and husband of Alcestis, 132. - - Adōnis (‘Gardens of Adonis’ were cut flowers planted in pots), 199. - - Adrasteia, a name for Nemesis, ‘the unescapable’, 207. - - Aegīna, an island in the Saronic Gulf, opposite to Athens, 99. - - Aegon, 85. - - Aegos Potami, a river, and in later times a town, in the Chersonese, - famous for the sea-battle of 405, in which Lysander defeated the - Athenian fleet, 88. - - Aemiliānus, a rhetorician, 134, 135. - - Aeolian, 121. - - Aeolĭdae, 132. - - Aeschylus, tragic poet of Athens, (525-456), 67, 132, 162, 265. - - Aesop of Samos, writer of fables (fl. 570), a freedman of Iadmon of - Samos, 94, 192. - - Aetna, Mount, in Sicily, 271. - - Aetolians, 92. - - Agamemnon, 125, 230. - - Agathŏclēs, 193. - - Agāvē, daughter of Cadmus, and mother of Pentheus, 226. - - Agenorĭdas, 13. - - Agesianax (or Hegesianax), a poet, probably of Alexandria, third - century, 260, 261. - - Agesilaüs II, the lame king of Sparta, reigned 398-361 (see his _Life_) - 11, 13, 91. - - Aglaonīcē, 130. - - Aglaŏphon, 166. - - Agrigentum (Acragas), a town on the south coast of Sicily, 184. - - Aïdoneus (Hades), 77. - - Ajax, 193, 230. - - Alcaeus, of Lesbos, lyric poet (fl. 600), 118. - - Alcibiădes 450-404, Athenian politician, 19, 183. - - Alcman, lyric poet of Sparta (fl. 630), 297. - - Alcmēna, wife of Amphitryon and mother of Hercules; (on her sanctuary, - in a grove near Thebes, see Pausan. ix. 16. 4), 11, 12, 13. - - Alĕüs, 12. - - Alexander, the Great, 95, 192, 233. - - Alexis, of Thurii, poet of the so-called ‘Middle Attic Comedy’, fourth - century, 137. - - Aloădes, Otus and Ephialtes, giant sons of Iphimedeia, wife of Aloeus - (_Od._ xi. 307 foll., and _Il._ v. 385), 289. - - Alopĕcus, 109. - - Alphēüs, a river of Arcadia and Elis, 160. - - Alyattes, king of Lydia and father of Croesus (d. 560), 96. - - Alyrius, 100. - - Amēstris, 235. - - Ammon, the temple of Zeus Ammon in an oasis of the Libyan Desert to the - N.W. of Egypt, 117, 120. - - Ammonius, an Athenian philosopher of the first century A. D., the - instructor of Plutarch. A speaker in the First and Third Pythian - Dialogues. _See also_ 298, and cp. Sympos. 3, 1, 2; 8, 3; 9, 1, 2, - 5, 14; and _Life of Themistocles_, end. - - Amphiaraüs of Argos, prince and seer, who accompanied the Seven - Chieftains against Thebes, and was swallowed up by the earth there, - 121. - - Amphictyons, ‘Dwellers around’, whose council met at Thermopylae and at - Pylaea, a suburb of Delphi, 95, 110. - - Amphilŏchus, son of Amphiaraüs, worshipped at Malli in Cilicia, 163, - 205. - - Amphīon, the district of Thebes between the rivers Strophia and Ismenus - (Pausan. ix. 16 and 17), 10. - - Amphipolis, a town of Macedon on the Strymon, taken by Brasidas in 424, - 175 _n._ - - Amphitheüs, a Theban patriot, imprisoned by the Polemarchs, 11, 29, 43, - 50. - - Amphitryon, father of Hercules, 13. - - Anactorium, a town and promontory of Acarnania, 184. - - Anaxagoras, 499-427, a philosopher of Clazomenae in Ionia, 71, 165, - 231, 277, 283. - - Andocĭdes, 16. - - Androcleidas, a Theban patriot, assassinated when a refugee in Athens, - 46. - - Antichthon, 306. - - Antigŏnus, younger son of Demetrius Sotēr, king of Syria (d. 125), 204. - - Antipater, son of Cassander, king of Macedon, succeeded his brother - Philip, and was himself murdered, 198. - - Antiphon, 18. - - Aphroditē, goddess of love, 189, 232, 272. - - Apollo, 59, 62, 67, 68, 73, 76, 77, 78, 88, 93, 94, 96, 99, 121, 132, - 146, 160, 161, 170, 193, 210, 232. - - Apollocrates, son of Dionysius the younger, of Syracuse (d. 354), 198. - - Apollodōrus, tyrant of Cassandria (Potidaea) from 379, 189, 191. - - Apollonia, a town in Illyria founded from Corinth, 184. - - Apollonia, a town in Pisidia, 96. - - Apollonides, a speaker in the _Face in the Moon_. ὁ τακτικός (_Sympos._ - 3, 4). - - Arabia, 297. - - Arcadia, Arcadians, 176. - - Arcĕsus, Lacedaemonian Harmost, 29, 51. - - Arcĕsus, of Sicily, 22. - - Archelaüs, king of Macedon, 413-399, friend and host of Euripides, 59. - - Archias, of Athens, the priest, 47. - - Archias, of Thebes. A member of the oligarchical party, and made a - Polemarch by Sparta, 8, 10, 29, 32, 43, 44, 47, 48, 50. - - Archidāmus, an Athenian, 6, 7, 8, 44, 45, 47. - - Archilŏchus, 714-676, of Paros, lyric and iambic poet, 63, 199, 230, - 282. - - Archīnus, 7. - - Archȳtas of Tarentum, mathematician and statesman, fl. 300 (see _Life - of Marcellus_, c. 14), 14 _n._, 181. - - Argos, Argive, 85, 186. - - Aridaeus, 206. - - Aristarchus of Samos, astronomer and physicist (310-230), 98, 264, 269, - 283. - - Aristarchus, critic, of Samothrace and Alexandria (fl. 156), 295. - - Aristocrătes, king of Arcadia (stoned to death 668), 176. - - Aristodēmus, king of Messenia (d. 723), 229, 230. - - Ariston, 186, 195. - - Aristonīca, 104. - - Aristotle, 384-322, founder of the Peripatetic School at Athens, 69, - 84, 88, 143, 162, 283, 318. - - Aristotle (see p. 255), a Peripatetic, who takes part in the Dialogue - on the _Face in the Moon_. - - Aristyllus, an astronomer (fl. 233), 98. - - Arnē, a town in Thessaly, 158. - - Arsălus, 138, 139. - - Artĕmis, 146, 230, 232, 262, 295, 308. - - Artemisium, on the north coast of Euboea, where the Greek fleet - defeated that of Xerxes in 480, 183. - - Asclepius (Aesculapius), 185. - - Assyrians, 288. - - Asterium, 92. - - Athămas, 190, 226. - - Athena (Pallas Athene), 16, 50, 102, 139, 193, 262, 294. - - Athens, Athenian, 7, 8, 17, 18, 19, 23, 40, 47, 49, 62, 65, 88, 95, 96, - 99, 177, 183, 185, 195, 196, 197, 229, 303. - - Atlas, a giant son of Iapĕtus and brother of Prometheus, identified - with a mountain in NW. Africa, 65, 265. - - Atrŏpus, 37, 308, 315. - - Attĭca, 162. - - Augeas, king of the Epeans; slain for bad faith by Hercules, and - succeeded by Phyleus, 204. - - Ausonius, a Latin poet of Bordeaux (A.D. 310-90), 127 _n._ - - Autolycus, son of Hermes, and grandfather of Ulysses, famed for his - cunning, 185. - - - B. - - Bacchus, 209. - - Bacchylĭdas, 20. - - Bacis, an ancient Boeotian seer, connected in story with the Corycian - cave, 90. - - Bakerwoman, the, 96. - - Basilocles, a speaker in the introductory part of the Second Pythian - Dialogue. - - Battus, of Thera, founder of Cyrene (see Herod. 4, 150 foll.), 103, - 108. - - Bessus, 186. - - Bias, sixth century; of Priēnē in Ionia; one of the Seven Wise Men, 61. - - Bion, a Scythian philosopher and wit of the third century, 86, 201, - 229. - - Boeotia, 7, 9, 50, 65, 120, 194, 306. - - Boēthus, a young geometrician and Epicurean (probably an Athenian), a - speaker in the Second Pythian Dialogue (cp. _Sympos._ 5, 1 and 8, - 3). - - Branchĭdae, 193. - - Brasĭdas, the Spartan general (d. 422), 94, 95, 175. - - Briăreus, 135, cf. 299. - - Britain, Briton, 117, 133, 261, 299. - - Byzantium, 189. - - - C. - - Cabirĭchus, 48. - - Cadmeia, the citadel of Thebes, 8, 10, 12, 30, 51. - - Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, 87. - - Caesar, the Emperor Augustus (63-A.D. 14), 62. - - Caligŭla, 233. - - Callias, a rich Athenian, see the _Symposium_ of Xenophon and the - _Protagoras_ of Plato, 95. - - Callippus, 185. - - Callistrătus, of Athens, 49. - - Callistratus, archon of Delphi, 117. - - Calondas, 199. - - Capheisias, of Thebes, son of Polymnis and brother of Epaminondas; the - chief speaker in the First Pythian Dialogue. - - Caria, 13. - - Carthage, Carthaginian, 91, 183, 184, 302, 316. - - Carystus, on the S. coast of Euboea, noted for its marble and asbestos, - 162. - - Caspian Sea, supposed until Ptolemy to be an inlet of Ocean, though - Herodotus describes it as an inland water (1, 202-3), 300, 305. - - Cassander, 354-297, king of Macedon, began the restoration of Thebes in - 315: 184, 197. - - Cĕbēs, of Thebes, a companion of Socrates (see the _Critias_ and - _Phaedo_ of Plato), 17, 35. - - Cecrops, 182. - - Cephisodōrus, 45, 47, 49. - - Chaereas, 233. - - Chaerēmon, an Athenian tragic poet (fl. 380), 104. - - Chaeroneia, in Boeotia, on the borders of Phocis; Plutarch’s native - town, 35, 121. - - Chaldaeans, 62. - - Charillus, 17. - - Charon, a Theban patriot, 8, 9, 28, 29, 30, 32, 44, 45, 47. - - Charybdis, 218. - - Cheiron, the Centaur, instructor of Achilles, 65. - - Chersonese, the Thracian, 183. - - Chilon, one of the Seven Wise Men, 61. - - Chios, 275. - - Chius, 108. - - Chlidon, 31, 44. - - Cleanthes, a Stoic philosopher, b. 300, at Assos in the Troad, 264. - - Clearchus, a Peripatetic philosopher of Soli, pupil of Aristotle, 260, - 262. - - Chonūphis, 13. - - Chrysippus (280-207), the Stoic philosopher, born at Soli in Cilicia, - 134, 146, 147. - - Cilicia, 163, 205. - - Cimmerians, 231. - - Cimon, 183, 195. - - Cinaethon, 107. - - Cinēsias, dithyrambic poet of Athens (fl. 400), 232. - - Cithaeron, the mountain range between Attica and Boeotia, 8, 43. - - Clazomĕnae, a city in Ionia, 39. - - Cleander, of Aegina, 99. - - Cleisthĕnes, of Sicyon, 185. - - Cleobulīnē, 95. - - Cleobūlus, tyrant of Lindus in Rhodes, sixth century. One of the Seven - Wise Men, 61. - - Cleombrŏtus, of Lacedaemon, a speaker in the Third Pythian Dialogue. - - Cleon, of Daulia, 169. - - Cleōnae, a city in the Peloponnesus, 94, 185. - - Cleonīcē, 189. - - Cleotīmus, 99. - - Clio, the Muse of History, 97. - - Clotho, one of the Fates, 37, 308, 315. - - Clytaemnēstra, 188. - - Cnidus, a city of Caria, 14, 88, 122. - - Conon, 7. - - Copreus, 185. - - Cora (Persephone), daughter of Demeter, 302. - - Corax, 199. - - Corcȳra, Corcyrean, 193. - - Corētas, 161, 165. - - Corinth, 51, 61, 83, 92, 94, 95, 224. - - Corōnē (Crow), 122. - - Corybantes, priests of Cybele, 306. - - Corycium, the Corycian cave, on the slopes of Parnassus, 7-1/2 miles - NE. of Delphi, and 3,500 feet above it (Pausanias x. 32, 2), 82. - - Cosmos, i. e. Apollo, 67. - - Crates, a Cynic philosopher (fl. 328), 94, 95. - - Crates, a critic, of Pergamos (born at Mallus in Cilicia, fl. 155), - 295. - - _Cratylus_, a Dialogue of Plato, on etymology, 71. - - Crete, 131, 200. - - Cretīnus, 108. - - Critias, of Carthage, 234. - - Croesus, king of Lydia, d. 540 (see Herod. 1-3), 96, 192. - - Crŏnus (Saturn), father of Zeus, 135, 138, 183, 235, 299, 300, 301, - 306, 308. - - Crotōna, a Greek colony in southern Italy, 21. - - _Cyclops_, a satyric play of Euripides, 164; - and see 193. - - Cydias, an early poet, 282. - - Cydnus, a river of Cilicia, 160. - - Cylon, Cylonians, 21, 22. - - Cymé (Cumae), a city on the coast of Campania, 90. - - Cypsĕlus, of Corinth, tyrant 655-625, father of Periander, 94. - - Cyzĭcus, a city of Mysia, 14. - - - D. - - Dactyli, workers in iron, &c., of Mt. Ida in Phrygia, 306. - - Daïphantus, 194. - - Damocleidas, 43, 47. - - Daulia, a town of Phocis, 169. - - Deinomĕnes, of Syracuse, 99. - - Delium in Boeotia, battle of, 424 (see _Life of Alcibiades_, c. 7, and - Plato, _Apol._ 28, and _Sympos._ 221 A). - - Dēlos, an island in the Aegean, sacred to Apollo, 13, 14, 60, 63, 77, - 121. - - Delphi, 60, 62, 67, 85, 94, 101, 110, 117, 121, 132, 138, 161, 165, - 185, 192, 196, 210, 307. - - Dēmētēr, 29, 302, 303. - - Demetrius, a speaker in the Third Pythian Dialogue. - - Demetrius, king of Macedon 294-287 (Poliorcētēs), 204. - - Democrĭtus, a philosopher, of Abdēra in Thrace (460-361), 134, 277. - - Diagŏras, of Melos, a disciple of Democritus (fl. 420), 234. - - Diës (plural of Zeus), 146. - - Dicaearcheia, the old name of Puteŏli, a city on the coast of Campania, - 90, 211. - - Dicaearchus, a Peripatetic philosopher and writer on questions of - literary history, contemporary with Aristotle, 59. - - - Didymus, a Cynic philosopher (nicknamed Planetiădes), takes part in the - opening of the Third Pythian Dialogue. - - Diogenianus, a speaker in the Second Pythian Dialogue. For his father, - of the same name, cp. _Sympos._ 7, 7 and 8, 1, 2, 9. - - Diŏmede, 102. - - Dion of Syracuse (d. 356), see his _Life_, by Plutarch, 186. - - Dionysius, the Elder, 430-367, tyrant of Syracuse, 184, 197. - - Dionȳsus (or Bacchus), the wine-god, born at Thebes, 67, 68, 138, 139, - 209. - - Diotŏnus, 45. - - Dircē, daughter of Helios, wife of Lycus, whose sons by Antiope, - Amphion and Zethus, slew her and threw her body into a well at - Thebes. The Fountain of Dirce was near the Crenaean Gate, 12. - R. Dirce was the westernmost of the three Theban streams. - - Dolon, 132. - - Dorian, Doric, 138, 140. - - Dryus, 138. - - - E. - - Earth (temple of, at Delphi), 97. - - Echecrătēs, a ‘prophet’ of Tegyra, 121. - - Echinădĕs, islands off the coast of Acarnania, 134. - - Egypt, Egyptian, 11, 13, 14, 93, 117, 126, 140, 154, 184, 235, 283, - 293, 296. - - Elis, Elean, a state of the Peloponnesus, 94. - - Ellopion, 13. - - Elysian, 302, 306, 317. - - Empedocles of Agrigentum, philosopher and poet (fl. 444), 16, 93, 98, - 133, 134, 137, 235, 259, 263, 269, 272, 274, 278, 287. - - Endymion, 307. - - Epameinondas, son of Polymnis, brother of Capheisias, and friend of - Pelopidas (fell at Mantineia 362), 1, 6, 9, 14, 15, 20, 21, 23, 24, - 25, 27, 28, 32, 40, 43, 50. - - Epicharmus, of Cos and Syracuse, writer of philosophical comedies - (540-450), 196. - - Epicūrus, of Samos, 342-270, philosopher and founder of the School of - ‘The Garden’ at Athens, and Epicureans, 86, 87, 89, 92, 136, 137, - 146, 163, 262. - A modern ‘Epicurus’ is introduced into the Dialogue on the _Delays in - Divine Punishment_, but leaves before its beginning. - - Epicȳdēs, 191. - - Epidaurus, a town and state next to Argolis, 99. - - Epimenĭdes, of Phaestus in Crete, a poet and prophet (fl. 600), 117, - 298. - - Epitherses, 134. - - Erĕbus, 230. - - Erĕsus, a city of Lesbos, 140. - - Eretria, a city on the west coast of Euboea, 96. - - Erianthes, 29. - - Eridănus, the river Po, 193. - - Erinnys, the, 207. - - Eriphȳlē, 186. - - Erōs (Love), 272. - - Erythrae, an Ionian city, 95, 99. - - Ethiopia, 196, 204, 222, 265. - - Euboea, 162. - - Eudoxus, of Cnidus, 408-355, astronomer and mathematician, and founder - of the School of Cyzicus, 14, 97, 98. - - Eumētis, 95. - - Eumolpĭdas, 10. - - Euripides, 485 (or 480)-405, the Athenian tragedian, 59, 70, 78, 104, - 107, 129, 156, 159, 160, 164, 176, 177, 178, 192. - - Eurycleis, 126. - - Eurymĕdon, a river in Pamphylia; in 469 Cimon defeated the Persians on - its banks, 183. - - Eustrŏphus, a speaker in the First Pythian Dialogue. - - Euthyphron, a disciple of Socrates (see the Dialogue of Plato which - bears his name), 16, 17. - - - F. - - Fates, the, 37, 61, 308. - - Fortune, 89, 90. - - - G. - - Galaxidōrus, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 32, 43. - - Galaxius, in Boeotia, 110. - - Gauls, 222, 234. - - Gedrosia, a district on the Indus and Indian Ocean (SE. part of - Beloochistan), 296. - - Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse (d. 478), 99, 182. - - Getae, 190. - - Giants, 235. - - Glaucé, 87. - - Glaucus, 191, 230. - - Gorgias, of Leontini, 480-398, teacher of rhetoric (see the _Gorgias_ - of Plato), 22, 137. - - Gorgĭdas, 8, 12, 43, 50. - - Great Mother, the (Cybele), 107. - - Great Year, the, 138. - - Guides, the, of the temple and treasures of Delphi, apparently two in - number, 83, 85, 88, 94, 96. - Cp. _Sympos._ 5, 3, and 8, 4. - - Gullies, the (cp. Rhetiste), 19. - - Gyrean, cape, 230. - - - H. - - Hādēs, 37, 38, 225, 235, 299, 302, 304, 307. - - Haliartus, a town of Boeotia on Lake Copaïs, 15 miles NW. of Thebes, - 11, 12, 109. - - Hamadryads, 127. - - Hecăte, 130, 305, 317. - - Hector, 230. - - Hecŭba, 130, 233. - - Hegētor, 130. - - Helĕnus, son of Priam, a prophet, 41. - - Helĭcon, of Cyzicus, mathematician and astronomer, mentioned in - Plutarch’s _Life of Dion_, as having foretold a solar eclipse, 14. - - Helĭcon, a mountain (5,000 ft.) in Boeotia, 89. - - Hellas (Greece), 124, 125, 300. - - Hephaestus, the lame god of fire (see _Il._ 1. 590), 263. - - Hēra, 193, 232. - - Heracleia, probably a town in Phrygia, 189. - - Heracleidae, 195. - - Heracleitus, philosopher of Ephesus (end of sixth century), 73, 74, 87, - 101, 127, 197, 218, 224, 304. - - Heraea, the, a festival at Thebes, 31. - - Heraea, a town of Arcadia, 169. - - Heracleon, of Megara, a speaker in the Third Pythian Dialogue. - - Hercules (Heraclēs), 13, 51, 65, 94, 100, 123, 131, 185, 193, 195, 199, - 226, 300, 307. - - Hercŭlēs, Pillars of, 305. - - Herippĭdas, 29, 51. - - Hermes, 135, 139, 303. - - Hermodōrus, 39. - - Hermolaüs, 233. - - Herodĭcus, 187. - - Herodŏtus, the historian, of Halicarnassus (484-408), 100, 131, 166. - - Herophĭlé, 95. - - Hesiod, the ancient Boeotian poet, eighth century, 42, 86, 98, 123, - 126, 127, 128, 130, 156, 157, 161, 186, 202, 218, 230, 272, 298. - - Hesperus (the Evening Star, or planet Venus), 154, 215, 268, 273. - - Hiĕro, of Syracuse, brother of Gelon (d. 467). A munificent benefactor - of Delphi, 88, 99, 182. - - Hiĕro, the Lacedaemonian (killed in the battle of Leuctra 371), 88. - - Himĕra, a town of Sicily, 140. - - Hipparchus, the astronomer, of Rhodes and Alexandria, native of Nicaea - in Bithynia (fl. from 160), 98, 261. - - Hipparchus (son of Pisistratus), 189. - - Hippocrătes, 182. - - Hippostheneidas, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 44, 51. - - Hippys, of Rhegium, an early Greek historian, 140. - - Homer, 41, 63, 70, 76, 77, 85, 86, 87, 88, 93, 102, 126, 141, 148, 166, - 199, 215, 230, 265, 282, 286, 288, 299, 302, 303, 307. - - Hoplītes, river in Boeotia, 109. - - Hyampeia, one of two cliffs above Thebes, 192. - - Hypătes, 47, 49. - - Hypatodōrus, 29. - - - I. - - Iadmōn, 192. - - Ida, Mt., in Phrygia, 306. - - Iêïus, ‘invoked with the cry iē! (or iē paion!),‘ i. e. Apollo, 76. - - Ilithyia, 308. - - Ilium (Troy), 166. - - Indian, 140. - - Ino, daughter of Cadmus and wife of Athamas, a tragic heroine, 190. - - Ion Chius, a writer of plays, and anecdotist (fl. 450), 276. - - Iphĭtus, killed by Hercules, who had stolen the oxen of his father - Eurytus, 185. - - Isis, 296. - - Ismenian, a name of Apollo, 60. - - Ismenias, a Theban of the popular party and Polemarch, arrested by - Leontides, tried by a commission appointed by Sparta, on a charge of - ‘medizing’, and executed (see _Life of Pelopidas_), 8. - - Ismenidōrus, 20. - - Ismēnus, the principal (most easterly) river of Thebes, 15. - - Isodaités, ‘equal divider,’ a name of Dionysus, 67. - - Ister, a Greek historian, or antiquarian, 100. - - Ister, the Danube, 148. - - Isthmus (of Corinth), Isthmian, 94. - - Italy, 15, 21, 27, 88, 200. - - Ithaca, 193· - - Ixīon, 293. - - - J. - - Jason, Tagus of Thessaly (d. 370), known as ‘Prometheus’; (see Plutarch - _On getting advantage from enemies_, c. 6, p. 89 C, and Xenophon, - _Hellenica_, 2, 3, 18) 23. - - Jews, 231. - - - L. - - Lacedaemon, 51, 98, 99, 117, 179, 189, 229. - - Lachărēs, an Athenian demagogue (fl. 296), 195. - - Lachēs, Athenian general; fell at Mantineia, 418. A Dialogue of Plato - bears his name, 19. - - Lachĕsis, one of the Fates, 37, 308, 315. - - Lamia, 89. - - Lamprias, Plutarch’s brother (also the name of his grandfather); a - speaker in the First and Third Pythian Dialogues and in the _Face in - the Moon_. Cp. _Sympos._ 2, 2; 4, 5; 9, 15. - - Lamprocles, 35. - - Latōna, 232. - - Law Courts, the, 17. - - Lebadeia, near the western frontier of Boeotia, the seat of the oracle - of Trophonius, 120, 157. - - Lēda, daughter of Thestius, and mother of Helen and Clytaemnēstra, - Castor, and Polydeuces, 95. - - Lemnos, 290. - - Leontĭdes, one of the polemarchs at Thebes, 8, 10, 11, 12, 47, 49. - - Leontīni, a city of Sicily, 22. - - Lesbos, 194. - - Leschenorian, 60. - - Lēthē (‘Oblivion’), 209. - - Leucas, Leucadia, 184, 193. - - Leuctra, a village of Boeotia, between Thespiae and Plataea (famous for - the battle between the Spartans and Thebans in 371), 88. - - Libya (Africa), 103, 108, 185, 296. - - Lindos, a town on the eastern coast of Rhodes, 61. - - Livia, the empress, wife of Augustus, and mother, by her first - marriage, of Tiberius (d. A. D. 29), 62. - - Locris, 193. - - Lucania, 22. - - Lucius, a speaker in the Dialogue on the _Face in the Moon_. - - Lycians, 138, 139. - - Lyciscus, 177. - - Lycormae, 195. - - Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, ninth century, 99. - - Lycuria (an ancient name for the summit of Parnassus), a village near - the Corycian cave, 82. - - Lydia, 121. - - Lydiădas, 183. - - Lysander, the Spartan naval commander who finished the Peloponnesian - war. He fell in battle against the Thebans, 395, at Haliartus (see - his _Life_, c. 29): 109. - - Lysanorĭdas, 8, 10, 12, 43, 51. - - Lysimăchus, 189. - - Lysis, a Pythagorean teacher, driven from Italy to Thebes, where he - died, 7, 13, 15, 21, 24, 27. - - Lysitheides, 7. - - Lysitheüs, 48. - - - M. - - Maeotic Bay (Sea of Azov), 300. - - Magi, the, 126. - - Magnesia, district of Thessaly, 96. - - Malis, 89. - - Marăthon, on the east coast of Attica (famous for the battle of 490), - 183. - - Mardonius, the Persian general (defeated and killed at Plataea, 479), - 121. - - Marius, 184. - - Medes, 288. - - Megalopŏlis, the chief town of Arcadia, 183. - - Megăra, a city on the Saronic gulf, 18, 96, 122, 124. - - Megasthĕnēs, a Greek writer on India (fl. 300), 294. - - Melanthius, an Athenian tragic poet (fl. 420), 181. - - Melētus, one of the three accusers of Socrates, a poet, 16. - - Melissus, 20. - - Mĕlon, 8, 30, 47, 48. - - Melos, an island in the Aegean, 166. - - Memphis, a city of Egypt, on the Nile, 13. - - Menaechmus, 14 _n._ - - Menelaüs, a speaker in the Dialogue on the _Face in the Moon_. - - Mercury (the planet), 154, cp. 268. - - Meriŏnēs, 131. - - Messenians, 176, 229. - - Metapontium (Metapontum), a Greek city in Southern Italy, 21, 88. - - Mētrodōrus, of Chios, a disciple of Democritus (fl. 330), 137, 275. - - Midas, a mythical king of Phrygia, 229. - - Milētus, a city of Caria, 23, 193. - - Miltiădes, son of Cimon, the victor of Marathon, 183. - - Mimnermus, elegiac poet, of Smyrna and Colophon (fl. 600), 282. - - Minos, son of Zeus, king of Crete, and afterwards a judge in Hades, - 179. - - Mitys, of Argos, 186. - - Mnesarĕtē (Phryne), 94, 95. - - Mnesinoē, 95. - - Molionĭdae, the sons of Actor, by Molione, 94. - - Molus, 131. - - Mopsus, founder of Mallos in Cilicia, where he had an oracle, 163. - - Muses, the, 35, 86, 97, 98, 199, 226. - - Myrĭna, an Aeolian town on the west coast of Mysia, 96. - - Myron, 185. - - Myrtălē, 95. - - Mys, a Carian, employed by Mardonius to consult the oracles in Greece, - 121. - - - N. - - Nāïd, the, 127. - - Nauplia, the port of Argos, 192. - - Navel, the, at Delphi, 117. - - Naxos, an island in the Aegean, 199. - - Neleus, father of Nestor, 204. - - Neobūlē, 63. - - Neochōrus, 109. - - Neoptolĕmus, son of Achilles, 45. - - Nero, A. D. 37-68. The Roman Emperor. He visited Greece (the province - of Achaia) in A. D. 67, and proclaimed its freedom at the Isthmian - games: 60, 213. - - Nesĭchus, 108. - - Nestor, 204. - - Nicander, a priest of the temple at Delphi, 62, 63, 72, 170. - - Nicias, the Athenian general (d. 414 at Syracuse, see his _Life_), 23, - 229. - - Night, 210. - - Night-watcher (Nycturus), the, an early name for the planet Cronus - (Saturn), 300. - - Niŏbē, 232. - - Nisaeus, 197. - - Nisibeüs, 204. - - Nyctelius, ‘nightly’; used as a name of Dionysus, 67. - - - O. - - Odysseus (Ulysses), 16, 102. - - Oechalia, a town in Euboea (according to the story followed by - Sophocles) taken by Hercules, 131. - - Oeta, a mountain range in Thessaly, 186. - - Ogygia, the name given by Homer to the island of Calypso (_Od._ 1, 50, - &c.), 299. - - Olympia, in Elis, 160. - - Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great, 95. - - Olympicus, a speaker in the Dialogue on the _Delays in Divine - Punishment_. - - Olympus, a mountain (9,754 ft.) between Thessaly and Macedon, the seat - of Zeus, 70, 93. - - Olynthus, a town in the Chalcidice (taken by Sparta 379), 8. - - Onomacrĭtus, an Athenian poet and antiquarian (520-485), 107. - - Opheltiădae, 194. - - Opus, Opuntian, a Locrian town, 96. - - Orchalĭdes, 109. - - Orchomĕnus, a city of Boeotia, 163, 176. - - Orestes, son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnēstra, 95. - - Orneae, a town in Argolis, 95. - - Orpheus, of Thrace, a minstrel, 98, 126, 193, 210. - - Orphic, 72. - - Orthagŏras, 185. - - Osīris, an Egyptian deity, 138. - - - P. - - Paeonia, a district of Thrace, 186. - - Pallas (Athene); her image at Athens (Palladium) was believed to have - been brought from Troy by Diomede. Another Palladium stood on the - Acropolis (Pausanias i. 28-9): 88. - - Palōdĕs, the, 134, 135. - - Pan, 134, 135. - - Pandărus, a Lycian archer, 102. - - Parmenĭdes, of Elea in Italy, a philosopher (b. 513), 98, 272, 277. - - Parnassus, the mountain (8,000 ft.) above Delphi, the highest point of - a range of the same name, 210. - - Parnēs, a mountain range near the northern frontier of Attica, 19. - - Path, the, the Peripatetic School, 260. - - Patrocleas; Plutarch’s son-in-law, a speaker in the Dialogues on the - _Delays in Divine Punishment_ and on _The Soul_. Cp. _Sympos._ 2, 9; - 5, 7; 7, 2. - - Pausanias, (1) Spartan statesman and general (d. 470), 99 _n._, 189, - 200; - (2) the slayer of Philip of Macedon, 233. - - Pauson, a Greek painter of the fourth century. Aristotle (_Poet._ c. 2) - speaks of his style as that of caricature: 86. - - Paxi, two islands south of Corcyra, 134. - - Peace (a woman’s name), 99. - - Peisistrătus, tyrant of Athens, (d. 527), 182, 189. - - Pelopĭdas, Theban general and friend of Epaminondas; fell at - Cynoscephalae 364 (see his _Life_), 8, 43, 45, 47, 49. - - Peloponnesus, 121, 283, 293. - - Penelope, 135. - - Peparēthus, an island in the Aegean, off Thessaly, 13. - - Periander, tyrant of Corinth from 625; one of the Seven Wise Men, 61, - 184, 224. - - Pericles, Athenian statesman (d. 429), 185, 196. - - Persephŏnē, 37, 303, 306. - - Persia, 96, 121, 208, 229. - - Petraeus, of Delphi, 111. - - Petron, 140. - - Phaestus, in Crete, 117. - - Phaĕthon, a son of the Sun, 193. - - Phalanthus, a Lacedaemonian, founder of Tarentum (about 708), 108. - - Phalăris, tyrant of Agrigentum from 570: 184. - - Phanaean, 60, 77. - - Phanias, of Erĕsus in Lesbos, a Peripatetic philosopher, and pupil of - Aristotle, who wrote also on history, 140. - - Pharnăces (see p. 255), a Stoic, speaker in the Dialogue on the _Face - in the Moon_. - - Pharsalia, 88. - - Pheidolaüs, of Haliartus, 11, 12, 13, 19, 32, 35. - - Pheneātae, 193. - - Phenĕüs, a town in Arcadia, 193. - - Pherecȳdēs, a learned man of Syros (fl. 544), 294. - - Pherenīcus, 8, 10. - - Philēbus, a late Dialogue of Plato, on _Pleasure_, 71. - - Philīnus, a speaker in the Second Pythian Dialogue. Cp. _Sympos._ 1, 6; - 4, 1; 5, 10; 8, 7. - - Philip of Macedon (d. 336), 233. - - Philip, son of Cassander, king of Macedon (d. 296), 198. - - Philip V, 237-179, king of Macedon, 91, 92. - - Philippus, historian (of Prusa?), a speaker in the Third Pythian - Dialogue. Cp. _Sympos._ 7, 8. - - Philippus, of Thebes, 43, 44, 48, 50. - - Philochŏrus of Athens, antiquarian and writer on legend (d. 260), 100. - - Philolaüs, an early Pythagorean, 22. - - Philomēlus, 88. - - Phlĕgyas, of Orchomenus, a mythical hero, slain for impiety, 185. - - Phocis, Phocians, 88, 95, 96, 100, 185, 194. - - Phoebĭdas, a Spartan general, who treacherously seized the Cadmeia in - 382: 8. - - Phoebus, ‘The Bright’, an appellation of Apollo, 67, 76, 107, 138. - - _Phoenissae_, a play of Euripides, 107 n. - - Phosphor, Phosphorus (the planet Venus), 154, 268, 273. - - Phrygia, 126, 306. - - Phrynē, 95. - - Phyleus, 204. - - Phyllĭdas, 10, 11, 28, 29, 32, 43, 48, 50. - - Pillars of Hercules (on the Straits of Gibraltar), 305. - - Pindar, the Theban lyric poet (518-438), 7, 72 _n._, 77, 87, 98, 102 - _n._, 104, 105, 108 _n._, 123, 127, 131 _n._, 179, 194, 202, 226, - 227, 265, 273, 282. - - Pisa, a town in, or adjoining, Elis, 94. - - Pittăcus (652-569), patriot, and sole-ruler (‘aesymnete’) of Mytilēnē, - one of the Seven Wise Men, 61. - - Planetiădes (see Didymus). - - Plataea, a city of Boeotia on the Asopus, near the frontier of Attica, - 124. - - Plato, of Athens, 430-347, founder of the Academy, 13, 14, 63, 72, 104, - 126, 129, 134, 137, 156, 181, 318, 319; - _Cratylus_, 71, 130, 235; - _Laws_, 186; - _Minos_, 179; - _Phaedo_, 165; - _Republic_, 167, 187; - _Sophistes_, 151; - _Symposium_, 130; - _Timaeus_, 69, 128, 139, 141, 149, 154, 155, 180, 226, 272, 279, 293, - 295, 305. - - Plato, of Thebes, 12. - - Pleisthĕnes, son of Atreus and father of Agamemnon (but there are - variations in the story), 188. - - Pleistoănax, a king of Sparta (d. 408), 99. - - Plutarch, introduced only into the Dialogues on the _‘E’ at Delphi_ - (First Pythian Dialogue) and on the _Delays in Divine Punishment_, - 232. - - Pluto, 77. - - Polycrătes, of Delphi, 111. - - Polycrătes, of Samos, 224. - - Polygnōtus, of Thasos, painter, chiefly of Homeric subjects at Athens - and Delphi (fl. 450), 166. - - Polymnis, of Thebes, father of Epaminondas and Capheisias, 13, 14, 19, - 20, 22, 27. - - Polystyle (e mute), the, 50. - - Polyxĕna, 95. - - Pompey the Great (d. 48), 185. - - Porch, the, the Stoic School at Athens, 93. - - Poseidon, 89, 146. - - Poseidonius, of Apamea in Syria, a Stoic philosopher who taught Cicero, - 278, 283, 316, 317. - - Praxitĕles, the Athenian sculptor (fl. 364), 95. - - Priam, 41, 230. - - Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus and father-in-law of Periander, seventh - century, 99. - - Promētheus, son of the Titan Iapĕtus, 65. - - Prōteus, a mythical king of Egypt (Herod. 2, 112), 13. - - Protogĕnes, 205. - - Prytaneum, the, 72. - - Ptolemaeus (‘Ceraunus’, the Thunderbolt), king of Macedon (d. 280), - 189. - - Ptōüm, a mountain on the eastern side of the Copaïc lake, with a - sanctuary of Apollo, 121, 124. - - Punic, 91. - - Pylaea, a suburb of Delphi, 110. - - Pyrilampēs, a kinsman of Plato, 18. - - Pythagoras, of Samos, sixth century, philosopher and traveller, 14, 16, - 21, 27, 66, 123, 228 _n._, 231. - - Pythia, the, 72, 86, 100, 101, 103, 106, 110, 121, 164, 165, 169, 170, - 199. - - Pythian, 59, 60, 64, 117, 122, 123, 185. - - Python, the serpent slain by Apollo, 138. - - Pythōnĕs (ventriloquists), 126. - - - Q. - - Quintus, the friend to whom the Dialogue on the _Delays in Divine - Punishment_ is inscribed, also that on _Love between Brothers_, 175. - - - R. - - Red Sea (Mare Erythraeum). Before Ptolemy, the term was used loosely to - include the Persian Gulf, &c.: 117, 138, 305. - - Rhea, 154. - - Rhegium, a Greek town in South Italy, 140. - - Rhetiste (cp. the _Gullies_), 19. - - Rhodes, 95. - - Rhodōpis (see Herodotus ii. 134-5), 94. - - Rome, 91, 92, 135, 179, 184, 185. - - - S. - - Samĭdas, 49. - - Samos, an island in the Aegean, 192, 224. - - Sappho, the great woman lyric poet, a Lesbian, of the seventh century, - 87, 104. - - Sardis, the capital of Lydia, 192. - - Satilaeans, 194. - - Scythians, 189, 234. - - Scythīnus, of Teos, an iambic poet of unknown date, 96. - - Seleucus, king of Syria, assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus in 280: 189. - - Selīnus, a Greek colony on the S.W. coast of Sicily, 92. - - Selymbria, a town of Thrace, on the Propontis, 187. - - Semĕlē, the mother of Dionysus (Bacchus), 209. - - Serapion, or Sarapion, an Athenian poet, to whom the First Pythian - Dialogue is inscribed, and a speaker in the Second. - - Serāpis, an Egyptian deity, 107. - - Shining-One, the, a name for the planet Cronus (Saturn), 300. - - Sibylla, the Sibyl, the name of an early prophetess of Delphi; in later - times an official title, also applied to other prophetic women, - localized in various countries, 87, 89, 90, 95, 104, 211. - - Siceliot, of the Greek colonies in Sicily, 99. - - Sicily, 18, 99, 140, 184. - - Sicyon, on the south shore of the Corinthian gulf, 95, 184. - - Simmias, a Theban, a companion of Socrates, and (with Cebes) present at - his death (see the _Crito_ and _Phaedo_ of Plato), 8, 11, 12, 13, - 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 27, 32, 41, 42, 43. - - Simonĭdēs of Ceos, a lyric poet (556-467), 97, 190. - - Sisyphus, a knavish king of Corinth; some accounts make him father of - Odysseus: 185. - - Skotios, ‘of darkness’, i. e. Hades (Pluto), 77. - - Socrates, of Athens (d. 399), 7, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 32, 35, 40, 95, - 104, 180, 288. - - Soli, a city of Cilicia, 149, 205. - - Solon, 638-558, the Athenian law-giver; one of the ‘Seven Wise Men’, - 61, 179. - - Solymi, a people of Lycia, 138. - - _Sophistés_, a Dialogue of Plato’s later period, 71. - - Sophists, the, 196. - - Sophocles, 495-405, tragic poet of Athens, 78, 103 _n._, 106, 125, 132, - 266, 290 _n._ - - Sōphrōn (latter part of fifth century), a mime-writer of Syracuse, 63. - - Sparta, 11, 29, 88, 91, 106, 194, 200. - - Sparti, the, ‘sown men’, the armed men who sprang up out of the ground - at Thebes, when Cadmus sowed the dragon’s teeth, 82. - - Spinthărus, 40. - - Sporădes, the, a group of islands, off Britain, 135. - - Statuaries, street of the, 17. - - Stesichŏrus (Tisias), 632-560, lyric poet of Himera in Sicily, 78, 188, - 282. - - _Stheneboea_, a play of Euripides, 104 _n._ - - Stilbon (the planet Mercury), 154, 268. - - Stoics, the, 136, 146, 147, 264, 266, 285. - - Strabo, cognomen of the father of Pompey the Great, 185. - - Stratonīcē, 95. - - Styx, 37, 38, 97, 225. - - Suitors, the, i.e. of Penelope, 140. - - Sybaris, a Greek town of Lucania in South Italy, 193, 196. - - Syēnē (Assouan), taken by Eratosthenes to be directly under the sun at - the summer solstice, 119, 296. - - Sylla, a speaker in the Dialogue on the _Face in the Moon_. - - Symbŏlum, the, 16. - - Syracuse, 88, 193, 197. - - Syrian goddess (Cybele?), 233. - - - T. - - Taenărus, a cape and town in the south of Laconia, 199. - - Tantălus, 234, 293. - - Taprobăne (Ceylon), 265. - - Tarentum, a town in S. Italy, 40. - - Tarsus, in Cilicia, 117, 160. - - Tartărus, the penal region of the lower world, 40, 299. - - Tegyra, a village of Boeotia, near Orchomenus, 121, 122, 124. - - Teiresias, a blind prophet, of Thebes, 163, 226. - - Teletias, 185. - - Tempē, the gorge between Olympus and Ossa in Thessaly, through which - the river Penēus flows, 132, 138. - - Tenĕdos, an island off the coast of the Troad, 92. - - Terentius Priscus, the friend to whom the Third Pythian Dialogue is - inscribed, 117. - - Terpander, of Lesbos, the father of Greek music (fl. 700), 194. - - Terpsion, of Megara, a disciple of Socrates (see the _Theaetetus_ of - Plato), 18. - - Tettix, 199, 200. - - Thalēs, of Miletus (seventh and sixth centuries), an early philosopher, - one of the Seven Wise Men, 12, 61, 98. - - Thamus, 134, 135. - - Thasos, an island in the Aegean off Thrace, 166. - - Theānōr, a young Pythagorean, who came to Thebes from Crotona, as a - deputation, 21, 24, 27, 28, 40, 43, 315. - - Thebes, the Boeotian, 7, 8, 12, 22, 29, 30, 43, 44, 47, 48, 184. - - Thebes, the Egyptian, 296. - - Thĕmis, the goddess of Justice, for some time in charge of the oracle - at Delphi, 138, 211. - - Themistocles, Athenian statesman (514-449), 183. - - Theocrĭtus, of Thebes, ‘the prophet’, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 20, 28, - 30, 32, 35, 40, 43, 44, 49; - see _Life of Pelopidas_, c. 22. - - Theodōrus, of Soli, in Cilicia, a mathematician, 149, 150. - - Theognis, of Megara, elegiac and gnomic poet (570-490), 84. - - Theon, of Hyampolis, a family friend of Plutarch, a speaker in the - First and Second Pythian Dialogues, and in the _Face in the Moon_. - Cp. _Sympos._ 1, 4; 4, 3; 8, 6, and the Dialogue _Non posse - suaviter_, where the Epicureans are attacked. - - Theophrastus, born at Erĕsus, a philosopher of Athens, Aristotle’s - successor, 136. - - Theopompus, a Theban patriot, 43, 48. - - Theopompus, of Chios, historian (d. 305), 100. - - Theōrius, a designation of Apollo, 77. - - Theoxenia, the, 194. - - Thera, Therasia, islands off Crete, 91. - - Thermopylae, the coast pass between Thessaly and Locris, famous for the - defence of Leonidas in 480: 132. - - Thespesius (Aridaeus), 205, 206, 209, 210, 211, 213, 313, 314. - - Thespiae, a town of Boeotia, 29. - - Thessaly, 23, 24, 93, 95, 130, 158. - - Thrace, 126, 148, 193. - - Thrasybūlus, of Athens, 7. - - Thrasybūlus, tyrant of Syracuse after Hiero (467), 99. - - Thrasymēdēs, 169. - - Thucydides, the Athenian historian (d. 401), 98, 158 _n._, 176, 181, - 196. - - Thunderbolt (Ceraunus), Ptolemy, king of Macedon (d. 280), 189. - - Thymĕlē, the altar of Dionysus in the theatre, 103. - - Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar, B. C. 42-37 A. D. (Emperor from A. D. - 14), 135. - - Timarchus, of Athens, 99. - - Timarchus, of Chaeroneia, 35, 37, 38, 40, 41, 172, 314. - - Timochăris, 98. - - Timoleon, ruler of Syracuse (d. 357), 184: see his _Life_. - - Timon, Plutarch’s brother, a speaker in the Dialogues on the _Delays in - Divine Punishment_ and on the _Soul_. Cp. _Sympos._ 1, 2, and 2, 5; - and _On Love between Brothers_, c. 16. - - Timotheüs, an Athenian, 7. - - Timotheüs, of Miletus, musician and poet (446-357), 232. - - Tiribazus, satrap of western Armenia (d. 385), 229. - - Titans, giant sons of Uranus, 138, 272, 301. - - Tityus, a giant of Euboea, 307. - - Trench, battle at, 176. - - Troglodytes, cave-dwellers, about the Red Sea, &c., 117, 293, 296. - - Trophoniădes, 306. - - Trophonius, tutelary hero of Lebadeia and its oracle, 35, 40, 315. - - Trosobius, 138. - - Troy, 91, 102, 148. - - Trunkmakers’ street, 17. - - Tyndarĭdae, Castor and Polydeucēs (Pollux), 147. - - Typhons, 138, 235, 307. - - - U. - - Udōra, 306. - - Ulysses (Odysseus), 16, 140, 185, 193, 217. - - Urănus (‘Heaven’), the father of Cronus, 138. - - - V. - - Venus (the planet), 154, 268. - - Vespasian, 211 _n._ - - Vesuvius, 211. - - - W. - - Wise Men of Greece, the (see the _Dinner-Party of the Seven Sages_ by - Plutarch, translated by Professor Tucker in this series), 6, 110. - - - X. - - Xenocrătes, of Chalcēdon, 396-314, a philosopher, associate of Plato, - 129, 134, 305, 315, 316. - - Xenophănēs, philosopher of Colophon, fourth century, 235. - - Xenophon, Athenian general and historian (d. about 359), 103. - - Xerxes, 235. - - - Z. - - Zagreus, a name of the mystic Dionysus, 67. - - Zēnĕs (plural of Zeus), 146. - - Zeus, 96, 127, 139, 147, 148, 167, 179, 200, 226, 230, 272, 273, 297, - 299, 301. - - Zeus Agoraios, 35. - - Zodiac, the, 293. - - Zones, the, 154. - - Zoroaster, Persian sage, of uncertain date, 126. - -Printed in England at the Oxford University Press - - - - - ● Transcriber’s Notes: - ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected. - ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected. - ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only - when a predominant form was found in this book. - ○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). - ○ Text that was in bold face is enclosed by equals signs (=bold=). - ○ Page references printed in the margin of the book have been moved - into the paragraphs near where they appear, contained in square - brackets, and begun with the word “Sidenote”. - ○ Footnotes have been moved to follow the chapters in which they are - referenced. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Selected Essays of Plutarch, Vol. II., by Plutarch - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELECTED ESSAYS OF PLUTARCH, VOL II *** - -***** This file should be named 62858-0.txt or 62858-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/8/5/62858/ - -Produced by Turgut Dincer, David King, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Selected Essays of Plutarch, Vol. II. - -Author: Plutarch - -Translator: Arthur Octavius Prickard - -Release Date: August 5, 2020 [EBook #62858] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELECTED ESSAYS OF PLUTARCH, VOL II *** - - - - -Produced by Turgut Dincer, David King, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_on'>on</span> -<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_i'>i</span> - <h1 class='c001'>Selected Essays of Plutarch</h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='xxlarge'><b>SELECTED ESSAYS OF PLUTARCH</b></span></div> - <div class='c000'><span class='xlarge'><b>VOL. II</b></span></div> - <div class='c000'><span class='large'><b>TRANSLATED WITH INTRODUCTION</b></span></div> - <div class='c000'><span class='large'><b>BY</b></span></div> - <div class='c000'><span class='xxlarge'><b>A. O. PRICKARD</b></span></div> - <div class='c000'>‘But the Author in whom he delighted most was Plutarch, of</div> - <div>whose works he was lucky enough to possess the worthier half;</div> - <div>if the other had perished Plutarch would not have been a popular</div> - <div>writer, but he would have held a higher place in the estimation of</div> - <div>the judicious.’—<span class='sc'>Southey</span>, <i>The Doctor</i>, chapter vi, p. 1.</div> - <div class='c000'>OXFORD</div> - <div>AT THE CLARENDON PRESS</div> - <div>1918</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_iii'>iii</span> - <h2 class='c003'>PREFACE</h2> -</div> -<p class='c004'>This volume covers about one-eighth part of the miscellaneous -works of Plutarch known as the <i>Moralia</i>, much the -same quantity as is contained in Professor Tucker’s volume of -this series which appeared in 1913. All the pieces now offered -are in the form of dialogue, except the short treatise <i>On -Superstition</i>, which seemed to justify its inclusion by a certain -affinity of thought.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The text followed is that of Wyttenbach, issued by the -Clarendon Press in 1795-1800, or rather a text compounded -of the Greek text there printed, his own critical notes and -revision of the old Latin version, his commentary, where one -exists, and his posthumous Index of Greek words used by -Plutarch (1830). A few corrections by C. F. Hermann, -Emperius, Madvig, and other scholars, have been introduced, -for many of which I am indebted, in the first place, as I have -acknowledged more particularly, to M. G. N. Bernardakis, -the accomplished editor of the <i>Moralia</i> in the Teubner series -(1888-96). A very few fresh corrections, mostly on obvious -points, have been admitted.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The notes at the foot of the page are intended to show all -deviations from Wyttenbach’s text, so constituted, or to give -references to the authors of passages quoted by Plutarch; -there may be a few exceptions, where an illustrative reference -or an obvious explanation is given. For the plays and fragments -of the Tragic Poets reference is made to Dindorf’s -<i>Poetae Scenici</i>; for Pindar and other lyric poets, to Bergk’s -<i>Poetae Lyrici Graeci</i> (ed. 1900); for the fragments of Heraclitus, -to Bywater’s <i>Heracliti Ephesii reliquiae</i> (Oxford, 1877); -<span class='pageno' id='Page_iv'>iv</span>those of other early philosophers will be found in their places -in Diels’ <i>Vorsokratiker</i> (1903) or other collections.</p> - -<p class='c005'>To four of the dialogues I have with some reluctance -prefixed a short running analysis. It is always a pity to anticipate -what the author puts clearly before us;<a id='r1' /><a href='#f1' class='c006'><sup>[1]</sup></a> but there is -here a real practical difficulty, even for a careful reader, in -being sure who is the speaker for the time being; and as he -is often introduced by the pronouns ‘I’ or ‘he’, no typographical -device quite serves. The other dialogues seem to -explain themselves sufficiently. There is no attempt to supply -a commentary; but it is hoped that the full index of proper -names (which are very numerous) will enable a reader to distinguish -those as to whom it is worth his while to inquire -further from those who are only of passing interest. I have -given here a good many references to other works of Plutarch, -but more may usefully be sought, for instance in such an -index as is appended to Clough’s edition of the <i>Lives</i>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>I may perhaps be allowed to mention that the dialogue -<i>On the Face which appears on the Orb of the Moon</i> was translated -by me, and tentatively published in 1911, with the hope -of obtaining some helpful criticism. Having received several -kind notices, and in particular a very full one in <i>Hermathena</i> -by Dr. L. G. Purser, to which I am deeply indebted, I have -now ventured to reproduce this dialogue in somewhat fuller -form than the others, and to retain some of my original -notes. I should add that I have no competence to deal with -any scientific matters as such. I have added two longer notes -on special points of interest.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Sir Thomas Browne, writing in 1681-2 to his son Edward -who was by way of translating the <i>Lives</i> of Plutarch, and in -fact accomplished two of them, assumes that he will in the -main follow Amyot’s version, which North had followed -absolutely, and suggests that, with some corrections and the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span>removal of obsolete words, North’s work might still serve -‘especially with gentlemen, who if the expression bee playne -looke not into criticisme’. ‘If you have the Greek Plutarke,’ -he writes, ‘have also the Latin adjoyned unto it, so you may -consult either upon occasion, though you apply yourself to -translate out of French, and the English translation may be -sometimes helpful.’ Very likely an acceptable version of the -<i>Moralia</i> might now be produced out of Amyot and Philemon -Holland, a racy and scholarly translator from the Greek, -with the original and the old Latin at hand for reference. -But Dr. Edward Browne was a physician, of little leisure -and of delicate health, and it might hardly be respectful to -Plutarch to adopt this procedure now; indeed it seems to -recall that of ‘the dog’ in the proverb, who ‘drinks from the -Nile’, running as he drinks, always with an eye on the crocodiles. -However this may be, some indulgence may fairly be -claimed by a translator of an author, who, however straight-forward -himself, abounds in allusion and latent quotation, -and also in difficulties of text not of his own making, and -upon whom no commentary exists. I will mention, for the -sake of clearness, two instances as to which I have troubled -myself and, I fear, others a good deal:</p> - -<p class='c005'>In the dialogue <i>On the Genius of Socrates</i>, chap. iii, end -(577 <span class='fss'>A</span>), the speaker says that his brother Epaminondas is -keeping out of the patriotic enterprise in hand, on the ground -that the more hot-headed members of the party will not stop -short of a general massacre and the murder of many of the -leading citizens.</p> - -<p class='c005'>I have followed the Latin version in so rendering the words -καὶ διαφθεῖραι πολλοὺς τῶν διαφερόντων. But I have felt -some doubt—needlessly, I think—whether the Greek participle -would bear this meaning, and also whether the sense so given -is strong and suitable. Wyttenbach felt doubts too, for in his -posthumous <i>Index</i>, s.v. διαφέρω, the rendering given is ‘hostes -vel amici’, i.e. ‘friends or foes’. The sense is excellent, but -<span class='pageno' id='Page_vi'>vi</span>seems hardly to be in the Greek; probably it was a mere query -or jotting. The Teubner editor prints τῶν ἰδίᾳ διαφόρων ὄντων, -i.e. ‘those with whom they had private differences’, giving -Cobet’s name for the last two words. I have not been able to -trace the reference in Cobet, but in <i>Novae Lectiones</i>, p. 565, he -examines instances where he thinks that ἰδίᾳ should be supplied -or suppressed, as the case may be, before compounds of διά. -The sense seems good, but too special to be introduced into a -text without cogent evidence, since, once given currency, it is -difficult for a future critic to go back upon it. Meanwhile, in -Wyttenbach’s note on ii, 75 <span class='fss'>A</span>, he collects many instances where -οἱ διάφοροι is used by Plutarch for ‘the enemy’, ‘the other -party’, and τῶν διαφερόντων may have grown out of τῶν διαφόρων -with τῶν repeated. I have thought it the more peaceable -course to preserve the old rendering. I only quote this instance, -which is of no great importance but is of some, as one where -a <i>Variorum</i> editor would have stated at length and evaluated -the possible alternatives. That a translator should do so is -perhaps a case of ‘putting the cart before the horse’.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The other instance is one of real interest, where the problem -is perhaps insoluble upon our present knowledge. In the -long dialogue <i>On the Cessation of the Oracles</i>, c. 20 (420 c.), -where Cleombrotus has been pressing a view that there may -be daemons with a long, but yet a limited, term of existence, -against the Epicureans, whose own strange theory of <i>Eidola</i> -he derides, Ammonius replies in words which appear thus in -the Latin:</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘Recte, inquit, mihi pronunciare videtur Theophrastus, -quid enim obstat quin sententiam gravissimam et philosophiae -convenientissimam recipiamus dicentis: opinionem de Daemonibus, -si reiciatur, multa eorum simul abolere quae fieri -possunt demonstratione autem carent; <i>sin admittatur multa -secum trahere impossibilia et quae non exstiterint</i>.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>Amyot and others write ‘Cleombrotus’ for ‘Theophrastus’, -a change which, in view of Plutarch’s carelessness as to personal -<span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span>names, seems not unlikely, and helps a little. No doubt -Theophrastus is quoted, but his name need not have been -mentioned, and may have been brought into the text in the -wrong place. The absurdity of the words which I have given -in italics seems evident, and I have returned to a suggestion -of Xylander,<a id='r2' /><a href='#f2' class='c006'><sup>[2]</sup></a> by introducing a negative before πολλά, assuming -that Theophrastus is quoted, not for any opinion about -daemons, but for a canon of what is logically ‘probable’. -More subtle solutions are suggested, which could not be discussed -here properly: the question seems too intricate to -be settled by a translator as he goes on his way. We really -want to know what Theophrastus said.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The remarks on the absence of a commentary do not apply -to the dialogue on <i>Instances of Delay in Divine Punishment</i>, fully -annotated by Wyttenbach in 1772, nor to the essay <i>On Superstition</i> -and the greater part of <i>The E at Delphi</i>, which are -dealt with in his continuous commentary. Nor should I omit -to mention the great help afforded by Kepler’s notes on the -<i>Face in the Moon</i> and his scholarly translation.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The large number of poetical quotations in Plutarch often -stop a translator’s hand. Wherever it is possible, I have turned -to standard versions: for Homer to that of Worsley completed -by Conington, for Pindar’s extant Odes to that of -Bishop George Moberly, which it has been an especial pleasure -to use; for some lines of the <i>Cyclops</i> of Euripides I have been -fortunate enough to draw upon Shelley. There remain a good -many fragments, some of them of real poetical quality, and -some jingling oracles and the like; for the latter doggerel is -the proper vehicle, for the former the best attainable doggerel -must serve. The range of Plutarch’s poetical quotations -seems strangely limited considering their number. All are -Greek, and most from the older poets; indeed, with the exception -of a few from the New Comedy, nearly all might have -<span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span>been used by Plato. Those from the Tragedians are always -to the point, but he does not appear to care from which of the -three he is borrowing.<a id='r3' /><a href='#f3' class='c006'><sup>[3]</sup></a> Homer and Hesiod always bring a -welcome flavour of an older world. Perhaps Pindar is the poet -whom he quotes with most hearty appreciation. Though he -has given us many new poetical fragments, he introduces us -to few, if any, new poets. Of Bacchylides there are only two -slight quotations in all Plutarch’s works. A single reference -to a passage of Horace is all that shows a knowledge of the -existence of Roman poetry.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Southey’s comparison between the <i>Moralia</i> and the <i>Lives</i> -need not be pressed; it is the scholar’s preference for the -rare, which is his by privilege, over the popular. But it is -well to realize, as it is easy to do with the help of indices, -that the author’s hand is one in both. It is agreed that the -<i>Lives</i> belong to Plutarch’s later years, and were written at -Chaeroneia, under the limitations of his own library; the -several books appeared at intervals, of what length we cannot -say.<a id='r4' /><a href='#f4' class='c006'><sup>[4]</sup></a> The few indications of date mentioned in the introductions -to the dialogues now before us suggest the later -part of Vespasian’s reign or the years nearly following it, say -from <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 80 on. The dialogue on the <i>Instances of Delay in -Divine Punishment</i> from its simpler psychology and demonology, -and perhaps from some crudity in style, suggests a date -earlier than that of some of the others. Dr. Max Adler, in his -lucid and learned dissertation, has established the close connexion -between the <i>Face in the Moon</i> and the <i>Cessation of -the Oracles</i>, and thinks the former to have been the earlier, -and to have been utilized for the latter piece.<a id='r5' /><a href='#f5' class='c006'><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_ix'>ix</span>Montaigne, who knew his Plutarch up and down, has said -that he is one of the authors whom he likes to take after the -manner of the Danaids,<a id='r6' /><a href='#f6' class='c006'><sup>[6]</sup></a> which may be described as a -method of ‘dip and waste’. You may dip anywhere, as you -may into the pages of <i>The Doctor</i>, and be sure of finding something -which you would wish to remember; but you may also -find, on re-reading the same passage, that you have not remembered -it at all, so that the waste is continual. The freshness -need not be impaired by a little more system; indeed -it would be enhanced, at least for the dialogues, for this reason, -that they all represent real conversations between real persons, -and it is worth our while to put together our impressions about -each. The fullest materials for such an attempt will be found -in the <i>Symposiacs</i> or dialogues over wine.<a id='r7' /><a href='#f7' class='c006'><sup>[7]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The <i>Symposiacs</i> are arranged in nine books, each of which -contains ten conversations of unequal length, but all short, -except the last which has fifteen. On the other hand nine, -viz. four of the fourth book and five of the last, are missing, -only the titles being preserved. All the books are dedicated -to Sossius Senecio, who was consul first in <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 99; and as -there is no reference to the dignity, we may perhaps infer -that all were written before that year.<a id='r8' /><a href='#f8' class='c006'><sup>[8]</sup></a> There is not a single -reference in all the nine books to any public or personal event -which might help us to a date. We hear of the ‘year’ of -officials of the Greek games, of Plutarch’s return from a visit -to Alexandria, and of a marriage in his family, which Sossius -Senecio attended, but we cannot follow these clues.<a id='r9' /><a href='#f9' class='c006'><sup>[9]</sup></a> Many -<span class='pageno' id='Page_x'>x</span>of the discussions are about wine and wine-parties; in others -the range of subject is very wide, from ‘What Plato meant -by saying, if he did say, that God geometrizes’ to ‘Whether -the table should be cleared after dinner’, or ‘Why truffles -grow after thunder’. A good many are on medical subjects; -in one of them the promising problem, ‘Whether new diseases -can arise, and from what causes’, is well argued. The physicians -present show a full knowledge of the Natural History found -in the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and the laymen -seem to argue with them on equal terms. There is little or no -pleasantry about professional habits, the fees or the pedantry, -except that in one party a physician is host, and sets on the -table an inordinately good dinner, while certain young men of -severe habits put him to a great deal of trouble to produce -some cheese to eat with their dry bread.<a id='r10' /><a href='#f10' class='c006'><sup>[10]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>In the first dialogue of the First Book the question is raised, -‘Whether philosophy may be discussed over wine’. The -answer appears to be ‘Why not?’ but probably none of the -following dialogues would be called ‘philosophical’ by philosophers. -Plutarch loved a vigorous set-to, with no quarter given, -‘nothing for hate, but all for honour’, as much as did Montaigne.<a id='r11' /><a href='#f11' class='c006'><sup>[11]</sup></a> -But he felt deeply about the matters at issue between -Stoics and Epicureans, the two schools which mattered. -Believing himself in a Providence, kindly and particular, -associated by him with the Apollo of Delphi, he disliked equally -the Epicurean who flouted a Providence, and the Stoic who -lowered it by his pedantry and contradictions. He would not -have a scene over the wine. Even in the daylight dialogues -now before us, the cynic ‘Planetiades’ is skilfully bowed out -before there is trouble, and ‘Epicurus’ takes himself off before -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xi'>xi</span>the reported discussion begins, leaving the company surprised -rather than angry.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The titles of the five lost dialogues of the last book (the -others of that book being all on literary subjects) are curious. -Three are connected with music; and I should have the -permission of those who have kindly helped me here to say -that there is about Greek music a considerable region of dim -penumbra. Another raises a question discussed in the <i>De -Facie</i> and answered there out of Aristotle and Posidonius, -as to the eclipses of sun and moon. Another is on the problem -‘Whether the total number of the stars is more probably even -than odd’. The speakers (for a fragment is preserved) are -quite aware that a game of odd-and-even on such a scale might -seem childish. It need not be so, if the treatment were like -that of the <i>Arenarius</i> of Archimedes (all the better if in his -Doric); it would then have contained some long numbers -and some stiff reasoning. Of one thing we may be sure, that -if Lamprias, who is much to the fore in the Ninth Book, -took a part, he was ready with a received view, framed on -the spot.</p> - -<p class='c005'>M. Bernardakis<a id='r12' /><a href='#f12' class='c006'><sup>[12]</sup></a> (who quotes a letter from M. Wessely) tells -us that in the Paris E there is a blank space here of 2-¼ leaves, -but that in the old Vienna MS., no. 148 (which contains the -<i>Symposiacs</i> only), three whole pages have been cut out, leaving -a gap between what remains of the sixth dialogue and the -fragment of the twelfth. Former editions had printed continuously, -and our gratitude is due to M. Bernardakis for -his restitution of the fragment to its proper place. The -inference appears to be that the Vienna MS. is here the parent, -though why the fragment stops short where it does is not -clear. Probably the scribe was daunted by the technical -language, and either left a blank space to be filled up by some -one of greater experience, or so spoilt his sheets by errors and -erasures that it was better to cut them out. Some such cause -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xii'>xii</span>has been conjectured for the many gaps left in E, occurring -where the subject-matter is difficult.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Some ninety different persons are mentioned by name as -taking part in the <i>Symposiac Dialogues</i>, and if we allow for the -lost pieces, there must have been at least a hundred. These -may be arranged in groups: Plutarch and his family—his -grandfather, father, brothers, sons, sons-in-law—the doctors (8), -the grammarians (5), and so on. Many of these reappear in -the dialogues now before us, and much may be gained in -distinctness of personality by following out the references -given.<a id='r13' /><a href='#f13' class='c006'><sup>[13]</sup></a> Ammonius, Plutarch’s teacher in the Platonic philosophy, -comes out as a masterful person, and a past-master in -the art of tactful arrangement of a debate. Theon (‘Our -Comrade’, an appellation given to some half-dozen others), -to be distinguished from ‘Theon the Grammarian’, is a close -and much trusted family friend. Very few Roman names -appear, but Sossius Senecio, Mestrius Florus, and one or two -others, must have been intimates.</p> - -<p class='c005'>None of the conversations in the <i>Symposiacs</i> turn upon -points which were Plutarch’s interest when he wrote the -<i>Lives</i>; the study of character in stirring times, of the reaction -of circumstances upon character and of character upon circumstances, -of the insoluble problem which is always solving -itself, as to ‘Virtue’ on the one hand and ‘Fortune’ on the -other, determining success. The elaborate introduction to -the <i>Genius of Socrates</i>, put side by side with that to the <i>Life -of Pericles</i>, shows that the author wished to turn from subjects -which made good talk over wine in hours of leisure, to -others of a more virile stamp. The most convenient hypothesis -would be that the success of the <i>Symposiacs</i> suggested -to the author to try his hand on more elaborate dialogue, -and that, still later on, he settled to the <i>Lives</i> in the spirit, -not of an historian, but of an artist, filling his canvas with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xiii'>xiii</span>themes inspired by that great art, Virtue. The lost <i>Life of -Epaminondas</i>, his favourite hero, would have told us a great -deal about the artist himself. It was not Plutarch’s habit -to sum up in such brilliant character sketches as stand out -in other historians: this has been done for Epaminondas, on -broad and generous lines, by Sir Walter Raleigh, and before -him, not less generously, by Montaigne; and much material -will be found scattered among Plutarch’s other <i>Lives</i>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Such an hypothesis can only be ventured in the broadest -outline, for no one date covers all the <i>Lives</i> or all the <i>Dialogues</i>, -and some of the facts are perplexing. In the <i>Second Pythian -Dialogue</i> Diogenianus appears as a very young man, and is -introduced as the son of a father known to the company; -and Diogenianus of Pergamum takes part in several of the -<i>Symposiacs</i>, but there is no mention of a son old enough to -be brought with him. On the other hand, Boethus in the -same dialogue is ‘on his way to the camp of the Epicureans’; -in one of the <i>Symposiacs</i> he is ‘an Epicurean’ simply. In -the last book of the <i>Symposiacs</i> Theon’s sons come in, but we -do not hear of him elsewhere as a father of grown-up sons.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The dialogue <i>On the Face which appears on the Orb of the -Moon</i> is unique as showing the interest taken by men of good -general education in scientific subjects in the first century of -our era, and as evidence of the point to which the natural -sciences had then attained. Professional science may be said -to have been almost limited to the province of the mathematician -and his congeners. Natural History was part of the -general outfit of the ‘Philosophers’, and there was no idea -of the ‘Conquest of Nature’ for the relief of man’s estate, -unless by the engineer or the physician. With these limitations, -the progress made may strike some modern readers as -surprisingly great, and a good example may be found in the -very precise knowledge of Hipparchus and Ptolemy of the delicate -phenomena of the moon’s movements. We are tempted -to ask whether, if Greeks had not settled these problems, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xiv'>xiv</span>which men of no other ancient race attacked scientifically, -they would have been settled to this day. To come down to -a humbler matter: if the properties of the conic sections had -not been discovered by Apollonius and his predecessors, would -they stand in their place, probably a modest one, on a modern -syllabus, and, meanwhile, could the mechanical arts have progressed -without them? And the conic sections are simple -things compared with the lines, surfaces, and solids determined -once for all by Archimedes. Archimedes was a mathematician -by the grace of Nature, and an engineer by the order of a -prince; and the conic sections themselves were examined, not -from any practical interest in the cone, but because they were -found to furnish instances of the curves which might facilitate -the line of inquiry, suggested by Plato with such amazing foresight, -as a half-way house towards a solution of Apollo’s -problem.<a id='r14' /><a href='#f14' class='c006'><sup>[14]</sup></a> Of course this can only be stated as a question—not -a rhetorical question—and must be left on the knees of the -gods. The general subject is discussed in D. Ruhnken’s admirable -<i>De Graecia artium ac doctrinarum inventrice</i>, an inaugural -lecture delivered at Leyden in 1757 (just thirty years after -Newton’s death).</p> - -<p class='c005'>A few lines about the scholar to whose prolonged labours -upon Plutarch we owe so much are only his due. Daniel -Wyttenbach was born at Bern, where his father was a divine -of good Swiss family, in 1746. He studied at Marburg and -Göttingen, and passed to Holland, filling professorial chairs -at Amsterdam, and, from 1798, at Leyden. In Holland he -was the colleague and intimate friend of Valckenaer (1715-85) -and David Ruhnken (1723-98), himself by birth a German. -By their advice, he turned from a meditated edition of the -Emperor Julian’s works to Plutarch. The two advisers were -not quite at one, and Wyttenbach seemed to crouch between -two burdens—Valckenaer wished him to produce a final edition -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xv'>xv</span>of some one work, Ruhnken (who would gladly have faced the -task himself if he had been a younger man) preferred that he -should not stop short of all Plutarch. In 1772 he produced -his learned and complete commentary on the <i>De sera numinum -Vindicta</i>. About this time the Delegates of the Oxford Press -were anxious to produce a worthy edition of a great classic; -and in 1788 Thomas Burgess, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, -afterwards Bishop of St. Davids and of Salisbury, visited Holland -and sought an introduction to Wyttenbach, with whom an -arrangement was concluded in the autumn of that year. The -issue of the volumes of text, with critical notes and revised -Latin version, began in 1795 and went on steadily till 1797; -but there was much delay and many searchings of heart over -the last volume, containing the fragments, the dispatch of -which was hindered by the state of war and the occupation -of Holland by foreign troops. It was at last discovered -in 1800 in the port of Hamburg, and appears to have reached -Oxford in that year. The first two volumes of the commentary, -to page 242 <span class='fss'>C</span>, had preceded it in 1798, and were also published -in 1800. The last volume must have proceeded slowly, for it -had only reached 392 <span class='fss'>D</span>, near the end of the <i>E at Delphi</i>, when, -on January 12, 1807, it was interrupted by an explosion due -to the careless use of fire on a barge loaded with gunpowder. -The effects of the conflagration which followed are visible in -Leyden to this day. The disaster was ill-timed for us, for the -commentary stops just short of a passage of great interest -(see p. <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>). Wyttenbach bore this trouble, which he has -graphically described in several letters, and also those caused -by ill health and narrowed means, with much fortitude. He -died in 1820, and the last volume of the commentary was -sent to Oxford and published in 1821, followed by the two -volumes of the <i>Index Graecitatis</i> in 1830. He was a most -amiable man, and the letters which passed between him and -Ruhnken have much charm of feeling and expression. Both -wrote in admirable Latin; Wyttenbach’s style is always fluent -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xvi'>xvi</span>and picturesque, but has certain idiosyncrasies, which may -delay an English reader.<a id='r15' /><a href='#f15' class='c006'><sup>[15]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Of older scholars who had dealt with Plutarch, by far -the most important was Turnebus<a id='r16' /><a href='#f16' class='c006'><sup>[16]</sup></a> (1512-65). Of Xylander -(W. Holzmann, 1532-76), who produced the Latin translation, -the basis of his own commentary, and a Greek text, Wyttenbach -writes with much respect and sympathy, as he does also of -Reiske (1716-74), his own contemporary, who, however, was -not quite adequately equipped, in point of material or of -critical judgement.</p> - -<p class='c005'>I should like to express my deep sense of the loss caused to -classical scholarship by the lamented death of Herbert Richards. -I have more than once referred to his critical notes on the -<i>Moralia</i>, which have been appearing lately in the <i>Classical -Review</i>: many of the finer points of Greek idiom do not -concern a translator, but there are several most valuable -suggestions and criticisms which I have felt confidence in -adopting.</p> - -<p class='c005'>A still more personal loss, which intimately concerns this -volume, is that of Ingram Bywater. He had promised a -revision of it in its passage through the press; and his vigilance -as a Curator as well as his jealousy for the severer traditions of -scholarship, apart from his personal kindness, would, I know, -have made it a searching one. He did not specially care for -English translation, and his own masterly version of the <i>Poetics</i> -of Aristotle is prefaced by something like a protest. Nor did -he feel much sympathy with what he would call the ‘Realien’. -On the realities of life no one had a saner or better informed -judgement. For natural science and its representatives he -cherished a genuine respect; and perhaps none of the tributes -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xvii'>xvii</span>to his memory would have touched him more than one which -was paid in the pages of <i>Nature</i> by an old colleague and friend -of the Exeter College days. But he had a certain shyness of -the intrusion of arguments based, say, upon geometry or -music, into problems of language already sufficiently perplexed. -How generously his noble library and his own stores -of wisdom were thrown open to those who sought them -is known to many, as it is to myself.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Yet another great loss to me has been that of the Rev. David -Thomas, Rector of Garsington, in Oxfordshire, a veteran -mathematician, my near neighbour and most kindly and -helpful referee during many years.</p> - -<p class='c005'>I cannot send out even so small a volume without a word -of gratitude for affectionate and lifelong help received from -John Wordsworth, Bishop of Salisbury 1885-1911. His own -enduring contribution to secular scholarship was made in -1874, and holds its place in the judgement of Latin scholars. -He was always shouldering new burdens, the last being the -mastering, for a definite purpose of friendship and public duty, -of the language and history of Sweden. But his great stores -of books and of knowledge were always in order, and always made -available to others. He would often preface any opinion of -his own by ‘My father used to think highly’ of such a book -or such a person; and it was always well to be reminded of that -true scholar and most courteous gentleman of an older day.</p> - -<p class='c005'>I owe much, for help and advice, to living friends whom -I should like to thank, but may not. But I must be allowed to -acknowledge, in no conventional spirit, the great care bestowed -on these pages by the Reader for the Delegates of the Press, -who has entered into difficulties of matter as well as of language -as few scholars can be expected to have the patience -to do.<a id='r17' /><a href='#f17' class='c006'><sup>[17]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_xviii'>xviii</span>The style of Plutarch has not received much favour with -scholars. He uses too many words, and writes in cumbrous -sentences, and the words often seem ill-shapen. But it has -merits which are acknowledged by all those who have dwelt -much upon him. His style is a very honest one; at the end of -the longest sentence it is always found that he has said something -worth saying, and that no word can be retrenched as -mere verbiage. And he is so much in earnest that he often -reaches an eloquence, which burns, perhaps, with a dull glow, -but which cannot be quite lost in any translation. Indeed the -modern languages have sometimes an advantage in the fact -that they do not possess counterparts, as long and as elaborate, -of the terms used in the original. Of the first, and the best, of -Plutarch’s translators, Montaigne<a id='r18' /><a href='#f18' class='c006'><sup>[18]</sup></a> has written an opinion, -to which it should be added that, in the judgement of very -capable persons, Amyot<a id='r19' /><a href='#f19' class='c006'><sup>[19]</sup></a> was a scholar of real knowledge and -penetration, though he is sometimes content to paraphrase:</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘Ie donne avecque raison, ce me semble, la palme à Iacques -Amyot sur touts nos escrivains françois, non seulement pour -la naïfveté et pureté du langage, en quoy il surpasse touts -aultres, ny pour la constance d’un si long travail, ny pour la -profondeur de son sçavoir, ayant peu developper si heureusement -un aucteur si espineux et ferré (car on m’en dira ce qu’on -vouldra, ie n’entends rien au grec, mais ie veois un sens si bien -ioinct et entretenu partout en sa traduction, que, ou il a -certainement entendu l’imagination vraye de l’aucteur, ou -ayant, par longue conversation, planté vifvement dans son -ame une generale idee de celle de Plutarque, il ne luy a au -moins rien presté qui le desmente ou qui le desdie); mais, -sur tout, ie luy sçais bon gré d’avoir seu trier et choisir un -livre si digne et si à propos pour en faire present à son pais.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>Since this Preface was written, early in 1916, a study of -Plutarch, which should be of great value to his readers, has -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xix'>xix</span>appeared in the <i>De Plutarcho scriptore et philosopho</i>, by Professor -J. J. Hartman of Leyden. Professor Hartman is an enthusiast, -and his book covers all the works of Plutarch, the <i>Moralia</i> and -the <i>Lives</i>, their relations to one another and to the author’s -career. He is of opinion that the <i>Lives</i> were taken in hand after -all, or nearly all, the writings included in the <i>Moralia</i> were completed, -and then appeared in rapid succession of books. He -observes that many of the pieces of the <i>Moralia</i> suggest the date -<span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 107; the <i>Symposiacs</i> he places somewhat later. Two -conclusions, of much importance as coming from so serious a -student, may be stated: the Christian teaching had never come -into Plutarch’s hearing (p. 114, &c.), and there is no suggestion -of any tendency to Oriental or Neoplatonic thought; Plutarch -was the best living authority on Plato and his works, and aimed -at being the Plato of his own day (pp. 389, 680, &c.).</p> - -<p class='c005'>A large list of critical comments is appended to the general -notice of each work. Professor Hartman takes as his basis the -Teubner edition, and pays a well-merited tribute to the care -and skill of M. Bernardakis (p. 237, &c.). His usual complaint is -that the editor has lacked the boldness to incorporate in the text -ingenious emendations which he mentions in notes. I had myself -felt somewhat differently as to all unsupported emendations, -though I am glad to repeat my sense of the great usefulness of the -edition, my debt to which goes much beyond what I have -expressly acknowledged.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_xx'>xx</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CONTENTS</h2> -</div> -<table class='table0' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='88%' /> -<col width='11%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>On the Genius of Socrates</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#chap01'>1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>Three Pythian Dialogues</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#chap02'>52</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>I. On the ‘E’ at Delphi</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#chap03'>57</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>II. Why the Pythia does not now give Oracles in Verse</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#chap04'>79</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>III. On the Cessation of the Oracles</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#chap05'>112</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>On the Instances of Delay in Divine Punishment</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#chap06'>171</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>From the Dialogue ‘On the Soul’</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#chap07'>214</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>On Superstition</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#chap08'>219</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>Appendix: A Short Discourse of Superstition. By John Smith</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#app1'>236</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>On the Face which appears on the Orb of the Moon</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#chap09'>246</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>Notes</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#notes'>309</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>Note on the Myths in Plutarch</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#myths'>313</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>Note on the Plurality of Worlds and the Five Regular Solids</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#chap10'>318</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>Index</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#index'>321</a></td> - </tr> -</table> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> - <h2 id='chap01' class='c003'>ON THE GENIUS OF SOCRATES</h2> -</div> -<h3 class='c009'>INTRODUCTION</h3> -<p class='c004'>The Dialogue on <i>The Genius of Socrates</i>, to follow the familiar -Latin title, is in the main a detailed and spirited account of -a gallant exploit, the recovery of the Cadmeia, or citadel of -Thebes, treacherously taken by the Spartans, with the aid of -the Theban oligarchs, two years before. The recovery was -effected in the winter of 379-378 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> by a party of Theban -patriots, returning from exile in Athens, led by Pelopidas. -The discussions as to the real meaning of the ‘daemonic Sign’ -of Socrates form interludes which fill in the hours of waiting, -and serve to relieve the tension of the narrative. It is as though -Ulysses were heard discoursing to Menelaus within the Wooden -Horse on the personality of Pallas Athene, with Helen prowling -around outside. There is nothing strained or dramatic, in any -disparaging sense, in speculation thus rubbing shoulders with -action. The simplicity and good faith of the speakers, and the -attractive personality of Epaminondas, forbid any suspicion of -affectation. Thus the Dialogue serves a double purpose: it -redeems the character of the leading Thebans, and of Pelopidas -in particular, from the habitual disparagement of Xenophon and -others; and it redeems the intellectual character of the Boeotians -from the reproach against which the most brilliant of Greek -poets, himself a son of Thebes, protests, ‘Swine of Boeotia’. -For the chief speaker on the Socratic question is Simmias, and -Cebes is present, Thebans whose names are for ever associated -with the last hours of the Athenian Master; and the story is -brightened by glimpses into the home of Epaminondas, and by -hallowed memories of the Pythagorean brotherhood.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>Early in 382 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> the Spartans had dispatched a force against -Olynthus, the first division under Eudamidas, the second under -his brother Phoebidas. The latter lingered under the walls of -Thebes; and, whether led by personal ambition, or receiving -secret orders from home, allowed himself to intrigue with the -oligarchical leaders, who, though their party was not in power, -were strong enough to be represented on the board of Polemarchs -by Leontides, another, or the other, being Ismenias. Guided -by Leontides, the Spartans, one hot summer day, seized the -Cadmeia; Leontides arrested his colleague Ismenias, and caused -Archias to be made Polemarch in his place. The popular -leaders, some four hundred in number, took refuge in Athens. -The Spartans disclaimed the action of Phoebidas, who was fined -and superseded; and appropriated its results, strengthening the -garrison of the Cadmeia. A commission of judges from the -confederate states was appointed by Sparta to try Ismenias on -a vague charge of Medizing; he was condemned and executed. -Of the two Polemarchs, Archias was a man of pleasure, Leontides -one of severe private life, but an unscrupulous party leader. He -caused the lives of the refugees in Athens to be attempted, -successfully in at least one case, that of Androcleidas. Of the -patriots, Pelopidas, who had been formally exiled, was the -leading spirit; Epaminondas, who remained at home, held back -for good reasons which are stated in the course of the Dialogue -(p. <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>). One of the most useful confederates was Phyllidas; -he had himself, when on a visit to Athens, suggested the enterprise, -but he managed to retain the confidence of the party now -in possession of Thebes, and held the office of Secretary to the -Polemarchs.</p> - -<p class='c005'>These facts are assumed to be familiar to his hearers by -Capheisias, brother of Epaminondas, who had himself joined -the liberators without any scruples, and later on had been sent -to Athens on an embassy. His story of the sequel is told to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>a mixed company of Athenians and Thebans. It is a perfectly -clear one, and needs no comment.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The facts are again told by Plutarch in his <i>Life of Pelopidas</i>. -The <i>Lives</i> were the work of his later years; and the present -Dialogue, with its fuller detail and more varied colouring, is an -earlier attempt to draw an historical picture, a work of art -which will bear the close inspection of those who love to hear -of virtue, or valour, in action.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The events are also narrated by Xenophon, who, from his -usual Lacedaemonian and anti-Theban bias, omits all mention -of Pelopidas. Thirlwall has preferred to base his account upon -Plutarch; Grote follows Xenophon, but with a strong protest -against his narrowness.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The conduct of Sparta justifies the allegation made by the -Athenians in 416 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>, ‘that in her political transactions she -measured honour by inclination and justice by expediency’ -(Thuc. 5, 105). The most scathing verdict upon it is delivered -by Xenophon himself, who pauses in his narrative to point the -moral, that the fall and degradation of Sparta began from this -turning-point:</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘It would be possible to mention many other instances, from -Greek and foreign history, proving that the Gods do not fail to -notice the authors of impious and wicked deeds; at present -I shall only mention the case before us. The Lacedaemonians, -who had sworn that they would leave the cities independent, -and then seized the Acropolis of Thebes, were punished entirely -by those whom they had wronged, having previously been -beaten by no man then living. The Theban citizens who had -introduced them into the citadel, and who wished the city to be -subject to the Lacedaemonians that they themselves might enjoy -absolute power, lost their supremacy, which seven exiles were -enough to overthrow.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>These remarks are in the spirit of the Greek Tragedians, who -<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>love to bring into strong light an act or situation of pride and -insolence as the turning-point from prosperity to ruin. Thucydides, -as is pointed out by Grote in the masterly pages which -end his fifty-sixth chapter, has brought the cynical injustice of -the Athenians towards Melos into glaring prominence in order -to prepare his readers for the disastrous sequel.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The problem of the true nature of the ‘Divine Sign’ of -Socrates is one of great interest and some mystery. The Latin -word ‘Genius’, the attendant spirit who makes each of us -what he is, in fact, his self, is familiar to us from Horace:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>The Genius, guardian of each child of earth,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Born when we’re born and dying when we die.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>(<i>Epist.</i> 2, 2, 187.)</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>The conception is thoroughly Greek, and may be paralleled -abundantly from Plato as well as from Plutarch himself and -contemporary writers. But it is really misapplied here, and is -in fact a mistranslation, since the word used by Plato and -Xenophon as well as by Plutarch is invariably not the daemon, -but the neuter adjective, ‘the daemonic sc. Sign’. The passages -of Plato and Xenophon are collected in the late James Riddell’s -edition of the <i>Apology</i> of Plato.<a id='r20' /><a href='#f20' class='c006'><sup>[20]</sup></a> It is to be observed that in all -the genuine works of Plato the operation of the Sign is negative -and deterrent, in Xenophon it is sometimes positive and hortatory. -The reader should consult the articles on Socrates by -Professor Henry Jackson in the <i>Encyclopaedia Britannica</i>. -Professor Jackson is inclined to think that the evidence points -to some abnormal condition of the sense of hearing, and there -are expressions in this Dialogue of Plutarch which seem to bear -out such a view. Apuleius’ treatise <i>On the God of Socrates</i> -(which St. Augustine tells us that he would have entitled <i>On -the daemon of Socrates</i> if he had dared) tells us much which -<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>is of interest about the daemons, but not very much about -Socrates. He contributes, however, the pertinent remark -that the Sign, according to Socrates himself, was not ‘a voice’, -but ‘a sort of voice’.</p> - -<p class='c005'>There is no indication of the date of composition of this -Dialogue.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Not many points of topography arise. The Cadmeia stood -on a low hill or plateau rising from north to south on the eastern -side of the Dirce stream and reaching a height of some 200 feet, -now occupied by the modern town. The market-place was -north-east of this, near the river Ismenus. Of the seven famous -gates the returning exiles may probably have entered by the -Electran, the one assailed by Capaneus in Aeschylus’ story -(<i>Seven against Thebes</i>, 423).</p> -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span> - <h3 class='c009'>A DIALOGUE HELD AT ATHENS</h3> -</div> -<p class='c004'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>573<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> <span class='sc'>Containing an Account of the Return of the -Theban Exiles</span>, 379 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span></p> -<h3 class='c009'>SPEAKERS</h3> -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Capheisias</span>, a Theban (brother of Epaminondas), who tells the story of the return.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Timotheus.</span>, Athenian</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Archidamus.</span>, Athenian</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>The Sons of Archinus.</span>, Athenian</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Lysitheides.</span>, Athenian</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Other Friends.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>I. <i>Archidamus.</i> I once heard a painter, Capheisias, say a -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> striking thing about the different people who come to view -pictures, which he put as a simile. Spectators with no technical -knowledge, he said, are like those who greet a large company in -the mass; others, who possess fine taste and a love of art, -resemble those who have a personal word for all comers. The -former get only a general view of the works before them, which -is never accurate; the latter discuss each piece critically and in -detail, and no point of execution, good or bad, escapes inspection -and remark. Now I think that it is just the same with the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> actions of real life. Duller minds are satisfied if they learn from -history the summary account of what occurred and its outcome; -lovers of what is honourable and beautiful take keener delight in -hearing all particulars of the performances inspired by that great -<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>Art Virtue. To the actual result, Fortune has much to say; -but he who dwells on causes and particulars sees Virtue at -odds with circumstance, acts of rational daring done in the -face of danger, and calculation meeting opportunity and passion. -Take it that we belong to the second class. Begin at the -beginning of the enterprise, and give us all the incidents and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -all the speeches which were no doubt delivered in your presence; -and believe that I would not have hesitated to go to Thebes on -purpose to hear the story, but that the Athenians are already -beginning to think me too much of a Boeotian.</p> - -<p class='c005'><i>Capheisias.</i> Indeed, Archidamus, since you are so kind as to -press for the whole story, it would be my duty to make it, as -Pindar<a id='r21' /><a href='#f21' class='c006'><sup>[21]</sup></a> says, ‘a call before all business’ to come here to tell it; -but as we are brought here on an embassy, and have nothing -to do until we receive the answers of the people, I feel that -any reluctance or embarrassment on my part towards so kind -and good a friend might well wake up the old reproach against -the Boeotians that they hate discussion. It was already fading <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -away, thanks to your Socrates; but our own care for Lysis,<a id='r22' /><a href='#f22' class='c006'><sup>[22]</sup></a> of -blessed memory, showed us true enthusiasts. But see whom -we have present: is it convenient to them to listen to so long -a story and to so many speeches? The narrative is not a short -one, since you yourself bid me include the speeches.</p> - -<p class='c005'><i>Archidamus.</i> You do not know these friends, Capheisias? -No, but you should; sons of good fathers who were good friends -to your people. This is Lysitheides, nephew of Thrasybulus; <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -this is Timotheus, Conon’s son; these are the sons of Archinus; -the others are all of our brotherhood; so your story finds -a friendly and congenial audience.</p> - -<p class='c005'><i>Capheisias.</i> That is well. But what should you think a good -point for me to start from, in view of what you know already?</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span><i>Archidamus.</i> We know fairly well, Capheisias, how things -were at Thebes before the return of the exiles. We had heard -at Athens how Archias and Leontides persuaded Phoebidas to -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>576<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> seize the Cadmeia during a truce; how they expelled some of -the citizens and terrorized others, and seized office for themselves -in defiance of law. We were the personal hosts here of -Melon and Pelopidas, and constantly in their company so long -as they were in exile. Again, we had heard how the Lacedaemonians -fined Phoebidas for seizing the Cadmeia, removed him -from the command against Olynthus, and then replaced him at -Thebes by Lysanoridas and two others, and kept a stronger -garrison than before in the Citadel. We were aware, too, how -Ismenias met an unworthy death, since, immediately after his -trial, Gorgidas wrote the whole account in a letter to the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> exiles here. Thus it remains for you to tell us about the actual -return of our friends and the capture of the tyrants.</p> - -<p class='c005'>II. <i>Capheisias.</i> Well then, Archidamus, during those days, -all of us who were concerned in the movement were accustomed -to meet for conference when necessary in the house of Simmias, -who was recovering from a wound in the leg; ostensibly passing -the time in philosophical talk, into which, as a blind, we often -drew Archias and Leontides, men not altogether strangers to -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> such discussion. For Simmias had spent much time abroad, -and wandered among men of other lands, and had shortly before -this returned to Thebes full of all sorts of stories and outlandish -accounts. These stories Archias used to enjoy when he chanced -to have leisure, taking his seat with the young men, and liking -us to pass the time in talk rather than attend to their proceedings. -On the day upon which the exiles were to reach the walls at -dusk, a man came in from here, sent by Pherenicus, known to -none of our party except Charon; he proceeded to explain -that the younger exiles, twelve in number, had taken hounds -to hunt the Cithaeron country, intending to reach Thebes -<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>towards evening. He had been sent, he said, in advance <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -to tell us this, and to find out who was to provide the house for -their concealment on arrival, so that they might have notice -and go straight to it. While we were puzzling it over, Charon -agreed to provide his own house. So the man settled to return -to the exiles as fast as he could.</p> - -<p class='c005'>III. Here the prophet Theocritus pressed my hand hard, -and looking at Charon, who was walking in front, said: ‘This -man is no philosopher, Capheisias; he has received no extraordinary -training, as Epaminondas your brother has; yet you -see how he is naturally drawn by the laws towards the nobler <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -course, volunteering to encounter the greatest danger for our -country’s sake. Whereas Epaminondas, who claims to have -been trained to virtue above all Boeotians, is dull and spiritless;<a id='r23' /><a href='#f23' class='c006'><sup>[23]</sup></a> -what better opportunity than this will he ever have to bring -into play his fine gifts and training?’ I said: ‘Not so fast, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Theocritus the eager! We are carrying out what we ourselves -resolved; but Epaminondas, failing to persuade us to drop the -plan, as he thinks would be best, naturally resists when invited -to a course of action which he dislikes and disapproves. Suppose -a physician undertook to cure a disease without the use of knife -or fire: you would not be using him fairly, to my thinking, if -you compelled him to cut or burn.<a id='r24' /><a href='#f24' class='c006'><sup>[24]</sup></a> Very well; my brother, -as you know, will not have any citizen die without a trial, yet -is eager to work with those who wish to free the city from -internal bloodshed and slaughter. As, however, he fails to -convince the majority, and as we have embarked on this course, -he bids you let him stand out, clear and guiltless of murder, -and free to watch opportunities; when justice and expediency <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>577<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -meet, he will strike in. He feels that, work once begun, there -will be no limitations; perhaps Pherenicus and Pelopidas will -<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>turn their attack against the greatest criminals, but Eumolpidas -and Samidas, men of fire and passion, when night puts power in -their hands, will not sheathe their swords before they have filled -the city with murder from end to end, and dispatched many -of our leading men.</p> - -<p class='c005'>IV. While I was thus conversing with Theocritus, Galaxidorus -kept trying to check us;<a id='r25' /><a href='#f25' class='c006'><sup>[25]</sup></a> Archias was near, and Lysanoridas -the Spartan, both walking quickly from the Cadmeia, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> apparently towards the same point as ourselves. So we broke -off; Archias called Theocritus, and drew him towards Lysanoridas; -then he talked a long time with them apart, having -changed his direction a little towards the Amphion. Thus we -were in an agony: had some hint or information reached them, -upon which they were questioning Theocritus? In the meanwhile -Phyllidas, whom you know, Archidamus, and who was at -that time acting as clerk to Archias and the Polemarchs, and -knew of the expected arrival of the exiles,<a id='r26' /><a href='#f26' class='c006'><sup>[26]</sup></a> being privy to our -scheme, pressed my hand as it was his way to do, and went on -with bantering talk for every one’s benefit, about the gymnasia -and the wrestling; then, having drawn me some distance from -the others, he began to ask me about the exiles, and whether -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> they were keeping to their day. When I said that they were, he -continued: ‘Then I have done right in preparing for to-day the -party at which I mean to entertain Archias, and to deliver him -into their hand in his cups.’ ‘Better than right, Phyllidas!’ -I said; ‘and do you try to collect all or as many as you can -of our enemies to the same place.’ ‘That is not easy;’ said -he, ‘indeed, it is impossible; for Archias, expecting that -a certain lady of high rank will come there to meet him, does -not wish Leontides to be present. We must therefore mark -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> them down to separate houses. If Archias and Leontides are -once captured, I think that the others will take themselves off, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>or else will remain quiet, glad to close with any offer of safety.’ -‘We will do so,’ I said, ‘but what can Theocritus have to talk -about with these people?’ ‘I cannot answer clearly or from -knowledge,’ said Phyllidas, ‘but I heard portents mentioned -and prophecies disastrous to Sparta.’ <a id='r27' /><a href='#f27' class='c006'><sup>[27]</sup></a>[Meanwhile Theocritus -rejoined us, and] Pheidolaus of Haliartus came up and said, -‘Simmias wants you to wait hereabouts a little. He is closeted -with Leontides, interceding for Amphitheus to get his sentence -of death commuted, if possible, to exile.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>V. ‘The very man!’ said Theocritus. ‘You might <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -have come on purpose, for I was longing to hear what the -discoveries were, and about the general appearance of the tomb -of Alcmena in your country when it was opened, if you were -really present yourself when Agesilaus sent and removed the -remains to Sparta.’ Pheidolaus answered: ‘I was not present; -and vexed and indignant I was with my citizens for leaving me -out. However, no vestige of a body was found, only a bracelet -of brass, not a large one, and two earthenware jars containing <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -earth which had become solid as stone. Above the tomb lay -a brass plate, with many letters wonderful for their great -antiquity; they afforded no intelligible sense, though they -came out clear to the eye when the brass was washed. The -characters were of a peculiar and barbaric type, most closely -resembling the Egyptian; and Agesilaus accordingly, as they -said, sent copies to the king of Egypt, asking him to show them -to the priests, on the chance of their understanding them. -However, Simmias may, perhaps, have something to tell you -about all this, as he was at that time in Egypt, and philosophy <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>578<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -brought him much into the society of the priests. But the -people of Haliartus believe that the great scarcity of crops and -the advance of the lake were not accidental, but were an angry -visitation because they allowed the tomb to be dug open.’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>After a short pause Theocritus went on: ‘Nor yet are the -Lacedaemonians themselves clear of the wrath of heaven, as is -shown by the portents about which Lysanoridas was lately -conferring with us. He is now off to Haliartus to fill in the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> tomb again and to offer libations to Alcmena and Aleus, of course -in accordance with some oracle, not knowing who Aleus was. -When he comes back from there he intends to investigate the -tomb of Dirce, which is unknown to the Thebans, except those -who have acted as Hipparchs. The outgoing magistrate takes -his successor in office, with no one else present, and shows it him -at night; they perform certain fireless rites over the tomb, -carefully obliterate all traces, and go off under cover of darkness -by separate ways. And much chance, I think, they will have -of finding it, Pheidolaus! For most of those who have served -legally as Hipparchs are now in exile; I might say all, except -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Gorgidas and Plato, whom they fear too much to examine. But -the present magistrates receive the spear and the seal in the -Cadmeia, and know absolutely nothing.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>VI. While Theocritus was saying this, Leontides was going -out with his friends. We entered, and began to pay our compliments -to Simmias, who was sitting on the couch, having -been unsuccessful in his petition, I think, for he seemed wrapped -in thought and much annoyed. Looking hard at us all, ‘Hercules!’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> he said, ‘what savage barbarous manners! How right, -and more than right, old Thales was, when he came home from -a long absence abroad, and his friends asked what was his rarest -discovery, “An aged tyrant”, he said! For every one, even if he -have not been personally wronged, is disgusted at mere oppression, -and harshness, and so is an enemy to lawless irresponsible -dynasties. Well, the God will see to this, perhaps; now, -Capheisias, about your newcomer, do you know who he is?’ -‘I do not know’, said I, ‘whom you mean.’ ‘Yet Leontides -tells us’, he said, ‘that a man has been seen by the tomb of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>Lysis, rising to go when night was done. His retinue and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -equipment were stately. He had bivouacked there on a rough -bed, for piles of agnus castus and tamarisk were visible, and also -remains of burnt sacrifices and libations of milk. At dawn he -asked those who met him whether he should find the sons of -Polymnis in the country.’ ‘But who can the stranger be?’ -I said; ‘from what you tell us it must be some uncommon -person, one in no private station.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>VII. ‘Certainly not’, said Pheidolaus. ‘However, when -he comes we will see to his reception. Now, as to those characters, -Simmias, about which we were puzzling just now. If you -know more than we do, tell us; for it is said that the Egyptian -priests have made out the letters on the plate which Agesilaus <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -took from us when he opened the tomb of Alcmena.’ Simmias -remembered at once. ‘I know nothing of that plate, Pheidolaus;’ -he said, ‘but Agenoridas the Spartan brought a number -of characters from Agesilaus to Memphis, to Chonuphis the -prophet, with whom Plato and I and Hellopion of Peparethus -were staying to enjoy Philosophy together. He had been sent -by the king, who desired Chonuphis, if he could make anything -out of the inscription, to interpret and return it quickly. After -spending three days in retirement, reading up characters from -all countries in ancient books, he wrote his answer to the king. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>579<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He explained to us that this inscription directs the holding of -a competition in honour of the Muses. The characters belonged -to the system of the reign of Proteus, the one learnt by Hercules -the son of Amphitryon. The God therein directs and charges -the Greeks to observe a time of peace and leisure, spending it in -continuous philosophical debate, with the help of the Muses -and of Reason, for the decision of points relating to Justice, all -arms being laid aside. We thought at the time that what -Chonuphis said was good, and we thought so still more when, in -our journey from Egypt round Caria, we met certain Delians <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>who begged Plato, as a geometrician, to solve the problem propounded -in a mysterious oracle of the God. The oracle was -this: “The Delians and the other Greeks shall have respite -from their present ills when they have doubled the altar at -Delos.” The Delians were unable to guess the meaning, and, -moreover, had brought themselves into a ludicrous difficulty -about the construction of the altar. They had doubled each of -the four sides,<a id='r28' /><a href='#f28' class='c006'><sup>[28]</sup></a> and so unconsciously produced a solid figure -eight times greater than the original, in ignorance of the factor -which must be applied to the side, in order to double the solid. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> So they appealed to Plato for help in the difficulty. Plato, -remembering the Egyptian, said that the God was rallying the -Greeks on their neglect of liberal studies, mocking our ignorance, -and commanding us to take up geometry in real earnest; that -it required no slight or dim-sighted intellect, but a first-rate -training in linear geometry, to find two mean proportionals, the -only method by which a solid in the form of a cube can be -doubled, if all its dimensions are to be increased uniformly. -Eudoxus of Cnidos, he said, or Helicon of Cyzicus, would work -this out for them.<a id='r29' /><a href='#f29' class='c006'><sup>[29]</sup></a> However, in his opinion, the God did not -desire this; he was enjoining all the Greeks to cease from war -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and trouble and devote themselves to the Muses, to soften their -passions by discussions and Mathematics, and to associate profitably -with one another.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>VIII. While Simmias was speaking, our father Polymnis -came in upon us. He sat down by Simmias and said: ‘Epaminondas -invites you and all present, if you have no more pressing -engagement, to wait hereabouts; he wants to introduce to you -the stranger, a man noble himself, and brought here by a noble -<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>and generous errand. He comes from the Pythagoreans of <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Italy, to pour offerings on the tomb of old Lysis, in accordance, -as he says, with certain dreams and clear visions. He brings -a large sum in gold, thinking that Epaminondas ought to be -reimbursed for the care of Lysis in his old age, and on this he -insists most keenly, though we neither ask nor wish assistance -for our poverty.’ Simmias was pleased: ‘A really wonderful -man,’ he said, ‘and worthy of Philosophy; but what is the -reason that he has not come straight to us?’ ‘He passed the -night, I think,’ said he, ‘near the tomb of Lysis; Epaminondas <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -was to take him on to the Ismenus to bathe, and then they will -come on to us here. Before he met us, he had made his night’s -lodging near the tomb, intending to take up the remains and -convey them to Italy, unless prevented by some divine warning -in the night.’ Having said this, my father was silent.</p> - -<p class='c005'>IX. Then Galaxidorus spoke: ‘Hercules! how hard it is -to find a man quite free from vanity and superstition! Some -are caught by these weaknesses against their will, owing to want -of experience or of strength. Others, in order to appear singular -and to be taken for friends of the Gods, bring the divine into -all they do, making dreams and portents and such stuff a pretext -for anything that enters their head. Now, to men in public <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>580<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -stations, who are compelled to adapt their lives to a self-willed -and petulant multitude, this may have its advantage; superstition -is a bit wherewith to check a populace, and direct it to -what is expedient. But to Philosophy such posturing is unbecoming -in itself, and, moreover, it contradicts her professions; -she undertakes to teach all that is good and expedient by the -reason, and then, as though in despite of reason, goes back upon -the Gods and away from the first principles of action; and, -dishonouring demonstration, in which her own excellence is -supposed to lie, turns to prophecies and visions seen in dreams, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -things in which the weakest often have as great success as the -strongest. This, I think, Simmias, is why your Socrates -<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>embraced a system of intellectual training which bore a more -philosophical stamp, choosing that simple artless type as being -liberal and most friendly to truth; and casting to the winds -for the sophists, as a mere smoke from Philosophy, all pretentious -nonsense.’ Theocritus broke in: ‘What, Galaxidorus, and -has Meletus persuaded even you too that Socrates despised -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> what was divine, for that was the charge which he actually -brought before the Athenians?’ ‘What was divine—no;’ -he said, ‘but he received Philosophy from Pythagoras and -Empedocles full of visions and myths and superstitions, and -deeply dipped in mysteries; and trained her to look at facts, -and be sensible, and pursue truth in soberness of reason.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>X. ‘Granted;’ said Theocritus, ‘but as to the Divine -Sign of Socrates, good friend, are we to call it a falsity or -what? To me, nothing recorded about Pythagoras seems to -go so far towards the prophetic and divine. For, in plain words, -as Homer has drawn Athena to Odysseus</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>In all his toils a presence and a stay</i>,<a id='r30' /><a href='#f30' class='c006'><sup>[30]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>even so, apparently, did the spirit attach to Socrates, from the -first, a sort of vision to go before and guide his steps in life, which -alone</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Passing before him shed a light around</i><a id='r31' /><a href='#f31' class='c006'><sup>[31]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> in matters of uncertainty, too hard for the wit of man to solve; -upon these the spirit used often to converse with him, adding -a divine touch to his own resolutions. For more, and more -important, instances you must ask Simmias and the other -companions of Socrates. But I was myself present, having -come to stay with Euthyphron the prophet, when Socrates, as -you remember, Simmias, was going up to the Symbolum and -the house of Andocides, asking some question as he walked and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>playfully cross-examining Euthyphron. Suddenly he stopped -and closed his lips tightly<a id='r32' /><a href='#f32' class='c006'><sup>[32]</sup></a> and was wrapt in thought for some -time. Then he turned back and took the way through the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Trunkmakers’ Street, and tried to recall those of our friends -who were already in advance, saying that the Sign was upon him. -Most of them turned in a body, amongst whom was I, keeping -close to Euthyphron. But some young members of the party, no -doubt to put the Sign of Socrates to the test, held on, and drew -into their number Charillus the flute-player, who had come -to Athens with myself, staying with Cebes. Now as they were -going through the street of the Statuaries near the Law Courts, -they were met by a whole herd of swine loaded with mud and -hustling one another by press of numbers. There was no <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -getting out of the way; on they charged, upsetting some, -bespattering others. At any rate, Charillus came home with -his clothes full of mud and his legs too, so that we always laugh -when we remember Socrates and his Sign, and wonder that this -divine presence of his should never fail him or forget.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XI. Then Galaxidorus said: ‘Do you think then, Theocritus, -that the Sign of Socrates possessed a special and extraordinary -power, not that some fragment of the ready wit -which we all share determined him by an empiric process, -turning the scale of his reasoning in cases which were uncertain -and incalculable? For as a single weight does not by -itself incline the balance, but, if added to one scale when the -weights are even, sinks the whole of that one on its own side, so <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>581<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -a cry, or any such feather-weight sign, will fit<a id='r33' /><a href='#f33' class='c006'><sup>[33]</sup></a> a mind already -weighted, and draw it into action; and when two trains of -thought are in conflict, it reinforces one, and solves the difficulty -by removing the equality, so that there is a movement and an inclination.’ -My father broke in: ‘Well, but I have myself heard, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>Galaxidorus, from a certain Megarian, who had it from Terpsion, -that the Sign of Socrates was a sneeze, proceeding either from -himself or from other persons; if some one else sneezed on his -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> right, whether behind or in front, it encouraged him to the -action; if on the left, it warned him off it. Of his own sneezings -there was one kind which confirmed his purpose when he was -still intending to act; another stopped him when he was already -acting and checked his impulse. The wonder to me is that if -he made use of a sneeze he did not so call it to his companions, -but was in the habit of saying that what checked or commanded -him was a Divine Sign. For that would be like vanity and idle -boasting, not like truth and simplicity, in which lay, as we -suppose, his greatness and his superiority to men in general, to -be disturbed by a sound from outside or a casual sneeze, and so -be diverted from acting, and give up what he had resolved. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Now the impulses of Socrates, on the other hand, show firmness -and intensity in every direction, as though issuing from a right -and powerful judgement and principle. Thus for a man to -remain in voluntary poverty all his life, when he might have had -plenty, and the givers would have been pleased and thankful, -and never to swerve from Philosophy in the face of all those -hindrances; and at last, when the zeal and ingenuity of his -friends had made his way easy to safety and retreat, not to be -bent by their entreaties, nor yield to the near approach of -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> death—all this is not like a man whose judgement might be -changed by random voices or sneezings; it is like one led to -what is noble by some greater and more sovereign authority. -I hear also that he foretold to some of his friends the disaster -which befell the power of Athens in Sicily. At a still earlier -time, Pyrilampes, the son of Antiphon, when taken prisoner in -the pursuit near Delium, after having received from us a javelin -wound, as soon as he had heard from those who had arrived from -Athens to arrange the truce that Socrates had returned home -<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>in safety by The Gullies<a id='r34' /><a href='#f34' class='c006'><sup>[34]</sup></a> with Alcibiades and Laches, often -called upon him by name, and often on friends and comrades of <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -his own who had fled with him by way of Parnes, and been slain -by our cavalry; they had disobeyed the Sign of Socrates, he -said, in turning from the battle by a different way instead of -following his lead. This, I think, Simmias too must have heard.’ -‘Often,’ said Simmias, ‘and from many persons. For there -was no little noise at Athens about the Sign of Socrates in -consequence.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XII. ‘Well, then, Simmias,’ said Pheidolaus, ‘are we to -allow Galaxidorus in his jesting way to bring down this great -fact of divination to sneezings and cries, which plenty of common <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -ignorant persons apply to trifles in mere sport, whereas, when -grave dangers overtake them, or more serious business, we may -quote Euripides:<a id='r35' /><a href='#f35' class='c006'><sup>[35]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>These follies have a truce when steel is near</i>‘?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Galaxidorus said: ‘I am quite ready to listen to Simmias on -this subject, Pheidolaus, if he has himself heard Socrates speak -about it, and to join you in believing; but as for all that you -and Polymnis have mentioned, it is not hard to refute it. For -as in medicine a throb or a pimple is a small matter, but is the -indication of what is not small; and as to a pilot the cry of -a bird from the open sea, or the scudding of a thin film of cloud, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>582<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -signifies wind and rougher seas, so to a prophetic soul a sneeze or -a voice is nothing great in itself, but is the sign of a great conjuncture. -There is no art in which it is thought contemptible -to forecast great things by small, many things through few. -Suppose a man ignorant of the meaning of letters were to see -<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>a few insignificant-looking characters, and to refuse to believe -that one who knew grammar could, by their help, repeat the -story of great wars between old-world peoples, and foundings -of cities, and what kings did or suffered, and then were to say -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> that a voice, or something like a voice, revealed and repeated -each of these things to that historian, a pleasant laugh would -come over your face, my friend, at the ignorance of that man. -Now, consider, may it not be so with us? In our ignorance of -the meaning of different things by which the prophetic art hits -the coming event, are we simple enough to rebel if a man of -intellect uses them to reveal something not yet evident, and -says, moreover, that a Divine Sign, not a sneeze or a voice, -directs him to the facts? For now I turn to you, Polymnis, who -wonder that Socrates, a man who did so very much to make -Philosophy human by simplicity and absence of cant, should -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> have named his Sign, not a sneeze or a voice, but, in full tragic -phrase, his Divine Sign. I, on the contrary, should be surprised -if a man so excellent in Dialectic and mastery of terms -had said that the sneeze and not the Divine Sign gave him the -intimation. As if a man were to say that he had been wounded -“by the javelin”, not “by the thrower with his javelin”, or, -again, that the weight had been measured “by the balance”, -not “by the weigher with his balance”. For the work is not -the work of the tool but of the owner of the tool which he -uses for the work; and the Sign is a kind of tool used by the -signifying power. But, as I said, if Simmias should have anything -to tell us we must listen, for his knowledge is more exact.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIII. Then Theocritus said: ‘Yes, but first let us see -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> who these persons are who are coming in; or, rather, it is -surely Epaminondas bringing the stranger to us.’ We looked -towards the doors, and saw Epaminondas leading the way, then -Ismenidorus, Bacchylidas, and Melissus the flute-player, all of -them our friends and confederates; then the stranger followed, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>a man of much nobility of mien, but with a gentle and kindly -character apparent beneath it, and dressed in a grave fashion. -He took his seat by Simmias, my brother next to me, and the -rest as they found places. Then, when there was silence, -Simmias called on my brother: ‘Well, Epaminondas, how -are we to address our friend? Who and what is he, and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -whence? That is the usual formula for beginning an -introduction and an acquaintance.’<a id='r36' /><a href='#f36' class='c006'><sup>[36]</sup></a> Epaminondas replied: -‘Theanor is his name, Simmias, and his family is of Crotona, -where he belongs to the local school of Philosophy and does no -discredit to the great fame of Pythagoras; he has just taken the -long journey from Italy here, to confirm noble doctrines by -noble acts.’ The stranger broke in: ‘Indeed, Epaminondas, -you are now hindering the noblest of all actions. For if to -confer a benefit on friends be noble, it is no shame to receive <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -one from them. A favour needs one to receive, no less than -one to bestow it; both must join to ensure a noble result. It -is like a ball well delivered; to allow it to drop idle to the -ground is to shame it. Now what mark is there for a ball, so -agreeable for the thrower to hit and so distressing to miss, as -a man at whom one aims a favour when he well deserves it? -But in the one case the mark stands still, and he who misses has -himself to thank; in the other, he who excuses himself and -swerves aside does a wrong to the favour which never reaches -its goal. You have yourself heard fully from me the reasons -of my voyage here; but I should like to go through the story <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>583<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -as fully to those now present, and let them be judges between us.</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘When the Pythagoreans had been overpowered by faction -in the different cities, and their brotherhoods expelled, and -when the party of Cylon had piled up a fire round a house in -Metapontum in which those still settled there were holding -a meeting, and had dispatched all those in the place except -<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>Philolaus and Lysis, who were still young, and were strong -enough and active enough to push through the fire, Philolaus -escaped thence to Lucania and joined in safety the rest of our -friends, who were by this time rallying and holding their own -against the Cylonians. Where Lysis was, no one knew for -a long time; however, Gorgias of Leontini, sailing back from -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Greece to Sicily, brought certain news to Arcesus and his -friends that he had met Lysis, who was staying near Thebes. -Arcesus longed to see the man, and was eager to sail straight off -himself; but being quite disabled by age and infirmity, gave -orders to bring Lysis alive to Italy if possible, or his remains if -he should have died. Then came wars, revolutions, and -periods of tyranny which made it impossible for the friends to -perform the task in his lifetime. But when the spirit of Lysis, -now dead, had shown us clearly of his end, and well informed -persons told us of all the care and entertainment which he had -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> received from your family, Polymnis; how richly his age had -been cared for in a poor house, and how he had been adopted -as father to your sons before his blessed end came, I was sent -out, a young man and alone, to represent many of my elders -who have money and wish to offer it to those who have not, in -return for favour and friendship richly bestowed. Lysis lies -where you have honourably laid him; yet the honour of that -tomb is greater when recompense is made for it to friends by -friends dear and close.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIV. While the stranger was speaking thus, my father -wept a long while over the memory of Lysis, but my brother -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> with his usual gentle smile said to me: ‘What is it to be, -Capheisias? Are we to surrender poverty to riches, and to say -nothing?’ ‘No! no!’ said I, ‘the dear “good nurse of -young manhood”<a id='r37' /><a href='#f37' class='c006'><sup>[37]</sup></a>—to her rescue! it is your turn to speak.’ -‘See, father;’ he said, ‘that was the only side on which -I used to fear that our house might be captured by money. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>I mean through Capheisias and his person, which needs beautiful -clothes that he may make a brave show before all his admiring -friends, and needs food of the best, and plenty of it, that he -may have strength for the gymnasia and wrestling matches. -Now that he does not betray poverty, or throw off our ancestral -poverty like a coat of paint, but, boy though he is, goes proudly <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -in thrift, and is content with what we have, to what possible -use could we put money? Shall we plate our armour, say, with -gold, and make the shield gay with purple and gold together, -as Nicias of Athens did?<a id='r38' /><a href='#f38' class='c006'><sup>[38]</sup></a> Shall we buy you, father, a Milesian -cloak, or a dress with a purple border for mother? You know, -we are not likely to spend the present on our table, or to feast -ourselves more sumptuously, as having admitted a guest of -such importance as wealth.’ ‘Away with it, boy!’ said my -father, ‘never may I see our life new-modelled like that!’ <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘No,’ my brother went on, ‘nor will we sit idle at home and -guard our wealth; that would be a “boonless boon”<a id='r39' /><a href='#f39' class='c006'><sup>[39]</sup></a> indeed, -and a getting with no honour to it.’ ‘Of course’, said our -father. ‘You know,’ Epaminondas went on, ‘when Jason, the -Thessalian Tagus, lately sent a large sum of money here to us -and begged us to take it, he thought me something of a boor -when I answered that he was making the first move in wrong -and robbery, when a lover of monarchy like himself tempted -with money a private citizen of a free self-governed state. -From you, Sir, I accept your generous intention, and admire it <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>584<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -more than I can say; it is beautiful and philosophical too; but -you are bringing medicines to friends who are not sick! Suppose -that you had heard that we were attacked in war, and had -sailed with arms and ammunition to help us, and on arrival had -found that all was friendliness and peace; you would not think -it necessary to hand over the stores and leave them where they -were not needed. Even so, you have come to be our ally -<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>against poverty, thinking that we were pinched by her, but -there is none so easy to be endured as she, our dear fellow-lodger. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> So no need for money or arms against her who vexes us not. -Take back this message to your brotherhood: that they themselves -use their wealth most nobly, but that there are friends here -who make noble use of poverty: and that, as to the entertainment -of Lysis and his burial, Lysis has paid the score in -full for himself, not least by teaching us not to fret at poverty.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XV. Theanor broke in: ‘Then, if it is ignoble to fret at -poverty, is it not eccentric to fear and shun wealth?’ ‘Eccentric -it is if it is rejected on no rational grounds, but in order -to pose or because of insipid taste or affectation of some kind.’ -‘But what rational grounds’, he said, ‘could bar the getting -of wealth by good and honest means, Epaminondas? Or rather—and -surrender more gently than you did to the Thessalian in -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> answering our questions about these matters—tell me whether -you think that the giving of money may sometimes be right, -but the receiving never; or that givers and receivers alike are -in all cases wrong?’ ‘No, no!’ said Epaminondas, ‘I hold -that, as with everything else, so with wealth; there is a giving -and a getting which are ugly, and a giving and a getting which -are fine.’ ‘Then,’ said Theanor, ‘when a man gives readily -and heartily what he owes, is not that beautiful?’ He assented. -‘But when one receives what another beautifully gives, is not -the taking beautiful? Or could there be a fairer taking of -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> money than when it comes from one who gives fairly?’ ‘There -could not’, he said. ‘Then of two friends, Epaminondas,’ -said he, ‘if one is to give, it looks as if the other must take. For -in battles one must swerve away from a marksman in the -enemy’s ranks; in the conflict of benefits it is not fair to avoid -or thrust aside the friend who nobly gives. For, if poverty is -no affliction, yet wealth, on its side, is not a thing to be flouted -and refused like that.’ ‘It is not,’ said Epaminondas, ‘but -<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>there is a case where the gift which may be nobly offered remains -more honoured and more noble if it is refused. Look at it with -us in this way: you will allow that there are many desires, and -desires of many things; some inborn, as we call them, which -grow up about the body and are directed towards its necessary -pleasures; others adventitious, grounded on mere fancies, but <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -gaining strength and power by time and use, where there is -vicious education, and often dragging down the soul more -forcibly than do those which are necessary. Now, by habits -and training, men have before now succeeded in drawing off and -subjecting to reason, in great measure, the innate affections. -But the whole force of discipline, my friend, must be brought -to bear against those which are adventitious and extraordinary; -we must work them out, and hack them off, and use restraints -and checks to school them to reason. For if thirst and hunger -are forced out by rational resistance in the matter of food and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -drink, far easier surely is it to stunt, and in the end to annihilate, -love of wealth and love of glory by refusing and prohibiting the -things at which they aim. Do you not agree?’ The stranger -assented. ‘Then, do you see a distinction’, Epaminondas -went on, ‘between training and the intended result of the -training? Thus the result of athletic exercise would be the -contest against a competitor for the crown; training would be -the preparation of the body for this contest of the gymnasia. -So with virtue, do you allow that there are two things, the result -and the training?’ The stranger assented. ‘Now then,’ -Epaminondas resumed, ‘tell me first with respect to temperance; -do you take abstinence from base and lawless pleasures <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>585<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -to be a training, or rather a result and a proof of training?’ -‘A result and a proof’, he said. ‘But it is a training or study -in temperance—is it not?—which still draws all of you on when -you go to the gymnasia and have stirred up your desires for -food, as though they were wild beasts, and then stand for a long -<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>time over bright tables with a variety of dishes, and at last pass -the good cheer for your servants to enjoy, offering to your own -now chastened appetites only what is plain and simple, since -abstinence from pleasures in things allowed is a training for the -soul against pleasures which are forbidden?’ ‘No doubt’, he -said. ‘Then there is, friend, a way of training ourselves for -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> justice against the love of wealth and money; I do not mean -never to enter our neighbour’s premises by night and steal his -goods, and never to take his clothes at the bath; nor yet if -a man does not betray country and friends for money is he -training himself against covetousness (since here, perhaps, the -law comes in and fear, to hinder greediness from doing acts of -wrong). No, the man who often and voluntarily sets himself -aloof from gains which are just and are allowed by law is training -and habituating himself in advance to keep his distance from -every gain which is unrighteous and forbidden. For as, when -it encounters great pleasures which are also strange and hurtful, -the mind cannot avoid a flutter unless it has often despised -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> permitted enjoyments, so to pass by vicious gains and great -advancement when they come within reach is not easy, unless -from a great way off the love of gain has been fettered and -chastened; whereas, if it has been brought up to gain, and -there has been no check on its license, it makes a riotous growth -towards all iniquity, and only with the greatest effort is it -withheld from grasping an advantage. But if a man does not -surrender himself to the favours of friends or to the bounties of -kings, but has said no even to an inheritance which Fortune -offers, and has put far off that love of wealth which springs up -to meet a treasure as it comes into sight, he finds that covetousness -rises up against him no longer, nor tempts him to what is -wrong, nor disturbs his understanding. He is gentle, and -possesses himself for noble uses; he has great thoughts and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> shares with his soul the noblest secrets. We, Capheisias and I, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>are lovers of such men, dear Simmias, and we entreat the -stranger to allow us so to train ourselves in poverty that we may -reach virtue such as that.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XVI. My brother finished his argument, and then Simmias -nodded his head two or three times. ‘A great man,’ he said, -‘a great man is Epaminondas, and thanks to Polymnis here for -that, who procured for his sons from the first the best training -in Philosophy. However, with regard to this question, Sir, do -you and they settle it between you. Now about Lysis, if we <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -may be allowed to hear. Do you mean to move him from his -tomb and to transfer him to Italy; or will you allow him to -remain here with us, where he shall find kind and friendly -fellow-lodgers when our time comes?’ Theanor smiled on -him: ‘Lysis appears, Simmias, to love this country, in which -by the good offices of Epaminondas he has wanted nothing that -is honourable. For there is a certain holy rite connected with -our Pythagorean burials, which if we lack we do not seem to -attain our full and blessed consummation. So when we knew -from dreams of the death of Lysis (we distinguish by a certain -sign which is revealed in sleep whether an appearance belongs <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -to a dead person or a living), this thought came over many of -us: so Lysis has been buried in another land with strange rites; -he must be moved here to us, that he may share in all that is -customary. Coming with such an intention, and guided -straight to the tomb by people of the place, I was pouring -libations just at evening time, and calling on the soul of Lysis -to return and declare solemnly how we ought to act. The night -went on and I saw nothing, but thought I heard a voice: “Stir -not what is best unstirred; the body of Lysis has been buried -with holy rites by friends; his soul has already been parted -from it and dismissed to another birth, with another spirit for -its partner.” Accordingly, when I met Epaminondas at dawn <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>586<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and heard the manner in which he buried Lysis, I recognized -<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>that he had been well trained by that great teacher, even -to the rules which must not be spoken, and had enjoyed the -guidance in life from the same spirit as he, unless I fail to -guess the pilot aright from the course steered. For “wide are -the tracks”<a id='r40' /><a href='#f40' class='c006'><sup>[40]</sup></a> of our lives, and few there are of them by which -the spirits lead men.’ When Theanor had said this, he looked -closely at Epaminondas, as though scrutinizing him afresh -without and within.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> XVII. In the meantime the surgeon came up and loosened -Simmias’ bandage, intending to dress the limb. But Phyllidas -came in upon us with Hippostheneidas, and bidding me, and also -Charon and Theocritus, rise and follow him, led us to a corner -of the colonnade, his face showing great agitation. To my -question, ‘Any news, Phyllidas?’ he answered, ‘No news to -me; I knew and told you all the time how weak Hippostheneidas -was, and implored you not to admit him as an associate of our -enterprise.’ We were dismayed at this, and Hippostheneidas -said: ‘In Heaven’s name, Phyllidas, do not say that; do not -take rashness to be courage, and thereby ruin us and the city too; -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> but allow the men to make their own return in safety if it is so -appointed.’ Phyllidas was nettled: ‘Tell me, Hippostheneidas,’ -he said, ‘how many do you think share the inner secrets of -our plan?’ ‘Not less than thirty, to my knowledge’, he said. -‘Very well,’ said Phyllidas, ‘there is all that number, and you -have taken on your single self to annul and check the plan on -which all had resolved, you sent a mounted messenger to the -men when already on their road, bidding them turn back and -not press on to-day, when most of the arrangements for their -return have settled themselves without us.’ When Phyllidas -had said this we were all much disturbed, but Charon fastened -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> his eyes very severely on Hippostheneidas: ‘Villain!’ he said, -‘what have you done to us?’ ‘Nothing terrible,’ answered -<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>Hippostheneidas, ‘if you will drop your harsh tone and listen -to the calculations of a man of your own age, with grey hairs -like yourself. If we have resolved to give our countrymen an -exhibition of a courage which loves danger, and a spirit which -makes little of life, then there is much of the day still before us, -Phyllidas; let us not wait for the evening, but march at once -against the tyrants, our swords in our hands—let us slay, let us -die, let us never spare ourselves! But say we find no difficulty -in this, whether of action or of endurance, yet to rescue Thebes <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -from an armed force, when encompassed by so many enemies, -and to expel the Spartan garrison at a cost of two or three lives, -is not easy; for Phyllidas has never prepared so much strong -liquor for his parties and receptions that all the fifteen hundred -men of Archias’ bodyguard will be made drunk; yet, even if we -get rid of him, Herippidas is on for night duty and sober, and -Arcesus too. This being so, why hurry to bring home friends -and relatives to manifest destruction, and that when the very -fact of their return is not unknown to the enemy? Or why have <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the Thespians been ordered to be under arms for these two days -past, and ready whenever the Spartan officers call? Again, I hear -that Amphitheus is to be examined and put to death to-day, -whenever Archias returns. Are not these strong signs that our -action is not unmarked? Is it not best to pause, not for a long -time, but long enough to make the auspices right? For the -prophets declare, that in sacrificing the ox to Demeter, they -found that the entrails prognosticated much commotion and -public danger. Again, and this needs the greatest caution on -your part, Charon, yesterday Hypatodorus son of Erianthes -walked back with me from the farm, quite a good and friendly <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>587<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -person, but certainly not in our secrets. “Charon is your friend, -Hippostheneidas,” he said, “but I do not know him well; tell -him, if you think good, to be on his guard against a certain -danger revealed in a very strange and disagreeable dream. -Last night I thought that his house was in pangs as of labour, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>and that he and the friends who shared his anxiety prayed and -stood around it, while it moaned and uttered inarticulate -sounds. At last the fire flared out strong and terrible from -within, so that most of the city was caught by the blaze, but -the Cadmeia was only wrapped in smoke, the fire not spreading -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> up to it.” The vision which the man described was something -like this, Charon; I was alarmed at the time, and much more -so when I heard to-day that the exiles are to be put up at your -house; I am now in an agony lest we may be bringing a load -of troubles upon ourselves, yet not doing any harm worth -mentioning to the enemies, but simply stirring them up. For -I reckon the city to be on our side, the Cadmeia with them, -as it certainly is.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XVIII. Theocritus broke in, stopping Charon who wanted -to say something to Hippostheneidas: ‘Well, Hippostheneidas, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> nothing has ever struck me as so encouraging for action (although -I have myself always found my sacrifices favourable for the -exiles), as this vision; strong, clear light over the city, rising, -you tell us, out of a friendly house; the head-quarters of our -enemies wrapped in black smoke, which always imports, at the -best, tears and confusion; then inarticulate utterances proceeding -from our side, so that, even if any one were to attempt to -inform against us, only an indistinct rumour and blind suspicion -can attach to our enterprise, which will have succeeded by the -time it is evident. That the priests should find sacrifices unfavourable -is natural; officials and victim belong to those in -power, not to the people.’ While Theocritus was still speaking, -I turned to Hippostheneidas: ‘What messenger did you send -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> out to them? Unless you have allowed a very long start we will -give chase.’ ‘I do not know,’ he said, ‘for I must tell you the -truth, Capheisias, whether you could possibly overtake the -man; he has the best horse in Thebes. The man is known to -you; he is head groom in Melon’s chariot stables, and through -<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>Melon knows our enterprise from its beginning.’ Meanwhile -I had espied the man, and said, ‘Hippostheneidas, do you not -mean Chlidon, who won the single-horse race in last year’s -Heraea?’ ‘That is the man’, he said. ‘And who is that,’ -I said, ‘standing this long time at the outer gates, and looking -in at us?’ Then Hippostheneidas turned: ‘Chlidon,’ he <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -said, ‘yes, by Hercules, I fear something has gone very wrong.’ -Meanwhile, the man saw that we were observing him, and drew -up quietly from the door. Hippostheneidas gave him a nod -and bade him speak out to all present. ‘I know these gentlemen, -Hippostheneidas, perfectly well; and finding you neither -at home nor in the market-place, I guessed that you had come to -them, so I took the shortest way here, that you may all know <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -everything which has happened. When you ordered me to -use all speed and meet the party in the hill country, I went home -to get my horse; but when I asked for the bridle, my wife -could not give it me, but stayed a long time in the store room. -She searched and turned out everything inside, and after fooling -me to her heart’s content, at last confessed that she had lent the -bridle to our neighbour the evening before, his wife having come -in to ask for one. I was angry and used strong words to her, -upon which she took to horrible imprecations—“A bad journey <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>588<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and a bad return to you all!” May Heaven throw it all back -upon herself, by Zeus, yes! At last, in my anger, I got as far as -blows; then a crowd of neighbours and women ran up; I have -behaved shamefully and have been treated no better, and have -just managed to make my way to you, that you may send some -one else to the exiles, for I am fairly off my head by this time -and feel badly upset.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIX. We now experienced a strange revulsion of feeling. -A little before we were chafing at the check we had received; -now that the crisis was upon us short and sharp, and no delay -possible, we found ourselves passing into an anguish of alarm. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>However, I said a word of greeting and encouragement to -Hippostheneidas, to the effect that the very Gods were calling us -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> on to action. After this Phyllidas went out to arrange for his -party, and to get Archias plunged straight into his drink, Charon -to see to his house, while Theocritus and I returned to Simmias -on the chance of getting a word with Epaminondas.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XX. However, they were far on in an inquiry of no mean -import, Heaven knows, but one which Galaxidorus and Pheidolaus -had started a little earlier, the problem of the real nature -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and potency of the Divine Sign of Socrates, so called. What -Simmias said in reply to the argument of Galaxidorus we did -not hear; but he went on to say that he had himself once asked -Socrates on the subject, and failed to get an answer, and so -had never asked again; but that he had often been with him -when he gave his opinion that those who claim intercourse with -the divine by way of vision are impostors, whereas he attended -to those who professed to hear a voice, and put serious questions -to them. Hence it began to occur to us, as we were discussing -the matter among ourselves, to suspect that the Divine Sign of -Socrates might possibly be no vision but a special sense for -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> sounds or words, with which he had contact in some strange -manner; just as in sleep there is no voice heard, but fancies -and notions as to particular words reach the sleepers, who then -think that they hear people talking. Only sleepers receive such -conceptions in a real dream because of the tranquillity and calm -of the body in sleep, whereas in waking moments the soul can -hardly attend to greater powers, being so choked by thronging -emotions and distracting needs that they are unable to listen -and to give their attention to clear revelations. But the mind -of Socrates, pure and passionless, and intermingling itself but -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> little with the body for necessary purposes, was fine and light of -touch, and quickly changed under any impression. The impression -we may conjecture to have been no voice, but the utterance -<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>of a spirit, which without vocal sound reached the perceiving -mind by the revelation itself. For voice is like a blow upon -the soul, which perforce admits its utterance by way of the -ears, whenever we converse with one another. But the mind -of a stronger being leads the gifted soul, touching it with the -thing thought, and no blow is needed. To such a being soul -yields as it relaxes or tightens the impulses, which are never <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -violent, as when there are passions to resist, but supple and pliant -like reins which give. There is nothing wonderful in this; -as we see great cargo-vessels turned about by little helms, and, -again, potters’ wheels whirling round in even revolution at the -light touch of a hand. These are things without a soul no doubt, -yet so constructed as to run swiftly and smoothly, and therefore -to yield to a motive force when a touch is given. But the soul -of a man, being strained by countless impulses, as by cords, is -far the easiest of all machines to turn, if it be touched rationally; -it accepts the touch of thought, and moves as thought directs. -For here the passions and impulses are stretched towards the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>589<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -thinking principle and end in it; if that principle be stirred they -receive a pull, and in turn draw and strain the man. And thus -we are allowed to learn how great is the power of a thought. -For bones, which have no sensation, and nerves and fleshy parts -charged with humours, and the whole resultant mass in its -ponderous quiescence, do yet, as soon as the soul sets something -a going in thought and directs its impulse towards it, rise up, -alert and tense, a whole which moves to action in all its -members, as though it had wings. But it is hard, nay, perhaps, -altogether beyond our powers, to take in at one glance the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -system of excitation, complex strain, and divine prompting, -whereby the soul, after conceiving a thought, draws on the -mass of the body by the impulses which it gives.<a id='r41' /><a href='#f41' class='c006'><sup>[41]</sup></a> Yet whereas -a word thus intellectually apprehended excites the soul, while -<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>no sort of voice is heard and no action takes place, even so we -need not, I think, find it hard to believe that mind may be led -by a stronger mind and a more divine soul external to itself, -having contact with it after its kind, as word with word or light -with reflection. For in actual fact we recognize the thoughts -of one another by groping as it were in darkness with the assistance -of voice; whereas the thoughts of spirits have light, they -shine upon men capable of receiving them, they need not verbs -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> or nouns, those symbols whereby men in their intercourse with -men see resemblances and images of the things thought, yet -never apprehend the things themselves, save only those upon -whom, as we have said, there shines from within a peculiar and -spiritual light. And yet what we see happen in the case of the -voice may partly reassure the incredulous. The air is impressed -with articulate sounds, it becomes all word and voice, and brings -the meaning home to the soul of the hearer. Therefore we need -not wonder if, in regard to this special mode of thought also, -the air is sensitive to the touch of higher beings, and is so modified -as to convey to the mind of godlike and extraordinary men -the thought of him who thought it. For as the strokes of -miners<a id='r42' /><a href='#f42' class='c006'><sup>[42]</sup></a> are caught on brazen shields because of the reverberation, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> when they rise from below ground and fall upon them, -whereas falling on any other surface they are indistinct and pass -to nothing, even so the words of spirits pass through all Nature, -but only sound for those who possess the soul in untroubled -calm, holy and spiritual men as we emphatically call them. -The view of most people is that spiritual visitations come to -men in sleep; that they should be similarly stirred when awake -and in their full faculties they think marvellous and beyond -belief. As though a musician were thought to use his lyre -when the strings are let down, and not to touch or use it when -<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>it is strung up and tuned! They do not see the cause, their <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -own inner tunelessness and discord, from which Socrates our -friend had been set free, as the oracle given to his father when he -was yet a boy declared. For it bade him allow his son to do whatever -came into his mind; not to force nor direct his goings, but -to let his impulse have free play, only to pray for him to Zeus -Agoraios and to the Muses, but for all else not to meddle with -Socrates; meaning no doubt that he had within him a guide for <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -his life who was better than ten thousand teachers and directors.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXI. This, Pheidolaus, is what has occurred to me to -think about the Divine Sign of Socrates, in his lifetime and -since his death, dismissing with contempt those who have -suggested voices or sneezings or anything of that sort. But -what I have heard Timarchus of Chaeroneia relate on this head -it may perhaps be better to pass over in silence, as more like -myth than history. ‘Not at all;’ said Theocritus, ‘let us -have it all. Even myth touches truth, not too closely, perhaps, -but it does touch it at points. But first, who was this Timarchus? -Explain, for I do not know him.’ ‘Naturally, Theocritus,’ <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>590<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -said Simmias, ‘for he died quite young, having begged -that he might be buried near Lamprocles, the son of Socrates, -who had died a few days before, his own friend and -contemporary. He then greatly wished to know what was -really meant by the Divine Sign of Socrates, and so, like a -generous youth fresh to the taste of Philosophy, having taken -no one but Cebes and myself into his plan, went down into -the cave of Trophonius, after performing the usual rites of the -oracle. Two nights and one day he remained below; and when -most people had given him up, and his family was mourning for <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -him, at early dawn he came up very radiant. He knelt to the -God, then made his way at once through the crowd, and related -to us many wonderful things which he had seen and heard.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXII. ‘He said that, when he descended into the oracular -<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>chamber, he first found himself in a great darkness; then, after -a prayer, lay a long while not very clearly conscious whether he -was awake or dreaming; only he fancied that his head received -a blow, while a dull noise fell on his ears, and then the sutures -parted and allowed his soul to issue forth. As it passed upwards, -rejoicing to mingle with the pure transparent air, it appeared -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> first to draw a long deep breath, after its narrow compression, -and to become larger than before, like a sail as it is filled out. -Then he heard dimly a whirring noise overhead out of which -came a sweet voice. He looked up and saw land nowhere, only -islands shining with lambent fire, from time to time changing -colour with one another, as though it were a coat of dye, while -the light became spangled in the transition. They appeared -to be countless in number and in size enormous, not all equal -but all alike circular. He thought that as these moved around -there was an answering hum of the air, for the gentleness of -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> that voice which was harmonized out of all corresponded to the -smoothness of the motion. Through the midst of the islands -a sea or lake was interfused, all shining with the colours as they -were commingled over its grey surface. Some few islands -floated in a straight course and were conveyed across the current; -many others were drawn on by the flood, being almost submerged. -The sea was of great depth in some parts towards the south, -but [northwards<a id='r43' /><a href='#f43' class='c006'><sup>[43]</sup></a>] there were very shallow reaches, and it often -swept over places and then left them dry, having no strong -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> ebb. The colour was in places pure as that of the open sea, -in others turbid and marsh-like. As the islands passed through -the surf they never came round to their starting-point again or -described a circle, but slightly varied the points of impact, thus -describing a continuous spiral as they went round. The sea -was inclined to the approximate middle and highest part of -the encompassing firmament by a little less than eight-ninths -<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>of the whole, as it appeared to him. It had two openings which <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -received rivers of fire pouring in from opposite sides, so that it -was lashed into foam, and its grey surface was turned to white. -This he saw, delighted at the spectacle; but as he turned his -eyes downwards, there appeared a chasm, vast and round as -though hewn out of a sphere; it was strangely terrible and deep -and full of utter darkness, not in repose but often agitated and -surging up; from which were heard roarings innumerable and -groanings of beasts, and wailings of innumerable infants, and -with these mingled cries of men and women, dim sounds of all -sorts, and turmoils sent up indistinctly from the distant depth, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>591<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -to his no small consternation. Time passed, and an unseen -person said to him, “Timarchus, what do you wish to learn?” -“Everything,” he replied, “for all is wonderful.” “We”, the -voice said, “have little to do with the regions above, they belong -to other Gods; but the province of Persephone which we -administer, being one of the four which Styx bounds, you may -survey if you will.” To his question, “What is Styx?” “A -way to Hades,” was the reply, “and it passes right opposite, -parting the light at its very vertex, but reaching up, as you see, -from Hades below; where it touches the light in its revolution <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -it marks off the remotest region of all. Now, there are four -first principles of all things, the first of life, the second of -motion, the third of birth, the fourth of death. The first is -linked to the second by Unity, in the Unseen: the second to -the third by Mind, in the sun: the third to the fourth by -Nature, in the moon. Over each of these combinations a Fate, -daughter of Necessity, presides, and holds the keys; of the first -Atropus, of the second, Clotho, of the one belonging to the -moon Lachesis, and the turning-point of birth is there. For -the other islands contain Gods, but the moon, which belongs to <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -earthly spirits, only avoids Styx by a slight elevation, and is -caught once in one hundred and seventy-seven secondary -<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>measures<a id='r44' /><a href='#f44' class='c006'><sup>[44]</sup></a>. As Styx moves upon her, the souls cry aloud in -terror; for many slip from off her and are caught by Hades. -Others the moon bears upwards from below, as they turn towards -her; and for these death coincides with the moment of -birth, those excepted which are guilty and impure, and which -are not allowed to approach her while she lightens and bellows -fearfully; mourning for their own fate they slip away and are -borne downwards for another birth, as you see.” “But I see -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> nothing,” said Timarchus, “save many stars quivering around -the gulf, others sinking into it, others, again, darting up from -below.” “Then you see the spirits themselves,” the voice -said, “though you do not know it. It is thus: every soul -partakes of mind, there is none irrational or mindless; but so -much of soul as is mingled with flesh and with affections is -altered and turned towards the irrational by its sense of pleasures -and pains. But the mode of mingling is not the same for every -soul. Some are merged entirely into body, and are disturbed -by passions throughout their whole being during life. Others -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> are in part mixed up with it, but leave outside their purest part, -which is not drawn in, but is like a life-buoy which floats on -the surface, and touches the head of one who has sunk into the -depth, the soul clinging around it and being kept upright, -while so much of it is supported as obeys and is not overmastered -by the affections. The part which is borne below the surface -within the body is called soul. That which is left free from -dissolution most persons call mind, taking it to be something -inside themselves, resembling the reflected images in mirrors; -but those who are rightly informed know that it is outside -themselves and address it as spirit. The stars, Timarchus,” -the voice went on, “which you see extinguished, you are to -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> think of as souls entirely merged in bodies; those which give -light again and shine from below upwards, shaking off, as -though it were mud, a sort of gloom and dimness, are those -<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>which sail up again out of their bodies after death; those which -are parted upwards are spirits, and belong to men who are -said to have understanding. Try to see clearly in each the -bond by which it coheres with soul.” Hearing this, he paid -closer attention himself, and saw the stars tossing about, some -less, some more, as we see the corks which mark out nets in the -sea move over its surface; but some, like the shuttles used in <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>592<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -weaving, in entangled and irregular figures, not able to settle the -motion into a straight line. The voice said that those who kept -a straight and orderly movement were men whose souls had been -well broken in by fair nurture and training, and did not allow -their irrational part to be too harsh and rough. Those which -often inclined upwards and downwards in an irregular and -confused manner, like horses plunging off from a halter, were <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -fighting against the yoke with tempers disobedient and ill-trained -for want of education; sometimes getting the mastery -and swerving round to the right; again bent by passions and -drawn on to share in sins, then again resisting and putting force -upon them. The coupling bond, like a curb set on the irrational -part of the soul whenever it resists, brings on repentance, as we -call it, for sins, and shame for all lawless and intemperate -pleasures, being really a pain and a stroke inflicted by it on the -soul when it is bitted by that which masters and rules it, until at -length, being thus punished, it becomes obedient to the rein <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and familiar with it, and then, like a tame creature, without -blow or pain, understands the spirit quickly by signs and hints. -These then are led, late in the day and by slow degrees, to their -duty. Out of those who are docile and obedient to their spirit -from the first birth, is formed the prophetic and inspired class, -to which belonged the soul of Hermodorus<a id='r45' /><a href='#f45' class='c006'><sup>[45]</sup></a> of Clazomenae, -of which you have surely heard; how it would leave the body -entirely and wander over a wide range by night and by day, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> then come back again, having been present where many things -were said and done far off, until the enemy found the body, -which his wife had betrayed, left at home deserted by its soul, -and burnt it. Now this part is not true; the soul used not to -go out from the body; but by always yielding to the spirit, -and slackening the coupling-band, he gave it constant liberty -to range around, so that it saw and heard and reported many -things from the world outside. But those who destroyed the -body while he was asleep are paying the penalty in Tartarus unto -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> this day. All this, young man, you shall know more clearly in -the third month from this; now begone!” When the voice -ceased, Timarchus wished to turn round, he said, and see who -the speaker was; but his head again ached violently, as though -forcibly compressed, and he could no longer hear or perceive -anything passing about him; afterwards, however, he came to -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> by degrees, and saw that he was lying in the cave of Trophonius, -near the entrance where he had originally sunk down.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXIII. ‘Such was the tale of Timarchus. When he died, -having returned to Athens in the third month after hearing the -voice, and when, in our wonder, we told Socrates of the story, -he blamed us for not reporting it while Timarchus was still alive, -since he would gladly have heard it more clearly from himself, -and have questioned him further. There, Theocritus, you have -all, tale and theory both. But perhaps we ought to invite the -stranger to join our inquiry; the subject comes nearly home to inspired -men.’ ‘Well, but’, the stranger answered, ‘Epaminondas, -who puts out from the same port, is not contributing his opinion.’ -Our father smiled: ‘That is just his character, Sir. Silent and -cautious in speaking, but a glutton for learning and listening. -That is why Spintharus of Tarentum, after spending no little time -with him here, is always saying, as you know, that he never met -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>593<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> any man of his own standing who knew more or who spoke less. -So pray let us have all your own thoughts on the subject.’</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>XXIV. ‘Then, for my part,’ said Theanor, ‘I think that the -story of Timarchus ought to be dedicated to the God, as holy and -inviolable. But it will be strange to me if any shall be found to -discredit what Simmias tells us about the matter; thus, while -they designate swans, serpents, dogs and horses as sacred, refusing -to believe that men may be godlike and friends of God, yet -holding that God is not a friend of birds but a friend of man. -As, then, a man who loves horses does not care equally for all -individuals which make the class, but always picks out and separates <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -some excellent member of the class, and trains him by himself -and feeds him and loves him beyond others; so it is with ourselves; -the higher powers extract, if the word may pass, the best out of -the herd, and deem them worthy of a very special training, directing -their course, not by reins nor by halters, but by reason, through -signs utterly incomprehensible to the general herd. Why, most -dogs do not understand the signals used in hunting, nor most -horses those used in the manège; but those who have learned know -at once from a whistle or a chirrup what they are required to do, -and easily take the right position. Homer clearly knows the distinction <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -to which I refer. Some of his prophets he calls “readers -of dreams” and “priests”, others understand the conversation -of the Gods themselves, he thinks, by sympathy, and signify the -future to us. For instance:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Thus they conferred: but Helenus, Priam’s son,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>That scheme, which pleased them, in his heart divined.</i><a id='r46' /><a href='#f46' class='c006'><sup>[46]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>And again:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>So the everlasting voice I have heard and known.</i><a id='r47' /><a href='#f47' class='c006'><sup>[47]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>The mind of kings and generals is made known to outsiders through -the senses, by special beacons or proclamation, or calls on the -trumpet; and so the divine message reaches few of us in and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -through itself, and that rarely; for ordinary men signals are employed -and these are the groundwork of what we call divination. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>The Gods, then, regulate life only for a few, for those whom they -wish to make blessed in a single degree, and truly divine; -but souls released from coming to the birth, and now for ever -at rest from a body, and dismissed into freedom, are spirits -who care for men, in Hesiod’s sense. For as athletes, when -age has brought them an end of training, do not wholly lose the -spirit of competition or of care for the body, but delight to see -others in practice, and cheer them on and run beside them, so -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> those who have ceased from the struggles of life, made spirits because -of the excellence of their soul, do not utterly despise our -earthly affairs, our discussions and our interests: they have a kindly -feeling for those training with the same end before them, they -share their eagerness for virtue, encourage them, and join them -in their bursts, whenever they see them running with hope near -at hand and already within touch. For the spirit does not help -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> all men as they come. It is as with swimmers upon the sea; spectators -on the shore merely gaze in silence on those who are out -in the open, drifting far from land; whereas they run along the -beach towards those who are already nearing it, they dash in to -meet them, and with hand, and voice, and endeavour, hasten to -the rescue. Such, Simmias, is the way of a spirit; while we are -dipped beneath the tides of life, changing body for body, like -relays on a road, he allows us to struggle out for ourselves, to -be brave and patient, to try by our own virtue to reach the -harbour in safety. But when any soul through a myriad of -births has striven once and again a long-drawn strife well and -stoutly, and when, with the cycle now wellnigh complete, it -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>594<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> takes the risks, and sets its hope high, as it nears the landing-place, -and presses upwards with sweat and endeavour, the God -thinks it no wrong that its own spirit should go to the help of -such a soul, but lets zeal go free, and the Gods are zealous to -encourage and to save, one this soul and one that. The soul -hearkens because it is so near, and it is saved; but if it does -not hearken the spirit leaves it, and its happy chance is gone.’</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>XXV. As he finished, Epaminondas looked at me. ‘It is -nearly your time, Capheisias, to go to the gymnasium and not -fail your comrades; we will take care of Theanor, and break up <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -our conference whenever he likes.’ ‘Let us do so,’ I said, ‘but -I think Theocritus here wants a few words with you while -Galaxidorus and I are present.’ ‘By all means’, said he; he -rose and led the way to the angle of the portico. We stood round -and tried to encourage him to join the scheme. He answered -that he perfectly well knew the day of the return of the exiles, -and had arranged with Gorgidas as to all that was necessary -for our friends, but that he refused to take the life of any -citizen without trial, unless there were an urgent necessity; -also, looking to the body of the Thebans, it was specially -convenient that there should be some person with hands clean <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and beyond suspicion, when the time should come to advise the -people for the best. We agreed, and he returned at once to -Simmias and his party. We went down to the gymnasium and -met our friends, and, pairing off for wrestling matches, exchanged -information and plans for action. We saw also Archias -and Philippus, anointed and starting for the supper. For Phyllidas, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -fearing that they might put Amphitheus to death first, -called on Archias immediately after he had escorted Lysanoridas, -and by suggesting hopes that the lady he desired to meet -would come to the place, persuaded him to turn his mind to -having a good time with the usual companions of his revels.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXVI. It was now getting late, and the cold was intense, as -the wind had got up. Most people had therefore made for their -homes more quickly than usual. We had fallen in with Damocleidas, -Pelopidas, and Theopompus, and were taking them with -us, as others took others of the exiles. For the party had broken -up immediately after crossing Cithaeron; and the bitter <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -weather allowed them to muffle up their faces and pass -through the city in security. Some of them were met by a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>lightning flash on the right without thunder, as they entered -through the gates; and the sign seemed favourable for safety -and glory, with a bright issue to follow and no danger.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXVII. So when we were all inside, two short of fifty, while -Theocritus was sacrificing by himself in an outbuilding, there was -a loud knocking at the door; and presently some one came in to -say that two servants of Archias, sent on an urgent message to -Charon, were knocking at the courtyard gate and calling for it to -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> be opened, and were angry at the slowness of the response. Charon -was much disturbed, and gave orders to open to them at once, -while he himself went to meet them, the crown on his head showing -that he had sacrificed and was at his wine, and asked the messengers -what they wanted. One of them replied: ‘Archias and -Philippus sent us, you are to come to them as quickly as you can.’ -When Charon asked, ‘What is the reason of this hasty summons, -and is there anything new?’ ‘We know nothing further,’ answered -the messenger, ‘but what shall we tell them?’ ‘This, by -Zeus,’ said Charon, ‘that as soon as I have put off this crown and -got my cloak, I will follow you. For, if I go straight off with -you, there will be an alarm; people will think that I am in -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>595<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> custody.’ ‘Do so,’ they said, ‘for we too have orders to convey -from the magistrates to the guard of the lower city.’ So they -went off. When Charon came in and told us this, we were all -aghast, thinking we had been betrayed. Most of us were inclined -to suspect Hippostheneidas; he had tried to hinder the return -by sending Chlidon, and when that failed and the dread moment -was upon us, he had used his plausible tongue to betray the scheme, -out of fear; for he did not come with the rest into the house, but -the whole impression he gave us was of a coward and turncoat. -However, we all thought that Charon ought to go, and obey the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> summons of the magistrates. He ordered his son to come in, the -handsomest boy in Thebes, Archidamus, and the most painstaking -in his gymnastics; barely fifteen, but in strength and size -<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>far above others of his age. ‘Gentlemen,’ he said, ‘he is my only -one, and, as you know, I love him dearly; I place him in your hands, -and charge you in the name of the Gods, and in the name of the -spirits, if I should appear a traitor to your cause, slay him, and -spare us not. For the rest, my gallant friends, set yourselves to -meet the event; do not give in like shabby cowards, or allow this -scum to slay your bodies; defend yourselves, keep your souls <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -above defeat, they are our country’s!’ As Charon said this, -we were wondering at his spirit and noble heart, though indignant -at his idea of suspicion on our part, and bade him take the boy -away. ‘More than that, Charon,’ said Pelopidas, ‘we think that -you have not been well advised in that you have not already removed -your son to another house. What need for him to run our -risks if taken with us? You must send him away even now, so -that, if anything happen to us, one noble nursling may be left to -be our avenger on the tyrants.’ ‘Not so;’ said Charon, ‘here he -shall stay and share your risks; for, even in his interest, it is not <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -good that he should fall into the enemy’s hands. But you, -my boy, be daring beyond your years, taste the struggles which -must come, take risks with our many brave countrymen in the -cause of freedom and valour; much hope still is left, and I think -that a God is surely watching over us in our contest for the -right.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXVIII. Tears came to many of us, Archidamus, at the -words of Charon. Dry-eyed himself and unmoved, he placed his -son in the hands of Pelopidas, and made his way through the doors -with a word of greeting and encouragement for each of us. Even -more would you have admired the bright and fearless bearing of -the boy himself in the peril. Like Neoptolemus,<a id='r48' /><a href='#f48' class='c006'><sup>[48]</sup></a> he showed no <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -paleness or alarm, but drew the sword of Pelopidas and seemed to -study it. In the meantime, Diotonus, a friend of Cephisodorus, -came in to us, sword in hand, and wearing a steel breastplate -<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>under his clothes; and when we told him of Charon being sent -for by Archias, blamed us for losing time, and implored us to -go straight to the houses, where we should be upon them before -they were ready; failing that, it would be better, he said, to go -out into the open and form our parties there out of the scattered -and uncombined units, rather than shut ourselves up in a chamber -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and wait like a swarm of bees to be cut out by the enemy. -The prophet Theocritus added his urgent appeal; his victims -showed a clear and good result, and assured him of safety.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXIX. While we were arming and making arrangements, -Charon reappeared, his face radiant. Smiling as he looked at us, -he bade us take heart; there was no danger and the business was -moving on. ‘Archias’, he said, ‘and Philippus, when they heard -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>596<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> that I had obeyed their summons, were already heavy with drink, -sodden alike in body and mind; it was all they could do to stand -upon their feet and move out towards the door. When Archias -said: “Charon, we hear that exiles have passed into the city -and are being concealed”, I was not a little troubled. “Where are -they said to be?” I asked, “and who are they?” “We do not -know,” replied Archias, “and therefore ordered you to come, on -the chance that you might have heard something more certain.” I -took a moment to recover my senses, as if after a blow, and began -to put things together. The information given could be no substantial -story; the plot had not been betrayed by any of those -privy to it; for the tyrants could not be in ignorance as to -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> the house if their information came from any person with real -knowledge; it must be merely a suspicion or some indefinite -rumour circulating in the city which had reached them. So -I answered: “I remember that in the lifetime of Androcleidas -there were often reports of the kind floating idly about and -causing us annoyance. But at the present time, Archias,” -I went on, “I have heard nothing of the sort; however, -I will inquire into the story, if you so desire, and, if I hear -<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>anything worth attention, you shall not fail to know.” “By -all means,” said Phyllidas, “look well into this matter and leave -no stone unturned. What is to prevent us? We must think nothing -beneath our notice, but must take all precautions and pay -attention. Forethought is good; safety is good!” As he said <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -this, he took Archias by the arm and led him off into the house -where they are drinking. ‘Now, friends,’ he went on, ‘no delay -for us, a prayer to the Gods, and forth we go!’ When Charon had -said this, we spent a while in prayer and mutual encouragement.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXX. It was now the hour at which people are mostly at -supper; the wind was still rising and drove beneath it snow -with drizzle, so that the narrow streets were quite empty as -we made our way through them. The party told off against -Leontides and Hypates, who lived near one another, went -out cloaked and carrying no arms but a sword apiece (among <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -these were Pelopidas, Damocleidas, and Cephisodorus). Charon, -Melon, and the rest who were to attack Archias, wore half-cuirasses, -and thick wreaths, some of firwood, some of pine. -Some were in women’s tunics, which gave the effect of a drinking -procession with women. But our ill-fortune, Archidamus, -which set all the weakness and ignorance of the enemy on a level -with all our daring and preparation, and chequered our action -from the outset with perilous episodes like a stage play, met us at <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the moment of action, and sharp and terrible was the crisis with -its dramatic surprise. Charon, having satisfied Archias and Philippus, -had returned home and was putting us through our parts, -when there came a letter from this city; it was from Archias the -priest to Archias of Thebes, an old friend and guest, it would seem, -with full news of the return and plot of the exiles, of the house <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -to which they had repaired, and of those who were acting with -them. Archias was by this time drenched with wine, and excited -about the expected arrival of the ladies; he took the letter, but -when the bearer said that it was addressed to him about certain -<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>urgent business: “Then urgent business to-morrow!” he -said, and thrust the letter under his head cushion; then he -asked for a cup, kept calling for wine, the whole time ordering -Phyllidas to go out to the door and see whether the women -were near.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXXI. As they had beguiled their drinking with this hope, -we joined the company, and pushing our way through the servants -to the banqueting hall stood a short time at the door looking -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>597<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> at each of the party. Our crowns and dress and make-up, -while apologizing for our presence, caused a silence: but as -soon as Melon rushed first up the hall, his hand upon his sword-hilt, -Cabirichus, the appointed president, plucked him by the -arm as he passed, and shouted out, ‘Phyllidas, is not this Melon?’ -Melon shook off his grasp, drawing his sword as he did so, then, -rushing upon Archias as with difficulty he found his feet, struck -and struck till he had killed him. Philippus received a neck -wound from Charon; he tried to defend himself with the drinking-cups -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> which were near his hand, but Lysitheus threw him off -the couch to the ground and slew him. We tried to pacify -Cabirichus, imploring him not to assist the tyrants, but to join -in our country’s deliverance, remembering that he was a holy person -and consecrated to the Gods for her sake. As, however, from -the wine he had taken, it was not easy to carry his thoughts to -the proper course, while he stood excited and confused, and kept -presenting the point of his spear (customarily worn by our -magistrates at all times), I myself seized it at the middle and -swung it over his head, crying to him to let go and save himself, -or he would be wounded. But Theopompus, standing near him -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> on the right, struck him with his sword, and said: ‘Lie there -with those whom thou hast been flattering; never mayest thou -wear a crown in a free Thebes, nor sacrifice any longer to the -Gods, in whose names thou hast often called down curses on our -country, and prayers for her enemies!’ When Cabirichus was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>down, Theocritus, who was with us, snatched the sacred spear -out of the wound; and we slew a few of the servants who ventured -on resistance, while we shut up in the hall those who behaved -quietly, not wishing them to slip away and spread news of -what had happened, before we knew whether things had gone <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -well with our comrades also.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXXII. Their history was this. Pelopidas and his party -quietly approached the courtyard door of Leontides, and told -the servant who answered their knock that they had come from -Athens with letters for Leontides from Callistratus. When he -had given the message and received orders to open, and had removed -the bar and set the door a little ajar, they burst in in a -body, upset the man, and charged on through the court to the -bedroom of Leontides. His suspicions carrying him at once to -the truth he drew his dagger and rushed to defend himself; an -unjust and tyrannical man he was, but of sturdy courage and a <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -powerful fighter. However, he did not make up his mind to -throw down the torch and close with the attacking party in the -dark; but in the light, and in their full view, as soon as they began -to open the door, he smote Cephisodorus on the groin, and -closed with Pelopidas next, shouting loudly all the time to call -the attendants. These were held in check by Samidas’ party, -not venturing to come to blows with some of the best known and -bravest men in Thebes. Pelopidas and Leontides had to fight it <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -out; it was a sword duel in the doorway of the chamber, a -narrow one, in the middle of which lay Cephisodorus, fallen and -dying, so that the others could not come in to the rescue. At -last our man, having received a slight wound in the head and -having given many, and thrown Leontides down, ran him -through over the still warm body of Cephisodorus. The latter -saw the enemy falling, and placed his hand in that of Pelopidas, -saluted the others, and cheerfully breathed his last. Leaving -them, they turned against Hypates, and the door having been -<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>opened to them there, in the same way, they cut him down -while trying to escape over a roof to the neighbours.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>598<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> XXXIII. Thence they hastened towards us, joining us outside, -near the Polystyle. After mutual greetings and talk, we -proceeded to the prison. Phyllidas called the head jailer out and -said: ‘Archias and Philippus order you to bring Amphitheus -to them at once.’ He, remarking the strangeness of the hour, -and that Phyllidas did not seem composed as he spoke to him, but -hot from the struggle and excited, saw through our artifice: -‘When did the Polemarchs send for a prisoner at such an hour, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Phyllidas,’ he asked, ‘and when by you? What password do you -bring?’ As he was speaking, Phyllidas, who carried a cavalry -lance, drove it through his ribs and brought the scoundrel to the -ground, where he was trampled and spat upon the next day by -a number of women. We burst open the doors of the prison, and -called on the prisoners by name; first Amphitheus, then our -acquaintances among the others. As they recognized the voices -they leapt up from their pallet beds, dragging their chains, while -those whose feet were fast in the stocks stretched out their hands, -shouting and imploring us not to leave them behind. As these -were being released, many of those who lived near came up, perceiving -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> what was going on and delighting in it. The women, as -soon as each heard about her own relation, dropped Boeotian -habits, and ran out to one another, asking questions from the men -who met them. Those who found their own fathers or husbands -followed, and no one tried to hinder them, for all who met them -were deeply affected by pity for the men, and by the tears -and prayers of modest women.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXXIV. While things were thus, learning that Epaminondas -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and Gorgidas were already forgathering with our friends near the -temple of Athena, I took my way to join them. Many loyal -citizens had already arrived, and more kept pouring in. When -I had told them in detail the story of what had happened, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>while I was imploring them to rally to the market-place, all -agreed to summon the citizens at once ‘For Liberty!’ The -crowds now forming up found arms to their hand in the warehouses -full of spoils from all lands and in the factories of the -swordmakers living near. Hippostheneidas had also arrived with -friends and servants, bringing the trumpeters, who had, as it -happened, been quartered in the town for the feast of Hercules. -All at once they began to sound calls, some in the market-place, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -others elsewhere, from every direction, to cause a panic among -the other side, and make them think that the rising was general. -Some lighted smoky fires<a id='r49' /><a href='#f49' class='c006'><sup>[49]</sup></a> and so escaped to the Cadmeia, drawing -with them also the aristocrats, so called, who were accustomed -to pass the night on the low ground near the fortress. -Those who were above, seeing this disorderly and confused -stream of incomers, and ourselves about the market-place, no -quiet anywhere, but indistinct noise and bustle rising up to -them from all quarters, never made up their minds to come -down, though there were some five thousand of them. They <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -thoroughly lost their heads in the danger, and Lysanoridas was a -mere excuse: they professed to wait for his return, which was -due that day. In consequence, he was afterwards sentenced to -a heavy fine by the Lacedaemonian senate. Herippidas and -Arcesus were arrested at Corinth later on and put to death. The -Cadmeia was evacuated by them and surrendered to us under -treaty, and the garrison withdrawn.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span> - <h2 id='chap02' class='c003'>THREE PYTHIAN DIALOGUES</h2> -</div> -<h3 class='c009'>INTRODUCTION</h3> -<p class='c004'>The three Dialogues of Plutarch entitled:</p> - -<p class='c012'>I. On the E at Delphi,</p> - -<p class='c013'>II. Why the Pythia does not now give her Oracles in Verse,</p> - -<p class='c013'>III. On the cessation of the Oracles,</p> - -<p class='c011'>may be conveniently treated as a group, and assumed to be a collection -of those ‘Pythian Dialogues’ which the author sent to -his friend Serapion. I and II certainly are so, III has a separate -dedication. Other Dialogues, e. g. that on <i>Delays in Divine -Punishment</i>, are also records of conversations which took place at -Delphi; but these three are concerned with questions suggested -by the temple and prophetic office of Apollo, as to -which they give much curious information. If they leave us unsatisfied -as to matters of still deeper interest, and tell us nothing -about the policy of Delphi in the Persian wars, the counsel given -to Orestes, which is fiercely controversial matter, or the popular -feeling towards the oracle represented in the <i>Ion</i> of Euripides, -this is only what we learn to put up with in reading Greek books. -Indeed it is of a piece with the purposes imputed to Apollo -himself, who sets us problems but does not supply their solution. -‘The king whose oracle is in Delphi neither tells nor conceals, -but signifies.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>We have few indications of date, or of mutual relations between -the three Dialogues. I is based upon the author’s recollection -of a conversation which took place ‘a long time ago’, -about <span class='fss'>A. D.</span> 66, the date of Nero’s visit to Greece. A principal -<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>speaker is Ammonius the Peripatetic philosopher of Lamprae, -Plutarch’s instructor, who also speaks, with the same authority, -in III. In II, Serapion, the Athenian poet, to whom the collection -is dedicated in I, takes a leading part. Theon, a literary -friend, who appears frequently in the <i>Symposiacs</i> and in the <i>Face -in the Moon</i> comes into I and II. An interesting person is Demetrius -of Tarsus, another literary friend, who, in III, has just returned -from Britain, and who has been probably identified with -‘Demetrius the Scribe’, named on two bronze tablets found at -York, and now in the York Museum (see <i>Hermes</i>, vol. 46, p. 156). -The year of Callistratus at Delphi, which marks the date of III, -is conjecturally fixed as <span class='fss'>A. D.</span> 83-4 (see Pontow in <i>Philologus</i> -for 1895, and cp. <i>Sympos.</i> vii. 5). As Agricola’s term of office -ended in <span class='fss'>A. D.</span> 84 or 85, Demetrius may have served under him. -The general tranquillity of the world depicted in III hardly -gives us much to build upon.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In I Plutarch and his brother Lamprias are both speakers. -Lamprias appears in his usual character, a good companion, light-hearted -and reckless; Plutarch speaks gravely and at length, and -the debate is closed by Ammonius. In III Lamprias, Plutarch -not being named, speaks gravely throughout, and, on the -suggestion of Ammonius, closes the debate. In II, neither -brother is named, and the last speaker is Theon.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In the Symposiac Dialogues one or other brother is usually -present, sometimes both. In the <i>Face in the Moon</i> Lamprias -alone takes part, and he acts as moderator.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It is not easy to interpret these facts. M. Gréard concludes -that Lamprias died early. If so, was the name, which was borne -by the grandfather and by one of the sons, transferred, for -literary purposes, to Plutarch himself? M. Chenevière, in his -pleasant essay on Plutarch’s friends (a Latin prize dissertation) -suggests that, under whatever name, the leading speaker -always conveys Plutarch’s own views.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>Certain topics recur in this series of Dialogues. Thus the -problem as to the meaning of the E at Delphi, which is the -main subject of I, is glanced at, with some impatience, by -Philippus the historian in III.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The identification of Apollo with the sun, dismissed at the end -of I as a mere beautiful fancy, is questioned again in III and -allowed to stand over as unsettled. It is touched upon in II, -c. 12.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The hypothesis of a plurality of worlds, brought forward by -Plutarch in I. c. 11, with special reference to the views of -Plato in the <i>Timaeus</i>, reappears, again in connexion with the -five regular solids, in III.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It may be noticed that Plutarch was not, at the date of -the conversation narrated in I, a priest of the temple (see c. 16).</p> - -<p class='c005'>Much of the matter of III reappears, with little variety of -substance, in the <i>Face in the Moon</i>, the attack on Aristotle’s -theory of the distribution of matter in the one corresponding to -that upon the Stoics in the other, and the accounts of the -imprisonment of Cronus by his son (or Briareus) being almost -identical. It is probable that in both Plutarch has drawn immediately -upon Posidonius, and through him from Xenocrates -and others. The question is discussed with great thoroughness -by Dr. Max Adler (<i>Dissertationes Vindobonenses</i>, 1910).</p> - -<p class='c005'>The situation of Delphi is one of extraordinary beauty, as well -as interest:</p> - -<p class='c012'>Some few miles north-east of the ancient site of Cirrha the -mountainous range of Parnassus shoots out two little spurs -towards the sea, thus locking on three sides an inclined valley, -as the tiers of an ancient circus embrace the arena below. -Upon the fourth side a small river runs, by name the Pleistus, -which has forced its way between the eastern spur and Mount -Cirphius, directly south and opposite; crosses laterally at the -foot of the glen; then, sweeping round in a shining curve, -before many leagues unites its waters to the bay. The descending -<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>slope that forms the amphitheatre is broken by ridges into -three terraces, such as the traveller is wont to see in hilly countries. -On the highest rose the sanctuary; below was the town -and the cultivated hollow which poets called the Vale of Delphi; -above all towered the ridges of Parnassus itself,<a id='r50' /><a href='#f50' class='c006'><sup>[50]</sup></a> sheer walls of -rock, rising inland towards the summit of the chain, desolate, -grand, and picturesque. Those who stood above the level of -the temple, and turned their gaze toward the south-west, -might perhaps have looked far over to the smiling gulf of -Corinth, an unbroken prospect of well-watered fields. Upon -their left was the famous plane-tree, and the spring of Castalia, -whose stream, leaping down between two rocks, out of a huge -cleft that divided them, lost itself in a dell below, till it fell -finally into the Pleistus; and mounting the rough ascent, just -beyond the little torrent, might be seen the sacred way, which, -issuing from the same gorge as the Pleistus, rounded the flank -of the promontory of rock and climbed up its warm side. Few -are the shadows that pass over the valley; through the long day -the southern sun beats down on it, and the brilliancy of the sky -is immortalized in the name which the inhabitants conferred -upon the hills about, of Phaedriades, or shining cliffs.</p> - -<p class='c013'>But the property of the temple was not bounded by the -extent of the <i>view</i>. Above, on the heights, as far as Ligorea -and Tithorea, both Doric villages—towards the west, beyond -the Stadium, and the hill on which it nestled, to Amphissa and -the pasturages along its stream—all was part of the Ager Apollinis, -sacred to the god and to his priests for ever.</p> - -<p class='c013'>From the Arnold Prize Essay for 1859, by Charles (afterwards -Lord) Bowen.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The topographical and archaeological facts to be gathered -from authorities prior to modern excavations are collected by -Dr. J. H. Middleton in the <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies</i> for 1888. -The results of the subsequent work of the French excavators, -directed by M. Homolle, may conveniently be studied in -Dr. J. G. Frazer’s Commentary on Pausanias, Book 10, where -the history of the successive temples is followed out. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>dimensions of the temple itself, which stood on a rocky plateau -or terrace, were about 197 feet by 72 feet. The Sacred Way ran -round the temple, and close to it on its northern and western -sides, and was followed by the party described by Plutarch in -the second of the three Dialogues (c. 17) in order to reach the -southern steps.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span> - <h2 id='chap03' class='c003'>I <br /> ON THE ‘E’ AT DELPHI</h2> -</div> -<p class='c014'>(In the Pronaos of the temple at Delphi the visitor was confronted by -certain inscriptions (γράμματα): ‘Know thyself’—‘Nothing too much’—‘Go -bail and woe is at hand’—all exhortations to wisdom or prudence -(Plato, <i>Charmides</i>, 163-4). To these is to be added, on the sole authority -of Plutarch’s Dialogue, the letter E, pronounced EI.)</p> - -<p class='c011'>THE SPEAKERS</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Ammonius</span>, the Platonist philosopher, Plutarch’s teacher.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Lamprias</span>, Plutarch’s brother.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Plutarch.</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Theon</span>, a literary friend.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Eustrophus</span>, an Athenian.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Nicander</span>, a priest of the temple.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Chap. 1. Dedication to Serapion at Athens. I am sending -you, as an instalment, some of my Pythian Dialogues. What is -the problem put before us by Apollo under the form of the letter -E? I had always avoided the question, but here is a report of -a conversation with some visitors, of whom Ammonius was one, -in, or soon after, the year <span class='fss'>A. D.</span> 66, when Nero came to Greece.</p> - -<p class='c005'>2. <span class='sc'>Ammonius</span> was arguing that Apollo propounds subjects -for philosophical inquiry in the ordinances and emblems of his -temple, not least in this letter E.</p> - -<p class='c005'>3. <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span> quoted the traditional account, that the Wise -Men, who were properly five, not seven, met here, and, after -discussion, set up the letter E, as a numeral, for a protest against -the intrusion of a sixth and seventh into their company. The -ancient wooden E is still called that of the Wise Men.</p> - -<p class='c005'>4. <span class='sc'>Ammonius</span> smiled, knowing Lamprias to be capable of -improvising a ‘traditional view’. One of the company mentioned -a Chaldaean visitor, who had lately talked much nonsense -about the number seven. The officials of the temple know no -view except that the letter is significant as a word (‘if’ or -‘whether’).</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>5. <span class='sc'>Nicander</span> confirmed this. ‘If’ is used with us in the -formula of questions put to the god, or, as ‘if only’, in prayers.</p> - -<p class='c005'>6. <span class='sc'>Theon</span> puts in a plea for ‘Dialectic’, i.e. Logic. ‘If’ is -the conjunction which holds together the conjunctive proposition -or syllogism, the special prerogative of <i>human</i> intellect. -Hercules, in his early days, mocked at Logic and the E, and then -removed the tripod by force.</p> - -<p class='c005'>7. <span class='sc'>Eustrophus</span>: ‘Bravo, Theon, a Hercules, all but the lion’s -skin!’ He appeals to the devotees of Mathematics to say a word -for the arithmetical virtues of the number five (a thrust at -Plutarch himself, who had yet to learn Academic moderation in -his zeal for Mathematics).</p> - -<p class='c005'>8-16. <span class='sc'>Plutarch</span> <i>loq.</i>:</p> - -<p class='c005'>8. Yes, five has virtues: 5 = 2 + 3, the first even added to the -first odd. It is called ‘Marriage’. After multiplication it -reproduces itself, and so symbolizes the ‘Conflagration’ and -‘Renovation’ of Heraclitus (and the Stoics),</p> - -<p class='c005'>9. Which relate to the legends of Apollo and also of Dionysus.</p> - -<p class='c005'>10. Five, when multiplied, gives alternately five itself and -the perfect ten. It is also essential in harmonies.</p> - -<p class='c005'>11. Plato holds that, <i>if</i> there are more worlds than one, there -<i>may</i> be five, and no more. Aristotle that there is one world -composed of five elements, the five regular solids.</p> - -<p class='c005'>12. The five senses are related to the five elements and the five -solids.</p> - -<p class='c005'>13. We must not forget Homer, and his five-fold division of -the universe. But, going back: Four dimensions (point, line, -plane, solid) are all very well. But animate being requires a -fifth.</p> - -<p class='c005'>14. The true derivation is not 2 + 3 = 5 but 1 + 4 i.e., unity -(which is itself really a square) <i>plus</i> the first square.</p> - -<p class='c005'>15. There are five modes of being (see the <i>Sophist</i>, and -<i>Philebus</i> of Plato). Some early inquirer saw this, and set up -<i>two</i> E’s.</p> - -<p class='c005'>16. I ask the initiated whether five has not a special virtue in -their mysteries. (‘Yes,’ from <span class='sc'>Nicander</span>, ‘but it is a secret.’) -Well I must wait till I become a priest myself.</p> - -<p class='c005'>17. <span class='sc'>Ammonius</span>, though in sympathy with Mathematics, -deprecates too much exactness. There is much to be said for -the number seven. But the ‘E’ is really something different -<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>from all the suggestions. The God greets his visitors with -‘Know Thyself.’ They answer, <span class='sc'>Thou Art</span>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>18. <i>We</i> ‘are’ not at all, but always change from state to -state, and so (says Heraclitus) does all Nature.</p> - -<p class='c005'>19. In true being is no past, present, or future; our common -speech confesses to our not being.</p> - -<p class='c005'>20. But God IS, and is rightly addressed as ‘Thou Art’ or -‘Thou Art One’.</p> - -<p class='c005'>21. The identification of Apollo with the sun is a beautiful -attempt to grasp the spiritual through the sensible. Not so the -stories of his change into fire, and the like, which are better -ascribed to some daemon than to the God. ‘Know Thyself’ -calls us back from these lofty speculations: ‘Man, know thy -nature and its limitations!’</p> -<h3 class='c009'>ON THE ‘E’ AT DELPHI</h3> -<p class='c004'>I. A day or two ago, dear Serapion, I met with some <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>384 <span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -rather good lines, addressed, Dicaearchus thinks, to Archelaus -by Euripides:<a id='r51' /><a href='#f51' class='c006'><sup>[51]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>No gifts, my wealthy friend, from humble me;</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>You’ll think me fool, or think I did but beg.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>He who out of his narrow store offers trifles to men of great -possessions, confers no favour; no one believes that he gives -something for nothing, and he gets credit for a jealous and -ungenerous temper. Now surely as money presents fall far <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -below those of literature and learning, so there is beauty in giving -these, and beauty in claiming a return in kind. At any rate, -I am sending to you, and so to my friends down there, some of -our Pythian Dialogues, as a sort of first-fruits; and, in doing -so, confess that I expect others from you, and more and better -ones, since you enjoy a great city and abundant leisure, with -many books and discussions of every sort. Well then, our kind -Apollo, in the oracles which he gives his consultants, seems to <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>solve the problems of life and to find a remedy, while problems -of the intellect he actually suggests and propounds to the born -love of wisdom in the soul, thus implanting an appetite which -leads to truth. Among many other instances, this is made -clear as to the consecration of the letter ‘E’. We may well -guess that it was not by chance, or by lot, that, alone among -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>385<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> the letters, it received pre-eminence in the God’s house, and -took rank as a sacred offering and a show object. No, the -officials of the God in early times, when they came to speculate, -either saw in it a special and extraordinary virtue, or found it -a symbol for something else of serious importance, and so adopted -it. I had often myself avoided the question and quietly declined -it when raised in the school. However, I was lately surprised -by my sons in earnest discussion with certain strangers, who -were just starting from Delphi; it was not decent to put -them off with excuses, they were so anxious to receive some -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> account. We sat down near the temple, and I began to raise -questions with myself, and to put others to them; and the -place, and what they said, reminded me of a discussion which -we heard a long time ago from Ammonius and others, at the -time of Nero’s visit, when the same problem had been started -here in the same way.</p> - -<p class='c005'>II. That the God is no less philosopher than he is prophet -appeared to all to come out directly from the exposition which -Ammonius gave us of each of his names. He is ‘Pythian’ -(The Inquirer) to those who are beginning to learn and to -inquire; ‘Delian’ (The Clear One) and ‘Phanaean’ to those -who are already getting something clear and a glimmering of -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> the truth; ‘Ismenian’ (The Knowing) to those who possess -the knowledge; ‘Leschenorian’ (God of Discourse) when -they are in active enjoyment of dialectical and philosophic -intercourse. ‘Now since’, he continued, ‘Philosophy embraces -inquiry, wonder, and doubt, it seems natural that most of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>things relating to the God should have been hidden away in -riddles, and should require some account of their purpose, and -an explanation of cause. For instance, in the case of the undying -fire, why the only woods used here are pine for burning -and laurel for fumigation; again, why two Fates are here installed, -whereas their number is everywhere else taken as three; -why no woman is allowed to approach the place of the oracles; -questions about the tripod, and the rest. These problems, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -when suggested to persons not altogether wanting in reason and -soul, lure them on, and challenge them to inquire, to listen, -and to discuss. Look again at those inscriptions, <span class='fss'>KNOW THYSELF</span> -and <span class='fss'>NOTHING TOO MUCH</span>; how many philosophic inquiries -have they provoked! What a multitude of arguments has -sprung up out of each, as from a seed! Not one of them I think -is more fruitful in this way than the subject of our present -inquiry.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>III. When Ammonius had said this, my brother Lamprias -spoke: ‘After all, the account which we have heard of the -matter is simple enough and quite short. They say that the -famous Wise Men, also called by some “Sophists”, were <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -properly only five, Chilon, Thales, Solon, Bias, and Pittacus. -But Cleobulus, tyrant of Lindos, and, later on, Periander of -Corinth, men with no wisdom or virtue in them, but forcing -public opinion by influence, friends, and favours, thrust themselves -into the list of the wise, and disseminated through Greece -maxims and sayings resembling the utterances of the five. -Then the five were vexed, but did not choose to expose the -imposture, or to have an open quarrel on the matter of title, -and to fight it out with such powerful persons. They met here <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -by themselves; and after discussing the matter, dedicated -the letter which is fifth in the alphabet, and also as a numeral -signifies five, thus making their own protest before the God, -that they were five, discarding and rejecting the seventh and the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>sixth, as having no part or lot with themselves. That this -account is not beside the mark may be recognized by any one -who has heard the officials of the temple naming the golden -“E” as that of Livia the wife of Caesar, the brazen one as that -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>386<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> of the Athenians, whereas the original and oldest letter, which -is of wood, is to this day called that “Of the Wise Men”, as -having been the offering of all in common, not of anyone of them.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>IV. Ammonius gave a quiet smile; he had a suspicion that -Lamprias had been giving us a view of his own, making up -history and legend at discretion. Some one else said that it -was like the nonsense which they had heard from the Chaldaean -stranger a day or so before; that there were seven letters which -were vowels, seven stars that have an independent motion and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> are unattached to the heavens; moreover that ‘E’ is the -second vowel from the beginning, and the sun the second planet, -after the moon, and that all Greeks, or nearly all, identify -Apollo with the sun.</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘But all that’, he said, ‘is pernicious nonsense. Lamprias, -however, has, probably without knowing it, made a move<a id='r52' /><a href='#f52' class='c006'><sup>[52]</sup></a> -which stirs up all who have to do with the temple against his -view. What he told us was unknown to any of the Delphians; -they used to give the regular guides’ account, that neither the -appearance nor the sound of the letter has any significance, but -only the name.’</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> V. ‘No, the Delphic Officials’, said Nicander the priest, -speaking for them, ‘believe that it is a vehicle, a form assumed -by the petition addressed to the God; it has a leading place in -the questions of those who consult him, and inquire, <i>If</i> they -shall conquer; <i>If</i> they shall marry; <i>If</i> it is advisable to sail; -<i>If</i> to farm; <i>If</i> to travel. The God in his wisdom would bow out -the dialecticians when they think that nothing practical comes -of the “<i>If</i>” part with its clause attached; he admits as practical, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>in his sense of the word, all questions so attached. Then, -since it is our personal concern to question him as prophet, but <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -a general concern to pray to him as God, they hold that the -letter embraces the virtue of prayer no less than that of inquiry; -“O, If I might!” says every one who prays, as Archilochus,<a id='r53' /><a href='#f53' class='c006'><sup>[53]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>If <i>it might be mine, prevailing, Neobule’s hand to touch</i>!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>When <i>If-so-be</i> is used, the latter part is dragged in (compare -Sophron’s “Bereaved of children, I trow”, or Homer’s “As -I will break thy might, I trow”<a id='r54' /><a href='#f54' class='c006'><sup>[54]</sup></a>). But <i>If</i> gives the sense of -prayer sufficiently.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>VI. When Nicander had finished, our friend Theon, whom -I am sure you know, asked Ammonius whether Dialectic might <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -speak freely, after the insulting remarks to which she had been -treated. Ammonius told him to speak out on her behalf. -‘That the God is a master of Dialectic,’ Theon said, ‘is shown -clearly by most of his oracles; for you will grant that the -solution of puzzles belongs to the same person as their invention. -Again, as Plato used to say, when a response was given that the -altar at Delos should be doubled,<a id='r55' /><a href='#f55' class='c006'><sup>[55]</sup></a> a matter requiring the most -advanced geometry, the God was not merely enjoining this, -but was also putting his strong command upon the Greeks to -practise geometry. Just so, when the God puts out ambiguous <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -oracles, he is exalting and establishing Dialectic, as essential to -the right understanding of himself. You will grant again, that -in Dialectic this conjunctive particle has great force, because it -formulates the most logical of all sentences. This is certainly -the “conjunctive”, seeing that the other animals know the -existence of things, but man alone has been gifted by nature -with the power of observing and discerning their sequence. -That “it is day” and “it is light” we may take it that wolves -and dogs and birds perceive. But “if it is day it is light”, is <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>387<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>intelligible only to man; he alone can apprehend antecedent -and consequent, the enunciation of each and their connexion, -their mutual relation and difference, and it is in these that all -demonstration has its first and governing principle. Since -then Philosophy is concerned with truth, and the light of truth -is demonstration, and the principle of demonstration is the -conjunctive proposition, the faculty which includes and produces -this was rightly consecrated by the wise men to that -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> God who is above all things a lover of truth. Also, the God is -a prophet, and prophetic art deals with that future which is to -come out of things present or things past. Nothing comes into -being without a cause, nothing is known beforehand without -a reason. Things which come into being follow things which -have been, things which are to be follow things which now are -coming into being, all bound in one continuous chain of evolution. -Therefore he who knows how to link causes together into -one, and combine them into a natural process, can also declare -beforehand things</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Which are, which shall be, and which were of old.</i><a id='r56' /><a href='#f56' class='c006'><sup>[56]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Homer did well in putting the present first, the future next, -and the past last. Inference starts with the present, and works -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> by the force of the conjunction: “If this is, that was its antecedent”, -“If this is, that will be.” As we have said, the -technical and logical requirement is knowledge of consequence; -sense supplies the minor premiss. Hence, though it may -perhaps seem a petty thing to say, I will not shrink from it; -the real tripod of truth is the logical process which assumes the -relation of consequent to antecedent, then introduces the fact, -and so establishes the conclusion. If the Pythian God really -finds pleasure in music, and in the voices of swans, and the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> tones of the lyre, what wonder is it that as a friend to Dialectic, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>he should welcome and love that part of speech which he sees -philosophers use more, and more often, than any other. So -Hercules, when he had not yet loosed Prometheus, nor yet -conversed with the sophists Chiron and Atlas, but was young -and just a Boeotian, first abolished Dialectic, made a mock at -the “<i>If the first then the second</i>”<a id='r57' /><a href='#f57' class='c006'><sup>[57]</sup></a>, and bethought him to remove -the tripod by force, and to try conclusions with the God -for his art. At any rate, as time went on, he also appears to <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -have become a great prophet and a great dialectician.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>VII. When Theon had done, I think it was Eustrophus of -Athens who addressed us: ‘Do you see with what a will Theon -backs Dialectic? He has only to put on the lion’s skin! Now -then for you who put down under number all things in one mass, -all natures and principles divine as well as human, and take it to -be leader and lord in all that is beautiful and honourable! It -is no time for you to keep quiet; offer to the God a first-fruits -of your dear Mathematics, if you think that “E” rises above <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the other letters, not in its own right by power or shape, or by -its meaning as a word, but as the honoured symbol of an absolutely -great and sovereign number, the “Pempad”, from which -the Wise Men took their verb “to count”.’ Eustrophus was -not jesting when he said this to us; he said it because I was at -the time passionately devoted to Mathematics, though soon to -find the value of the maxim, ‘<span class='fss'>NOTHING TOO MUCH</span>‘, having -joined the Academy.</p> - -<p class='c005'>VIII. So I said that Eustrophus’ solution of the problem -by number was excellent. ‘For since,’ I continued, ‘when all -number is divided into even and odd, unity alone is in its effect <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>388<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -common to both, and therefore, if added to an odd number makes -it even, and vice versa; and since even numbers start with two, -odd numbers with three, and five is produced by combination -<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>of these, it has rightly received honour as the product of first -principles, and it has further been called “Marriage”, because -even resembles the female, odd the male. For when we divide -the several numbers into equal segments, the even parts asunder -perfectly, and leaves inside a sort of recipient principle or space; -if the odd is treated in the same way, a middle part is always left -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> over, which is generative. Hence the odd is the more generative, -and when brought into combination invariably prevails; in no -combination does it give an even result, but in all cases an odd. -Moreover, when each is applied to itself and added, the difference -is shown. Even with even never gives odd, or passes out -of its proper nature; it wants the strength to produce anything -different. Odd numbers with odd yield even numbers in -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> plenty because of their unfailing fertility. The other powers -of numbers and their distinctions cannot be now pursued in -detail. However, the Pythagoreans called five “Marriage”, as -produced by the union of the first male number and the first -female. From another point of view it has been called “Nature”, -because when multiplied into itself it ends at last in -itself. For as Nature takes a grain of wheat, and in the intermediate -stages of growth gives forms and shapes in abundance, -through which she brings her work to perfection, and, after -them all, shows us again a grain of wheat, thus restoring the -beginning in the end of the whole process, so it is with numbers. -When other numbers are multiplied into themselves, they end -in different numbers after being squared; only those formed -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> of five or of six recover and preserve themselves every time. -Thus six times six gives thirty-six, five times five twenty-five. -And again, a number formed of six does this only once, in -the single case of being squared. Five has the same property -in multiplication, and also a special property of its own when -added to itself; it produces alternately itself or ten, and that -to infinity. For this number mimics the principle which orders -<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>all things. As Heraclitus<a id='r58' /><a href='#f58' class='c006'><sup>[58]</sup></a> tells us that Nature successively produces -the universe out of herself and herself out of the universe, -bartering “fire for things and things for fire, as goods for gold <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and gold for goods”, even so it is with the Pempad. In union -with itself, it does not by its nature produce anything imperfect -or foreign. All its changes are defined; it either produces -itself or the Decad, either the homogeneous or the perfect.</p> - -<p class='c005'>IX. ‘Then if any one ask “What is all this to Apollo?”<a id='r59' /><a href='#f59' class='c006'><sup>[59]</sup></a> -Much, we will answer, not to Apollo only but also to Dionysus, -who has no less to do with Delphi than has Apollo. Now we <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -hear theologians saying or singing, in poems or in plain prose, -that the God subsists indestructible and eternal, and that, by -force of some appointed plan and method, he passes through -changes of his person; at one time he sets fire to Nature and so -makes all like unto all, at another passes through all phases of -difference—shapes, sufferings, powers—at the present time, for -instance, he becomes “Cosmos”, and that is his most familiar -name. The wiser people disguise from the vulgar the change <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>389<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -into fire, and call him “Apollo<a id='r60' /><a href='#f60' class='c006'><sup>[60]</sup></a>” from his isolation, “Phoebus<a id='r61' /><a href='#f61' class='c006'><sup>[61]</sup></a>” -from his undefiled purity. As for his passage and distribution -into waves and water, and earth, and stars, and nascent plants -and animals, they hint at the actual change undergone as -a rending and dismemberment, but name the God himself -Dionysus or Zagreus or Nyctelius or Isodaites. Deaths too and -vanishings do they construct, passages out of life and new births, -all riddles and tales to match the changes mentioned. So they -sing to Dionysus dithyrambic strains, charged with sufferings -and a change wherein are wanderings and dismemberment. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>In mingled cries</i> (says Aeschylus)<a id='r62' /><a href='#f62' class='c006'><sup>[62]</sup></a> <i>the dithyramb should ring,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>With Dionysus revelling, its King.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>‘But Apollo has the Paean, a set and sober music. Apollo is -ever ageless and young; Dionysus has many forms and many -shapes as represented in paintings and sculpture, which attribute -to Apollo smoothness and order and a gravity with no admixture, -to Dionysus a blend of sport and sauciness with seriousness -and frenzy:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>God that sett’st maiden’s blood</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Dancing in frenzied mood,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Blooming with pageantry!</i></div> - <div class='line in4'><i>Evoe! we cry.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>‘So do they summon him, rightly catching the character of -either change. But since the periods of change are not equal, that -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> called “satiety” being longer, that of “stint” shorter, they -here preserve a proportion, and use the Paean with their sacrifice -for the rest of the year, but at the beginning of winter awake -the dithyramb, and stop the Paean, and invoke this God instead -of the other, supposing that this ratio of three to one is that of -the “Arrangement” to the “Conflagration”.<a id='r63' /><a href='#f63' class='c006'><sup>[63]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>X. ‘But perhaps this has been drawn out at too great length -for the present opportunity. This much is clear, that they do -associate the Pempad with the God, as it now produces its own -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> self like fire, and again produces the Decad out of itself like the -universe. Now take music, which the God favours so highly, -are we not to suppose that this number has its share here?</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘Most of the science of harmonies, to put it in a word, is -concerned with consonances. That these are five and no more -is proved by reason, as against the man who is all for strings and -holes, and wants to explore these points irrationally by the senses; -they all have their origin in numerical ratios. The ratio of the -fourth is four to three, of the fifth three to two, of the octave -<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>two to one, of the octave and fifth three to one, of the double -octave four to one. The additional consonance which writers of <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -harmony introduce under the name of octave and fourth, does -not merit admission, being extra-metrical; to admit it would -be to indulge the irrational side of our sense of hearing, and to -violate reason, or law. Passing by then five arrangements of -tetrachords, and the first five “tones”, or “tropes”, or “harmonies”, -whichever name is right, by variations of which, -made higher or lower, the remaining scales, high and low, are -produced, is it not true that, though intervals are many, indeed -infinite, the principles of melody are five only, quarter tone, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -half tone, tone, tone and a half, double tone? In sounds no -other interval of high and low, be it smaller or greater, can -be used for melody.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XI. ‘Passing over many similar points, I will’, I said, ‘produce -Plato,<a id='r64' /><a href='#f64' class='c006'><sup>[64]</sup></a> who, in discussing the question of a single universe, -says that if there are others besides ours, and it is not alone, then -the whole number of them is five and no more; not but that, -if ours is the only universe in being, as Aristotle<a id='r65' /><a href='#f65' class='c006'><sup>[65]</sup></a> also thinks, -even this one is in a fashion composite and formed out of five; -one of earth, one of water, a third of fire, and a fourth of air, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>390<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -while the fifth is called heaven or light or air, or by others “fifth -substance”, to which alone of all bodies circular motion is -natural, not due to force or other accidental cause. Therefore -it is that Plato, observing the five perfect figures of Nature—Pyramid, -Cube, Octahedron, Eicosahedron, and Dodecahedron—assigned -them to the elements, each to each.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XII. ‘There are some who appropriate to the same elements -our own senses, also five in number. Touch, as they see, is <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -resistent and earthy. Taste takes in properties by moisture in -the things tasted. Air when struck becomes audible voice or -sound. There remain two: smell, the object of our olfactory -<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>sense, is an exhalation engendered by heat, and so resembles fire; -sight is akin to air and light, which give it a luminous passage, -so there is a commixture of both which is sympathetic. Besides -these, the animal has no other sense, and the universe no other -substance, which is simple and not blended. A marvellous -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> apportionment of the five to the five!’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIII. Here, I think, I paused, and after an interval I went -on: ‘What has happened to us, Eustrophus? We have almost -forgotten Homer,<a id='r66' /><a href='#f66' class='c006'><sup>[66]</sup></a> as if he had not been the first to divide the -universe into five parts, assigning the three in the middle to the -three Gods, while he left common and unapportioned the two -extremes, Olympus and earth, one the limit of what is below, -the other of what is above. “We must cry back”, as Euripides -says.<a id='r67' /><a href='#f67' class='c006'><sup>[67]</sup></a> Now those who exalt the number four as the basis of the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> genesis of every body, make out a fairly good case. For every -solid body possesses length, breadth, and depth; but length -presupposes a point as an unit; the line is called length without -breadth, and is length; the movement of a line in breadth -produces a plane surface, and that is three; add depth, and we -get to a solid with four factors. Any one can see that the -number four carries Nature up to this point, that is, to the -formation of a complete body, which may be touched, weighed, -or struck; there it has left her, wanting in what is greatest. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> For that which has no soul is, in plain terms, orphaned and incomplete -and fit for nothing, unless it be employed by soul. -But the movement or disposition which sets soul therein—a -change introducing a fifth factor—restores to Nature her completeness, -its rational basis is as much more commanding than -that of the Tetrad as the animal is above the inanimate. Further, -the symmetry and potency of the whole five prevails, so as not -to allow the animate to form classes without limit, but gives -<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>five types for all living things. There are Gods, we know, and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -daemons, and heroes, and after these, fourth in all, the race of -men: fifth, and last, the irrational order of brutes. Again, if -you make a natural division of the soul itself, the first and least -distinct principle is that of growth; second is that of sense, then -comes appetite, then the spirited part; when it has reached -the power of reasoning and perfected its nature, it stays at rest -in the fifth stage as its upper limit.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIV. ‘Now as this number five has powers so many and so -great, its origin is also noble: not the process already described, -out of the numbers two and three, but that given by the combination -of the first principle of number with the first square. -The first principle is unity, the first square is four; from these <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>391<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -as from idea and limited substance, comes five. Or, if it be -really correct, as some hold, to reckon unity as a square, being -a power of itself and working out to itself, then the Pempad is -formed out of the first two squares, and so has not missed noble -birth and that the highest.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XV. ‘My most important point’, I went on, ‘may, I fear, -bear hardly on Plato, just as he said that Anaxagoras “was hardly -used by the name Selene”, when he had wished to appropriate -the theory of her illumination, really a very old one. Are not <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -these Plato’s words, in the <i>Cratylus</i>?‘<a id='r68' /><a href='#f68' class='c006'><sup>[68]</sup></a> ‘They certainly are,’ said -Eustrophus, ‘but I fail to see the resemblance.’ ‘Very well -then; you know, I suppose, that in the “<i>Sophist</i>”<a id='r69' /><a href='#f69' class='c006'><sup>[69]</sup></a> he proves -that the supreme principles are five: being, identity, difference, -and after these, as fourth and fifth, movement and position. -But in the <i>Philebus</i><a id='r70' /><a href='#f70' class='c006'><sup>[70]</sup></a> he divides on a different plan. He distinguishes -the unlimited and the limited, from whose combination -comes the origin of all being. The cause of combination he -takes to be a fourth. The fifth, whereby things so mingled are -again parted and distinguished, he has left to us to guess. I <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> conjecture -<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>that those on the one list are figures of those on the -other; to being corresponds that which becomes, to motion -the unlimited; to position the limited, to identity the combining -principle, to difference that which distinguishes. But -if the two sets are different, yet, on one view as on the other, -there would be five classes, and five modes of difference. Some -early inquirer, it will surely be said, saw into this before Plato, -and consecrated two “E’s” to the God, as a manifestation and -symbol of the number of all things. But further, having perceived -that the good also takes shape under five heads, firstly -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> moderation, secondly symmetry, thirdly mind, fourthly the -sciences and arts and true opinions which relate to soul, fifthly -every pleasure which is pure and unmingled with what causes -pain, he there leaves off, merely suggesting the Orphic verse,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>In the sixth order let the strain be stayed!</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>XVI. ‘Having said so much’, I went on, ‘to you all, I will -sing one short stave to Nicander and “his cunning men”.<a id='r71' /><a href='#f71' class='c006'><sup>[71]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>‘On the sixth day of the new moon, when the Pythia is -introduced into the Prytaneum by one person, the first of your -three castings of lot is a single one, namely the five: the three -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> against the two.’ ‘It is so,’ said Nicander, ‘but the reason may -not be disclosed to others.’ ‘Then,’ I answered with a smile, -‘until such time as we become priests, and the God allows us to -know the truth, this much and no more shall be added to what -we have to say about the Pempad.’ Such, so far as I remember, -was the end of our account of the arithmetical or mathematical -reasons for extolling the letter ‘E’.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XVII. Ammonius, as one who himself gave Mathematics -no mean place in Philosophy, was pleased at the course the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>conversation was taking, and said: ‘It is not worth our while -to answer our young friends with too absolute accuracy on these -points; I will only observe that any one of the numbers will -provide not a few points for those who choose to sing its praises. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Why speak about the others? Apollo’s holy “Seven” will take -up all one day before we have exhausted its powers. Are we -then to show the Seven Wise Men at odds with common -usage, and “the time which runs”<a id='r72' /><a href='#f72' class='c006'><sup>[72]</sup></a>, and to suppose that they -ousted the “Seven” from its pre-eminence before the God, -and consecrated the “Five” as perhaps more appropriate?</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘My own view is that the letter signifies neither number, nor <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>392<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -order, nor conjunction, nor any other omitted part of speech; -it is a complete and self-operating mode of addressing the God; -the word once spoken brings the speaker into apprehension of -his power. The God, as it were, addresses each of us, as he -enters, with his “<span class='sc'>Know Thyself</span>”, which is at least as good as -“Hail”. We answer the God back with “EI” (Thou Art), -rendering to him the designation which is true and has no lie in -it, and alone belongs to him, and to no other, that of <span class='fss'>BEING</span>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XVIII. ‘For we have, really, no part in real being; all -mortal nature is in a middle state between becoming and -perishing, and presents but an appearance, a faint unstable image, -of itself. If you strain the intellect, and wish to grasp this, it <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -is as with water; compress it too much and force it violently -into one space as it tries to flow through, and you destroy the -enveloping substance; even so when the reason tries to follow -out too closely the clear truth about each particular thing in -a world of phase and change, it is foiled, and rests either on the -becoming of that thing or on its perishing; it cannot apprehend -anything which abides or really is. “It is impossible to go -into the same river twice”, said Heraclitus;<a id='r73' /><a href='#f73' class='c006'><sup>[73]</sup></a> no more can you -<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>grasp mortal being twice, so as to hold it. So sharp and so -swift is change; it scatters and brings together again, nay not -again, no nor afterwards; even while it is being formed it fails, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> it approaches, and it is gone. Hence becoming never ends in -being, for the process never leaves off, or is stayed. From seed -it produces, in its constant changes, an embryo, then an infant, -then a child; in due order a boy, a young man; then a man, an -elderly man, an old man; it undoes the former becomings and -the age which has been, to make those which come after. Yet -we fear (how absurdly!) a single death, we who have died so -many deaths, and yet are dying. For it is not only that, as -Heraclitus<a id='r74' /><a href='#f74' class='c006'><sup>[74]</sup></a> would say, “death of fire is birth of air”, and -“death of air is birth of water”; the thing is much clearer in -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> our own selves. The man in his strength is destroyed when -the old man comes into being, the young man was destroyed for -the man in his strength to be, so the boy for the young man, the -babe for the boy. He of yesterday has died into him of to-day; -he of to-day is dying into him of to-morrow. No one abides, -no one is; we that come into being are many, while matter is -driven around, and then glides away, about some one appearance -and a common mould. Else how is it, if we remain the same, -that the things in which we find pleasure now are different from -those of a former time; that we love, hate, admire, and censure -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> different things; that our words are different and our feelings; -that our look, our bodily form, our intellect are not the same -now as then? If a man does not change, these various conditions -are unnatural; if he does change, he is not the same man. But -if he is not the same man, he is not at all; his so-called being is -simply change and new birth of man out of man. In our -ignorance of what being is, sense falsely tells us that what -appears is.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIX. ‘What then really is? That which is eternal, was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>never brought into being, is never destroyed, to which no time -ever brings change. Time is a thing which moves and takes -the fashion of moving matter, which ever flows or is a sort of -leaky vessel which holds destruction and becoming. Of time -we use the words “afterwards”, “before”, “shall be”, and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -“has been”, each on its face an avowal of not being. For, in -this question of being, to say of a thing which has not yet come -into being, or which has already ceased from being, that “it -is”, is silly and absurd. When we strain to the uttermost our -apprehension of time, and say “it is at hand”, “it is here”, or -“now”, a rational development of the argument brings it all -to nothing. “Now” is squeezed out into the future or into -the past, as though we should try to see a point, which of -necessity passes away to right or left. But if the case be the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>393<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -same with Nature, which is measured, as with time which -measures, nothing in it abides or really is. All things are -coming into being, or being destroyed, even while we measure -them by time. Hence it is not permissible, even in speaking -of that which is, to say that “it was”, or “it shall be”; these -all are inclinations, transitions, passages, for of permanent being -there is none in Nature.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XX. ‘But the God <span class='fss'>IS</span>, we are bound to assert; he is, with -reference to no time but to that age wherein is no movement, or -time, or duration; to which nothing is prior or subsequent; -no future, no past, no elder, no younger, which by one long -“now” has made the “always” perfect. Only with reference -to this that which really is, is; it has not come into being, it is <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -not yet to be, it did not begin, it will not cease. Thus then -we ought to hail him in worship, and thus to address him as -“Thou Art”, aye, or in the very words of some of the old -people, “Ei Hen”, “Thou art one thing”.<a id='r75' /><a href='#f75' class='c006'><sup>[75]</sup></a> For the Divine -<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>is not many things, in the sense in which each one of us is made -up of ten thousand different and successive states, a scrap-heap -of units, a mob of individuals. No, that which is must be one, -as that which is one is. Variety, any difference in being, passes -to one side to produce that which is not. Therefore the first -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> of the names of the God is right, and the second, and the third. -“Apollo” (Not-many) denies plurality and excludes multitude. -Ieïus means one and one only; Phoebus, we know, is a word by -which the ancients expressed that which is clean and pure, even -as to this day the Thessalians, when their priests pass their -solemn days in strict seclusion outside the temple, apply to -them a verb formed from Phoebus. Now The One is transparent -and pure, pollution comes by commixture of this with -that, just as Homer,<a id='r76' /><a href='#f76' class='c006'><sup>[76]</sup></a> you remember, says of ivory dyed red that -it is stained, and dyers say of mingled pigments that they are -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> destroyed, and call the process “destruction”. Therefore it is -the property of that which is indestructible and pure to be -one and without admixture.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXI. ‘There are those who think that Apollo and the sun -are the same; we hail them and love them for the fair name -they give, and it is fitting to do so; for they associate their idea -of the God with that which they honour and desire more than -all other things which they know. But now that we see them -dreaming of the God in the fairest of nightly visions, let us rise -and encourage them to mount yet higher, to contemplate him -in a dream of the day, and to see his own being. Let them pay -honour also to the image of him and worship the principle of -increase which is about it; so far as what is of sense can lead -to what is of mind, a moving body to that which abides, it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>allows presentments and appearances of his kind and blessed <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -self to shine through after a fashion. But as to transitions and -changes in himself, that he now discharges fire, and so is drawn -up, as they put it, or again presses down and strains himself -into earth and sea, winds and animals, and all the strange -passages into animals and also plants, piety forbids us so much -as to hear them. Otherwise the God will be a greater trifler -than the boy in Homer,<a id='r77' /><a href='#f77' class='c006'><sup>[77]</sup></a> for ever playing with the universe the -game which the boy plays with a pile of sand, which is heaped -together and sucked away under his hand; moulding the -universe when there is none, and again destroying it when it has -come into being. The opposite principle which we find in the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -universe, whatever its origin, is that which binds being together -and prevails over the corporeal weakness tending to destruction. -To my thinking the word “EI” is confronted with this false -view, and testifies to the God that <span class='fss'>THOU ART</span>, meaning that no -shift or change has place in him, but that such things belong <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>394<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -to some other God, or rather to some Spirit set over Nature in its -perishing and becoming, whether to effect either process or -to undergo it. This appears from the names, in themselves -opposite and contradictory. He is called Apollo, another is -called Pluto; he is Delius, the other Aidoneus; he is Phoebus, -the other “Skotios”; by his side are the Muses, and Memory, -with the other are Oblivion and Silence; he is Theorius and -Phanaeus, the other is “King of dim Night and ineffectual -Sleep”.<a id='r78' /><a href='#f78' class='c006'><sup>[78]</sup></a> The other is <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Of all the Gods to men the direst foe.</i><a id='r79' /><a href='#f79' class='c006'><sup>[79]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Whereas of him Pindar<a id='r80' /><a href='#f80' class='c006'><sup>[80]</sup></a> has pleasantly said:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Well tried and mildest found, to men who live and die.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>so Euripides<a id='r81' /><a href='#f81' class='c006'><sup>[81]</sup></a> was right:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Draughts to the dead out-poured,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Songs which our bright-haired lord</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Apollo hath abhorred.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>And still earlier Stesichorus:<a id='r82' /><a href='#f82' class='c006'><sup>[82]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Jest and song Apollo owns,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Let Hades keep his woes and groans.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Sophocles again,<a id='r83' /><a href='#f83' class='c006'><sup>[83]</sup></a> in his actual assignment of instruments to -each, is quite clear, thus:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Nor harp nor lyre to wailing strains is dear</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>for it was quite late, indeed only the other day, that the flute -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> ventured to let itself speak “on themes of joy”; in early times -it trailed along in mourning, nor was its service therein much -esteemed or very cheerful; then there came a general confusion. -It was specially by mingling things which were of Gods with -those which were of daemons that the distinction of the -instruments was lost. Anyhow, the phrase “<span class='fss'>KNOW THYSELF</span>” -seems to stand in a sort of antithesis to the letter “E”, and -yet, again, to accord with it. The letter is an appeal, a cry -raised in awe and worship to the God, as being throughout -all eternity; the phrase is a reminder to mortal man of his own -nature and of his weakness.’</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span> - <h2 id='chap04' class='c003'>II <br /> WHY THE PYTHIA DOES NOT NOW GIVE ORACLES IN VERSE</h2> -</div> -<p class='c004'>THE SPEAKERS</p> -<h3 class='c009'>A. Introductory</h3> -<div class='lg-container-b c015'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Basilocles</span>, a citizen of Delphi.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Philinus</span>, a friend (perhaps also of Delphi).</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c009'>B. Philinus narrates a Conversation between</h3> -<div class='lg-container-b c015'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Philinus.</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Diogenianus</span>, a young visitor from Pergamum, son of a friend of the same name.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Theon</span>, a literary friend.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Serapion</span>, the Athenian poet.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Boethus</span>, a geometrician, almost a convinced Epicurean.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Two Guides</span> of the temple of Delphi.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>1. <span class='sc'>Philinus</span>, coming out of the temple, explains to <span class='sc'>Basilocles</span> -why his party has been so long in making the round of the sights. -It included an intelligent and inquisitive visitor, the younger -Diogenianus, of Pergamum. He continues:—</p> - -<p class='c005'>2. <span class='sc'>Diogenianus</span> raised a point about the tint of the Corinthian -bronze. <span class='sc'>Theon</span> interposed with a story:</p> - -<p class='c005'>3. And discussed the properties of olive oil, which produces -a crust on metals. He refers to Aristotle’s view (which cannot -be traced in his extant works).</p> - -<p class='c005'>4. He suggested special properties in the air of Delphi—density -and rarity—and quotes Homer for the combination of -such opposites.</p> - -<p class='c005'>5. A verse inscription catching the eye of <span class='sc'>Diogenianus</span> -caused him to ask why the verses of oracles are so poor. <span class='sc'>Serapion</span> -suggested that perhaps our standard ought to be revised by that -of the God. <span class='sc'>Boethus</span> told a story about Pauson the painter. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>He added that there is no excuse in the subject-matter, witness -Serapion, who wrote excellent poetry on dry science!</p> - -<p class='c005'>6. <span class='sc'>Serapion</span> agreed that our standards are wrong—they lack -severity. Pleasure was cast out, once for all, from the seat of -the Sibyl.</p> - -<p class='c005'>7. <span class='sc'>Theon</span> disclaimed the false theory of inspiration. The -verses are not the God’s, he only gives the impulse. But there -is no pleasing the Epicureans, whether the prophetess uses verse -or prose. <span class='sc'>Diogenianus</span> protested against levity on a subject -of profound interest to all Greeks. <span class='sc'>Theon</span> asked that the -question might be reserved, and the round continued.</p> - -<p class='c005'>8. Instances from Hiero’s statue, and others, of the jealous -care of Providence for human affairs. <span class='sc'>Boethus</span> thought Chance, -or Spontaneity, sufficient to account for all, and was answered -by <span class='sc'>Philinus</span>, who continued,</p> - -<p class='c005'>9. And referred to the history of the first Sibyl. <span class='sc'>Boethus</span> -mocked, and was met by <span class='sc'>Diogenianus</span> with instances of prophecies -verified,</p> - -<p class='c005'>10. Which <span class='sc'>Boethus</span> would explain as successful guesses.</p> - -<p class='c005'>11. <span class='sc'>Serapion</span> called for a distinction to be made between -prophecies made in general terms, and those which go into -details.</p> - -<p class='c005'>12. <span class='sc'>Diogenianus</span> asked the emblematic import of the frogs -on the Corinthian brazen bowl. <span class='sc'>Serapion</span> suggested a reference -to the Sun rising out of water. <span class='sc'>Philinus</span> here detected an -intrusion of the Stoic ‘Conflagration’ into the discussion. -A casual remark raised the question of the identity of the sun -with Phoebus. ‘They are as different’, said <span class='sc'>Diogenianus</span>, ‘as -the sun and the moon, only the sun has permanently eclipsed -the God, the sensible, the spiritual.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>13. <span class='sc'>Serapion</span> asked a question which the guides had already -answered: ‘No wonder if they are bewildered by our high-flown -talk.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>14. The statue of Rhodope, the courtesan, called forth a -stern protest from <span class='sc'>Diogenianus</span>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>15. <span class='sc'>Theon</span>, on an appeal from <span class='sc'>Serapion</span>, pointed out the -greater scandal of offerings made by Greeks for victories over -Greeks.</p> - -<p class='c005'>16. One of the <span class='sc'>Guides</span> reminded the company of the story of -Croesus and the baker-woman.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>17. <span class='sc'>Diogenianus</span> begged that, instead of more anecdotes, -the original question might be discussed: ‘Why has the use of -verse in oracular answers been discontinued?’ The company -seated itself in a new position, and <span class='sc'>Boethus</span> genially remarked -on its appropriateness, the place of origin of the heroic metre.</p> - -<p class='c005'>18. <span class='sc'>Serapion</span> congratulated him on his improved tone, and -<span class='sc'>Philinus</span> agreed. Philosophers have dropped verse, yet we do -not infer that Philosophy has died out. <span class='sc'>Philinus</span> agreed.</p> - -<p class='c005'>19-end. <span class='sc'>Theon</span> spoke to the original question.</p> - -<p class='c005'>19. He mentioned ancient oracles delivered in prose,</p> - -<p class='c005'>20. And modern oracles given in verse.</p> - -<p class='c005'>21. To sum up: Soul is the instrument of the God, body of -soul; the result must partake in the infirmity of body. The -cases of reflecting mirrors, and of the moon. Thus there are two -separate emotions in the prophetess—inspiration and Nature.</p> - -<p class='c005'>22. Homeric instances of the choice of human instruments—Story -of Battus.</p> - -<p class='c005'>23. Of the ancient oracles (1) many were delivered in prose, -(2) the fashion of the times was for verse (cp. c. 18).</p> - -<p class='c005'>24. It is better that oracles should be given in current coin, -not in the depreciated coin of verse. History of poetical usage.</p> - -<p class='c005'>25. In old times obscurity was thought dignified, now it -provokes impatience; and it has become vulgarized through -charlatans.</p> - -<p class='c005'>26. When cities and statesmen used to consult the oracle on -questions of high policy, circumlocution was necessary.</p> - -<p class='c005'>27. Again, verse was a great help to memory, when intricate -advice was given, as to Battus.</p> - -<p class='c005'>28. In these days of general rest, only homely questions are -asked, and are best answered in homely prose.</p> - -<p class='c005'>29. Yet we fear lest the credit acquired in three thousand -years by the straight concise answers of the oracle should be lost! -We gush out with wealth, as the mythical Galaesus with milk. -I am proud to have had some hand in this.</p> - -<p class='c005'>30. People who regret the old obscurity and bombast are -like children who admire a rainbow more than the sun which -makes it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In Theon’s long concluding speech (c. 19, p. 403 <span class='fss'>A</span> to the -end) he is no doubt expressing Plutarch’s own views. But the -literary references and the touch of levity are quite in Theon’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>style; ‘my young friend’, in c. 20, recalls the same phrase in c. 3. -Later on, Plutarch is, as Wyttenbach has observed, indicated by τὸν -καθηγεμόνα ταύτης τῆς πολιτείας. Professor Hartman (see Preface, -p. <a href='#Page_xx'>xx</a>) states his conviction that Theon was an older friend of -Plutarch and his predecessor in the priesthood (pp. 166 and 617). -In a Dialogue in which the Epicureans are attacked (<i>Non posse suaviter</i>, -p. 1088 <span class='fss'>D</span>) a long speech clearly belonging to Theon is introduced -by the words ‘I (Plutarch) said’. This slip is probably due -to the author. (See, on the general subject, Mr. John Oakesmith’s -note on p. 149 of The Religion of Plutarch.)</p> -<h3 class='c009'>WHY THE PYTHIA DOES NOT NOW GIVE ORACLES IN VERSE</h3> -<p class='c004'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>394 <span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> <i>Basilocles.</i> The shades of evening, Philinus, while you are -conducting the stranger round the votive gifts! Here am I, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> fairly tired out in waiting for you.</p> - -<p class='c005'><i>Philinus.</i> Yes, Basilocles, we made slow progress, sowing -arguments as we went and reaping them too; battle and war -were beneath them, as they sprang and sprouted in our faces, -like the ‘sown men’ of old.</p> - -<p class='c005'><i>Basilocles.</i> Then shall I have to call in some one else of your -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> company, or will you oblige us with the whole story? What -were the arguments, and who were the speakers?</p> - -<p class='c005'><i>Philinus.</i> I shall have to do that myself, Basilocles, it seems, -for you will not easily meet with any of the others in the town; -I saw most of them going back to the Corycium and the Lycuria -with the stranger.</p> - -<p class='c005'><i>Basilocles.</i> A good sight-seer this stranger, and a mighty good -listener!</p> - -<p class='c005'><i>Philinus.</i> Say rather a good scholar and a good learner. Not -that these are his most admirable points; there is a gentleness -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>395<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> which is full of charm; and then his readiness to do battle and -to raise sensible points: nothing captious or hard in his way of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>taking the answers. After a very short time in his company -you would have to say ‘good father, good child’, for you know -that Diogenianus was one of the very best.</p> - -<p class='c005'><i>Basilocles.</i> I never saw him myself, but I have met many who -spoke with warm approval of his talk and his character, and in -just the same terms about this young man. But how did the -argument begin, and what started it?</p> - -<p class='c005'>II. <i>Philinus.</i> The guides were going through their lectures, -as prepared, showing no regard for our entreaties that they -would cut short their periods and skip most of the inscriptions. -The stranger was but moderately interested in the form and -workmanship of the different statues; it appears that he has <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -seen many beautiful objects of art. What he did admire was -the lustre on the bronze, unlike rust or deposit, but rather -resembling a coat of deep shining blue, so much so, that it -rather well became the sea-captains, with whom the round had -begun, standing up out of the deep so naively with the true -sea tint. ‘Now was there’, he asked, ‘some receipt of pharmacy -known to the old artists in brass like that method of tempering -swords of which we read? It was forgotten in time, and then -bronze had a truce from works of war. As to the Corinthian -bronze, that came by its beautiful colour accidentally, not -through art. A fire spread over a house in which were stored -some gold and silver and a large quantity of bronze. The -whole was fused into one stream of metal, which took its name <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -from the bronze, as the largest ingredient.’ Theon broke in: -‘We have heard a different story, with a spice of mischief in it. -A Corinthian bronze-worker found a chest containing much -gold. Fearing discovery, he chipped it off little by little, and -quietly mixed the bits with the bronze; the result was a marvellous -blend, which he sold at a high price, as people were delighted -with the beauty of the colour. However, the one story -is as mythical as the other; what we may suppose is that some -<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>method was known of mixing and preparing, much as now -they mix gold with silver, and get a peculiar and rare effect, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> which to me appears a sickly pallor and a loss of colour with -no beauty in it.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>III. ‘What has been the cause, then,’ said Diogenianus, -‘do you think, of the colour of the bronze here?’ ‘Here is a case’, -said Theon, ‘in which, of the first and most natural elements -which are or ever will be, fire, earth, air, water, none approaches -or touches the bronze, save air only: clearly then, air is the -agent; from its constant presence and contact the bronze gets -its exceptional quality, or perhaps</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Thus much you knew before Theognis was</i>,<a id='r84' /><a href='#f84' class='c006'><sup>[84]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>as the comic poet has it; but what you want to learn is the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> nature of air, and the property in virtue of which its repeated -contact has coloured the bronze.’ Diogenianus said that it was. -‘And I too,’ Theon continued, ‘my young friend, let us follow -the quest together; and first, if you will agree, ask why olive -oil produces a more copious rust on the metal than other -liquids; it does not, of course, actually make the deposit, being -pure and uncontaminated when it is applied.’ ‘Certainly not;’ -said the young man, ‘the real cause appears to me to be -something different; the oil is fine, pure, and transparent, so -the rust when it meets it is specially evident, whereas with other -liquids it becomes invisible.’ ‘Excellent,’ said Theon, ‘my -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> young friend, that is prettily put. But consider also, if you -please, the cause given by Aristotle.’ ‘I do please’, he said. -‘Aristotle says that the rust, when it comes over other liquids, -passes invisibly through and is dispersed, because the particles -are irregular and fine, whereas in the density of oil it is held up -and permanently condensed. If, then, we can frame some -such hypothesis for ourselves, we shall not be wholly at a loss for -a spell to charm away this difficulty.’</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>IV. We encouraged him and agreed, so he (Theon) went <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>396<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -on to say that the air of Delphi is thick and close of texture, with -a tenseness caused by reflection from the hills and their resistance, -but is also fine and biting, as seems to be proved by the facts -of digestion of food. The tenuity allows it to enter the bronze, -and to scrape up from it much solid rust, which rust again is held -up and compressed, because the density of the air does not allow -it a passage through; but the deposit breaks out, because it is -so copious, and takes on a rich bright colour on the surface. -We applauded this, but the stranger remarked that either -hypothesis alone was sufficient for the argument. ‘The fineness’, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -he went on, ‘will be found to be in contradiction to the -density of which you speak, but there is no necessity to assume -it. The bronze, as it ages, exhales or throws off the rust by its -own inherent action; the density holds together and solidifies -the rust, and makes it apparent because of its quantity.’ Theon -broke in: ‘What is to prevent, Sir, the same thing being both -fine and dense, as silks or fine linen stuffs, of which Homer says</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>And from the close-spun weft the trickling oil will fall</i>,<a id='r85' /><a href='#f85' class='c006'><sup>[85]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>where he indicates the minute and delicate workmanship of the -fabric by the fact that the oil would not remain, but trickled <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -or glided off, the fineness at once and the density refusing it -a passage. And, again, the scraping up of the rust is not the -only purpose served by the tenuity of the air; it also makes -the colour itself pleasanter to the eye and brighter, it mingles -light and lustre with the blue.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>V. Here there was an interval of silence; the guides were -again getting their speeches in hand. A certain oracle given in -verse was mentioned—I think it was one about the reign of -Aegon the Argive—when Diogenianus observed that he had -often been surprised at the badness and common quality of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>verses in which the oracles are delivered. Yet the God is -Choirmaster of the Muses, and eloquent language is no less -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> his function than beauty of ode or tune, and he should have -a voice far above that of Homer and Hesiod in verse. Here -we have most of the oracles saturated with bad taste and -poverty of metre and diction. Then Serapion, the poet, who -was with us from Athens, said: ‘Then do we really believe that -these verses are the God’s, yet venture to say that they fall -behind Homer and Hesiod in beauty? Shall we not rather take -them for all that is best and most beautiful in poetry, and -revise our judgement of them prejudiced by familiarity with -a bad standard?’ Boethus, the geometer—you know the man, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> already on his way to the camp of Epicurus—broke in: ‘Have -you ever heard the story of Pauson the painter?’ ‘Not I’, said -Serapion. ‘Well, it is worth hearing. It appears that he had -contracted to paint a horse rolling, and painted him galloping. -The owner was indignant; so Pauson laughed and turned the -canvas upside down, with the result that the lower parts became -the upper, and there was the horse rolling, not galloping. So -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> it is, Bion tells us, with certain syllogisms when converted. -Thus some will tell us not that the oracles are quite beautiful -because they are the God’s, but that they are not the God’s -because they are bad! That point may be left unsettled. But -that the verses used in the oracles are bad poetry,’ he went on, -‘is made clear also in your judgement, my dear Serapion, is it -not so? For you write poems which are philosophical and severe -as to matter, but in force and grace and diction more like the -work of Homer and Hesiod than the utterances of the Pythia.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>VI. Then Serapion: ‘Yes, we are sick, Boethus, sick in ears -and in eyes; luxury and softness have accustomed us to think -things beautiful as they are more sweet, and to call them so. -Soon we shall actually be finding fault with the Pythia because -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>397<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> she does not speak with a more thrilling voice than Glauce the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>singing-girl, or use costly ointments, or put on purple robes to -go down into the sanctuary, or burn on her censer cassia, mastic, -and frankincense, but only bay leaves and barley meal. Do you -not see’, he went on, ‘what grace the songs of Sappho have, how -they charm and soothe the hearers, while the Sibyl “with -raving mouth”, as Heraclitus says, “utters words with no -laughter, no adornment, no spices”,<a id='r86' /><a href='#f86' class='c006'><sup>[86]</sup></a> yet makes her voice -carry to ten thousand years, because of the God. And Pindar<a id='r87' /><a href='#f87' class='c006'><sup>[87]</sup></a> -tells us that Cadmus heard from the God “right music”, not <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -sweet music, or delicate music, or twittering music. What is -passionless and pure gives no admission to pleasure; she was -cast out in this very place, together with pain,<a id='r88' /><a href='#f88' class='c006'><sup>[88]</sup></a> and the most -of her has dribbled away, it seems, into the ears of men.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>VII. When Serapion had done, Theon smiled. ‘Serapion’, -he said, ‘has paid his usual tribute to his own proclivities, making -capital out of the turn which the conversation had taken about -pain and pleasure! But for us, Boethus, even if these verses are -inferior to Homer, let us never suppose that the God has composed -them; he only gives the initial impulse according to the -capacity of each prophetess. Why, suppose the answers had <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -to be written, not spoken. I do not think we should suppose -that the letters were made by the God, and find fault with the -calligraphy as below royal standard. The strain is not the -God’s, but the woman’s, and so with the voice and the phrasing -and the metre; he only provides the fantasies, and puts light -into her soul to illuminate the future; for that is what inspiration -is. To put it plainly, there is no escaping you prophets of -Epicurus—yes, you too, Boethus, are drifting that way—you -blame those old prophetesses because they used bad poetry, and -you also blame those of to-day because they speak their answers in <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -prose, and use the first words which come, that they may not -<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>be overhauled by you for headless, hollow, crop-tailed lines.’ -Then Diogenianus: ‘Do not jest, in Heaven’s name, no! -but help us to solve the problem which is common to us all. -There is not a Greek<a id='r89' /><a href='#f89' class='c006'><sup>[89]</sup></a> living who is not in search of a rational -account of the fact that the oracle has ceased to use verse, epic -or other.’ Theon interrupted: ‘At the present moment, my -young friend, we seem to be doing a shabby turn by the guides, -taking the bread out of their mouths. Suffer them first to do -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> their office, afterwards you shall discuss in peace whatever you -wish.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>VIII. Our round had now brought us in front of the statue -of Hiero, the tyrant. Most of the stories the stranger knew well, -but he good-naturedly lent his ear to them. At last, when he -heard that a certain bronze pillar given by Hiero, which had -been standing upright, fell of its own accord on the very day -when Hiero died at Syracuse, he showed surprise. I set myself -to remember similar instances, such as the notable one of Hiero -the Spartan, how before his death at Leuctra the eyes fell out -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> of his statue, and the gold stars disappeared which Lysander had -dedicated after the naval battle of Aegospotami. Then the -stone statue of Lysander himself broke out into such a growth of -weeds and grass that the face was hidden. At the time of the -Athenian disaster at Syracuse, the golden berries kept dropping -off from the palm trees, and crows chipped the shield on the -figure of Pallas. Again, the crown of the Cnidians, which -Philomelus, tyrant of Phocis, had given to Pharsalia the dancing -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>398<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> girl, caused her death, as she was playing near the temple of -Apollo in Metapontum, after she had removed from Greece into -Italy. The young men made a rush at the crown, and in their -struggle to get it from one another, tore the woman to pieces. -Now Aristotle used to say that no one but Homer made ‘words -which stir, because of their energy’.<a id='r90' /><a href='#f90' class='c006'><sup>[90]</sup></a> But I would say that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>there have been votive offerings sent here which have movement -in a high degree, and help the God’s foreknowledge to -signify things; that none of them is void or without feeling, but -all are full of Divinity. ‘Very good!’ said Boethus; ‘so it is not -enough to shut the God into a mortal body once every month. -We will also knead him into every morsel of stone and brass, to <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -show that we do not choose to hold Fortune, or Spontaneity, -a sufficient author of such occurrences.’ ‘Then in your -opinion’, I said, ‘each of the occurrences looks like Fortune or -Spontaneity; and it seems probable to you that the atoms -glided forth, and were dispersed, and swerved, not sooner and -not later, but at the precise moment when each of the dedicators -was to fare worse or better. Epicurus helps you now by what -he said or wrote three hundred years ago; but the God, unless <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -he take and shut himself up in all things, and be mingled with -all, could not, you think, initiate movement, or cause change of -condition in anything which is!’</p> - -<p class='c005'>IX. Such was my answer to Boethus, and to the same effect -about the Sibyl and her utterances. For when we stood near -the rock by the Council Chamber, on which the first Sibyl is -said to have been seated on her arrival from Helicon, where she -had been brought up by the Muses (though others say that she -came from the Maleans, and was the daughter of Lamia the -daughter of Poseidon), Serapion remembered the verses in -which she hymned herself; how she will never cease from <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -prophesying, even after death, but will herself go round in the -moon, being turned into what we call the ‘bright face’, while -her breath is mingled with the air and borne about in rumours -and voices for ever and ever; and her body within the earth -suffers change, so that from it spring grass and weeds, the pasture -of sacred cattle, which have all colour, shapes, and qualities in -their inward parts whereby men obtain forecasts of future -things. Here Boethus made his derision still more evident. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> The stranger observed that, although these things have a -mythical appearance, yet the prophecies are attested by many -overturnings and removals of Greek cities, inroads of barbarian -hordes, and upsettings of dynasties. ‘These still recent -troubles at Cumae and Dicaearchia<a id='r91' /><a href='#f91' class='c006'><sup>[91]</sup></a>, were they not chanted -long ago in the songs of the Sibyl, so that Time was only discharging -his debts in the fires which have burst out of the -mountain, the boiling seas, the masses of burning rocks<a id='r92' /><a href='#f92' class='c006'><sup>[92]</sup></a> tossed -aloft by the winds, the ruin of cities many and great, so that if -you visit them in broad daylight you cannot get a clear idea of -the site, the ground being covered with confused ruins? It is -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> hard to believe that such things have happened, much harder -to predict them without divine power.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>X. ‘My good Sir,’ said Boethus, ‘what does happen in -Nature which is not Time paying his debts? Of all the strange -unexpected things, by land or sea, among cities and men, is -there any which some one might not foretell, and then, after it -has happened, find himself right? Yet this is hardly foretelling -at all; it is telling, rather it is tossing or scattering words into -the infinite, with no principle in them. They wander about, -often Fortune meets them and throws in with them, but it is -all spontaneous. It is one thing, I think, when what has been -foretold happens, quite another when what will happen is -foretold. Any statement made about things then non-existent -contains intrinsic error, it has no right to await the confirmation -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>399<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> which comes from spontaneous happening; nor is it any true -proof of having foretold with knowledge that the thing happened -after it was foretold, for Infinity brings all things. No, -the “good guesser”, whom the proverb<a id='r93' /><a href='#f93' class='c006'><sup>[93]</sup></a> has announced to be the -best prophet, is like a man who hunts on the trail of the future, -by the help of the plausible. These Sibyls and Bacises threw -<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>into the sea, that is, into time, without having any real clue, -nouns and verbs about troubles and occurrences of every -description. Some of these prophecies came about, but they -were lies; and what is now pronounced is a lie like them, even -if, later on, it should happen to turn out true.’ <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<p class='c005'>XI. When Boethus had finished, Serapion spoke: ‘The case -is quite fairly put by Boethus against prophecies so indefinitely -worded as those he mentions, with no basis of circumstance: -“If victory has been foretold to a general, he has conquered. -If the destruction of a city, it is lost.” But where not only -the thing which is to happen is stated, but also the how, the -when, after what event, with whose help, then it is not a guess -at things which will perhaps be, but a clear prediction of things -which will certainly be. Here are the lines<a id='r94' /><a href='#f94' class='c006'><sup>[94]</sup></a> with reference to -the lameness of Agesilaus: <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Sure though thy feet, proud Sparta, have a care,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>A lame king’s reign may see thee trip—Beware!</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Troubles unlooked for long shall vex thy shore,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>And rolling Time his tide of carnage pour.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>And then those about the island<a id='r95' /><a href='#f95' class='c006'><sup>[95]</sup></a> which the sea cast up off -Thera and Therasia, and also about Philip and his war with -the Romans:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>When Trojan race the victory shall win</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>From Punic foe, lo! wonders shall begin;</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Unearthly fires from out the sea shall flash,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Whirlwinds toss stones aloft, and thunders crash,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>An isle unnamed, unknown, shall stand upright,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>The worse shall beat the stronger in the fight.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>What happened within a short time—that the Romans mastered -the Carthaginians, and brought the war with Philip to a finish, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>that Philip met the Aetolians and Romans in battle and was -defeated, and, lastly, that an island rose out of the depths of -the sea, with much fire and boiling waves—could not all be set -down to chance and spontaneous occurrence. Why, the order -emphasizes the foreknowledge, and so does the time predicted -to the Romans, some five hundred years before the event, as that -in which they were to be at war with all the races at once, which -meant the war with the slaves after their revolt. In all this -nothing is unascertainable, the story is not left in dim light to -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> be groped out with reference to Fortune “in Infinity”, it gives -many securities, and is open to trial, it points the road which -the destined event is to tread. For I do not think that any one -will say that the agreement with the details as foretold was -accidental. Otherwise, what prevents some one else from saying -that Epicurus did not write his <i>Leading Principles</i> for our -use, Boethus, but that the letters fell together by chance and -just spontaneously, and so the book was finished off?’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XII. While we were talking thus, we were moving forward. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> In the store-house of the Corinthians we were looking at the -golden palm tree, the only remnant of their offerings, when the -frogs and water-snakes embossed round the roots caused much -surprise to Diogenianus, and, for the matter of that, to us. -For the palm tree is not, like many others, a marshy or water-loving -plant, nor have frogs anything specially to do with the -Corinthians. Thus they must be a symbolical or canting device -of that city, just as the men of Selinus are said to have dedicated -a golden plant of parsley (selinon), and those of Tenedos -the axe, because of the crabs found round the place which they -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>400<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> call Asterium, the only ones, it appears, with the brand of an -axe on the shell. Yet the God himself is supposed to have -a partiality for crows and swans and wolves and hawks, for anything -rather than beasts like crabs. Serapion observed that -the artist intended a veiled hint at the sun drawing his aliment -<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>and origin from exhalations out of moist places, whether he had -it from Homer,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Leaving the beauteous lake, the great sun scaled</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>The brazen sky</i>,<a id='r96' /><a href='#f96' class='c006'><sup>[96]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>or whether he had seen the sun painted by the Egyptians as -a newly-born child seated on a lotus. I laughed: ‘Where -have you got to again, my good Sir,’ I said, ‘thrusting the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Porch in here, and quietly slipping into our discussion their -“Conflagrations” and “Exhalations”? Thessalian women fetch -the sun and the moon down to us, but you are assuming that -they are first born and then watered out of earth and its waters. -Plato<a id='r97' /><a href='#f97' class='c006'><sup>[97]</sup></a> dubbed man “a heavenly plant”, rearing himself up -from a root on high, namely, his head; but you laugh down -Empedocles when he tells us how the sun, having been brought -into being by reflection of heavenly light around the earth</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Beams back upon Olympus undismayed!</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Yet, on your own showing, the sun is a creature or plant of -the marshes, naturalized by you in the country of frogs or <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -water-snakes. However, all this may be reserved for the Stoics -and their tragedies; here we have the incidental works of the -artists, and let us examine them incidentally. In many respects -they are clever people, but they have not in all cases avoided -coldness and elaboration. Just as the man who designed -Apollo with the cock in his hand meant to suggest the early -morning hour when dawn is coming, so here the frogs may be -taken for a symbol of the spring season when the sun begins to -have power over the air and to break up winter; always supposing <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -that, with you, we are to reckon Apollo and the sun -one God, not two.’ ‘What?’ said Serapion, ‘do you not agree? -Do you hold the sun to be different from Apollo?’ ‘As different -as the moon from the sun;’ I replied, ‘only she does not hide -<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>the sun often or from all the world,<a id='r98' /><a href='#f98' class='c006'><sup>[98]</sup></a> whereas the sun has made, -we may almost say, all the world ignorant of Apollo, diverting -thought by sensation, to the apparent from the real.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIII. Next Serapion asked the guides the real reason why -they call the chamber not after Cypselus, the Dedicator, but -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> after the Corinthians. When they were silent, being, as -I privately believe, at a loss for a reason, I laughed, and said: -‘What can these men possibly know or remember, utterly dazed -as they must be by our high celestial talk? Why, it was only -just now that we heard them saying that, after the tyranny was -overthrown, the Corinthians wished to inscribe the golden statue -at Pisa, and also this treasure-house, with the name of the city. -So the Delphians granted it as a right, and agreed; but the Corinthians -passed a vote to exclude the Eleians, who had shown jealousy -of them, from the Isthmian meetings, and from that time to -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> this there has been no competitor from Elis. The murder of the -Molionidae by Hercules near Cleonae has nothing to do with the -exclusion of the Eleians, though some think that it has. On the -contrary, it would have been for them to exclude the Corinthians -if that had been the cause of collision.’ Such were my remarks.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIV. When we passed the chamber of the Acanthians and -Brasidas, the guide showed us a place where iron obelisks to -Rhodopis the courtesan once used to stand. Diogenianus -showed annoyance: ‘So it was left for the same state’, he said, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>401<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> ‘to find a place for Rhodopis to deposit the tithes of her earnings, -and to put Aesop, her fellow servant, to death!’ ‘Bless you, -friend,’ said Serapion, ‘why so vexed at that? Carry your eyes -upwards, and behold among the generals and kings the golden -Mnesarete, which Crates called a standing trophy of the lewdness -of the Greeks.’ The young man looked: ‘Was it then -about Phryne that Crates said that?’ ‘Yes, it was,’ said Serapion, -‘her name was Mnesarete, but she took on that of Phryne -<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>(toad) as a nickname because of her yellow skin. Many names, -it would seem, are concealed by these nicknames. There was -Polyxena, mother of Alexander, afterwards said to have been -called Myrtale and Olympias and Stratonice. Then Eumetis <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -of Rhodes is to this day called by most people Cleobuline, after -her father; and Herophile of Erythrae, when she showed a -prophetic gift, was addressed as Sibylla. You will hear the -grammarians telling us that Leda has been named Mnesinoe, -and Orestes Achaeus. But how do you propose’, he went on, -looking hard at Theon, ‘to get rid of the charge as to Phryne?’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XV. Theon smiled quietly: ‘In this way:’ he said, ‘by -a cross charge against you for raking up the pettiest of the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Greek misdoings. For as Socrates,<a id='r99' /><a href='#f99' class='c006'><sup>[99]</sup></a> when entertained in the -house of Callias, makes war upon the ointment only, but looks -on at all the dancing and tumbling and kisses and buffoonery, -and holds his tongue, so you, it seems to me, want to exclude -from the temple a poor woman who made an unworthy use of -her charms; but when you see the God encompassed by first-fruits -and tithes of murders, wars, and raids, and his temple -loaded with Greek spoils and booty, you show no disgust; you -have no pity for the Greeks when you read on the beautiful -offerings such deeply disgraceful inscriptions as “Brasidas and -the Acanthians from the Athenians”, “Athenians from <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Corinthians”, “Phocians from Thessalians”, “Orneatans from -Sicyonians”, “Amphictyones from Phocians”. So Praxiteles, -it seems, was the one person who offended Crates by finding<a id='r100' /><a href='#f100' class='c006'><sup>[100]</sup></a> -room for his mistress to stand here, whereas Crates ought -to have commended him for placing beside those golden kings -a golden courtesan, a strong rebuke to wealth as having nothing -wonderful or worshipful about it. It would be good if kings <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and rulers were to set up in the God’s house offerings to Justice -<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>Temperance, Magnanimity, not to golden and delicate -Abundance, in which the very foulest lives have their share.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XVI. ‘You are forgetting to mention’, said one or other of -the guides, ‘how Croesus had a golden figure of the baker-woman -made, and dedicated it here.’ ‘Yes,’ said Theon, ‘but -that was not to flout the temple with his luxury of wealth, but -for a good and righteous cause. The story is<a id='r101' /><a href='#f101' class='c006'><sup>[101]</sup></a> that Alyattes, -father of Croesus, married a second wife, and brought up a fresh -family. This woman made a plot against Croesus; she gave -poison to the baker and told her to knead a loaf with it and serve -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> to Croesus. The baker told Croesus secretly, and set the loaf -before the wife’s children. And so, when Croesus became king, -he requited the baker-woman’s service in a way which made the -God a witness, and moreover did a good turn to him. Hence’, -he said, ‘it is quite proper to honour and love any such offering -from cities as that of the Opuntians. When the Phocian -tyrants had melted up many of the gold and silver offerings and -struck coined money, which they distributed among the cities, -the Opuntians collected all the silver they could find, and sent -a large jar to be consecrated here to the God. I commend the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>402<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Myrinaeans also, and the Apollonians, who sent hither sheaves -of gold, and even more highly the Eretrians and Magnesians, -who endowed the God with firstfruits of men, as being the giver -of crops and also ancestral, racial, humane. Whereas I blame -the Megarians, because they were almost alone in setting up -the God holding a lance; this was after the battle in which they -defeated and expelled the Athenians when holding their city, -after the Persian wars. Later on, however, they offered to him -a golden harp-quill, attaching it, as it appears, to Scythinus, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> who says of the lyre:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in24'><i>which the son of Zeus</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Wears, the comely God Apollo, gathering first and last in one,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>And he holds a golden harp-quill flashing as the very sun.</i>’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>XVII. Serapion wanted to put In some further remark on -this, when the stranger said: ‘It is delightful to listen to such -speeches as we have heard, but I feel myself obliged to claim -fulfilment of the original promise, that we should hear the cause -which has made the Pythia cease to prophesy in epic or other -verse. So, if it be your pleasure, let us leave to another time -the remainder of the sights, sit down where we are, and hear -about that. For it is this more than anything else which militates -against the credibility of the oracle; it must be one of -two things, either the Pythia does not get near the spot where -the Divinity is, or the current is altogether exhausted, and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the power has failed.’ Accordingly, we went round and seated -ourselves on the southern plinth of the temple, in view of the -temple of Earth and the fountain, which made Boethus at once -observe that the very place where the problem was raised lent -itself to the stranger’s case. For here was a temple of the -Muses where the exhalation rises from the fountain; from which -they drew the water used for the lustrations, as Simonides<a id='r102' /><a href='#f102' class='c006'><sup>[102]</sup></a> -has it:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Whence is drawn for holy washings</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Water of the Muses bright.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>And again, in a rather more elaborate strain, the same poet <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -addressing Clio:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Holy patron of our washings, Goddess sought with many a vow,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>By no golden robe encumbered, hear thy servants drawing now</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Water, fragrant and delightful, from ambrosial depths below.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>So Eudoxus was wrong in believing those who have made out -that this was called ‘Water of Styx’. But they installed the -Muses as assessors in prophecy and guardians of the place, by the -fountain and the temple of Earth where the oracle used to be, -because the responses were given in metre and in lyric strains. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>And some say further that the heroic metre was heard for the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> first time here:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Bring in your feathers, ye birds, ye bees, bring wax at his bidding.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>The God was in need, and dignity was waived!<a id='r103' /><a href='#f103' class='c006'><sup>[103]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>XVIII. ‘More reasonable, that, Boethus,’ said Serapion, -‘and more in tune with the Muses. For we ought not to fight -against the God, nor to remove, along with his prophecy, his -Providence and Godhead also, but rather to seek fresh solutions -for apparent contradictions, and never to surrender the reverent -belief of our fathers.’ ‘Excellent Serapion!’ I said, ‘you -are right. We were not abandoning Philosophy, as cleared out -of the way and done for, because once upon a time philosophers -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> put out their dogmas and theories in verse, as Orpheus, Hesiod, -Parmenides, Empedocles, Thales, whereas later on they gave it -up, and have now all given it up—except you! In your hands -Poetry is returning home to Philosophy, and clear and noble is -the strain in which she rallies our young people. Astronomy -again: she was not lowered in the hands of Aristarchus, Timocharis, -Aristyllus, Hipparchus, all writing in prose, whereas Eudoxus, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>403<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Hesiod, and Thales used metre, if we assume that Thales really -wrote the <i>Astronomy</i> attributed to him. Pindar actually expresses -surprise at the neglect, in his own day, of a mode of -melody....<a id='r104' /><a href='#f104' class='c006'><sup>[104]</sup></a> There is nothing out of the way or absurd in -seeking out the causes of such changes; but to remove arts and -faculties altogether, whenever there is disturbance or variation -in their details, is not fair.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIX. ‘And yet’, interposed Theon, ‘those instances have -involved really great variations and novelties, whereas of the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> oracles given here we know of many in prose even in old days, -and those on no trifling matters. When the Lacedaemonians, -as Thucydides<a id='r105' /><a href='#f105' class='c006'><sup>[105]</sup></a> has told us in his history, consulted the God about -<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>their war with the Athenians, he promised them victory and -mastery, and that “he himself will help them, invited or -uninvited.” And again, that, if they did not restore Pleistoanax<a id='r106' /><a href='#f106' class='c006'><sup>[106]</sup></a>, -they shall plough with a silver share.<a id='r107' /><a href='#f107' class='c006'><sup>[107]</sup></a> When the -Athenians consulted him about their expedition in Sicily, he -directed them to bring the priestess of Erythrae to Athens; now -the woman’s name was Peace. When Deinomenes the Siceliot -inquired about his sons, the answer was that all three should <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -reign as tyrants. “And the worse for them, O Master Apollo”, -rejoined Deinomenes. “That too”, added the God, “to form -part of the answer.” You know that Gelo had the dropsy and -Hiero the stone, while they reigned; Thrasybulus, the third, -was involved in revolutions and wars and soon lost his throne. -Then Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus, after putting many others -to death in cruel and unlawful ways, at last killed Timarchus, -who had come to him from Athens with money, after receiving -him with hospitality and kindness; he thrust his body into -a crate and flung it out to sea. This he did by the hands of -Cleander of Aegina, no one else knew. Afterwards, when <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -himself in trouble, he sent his brother Cleotimus, to consult the -oracle secretly about his own exile and retirement. The God -answered that he granted exile to Procles, and retirement either -to the place where he had ordered his Aeginetan friend to lodge -the crate, or where the stag sheds his horn. The tyrant understood -the God to bid him fling himself into the sea, or bury himself -underground (for the stag buries his horn deep out of sight, -when it falls off). He waited a short time, then, when his affairs -became desperate, went into exile. But the friends of Timarchus -caught and slew him, and cast out the corpse into the sea. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Now comes the strongest instance: the statutes by which -Lycurgus regulated the Lacedaemonian constitution were given -<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>to him in prose. So Alyrius, Herodotus, Philochorus, and Ister, -the men who most zealously set about collecting metrical prophecies, -have written down oracular responses which were not in -metre, and Theopompus, who was exceptionally interested -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> about the oracle, has administered a vigorous rebuke to those -who do not hold that the Pythia prophesied in metre in those -days; yet, when he wanted to prove the point, he has found an -exceedingly small number of such answers, which shows that the -others, even at that early time, were put forth in prose.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XX. ‘Some oracles, however, still run into metres, one of -which has made “necessary business”<a id='r108' /><a href='#f108' class='c006'><sup>[108]</sup></a> a household word. -There is in Phocis a temple of “Hercules Woman-Hater”, where -the practice is for the consecrated priest not to associate with -a woman during his year. So they appoint comparatively old -men to the priesthood. However, not very long ago, a young -man of good character, but ambitious, who was in love with -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>404<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> a girl, accepted the office. At first he put constraint on himself -and avoided her; but one day, when he was resting after wine -and dancing, she burst in, and he yielded. Then, in his fear -and confusion, he fled to the oracle, and proceeded to ask the -God about his offence, and whether it admitted of excuse or -expiation. He received this reply:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>All needful business doth the God allow.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>All the same, if it be granted that nothing is prophesied in our -own day, otherwise than in metre, the difficulty will be so much -greater about the ancients, who sometimes employed metre for -the responses, sometimes not. There is nothing strange, my -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> young friend, in either one or the other, so long as we hold sound, -pure views about the God, and do not suppose that it is himself -who formerly used to compose the verses, or who now suggests -the answers to the Pythia, speaking as it were from under a mask.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXI. ‘However, it is worth our while to pursue this inquiry -<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>at greater length another time. For the present, let us remember -our results, which are briefly these: Body uses many instruments, -soul uses body and its parts, soul has been brought into -being as the instrument of God. The excellence of an instrument -is to imitate most closely the power which uses it, with all its <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -own natural power, and to reproduce the effect of his essential -thought, but to exhibit it, not pure and passionless and free from -error, as it was in the creative artist, but with a large admixture -of foreign element. For in itself it is invisible to us, but appearing -“other” and through another medium it is saturated with -the nature of that medium. I pass over wax and gold and silver -and copper, and all other varieties of moulded substance, which -take on one common form of impressed likeness, but add to the -copy, each its own distinct speciality. I pass over the myriad -distortions of images and reflections from a single form in <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -mirrors, plane, hollow, or convex. For nothing seems better -to reproduce the type, no instrument more obediently to use -its own nature, than the moon. Yet taking from the sun his -bright and fiery rays, she does not transmit them so to us; -mingled with herself they change colour and also take on a -different power; the heat has wholly disappeared, and the light -fails from weakness before it reaches us. I think you know the -saying found in Heraclitus, that “The King whose seat is at <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Delphi, speaks not, nor conceals, but signifies.”<a id='r109' /><a href='#f109' class='c006'><sup>[109]</sup></a> Take and -add then to what is here so well said, the conception that the -God of this place employs the Pythia for the hearing as the sun -employs the moon for the seeing. He shows and reveals his -own thoughts, but shows them mingled in their passage through -a mortal body, and a soul which cannot remain at rest or present -itself to the exciting power unexcited and inwardly composed, -but which boils and surges and is involved in the stirrings and -troublesome passions from within. As whirlpools do not keep <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>a steady hold on bodies borne round and round and also downwards, -since an outer force carries them round, but they sink -down of their own nature, so that there is a compound spiral -movement, of a confused and distorted kind, even so what we -call inspiration seems to be a mixture of two impulses, and the -soul is stirred by two forces, one of which it is a passive recipient, -one from its own nature. We see that inanimate and stationary -bodies cannot be used or forced contrary to their own nature, -that a cylinder cannot be moved as if it were a sphere or a cube, -that a lyre cannot be played like a flute or a trumpet like a harp, -but that the artistic use of a thing is no other than the natural -use. Is it possible then that the animate and self-moving, which -has both impulse and reason, can be treated in any other way -than is agreeable to the habit, force, or natural condition which -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>405<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> is already existent within it? Can an unmusical mind be excited -like a musical, an unlettered mind by literature, a mind untrained -in reasoning, whether speculative or disciplinary, by -logic? It is not to be spoken of.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXII. ‘Again, Homer is my witness: he assumes<a id='r110' /><a href='#f110' class='c006'><sup>[110]</sup></a> that -nothing, so to speak, is brought about without a God; he does -not, however, describe the God as using all things for all ends, -but according to the art or faculty which each possesses. For do -you not see, dear Diogenianus, that Athena, when she wants to -persuade the Achaeans, calls in Odysseus;<a id='r111' /><a href='#f111' class='c006'><sup>[111]</sup></a> when to wreck the -truce, she looks for Pandarus;<a id='r112' /><a href='#f112' class='c006'><sup>[112]</sup></a> when to rout the Trojans, she -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> approaches Diomede?<a id='r113' /><a href='#f113' class='c006'><sup>[113]</sup></a> Why? because Diomede is a sturdy -man and a fighter, Pandarus an archer and a fool, Odysseus a -clever speaker and a sensible man. For Homer was not of the -same mind as Pindar<a id='r114' /><a href='#f114' class='c006'><sup>[114]</sup></a>, if Pindar it was who wrote</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Sail on a crate, if God so choose ‘twill swim.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>He knew that different faculties and natural gifts are appointed -for different ends; each is moved in its own way, even if the -moving force be one for all. As then the force cannot move -that which walks so as to make it fly, nor that which lisps to -speak clearly, nor the thin voice to be melodious—why, Battus -himself was sent as colonist of Libya to get his voice, because he -was a lisper, with a thin voice, but withal a kingly, statesman-like, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -prudent man—, even so it is impossible for one who has no -letters and knows no verse to talk like a poet. And so she who -now serves the God has been born as respectably as any man -here, and has lived as good and orderly a life; but having been -reared in the house of small farmer folk, she brings nothing with -her from art or from any practice or faculty whatsoever, as she -goes down into the sanctuary. As Xenophon<a id='r115' /><a href='#f115' class='c006'><sup>[115]</sup></a> thinks that the -bride should step into her husband’s home having seen as little -as may be, and heard as little, so she, ignorant and untried in -almost all things, and a true virgin in soul, is associated with <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the God. Yet we, who think that the God, when he “signifies”, -uses the cries of herons and wrens and ravens, and never ask that -they, as the messengers and heralds of the God, should put -things into clear rational phrases, do nevertheless ask that the -Pythia should use a voice and style as though from the Thymele, -not unembellished and plain, but with metre and elevation, and -trills, and verbal metaphors, and a flute accompaniment!</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXIII. ‘What shall we say then about her older predecessors? -Not one thing, I think, but several. In the first place, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -as has been already said, they, too, for the most part, used to give -the responses in prose. In the second place, those times produced -temperaments and natural conditions which offered an easy and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>convenient channel for the stream of poetry, to which were at -once superadded, in one and another, an eagerness, an impulse, -a preparation of soul, all resulting in a readiness which needed -but a slight initial movement from without to give the imagination -a turn. So it was that not only were astronomers and -philosophers drawn, as Philinus says, in their several directions, -but also, when men were mellow with wine and sentiment, -some undercurrent of pity or joy would come, and they would -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> glide into a song-like voice; drinking parties were filled with -amorous strains and songs, books with poems in writing. When -Euripides wrote:<a id='r116' /><a href='#f116' class='c006'><sup>[116]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in18'><i>Love can teach, he makes</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>A poet of a stranger to the Muse</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>he did not mean that Love implants a faculty for poetry or -music; the faculty is there already, but Love stirs and warms -what was latent and idle. Or are we to say, Sir Stranger, that -no one now loves, that Love has gone by the heels, because there -is none who, to quote Pindar,<a id='r117' /><a href='#f117' class='c006'><sup>[117]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Scatters with easy grace</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>The vocal shafts of love and joy.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>406<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> That is absurd. Loves there are and many of them, and they -master men; but when they associate with souls which have -no natural turn for music, they drop the flute and the lyre, yet -are vocal still and fiery through and through, as much as of old. -It is an unhallowed thing to say, and an unfair, that the Academy -was loveless, or the choir of Socrates and Plato; yet, while we -have their love dialogues to read, they have left no poems. -Why not declare at once that Sappho was the only woman who -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> ever loved, if you are to say that Sibylla alone had the gift of -prophecy, or Aristonica, and the others who delivered themselves -in verse? Wine, as Chaeremon<a id='r118' /><a href='#f118' class='c006'><sup>[118]</sup></a> used to say,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Is mingled with the moods of them that drink</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>and the prophetic inspiration, like that of love, uses the faculty -which is subjected to it, and stirs its recipients according to the -nature of each.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXIV. ‘Not but that, if we look also into the subject of -the God and his foreknowledge, we shall see that the change -has taken place for the better. For the use of language is like -exchange in coined money. Here also it is familiarity which -gives currency, the purchasing power varies with the times. -There was a day when metres, tunes, odes were the coins of -language in use; all History and Philosophy, in a word, every <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -feeling and action which called for a more solemn utterance, -were drawn to poetry and music. It is not only that now but -few understand, and they with effort, whereas then all the world -were listeners, and all felt pleasure in what was sung,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in36'><i>who fats his flock,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Who ploughs the soil, who snares the wingèd game</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>as Pindar<a id='r119' /><a href='#f119' class='c006'><sup>[119]</sup></a> has it. More than that, there was an aptitude for -poetry, most men used the lyre and the ode to rebuke, to encourage, -to frame myths and proverbs; also hymns to the -Gods, prayers, thanksgivings, were composed in metre and song, -as genius or practice enabled them to do. And so it was with -prophecy; the God did not grudge it ornament and grace, or -drive from hence into disgrace the honoured Muse of the tripod; <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -he rather led her on, awakening and welcoming poetic natures; -he gave them visions from himself, he lent his aid to draw out -pomp and eloquence as being fitting and admirable things. -Then there was a change in human life, affecting men both in -fortune and in genius. Expediency banished what was superfluous, -top-knots of gold were dropped, rich robes discarded; -probably too clustering curls were shorn off, and the buskin -discontinued. It was not a bad training, to set the beauty of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> frugality against that of profusion, to account what was plain -and simple a better ornament than the pompous and elaborate. -So it was with language, it changed with the times, and shared -the general break-up. History got down from its coach, and -dropped metre. Truth was best sifted out from Myth in -prose; Philosophy welcomed clearness, and found it better to -instruct than to astonish, so she pursued her inquiry in plain -language. The God made the Pythia leave off calling her own -fellow townsmen “fire-burners”, the Spartans “serpent-eaters”, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> men “mountaineers”, rivers “mountain-drainers”. -He cleared the oracles of epic verses, unusual words, circumlocutions, -and vagueness, and so prepared the way to converse with -his consultants just as laws converse with states, as kings address -subjects, as disciples hear their masters speak, so framing language -as to be intelligible and convincing.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXV. ‘For it should be clearly understood that the God -is, in the words of Sophocles,<a id='r120' /><a href='#f120' class='c006'><sup>[120]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Unto the wise a riddling prophet aye,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>To silly souls a teacher plain and brief.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>407<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> The same turn of things which brought clearness brought also -a new standard of belief; it shared the general change. Whereas -of old that which was not familiar or common, but, in plain -words, contorted and over-phrased, was ascribed by the many -to an implied Divinity, and received with awe and reverence; -in later times men were content to learn things clearly and easily -with no pomp or artifice; they began to find fault with the -poetical setting of the oracles, not only as a hindrance to the -perception of truth, because it mingled indistinctness and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> shadow with the meaning, but also because by this time they -were getting to mistrust metaphors, riddles, and ambiguities, as -so many holes or hiding-places provided for him who should trip -<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>in his prophecy, that he might step into them and secure his -retreat. You might have heard it told by many, how certain -persons with a turn for poetry still sit about the place of -oracles, waiting to catch the utterances, and then weaving -verses, metres, rhythms, according to occasion, as a sort of -vehicle. As to your Onomacrituses, and Herodotuses, and -Cinaethons,<a id='r121' /><a href='#f121' class='c006'><sup>[121]</sup></a> and the censures which they brought upon the -oracles, by importing tragedy and pomp where they were out -of place, I let the charge pass, and do not admit it. Most, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -however, of the discredit which attached so copiously to poetry -came from the gang of soothsayers and scamps who strolled -around the ceremonies of the Great Mother and of Serapis, -with their mummeries and tricks, turning verses out of their -own heads, or taking them at random from handbooks, for -servant boys and silly girls, such as are best attracted by metre -and a poetic cast of words; from all which causes poetry seemed -to put herself at the service of cheats, and jugglers, and lying -prophets, and was lost to truth and to the tripod.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXVI. ‘Thus I should not be surprised to find that the -old people sometimes required a certain ambiguity, circumlocution, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -indistinctness. For it was not then a case of “A” -approaching the oracle with a question, if you please, about the -purchase of a slave, or “B” about business; powerful states, -haughty kings and tyrants, would consult the God on public -affairs, men whom it did not answer the officials of his temple -to vex and provoke by letting them hear what they did not wish -to hear. For the God does not obey Euripides,<a id='r122' /><a href='#f122' class='c006'><sup>[122]</sup></a> who sets up as -a lawgiver with</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in8'><i>Phoebus, none but he,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>May give men prophecies.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> He uses mortal men as ministers and prophets, whom it is his -duty to make his care, and to protect, lest they perish at the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>hands of the bad while serving him. He does not then choose -to conceal the truth; what he used to do was to give a twist to -its manifestation, which, like a beam of light, is refracted more -than once in its passage, and is parted into many rays as it -becomes poetry, and so to remove whatever in it was harsh and -hard. Tyrants might thus be left in ignorance, and enemies -not be forewarned. For them he threw a veil in the innuendoes -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and ambiguities which hid the meaning from others, -but did not elude the intelligence of the actual consultants -who gave their whole mind to the answers. Hence, now that -things have changed, it is sheer folly to criticize and find fault -with the God, because he thinks right to give his aid no longer in -the same manner but in another.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXVII. ‘Another thing is this: Language receives no -greater advantage from a poetical form than this, that a meaning -which is wrapped and bound in metre is more easily remembered -and grasped. Now in those days much memory was required. -Many things used to be explained orally; local indications, the -times when things were to be done, rites of Gods across the seas, -secret burying-places of heroes, hard to be discovered by those -setting off for lands far from Greece. You know about Chius -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>408<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and Cretinus, and Nesichus, and Phalanthus, and many other -leaders of expeditions, how many clues they needed to find the -proper place appointed to each for settlement, while some of -them missed the way, as did Battus.<a id='r123' /><a href='#f123' class='c006'><sup>[123]</sup></a> He thought that he -would be turned out, not understanding what the place was -to which he had been sent; then he came a second time loudly -complaining. Then the God answered:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Thou that hast never been there, if thou know’st Libya the sheepland</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Better than I that have been, then wonderful wise is thy wisdom.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>So he sent him out again. Then Lysander entirely failed to -make out the hill Orchalides,<a id='r124' /><a href='#f124' class='c006'><sup>[124]</sup></a> otherwise called Alopecus, and -the river Hoplites,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Also the dragon, earthborn, in craftiness coming behind thee</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>and was defeated in battle and slain in those very spots by <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Neochorus, a man of Haliartus, who bore a shield with the -device of a serpent. There are many such answers given to the -old people, all hard to grasp and remember, which I need not -give you at length, since you know them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXVIII. ‘Our present settled condition, out of which the -questions now put to the God arise, I welcome and accept. -There is great peace and tranquillity, war has been made to -cease, there are no wanderings in exile, no revolutions, no -tyrannies, no other plagues or ills in Greece asking for potent -and extraordinary remedies. But when there is nothing complicated -or mysterious, or dangerous, only questions on petty <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -popular matters, like school themes, “whether I should marry”, -“whether I should sail”, “whether I should lend”, and the most -serious responses given to states are concerning harvests and -cattle-breeding and public health, to clothe these in metre, to -devise circumlocutions, to introduce strange words on questions -calling for a plain, concise answer, is what an ambitious sophist -might do, bedizening the oracle for his own glory. But the -Pythia is a lady in herself, and when she descends thither and -is in the presence of the God, she cares for truth rather than for <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -glory, or for the praise or blame of men.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXIX. ‘So perhaps ought we too to feel. As it is, in a sort -of agony of fear, lest the place should lose its reputation of three -thousand years, and a few persons should think lightly of it and -cease to visit the oracle, for all the world as if it were a sophist’s -school, we apologize, and make up reasons and theories about -<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>things which we neither know nor ought to know. We smooth -the critic down, and try to persuade him, whereas we ought to -bid him be gone—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>He shall first suffer in a loss not light</i>—<a id='r125' /><a href='#f125' class='c006'><sup>[125]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> if that is the view which he takes of the God. Thus, while you -welcome and admire what the Wise Men of old have written up: -“Know thyself”, and “Nothing too much”, not least because -of the brevity which includes in a small compass a close hammer-beaten -sense, you blame the oracles because they mostly use -concise, plain, direct phrases. It is with sayings like those of -the Wise Men as with streams compressed into a narrow channel; -there is no distinctness or transparency to the eye of the mind, -but if you look into what has been written or said about them -by those who have wished to learn the full meaning of each, you -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> will not easily find longer treatises elsewhere. The language -of the Pythia illustrates what mathematicians mean by calling -a straight line the shortest between the same points; it makes -no bending, or curve, or doubling or ambiguity; it lies straight -towards truth, it takes risks,<a id='r126' /><a href='#f126' class='c006'><sup>[126]</sup></a> its good faith is open to examination, -and it has never yet been found wrong; it has filled the shrine -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>409<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> with offerings from Barbarians and Greeks, and has beautified it -with noble buildings and Amphictyonic fittings. Why, you see -for yourselves many buildings added which were not here formerly, -many restored which were ruinous or destroyed. As -new trees spring up by the side of those in vigorous bearing, so -the Pylaea flourishes together with Delphi and is fed upon the -same meat; the plenty of the one causes the other to take on -shapeliness and figure and a beauty of temples, and halls of -meeting and fountains of water, such as it never had in the -thousand years before. Now those who dwell about Galaxius -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> in Boeotia felt the manifest presence of the God in the abundance -and more than abundance of milk:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span><i>From all the kine and every flock,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Plenteous as water from the rock,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Came welling, gurgling on its way</i></div> - <div class='line in4'><i>The milk that day.</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Hot foot they hied them to the task,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>To fill the pail, to fill the cask;</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>No beechen bowl or crock of clay,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>No pot or pan had holiday;</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Wine-skin or flagon, none might stay</i></div> - <div class='line in4'><i>Within, that day.</i><a id='r127' /><a href='#f127' class='c006'><sup>[127]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>But to us he gives tokens brighter and stronger and more evident -than these, in having, after the days of drought, of desertion -and poverty, brought us plenty, splendour, and reputation. -True, I am well pleased with myself for anything which my own <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -zeal or service may have contributed to this result in support of -Polycrates and Petraeus, well pleased too with him who has been -our leader in this policy, to whose thought and planning most -of the improvements are due; but it is wholly impossible that -so great, so vast a change could have been effected in this short -time by merely human care, with no God present here or lending -his Divinity to the place of the oracle.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXX. ‘But as in those days there were some who found -fault with the responses for obliquity and want of clearness, so -now there are those who criticize them as too simple, which is -childishness indeed and rank stupidity! For as children show -more glee and satisfaction at the sight of rainbows or haloes or -comets than in that of the sun or of the moon, so do these <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -people regret the riddles, allegories, and metaphors which are -so many modes of refraction of prophetic art in a mortal and -fanciful medium. And if they do not fully inquire into the cause -of the change, they go away having passed judgement against -the God, rather than against ourselves or themselves, for having -a power of thought which is too feeble to attain to his counsels.’</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span> - <h2 id='chap05' class='c003'>III <br /> ON THE CESSATION OF THE ORACLES</h2> -</div> -<p class='c004'>A DIALOGUE INSCRIBED TO TERENTIUS PRISCUS</p> -<p class='c004'>THE SPEAKERS</p> -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Lamprias</span>, Plutarch’s brother.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Cleombrotus</span>, of Lacedaemon, a scientific traveller, and a theologian, who had been up the Red Sea, and, lately, to Ammon.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Didymus</span>, a Cynic philosopher.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Philippus</span>, an historian.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Demetrius</span>, a ‘grammarian’ of Tarsus, now returning from Britain.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Ammonius</span>, the philosopher.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Heracleon</span>, of Megara, a young man.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='sc'>Time</span>: A little before the Pythian games of Callistratus’ year, perhaps -<span class='fss'>A. D.</span> 83-4.</p> - -<p class='c005'>1 and 2. <span class='sc'>Cleombrotus</span> mentions the undying lamp flame at -Ammon, said to require less oil each year, a proof that the years -are growing shorter.</p> - -<p class='c005'>3. <span class='sc'>Demetrius</span> thinks the cause inadequate and <span class='sc'>Cleombrotus</span> -mentions other instances of important phenomena due to -insignificant causes.</p> - -<p class='c005'>4. <span class='sc'>Ammonius</span> points out that all the heavenly bodies are involved -in the hypothesis, and suggests other causes, as changes -in temperature or in the quality of the oil.</p> - -<p class='c005'>5. <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span> invites Cleombrotus to tell the company about -the oracle of Ammon. <span class='sc'>Demetrius</span> suggests, as a subject nearer -home, the failure of the oracles in Boeotia (except those in the -neighbourhood of Lebadeia).</p> - -<p class='c005'>6. We were passing out of the temple, and were near the Hall -of the Cnidians, where <span class='sc'>Heracleon</span> and our other friends were -<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>waiting for us, in silence. On a request from <span class='sc'>Demetrius</span> they -agree to join in our discussion.</p> - -<p class='c005'>7. <span class='sc'>Didymus</span> the Cynic (‘Planetiades’) makes an angry protest: -the wonder being that Providence itself had not deserted this -bad world long ago. Heracleon and <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span> humour him, -and he leaves the place quietly.</p> - -<p class='c005'>8. <span class='sc'>Ammonius</span> addresses Lamprias: ‘I too deprecate the tone -of Didymus. Still we may recognize other causes, besides -providential action, for the cessation of the oracles, e.g. the -depopulation of Greece and specially of Boeotia.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>9. <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span>: ‘We may believe in Gods, yet hold that their -works may be interrupted by specific causes. It is not necessary -that the God should personally operate in his oracles.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>10. <span class='sc'>Cleombrotus</span> agreed, but observed that the hypothesis -was much relieved by assuming the existence of daemons, a -middle order between Gods and men, and not immortal,</p> - -<p class='c005'>11. But long-lived—say 9,720 years (as Hesiod)—‘What?’ -interrupted <span class='sc'>Demetrius</span>; ‘Hesiod was leading up to the Stoic -“Conflagration”!’</p> - -<p class='c005'>12. <span class='sc'>Cleombrotus</span> refuses to split straws as to the duration of -a daemon’s life; the point is that there are such things as -daemons.</p> - -<p class='c005'>13. The daemons have been compared (by Xenocrates) to an -isosceles triangle (Gods to an equilateral, men to a scalene). -Or again to the moon, which is half earth, half star.</p> - -<p class='c005'>14. Instances of daemonic rites,</p> - -<p class='c005'>15. And daemonic stories, wrongly attributed to Gods, as -that of Delphi (<span class='sc'>Philippus</span> shows surprise) and the flight of -Apollo.</p> - -<p class='c005'>16. <span class='sc'>Heracleon</span> (first addressing <span class='sc'>Philippus</span>) allows that -daemons, not Gods, may be concerned with oracles, but then -they must be sinless beings—<span class='sc'>Cleombrotus</span>: “Sinless daemons—if -so, they would no longer be daemons”:</p> - -<p class='c005'>17. And quotes stories to prove that daemons may be faulty, -and one as to the death of Pan to prove that they may be -mortal.</p> - -<p class='c005'>18. <span class='sc'>Demetrius</span> confirms this from his experiences in and -about Britain.</p> - -<p class='c005'>19. <span class='sc'>Cleombrotus</span> compares the Stoic view of Gods who are -perishable with the Epicurean ‘Infinity’.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>20. <span class='sc'>Ammonius</span> defends Empedocles’ view of faulty daemons -against the Epicureans, who held that, if faulty, they must be -short-lived. As the Epicureans are not represented, he calls -on Cleombrotus to continue his argument for the migration of -daemons.</p> - -<p class='c005'>21. <span class='sc'>Cleombrotus</span>, first referring to Plato, has a story of an -oriental recluse, whom he had met about the Red Sea. He -knew all the Delphi legend, and referred it to the struggles of -daemons, who took on the names of the Gods to whom they were -severally attached.</p> - -<p class='c005'>22. ‘But how does Plato come in?’ asked <span class='sc'>Heracleon</span>. -‘Because’, replied <span class='sc'>Cleombrotus</span>, ‘Plato allowed a possibility of -more worlds than one, up to five; the recluse asserted (giving -no proof) that there were exactly one hundred and eighty-three -worlds.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>23. ‘The impostor!’ says <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span>; ‘that view is purely -Greek, and was put into a book by one Petron of Himera long -ago.’ <span class='sc'>Heracleon</span> and <span class='sc'>Demetrius</span> exchange remarks about -Plato’s views on a plurality of worlds, and agree to refer the -matter to <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span>, who offers to give a cursory account, the -discussion then to revert to the original question.</p> - -<p class='c005'>[24-end. Lamprias is the speaker, with an interposition by -Ammonius in c. 33 and again in c. 46, and by Demetrius, who -answers a question in c. 45, and some shorter ones.]</p> - -<p class='c005'>24. <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span> <i>loq.</i>: It is <i>a priori</i> likely that this world is not -a sole creation.</p> - -<p class='c005'>25. There need be no fear of interference from outside, of -world with world. Aristotle’s view of the arrangement of -matter stated,</p> - -<p class='c005'>26. And considered.</p> - -<p class='c005'>27. The idea of a middle point is applicable to each world -severally, not to the confederation of worlds.</p> - -<p class='c005'>28. The case of the ‘stone outside the world’ (the moon?), -which some regard as no part of our earth, and therefore not -bound to move towards it. The paradoxical views of Chrysippus.</p> - -<p class='c005'>29. The Stoic difficulty as to Zeus or Providence in the plural -met. Why not a choir of such powers, free to range from part -to part of the universe?</p> - -<p class='c005'>30. Such a view of deities sociable and free to communicate -with each other is the grander one.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>31. (<span class='sc'>Philippus</span> asks to have the bearing of the number five -and the five solid figures on Plato’s scheme explained.)</p> - -<p class='c005'>32. <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span>: The matter is thus explained by Theodorus -of Soli:<a id='r128' /><a href='#f128' class='c006'><sup>[128]</sup></a> There are five and no more solid figures having all -the faces and all the solid angles in each equal. These are—</p> - -<p class='c005'>(<i>a</i>) The Pyramid (Tetrahedron) with four faces, each an -equilateral triangle, and four solid angles,</p> - -<p class='c005'>(<i>b</i>) The Cube, six faces, each a square, and eight solid angles,</p> - -<p class='c005'>(<i>c</i>) The Octahedron, eight faces, each an equilateral triangle, -and six solid angles,</p> - -<p class='c005'>(<i>d</i>) The Dodecahedron, twelve faces, each a regular pentagon, -and twenty solid angles,</p> - -<p class='c005'>(<i>e</i>) The Eicosahedron, twenty faces, each an equilateral -triangle, and twelve solid angles.</p> - -<p class='c005'>[It follows that (<i>d</i>) having more, and blunter, solid angles -than any, most nearly approximates to the Sphere. (And, in -fact, if the content of the Sphere be 100, that of (<i>d</i>) is 66·5, that -of (<i>e</i>) only 60·5, that of (<i>c</i>) 36·75, and so on). Plato (<i>Timaeus</i>, -pp. 53-5, where see Archer-Hind) shows that each equilateral -triangle may easily be broken into six ‘primary scalenes’, i. e. -triangles with angles 90°, 60°, 30°, which again will reproduce -themselves <i>ad infinitum</i> (Euclid, 6, 8). Hence, if a universe be -constructed out of (<i>a</i>) or (<i>c</i>) or (<i>e</i>) or their plane faces, or of all of -these, it can, in case of dissolution, be reconstructed. This does not -apply to the Cube, the faces of which, however, yield isosceles right-angled -triangles, also available as ‘constituents’ in infinite number, -nor yet to (<i>d</i>) which is therefore reserved for another purpose, -as to which see Burnet (<i>Early Greek Philosophers</i>, c. 7, sect. 148).]</p> - -<p class='c005'>The solid figures may be used to construct five different -worlds, or omitting (<i>d</i>) for the four ‘elements’ (fire, &c.).</p> - -<p class='c005'>33. <span class='sc'>Ammonius</span> criticizes; he points out that the difficulty -about the figure (<i>d</i>) has been ignored.</p> - -<p class='c005'>34. <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span> drops the subject for the present, and turns to -the five categories of being in the <i>Sophistes</i> and <i>Philebus</i>. It is -reasonable to assume that the physical universe may correspond.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>35. Consider the Pythagorean first principles of number and -the origin of the number five out of the first odd and the first -even.</p> - -<p class='c005'>36. Five senses, five fingers, five planets (the sun with the -two inner planets taken as one).</p> - -<p class='c005'>37. The relation of the five solid figures to Plato’s theory of -creation further considered. But we are on slippery ground -here.</p> - -<p class='c005'>38. <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span> is invited to return to the original question, as -to the oracles and the migration of daemons.</p> - -<p class='c005'>39. <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span> resumes:</p> - -<p class='c005'>Why should the prophetic gift be associated with daemons, -i.e. souls which have left the body, rather than with those still in -the flesh, though it may be more energetic after death? Compare -the processes of Memory.</p> - -<p class='c005'>40. Divination touches on the future through bodily conditions -assisted by emanations and the like.</p> - -<p class='c005'>41. The special virtues of certain vapours or streams, as the -Cydnus at Tarsus.</p> - -<p class='c005'>42. The story of the first discovery of the Adytum of Delphi -by the shepherd Coretas. There must be sympathy of soul with -prophecy, as of the eye with light. The identification of -Apollo with the sun.</p> - -<p class='c005'>43. The local prophetic currents may shift their place about, -as rivers and lakes are known to do.</p> - -<p class='c005'>44. Physical commotions, especially earthquakes, may be -expected to cause such shiftings.</p> - -<p class='c005'>45. <span class='sc'>Demetrius</span> has been too long away from home to answer -as to the Cydnus, but he tells a story about the oracle of Mopsus, -which had convinced a sceptical magistrate.</p> - -<p class='c005'>46. <span class='sc'>Ammonius</span> and <span class='sc'>Philippus</span> have points to raise. That of -the latter is as to the identity of the sun with Apollo, and is -allowed to stand over. <span class='sc'>Ammonius</span> protests against the ascription -of all prophecy to material causes, but wishes to hear the -view of <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>47. <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span> observes that Plato had made a similar protest -against Anaxagoras. <i>Both</i> sets of causes must be recognized.</p> - -<p class='c005'>48. And so in the case of prophetic utterances.</p> - -<p class='c005'>49. The actual procedure of Delphi, and the tests applied to -the victim, justified.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>50. The influences to which the prophetess is subject.</p> - -<p class='c005'>51. Story of a prophetess who was wrongly pressed when the -conditions were adverse. The force of the exhalation affects -different persons differently. It is essentially daemonic, but -not exempt from change or decay.</p> - -<p class='c005'>52. The subject is difficult, and must remain open to discussion, -as also the question raised by Philippus about Apollo and -the sun.</p> -<h3 class='c009'>ON THE CESSATION OF THE ORACLES</h3> -<p class='c004'>I. There is a story, Terentius Priscus, that certain eagles <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>409<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -or swans, in flight from the extremities of earth to its middle <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -point, met at Delphi near the Navel, as we call it; that later -on Epimenides of Phaestus came to examine into the story -in the God’s house, and, receiving an indistinct and ambiguous -response, wrote</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>No central boss there is of land or sea,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>The Gods may know one, but from man ’tis hid.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>As for the inquirer, he was properly punished by the God for -putting an old story to the proof as though fingering a picture. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>410<span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<p class='c005'>II. However, shortly before the Pythian games of Callistratus’ -year, it happened that two holy men, travelling from -opposite ends of the inhabited globe, met at Delphi; Demetrius -the grammarian, on his homeward voyage from Britain to -Tarsus, and Cleombrotus the Lacedaemonian, who had wandered -much in Egypt and about the land of the Troglodytes, and had -sailed far up the Red Sea, not for commerce, but because -he loved sights and information. Possessing a competence, -and being indifferent to having more, he would use his leisure <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -in such ways, putting together facts as material for a Philosophy -which was to end in what he himself called Theology. Having -lately been at the temple of Ammon, he made it clear that -he was far from admiring its general arrangements, but he told -<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>us a story worthy of serious interest as related by the priests, -about the lamp which is never extinguished. They say that it -consumes less oil each successive year, and claim this as a proof -of an inequality in the years which makes each less in duration -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> than its predecessor. Of course, the shorter the period the -less the consumption.</p> - -<p class='c005'>III. All present found this wonderful, and Demetrius -observed that it was quite absurd to hunt out such great results -from trifles; not, as Alcaeus puts it, to take the claw and paint -the lion from it, but with a wick and a lamp to shift the whole -order of the heavens, and make a clean sweep of Mathematics. -‘Nothing of that sort will disturb those gentlemen;’ said -Cleombrotus, ‘they will never give in to the mathematicians -on the point of accuracy; they would think it easier for them -to be wrong in their time about movements and periods so -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> very remote, than for themselves to be wrong in measuring -the oil, when they had their attention jealously fixed all the -time on so strange a phenomenon. Besides, Demetrius, not to -allow small things as indications of great ones would be to stop -the way against many arts; many proofs will be put out of -account, and many predictions. Yet you grammarians prove a -fact of no less importance than that the heroes of old shaved with -the razor, because you meet with the word “razor” in Homer,<a id='r129' /><a href='#f129' class='c006'><sup>[129]</sup></a> -and again, that they lent money at interest, because he has</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Since of a debt there owing I have need,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Long-standing and not small</i>,<a id='r130' /><a href='#f130' class='c006'><sup>[130]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>where the word for “to owe” imports increase! Again, when -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> he calls night “swift”,<a id='r131' /><a href='#f131' class='c006'><sup>[131]</sup></a> you fasten lovingly on the word, and -actually say that it implies that the shadow is conical, as thrown -by a spherical body. Then Medicine tells us that an abundance -of spiders prognosticates a summer of pestilence, and so does -<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>a crow’s-foot on the fig leaves in spring. Who is going to allow -this, unless he grants that small things may be indications of -great ones? Who will endure that the magnitude of the sun -should be measured by “half-gallon or half-pint”, or that -the acute angle made on the sundial here by the gnomon -with the surface should be a measure of the elevation of the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -visible poles above the horizon? Such, at any rate, were the -accounts to be heard from the prophets down there, so that -we must have some other answer to give if we wish to keep for -the sun his constitutional order without deviation.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>IV. ‘Not for the sun only,’ cried Ammonius the philosopher, -who was present, ‘but for the whole heavens! For his passage -from solstice to solstice must of necessity be curtailed and not <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>411<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -cover so large a portion of the firmament as mathematicians -say, its southern parts constantly shrinking towards the more -northerly. Our summer, too, must become shorter, and its -temperature colder, as his course curves inwards, and he covers -wider parallels among the tropical constellations. Again, the -gnomons at Syene must cease to throw no shadow at the -summer solstice; many fixed stars would be found to have closed -in, some of them touching others and being mingled with them -as the interval disappeared. If, on the other hand, they shall <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -assert that the other bodies remain as they are, the sun alone -being irregular in his movements, they will be unable to state -the cause which accelerates him alone out of so many bodies, -and will throw most of the phenomena into confusion, those -of the moon entirely, so that there will be no need of measures -of oil to prove the difference; eclipses will prove it, when the sun -comes into contact with the moon more frequently, and the moon -with the earth’s shadow. The rest is clear, and there is no need -to unravel any further the imposture of the theory.’ ‘For all -that,’ said Cleombrotus, ‘I saw the measures with my own -eyes, for they showed me several; that of the current year -<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> fell considerably short of the oldest.’ Ammonius rejoined: -‘Then it has escaped all the others who keep up unextinguished -fires, and preserve them for a number of years which we may -call infinite. Assume, however, that what is said is true; is it -not better to take the cause to be atmospheric chills or moisture, -which might probably weaken the fire so that it would -not consume or need so much fuel; on the other hand, times -of dryness or heat? Before now I have heard it said of fire -that it burns better and with more strength in winter, being -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> contracted and condensed by the cold, whereas in hot times -it loses power, and becomes attenuated and feeble; again, that -in sunlight it is less efficient, attacking the fuel sluggishly and -consuming it more slowly. Most likely of all, the true cause may -be in the oil. There is no improbability in thinking that it -was in old days unsubstantial and watery, being produced from a -young plant, but afterwards, when well matured and condensed, -it had more force and better nutritive power in an equal quantity. -I am supposing that we are bound to save this hypothesis -for the servants of Ammon, absurd and unnatural as it is.’</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> V. When Ammonius had done, ‘Rather’, said I, ‘tell us -all about the oracle, Cleombrotus; for the old reputation -of the divine power there was great, nowadays it seems to be -somewhat dwindling.’ As Cleombrotus was silent, and cast -his eyes downwards, Demetrius said: ‘There is no need to -raise questions about what is happening there, when we see -the growing enfeeblement of the oracles nearer home, I might -rather say the cessation of all save one or two; the question -is from what cause has their power thus passed away? Why -mention others, when Boeotia, in old times full of voices with -her oracles, has now been quite deserted, as though by sources of -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> water, and a great drought of prophecy has possessed the land? -Nowhere, except round Lebadeia, has Boeotia anything to -give to those who wish to draw water from prophetic art; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>for the rest, silence or utter desertion is the order. Yet in the -times of the Persian wars it was in no less repute than that of <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>412<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Amphiaraus, and Mys, as it would seem, tried both.<a id='r132' /><a href='#f132' class='c006'><sup>[132]</sup></a> So the -prophet of the Ptoan Oracle, in former times accustomed to -use Aeolian, uttered a response in the tongue of the Barbarians, -which none of the local persons present understood, but Mys -alone; however, the Barbarian caught the inspiration, and the -injunction did not need to be translated into Greek. As to -the slave sent to the shrine of Amphiaraus, he seemed to see -in his sleep a minister of the God, who first spoke to turn -him out telling him that the God was not present, then -used his hands to push him, and, when he persisted, took -a great stone and smote him on the head. This was all a <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -prediction in act of what was to come about; for Mardonius -was defeated by the Greeks under no king but a -regent and a lieutenant of a king, and he fell struck by a stone,<a id='r133' /><a href='#f133' class='c006'><sup>[133]</sup></a> -just as the Lydian appeared in his sleep to be struck. At that -time the oracle at Tegyrae was flourishing; there they say -that the God was born, and of the streams which flow past -it one, as some tell, is called the “Palm”, the other the “Olive” -to this day. Again, in the Persian wars, when Echecrates -was prophet, the God promised victory and might in war to <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the Greeks. Then in the Peloponnesian war, when the Delians -had been turned out of their island, it is said that an oracle was -brought from Delphi, ordering them to discover the place -where Apollo was born, and to perform certain sacrifices there. -When they were in wonder and perplexity at the idea that the -God had not been born among them but elsewhere, the Pythia -added that a crow should reveal to them the spot. They went -away and reached Chaeroneia, where they heard the landlord -of the inn conversing with certain strangers on their way to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>Tegyrae about the oracle. These strangers, on leaving, addressed -the woman in saying farewell as Corone (Crow). Then they -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> understood the oracle, and having sacrificed at Tegyrae, managed -shortly to effect their return. There have been more recent -manifestations at these prophetic shrines, but now they have -failed; so that it may well be worth while here, in the home -of the Pythian, to discuss the cause of the change.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>VI. By this time we were away from the temple, and -had reached the doors of the Hall of the Cnidians. Passing -inside, we saw the friends for whom we were making, seated -and waiting for us. There was a general stillness because of -the hour; people were anointing themselves or watching the -athletes. Then Demetrius, with a quiet smile, said: ‘Shall -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> I tell a story, or shall I speak the truth? My belief is that -you have no problem in hand worth a thought; I see you -seated much at your ease, with relaxation on your faces.‘ ‘Oh -yes;’ broke in the Megarian Heracleon, ‘we are not inquiring -whether the verb “to throw” loses a lambda in the future, -nor as to the positive forms of “worse”, “better”, “worst”, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> “best”. Those are the questions, those and others like them, -which bring frowns and wrinkles! All others we may examine -like philosophers, with brows steady, and quietly, not looking -death and daggers at the company.’ ‘Then take us as we -are,’ said Demetrius, ‘and with us the subject upon which we -have actually fallen, one which is proper to the place, and concerns -us all for the God’s sake. And mind! no wrinkled -eyebrows when you attack it!’</p> - -<p class='c005'>VII. We mingled our companies and sate down in and out -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>413<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> of each other, and Demetrius had propounded the subject, -when up sprang the Cynic Didymus, by nickname Planetiades, -struck the ground two or three times and shouted out: ‘Oho! -Oho! a mighty difficult subject, which needs much inquiry, -you have brought us! A wonder indeed that, with so much -<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>wickedness poured over the earth, not only “Modesty and -Sense of Justice”, to quote Hesiod,<a id='r134' /><a href='#f134' class='c006'><sup>[134]</sup></a> have deserted human -life, but Divine Providence, too, has packed up its oracles and -is gone from everywhere. I throw out the opposite problem -for you to discuss. Why have they not ceased long ago? Why -has not Hercules or some other God withdrawn the tripod, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -filled every day with foul ungodly questions, propounded to -the God by some as if he were a sophist whom they were to -catch out, by others to ask about treasures or inheritances or -marriages which law forbids. The result is that Pythagoras -is proved mighty wrong when he said that men are always at -their best when they approach the Gods.<a id='r135' /><a href='#f135' class='c006'><sup>[135]</sup></a> Accordingly, things -which it were decent to cloak and deny in the presence of an -older man, diseases and affections of the soul, these they lay -bare and open before the God!’ He wanted to go on, but -Heracleon plucked at his cloak, and I, almost his greatest <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -intimate present, said: ‘Dear Planetiades, leave off provoking -the God. He is easy to be entreated and gentle:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Mildest to mortal men pronounced to be</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>as Pindar<a id='r136' /><a href='#f136' class='c006'><sup>[136]</sup></a> says. And whether he be sun, or lord and father -of the sun, lord and father beyond all that is visible, it is not -likely that he should deem us modern men unworthy of -a voice from himself, being to them the cause of birth and -nurture and being and thinking. It is not seemly, either, that -Providence, our thoughtful kindly mother, who produces and -maintains all things for us, should remember our misdeeds in -one matter only—prophecy, and should take away what she <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -originally gave. As if in those old days there were not more -bad men because men were more, when oracles were set up -in so many parts of the inhabited world! Come here, and sit -down again! Swear a Pythian truce with wickedness, whom -<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>you are chastising in word every day; join us in seeking some -other cause for the alleged failure of the oracles.’ My words had -some effect; Planetiades went away by the doors and in silence.</p> - -<p class='c005'>VIII. There was a short interval of quiet, then Ammonius -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> addressed me. ‘Lamprias,’ he said, ‘take care what we are -doing, and give your mind to the discussion, lest we find ourselves -making out that the God is no true cause. He who thinks -that the cessation of the oracles is due to something other than -the will of a God, suggests the thought that they come into -being and exist, not because of the God, but in some other -way. For if prophecy be the work of a God, there is no greater -or stronger power to remove and abolish it. Now the argument -of Planetiades displeased me in many points, especially as to -the inconsistency which he makes out in the God, at one time -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> turning away from vice and disowning it, at another admitting -it; as though a king or tyrant were to shut out bad men at -one door, and admit them to interviews by another. Start -with the operation most proper to the Gods, which is great, yet -never excessive, always sufficient in itself; and tell me that -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>414<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Hellas has had the largest share in the general depopulation -caused by former revolutions and wars over the whole perhaps -of the inhabited globe, and could now scarcely provide all -round three thousand hoplites, the number which the single -state of Megara sent out to Plataea.<a id='r137' /><a href='#f137' class='c006'><sup>[137]</sup></a> Why, for the God to -have left many places of his oracle would be merely to expose -the desolation of Greece. Then I will put myself in your -hands for ingenuity. For who would get the good if there -were an oracle at Tegyrae as there formerly was, or near -Ptoum, where it is a day’s work to meet one man minding his -flocks. This very spot, most venerable of all and most renowned -“for time and fame”, was for a long time made desert and -unapproachable by a savage beast, a female dragon as the story -<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>goes; but this is to invert the facts of its lying idle; the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -wilderness invited the beast, the beast did not make the wilderness. -But when, in the good pleasure of the God, Hellas revived -in her cities, and the place had men in plenty, two prophetesses -were employed, who were lowered in turn, and a third was -appointed to relieve. Now there is only one, and we do not -complain, for she is enough for those who need her. So we -have no cause to blame the God; the prophetic establishment -now subsisting suffices for all, and sends away all with what -they want. Agamemnon used to employ seven heralds, yet <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -scarcely could control the numerous assembly, whereas in -a few days you will see in the theatre here that a single voice -reaches all present, and even so it is with prophecy; then it -used more voices to reach more persons, now we should fairly -wonder at the God if he allowed his prophecy to flow to waste -like water, or like the rocks to find an echo for the voices of -shepherds and their flocks.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>IX. When Ammonius had said this, and I remained silent, -Cleombrotus addressed me: ‘Have you now granted’, he said, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘that the God makes and also destroys the oracles?’ ‘By no -means’, I said. ‘I maintain that no prophetic shrine or oracle is -destroyed by the God’s agency. It is as with many other things -which he makes or provides; Nature brings in destruction -and negation; or rather Matter, which is negation, unweaves -and breaks up that which is brought into being by the more -powerful cause. Even so I think there are times of obscuration -and withdrawal of prophetic forces. The God gives many fair -things to men, but gives nothing immortal, so that, in the words -of Sophocles:<a id='r138' /><a href='#f138' class='c006'><sup>[138]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>The works of Gods may die, but not the Gods.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>I say that their essence and their power must be sought in <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>Nature and in Matter, the origin being rightly reserved to the -God. It would be simple and childish to suppose that the -God himself creeps into the bodies of the prophets and speaks -from there, using as instruments their mouths and voices, like -those ventriloquists once called “Eurycleis”, now “Pythones”. -He who mixes up the God with mortal needs does not spare -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> his majesty nor preserve the dignity and the greatness of his -excellence.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>X. Then Cleombrotus: ‘You are right. Yet it is hard to -grasp and to define how, and up to what point, we may make -use of Providence; and therefore those who make the God -the cause of nothing at all, and also those who make him the -common cause of all, go wide of moderation and decency. -It is well said, on the one hand, that Plato, in discovering -the element which underlies created qualities, now called -“Matter” or “Nature”, relieved philosophers from perplexities -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>415<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> many and great. It seems to me, on the other, that those -who have inserted the class of daemons between Gods and men, -to draw and knit together the fellowship of the two orders -after a fashion, have cleared away more perplexities and greater; -whether the view belongs to Zoroaster and the Magi, or comes -from Thrace and Orpheus, or from Egypt, or from Phrygia, -as we conjecture from seeing in both those countries many -elements of death and mourning in the rites celebrated there, -mingled with those of initiation. Among the Greeks, Homer -appears still to use both names indifferently, and sometimes -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> to call the Gods daemons. Hesiod first clearly and distinctly laid -down four classes of reasonable beings, Gods, then daemons, -then heroes, last of all men; and here he appears to admit -transition, the golden race of men passing into daemons many -and great, the demigods at last into heroes.<a id='r139' /><a href='#f139' class='c006'><sup>[139]</sup></a> Others make out -<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>a change for bodies and souls alike. As water is seen to be -produced out of earth, air from water, and fire from air, and -the substance is borne upwards, even so the better souls receive -their change from men into heroes, from heroes into daemons. -From the daemons again, a few in a long course of time, upborne <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -through virtue, become full partakers of divine nature. -To some it happens not to have control of themselves; so they -subside and again enter mortal bodies, and endure a life as -dim and unillumined as an exhalation.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XI. ‘Hesiod thinks that in certain periods of time the -daemons die. Speaking in the person of the Naïd he darkly -indicates the time:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Full ages nine of men that live their prime</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Lives the hoarse crow, four crows the stag outlives,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Three stags the ancient raven, ravens nine</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>The phoenix, but the phoenix, ten times told,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>We fair-haired nymphs, daughters of Zeus most dread.</i><a id='r140' /><a href='#f140' class='c006'><sup>[140]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Those who take the word “age” wrong bring this to a very -large total; it means a year, so that the sum comes out nine -thousand seven hundred and twenty for the years of life of the -daemons. Most mathematicians think it to be less; not even -Pindar<a id='r141' /><a href='#f141' class='c006'><sup>[141]</sup></a> has called it greater, when he tells us that the nymphs -live</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Their term appointed even as the trees</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>and therefore names them Hamadryads.’ He was still <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -speaking when Demetrius broke in: ‘What was that, -Cleombrotus? The year called an “age of man”? Human -life, whether “at its prime” or, as some<a id='r142' /><a href='#f142' class='c006'><sup>[142]</sup></a> read “in its old -age” is not of that length. Those who read “at its prime”, -follow Heraclitus<a id='r143' /><a href='#f143' class='c006'><sup>[143]</sup></a> in taking “an age” to be thirty years, the -time in which the parent sees his offspring a parent. Those -<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>who read “in its old age” instead of “at its prime” give a -hundred and eight years to the “age”, taking the middle term -of human life to be fifty-four, the number made up of unity, -the two first surfaces, the two first squares and the two -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> first cubes,<a id='r144' /><a href='#f144' class='c006'><sup>[144]</sup></a> the number taken by Plato<a id='r145' /><a href='#f145' class='c006'><sup>[145]</sup></a> in his “Generation -of the Soul”. Hesiod’s whole story seems to have been framed -with a veiled reference to the “Conflagration”, when all things -moist will probably disappear and with them the Nymphs,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Who in fair glades their habitation have</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>By river sources and in grassy meads.</i>‘<a id='r146' /><a href='#f146' class='c006'><sup>[146]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>XII. Then Cleombrotus: ‘I hear of this from many, and -now I see the Stoic “Conflagration”, which already spreads over -the verses of Heraclitus and Orpheus, catching those of Hesiod -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>416<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> too! I have no patience with this “World-Conflagration”, -and then the impossibility of the thing! When one can -remember the periods, as it is easiest to do with the crow and -the hind, one sees how exaggeration passes in. The year has -within itself the beginning and the end</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Of all things which the circling seasons bear,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>And parent earth</i>,<a id='r147' /><a href='#f147' class='c006'><sup>[147]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>so there is nothing against usage in calling it an “age of man”. -You allow yourselves, I believe, that Hesiod means human -life by “the age”. Is it not so?’ Demetrius agreed. ‘Well, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> but this is also clear,’ said Cleombrotus, ‘that the same words -are often used for the measure and the things measured, as -pint, quart, gallon, bushel. As then we call unity a number, -being the smallest measure of number and its origin, so he has -called our first measure of human life by the same word as the -thing measured—“an age”. The numbers which the others -invent have none of the clarity or distinctness usual in numbers. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>As to the nine thousand seven hundred and twenty, it has come -about by taking the sum of the first four numbers, starting with <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -unity, and multiplying it by four, or four by ten.<a id='r148' /><a href='#f148' class='c006'><sup>[148]</sup></a> Thus we get -forty in either way, which, when five times multiplied [triangle-wise]<a id='r149' /><a href='#f149' class='c006'><sup>[149]</sup></a> -by three, gave the number proposed. But about these -matters there need be no difference between us and Demetrius. -Whether the time be longer or shorter, determinate or not, -in which the soul of a daemon shifts and the life of a demigod, -the point will have been proved, before any judge he chooses, -on the evidence of wise and ancient witnesses, that there are -certain natures on the borderland between Gods and men, -subject to mortal affections and enforced changes, who may -rightly receive our worship according to the custom of our -fathers, and be thought of as daemons and called so.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIII. ‘Xenocrates, the companion of Plato, used triangles <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -in illustration of the doctrine; he compared the equilateral -to a divine nature, the scalene to a mortal, and the isosceles -to a daemonic; the first equal in all relations, the second unequal -in all, the third equal in some, unequal in others, like the -daemonic nature with its mortal passions and divine power. -Nature has put forward images, which our sense can perceive, -visible likenesses; the sun and the stars standing for Gods, -flashes and comets and meteors for mortal men, an image -which Euripides<a id='r150' /><a href='#f150' class='c006'><sup>[150]</sup></a> drew in the lines: <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>In all his bloom, like to a falling star</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>His light was quenched, his spirit passed, to air.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>But there is a being which is mixed, and really an imitation -of the daemons, the moon. Men, seeing her circumference so -much in accord with that order of beings, the manifest wanings -<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>and waxings and phases which she undergoes, have called her, -some an earthlike star, others an Olympian earth, others “the -portion of Hecate”, who belongs at once to heaven and earth. -As, then, if one were to remove the lower air, withdrawing all -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> between earth and moon, an empty unconnected space would -be left, and the unity and continuity of the whole dissolved, -even so those who refuse to leave us the daemons break off -all intercourse and mutual dealing between Gods and men, -by removing that order in Nature which could “interpret”, -in Plato’s<a id='r151' /><a href='#f151' class='c006'><sup>[151]</sup></a> words, and “minister”, or else they compel us to -mingle all things into one mass, forcing the God into human -passions and business, and drawing him down to our needs, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>417<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> as Thessalian witches are said to draw the moon. Only their -imposture found credit with women, when Aglaonice the -daughter of Hegetor, who knew her astronomy, chose an -eclipse of the moon, and then pretended to do magic and -draw her down. But as for us, let us never listen when we -are told that there are prophecies with no divine agency, or -rites and orgiastic services which the Gods do not heed; nor -on the other hand suppose that the God is in and out and present -there, taking part in the business. Let us leave all this to those -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> rightful ministers of the Gods, their ushers or clerks. Let us -hold that there are daemons who watch the performance -of rites, and inspire the mysteries, while others go about to -avenge crimes of insolence and pride, and to others Hesiod<a id='r152' /><a href='#f152' class='c006'><sup>[152]</sup></a> -has given a venerable name,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in30'><i>of wealth</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>The saintly givers; such their kingly trust</i>.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Observe that to do so is kingly. For there are, as among men, -so among daemons, degrees of excellence, and in some subsists -still some slight, faint, almost excremental remnant of passion -and absence of reason; in others this is strong and hard to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>do away, its traces and symbols being in many places preserved -and sporadically found in sacrifices and rites and tales of wonder. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<p class='c005'>XIV. ‘Now as to the mystic rites, in which the most evident -and transparent indication may be had of the truth about -daemons, “peace be upon my lips”, as Herodotus<a id='r153' /><a href='#f153' class='c006'><sup>[153]</sup></a> says. Feasts -and sacrifices, days sinister and gloomy, so to call them, when -are meals of raw flesh, and rendings and fastings and beaten -breasts, and in many places unholy spells over the sacrifices:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Whoopings wild, and cries of frenzy, necks together tossed in air</i>,<a id='r154' /><a href='#f154' class='c006'><sup>[154]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>all these, I would say, belong to no God, but are modes of -appeasement and soothing to avert bad daemons. The human -sacrifices which used to be performed were neither asked for -nor accepted by Gods, we cannot believe it; yet kings and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -captains would not have endured to give up their own children -by way of initiating the rites, or to cut their throats, without -a purpose; it was to soothe and satisfy the heavy displeasure -of beings cruel and hard to be moved, or in some cases -their frantic low passions, worthy of tyrants, when bodily -approach was impossible or not desired. As Hercules besieged -the town of Oechalia for the sake of a maiden, so strong and -violent daemons, requiring in vain a human soul still enveloped in -the body, bring pestilences to cities and sterility of land, and -stir up wars and seditions, until they succeed in getting that -on which their affection is set. Some have fared otherwise; <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -thus in a long stay in Crete I came to know of an absurd -festival observed there: the headless form of a man is shown, -and you are told that this was Molus, father of Meriones, who -assaulted a maiden and was found without a head.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XV. ‘Now all the crimes of violence, all the wanderings -of Gods, all tales of hiding, banishment, servitude, which are <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -said or sung in myth or hymn, are adventures which happened -<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>not to Gods but to daemons, and are recorded to show their -excellence or power; Aeschylus<a id='r155' /><a href='#f155' class='c006'><sup>[155]</sup></a> was wrong when he wrote</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Apollo pure, the God exil’d from heav’n</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>and so was the Admetus in Sophocles<a id='r156' /><a href='#f156' class='c006'><sup>[156]</sup></a> wrong:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Mine was the cock who called him to the mill.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Widest of the truth of all are the theologians of Delphi, who, -thinking that a battle once took place here between the God -and a serpent for the possession of the oracle, allow poets and -speech-writers contending in the theatres to tell these stories, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>418<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> expressly belying their own most sacred rites.’ Philippus, -the historian, who chanced to be present, here expressed -surprise, and asked: ‘What rites such competitors belied?’ -‘Those relating to the oracle,’ was the reply, ‘whereby the -city, admitting to initiation those from here to Tempe has -now banished all Greeks dwelling beyond Thermopylae.<a id='r157' /><a href='#f157' class='c006'><sup>[157]</sup></a> For -the booth set up afresh every nine years near the court of the -temple is not like any den or serpent’s haunt, but is an imitation -of the dwelling of a tyrant or king. And the assault made -upon it in silence through what they call “Dolon’s Way”, by -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> which the Aeolidae bring the boy, both of whose parents are -living, with lighted torches, put fire to the booth, overturn the -table, and then flee through the gates of the temple without -turning back; and lastly the wanderings of the boy and his -servile offices, and the purification rites at Tempe, all convey -a suspicion of some great crime of shocking audacity. For it is -quite absurd, my friend, that Apollo, after killing a beast, should -flee to the extremities of Greece in quest of purification, and -then should pour libations there and do all which men do to -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> appease and soften the wrath of daemons (fiends and avengers -as they are called, because they pursue the memories of old -<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>unforgotten stains). The story which I once heard about that -flight and removal is strangely absurd and surprising; but if -there be any truth in it, let us never believe that what passed -about the oracle in these old times was any trifling or ordinary -matter. However, fearing to seem to do what Empedocles -describes:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Stringing sundry myths, nor ever keeping to a single path</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>I will ask you to allow me to affix the proper conclusion to my -first tale, for we have just reached it. Many have said it before <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -us; let us dare to say it now. When the daemons who have -to do with oracles and prophecies fail, all such things fail too, -and lose their force if the daemons flee or shift their place; -then, if they return after an interval, the things speak aloud, like -instruments of music when those who can play them are present -to play.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XVI. When Cleombrotus had finished, Heracleon spoke: -‘There is no profane or uninitiated person present, no one who -holds views about the Gods discordant with our own; but -let us keep jealous watch on ourselves, Philippus, lest without -our own knowledge we assume strange and even monstrous <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -hypotheses.’ ‘Well said,’ answered Philippus, ‘but what -shocks you specially in what Cleombrotus is advancing?’ -‘That the oracles should be administered,’ said Heracleon, -‘not by Gods, who may well be quit of earthly concerns, but -by daemons, assistants of the God, seems to me a not unfair -assumption; but then to pluck, I had almost said by the handful, -out of the verses of Empedocles, sins, infatuations, and God-inflicted -wanderings, and to fasten them upon these daemons, -and to suppose that in the end they die like men, this I do -think a somewhat bold and barbarian view.’ Here Cleombrotus <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -asked Philippus who and whence the young man was, and, after -learning his name and city, said: ‘No, Heracleon, it is by no -means “without our own knowledge” that we have reached -<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>strange propositions; but in discussing great matters it is not -possible to attain what is probable in opinion without starting -from great premisses. But you, though you do not know it yourself, -are taking back what you grant. You allow that there are -daemons; but when you require that they should not be faulty -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>419<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> nor yet mortal, it is no longer daemons that you retain. For -in what do they differ from Gods if as to their being they are -immortal, and as to virtue are passionless and impeccable?’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XVII. As Heracleon remained silent and in deep thought, -he went on: ‘Faulty daemons come to us not from Empedocles -only, but from Plato and Xenocrates and Chrysippus; yes, and -Democritus,<a id='r158' /><a href='#f158' class='c006'><sup>[158]</sup></a> when he prays to meet “fair-falling phantoms”, -shows that he knew of others which were disagreeable, with -definitely vicious intentions and impulses. As to death in such -beings, I have heard a story from a man who was no fool or -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> romancer. Some of you have heard Aemilianus the orator; -Epitherses was his father, my fellow-townsman and teacher in -grammar. He said that he was once on a voyage to Italy, and -embarked on board a ship carrying cargo and many passengers. -It was already evening when the breeze died down off the -Echinades Islands; and the ship drifted till it was near Paxi. -Most on board were awake, and many still drinking after supper. -Suddenly a voice was heard from the island of Paxi; some one -was calling Thamus in a loud voice, so that they all wondered. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Thamus was an Egyptian pilot, not even known by name to -many of the passengers. Twice he was called, and remained -silent; the third time he paid attention to the caller, who raised -his voice and said: “When you reach the Palodes, tell them -that Great Pan is dead.” Hearing this, Epitherses said, all were -in consternation, and began discussing with one another whether -“it were better to do as was ordered, or to refuse to meddle -and to let it be. They decided in the end that, if there were -<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>a breeze, Thamus should sail past quietly, but if there should -be calm about the place, he should hail, and report. When -he was off the Palodes, as there was neither wind nor wave, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Thamus at the helm looked to land and repeated the words he -had heard: “Great Pan is dead.” He had no sooner done -this than a great groaning was heard, proceeding not from one -but from many, mingled with cries of wonder. As there were -many present, the story was soon spread in Rome, and Thamus -was sent for by Tiberius Caesar, who so entirely credited -the story, that he caused inquiry to be made about Pan. The -scholars, of whom there were many round him, conjectured -that he was the son born of Hermes and Penelope.’<a id='r159' /><a href='#f159' class='c006'><sup>[159]</sup></a> (Philippus <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -was able to produce several witnesses from the company who -had heard the old Aemilianus.)</p> - -<p class='c005'>XVIII. Demetrius told us that, among the islands near -Britain, many were deserted and lay scattered (Sporades), -some of them bearing the names of daemons and demigods. -He himself, by the Emperor’s command, made a voyage of -inquiry and observation to the nearest of the deserted islands, -which had a few inhabitants, all sacred persons and never -molested by the Britons. Just after his arrival, there was -a great confusion in the atmosphere, many portents from -the sky with gusts of wind and fiery blasts. When these calmed <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -down, the islanders said that ‘one of the mightier ones has -ceased to be.’ For as a lamp when lighted, so they explained, -has no unpleasant effect, but when extinguished is disagreeable -to many people, so it is with great souls: their kindling into life is -easy and free from pain; their extinction and death often breed -winds and tempests, ‘such as you see now’, and infect the air -with pestilence and sickness. They added that there is one -island in particular where Cronus is a prisoner, being guarded -in his sleep by Briareus; for sleep has been devised to be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>a chain to bind him, and there are many daemons about him -as satellites and attendants.<a id='r160' /><a href='#f160' class='c006'><sup>[160]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>XIX. Cleombrotus spoke next: ‘I have stories of the same -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>420<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> kind which I might tell; but it is enough for our hypothesis -that there is nothing which actually contradicts it or makes -such things impossible. Yet we know’, he continued, ‘that -the Stoics not only hold the view which I am advancing with -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> reference to daemons, but also recognize one out of the great -multitude of Gods who is eternal and immortal; the others, -they think, have come into being, and will perish. From the -flouts and laughter of the Epicureans, which they venture -to employ against Providence also, calling it a mere myth, we -have nothing to fear. We maintain that their “Infinity” -is a myth; so many worlds, not one of which is governed by -divine reason, all produced spontaneously, and so subsisting. -If it be permissible to laugh in speaking of Philosophy, we may -laugh at the dumb, blind, soulless images which they shepherd -during countless cycles of years, to reappear and anon return -in all directions, some issuing from bodies still living, some -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> from those long ago burned or rotted. Thus they drag into -physiology cyphers and shadows; yet if one asserts that -daemons exist not in physical nature only, but as matter of -theory, able to remain in being for long periods of time, they -show irritation.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XX. When these views had been stated, Ammonius spoke: -‘I think’, he said, ‘the dictum of Theophrastus was right. -For what prevents our accepting a view which is dignified -and highly philosophical? To disallow it is to reject many -things possible but incapable of positive proof; to allow it -is not<a id='r161' /><a href='#f161' class='c006'><sup>[161]</sup></a> necessarily to import many which are impossible and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> baseless. However, the only argument which I have heard the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>Epicureans employ against the daemons as introduced by -Empedocles, that, if they are faulty and liable to sins, they -cannot be blessed beings and long-lived, because vice implies -much blindness and a liability to destructive accidents, is -a foolish one. For, on this showing, Epicurus will be a worse -man than Gorgias the sophist, and Metrodorus than Alexis -the writer of comedies. For Alexis lived twice as long as -Metrodorus, and Gorgias more than a third as long again -as Epicurus. It is in another sense that we call virtue strong and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -vice weak, not with regard to the duration or dissolution of -body. Look at the lower animals: many which are sluggish in -limb and dull in spirit, loose or disorderly in habits, live longer -terms than the sensible and ingenious. Hence the Epicureans -do wrong in ascribing the immortality of God to the caution -and resistance which he opposes to destructive forces. No, -the immunity from suffering and death should be laid in the -nature of the blessed being, and should imply no trouble on -his part. Perhaps, however, it is inconsiderate to argue against -persons not present. It is now for Cleombrotus to resume his <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -argument lately interrupted, about the migration and exile of -the daemons.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXI. Then Cleombrotus: ‘Very well; I shall be surprised, -however, if it does not appear to you much stranger than what -we have already said. Yet its basis lies in Nature, and Plato -struck the note, not stating his view in plain terms, but as an -obscure theory, cautiously throwing out a hint in enigmatical -form; for all which even he has been met with a great outcry <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>421<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -from the other philosophers. Now since we are here with a bowl -in our midst of mingled myths and theories—and where should -a man meet with kinder listeners before whom to try theories -as foreign coins are tried?—I do not hesitate to give you the -benefit of the story of a certain outlandish man. It was after -many wanderings and after paying heavy search fees, that -I found him at last with difficulty, and enjoyed his conversation -<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>and kindly welcome. It was near the Red Sea, where once -every year he associated with men, spending the rest of his -time, as he used to say, with nomad nymphs and deities. He -was the handsomest man I ever saw, and kept free from sickness -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> of any sort, treating himself once a month with the medicinal -and bitter fruit of a grass. He was practised in the use of many -tongues; to me he would mostly use a Doric, which was very -nearly a song. While he was speaking, there was a fragrance -in all the place from the sweet breath passing out of his mouth. -His general learning and information were with him all the -time; but one day in every year he was inspired with prophecy, -and would then go down to the sea and foretell the future; -potentates and secretaries of kings would come to visit him -and then go away. He used to refer prophecy to daemons; -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> he paid the greatest attention to Delphi, and there were none -of the stories told of Dionysus, or of the rites performed here, -of which he had not heard. But he would say that all those -stories belonged to mighty sufferings of daemons, and among -them this of the Python; only that his slayer was not exiled -for nine years nor to Tempe, but was turned out into another -universe, returning thence after nine revolutions of the Great -Year, purified and “Phoebus” indeed, to resume possession -of the oracle, which had been guarded in the meanwhile by -Themis. That the stories of the Typhons and Titans were -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> similar; there had been battles of daemons against daemons, -followed by banishment of the defeated or expiation of offenders -by a God, for instance, Typhon is said to have sinned against -Osiris, and Cronus against Uranus; deities whose honours -have become dim or been altogether forgotten since they -were removed to another universe. Thus I hear that the -Solymi, who dwell near the Lycians, hold Cronus in special -honour; but when he had slain their princes, Arsalus, Dryus, -and Trosobius, he was banished and removed (whither they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>cannot say). So he passed out of account, but Arsalus and his -fellows are called “stern Gods”, and the Lycians publicly <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and in private make execrations in their names. Many stories -like these may be had out of theological collections.’ ‘But if -we call certain daemons by the recognized names of Gods,’ -the stranger said, ‘it should be no wonder, for to whatever -God each has been assigned, to share his power and honour, -after him he likes to be called; even as among ourselves one -is “of Zeus”, one “of Athena”, one “of Apollo,” one “of -Dionysus”, one “of Hermes”; only some have by accident -been rightly called, most have received names quite inappropriate, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -misapplied names of Gods.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXII. Here Cleombrotus paused. All present found his -story a marvellous one, but Heracleon asked how it bore upon -Plato, and in what sense he had given the note. ‘You perfectly -remember’, said Cleombrotus, ‘that he rejected, on -the face of it, an infinity of worlds, but felt a difficulty as to <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>422<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -a limited number, and was ready to go up to five,<a id='r162' /><a href='#f162' class='c006'><sup>[162]</sup></a> thus conceding -probability to those who assume one world for each -element, but himself keeping to one. This appears to be -peculiar to Plato, the other philosophers<a id='r163' /><a href='#f163' class='c006'><sup>[163]</sup></a> regarding with -horror any plurality, because, if you do not limit matter to -one world, when you pass outside unity you arrive at once at -an unlimited and perplexing infinity.’ ‘But did your stranger’, -I asked, ‘limit the number of worlds as Plato does, or did you -neglect to find this out when you were with him?’ ‘Was it <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -likely,’ said Cleombrotus, ‘when he graciously put himself at -my disposal? On these points, if on nothing else, I was, of -course, an attentive and eager listener. What he said was that -there is not an infinite number of worlds, nor yet one, nor yet -five, but one hundred and eighty-three, arranged in a triangle -with sixty worlds in each side. Of the three left over, each is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>placed at one angle. Each world keeps a light touch on its -neighbours while they revolve as in a dance. The area inside -the triangle is the common hearth of all, and is called the “Plain -of Truth”, and within it the formulae, and ideas, and patterns, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> of things which have been and things which are, lie undisturbed. -Eternity is around them, and from it, like a stream drawn off -from it, Time passes to the worlds. Once in ten thousand -years human souls, if they have lived good lives, are allowed -to see and inspect this sight; and the best of the initiations -performed here are a dream of that review and that initiation. -In our philosophical discourses we are working on the memory -of the fair things which are seen there, or else our discourse is -vain. This’, he said, ‘is the tale I heard from him; he spoke as -a man does in the mystery of an initiation, and offered no -demonstration or evidence.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXIII. I turned to Demetrius: ‘How’, I said, ‘do the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> lines about the Suitors run, where they wondered to see Ulysses -handling the bow?’ When he had remembered them, ‘Just’, -I said, ‘what it comes into my head to say about your stranger:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Surely the rogue some pilfering expert is</i><a id='r164' /><a href='#f164' class='c006'><sup>[164]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>in doctrines and theories from everywhere. He had travelled -widely in letters, and he was no Barbarian, but a Greek steeped -deeply in Greek learning. The number of his worlds proves -it against him, for it is not Egyptian nor yet Indian, but Dorian -of Sicily, and comes from a man of Himera named Petron. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> His own pamphlet I never read and I do not know whether -it is extant; but Hippys of Rhegium, mentioned by Phanias -of Eresus, records it as his view or theory that there are -one hundred and eighty-three worlds all in touch with one -another “by elements”, whatever that may mean; he gives -no further explanation or proof of any sort.’ ‘What proof -could there be’, broke in Demetrius, ‘in matters of that sort, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>where Plato, without a word to make it reasonable or likely, -simply laid down his theory?’ ‘And yet’, said Heracleon, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘we hear you grammarians referring the view to Homer,<a id='r165' /><a href='#f165' class='c006'><sup>[165]</sup></a> on -the ground that he distributes the whole into five worlds, -Heaven, Water, Air, Earth, Olympus. Two of these he leaves -“common”, namely, Earth with all the lower portion of the -whole, Olympus with all the upper. The three in the middle -have been allotted to the three Gods. So also Plato,<a id='r166' /><a href='#f166' class='c006'><sup>[166]</sup></a> apparently -assigning to the different aspects of the whole the bodily forms <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>423<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and figures which are the most beautiful and the first, spoke of -five worlds, one each for earth, water, air, fire, but kept for last -that which includes the others, the world of the Dodecahedron, -an expansible and versatile body, and assigned to it the figure -which suits the psychical periods and movements.’ Demetrius -said: ‘Why not let sleeping Homers lie for the present? -We have had enough of myths. But as to Plato, he is very far -from calling the five different aspects of the world five worlds; -and, where he is combating those who assume an infinite number, -states his own opinion that this is the only one, and is the sole -creation of God and beloved by him, brought into being <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -out of the corporeal whole, entire, complete, and self-sufficing. -Hence it may appear strange that he should himself state the -truth, yet supply to others the fundamental principle of -a view which is improbable and irrational. To give up the -defence of a single world was in a sort to grant the assumption -of the infinity of the whole. To make the definite number of -worlds five, neither more nor less, was quite against reason and -removed from all probability. Unless’, he added, turning to -me, ‘you have anything to say?’ ‘It seems to me’, I said, ‘to -come to this, that you have now dropped our discussion about -oracles, as concluded, and are taking up a fresh one of equal <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -importance.’ ‘We have not dropped the old one,’ said Demetrius, -‘only we do not decline the new when it fastens on us. For -<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>we do not mean to linger upon it, only to touch on it sufficiently -to ask how far it is probable; then we will return to the original -subject.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXIV. ‘In the first place then,’ I said, ‘the reasons -which prevent the making of an infinite number of worlds do -not prevent the making of more worlds than one. It is possible -that both prophecy and a Providence may find place in several -worlds, and that the intrusion of Chance may be very small, -while most things, and those the greatest, observe order in -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> their origin and their transition, none of which suppositions -is consistent with Infinity. In the next place, it is most -consonant with reason that God should not have made the -world a sole creation and left it to itself. For, being perfectly -good, he is lacking in no virtue, least of all in the virtues of -Justice and Friendliness, for these are most beautiful and becoming -Gods. Now it is the nature of God to have nothing which -is idle or without use. Therefore there are other Gods and -worlds outside, towards which he exercises the social virtues; -for Justice, or Gratitude, or Benevolence, cannot be exercised -towards himself or any part of himself, it must be towards -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> others. So it is not likely that this world should toss about -in the infinite void without friends, without neighbours, without -communication; since we see Nature herself wrapping up -individuals in classes and species, as though in jars or seed-vessels. -There is nothing in the whole list of things which has not -some common formula, nor can anything be called by a distinctive -name which does not possess, generically or individually, -certain qualities.<a id='r167' /><a href='#f167' class='c006'><sup>[167]</sup></a> But the world is not spoken of as possessing -generic qualities; it has qualities then as an individual, which -distinguish it from others akin to and resembling itself. For -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> if there is not in the world such a thing as one man, one horse, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>one star, one God, one daemon, what is to prevent there being -in Nature not one world, but several? If any one says that -Nature has one earth and one sea, he fails to see the obvious -fact of similar parts. For we divide earth into parts, all with -one common name, and sea likewise. But a part of the world is -no longer a world; it is composed of parts naturally different.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXV. ‘Again, the chief fear which has led some to use <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>424<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -up the whole of matter on our world, that nothing may be -left outside to disturb its coherence by resistance or thrusts, is -a needless one. For suppose several worlds, to each of which -is apportioned its own being, and matter definitely measured -and limited, then nothing will be left outside without place -or formation, like an extruded remnant, to put pressure from -without. For the law which has control of the matter allotted -to each world will not allow anything to be thrust out and -wander to strike upon another world, or anything from another -to strike its own, because Nature admits neither quantity -without limit, nor movement without law and arrangement. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Or, even if any stream be drawn off and pass from worlds to -other worlds, it must needs be homogeneous and kindly, -mingling itself mildly with all, as the stars when they blend -their rays. And the worlds themselves must have delight, -as they gaze on one another in friendliness, and must also -provide for the Gods in each, who are many and good, times -of intercourse and common cheerfulness. There is nothing -impossible in all this, no fairy tale and no paradox; unless, -mark me, the views of Aristotle<a id='r168' /><a href='#f168' class='c006'><sup>[168]</sup></a> are to bring it into suspicion -on physical grounds. For if each body has its own place, as -he says it has, earth must necessarily move towards the centre <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -from every side, and the water rest upon it, underlying the -lighter elements because of its weight. If, then, there are many -worlds, the result will be that earth is in many places above -<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>fire and air, and in many below them; and the same with air -and water too, which will be here in natural places, there in -unnatural. Which being impossible, as he thinks, there must -neither be two worlds nor more than two, but this one only, -composed of all matter, and established according to Nature -and to the several qualities of matter.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXVI. ‘However, all this is more plausible than true. -Look at it in this way,’ I went on, ‘dear Demetrius: when -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> he says that some bodies move downward towards the middle, -others upwards from the middle, others around the middle, -with reference to what does he take the middle? Not to the -void surely, for on his view there is none. But in the view of -those who allow a void, it has no middle, just as it has no -first or last, for these are limits, but the infinite has no limits. -Or if a man were to force himself, by sheer thinking, to conceive -any middle point in an infinite void, what is the resulting -difference in the movements of the different bodies towards -it? Bodies have no force in the void, nor yet have bodies any -choice or impulse to make them aim at the middle and tend -towards it from all sides. Besides, where there are bodies with -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> no soul, and a place which is incorporeal and without difference -of parts, it is as impossible to conceive of any movement -towards it arising out of themselves, as of any attraction upon -them arising out of it. It remains that the middle is spoken -of not in a local sense but in a corporeal. For granted that -this world has unity of structure with many dissimilar elements, -the different parts have necessarily different movements -towards different objects. This is clear from the consideration -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> that different elements, where their substance is transferred, -change their places at the same time; rarefaction distributes -in a circular movement the matter raised upwards from the -middle; consolidation and condensation press matter downward -towards the middle and force it together.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>XXVII. ‘On this subject more words are needless here. -Whatever you assume to be the effective cause of these vicissitudes -and changes, it will hold each world together within -itself. Each world has earth and sea, each has a middle point <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>425<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -of its own, its own vicissitudes and changes of the bodies upon -it, and a nature and a force which preserve everything and keep -it in its place. As for what is outside, whether it be nothing -or an infinite void, it presents no middle point, as we have -said; while, if there be many worlds, each has a middle point -of its own, and therefore a special movement of bodies to or -from or about that middle (to follow the distinction made by -these thinkers). To insist that, where there are many middle -points, weights press from all sides to one, is as though we should -insist that, whereas there are many men, the blood from all -should flow together into a single vein, and the brains of all -be enveloped in a single pia mater; and to make it a grievance <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -that all hard bodies in nature should not be together in one -place, and all rarefied bodies in another. That would be preposterous, -and equally so to complain that wholes should have -their parts disposed in their natural order within each of them. -It might be absurd to call that a world which has a moon -low down<a id='r169' /><a href='#f169' class='c006'><sup>[169]</sup></a> within it, like a man with his brain lodged in his -ankles or his heart in his temples. But to make several independent -worlds, and then to differentiate the parts in sets to -follow their wholes, and so divide them, is not absurd. Earth, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -sea, and heaven will be in their natural and proper arrangement -within each. Above, below, around, middle have no relation -to another world or to the outside, each world has them all in -and for itself.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXVIII. ‘As to the “stone” which some assume to be outside -the world, it is not easy to form a conception of it, either -as at rest or in motion. For how is it either to remain at rest, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>being weighty, or to move towards the world, like other heavy -bodies, being no part of it nor reckoned in with its substance? -Earth embraced in another world, and attached to it, need cause -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> no difficulty, when it does not part from the whole because -of its weight, and shift hitherwards, since we see the natural -strain by which each of the parts is held in its place. For if we -look, not to the world but outside it, to get our conception -of “below” and “above”, we shall find ourselves in the same -difficulties as Epicurus, who made all his atoms move to places -under our feet, as though either the void had feet, or infinite -space permitted us to conceive of “above” or “below” -within itself! Hence, again, we must feel surprise at Chrysippus, -or indeed be quite at a loss as to what possessed him to say that -the world has been settled “in the middle”, and that its -substance, having occupied this middle place from all eternity, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> works therewith for permanence and in fact for indestructibility. -These are his words in the Fourth Book of his work on “<i>Things -Possible</i>”, where he falsely dreams of a middle of the infinite, -and assigns, still more preposterously, to that non-existent middle -the cause of the stability of the world; and yet he had often said -in other works, that substance is controlled and maintained by -the movements towards and away from its own middle point.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXIX. ‘Then as to the other arguments of the Stoics, -who can find them alarming? They ask how we are to keep -one Destiny and one Providence if there are many worlds, and -whether we shall not have many “Diès” and many “Zenès”. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> In the first place, if it is absurd that we should have Zeus in -the plural number, surely their scheme will be far more absurd; -for they make, in the revolutions of infinite worlds, sun, moon, -Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, all multiplied to infinity. Then, -what makes it necessary that there should be many “Diès”, -if there are more worlds than one, rather than one principal -God the emperor of the whole, possessing intelligence and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>reason, sovereign in each world, such a one as he who is called -with us lord and father of all? Or what is to prevent all worlds <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>426<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -from being subject to the Destiny and Providence of Zeus, and -that he should overlook and control each in turn, supplying -to each the principles, the seeds, the formulae of all which is -brought about? It cannot be that here we often have a single -body composed of diverse bodies, as an assembly, an army, -a choir, each of whose component bodies has life, thought, -apprehension (and this is the view of Chrysippus), and yet -that it should be impossible that in the Whole there should be -ten worlds or fifty, or a hundred, all based on a common <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -formula, and ranged under a single principle. Nay, such a disposition -is altogether worthy of Gods. We have not to make -them sovereigns of a hive out of which they never pass; to -guard, nor to enclose or imprison them in matter, which is -what the Stoics do when they make the Gods atmospheric -phases, or powers of the waters or the fire, infused therein, -brought into being with their world and again burnt up with -it, not leaving them unattached or free, as charioteers or steersmen -might be; but rather, as statues are nailed or soldered -to their bases, shut into the corporeal and clamped thereto, to -share with it till there come destruction and general dissolution -and change.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXX. ‘Yet the other theory is loftier and more magnificent, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -that the Gods are masterless and self-controlled, as the Tyndaridae -when they help sailors in storm.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>They visit them, the waves they bind</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>By soothing pow’r, and tame the wind</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>not going on board themselves to share the peril, but appearing -from above and delivering men; even so the Gods visit -the worlds, now one and now another; drawn on by joy as -they contemplate, and steering each in its natural course. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> For the Zeus of Homer<a id='r170' /><a href='#f170' class='c006'><sup>[170]</sup></a> had not very far to carry his eye from -Troy to the parts of Thrace, and the wandering tribes about -the Ister; but the real Zeus has beautiful passages and becoming -to himself among worlds more than one, not looking out upon -an infinite void, nor having his mind intent upon himself and -nothing else (as was the view of some), but surveying many -works of Gods and men, and movements and periodic orbits -of stars. The divine nature is no foe to changes, but takes -much delight in them, if we may judge from the bodies which -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> appear in the heavens, their changes and periods. Now Infinity -is altogether without feeling or reason; it has no room to admit -a God, all goes by chance and spontaneously. But the Providence -which cares for worlds defined and limited in number -appears to me to involve nothing less dignified or more -laborious than that which has entered a single body, and -attached itself thereto, to refashion or shape it anew in -infinite particulars.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXXI. Having said so much, I paused. Philippus, after -a short interval, went on: ‘Whether the truth about these -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> things be so, or not, I could not, for my own part, assert with -confidence. But if we are to force the God outside one world, -why make him the artificer of five worlds and no more; and -what is the bearing of that number on the plurality of worlds? -I would rather be informed on this point than as to the inner -meaning of the consecration of the letter “E” in this place. -That letter is neither triangle, nor square, nor “perfect”, -nor cubic, nor has it any other apparent elegance for those -who love and admire such things. The process out of the elements, -at which the Master obscurely hinted, is hard to grasp -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>427<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> in every respect, and shows none of that probability which must -have drawn him on to say that it is likely that out of five solid -bodies having equal angles and equal faces and enclosed by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>figures of equal area, when set into matter, the same number -of perfect worlds was at once produced.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXXII. ‘Yes,’ said I, ‘yet Theodorus of Soli seems to -treat the argument very fairly, in expounding the Mathematics -of Plato. This is his method: the Pyramid, the Octahedron, -the Eicosahedron and the Dodecahedron, the solid figures -which Plato ranks first, are all beautiful because of the symmetry -and equality of their formulae; nothing better than -these or equal to them has been left over for Nature to compose <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -or to frame. They have not, however, all been constructed -on a single plan, nor have all a similar origin. The Pyramid -is the finest and smallest, the largest and the one of most parts -is the Dodecahedron; of the remaining two the Eicosahedron is -more than double the Octahedron in number of triangles.<a id='r171' /><a href='#f171' class='c006'><sup>[171]</sup></a> It -follows that it is impossible for all to take their origin at once -from one and the same matter. For those which are fine and -small, and more simple in their structures, must be the first to -obey him who stirs and fashions the mass; they must sooner -cohere and be completed than those whose parts are abundant, -and the figures complex, and their construction more laborious, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -as the Dodecahedron. It follows that the Pyramid is the only -primal body, and that none of the others is so; they are left -behind by Nature in the becoming. For this strange result -there is, however, a remedy, the division and distribution of -matter into five worlds. Here the Pyramid (for it first formed substance), -there the Octahedron, in a third world the Eicosahedron. -But from the figure which first took substance in each the rest -will take their origin, all change arising by concretion or dissolution -of parts, as Plato himself shows.<a id='r172' /><a href='#f172' class='c006'><sup>[172]</sup></a> He goes thoroughly -into nearly all the cases, but for us a brief survey will suffice. -Since air is formed when fire is extinguished, and when rarefied <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -again yields fire out of itself, we must observe what happens to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>the seeds of either element, and the changes. The seeds of -fire<a id='r173' /><a href='#f173' class='c006'><sup>[173]</sup></a> are the Pyramid with its twenty-four primary triangles; -the seeds of air are the Octahedron with its forty-eight. Therefore -one element of air is formed by the commixture and coherence -of two of fire; and one of air is exchanged into two of -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> fire, or by close pressure into itself passes away into the form -of water. Thus, universally, that which is first formed readily -allows the others to come into being by transmutation. It -is not the case that one is first; different elements in different -structures give the initial and prerogative movement into -being, yet the common name is kept throughout.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXXIII. ‘Bravo, Theodorus!’ said Ammonius; ‘he has -worked out his task with spirit. Yet I shall be surprised if he -is not found to be using assumptions which are mutually -destructive. He wants to have it that all five solids do -not attain their structure together, the finest and easiest of -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> composition always breaking first into being. Then, as though -following upon this, and not conflicting with it, he lays it -down that it is not all matter which admits the finest and simplest -element first, but that sometimes the heavy and complex objects -are the first to emerge out of matter. But to pass over this, -whereas it is assumed that there are five primal bodies, and -therefore an equal number of worlds, he makes out probability -for four only; he has discarded the Cube as if playing at -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>428<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> counters, since Nature does not adapt it to pass into the others -or them into itself, because the triangles are not of the same -kind. In the other cases the basis of formation is the semi-(equilateral) -triangle; to the Cube the right-angled isosceles -is peculiar, which is incapable of converging towards the others -or joining with them to form one solid angle. If then, there -are five bodies and five worlds, and in each the primary belongs -to some one, then where the Cube has been the first to come -<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>into being, the rest will be nowhere, for it is unable to change -into any of them. I pass by the fact that they make the element -of the Dodecahedron also a different thing from that scalene <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -out of which Plato constructs the Pyramid, the Octahedron, -and the Eicosahedron. And so’, added Ammonius, with a laugh, -‘you must either resolve these difficulties, or give us something -of your own about the common problem.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXXIV. ‘I have nothing more probable to offer, at least -at the moment;’ I said, ‘yet perhaps it is better to show -cause for one’s own view than for that of others. I say then, -going back to the beginning, that if we assume two natures, -one sensible, liable to changes of becoming and perishing, -and to various movements at different times, the other essential, -intellectual, always behaving alike under the same conditions, it is -strange, friend, that the intellectual should admit of distinction -and division within itself, while with regard to that which is -bodily, and subject to affections, there should be trouble and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -dissatisfaction if we refuse to leave it one, self-coherent and -self-convergent, but separate and part it. Surely it is rather the -permanent and divine which should hold together and shrink, -as far as may be, from all dissection and analysis. Yet the force -of “the Other” has gripped them, and has worked greater -divergences than those of place in things intellectual, I mean -those made by Reason and Idea. Hence Plato,<a id='r174' /><a href='#f174' class='c006'><sup>[174]</sup></a> opposing those -who make out the Whole to be one, tells us of Being, and the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Same, and the Different, and, besides all these, of Movement -and Rest. Given then these five, it would not be wonderful -if these five corporeal elements have been made by Nature -copies and images of them severally, none free from admixture -or transparent, but each element so far as it could best participate -in each principle. Thus the Cube is clearly a body congenial -to Rest, because of the stability and firmness of its surfaces. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>No one can fail to detect the fire-like, active character of the -Pyramid in the fineness of its sides and the sharpness of its -angles. The nature of the Dodecahedron, which embraces -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> the other figures, might well be taken for an image of Being -in relation to all that is corporeal. Of the remaining two, the -Eicosahedron is found most to partake of the idea of the Different, -the Octahedron of that of the Same. Therefore the latter -represented air, which holds all being in one constant form, -the former water, which when mixed assumes new qualities the -most numerous. If then Nature requires throughout equality -before the law, it is probable that worlds have been created -neither more nor less in number than the patterns, in order that -each pattern in each world may hold that primacy and power -which it has had in the composition of the elementary bodies.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> XXXV. ‘So much for that! May it reassure any one who -is surprised at our dividing the natural processes of becoming -and mutation into so many classes! Now comes another point, -which I will ask you all to consider with me. Of the ultimate -first principles, by which I mean unity and the undelimited -two, the latter, as the element of all shapelessness and disorder, -has been called Infinity; but unity by its nature limits and -arrests what is void and irrational and undetermined in -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>429<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Infinity, and imparts shape, and fits it to receive and endure -that definition of things apprehended by the senses which is -implied in counting. These principles appear first in connexion -with number; but I would rather say, universally, that plurality -is not number until unity supervenes, as form upon matter, -and cuts off from undetermined Infinity, more on this side, less -on that. For plurality in each case only becomes number when -it is determined by unity. Again, if unity be struck off, the -undetermined two throws all into a confusion without balance -or limit or measure. Now since form is not a withdrawal -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> of underlying matter but is shape and order thereof, both -<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>principles must necessarily be found in number, and hence -arises the first and greatest difference or dissimilarity. The -undetermined principle is the constructive cause of the even, -the better one of the odd. Two is the first of the even numbers, -three of the odd; out of them comes five, in its composition -common to both lists, in its effect, odd. For when the sensible -and corporeal was to be divided into several parts, in virtue -of the inherent cogency of the Other, their number must -not be the first even nor yet the first odd, but the third, that -formed out of these, so that it may take its origin from both <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -principles, that which constructs the even and that which -constructs the odd; for neither could possibly be separated -from the other; each possesses the nature and power of -a principle. Both principles then being paired, the better one -checked the indeterminate when it was dividing up the corporeal; -and prevailed; when matter was being distributed between -the two it set unity in the middle, and did not allow an equal -division of the whole. So a plurality of worlds has been brought -into being by the “Other” quality in the undetermined, and -by difference; but that plurality is odd, made so by the -operation of “the Same” and “the Determinate”, and odd -in such a sense that Nature was not allowed to advance beyond -what was best. For if the unity had been without admixture <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and pure, matter would have been exempt from any breaking -up whatever; but as it has been mingled with the discriminative -power of the two, separation and division were so far accepted; -but there it stopped, the even overcome by the odd.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXXVI. ‘Hence again the ancients were accustomed to -use the words “to take fives” for to count. I think, too, -that the word for “all” (<i>panta</i>) has been logically formed -as though from “five” (<i>pente</i>) because the number five is -composed of the first numbers. For the others when multiplied -by other numbers come out to a product different from themselves; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>but five if taken an even number of times gives a perfect -ten, if an odd, it reproduces itself. I pass over the facts -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> that five is composed of the first two squares, one and four, -and that its own square is equal to the sum of the two before -it, forming with them the most beautiful of right-angled -triangles, and that it is the first number to give sesquiplicate -ratio. For perhaps they are not germane to the subject before -us. This, however, is more germane, that the number five has -a divisory virtue, and Nature divides most things by five. In -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> ourselves are five senses, and there are five parts of the soul, -those of growth, sense, appetite, passion, reason. We have -five fingers on each hand; seed is most fertile when it parts -into five (no instance has been recorded of a woman bearing -more than five at a birth); Rhea is said in Egyptian mythology -to have given birth to five Gods,<a id='r175' /><a href='#f175' class='c006'><sup>[175]</sup></a> a veiled reference to the -production of the five worlds out of one matter. Turning to -the universe, the surface of earth is divided into five zones, -and the Heavens are divided by five circles, two Arctic, two -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>430<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Tropic, one in the middle, the Equinoctial. Five are the -orbits of the planets, if we take those of the sun and Venus and -Mercury as one. Lastly, the universe has been composed in -the Enharmonic Scale, just as our melody is made up of the -arrangement of five Tetrachords, lowest, middle, conjunct, -disjunct, highest. And the intervals are five: diesis, semitone, -tone, tone and a half, double tone. Thus it seems that Nature -loves to make all things on the principle of five, rather than, -as Aristotle<a id='r176' /><a href='#f176' class='c006'><sup>[176]</sup></a> used to say, of the Sphere.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXXVII. ‘What is the real reason, some one will ask, why -Plato<a id='r177' /><a href='#f177' class='c006'><sup>[177]</sup></a> referred the number of five for his worlds to the five -solid figures, saying that “God used the fifth formation on the -universe to mark it out”? In the sequel, when he raises the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> problem of plurality of worlds, whether we should properly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>speak of one or of five as naturally existing, he shows clearly -that the suggestion came from the solids. If, then, we are to -adjust what is actually probable to his conception, let us consider -that difference in movement must in each case follow difference -in the solids and their shapes, as Plato<a id='r178' /><a href='#f178' class='c006'><sup>[178]</sup></a> himself teaches, when he <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -shows that what is rarefied or condensed suffers a change of -place simultaneously with alteration of substance. If from air -fire be formed, the Octahedron being resolved and broken up -into Pyramids, or again if air from fire, when compressed and -thrust into an Octahedron, it is impossible that either should -remain where it was before; they fly off rapidly to another -place, forcing a way out and battling with whatever resists and -presses upon them. The result is shown still more clearly by -an illustration from grain “tossed and winnowed by the fans -and implements used for cleaning corn”; Plato<a id='r179' /><a href='#f179' class='c006'><sup>[179]</sup></a> says that <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -in like manner the elements toss matter about and are tossed -by it; like approaches like, different objects take different -places, before the whole comes out finally marshalled. Thus -then, matter being what any universe must be from which God -is absent, the first five properties, each with its own tendency, -at once began to move apart, not being entirely or purely -separated, because, when all things were mixed up together, -the vanquished particles always followed their conquerors, -in despite of Nature. Hence they produced in the kinds of -bodies, as they were borne in different directions, parts and -divisions as many as themselves: one not of pure fire but <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -resembling fire, one not of unmixed air but resembling air, -one not of earth simple and absolute but resembling earth. -Most general was the association of air with water, because -they passed out saturated with the many other classes. For -God did not separate nor disperse being; but taking it up dispersed -by its own operation and borne about in so many streams -<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>of disorder, he ordered and disposed it in symmetry and proportion. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Then he set reason in each to be a governor and -guardian, and created as many worlds as there were kinds of -primal bodies. Let so much then be inscribed to Plato for -Ammonius’ sake. For myself, I could never speak with confidence -as to the number of worlds and affirm that there are so -many: but I think the view that there are more than one, -yet not an indefinite but a limited number, as reasonable as -either of the other views, when I see how scattered and divided -matter naturally is, that it does not abide in one place, nor yet -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>431<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> is suffered by reason to pass into Infinity. Here, if anywhere, -let us remember the Academy rule, and clear ourselves of -excessive credulity, and treading on this slippery ground when -reasoning about Infinity, only make sure that we keep our -footing.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXXVIII. When I had finished, ‘Lamprias gives us -sound advice’, said Demetrius. ‘The Gods by many forms—not -“of sophistries”, as it is in Euripides,<a id='r180' /><a href='#f180' class='c006'><sup>[180]</sup></a> but of things—deceive -us, when we dare to pronounce opinions about these -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> great matters as if we knew. But “we must cry back”, to -quote the same authority,<a id='r181' /><a href='#f181' class='c006'><sup>[181]</sup></a> to the assumption from which our -argument started. The statement that the oracles, when the -daemons move off and desert them, lie idle and speechless, -like musical instruments with none to play on them, raises -another and a greater question as to the cause and power -whereby they make the prophets and prophetesses subject to -fits of inspiration and fancy. For it is impossible to allege the -desertion as a cause of the silence unless we are first satisfied -in what sense they preside and by their presence make the -oracle active and vocal.’ ‘What?’ rejoined Ammonius, ‘do -you suppose that the daemons are anything but souls which -move around, as Hesiod<a id='r182' /><a href='#f182' class='c006'><sup>[182]</sup></a> says “garmented in mist”? In -<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>my view, as man differs from man when he plays tragedy or <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -plays comedy, so soul differs from soul after it has fashioned for -itself a body convenient to its present life. It is not then -irrational or even wonderful that souls meeting souls should -create within them fancies of that which is to be, just as we -convey to one another, not only through voice, but often -by written signs, by a touch, a glance, many intimations of -things past, and forewarnings of things future. Or perhaps -you have something different to tell us, Lamprias? For a -rumour reached us lately that you had held a long discussion -on these subjects with strangers at Lebadeia; but our informant <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -did not clearly remember any of it.’ ‘Do not be surprised -at that,’ I said, ‘for there were many interruptions and much -was going on, because it was a day of consultation and sacrifice, -which made our conversation fragmentary and intermittent.’ -‘But now’, said Ammonius, ‘you have listeners with full -leisure, and eager to inquire and to be told. There is no -question of rivalry or faction, and you see what a frank full -hearing has been accorded to every view.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXXIX. The others joined in encouraging me, and after -a few minutes of silence I went on: ‘I must begin by saying <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -that it so happens that you, Ammonius, have given me a sort of -opening for bringing forward now what I then said. For if -the souls which have been separated from the body or have -never had commerce with one at all, are daemons as you say, -and God-like Hesiod<a id='r183' /><a href='#f183' class='c006'><sup>[183]</sup></a> also:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Holy visitants of Earth and guardians sure of mortal men</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>on what principle do we deprive souls while in their bodies -of that faculty whereby the daemons know and declare beforehand -things to be? It is not likely that any power or new part -accrues to souls when they leave the body, which they did not -<span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>possess before. Rather, they always have it, but in a weak -degree while they are intermingled with the body; it is sometimes -quite invisible and veiled, sometimes weak and dim, and, -as with those who see through a mist or who try to move in -a marshy place, inoperative and dull, demanding much attention -to the virtue that is in them, and much pains to raise and remove -and purify the obstructing veil. The sun when he chases the -clouds away does not then become bright; he is bright always, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>432<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> but to us through the mist his light appears dim and struggling. -Even so the soul does not assume the prophetic power when -it passes out of the body as out of a cloud; it has it even now, -but is blinded by its close admixture with the mortal state. -We should not be surprised or incredulous, if only because we -see the great energy which Memory, as we call the faculty in -the soul which answers to prophecy, exhibits, in preserving -and protecting things that are past, or rather things that now -are,<a id='r184' /><a href='#f184' class='c006'><sup>[184]</sup></a> since of things past none is or has substance; all things -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> come into being and at the same time perish, all actions, words, -and feelings, as time like a river bears each along. But this -faculty of the soul, I know not how, gets a grasp of them, and invests -with appearance and being that which is not present. The -oracle given to the Thessalians about Arne<a id='r185' /><a href='#f185' class='c006'><sup>[185]</sup></a> bade them attend to</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>That which a deaf man hears, a blind man sees.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>But Memory is the hearing of things to which the ear is deaf, -the seeing of things to which the eye is blind. Wherefore, as -I said, it is no marvel that, as it grasps things which no longer -are, so it should anticipate things which have not yet come -into being. For these touch it more nearly, and with these it -has sympathy; it confronts the future and attaches itself -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> thereto, whereas it is quit of things past and finished, saving only -to remember them.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>XL. ‘Having then this inborn power yet dimmed and -hardly appearing, souls nevertheless break out and are uplifted, -in dreams some of them or when nearing initiation, as the body -becomes pure, and takes on a temperature, so to speak, which -is suitable, or whether it be that the rational and intellectual -part is relaxed and discharged from the present things, and so -with the irrational and imaginative they reach towards futurity. -That line of Euripides<a id='r186' /><a href='#f186' class='c006'><sup>[186]</sup></a> is not true:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>The best of prophets he who guesses well.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>No, the prophet is the sensible man, he who follows the rational -part of his soul in the road where it leads him with probability. -Divination, like a scroll with no writing or method, in itself <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -indeterminate, but capable of receiving fancies and presentiments -by the feelings, gets touch with the future, yet not by -inference, when it passes most completely outside the present. -It passes out through such a temperament and disposition -of the body as produce a change called by us inspiration. Often -the body attains this disposition of itself; but the earth sends -up many streams of many potencies, some which bring trances, -diseases, or death, others beneficial, mild, and serviceable, as -is proved on those who chance upon them. Of all the currents -the stream, or breath, of prophecy is most divine and holy, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -whether it be drawn from the air direct, or come mingled with -the moisture of a spring; for when absorbed into the body it -produces in souls a temperament unfamiliar and strange, the -special quality of which it is hard to state in clear words, though -reason suggests many conjectures. Probably, by heat and dispersion, -it opens certain passages to admit imaginings of the future, -just as the fumes of wine bring many other stirrings, and unveil -words and thoughts which were stored away and unheeded, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'><i>For in the wine-god’s votary’s mood,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>As in the madman’s, lies much prophecy</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>says Euripides;<a id='r187' /><a href='#f187' class='c006'><sup>[187]</sup></a> when the soul, warmed and set on fire, -rejects the caution which human prudence brings, to avert -inspiration, as it so often does, and to quench it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XLI. ‘After all, it might be not unreasonably asserted -that a dryness introduced with the heat subtilizes the current -and makes it ethereal and pure. “Best a dry soul”, says Heraclitus;<a id='r188' /><a href='#f188' class='c006'><sup>[188]</sup></a> -moisture not only dulls sight and hearing, but if it -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>433<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> touch a mirror or raises<a id='r189' /><a href='#f189' class='c006'><sup>[189]</sup></a> a mist upon it, takes away brightness -and lustre. As the opposite to this, it is not impossible that, -by a sort of chilling and condensation of the breath of air, the -organ of prognostication is made tense and keen, like steel -out of the bath. Or again, as tin when melted in with copper, -itself rarefied and full of apertures, welds it together and condenses -it, and yet in the result makes it brighter to the eye -and purer, so there is nothing to prevent the prophetic exhalation, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> wherein is something congenial and akin to souls, from filling -up their rarefied places, and inserting itself, and pressing all -together. For certain things are congenial and proper to certain -other things; thus an infusion of the bean into the dyer’s -bath seems to assist its efficacy for purple, of nitre for saffron.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Scarlet is mingled for the pearly weft</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>says Empedocles. But about Cydnus, and the sacred sword -of Apollo at Tarsus, we used to hear the story from you, dear -Demetrius, how Cydnus cleans that steel best, and no other -water suits the sword. And again, at Olympia, water from -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Alpheus is poured on the ashes to make them adhere to the -altar in a mass, and the water of no other river which has -been found has the power of cementing the ash.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XLII. ‘It is not to be wondered at, then, that of the many -streams which the earth sends up, these alone affect souls -<span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>with inspiration and give them imagination of the future. -Certainly legend agrees with reason as to this. In this very -place it is related that the prophetic virtue was first made -manifest by the accidental falling into it of a shepherd, who -thereupon uttered sounds as of one inspired. These passed -at first unheeded by those present; but afterwards, when the -things which the man foretold had happened, there was astonishment. -The most learned of the Delphians even mention <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the man’s name, which was Coretas. I am, however, myself -strongly of opinion that a soul acquires a temperature congruous -with the prophetic current, such as the eye has with light -sympathetic to it. Though the eye possesses the power of seeing, -this cannot act without light; and the prophetic organ -of the soul needs, as the eye does, a congenial medium to help -in kindling its flame, or whetting its edge. Hence most of the -older generations used to think that Apollo and the sun were -one and the same God, while those who knew and honoured -that beautiful and wise proportion, “as body to soul, so sight <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -to intellect, so light to truth”, would add the conjecture “so the -power of the sun to the nature of Apollo”, declaring the sun to -be his offspring and scion, the ever becoming of the ever subsisting. -For the sun kindles and enhances and helps to excite the visual -power of the sense, as the God that of prophecy in the soul.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XLIII. ‘It was natural, however, that those who take the -view that they are one and the same God should have dedicated -this oracle to Apollo and Earth in common, thinking that the -sun produces in the earth the disposition and temperament -from which come the prophetic exhalations out of her. We <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -then, like Hesiod,<a id='r190' /><a href='#f190' class='c006'><sup>[190]</sup></a> who understood the matter better than some -philosophers, when he called her</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Unshaken base of all</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>consider her to be eternal and imperishable. But of the powers -<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>which are about her it is to be expected that some should fail -here, and others come into being there, and that there should -be shiftings from place to place, and cross-currents, and that -such cycles should often revolve within her if we take time as -a whole; and the phenomena point to such an inference. For in -the case of lakes and rivers, and still more frequently in that of -hot springs, there have been failure and entire disappearance in -some places, in others a retreat so to call it, and an absorption; -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>434<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> then they reappear at intervals of time in the same places, or bubble -up in their neighbourhood. Again, we hear of mines where the -ore has been exhausted and then renewed, as in the silver mines of -Attica, and the copper lodes of Euboea, out of which the chilled -sword-blades used to be manufactured, as Aeschylus<a id='r191' /><a href='#f191' class='c006'><sup>[191]</sup></a> has said</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Th’ Euboean blade, self-tempered, in his hand.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Then there is the rock at Carystus where it is only lately -that the yield of delicate thread-like filaments of mineral -has ceased. I think some of you will remember having seen -towels, and nets, and caps made of these, which were non-inflammable. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Any which were soiled by use were placed in -a flame out of which they came bright and clear. Now there -has been an entire disappearance of these, and scarcely a few -fibres or thin filaments run in streaks about the mines.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XLIV. ‘Yet Aristotle<a id='r192' /><a href='#f192' class='c006'><sup>[192]</sup></a> holds that exhalation is the operative -cause within the earth of all these things, that is, of the -natural effects which necessarily fail, shift place, and break out -concomitantly. The same view must be taken of prophetic -currents; the power which they have is not perennial nor -ageless, it is liable to changes. Probably they are extinguished -by excessive storms of rain, and dispersed by thunderbolts -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> falling upon them; above all, when the earth is shaken, and -subsidence or conglomeration takes place in her depths, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>exhalations are shifted or wholly lost to view; thus the effects -of the great earthquake which actually overturned the town -are said to be permanent here. In Orchomenus they say that -there was a pestilence in which many men perished, and that -the oracle of Teiresias then wholly failed, and remains to this -day idle and voiceless. If the like happened also to those in -Cilicia, as we hear it did, there is no one, Demetrius, who -could tell us about it more clearly than you.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XLV. Demetrius said: ‘I cannot say how things are -now, for it is a long time since I left home, as you know; the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -oracle of Mopsus was in full force when I was there, and also -that of Amphilochus. I can tell you of a very remarkable -thing which happened to that of Mopsus, in my presence. -The propraetor of Cilicia was himself still of two minds about -religious questions; from the weakness of his scepticism, -I imagine, for his general character was violent and bad; but -he had about him certain Epicureans, professed mockers at all -such things on the strength of their fine physiology. He sent -in a freedman, equipping him like a spy going into an enemy’s -land, with sealed tablets inside which was written the question, -but no one knew what it was. The man spent a night in the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -sanctuary, as the custom was, and went to sleep. The following -day he reported a dream, which was this. He thought that -a handsome man stood over him, and said the one word “Black”, -nothing more, and went straight away. This appeared to us -strange, and caused much perplexity. However, that propraetor -was struck with consternation, and worshipped; then -he opened the tablets and showed us this question written inside: -“Shall I sacrifice a white bull or a black?” Even the Epicureans <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -were confounded at this, and he himself completed his sacrifice, -and ever afterwards held Mopsus in reverence.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XLVI. After saying this, Demetrius was silent. As I wished -to bring the discussion to a head, I glanced again at Philippus -<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>and Ammonius, who were sitting together. They appeared -to me to wish to exchange some remarks, and again paused. -Then Ammonius spoke: ‘Philippus has also something to say -on our past discussion; his own view, as that of most people, -is that Apollo is not a different God from the sun, but the same. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>435<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> My own difficulty is a greater one, and turns on greater matters. -Just now we managed to let the argument take its own way -with due solemnity, to transfer prophetic art simply from Gods -to daemons. But now it seems to me that we are thrusting the -latter out in their turn, chasing them hence from oracle and -tripod, and resolving the origin—I would rather say the existence -and power—of prophecy into winds, and vapours, and -exhalations. What we have heard about temperatures, and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> heatings and sharpenings, withdraws no doubt the credit from -the Gods, but thereby suggests the inference as to cause which -the Cyclops in Euripides<a id='r193' /><a href='#f193' class='c006'><sup>[193]</sup></a> draws:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>The earth by force, whether it will or no,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Bringing forth grass, fattens my flocks and hinds.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Only he says that he does not sacrifice to Gods,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in30'><i>but to myself,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>And this great belly first of deities</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>whereas we sacrifice and pray to get our oracles; and why do -we do it, if souls carry within themselves a power of prophecy, -which power is stirred up by temperature of some sort in air -or breeze? And then the condition of the priestesses, what does -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> that mean, and the refusal to respond unless the whole victim -from the hoof-joint up be set quivering when it is sprinkled? -For it is not enough, as in other sacrifices, for it to shake the head, -the shivering must be in all the parts, and with a tremulous -sound; otherwise they tell you that the oracle is not giving -responses, and do not bring in the Pythia. Now, if they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>ascribe the cause mainly to a God or daemon, it is reasonable -to do and think thus, but on your view it is not reasonable. -For the exhalation, if it be there, will produce the transport -whether the sacrifice quiver or not, and will affect the soul, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -not only of the Pythia, but equally of any chance comer who -has physical contact with it. Thus it is mere folly to employ -one woman only for the oracles, and to take trouble to keep her -chaste and holy all her life. For that Coretas who fell in, as -the Delphians tell you, and was the first to make evident the -virtue of the place, was in no respect different, as I think, from -the other goatherds and shepherds, always supposing that this -is not a story and an idle fiction, which I think it is. Then, -when I reckon up the great benefits of which this oracle has been -the cause to the Greeks, in wars, in the founding of cities, in <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -times of pestilence and of failure of crops, I think it dreadful to -ascribe its discovery and origin, not to God and Providence, but to -Chance and automatic causes. It is this point’, he added, ‘that I -want Lamprias to argue; will you not wait?’ ‘Indeed I will,’ said -Philippus, ‘and so will the others, the discussion has stirred us all.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XLVII. I turned to him. ‘Stirred us, Philippus? It -has confounded me, to think that before so large and so grave -a company I should seem so to forget my years as with a show -of plausible rhetoric to upset and disturb any view about -religion which is established in truth and holiness. I will <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -defend myself by producing Plato, as witness and advocate in -one. Plato<a id='r194' /><a href='#f194' class='c006'><sup>[194]</sup></a> found fault with old Anaxagoras because he -attached himself too much to physical causes, and because, in -his constant pursuit of the working of necessary law in all -which affects bodies, he dismissed the better causes or principles, -the Final and the Efficient. He himself, first of the philosophers -or more than any of them, went into both sets, attributing to -God the origin of all things which are according to reason, but -<span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>436<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> refusing to deprive matter of the causes necessary for their production; -he recognized that in some such way the whole -sensible universe is organized, yet is not pure nor free from -admixture, but has its origin in matter involved with reason. -Now look at this first in the case of the artists. Take, for instance, -the famous base or stand, called by Herodotus<a id='r195' /><a href='#f195' class='c006'><sup>[195]</sup></a> “cup-stand”, -of the bowl here; it had its physical causes, iron, steel, fire to -soften and water to temper it, without all which the object -could not possibly be produced; but the more potent principle -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> which stirred the others and was working through them, was -furnished to it by Art and Reason. Now the name of the maker -or artificer has been inscribed on these several figures or works -of imitation:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Here Polygnotus, son of Aglaophon,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>The Thasian, painted towering Ilion’s sack.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>You may see it for yourself. But without pigments crushed and -compounded it would be impossible to present such a composition -to the eye. Does then the man who seeks to grasp the -physical principle, investigating and laying down the effects and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> the changes of a mixture of Sinopic red earth with yellow, or -Melian gray with black, rob the painter of his glory? Or he -who follows out the processes of tempering or softening steel, -how it is weakened by fire and submits itself to be drawn and -hammered, then, plunged into fresh water and compressed and -densified by the cold, because of the softness and rarefication -induced by the fire, acquires temper and consistence—“the -iron’s might” Homer<a id='r196' /><a href='#f196' class='c006'><sup>[196]</sup></a> calls it—does he any the less preserve -for the artist his part in the causation? I think not! There -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> are those who criticize the properties of medical appliances; -they do not overthrow the art of Medicine. As, for the matter -<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>of that, Plato<a id='r197' /><a href='#f197' class='c006'><sup>[197]</sup></a> in proving that we see by means of the flash -of our eyes mingling with that of the sun, and hear by the -pulsations of the air, did not rule out the fact that we have -received our sight and our hearing in accordance with Reason -and Providence.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XLVIII. ‘The whole matter, as I maintain, stands thus. -All becoming has two causes, of which the most ancient theologians -and poets chose to turn their attention to the stronger -only, pronouncing over all things the universal refrain:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Zeus first, Zeus middle, all things are of Zeus</i>,<a id='r198' /><a href='#f198' class='c006'><sup>[198]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>while they never approached the necessary or physical causes. -Their successors, called physicists, did the very reverse; they <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -strayed away from that beautiful and divine principle, and -refer everything to bodies, and pulsations, and changes, and -temperaments. Hence the systems of both are deficient; they -have ignored or neglected, the latter the person through whom -and the agent by whom, the former the things from which -and the means through which. He who first distinctly grasped -both, and attached by necessary law the subject affected to -the rational Maker and Mover, relieves us as well as himself -from any charge of contempt or detraction. We do not make <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -prophecy a godless or irrational thing, when we assign to it -for its matter the soul of man, and for its instrument, or harp-quill, -the inspiring current and the exhalation. For, in the -first place, the earth which breeds the exhalations, and the sun -who gives to earth all power of temperature or of change, are -reckoned Gods in the traditions of our fathers. Further, in -leaving daemons to preside over and guard this temperature, -as though it were a melody, to relax the strings in due course <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>437<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -or to tighten, to clear away that excess of ecstasy and agitation -which it causes in the worshippers, and to leave excitement -<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>a painless and harmless compound, we shall not be thought -to do what is irrational or impossible.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XLIX. ‘Nor can we allow that in offering the previous -sacrifice, or crowning the victim, or pouring on it lustral -draughts, we do anything repugnant to this view. For when -the priests and holy men sacrifice the victim, and sprinkle it, -and watch its movement and its trembling, they do not profess -to get from it an intimation of anything but the one fact that -the God is giving answers. For the thing offered in sacrifice -must be pure both in body and in soul, and free from any -injury or taint. As to body, it is not very difficult to make -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> out visible proof; the test of soul is to offer corn to the bulls, -pease to the he-goats; an animal which refuses is reckoned out -of health. For the she-goat it is cold water; a soul in a normal -state cannot be apathetic and motionless under the sprinkling. -For my own part, even if it be certain that trembling is a sign -that the God is ready to give responses, the contrary that he -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> is not, I see no disastrous consequence. As I said before, every -natural force produces its result better or worse according to -season; if the right season is escaping us, it is to be expected that -the God should signify the fact.</p> - -<p class='c005'>L. ‘I think, further, that the exhalation is not always the -same, it has times of relaxation and of intensity. In proof, -I can bring forward witnesses, many of them strangers, and all -the members of the temple staff. For the room in which they -place consultants of the God, is, at intervals, which are not -frequent or fixed, but come as it may happen, filled with -fragrance and a sweet gale, such as the most costly spices might -emit, which are thrown up, as out of a well, from the sanctuary. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> We may suppose that they burst out by the action of heat or -of some other force within. Or, if this does not seem to you -convincing, you will at least grant that the Pythia herself -appears to show at different times different states and moods of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>that part of the soul which is in contact with the current, and -does not present throughout one temperament, like a melody -which never changes. Many conscious troubles and excitements, -more which are unnoticed, seize her body and stream on into -the soul; and when she is charged with these, it is better for -her not to go in, not to present herself to the God when she -is not perfectly pure, like an instrument well strung and tuneful, -but is passionate and disordered. Wine does not always affect <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the hard drinker in the same way, nor the flute one susceptible -to its music; the same men are stirred to tipsy revelling, now -less now more, according to difference of temperament. The -imaginative part of the soul seems, more than any other, to -be controlled by variations in the body, and to change with it. -This is clearly shown by dreams; sometimes we find ourselves -among many visions of every sort in our sleep, at others again -there is a perfect calm and relief from such illusions. We know <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -ourselves Cleon here of Daulia, who says that in the many years -which he has lived he has never once seen a dream-vision. In -an older generation the same is recorded of Thrasymedes of -Heraea. The cause is bodily temperament, just as, on the other -side, there is that of melancholic persons, all dreams and phantoms; -although these are supposed to have the gift of dreaming -right, for their imagination turns them this way or that, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>438<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -just as those who shoot often, often hit.</p> - -<p class='c005'>LI. ‘When then the imaginative and prophetic faculty of -the soul is attempered to the current as to a drug, the inspiration -must be brought about in the persons who are to prophesy, -when not, not; otherwise the result will be a distortion by no -means free from trouble and disturbance, as we know was the -case with the Pythia who lately died. A deputation came from -abroad to consult the God; the victim remained motionless -and impassive under the first sprinkling, then the priests in <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -excess of zeal persisted, and at last it did give in when drenched -<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>with their shower-bath. What happened to the Pythia? -Unwillingly and with no alacrity, they say, she went down -into the vault. In her very first answers she made it clear by -the hoarseness of her voice that she could not bear up; she was -like a ship driven by the wind, filled with a dumb bad spirit. -At last she became all agitation; with a terrible cry she made -towards the door of exit, and dashed against it, so that not -only the members of the deputation fled, but also the prophet -Nicander and the holy persons present. However, after a short -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> time, they went in and recovered her. She was then in her -senses, and lived on for a few days. For these reasons, they keep -the person of the Pythia free from intercourse, and from any -sort of communication or contact with strangers; and they -take the signs before proceeding to the oracle, thinking that -it is quite clear to the God when she has the temperament -and condition which will allow her to undergo the inspiration -with impunity. For the force of the exhaled air does not affect -all persons, nor the same persons always in the same way; -it only provides fuel, a foundation, as has been explained, for -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> those who are fit to be subjected to the change. It is essentially -divine and daemonic, not however exempt from failure, or -destruction, or age, nor is it capable of enduring through that -infinite space of time in which all things between moon and -earth are exhausted, according to our theory. Some go on to -say that the things also which are above the moon do not -endure, but fail in presence of the eternal infinite, and suffer -abrupt changes and new births.</p> - -<p class='c005'>LII. ‘These things’, I continued, ‘I commend to your -repeated consideration, and my own, as offering many openings -for objection and many suggestions of an opposite view, which -the present opportunity does not allow us to follow out in their -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> entirety. Let them stand over then, and also the problem -raised by Philippus about the sun and Apollo.’</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span> - <h2 id='chap06' class='c003'>ON THE INSTANCES OF DELAY <br /> IN DIVINE PUNISHMENT</h2> -</div> -<h3 class='c009'>INTRODUCTION</h3> -<p class='c004'>The Dialogue on <i>Delay in Divine Punishment</i> stands somewhat -apart from the others. It deals gravely with grave matters, -the ways of Providence with man, and the ‘last things’. -The method is ingenious and satisfactory. An Epicurean, after -scoffing at Providence in a manner which deeply offends the -company, leaves them abruptly. We are reminded of the -departure of the Cynic Didymus at Delphi (p. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>), and of the -immortal episode of Thrasymachus in the First Book of the -<i>Republic</i> of Plato. The small family party which remains, -Plutarch, his brother Timon, his son-in-law Patrocleas, and an -intimate friend Olympicus, take up the points suggested by -the attack, not contentiously, or in the language of the Schools, -but with a view to ascertain whether there is anything in them -which concerns reasonable men. The friends successively raise -these points: the slowness of the Gods in punishing, and their -purposes in the delay; the justice of visiting the sins of parents -upon children, or of a city upon a new generation of citizens; -the persistence of the soul after physical death here. In all cases -it is Plutarch who supplies the answer, whereas, in the other long -Dialogues, there is some distribution of parts and an interplay -of character. In the tone of the dissertations, which is sustained, -and little relieved by humour, the piece most nearly -resembles the essay <i>On Superstition</i>. Plutarch’s argument is -marked by truly academic caution, and an admission of man’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>ignorance and limitations, which might have come from the -pen of Bishop Butler.</p> - -<p class='c005'>When Plutarch has sufficiently established ‘to demonstration’ -the ‘probability’ of his position, he adds, at the urgent desire -of the company, a myth, which he had already offered to produce. -The ‘myth’ is a device of which Plato has many -examples, intended to give symmetry to the Dialogue, ‘that it -may not go about without a head’. But it is more than -a literary device; it is a satisfaction of the desire for something -poetical and constructive which mere Dialectic can never feed. -The myth about Thespesius here must be compared with that -of Timarchus in the <i>Genius of Socrates</i> and with the traveller’s -tale of the Island of Cronus in the <i>Face in the Moon</i>.<a id='r199' /><a href='#f199' class='c006'><sup>[199]</sup></a> Of -Platonic myths, we are first reminded of that of Er, which closes -the <i>Republic</i>, and raises to a higher plane the question whether -the just man or the unjust has the best of it. There are -necessarily strong points of resemblance to the magnificent -judgement myth of the <i>Gorgias</i>, and much of the imagery recalls -the <i>Phaedo</i>. The <i>Timaeus</i> is not perhaps so conspicuously before -Plutarch’s mind here as it is in other works. While there is so -much which can be referred to Plato, there is nothing to suggest -that Plutarch set himself to make a patchwork out of the stores -of his retentive memory, still less that he sought to imitate the -master from whose genius his industrious and curious mind lay -poles apart. His honesty and his common-sense forbade any -such attempt.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It is fortunate that we possess a fragment (redeemed for -Plutarch by Wyttenbach) of a Dialogue with the same speakers, -and perhaps intended to follow immediately, in which, as -though in ‘calculated contrast’, writes M. Gréard (p. 292), to -the grim details contained in the Dialogue before us, we have -a delightful picture of what awaits the just beyond the grave, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>truly ‘initiate’. As all the questions discussed in the main -Dialogue are raised in old Greek writers, Homer, Pindar, the -Tragedians, supplemented by the philosophers, and the myth, -in its stern imagery, is on all fours, for instance, with the -<i>Eumenides</i> of Aeschylus, so the comfortable vision of the initiate -in the fragment is anticipated by Greeks who wrote four hundred -or five hundred years before. Thus we have the lines of the -<i>Frogs</i> of Aristophanes (154 foll., tr. G. Murray):</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Then you will find a breath about your ears</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Of Music, and a light about your eyes</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Most beautiful—like this—and myrtle groves,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>And joyous throngs of women and of men,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>And clapping of glad hands.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>And the still more famous picture of Pindar (<i>Ol.</i> 2, 68-74, -tr. G. Moberly):</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'><i>But who in Godlike strife</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Have dared to keep their secret souls from sin,</i></div> - <div class='line in4'><i>Thrice tried in either life,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>E’en to old Saturn’s tower their bright way win.</i></div> - <div class='line in4'><i>There with melodious din</i></div> - <div class='line in4'><i>Light breezes, East and West,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Fan with soft breath the Islets of the Blest;</i></div> - <div class='line in4'><i>And golden flowerets breathe,</i></div> - <div class='line in4'><i>Some from the Island-trees,</i></div> - <div class='line in4'><i>Some floating on the ambient seas,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>With which their twinèd arms and brows they wreathe.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Perhaps it would hardly be untrue to say that the whole of -Plutarch’s daring speculation owes its origin to the words of -Heraclitus, with which the fragment closes, as to the surprises -which await man after death.</p> - -<p class='c005'>There is one distinct note of date, in the Sibylline prophecy -quoted in c. 22, that the emperor of that day should die in his -bed. Vespasian, who was doubtless meant, died in June, -<span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 79, and the great eruption of Vesuvius (by which, however, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>Puteoli does not appear to have suffered specially) took place -in August of the same year. The Dialogue must have been -written later than these events. On the whole, if we may venture -a conjecture where all is uncertain, we may perhaps suppose -it to have followed the <i>Symposiacs</i> at a comparatively short -interval, and to have been an early attempt to apply the method -of dialogue to elaborate discussion of great themes. It has -characteristics of its own which enable us to understand how -Erasmus (<i>Adagia</i>)<a id='r200' /><a href='#f200' class='c006'><sup>[200]</sup></a> felt doubts as to its genuineness, though we -have the confident assurance of Wyttenbach that there is -Plutarch’s seal upon it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Readers should consult Mr. Oakesmith’s pages on this work -(<i>The Religion of Plutarch</i>, pp. 103 foll.), and, on the myth, -Bishop Westcott’s Essay on <i>The Myths of Plato</i> (reprinted in -<i>History of Religious Thought in the West</i>), or Professor J. A. -Stewart on <i>The Myths of Plato</i>.</p> -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span> - <h3 class='c009'>ON THE INSTANCES OF DELAY IN DIVINE PUNISHMENT</h3> -</div> -<p class='c004'>A DIALOGUE</p> -<p class='c004'>THE SPEAKERS</p> -<div class='lg-container-b c015'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Patrocleas</span>, Plutarch’s son-in-law.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Plutarch.</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Timon</span>, Plutarch’s brother.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Olympicus</span>, a friend (see <i>Sympos.</i> 3, 6).</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>I. Having spoken to this effect, Quintus, before any one <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>548 <span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -replied—we had just reached the far end of the colonnade—Epicurus -took himself off. We stopped our walk for a while, in -silent surprise at the oddness of the man, then glanced at one -another, turned back, and resumed it. Patrocleas was the first -to speak: ‘Which is it to be,’ he said, ‘are you for dropping -the inquiry, or shall we answer the argument as though the -speaker of it were present, though he is not present?’ Timon -interposed: ‘Well, suppose he had thrown a spear and gone -away, it would not do quietly to let it lie. Brasidas,<a id='r201' /><a href='#f201' class='c006'><sup>[201]</sup></a> we are <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -given to believe, drew the spear out of his wound, and with it -struck and slew the thrower. Now perhaps it is no business -of ours to punish those who have discharged a monstrous or -a false argument at us; enough if we eject it from ourselves -before it has taken hold.’ ‘Then what is it’, I asked, ‘which -has moved you most, in what he said? for there were a number -of things, a disorderly mass, which the man drew from all -<span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>quarters, to let them off against Divine Providence in his rage -and fury.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>II. Then Patrocleas: ‘The slowness and procrastination -of Divine Justice in the punishment of wicked men appears to -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> me especially terrible. At the present moment, after what we -have just heard, I seem to come “all fresh and new” to this -(Epicurean) view; but long ago I used to feel indignant when -I heard Euripides<a id='r202' /><a href='#f202' class='c006'><sup>[202]</sup></a> telling how</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>The Gods delay, the Gods are ever slow.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Yet it does not become the God to be slack in anything, least of -all in dealing with wicked men; they are never slack or procrastinating -in evil-doing, but are borne on by the passions at -racing speed into their iniquities. Again, “Vengeance, when -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> it follows most closely upon the wrongs,” to use the words of -Thucydides,<a id='r203' /><a href='#f203' class='c006'><sup>[203]</sup></a> at once blocks the road against those who are in the -fullest enjoyment of successful vice. No debt so surely as the -debt of justice, if left unpaid till the morrow, at once depresses -the person wronged by enfeebling his hopes, and enhances the -boldness and self-trust of the miscreant; whereas the punishments -which meet audacious acts promptly are checks against -future offences, and have a sovereign virtue to encourage the -sufferers. Thus I often feel distressed when I recall the saying -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> of Bias. It appears that he told a certain wicked man that he -had no fear of his escaping retribution, he did fear that he himself -might not be there to see. What did the Messenians gain -by the punishment of Aristocrates, when they had been already -slain? He had lost the battle at the Trench<a id='r204' /><a href='#f204' class='c006'><sup>[204]</sup></a> by treachery, -reigned over the Arcadians for more than twenty years undiscovered, -and was at last found out and punished, but the Messenians -were no more. What consolation to the Orchomenians, -who had lost children, friends, and kinsmen through the treason -<span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>of Lyciscus, was the disease which fastened upon him long years -afterwards, and devoured his body? He had once and again -dipped both feet into the river, with prayers and imprecations <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>549<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -as he wetted them, that they might rot away if he had done -any wrong or treachery. At Athens, when the corpses of the -“Accursed” were thrown out, and set beyond the frontier, it -was not possible even for the children’s children of the victims -to see it done. Hence it is strange that Euripides<a id='r205' /><a href='#f205' class='c006'><sup>[205]</sup></a> should have -used such thoughts as these to deter men from wickedness:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Justice shall never strike thee to the heart—</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Fear not her footfall—no, nor any man</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>That does the wrong; with silent foot and slow,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>When the day comes, she’ll stalk the sinners down.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> The very phrases—are they not?—which bad men might use -to give themselves encouragement and assurance to set hand to -lawless acts, since they show injustice yielding her harvest ripe -and ready, and punishment lagging late and far behind the -enjoyment.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>III. When Patrocleas had done, Olympicus spoke next: -‘Take another point, Patrocleas; what a grave absurdity these -delays and hesitations on the part of Heaven involve! The -slowness takes away all assurance of a Providence; and when -misfortune comes to bad men, not on the heels of each wicked <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -deed, but later on, they set it down to mischance, and call it -a calamity, not a punishment; they do not profit by it, they -are annoyed at the things which befall them, but do not repent -of the things which they have done. It is so with a horse; the -touch of whip or spur which follows immediately on a stumble -or blunder sets him up and brings him to his duty; whereas -tugs and checks and ratings later on, after an interval, seem to -him to have some purpose which is not education, they irritate, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>but do not school him. And so with vice; if punishment -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> from switch or rein follow every trip and tumble, vice will have -the best chance of becoming thoughtful and lowly, and getting -the fear of God, as of a Judge who stands over men in their acts -and their passions, and does not wait till the day after to-morrow. -Whereas, the Justice which moves calmly, “with a slow foot”, -as Euripides put it, and falls upon the wicked “when the day -comes”, resembles an automaton rather than a Providence, in -her vague, procrastinating, unmethodical procedure. Thus -I do not see what use there is in those “mills of the Gods” which -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> “grind slowly”, we are told,<a id='r206' /><a href='#f206' class='c006'><sup>[206]</sup></a> for they make the form of Justice -dim, and the fears of the wicked evanescent.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>IV. When all this had been said, and while I was deep in -thought, Timon said: ‘Shall I intervene and with my own -hand add the crowning stone of difficulty to our argument, or -shall I allow it first to win through for itself against what we -have already heard?’ ‘What need’, I said, ‘to let in the “third -wave” and sluice the argument anew, if it prove unable to force -aside the first objections and escape them? In the first place, -then, we will start from our own ancestral hearth, from the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> reserve, I mean, which the philosophers of the Academy show -in speaking of what is divine; and reverently clear ourself from -any claim to speak with knowledge about these matters. It is -a graver mistake than for unmusical persons to discuss music, or -civilians a campaign, if we mere men are to scrutinize the things -which belong to Gods and daemons; the inartistic trying to -track the inner thought of the artist, by fanciful and random -conjecture. If it is hard for a layman to guess at the reasoning -which led a doctor to use the knife later and not sooner, or to -apply a lotion to-day and not yesterday, surely it is not easy for -a mortal to speak with any certainty about God, more than this—that -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>530<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> he best knows the proper time for the curative treatment -<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>of vice, and applies the due punishment, as a medicine, to each -man accordingly; for vice admits of no measure common to all, -the proper time is not the same for every case. That the -medical treatment of the soul which we call “Right” and -“Justice” is of all arts the greatest, we have the testimony of -thousands of witnesses, Pindar<a id='r207' /><a href='#f207' class='c006'><sup>[207]</sup></a> among them. He acclaims the -sovereign ruler of all the Gods as “in art most excellent”, -because Justice is of his workmanship, and to her it pertains to -determine the “when” and the “how” and the degree of -punishment for every offender. And Plato<a id='r208' /><a href='#f208' class='c006'><sup>[208]</sup></a> tells us that Minos, -who is a son of Zeus, has become a learner of this art; showing -that it is not possible for one who has not learnt, and acquired <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the knowledge, to go straight in questions of right, or to apprehend -the guiding principle. Even the laws which men frame -are not everywhere, and on the face of them, reasonable; some -enactments appear simply ludicrous. In Lacedaemon, for -instance, the Ephors, when they first enter office, make proclamation -that no one is to grow a moustache, and that “men -should obey the laws, that the laws may not be hard upon them”. -The Romans, when they release slaves “into freedom” give -them a tap with a light reed. When they draw a will, they -make one set of persons “heirs” and “sell” the property to -others, which appears strange. Strangest of all is the enactment <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -of Solon, that the man who takes neither side in a party contest, -but stands out, should lose the franchise. One might go on to -mention many legal absurdities, where the intention of the -lawyers and the reason of the provisions are out of our knowledge. -Then, if human codes are so inscrutable, what wonder that, in -speaking of the Gods, we cannot lightly lay down the principle -upon which they punish some offenders later, some sooner?</p> - -<p class='c005'>V. ‘All this is no pretext for evading the issue; but it is -a plea for indulgence; that the argument, having its harbour of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>refuge in sight, may rear itself confidently from the depths to -meet the difficulty. Now first consider that, as Plato<a id='r209' /><a href='#f209' class='c006'><sup>[209]</sup></a> shows, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> God sets himself before us for a pattern of all good things, and -implants in those who are able to follow God that human virtue -which is, in a sort, likeness to himself. For Universal Nature, -while yet unorganized, found the beginning of its change to -a world of order in assimilation to the idea and excellence of -God, and in a measure of participation therein. The same -Plato<a id='r210' /><a href='#f210' class='c006'><sup>[210]</sup></a> tells us that Nature kindled in us the sense of sight, in -order that the soul, by gazing in wonder at the bodies which -move through heaven, may become accustomed to welcome -what is shapely and well ordered, to abhor ill-regulated and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> roving passions, and to eschew, as the origin of all vice and -naughtiness, whatever is random and fortuitous. For man has -no greater natural enjoyment of God than to imitate and pursue -all that in him is fair and good, and so to attain to virtue. -Therefore is God slow and leisurely in inflicting punishment on -the bad, not that he fears mistake on his own part if he punish -quickly, or any repentance; rather he is putting away from us all -brutish vehemence in the punishments we inflict, and teaching -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> us not to choose the moment of heat and agitation, when</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>High over reason temper leaps supreme</i>,<a id='r211' /><a href='#f211' class='c006'><sup>[211]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>to spring upon those who have vexed us, as though glutting -a thirst or a hunger; but to copy his own gentleness and long-suffering, -to be orderly and staid when we set our hand to -punishment, taking Time for a counsellor who will never have -Repentance for his consort. For it is a smaller evil, as Socrates -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>551<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> used to say, to drink turbid water in our greediness, when we find -it by the way, than with the reason still muddied, full of wrath -<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>and frenzy, before it has settled down and run clear, to glut -ourselves in the punishment of a body which is of one race and -tribe with our own. It is not, as Thucydides would tell us, the -retribution following most closely on the injury received, but -that most remote from it, which really exacts what is its due. -For as temper, according to Melanthius,<a id='r212' /><a href='#f212' class='c006'><sup>[212]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Does dreadful deeds, and banishes good sense</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>so reason, on the contrary, employs justice and moderation, -setting passion and temper afar. So it is that even human -examples make men gentle, as when we hear that Plato stood -long over his servant with rod uplifted, correcting, as he said <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -himself, his own temper; or, again, as Archytas, informed of -some disorderly behaviour of his workmen in the field, and -feeling himself unusually irritated and harsh, did nothing, but -just said, as he went away, “Well for you that I am feeling -angry.” If sayings like these and anecdotes about men drain -away what is rough and violent in our anger, much more when -we see God, in whom is no fear nor any sort of repentance, yet -reserving punishment and abiding his time, may we well become <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -cautious in such matters, and deem the gentleness and lofty -patience which he exhibits a god-like part of virtue. By his -punishment he corrects a few, by the slowness of his punishment -he helps and admonishes many.</p> - -<p class='c005'>VI. ‘Let us now turn our attention to a second point, which -is this: All kinds of human retribution deal out pain for pain -and stop there. “Suffering for the doer”<a id='r213' /><a href='#f213' class='c006'><sup>[213]</sup></a> is their principle, -and beyond it they do not go. So they follow sin like a howling -pack which hunts on the heels of the offences. Whereas God, we -may suppose, when he sets his hand to punish a soul that is sick, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -scrutinizes its passions, if perhaps they may be bent aside, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>a way opened to repentance; he fixes a time, in cases where the -wickedness seated within is not absolute or inflexible. He knows -how large a portion of virtue, proceeding from himself, souls -carry with them when they pass to birth, how powerful within -the noble principle naturally is, and how ineffaceable; that it -may flower into vice contrary to nature, when nurture and -company are bad and corrupting, yet is afterwards cured in -some persons and recovers its own proper state. And so he -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> does not bring down punishment equally upon all. What is -incurable he at once removes out of the life and prunes away, -because, happen what may, it is injurious to others, most -injurious of all to a man’s self, to consort with wickedness all his -time. Where the sinful principle may be supposed to exist -through ignorance of the good rather than from deliberate -preference for the base, he gives them time for reformation; -but if they persist, they, too, receive punishment in full; for -he has no fear, we may be sure, lest they escape him at the last. -Now consider how many changes take place in human character -and life. And this is why that in them which changes is called -“tropos” (turning) and “ethos” (<i>ēthos</i>), because habit (<i>ĕthos</i>) -finds its way in so often, and masters them so mightily. I think -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> myself that the ancients called Cecrops “double-shaped”, not, -as some say, because from a good king he became a very dragon -of a tyrant, but, on the contrary, because he was, to begin with, -perverse and terrible, and afterwards became a mild and humane -ruler. This instance may be an uncertain one, but we know -of Gelon at any rate, and Hiero in Sicily, and Pisistratus son of -Hippocrates, how they won power by wickedness, but all used -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>552<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> it virtuously; came to rule through unlawful ways, but turned -out fair and patriotic rulers; introduced the reign of law -and of careful agriculture, found their subjects men of jest -and gossip, and made them sober and industrious. Gelon, -moreover, fought nobly at the head of his people, won a great -<span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>battle against the Carthaginians, and refused them a peace -when they sued for one, until he had bound them in a covenant -to give up the practice of sacrificing their children to Cronus. -Then, in Megalopolis, there was a tyrant Lydiadas, who changed <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -his ways in the actual course of his reign, and in disgust with his -own injustice restored to the citizens their laws, and fell -gloriously fighting for the country against its enemies. Suppose -some one had slain Miltiades while tyrant in the Chersonese, as -he first was, or had got a conviction for incest against Cimon, -or had robbed Athens of Themistocles by a prosecution for his -riotous passage through the market-place, as was done with -Alcibiades later on, where would be our Marathons, our -Eurymedons, that noble Artemisium, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in26'><i>where Athens’ sons</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Set firm the shining base of Liberty?</i><a id='r214' /><a href='#f214' class='c006'><sup>[214]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>For great natures produce nothing petty; their vehemence and -energy cannot rest for very intensity, they toss about on the -surge before they settle into their solid and abiding character. -As then one ignorant of husbandry would not welcome the -prospect of a piece of land full of thick undergrowth and -weeds, with many wild creatures on it, and streams of water, -and deep mud; whereas, to one who has learned to use his senses -and to discriminate, those very things suggest strength and -fatness and everything that is good in the soil, so it is with great -natures. They break out early into many strange bad growths, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -out of which we, in our intolerance, think it our duty to cut away -and stunt all that is rough and prickly; but the Judge who is -better than we and who sees the good and generous crop to -come, waits for Time, the fellow-worker with Reason and Virtue, -and that ripeness whereby Nature yields the proper fruit.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>VII. ‘So much for this. Now do you not think that some -of the Greeks are right in copying the Egyptian law which enacts -that a pregnant woman who has been condemned to death -should be kept in custody until she has borne a child?’ ‘Certainly’, -they said. I went on: ‘Next, suppose a person not -pregnant with children, but able, if time be given, to bring into -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> the light of the sun some secret action or design, either by -denouncing a hidden evil, or by becoming the promoter of -a salutary policy or the inventor of some needful expedient, is it -not the better course to let punishment wait on convenience -rather than to inflict it too soon? It seems to me to be so.’ -‘And to us’, said Patrocleas. ‘And rightly,’ said I, ‘for consider -that if Dionysius had paid the penalty at the beginning -of his reign, no Greek settler would have been left in Sicily, -because the Carthaginians would have devastated it. So -neither Apollonia, nor Anactorium, nor the Leucadian peninsula -would have been occupied by Greeks if Periander had -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> been punished without such a long interval. I think that -Cassander also had a respite in order that Thebes might be -re-established. Most of the foreigners who helped to seize this -temple crossed over with Timoleon into Sicily; and when they -had conquered the Carthaginians, and put an end to the -tyrannies, met deservedly miserable deaths themselves. Surely -Heaven uses some bad men to punish others, like executioners, -and afterwards crushes them, and this has been the case, I think, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>553<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> with most tyrants. For as the gall of the hyaena, the refuse of -the seal, and other products of disgusting animals, have their -specific use in disease, so there are some who need the sharp -tooth of chastisement; on whom the God inflicts a bitter and -implacable tyrant, or a harsh rough ruler, and only removes -this torment when he has relieved and purged their ailment. -Such a medicine was Phalaris to the Agrigentines, and Marius -to the Romans. To the Sicyonians the God declared in plain -<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>terms that their state needed beadles with whips, because they -had taken by force from the men of Cleonae a boy named -Teletias, who was to be crowned at the Pythian games, as being -their own citizen, and torn him in pieces. The Sicyonians got <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Orthagoras for a tyrant, and after him Myron and Cleisthenes, -who put an end to their bad ways, while the Cleonaeans, who -never found such a remedy, have come to nothing. Listen to -Homer,<a id='r215' /><a href='#f215' class='c006'><sup>[215]</sup></a> who says somewhere</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>So sprung from meaner sire a nobler son,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Skilled in all art and excellence.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Yet that son of Copreus has left us no brilliant or signal achievement, -while the posterity of Sisyphus and Autolycus and -Phlegyas burst into flower of glory and virtue in the persons -of great kings. Pericles at Athens came of a house which was -under a curse. Pompey the Great, at Rome, was the son of -Strabo, whose corpse the Romans cast out and trampled <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -in their hatred. What is there strange then if God acts like the -farmer, who does not cut down the thistle till he has picked the -asparagus, or like the Libyans who do not burn the dry stalks -before they have collected the gum; who spares to destroy a bad -and rough-grown root of a noble race of kings till the due -fruit has issued from it? For it were better for the Phocians that -Iphitus should lose tens of thousands of cattle and horses, or -that even more gold should leave Delphi, and silver too, than -that Ulysses should never have been born, or Asclepius, or <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the other brave men and mighty benefactors who have come -of bad and vicious lines.</p> - -<p class='c005'>VIII. ‘But do you not all think it better that punishments -should fall in the fitting time and manner than hastily and at -once? There is the case of Callippus, who was slain by his -friends with the very dagger which he had used to slay Dion in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>the guise of a friend. Again, there is Mitys<a id='r216' /><a href='#f216' class='c006'><sup>[216]</sup></a> of Argos, killed in -a party quarrel, whose brazen statue in the market-place fell on -the murderer during a public performance and killed him. -And I think you know all about Bessus the Paeonian, Patrocleas, -and Ariston of Oeta, the commander of foreign troops?’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> ‘Indeed I do not,’ he replied, ‘but I want to hear.’ ‘Ariston,’ -I said, ‘with the consent of the tyrants, took down the ornaments -of Eriphyle, deposited here, and carried them off to his wife -for a present. Then his son, enraged with his mother for -some reason, set fire to the house, and burnt up all who were -within it. Bessus, it appears, slew his own father, and for -a long time escaped detection. Afterwards, having come to -some friends for supper, he put his spear through a swallows’ -nest and brought it down, and destroyed the young birds. All -present exclaimed, as well they might: “Man, what has -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> possessed you to do such a monstrous thing?” To which he -replied: “Have they not been telling lies against me this long -time, shrieking that I have killed my father?” Astonished at -such a speech, they informed the king, an inquiry was held, and -Bessus suffered.</p> - -<p class='c005'>IX. ‘So far’, I said, ‘we have been speaking, as was agreed, -upon the assumption that some respite is really granted to wicked -men. For what remains, you must suppose that you are listening -to Hesiod,<a id='r217' /><a href='#f217' class='c006'><sup>[217]</sup></a> laying down, not with Plato<a id='r218' /><a href='#f218' class='c006'><sup>[218]</sup></a> that punishment is -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>554<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> “suffering which waits on wrongdoing”, but that it is a contemporary -growth, springing up with sin, from the same place -and the same root,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Bad counsel to the counsellor is worst</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>and</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Who plots ’gainst others, plots his heart away.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>The corn-beetle is said to carry in herself an antidote compounded -<span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>on a principle of opposites, but wickedness as it grows -breeds its own pain and punishment, and suffers the penalty, -not by and by, but in the very moment of insolence. In the -body, every criminal who is punished<a id='r219' /><a href='#f219' class='c006'><sup>[219]</sup></a> carries forth his own <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -cross; but vice fabricates for herself, out of herself, all the -instruments of her chastisement; she manufactures a terrible -life, piteous and shameful, with terrors and cruel pains, with -regrets and troubles unceasing. But there are persons just like -children, who see evildoers on the stage crowned and caparisoned, -as often happens, in gold and purple, and dancing heartily; and -gape and gaze, as though these men were happy indeed; until -they are seen goaded and lashed, and fire issuing out of those -gay and costly robes. Most bad men are wrapped as in a vesture <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -of great houses, and eminent offices and powers; and so it is -unperceived that they are being punished, until, before you can -think, they are stabbed or hurled down a rock, which is not to -be called punishment, but the end or consummation of punishment. -For as Herodicus of Selymbria, who fell into a hopeless -decline, and, for the first time in human history, combined -gymnastics with medicine, made death, in Plato’s<a id='r220' /><a href='#f220' class='c006'><sup>[220]</sup></a> words, “a long -affair for himself”, and for similar invalids, so has it been with -bad men. They thought to escape the blow at the time; the -penalty comes, not after more time, but over more time, and is -lengthened, not retarded. They were not punished after they <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -came to old age, but became old under punishment. I speak of -length of time in a sense relative to ourselves, since to the -Gods any span of human life is as nothing. “Now”, instead -of “thirty years ago”, for the torture or hanging of a criminal, -is as though we were to speak of “afternoon” not “morning”; -the rather that he is confined in life, a prison where is no change -of place, no escape, yet many feastings the while, and business -<span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>affairs, and gifts, and bounties, and amusements, just as men play -dice or draughts in jail, with the rope hanging over their heads.</p> - -<p class='c005'>X. ‘Yet where are we to stop? Are we to say that prisoners -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> awaiting execution are not under punishment until the axe shall -fall? Nor he who has drunk the hemlock, and is walking about -while he waits to feel the heaviness in the legs which precedes the -chill and stiffness of approaching insensibility? Yet we must say -so, if we think that the last moment of the punishment is the -punishment, and leave out of account the sufferings of the -intervening time, the fears, and forebodings, and movements of -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> remorse, in which every sinner is involved. This would be like -saying that a fish when he has swallowed the hook has not been -caught until he has been roasted by the cook, or at least sliced -up, before our eyes. Every man is in the grasp of Justice -when he has done a wrong, he has nibbled away the sweets of -Injustice which are the bait; but he has the hook of conscience -sticking there and, as it pays him out,<a id='r221' /><a href='#f221' class='c006'><sup>[221]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Like spear-struck thunny makes the ocean boil.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>For the forwardness and the audacity of vice of which we hear -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>555<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> are strong and ready till the crimes are committed, then passion -fails them like a dying breeze, and leaves them weak and abject, -a prey to every fear and superstition. Thus the dream of -Clytaemnestra in Stesichorus<a id='r222' /><a href='#f222' class='c006'><sup>[222]</sup></a> is fashioned true to the reality of -what happens. It was like this:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>She thought a serpent came on her, his crest</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Dabbled with gore, and, lo, from out it peered,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Child of the race of Pleisthenes, the King.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>For phantoms of dreams, and visions of midday, and oracles, -and thunderbolts, and whatever has the appearance of being -caused by a God, bring storms and terrors upon those who are in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>such a mood. So it is told that Apollodorus, in his sleep, saw <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -himself being flayed by Scythians and then boiled, and that his -heart murmured out of the cauldron the words, “I am the -cause of this to thee.” And, again, he saw his daughters all on -fire, and running around him with their bodies burning. Then -Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, a little before his death, saw -Aphrodite throwing blood at his face out of a sort of bowl. -The friends of Ptolemy “Thunderbolt”<a id='r223' /><a href='#f223' class='c006'><sup>[223]</sup></a> beheld him called to -justice by Seleucus before a jury of vultures and wolves, and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -dealing out large helpings of flesh to his enemies. Pausanias -had wickedly sent for Cleonice at Byzantium, a maiden of free -birth, that he might enjoy her person in the night, then, as she -approached, he killed her out of some panic or suspicion; and -he would often see her in his dreams, saying to him:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>To judgement go; man’s lust works woe to man.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>When the phantom never ceased to trouble him, he sailed, as it -appears, to Heracleia, where is the Place of Summons of Souls, -and with soothing rites and libations set himself to call up the -soul of the girl; she appeared to him and told him that he -“will cease from his troubles when he reaches Lacedaemon”; -and, directly he got there, he died.<a id='r224' /><a href='#f224' class='c006'><sup>[224]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>XI. ‘Then, if nothing remains for the soul after death, but <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -death is a limit beyond which is neither grace nor punishment, -we should rather say that bad men who are punished quickly, and -who die off, are used gently and indulgently by Heaven. For if -it could be held that there is no other evil for the bad while life -and time last, yet even so, when injustice is tried and proved -an unfruitful, thankless business, which yields no return for -many and great struggles, the mere sense of these upsets the -soul. You will remember the story of Lysimachus, how, under -<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> great stress of thirst, he surrendered himself and his power to -the Getae, and, when now their prisoner, said as he drank: -“Wretch that I am, for so brief a pleasure to have lost so great -a kingdom!” And yet to resist the physical compulsion of -appetite is very hard. But when a man, by grasping at money, -or in envy of political reputation and power, or for the pleasure -of some union, has wrought a lawless dreadful deed, and afterwards, -when the thirst or frenzy of passion has left him, sees, as -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> time goes on, the disgrace and terror of iniquity becoming -permanent, with nothing useful, or necessary, or delightful -gained, then is it not natural that he should often reckon up -and feel how hollow is the glory, how ignoble and thankless the -pleasure, for which he has upset all that is greatest and noblest in -human codes of right, and filled his own life with shame and -confusion? Simonides<a id='r225' /><a href='#f225' class='c006'><sup>[225]</sup></a> used to say in jest that he found the -chest of silver always full, but that of gratitude empty; and so -bad men, when they look into the wickedness within them, find -that, through the pleasure which has a short-lived return, it is -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>556<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> left void of hope, but filled to the brim with fears and pains and -joyless memory, with suspicion of the future, and distrust of the -present. So Ino on the stage,<a id='r226' /><a href='#f226' class='c006'><sup>[226]</sup></a> when she is repenting of what -she has done:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Say, maidens, how may I start clear, and dwell</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Here in the house of Athamas, as though</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>I had done nothing of the deeds I did?</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Such thoughts we may suppose that the soul of every bad man -rakes up within itself, while it calculates how it may escape -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> from the memory of its misdoings, and cast out conscience, -and become pure, and lead another life as from the beginning. -There is no confidence, nothing free from caprice, nothing -permanent or solid, in the designs of wickedness, unless, save -<span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>the mark! we are to call wicked-doers philosophers of a sort! -But where love of wealth or pleasure, as of great prizes, and envy -undiluted, are lodged by the side of hate and ill-temper, there, -if you look deep, you will find superstition seated, and softness -to meet toil, and cowardice to meet death, and a rapid shifting -of impulses, and a vain-gloriousness which comes of arrogance. -They fear those who censure them, and equally fear those who <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -praise, as being victims whom they have deceived, and who are -the bitterest enemies of the bad, just because they praise so -heartily those whom they take to be good. For hardness in -vice, as in bad steel, is unsound, its rigidity is soon broken. -Hence more and more, as time goes on, they discover their own -condition; they are vexed and discontented, and spurn their -own life away. We see that a bad man, when he has restored -a pledge, or gone bail for an acquaintance, or given a patriotic -subscription or a contribution which brings him glory and -credit, is immediately seized with repentance, and grieves at <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -what he has done, so shifty and unsettled is his judgement. -We see others when applauded in the theatre at once groaning -inwardly, as ambition subsides into greed of money. And -did not, think you, those who sacrificed men to get a tyranny, -or to advance a conspiracy, as Apollodorus did, or who robbed -their friends of money, as Glaucus the son of Epicydes -did, repent, and hate themselves, and suffer pain at what had -been done? For my own part, if I may be allowed to say so, -I think that the doers of unholy deeds need no God nor man to -punish them; their own life is sufficient, when ruined by vice, -and thrown into all disorder. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<p class='c005'>XII. ‘But keep an eye on the discussion,’ I said, ‘for it may -be running out beyond our limits.’ ‘Perhaps it is,’ said Timon, -‘if we look on, and consider the length of what remains to be -said. For now I am going to call up the final difficulty, as -a champion who has been standing out, since those which came -<span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>forward first have pretty well had their round out. Turn to -the charge so boldly thrown at the Gods by Euripides,<a id='r227' /><a href='#f227' class='c006'><sup>[227]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>The parents’ trips upon their offspring turned</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>and take it that we too who have so far been silent adopt his -arraignment. If, on the one hand, the doers paid the penalty -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> themselves, then there is no need to punish those who did no -wrong, seeing that justice does not allow even the doers to be -punished twice for the same offences. If, on the other, the Gods, -out of indolence, have allowed the punishment to drop, as -against the wicked, and then exact it late in the day from the -guiltless, the set-off of tardiness against injustice is all wrong. -You will remember the story of what happened to Aesop in -this place; how he came with gold from Croesus, to sacrifice -to the God magnificently, and make a distribution among the -Delphians, four minae apiece. There was some angry difference, -it appears, between him and the brotherhood; so he -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>556<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> performed the sacrifice, but sent the money back to Sardis, -judging the men unworthy of the bounty. They worked up -a charge of sacrilege against him, thrust him down from the -rock called Hyampeia, and killed him. Then, in his wrath at -this, the God brought sterility on their land, and every form -of strange disease; so that they went round the Assemblies of -the Greeks asking by repeated proclamation that any who chose -to come forward should punish them on Aesop’s behalf. In -the third generation, Iadmon,<a id='r228' /><a href='#f228' class='c006'><sup>[228]</sup></a> a Samian, came, no blood -relation of Aesop, but a descendant of those who had bought -him at Samos; and to him they paid certain penalties, and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> were set free from their troubles. From that time the punishment -of sacrilegious criminals was transferred to Nauplia from -Hyampeia. Not even those most devoted to Alexander, among -whom we reckon ourselves, commend him for throwing the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>city of Branchidae into ruins, and putting its inhabitants to the -sword, because of the treacherous surrender by their forefathers -of the temple at Miletus. Then Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, -derided with open laughter the Corcyraeans who asked “why -he plundered their island?” “Because, of course,” he said, -“your fathers sheltered Ulysses.” And, in like manner, when the -Ithacans complained of his soldiers taking their sheep, “Why, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -your king”, he said, “came to us, and blinded the shepherd -too!”<a id='r229' /><a href='#f229' class='c006'><sup>[229]</sup></a> Now is it not even more monstrous of Apollo to destroy -the Pheneatae<a id='r230' /><a href='#f230' class='c006'><sup>[230]</sup></a> of the present day, by blocking the pit which -took their water, and deluging all their land, because, a thousand -years ago, as the story goes, Hercules snatched away the prophetic -tripod and brought it to Pheneus? And what of his -promise to the Sybarites of release from their troubles when -they should have propitiated the wrath of the Leucadian Hera -“by three destructions”? Again, it is not long since the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Locrians have ceased to send those maidens to Troy,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Who with no trailing robes, feet bared, as slaves,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>At early dawn must sweep Athene’s fane,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>No veils, though grievous eld were drawing near</i>,<a id='r231' /><a href='#f231' class='c006'><sup>[231]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>because of the misbehaviour of Ajax. Where do you find the -reasonableness and justice here? Certainly we do not praise the -Thracians, because they still brand their own wives to avenge -Orpheus, or the Barbarians living about the Eridanus for wearing -black, in mourning for Phaethon as they say. It would have -been still more ridiculous, I think, if the men living when -Phaethon perished thought nothing about it, and then those <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -born five generations or ten generations after the sad occurrence -began to change into mourning clothes for him! Yet there is -nothing but stupidity in that, nothing terrible or beyond cure; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>but the angers of the Gods pass underground at the time, like -certain rivers, then afterwards breakout to injure quite different -persons, and bring the direst ruin at the last. What reason is -there in that?’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIII. At the first check, I, in terror lest he should go back -to the beginning and introduce more and greater cases of -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> anomaly, at once proceeded to ask him: ‘Come,’ I said, ‘do -you take all these things for true?’ ‘Suppose that they are not -all true, but that some are, do you not think that the same -perplexity comes in?’ ‘Perhaps’, said I, ‘it is as with persons in -a violent fever, who feel the same heat, or nearly the same, -whether they are wrapped in one cloak or in many, yet we must -give some relief by removing the excess. If you will not allow -this, drop the point (though to my thinking, most of the instances -look like myths and inventions); but call to mind the recent -Theoxenia, and that “fair portion” which is set aside and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>558<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> assigned by proclamation to the descendants of Pindar, and -how impressive that seemed and how pleasant. Who could fail -to find pleasure in that graceful honour, so Greek and so frankly -of the old world, unless he be one whose</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Black heart of adamant</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Was wrought in chilly fire</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>in Pindar’s<a id='r232' /><a href='#f232' class='c006'><sup>[232]</sup></a> own words? Then I pass over’, I said, ‘the similar -proclamation made at Sparta, in the words,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>After the Lesbian bard</i>,<a id='r233' /><a href='#f233' class='c006'><sup>[233]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>in honoured memory of old Terpander, for the case is the same. -But I appeal to you, who claim, as I understand, precedence -among the Boeotians as Opheltiadae, and among the Phocians -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> because of Daiphantus; and who stood by me formerly, when, -speaking in support of the claim of the Lycormae and Satilaeans -through their ancestor to receive the honour and wear the crown -<span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>due to the Heraclidae, I argued that those sprung of Hercules -had the strongest right to be confirmed in the honours and -prizes, because their ancestor received no worthy prize or -return for his good deeds to the Greeks.’ ‘And a noble contention -it was,’ he said, ‘and worthy indeed of Philosophy!’ -‘Then pray drop’, I said, ‘that vehement tone in your arraignment, -and do not make it any grievance that some born of bad -or vicious ancestors are punished; or else never rejoice or -applaud in the other case, when noble birth is honoured. For <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -if the gratitude due to virtue is to be kept active for the benefit -of the family, it is logical and right also that the punishment for -crimes should never be exhausted or fail, but should run a parallel -course, so that payment should follow deserts under either head. -Any one who finds pleasure in seeing honour done to the -descendants of Cimon at Athens, but makes it a grievance that -those of Lachares or Ariston are banished, is too soft and too -careless, or, as I would rather say, is quarrelsome and captious in -all his attitude to Heaven. He challenges, if the children of -an unjust and evil man appear to prosper, and he challenges if -the families of the bad are abased or extinguished; he blames <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the God equally if the children of a good father are in trouble, -or of a bad one.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIV. ‘There,’ I said, ‘let all this serve for so many dykes -or barriers against those bitter and aggressive assailants! -Now, let us go back, and pick up the end of the thread in this -dark place with its windings and wanderings; I mean our argument -about the God. Let us guide ourselves with quiet caution -towards what is likely and reasonable, since certainty and truth -are beyond us, even as to our own actions. For instance, why -do we order the children of persons who have died of consumption <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -or dropsy to sit with both feet dipped into water until the -corpse is consumed? The idea seems to be that, if this is done, -the disease does not shift its seat or approach them. Or again, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>why is it that, if one goat have taken the herb eryngium<a id='r234' /><a href='#f234' class='c006'><sup>[234]</sup></a> into -her mouth, the whole flock halts until the goatherd comes and -takes it out? And there are other occult properties, with ways, -whether of contact or of dissemination, by which they pass, -with incredible speed and over incredible intervals, through -one to another. Yet we find intervals of time wonderful, but -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> not those of place; although it is really more wonderful that -a disease which began in Aethiopia<a id='r235' /><a href='#f235' class='c006'><sup>[235]</sup></a> infected Athens, where -Pericles died and Thucydides took it, than that, when Delphians -and Sybarites had been wicked, the punishment circled round -to attack their children. There is correspondence of forces from -last to first, and there are connecting links, the cause of which, -unknown, it may be, to us, produces in silence its proper effect.<a id='r236' /><a href='#f236' class='c006'><sup>[236]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>XV. ‘Not but that the public visitations of cities by the -wrath of Heaven can be readily accounted for on the score of -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>559<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> justice. A city is a thing one and continuous, like an animal, -which does not cease to be itself in the changes due to growth, -nor become, as time goes on, different from what it was; it -is always consentaneous and at one with itself, and awaits all -the consequences, whether censure or gratitude, of what it -does or did, so long as the association, which makes it one and -complex, preserves its unity. To divide it, according to time, -into many cities, or, rather, into an infinite number of them, is -like making many men out of one, because he is now elderly, -was formerly younger, and, still further back, was a boy. Or -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> rather, the whole idea is like those tricks of Epicharmus out of -which the “Increasing Fallacy” of the Sophists sprang. The -man who formerly received the loan does not own it now, for -he has become a different person. The man who was asked -<span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>to dinner yesterday, comes an unbidden guest to-day, for he -is some one else. Yet the stages of growth produce greater -variations in each one of ourselves than they do in cities as -wholes. Any one who had seen Athens thirty years ago would -recognize it to-day; manners, movements, amusements, business, -popular gratitude, and resentments, all quite as of old. -Whereas a man would hardly be recognized in figure by friend -or relation who should meet him after an interval, while the -changes in character so easily produced by anything—a word, an <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -exertion, a feeling, a law—produce an effect of strangeness and -novelty even to one always in his company. Yet he is spoken -of as one man from birth to the end; and we insist that a city, -which remains the same in exactly the same sense, is liable for -the reproaches incurred by ancestors, by the same title as it -claims their reputation and power. Otherwise we shall have -everything, before we know it, in the river of Heraclitus,<a id='r237' /><a href='#f237' class='c006'><sup>[237]</sup></a> which -he says a man cannot enter twice, because Nature disturbs and -alters all things in her own changes.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XVI. ‘But if a city is a thing one and continuous, I take -it that a family also depends from a single origin which assures <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -a certain pervading force of association. An offspring is never -separated from its begetter, as is a piece of man’s handicraft; -it has been made out of him, not by him; thus it has in itself -some permanent portion of him, and whether it be punished or -honoured, receives what is its due. If it were not that I might -seem to trifle, I would say that graver injustice was done to -the statue of Cassander when it was melted down by the Athenians, -and to the corpse of Dionysius when it was thrust out -beyond the frontier by the Syracusans, than to the descendants -of those men in the punishments which they received. For there -is nothing of the nature of Cassander in the statue, and the soul <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -of Dionysius has quitted the corpse; whereas in Nisaeus, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>Apollocrates, and Antipater and Philip, and similarly in the -other sons of bad men, the determining part of their parents is -inborn in them, and is there; it is not quiescent or inactive, -since by it they live and are nourished, are directed, and think. -There is nothing strange or remarkable if, being of them, they -have what was theirs. In a word, as in Medicine, what is -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> serviceable is also just. It is ridiculous to talk of the injustice -of cauterizing the thumb when the pain is in the hip, or -scarifying the region of the stomach for a tumour inside the -liver, or of oiling the ends of the horns of cattle, if there is -softening of the hoofs. So it is with punishments; to think -that there is any other justice than what heals the mischief, -or to be indignant if the treatment be applied to one set of -persons through another set (as in opening a vein to relieve -weak eyes) is to see nothing beyond the range of sense, to fail -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>560<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> to remember that a schoolmaster who chastises one boy -teaches a lesson to many boys, and that a general who executes -one man in ten, brings all to their duty. And thus not only one -part through another part, but also soul through soul receives -certain dispositions, be they of deterioration or amendment, -in a truer sense than body through body. In the case of body, -the affection arising must be the same, and the alteration -produced must be the same; whereas soul is led by its own -imaginings in the way of assurance or fear, and so becomes -permanently worse or else better.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XVII. While I was still speaking, Olympicus broke in: -‘It seems to me’, he said, ‘that your argument relies on a great -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> fundamental assumption—the permanence of the soul.’ ‘Subject -to your consent, it does,’ I replied, ‘or rather to your -consent already given; for, from the initial supposition that -God dispenses to us according to our deserts, the discussion -has proceeded to its present stage.’ ‘Then’, he said, ‘you think -that, because the Gods survey and administer all our affairs, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>it follows that our souls are either wholly imperishable, or, -permanent for a certain time after death.’ ‘Oh no! good -friend,’ I said, ‘but the God is so petty, so important a trifler, -that, dealing with men like us, who have nothing in us -divine or like him in any way, or persistent, or solid, but who -wither away altogether “like leaves”, as Homer<a id='r238' /><a href='#f238' class='c006'><sup>[238]</sup></a> said, and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -perish within a short span, he makes us of so great account! -That would be like the gardens of Adonis which women nurse -and tend in crockery pots; souls of a day springing up within -a pampered flesh wherein no strong living root finds room, and -then at once snuffed out on the first pretext. But, if you will, -let the other Gods be, and look at our own God here. Knowing -that the souls of those who die perish at once, like mists or -smoke-wreaths exhaled from the bodies, does he, think you, -require men to bring so many propitiations for the departed, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and such great honours to the dead, deceiving and tricking -his believers? For myself, I will never give up the permanence -of the soul, unless some one like Hercules shall come, and remove -the tripod of the Pythia, and lay waste the place of the oracles. -But in our own time so long as many such prophecies are given -as once were delivered to Corax the Naxian, it is nothing less -than impious to condemn the soul to death.’ Here Patrocleas -asked: ‘But what was the prophecy delivered, and who was -this Corax? The fact and the name are equally strange to <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -me.’ ‘Not at all,’ I said, ‘the fault is mine for using a by-name -instead of the real one. The man who killed Archilochus in -battle was called Calondas, it appears; Corax was a by-name -given to him. Turned out, at first, by the Pythia, as having -slain a man sacred to the Muses, then, having put in a plea -of justification, accompanied by prayers and supplications, -he was ordered to go to the “dwelling of Tettix” and propitiate -the soul of Archilochus. This place was Taenarus; for thither, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span>they say, Tettix the Cretan went with an expedition, and -there he founded a city, and dwelt near the “Place of the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Passage of Souls”. So, when the Spartans had been ordered -to propitiate the soul of Pausanias, the “Conductors of Souls” -were sent for out of Italy, and, after having done sacrifice, -ousted the ghost from the temple.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XVIII. ‘Thus’, I continued, ‘the argument which assures -the Providence of God and also the permanence of the human -soul, is one only; it is impossible to remove either and to keep -the other. But if the soul exists after death, it becomes more -probable that a requital is made to it in full both of honours -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>561<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and of punishments. Like an athlete, it is engaged in a contest -during life; the contest done, it then receives in its own self all -its due. However, what rewards or what chastisements it there -receives in its own self, are nothing to us that are alive, they are -disbelieved or are unmarked. But those which pass through -children or family are manifest to those who are here, and turn -away many bad men and pull them up short. But to prove that -there is no more disgraceful and grievous punishment than -for a man to see his own descendants suffering on his account; -and that when the soul of an offender against piety or law -looks after death, and sees, not the overthrow of statues or -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> memorials effaced, but sons or friends or kinsmen involved in -great misfortunes, all because of itself, and paying its penalties, -it could not be content, no, not for all the honours which -are given to Zeus, to become a second time unjust and -profligate, I can tell you a story which I have lately heard; -yet I hesitate lest it may appear to you a myth, so I confine -myself to showing the probability.’ ‘On no account!’ said -Olympicus, ‘give us the whole of that story too.’ As the -others made the same petition, ‘Let me make good’, said I, -‘the probability of the view, then we will start the myth, if -myth indeed it be.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>XIX. ‘Now Bion says that it would be more ridiculous <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -if God were to punish the sons of wicked men, than for a doctor -to drug a descendant or a son for the disease of a grandfather -or a father. But the cases are dissimilar in one respect, though -closely alike in another. The treatment of one person does not -relieve another from disease; no patient with eye disease or -fever was ever the better for seeing an ointment or a plaster -applied to another. The punishments of the wicked are -exhibited to all, because the effect of the reasonable operation -of justice is to restrain some through the punishment of others. -But the point of resemblance between the parallel adduced <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -by Bion and our problem he failed to observe; it is this: when -a man has fallen into a sickness which is bad but not incurable, -and afterwards through intemperance and self-indulgence has -surrendered his body to the malady and has died of it, then, -if there be a son, not evidently diseased but only with a tendency -to the same disease, a physician, or relative, or trainer, or a kind -master who has learnt the state of the case, will put him upon -a strict diet and remove made dishes and drinks and women, -and use regular courses of physic, and harden his body by -exercises, and will thus disperse and expel the symptoms, and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -not allow the little seed of a great trouble to reach any size. -Is not that the tone which we adopt, entreating sons of fathers -or mothers with a tendency to diseases to pay attention to -themselves, and to watch out, and not be careless, but to get -rid at once of the first beginnings in the system, taking them in -time while they are easy to move and loosely seated?’ ‘It -is indeed’, they said. ‘Then we are doing nothing out of -place, but a necessary act, one which is useful and not ludicrous, -when we introduce the sons of epileptic or bilious or gouty -sires to gymnastic exercise, diet, and drugs, not when they are <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -suffering from a disease but in order that they may not take -it; for a body which proceeds out of a vitiated body deserves -<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>no punishment but rather medical care and watching; if any -one in his cowardice and softness chooses to miscall that punishment, -because it removes pleasures and applies the sharp prick -of pain and trial, we have nothing more to say to him. Now -then, does a body, the issue of a faulty body, deserve treatment -and care, and yet we must endure to see the likeness of a kinsman’s -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>562<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> vice springing up within a young character, and making its -growth there, and to wait until it be spread over his system -and manifest itself in his passions,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>And show the evil fruit</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Of mind awry</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>as Pindar<a id='r239' /><a href='#f239' class='c006'><sup>[239]</sup></a> says?</p> - -<p class='c005'>XX. ‘Or is the God in this to be less wise than Hesiod,<a id='r240' /><a href='#f240' class='c006'><sup>[240]</sup></a> -who exhorts and charges:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Ne’er after gloomy burial, of life</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Sow thou the seed, but fresh from heavenly feasts</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>meaning that the act of generation admits not only of vice -and virtue, but also of grief and joy and the rest, and therefore -he would bring men cheerful and pleasant and open-hearted -to the task? But the other matter does not come out of -Hesiod, nor is it the effect of human wisdom, but of the God, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> to see through likenesses and differences of temperament, -before they stand revealed by a plunge through the passions -into great crimes. For the cubs of bears while still tiny, and the -young of wolves and apes, show at once the character of their -kind, there is no disguise or pretence; but the nature of man -is plunged at once into customs and rules and laws, and often -conceals the bad points and imitates the good, so that the -inborn stain of vice is entirely effaced and removed, or else -<span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>is undetected for a long time; it assumes a sheath or cloke of <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -cleverness, which we fail to see through. We perceive the -wickedness with an effort each time that the blow or prick of -the several misdoings touches us. In a word, we think that -men become unjust when they commit an injustice, become -intemperate when they do a violence, become cowardly when -they run away. It is as though we should think that the -scorpion grows a sting when he strikes, or vipers their venom -when they bite, which would be simple indeed! Take any -single bad man, he does not become bad when he appears -bad; he has the vice from the first, but it comes out as he gets -opportunity and power, the thief, of thieving, the born tyrant, -of forcing the laws. But God, by his own nature, apprehends <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -soul better than body; and we may be sure that he is neither -ignorant of the disposition and nature of each, nor waits to -punish violence of the hands, or insolence of the tongue, or -profligacy of the body. For he has himself suffered no wrong; -is not angry with the robber because he has met with violence, -does not hate the profligate because he has been assaulted; -but, as a remedial measure, he often chastises the man whose -tendency is to adulterous crime, or to greed, or to injustice, -thus destroying vice before it has taken hold, as he might an -epilepsy.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXI. ‘Yet we were indignant a little while ago, that the -wicked are punished so late and so slowly. And now we complain <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -because God sometimes cuts short the habit and disposition -before any wrong is done, not knowing that the thing to come -is often worse and more alarming than the thing done, what -is hidden than what is apparent, and unable to calculate the -reasons why it is better to leave some alone even after they have -committed an offence, and to be beforehand with others who -are still meditating one; exactly as drugs are of no use for -certain persons when sick, but are of service to others who -<span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>are not actually sick, but are in a state still more dangerous. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> So it is not always a case of</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>The parents trip upon their offspring turned</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>By Heav’n’s high hand.</i><a id='r241' /><a href='#f241' class='c006'><sup>[241]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>If a good son be born of a bad sire, as a healthy child of a sickly -parent, he is relieved from the penalty of race, saved by adoption -out of vice. But the young man who throws back to the -likeness of a tainted race ought, surely, to take to the debts on -his inheritance, that is, to the punishment due to wickedness. -Antigonus was not punished because of Demetrius, nor—to -go back to the heroes of old—Phyleus for Augeas, nor Nestor -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>563<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> for Neleus. These all came of bad sires, but were good. But -where natural disposition has embraced and adopted the family -failing, in those cases Justice pursues and visits to the uttermost -the likeness in vice. For as warts and spots and moles of parents -disappear in their children, but return on the persons of -grandchildren; as again a Greek woman had borne a black -child, and when charged with adultery, discovered that she -was of Ethiopian parentage in the fourth degree; and as, yet -again, out of the sons of Nisibeus, lately dead, who was reported -to be related to the “Sown Men” of Thebes, one reproduced -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> the mark of a spear on his body—family likeness re-emerging -from the depths, after such long intervals—, even so it is often -the case that characteristics and affections of the soul are concealed -and submerged in the early generations, but afterwards -break out again in later individuals, and Nature restores the -familiar type, for vice or for virtue.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXII. When I had spoken thus I remained silent. Olympicus -laughed quietly, and said: ‘We are not applauding -you, lest we should seem to be letting you off the myth, as -though the demonstration of your view were sufficient without -it; when we have heard it, we will give judgement.’ So I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>went on to tell them: ‘Thespesius of Soli, a kinsman and friend -of that Protogenes who has been with us here, after an early life <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -of great profligacy, quickly ran through his fortune, changed his -ways perforce, and took to the pursuit of wealth; when he had -the usual experience of the profligates who do not keep their wives -when they have them, but cast them away and try wrongfully -to get their favours when united to other men. He stopped at -nothing disgraceful if it led to enjoyment or gain, and in a short -time got together an inconsiderable fortune and a mighty -reputation for evil. What hit him hardest was an answer <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -delivered to him by the oracle of Amphilochus. It appears that -he had sent to ask the God “whether he will do better the -rest of his life?”<a id='r242' /><a href='#f242' class='c006'><sup>[242]</sup></a> The answer was that he “will live better when -he has died”. And sure enough this, in a way, so fell out not -long afterwards. He fell over from a high place, upon his head; -there was no wound, but he appeared to die of the mere blow, -and on the third day, at the very time of the funeral, revived. He -quickly recovered his strength, and came to himself, and the -change of life which followed was incredible. For the Cilicians -know of no man more fair in all business relations, or more -holy in religious duties, so formidable a foe or so faithful a friend. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Hence those who were brought into contact with him were -very curious to hear the cause of the difference, thinking that -a character so completely remodelled must have been the result -of no trifling experience. And so it truly was, according to -the story related by him to Protogenes, and other equally -considerate friends. For, when sentience left his body, he felt -affected by a change, as a helmsman might do when first -plunged overboard into the depth of the sea; then, recovering -a little, he seemed to himself to breathe all over and to look -around, while his soul opened like one great eye. But he saw <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -nothing of what he had been seeing before, only stars of vast -<span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>size, at infinite distances from one another, each emitting -a ray of marvellous colour and of a tonic force, so that the soul, -riding smoothly on the light, as though over a calm sea, was -carried easily and quickly in every direction. Passing over -most of the sights he saw, he said that the souls of those who -die make a flame-like bubble where the air parts as they rise -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>564<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> from below, then the bubble quickly bursts, and they emerge -with human form but light in bulk, with a movement which -is not the same for all. Some bound forth with marvellous -agility, and dart upwards in a straight line, while others whirl -round together like spindles, now with an upward tendency, -now a downward, borne on by a mingled confused agitation, -which after a very long time, and then with difficulty, -is reduced to calm. Most of them he did not recognize, -but seeing two or three persons of his acquaintance, he tried -to approach them and speak. They would not hear him, and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> appeared not to be themselves, but to be distraught and scared -out of their senses, shunning all sight or touch, while they -roamed about, first by themselves; then they would meet -and embrace others in like case, and whirl round in random -indefinite figures of every sort, uttering unmeaning sounds, -like cries of battle mingled with those of lamentation and -terror. Others above, on the extremity of the firmament, -were cheerful to behold, often drawing near to one another -in kindness, and turning away from those other turbid souls; -and they would signify, as it seemed, their annoyance by -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> out drawing close together, but joy and affability by opening -and dispersing. There he saw, he said, the soul of a kinsman, but -not very certainly, for the man had died while he was himself -a child. However, the soul drew towards him, and said, “Hail -Thespesius!” He was surprised at this, and said that his name -was not Thespesius, but Aridaeus. “Formerly so,” was the -reply, “but from now Thespesius. For you are not really dead, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>but, by some appointment of Heaven, have come hither with -your sentient part, the rest of your soul is left within the body, -as a light anchor. Let this be a sign to you now and hereafter; -the souls of the dead make no shadow, and their eyes do not <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -blink.”<a id='r243' /><a href='#f243' class='c006'><sup>[243]</sup></a> When Thespesius heard this, he drew himself together -in deeper thought, and as he gazed, he saw a sort of dim and -shadowy line which wavered as he moved, while the others were -transparent within, all set around with brightness, yet not all -equally. Some were like the full moon at her purest, and emitted -one smooth, continuous, uniform colour; over others there ran -scales, so to call them, or slender weals; others were quite dappled -and strange to look upon, branded with black spots like those -on serpents; others again showed open blunted scars. Then <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the kinsman of Thespesius (for nothing forbids us to designate -the souls in this way by the names of men) began to explain -it all to him, as thus: “Adrasteia, daughter of Zeus and -Necessity, has been appointed to punish all crimes in the highest -place; no criminal has there ever yet been, so small or so great, -as to pass unseen or to escape by his might. But there are three -modes of punishment, and each mode has its proper guardian -minister. Some men are punished, at once in the body and -through their body, and these swift Retribution handles; her <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -method is a gentle one, and passes over many crimes which ask -for expiation. Those whose cure is a heavier matter are passed -after death to Justice by the daemon. The wholly incurable -Justice rejects; and these the third, and the fiercest, of the -satellites of Adrasteia, whose name is Erinnys, chases, as they -wander and try to escape in all directions; and it is pitiful -and cruel how she brings them all to nothing and plunges -them into the gulf which is beyond speech or sight. As to the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>565<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -other two modes of justification,” he went on, “that which is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>wrought by Retribution during life resembles the usage of -barbarian countries. For as in Persia they pluck off and scourge -the robes and the hats of men under punishment, while their -owners implore them to stop, so punishments through money -or upon the person get no close grip, they do not fasten on -the vice itself, but are mostly for appearance and appeal to -the senses. But whoever makes his way here from earth -unchastened and unpurged, Justice firmly seizes him, with his -soul naked and manifest, having no place into which to skulk, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> that he may hide and veil his wickedness, but eyed from all -sides, and by all, and all over. And first she shows him to good -parents, if such he has, or to ancestors, a contemptible and -unworthy sight. If these are all bad, he sees them punished -and is seen by them, and so is justified during a long time, -while each of his passions is dislodged by pains and toils, which -as much exceed in greatness and intensity those which are through -the flesh, as a day dream may be clearer than that which comes -in sleep. Scars and weals left by particular passions<a id='r244' /><a href='#f244' class='c006'><sup>[244]</sup></a> are more -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> persistent in some men than in others. And look”, he said, -“at those motley colours upon the souls, which come from every -source. There is the dusky, dirty red, which is the smear -made by meanness and greed; the fiery blood-red of cruelty -and harshness. Where you see the bluish grey, there intemperance -in pleasures has been rubbed away, and a heavy work -it was; malice and envying have been there to inject that -violet beneath the skin, as cuttle-fishes their ink. For down -on earth vice brings out the colours, while the soul is turned -about by the passions and turns the body, but here, when -these have been smoothed away, the final result of purgation, -and chastisement is this, that the soul becomes radiant all over -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and of one hue. But as long as the colours are in it, there are -certain reversions to passion, with throbbings and a pulsation -<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>which in some is faint and easily passes off, in others makes -vigorous resistance. Of these souls, some, being chastised -again and again, attain their fitting habit and disposition; -others are transferred into the bodies of beasts by masterful -ignorance and the passionate love of pleasure;<a id='r245' /><a href='#f245' class='c006'><sup>[245]</sup></a> for ignorance, -through weakness of the reasoning part and inactivity of -the speculative, inclines on its practical side towards generation; -while the love of pleasure, requiring an instrument for intemperance, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -craves to unite the desires with their satisfaction, -and to have share in corporeal excitement, since here is nothing -save a sort of ineffectual shadow, and a dream of pleasure -without its fulfilment.” Having said this, he began to lead -him on, moving rapidly yet covering, as it seemed, a space of -infinite extent with unfaltering ease, borne upwards on the -rays of light, as though by wings, until he reached a great -chasm which yawned downwards. There he was deserted by -the supporting force, and saw the other souls in the same case. -Packing together, like birds, and borne down and around, they <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -circled about the chasm, which they did not venture to cross -outright. You might see it within, resembling the caves of -Bacchus, dressed in wood and greenery, and gay with blossoms -of flowers of every sort; and it exhaled a mild and gentle -breeze which wafted odours of marvellous delight, and produced -such an atmosphere as wine throws off for its votaries; for the -souls feasted on the fragrant smells and were relaxed into mutual -kindliness. All around a bacchic humour prevailed, and laughter, -and every joy which the Muses can give where men sport and are -merry. By this way, he said, Dionysus went up to the Gods, and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>566<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -afterwards brought Semele; it is called “the Place of Lethe”. -Here he did not allow Thespesius to linger, even though -he would, but kept drawing him away by force, explaining -<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>to him as he did so that the sentient mind becomes wasted and -sodden by pleasure, while the irrational and corporeal part is -watered and pampered and suggests recollection of the body, -and, from that recollection, a yearning and desire which makes -for generation (genesis), so named because it is a leaning towards -earth (Ge-neusis)<a id='r246' /><a href='#f246' class='c006'><sup>[246]</sup></a> when the soul is weighed down by moisture. -Having travelled another journey as long as the first, he seemed -to be gazing into a mighty bowl, with rivers discharging into -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> it, one whiter than foam of the sea, or snowflakes, another -with the purple flush of the rainbow, others tinged with -different hues. From a distance each showed its proper ray, -but as he drew near the rim became invisible, and the -colouring was dulled, and the more brilliant hues deserted -the bowl, leaving only the whiteness. And there he saw three -daemons seated close together in a triangle, mingling the streams -in certain measures. Now the soul-conductor of Thespesius -told him that thus far Orpheus advanced, when he was questing -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> for the soul of his wife, and, from not rightly remembering, -put out an untrue account among men, namely that “there -was an oracle at Delphi, held by Apollo and Night in common, -whereas Night has nothing in common with Apollo. Really,” -he said, “this oracle is shared by Night and the moon, having -nowhere an earthly bound, or a single habitation, but roaming -over men everywhere in dreams and phantoms. From here -it is that dreams, which are mingled, as you see, with what is -deceitful and embroidered, get so much simplicity and truth -as they scatter abroad. The oracle of Apollo”, he continued, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> “you have not seen, nor will you ever be able to see it, for the -earthly element of the soul does not mount upwards or allow -that; it is attached closely to the body and bends downwards.” -And as he spoke, he led him on, and he tried to show him the -light coming, as he said, from the tripod, resting on Parnassus -<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>between the breasts of Themis. Earnestly desiring to see, he -saw nothing for the brightness. But he heard, as he passed, -a woman’s shrill voice chanting in verse many things, among -them the time of his own death. The daemon told him that -the voice was that of the Sibyl,<a id='r247' /><a href='#f247' class='c006'><sup>[247]</sup></a> who was singing about things -to be, as she was carried round on the face of the moon. He <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -desired to hear more, but was thrust off by the whirling of the -moon to the opposite side, as though caught in the eddies, and -only heard scraps, one of which was about Mount Vesuvius and -the future destruction by fire of Dicaearcheia, and a fragment -of song about the emperor of that day, how that</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in24'><i>so good a man</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Shall die upon his bed, and end his reign.</i><a id='r248' /><a href='#f248' class='c006'><sup>[248]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>After that, they turned to the sight of those under punishment. -At first they met only with repulsive and piteous spectacles. -Afterwards, when Thespesius found friends and relations and -intimates, whom he could never have conceived of as punished, -enduring sore sufferings and penalties both ignominious and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -painful, and pitying themselves to him and weeping aloud; -and at last saw his own father emerging from a certain pit, -all over brands and scars, reaching out his hand towards his -son and not permitted to be silent, but compelled by the -warders to confess his infamous conduct to some strangers -who had come with gold—how he had poisoned them, and had -escaped detection there on earth, but had been convicted -here, how he had already suffered part, and was now led to -suffer the remainder—, then he did not dare to supplicate <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>567<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -or to entreat for his father, so great was his consternation and -horror. Wishing to turn about and flee, he saw no longer -that gracious and familiar guide, but was thrust forward by -others of terrible visage, because it was necessary that he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>should go through it all. There he beheld the shadows of those -who had been notoriously wicked, and who had been punished -on the spot, not savagely handled as were the former ones, -because<a id='r249' /><a href='#f249' class='c006'><sup>[249]</sup></a> their trouble was in the irrational seat of the passions. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> But those who had passed through life under a veil or cloak -of the appearance of virtue, were compelled by others, who stood -around, laboriously and painfully to turn their soul inside out, -writhing and bending themselves back unnaturally, as the -scolopendrae<a id='r250' /><a href='#f250' class='c006'><sup>[250]</sup></a> of the sea, when they have gorged the hook, -turn themselves inside out. Others they would flay, and fold -the skin back, to show how scarred and mottled they were -beneath it, because the vice was seated in the rational and -directing part. Other souls he said that he saw intertwined -like vipers, by twos or threes or more together, gnawing one -another out of spite and rancour for what they had suffered -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> in life, or done. And there were lakes lying side by side, one -of boiling gold, one of lead, exceeding cold, and one of iron, -which was rough. Over these stood daemons, as it might -be smiths, with tongs, picking up by turns the souls of those -whose wickedness came of greed and grasping, and plunging -them in. When they had become all fiery and transparent -in the burning gold, they were thrust into the bath of lead; -and when frozen till they became hard as hailstones, they were -shifted on to the iron, and there they became hideously black, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and were broken up and crushed, so hard and brittle were they, -and their shapes were changed. Then they were conveyed, -just as they were, back to the gold, enduring dire pains in the -transition. Most pitiful of all, he said, was the case of those -who seemed already quit of Justice and then were seized up -anew. These were the souls whose penalty had come round -to any descendants or children. For whenever any one of these -last came up and met them, he would fall upon them in anger, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>and shout aloud, and show the marks of his sufferings, reviling -and pursuing, while the parent soul sought to flee and hide <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -itself, but could not; for the torturers would run swiftly after -and bring them to Justice, and force them through all from the -beginning, while they bewailed themselves because they knew -the punishment before them. And there were some, he said, -to whom a number of their offspring were attached, clinging -to them just like bees or bats, and jibbering in wrathful -recollection of what they had suffered on account of their -parents. Last of all, while he was looking at the souls returning -to a second birth—how they were violently bent and transformed -into animals of every sort by the executioners of this task, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -who used certain implements and blows, here squeezing together -the limbs entire, here twisting them aside, here planing them -away and getting rid of them altogether, to fit into other -characters and other lives—, there appeared among these the soul -of Nero, already in torment, and pierced with red-hot nails. -For it the executioners had prepared the form of a viper, as -Pindar describes it, wherein the beast is to be conceived, and -live, after having devoured its own mother. And then, he said, -there shone out a great light, and from the light came a voice -commanding them to shift Nero to some other milder species, -and to fashion a beast to sing around marshes and pools, for that -he had paid the penalty of his crimes; and moreover some -benefit was due to him from the Gods, because he had freed <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>568<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the best and most God-loving race, that of Hellas. Up to this -point, Thespesius had been, he said, a spectator. But as he was -about to return, he suffered a horrible fear. For a woman of -marvellous form and stature seized hold of him: “Come here, -fellow!” she said, “that thou mayest have a better memory of -these things.” Then she brought near him a rod, such as painters -use, red-hot, but another woman prevented her. He, sucked -up by a sudden violent wind, as out of a blow-pipe, fell on to his -own body, and just opened his eyes on the edge of the tomb.’</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span> - <h2 id='chap07' class='c003'>FROM THE DIALOGUE ‘ON THE SOUL’ <br /> A FRAGMENT</h2> -</div> -<p class='c004'>[Preserved by Stobaeus, <i>Florileg.</i> 119.<a id='r251' /><a href='#f251' class='c006'><sup>[251]</sup></a>]</p> -<p class='c004'>I. When Timon had spoken thus, Patrocleas replied: -‘Your argument is as forcible as it is ancient, yet there are -difficulties. For if the doctrine of immortality is so very old, -how is it that the fear of death is “oldest of terrors”<a id='r252' /><a href='#f252' class='c006'><sup>[252]</sup></a>? Unless, -of course, it is this which has engendered all other terrors. -For there is nothing “fresh or new” in our mourning for the -dead, or in the use of those sad sinister forms of speech, “Poor -man!” “Unfortunate man!”’</p> - -<p class='c005'>II. ‘But there’, said Timon, ‘we shall find a confusion -of ideas between what perishes and what does not. Now when -we speak of the dead as having “passed away” and being -“gone”, there is clearly no suggestion of anything actually harsh, -only of a change or transition of some sort. Where that change -takes place for those who undergo it, and whether it be for worse -or better, let us consider by looking into the other words used. -Our actual word for death<a id='r253' /><a href='#f253' class='c006'><sup>[253]</sup></a>, in the first place, does not appear -to point to a movement downward, or beneath the earth, -but rather to a mounting upward towards God of that which -passes. Thus we may reasonably suppose that the soul darts out -and runs upward, as though a bent spring had been released, -when the body breathes it out, and itself draws an upward -vital breath. Next, look at the opposite of death, which is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>generation; this word, on the contrary, expresses a tendency -downward, an inclination to earth<a id='r254' /><a href='#f254' class='c006'><sup>[254]</sup></a> of that which at the time -of death again speeds upward. Hence, too, we call our natal -day by a name which means a beginning of evils and of great -troubles.<a id='r255' /><a href='#f255' class='c006'><sup>[255]</sup></a> Perhaps we shall see the same thing even more clearly -from another set of words. A man when he dies is said to be -“released”, and death called a “release”—if you ask the -question “from what?”, a release from body<a id='r256' /><a href='#f256' class='c006'><sup>[256]</sup></a>—for body is -called dĕmas, because the soul is kept in bondage in it, contrary -to nature, nothing being forcibly detained in a place which is -natural to it. A further play upon this “bondage” and “force” -gives the word “life”, as Homer,<a id='r257' /><a href='#f257' class='c006'><sup>[257]</sup></a> I think, uses Hesperus for -the feminine “evening”, and so, in contrast to “life”, the -dead is said to come to his rest, released from a great and -unnatural stress. So with the change and reconstitution of -the soul into the Whole; we say that it has perished when -it has made its way thither; while here it does not know this -unless at the actual approach of death, when it undergoes -such an experience as those do who are initiated into great -mysteries. Thus death and initiation closely correspond, word -to word,<a id='r258' /><a href='#f258' class='c006'><sup>[258]</sup></a> and thing to thing. At first there are wanderings, -and laborious circuits, and journeyings through the dark, full -of misgivings where there is no consummation; then, before -the very end, come terrors of every kind, shivers, and trembling, -and sweat, and amazement. After this, a wonderful light -meets the wanderer; he is admitted into pure meadow lands, -where are voices, and dances, and the majesty of holy sounds and -sacred visions. Here the newly initiate, all rites completed, -is at large; he walks at large like the dedicated victim with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>a crown on his head, and joins in high revelry; he converses -with pure and holy men, and surveys the uninitiate unpurified -crowd here below in the dirt and darkness, trampled by its -own feet and packed together; through fear of death remaining -in its ills, because it does not believe in the blessings which are -beyond. For that the conjunction of soul with body, and its -imprisonment, are against nature, you may clearly see from this.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>III. ‘From what?’ said Patrocleas. ‘From the fact -that of all our experiences sleep is the most agreeable. First, -it always extinguishes any perception of pain, because its pleasure -is mingled with so much that is familiar, secondly, it overpowers -all other appetites, even the most vehement. For even those -who are devoted to the body become disinclined for pleasure -when sleep comes on, and when they slumber reject loving -embraces. Why dwell on this? When sleep takes possession, -it excludes even the pleasure which comes from learning, and -discussion, and philosophic thought, as though a smooth deep -stream swept the soul along. All pleasure, perhaps, is by its -essence and nature a respite from pain, but of sleep this is absolutely -true. For, though nothing exciting or delightful should -approach from without, yet we feel pleasure in a sound sleep; -sleep seems to remove a condition of toil and hardness. And -that condition is no other than that which binds soul to body. In -sleep the soul is separated, and speeds upward, and is gathered -unto itself after having been strained to fit the body, and dispersed -among the senses. Yet some assert that, on the contrary, -sleep immingles soul with body. They are wrong. The body -bears its witness the other way, by its lack of sensation, its -coldness, and heaviness, and pallor proving that the soul -leaves it in death, and shifts its quarters in sleep. This -produces the pleasure; it is a release and respite for the -soul, as though it laid down a burthen which it must again -resume and shoulder. For when it dies it runs away from the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>body for good; when it is asleep, it plays truant. Therefore -death is sometimes accompanied by pains, sleep always by -pleasure; in the former case the bond is snapped altogether, -in the latter it gives, and is slackened, and becomes easier, -as the senses are loosened like parting knots, and the strain -which ties soul to body is gone.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>IV. ‘Then how is it’, said Patrocleas, ‘that we do not feel -discomfort or pain from being awake?’ ‘How is it’, said -Timon, ‘that when the hair is cut, the head feels lightness and -relief, yet there was no sense of oppression at all while the hair -was long? Or that men released from bonds feel pleasure, -yet there is no pain when the chains are on? Or why is -there a stir of applause when light is brought suddenly into -a banquet, yet its absence did not appear to cause pain or trouble -to the eye? There is one cause, my friend, in all these cases; -that gradual habituation made the unnatural familiar to the -sense, so that it felt absolutely no distress then, but felt pleasure -when there was release and a restoration to nature. The -strangeness is seen at once when the proper condition comes, -the presence of what pained and pressed by contrast with the -pleasure. It is exactly so with the soul: during its association -with mortal passions, and parts, and organs, that which is -unnatural and strange produces no apparent pressure because -of that long familiarity; yet when discharged from the activities -of the body, it feels ease, and relief, and pleasure. By them it -is distressed, and about these it toils, and from these it -craves leisure and rest. For all that concerns its own natural -activities—observation, reasoning, memory, speculation—it is -unwearied and insatiable. Satiety is nothing but a weariness -of pleasure, when soul feels with body. To its own pleasures -soul never cries “Enough”; but while it is involved in body, -it is in the plight of Ulysses.<a id='r259' /><a href='#f259' class='c006'><sup>[259]</sup></a> As he clung to the fig-tree, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>hugged it, not from love of the tree, but fearing Charybdis -down below, so soul clings to body and embraces it, from no -goodwill to it or gratitude, but in horror of the uncertainty of -death,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>For life the gods conceal from mortal men</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>says the wise Hesiod.<a id='r260' /><a href='#f260' class='c006'><sup>[260]</sup></a> They have not strained soul to body -by fleshy bonds, one bond they have contrived and one encompassing -device, the uncertainty of what comes after death, and -our slowness to believe; since, “if the soul were persuaded”, -as Heraclitus<a id='r261' /><a href='#f261' class='c006'><sup>[261]</sup></a> says, “of all the things which await men when -they have died, no force would keep it back.”’</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span> - <h2 id='chap08' class='c003'>ON SUPERSTITION</h2> -</div> -<h3 class='c009'>INTRODUCTION</h3> -<p class='c004'>The drift of Plutarch’s remarkable Treatise on Superstition -is well given in the opening words of Bacon’s famous Essay: -‘It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such -an opinion as is unworthy of him. For the one is unbelief, -the other is contumely, and certainly superstition is the -reproach of the Deity.’ The word—the same which, in its -adjective, St. Paul applies, almost in a good sense, to the -Athenians of his day<a id='r262' /><a href='#f262' class='c006'><sup>[262]</sup></a>—is correctly defined by Theophrastus, -in his ‘character’ of the superstitious man, as timidity with -regard to the supernatural, and this timidity at once passes -into cowardice. There is in this treatise a fighting spirit and -a directness of attack unusual in Plutarch, who mostly speaks -with academic balance about conflicting schools of thought. -Thus it has been suggested that one or other of his writings -against the Epicureans may be intended to supply the required -study ‘On Atheism’. There are many passages in the <i>Lives</i> -and also in the <i>Moralia</i> where the author is seen to mediate -between credulity and scepticism, superstition and atheism; -usually showing a tendency to ‘the more benign extreme’; -there is more to be lost by an undue hardening of the intellect -than by a wise hospitality to beliefs and ideas which lie beyond -strict proof. Here the attack is one-sided and uncompromising. -At the end of the treatise true piety is exhibited as a middle -path between superstition and atheism. This is not to be -understood of a quantitative excess or defect. Piety in excess -may induce a habit which deserves the name of superstition, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>such as has been the fair butt of satirists in all ages, and of -humorists like Theophrastus. But Plutarch is thinking not -of excess, but of perversion, a piety directed to wrong powers, -or to powers conceived of in the wrong way. There is a striking -instance in the <i>Life of Pelopidas</i> (c. 21), when some of the prophets -invited that great soldier to obey the warning of a dream by -slaying his daughter, for which there were ancient precedents. -‘But some on the other side urged, that such a barbarous and -impious oblation could not be pleasing to any superior beings; -that Typhons and Giants did not preside over the world, but the -general father of Gods and men; that it was absurd to imagine -any Divinities or powers delighted in slaughter or sacrifices of -men; or, if there were any such, they were to be neglected, -as weak and unable to assist; such unreasonable and cruel desires -could only proceed from, and live in, weak and depraved minds.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>The situation is saved by the good sense of the augur -Theocritus, the same who plays a quaint and gallant part in -the enterprise described in <i>The Genius of Socrates</i>; and a chestnut -colt takes the place of the daughter. And there is no -doubt on which side of the argument Plutarch’s sympathies lie.</p> - -<p class='c005'>An admirable running commentary on Plutarch’s treatise is -supplied by the <i>Discourse on Superstition</i> of John Smith, the -Cambridge Platonist (1618-52), here printed as an Appendix -to it. Like Bacon, John Smith has written also a <i>Discourse on -Atheism</i>, from which it may be sufficient for the present -purpose to quote the words of the Son of Sirach appended as -his conclusion:</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘O Lord, Father and God of my life, give me not a proud -look, but turn away from thy servants a Giant-like minde’ -(Ecclus. 23, 4).</p> - -<p class='c005'>See, for this whole treatise, Dr. Oakesmith’s Chapter IX, -pp. 179 foll.</p> -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span> - <h3 class='c016'>ON SUPERSTITION</h3> -</div> -<p class='c004'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>164 <span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> The stream of ignorance and of misconception about the -Gods passed, from the very first, into two channels; one branch -flowed, as it were, over stony places, and has produced atheism -in hard characters, the other over moist ground, and this has -produced superstition in the tender ones. Now any error of -judgement, especially on such matters, is a vicious thing, but -if passion be added it is more vicious. For all passion is ‘deceit -accompanied by inflammation’; and as dislocations are more <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -serious when there is also a wound, so are distortions of the soul -when there is passion. A man thinks that atoms and a void -are the first principles of the universe; the conception is -a false one, but does not produce ulceration or spasm, or -tormenting pain. Another conceives of wealth as the greatest <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>165<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -good; this falsity has poison in it, preys on his soul, deranges it, -allows him no sleep, fills him with stinging torments, thrusts -him down steep places, strangles him, takes away all confidence -of speech. Again, some think that virtue is a corporeal thing, -and vice also; this is a gross piece of ignorance perhaps, but -not worthy of lament or groans. But where there are such -judgements and conceptions as these:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Alas, poor Virtue! so thou art but words,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>And as a thing I was pursuing thee</i><a id='r263' /><a href='#f263' class='c006'><sup>[263]</sup></a>—</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>dropping, he means, the injustice which makes money, and the -intemperance which is parent of all pleasure—, these it is -worth our while to pity and to resent also, because their presence <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -in the soul breeds diseases and passions in numbers, very worms -and vermin.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>II. And so it is with the subjects of our present discourse. -Atheism, which is a faulty judgement that there is nothing -blessed or imperishable, seems to work round through disbelief -in the Divine to actual apathy; its object in not acknowledging -Gods is that it may not fear them. Superstition is -shown by its very name to be a state of opinion charged with -emotion and productive of such fear as debases and crushes -the man; he thinks that there are Gods, but that they are -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> grievous and hurtful. The atheist appears to be unmoved at -the mention of the Divine; the superstitious is moved, but -in a wrong and perverted sense. Ignorance has produced in -the one disbelief of the power which is helping him, in the -other a superadded idea that it is hurting. Hence atheism -is theory gone wrong, superstition is ingrained feeling, the -outcome of false theory.</p> - -<p class='c005'>III. Now all diseases and affections of the soul are discreditable, -but there is in some of them a gaiety, a loftiness, -a distinction, which come of a light heart; we may say that -none of these is wanting in a strong active impulse. Only -there is this common charge to be laid against every such -affection, that by stress of the active impulse it forces and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> constrains the reason. Fear alone, as deficient in daring as -it is in reason, keeps the irrational part inoperative, without -resource or shift. Hence it has been called by two names, -‘Deima’ and ‘Tarbos’,<a id='r264' /><a href='#f264' class='c006'><sup>[264]</sup></a> because it at once constricts and vexes -the soul. But of all fears that which comes of superstition -is most inoperative, and most resourceless. The man who -never sails fears not the sea, nor the non-combatant, war; the -home-keeping man fears no robbers, the poor no informers, -the plain citizen no envy, the dweller among the Gauls<a id='r265' /><a href='#f265' class='c006'><sup>[265]</sup></a> no -earthquake, among the Ethiopians no thunder. The man who -fears the Gods fears everything, land, sea; air, sky; darkness, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>light; sound, silence; to dream, to wake. Slaves forget <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -their masters while they sleep, sleep eases the prisoner’s chain; -angry wounds, ulcers that raven and prey upon the flesh, and -agonizing pains, all stand aloof from men that sleep:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Dear soothing sleep, that com’st to succour pains,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>How sweet is thy approach in this my need.</i><a id='r266' /><a href='#f266' class='c006'><sup>[266]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Superstition does not allow a man to say this; she alone has no -truce with sleep, and suffers not the soul to breathe awhile, and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -take courage, and thrust away its bitter heavy thoughts about -the God. The sleep of the superstitious is a land of the ungodly, -where blood-curdling visions, and monstrous whirling phantoms, -and sure penalties are awake; the unhappy soul is hunted by -dreams out of every spell of sleep it has, lashed and punished -by itself, as though by some other, and receives injunctions -horrible and revolting. Then when they have risen out of -sleep, they do not scorn it all, or laugh it down, or perceive -that none of the things which vexed them was real, but, escaped -from the shadow of an illusion with no harm in it, they fall upon -a vision of the day and deceive themselves outright, and spend <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>166<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -money to vex their souls, meeting with quacks and charlatans -who tell them:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>If nightly vision fright thy sleep,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Or hags their hellish revel keep</i>,<a id='r267' /><a href='#f267' class='c006'><sup>[267]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>call in the wise woman, and take a dip into the sea, then sit -on the ground, and remain so a whole day.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Ah! Greeks, what ills outlandish have ye found</i>,<a id='r268' /><a href='#f268' class='c006'><sup>[268]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>namely, by superstition—dabbling in mud, plunges into -filth, keepings of Sabbaths, falling on the face, foul attitudes, -weird prostrations. Those who were concerned to keep music -<span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>regular used to enjoin on singers to the harp to sing ‘with -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> mouth aright’. But we require that men should pray to the -gods with mouth aright and just; not to consider whether -the tongue of the victim be clean and correct, while they -distort their own and foul it with absurd outlandish words and -phrases, and transgress against the divine rule of piety as our -fathers knew it. The man in the comedy has a passage which -puts it happily to those who plate their bedsteads with gold -and silver:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>The one free gift of gods to mortals, sleep,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Why make it for thyself a costly boon?</i><a id='r269' /><a href='#f269' class='c006'><sup>[269]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> So we may say to the superstitious man, that the Gods gave -sleep for oblivion of troubles and a respite from them; why -make it for thyself a cell of punishment, a chamber of abiding -torment, whence the miserable soul cannot run away unto any -other sleep? Heraclitus<a id='r270' /><a href='#f270' class='c006'><sup>[270]</sup></a> says that ‘waking men have one -world common to all, but in sleep each betakes him to a world -of his own.’ The superstitious has no world, no, not a common -world, since neither while he is awake does he enjoy his -reason, nor when he sleeps is he set free from his tormentor; -reason ever drowses, and fear is ever awake; there is no escape, -nor change of place.</p> - -<p class='c005'>IV. Polycrates was a terrible tyrant in Samos, Periander -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> at Corinth, yet no one continued to fear them when he had -removed to a free and democratic state. But when a man -fears the sovereignty of the Gods as a grim inexorable tyranny, -whither shall he migrate, where find exile, what sort of land -can he find where no Gods are, or of sea? Into what portion -of the world wilt thou creep and hide thyself, and believe, -thou miserable creature, that thou hast escaped from God? -There is a law which allows even slaves, if they have despaired -<span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>of liberty, to petition to be sold, and so change to a milder -master. Superstition allows no exchange of Gods, nor is it -possible to find a God who shall not be terrible to him who -fears those of his country and his clan, who shivers at the ‘Preservers’ -and trembles in alarm before the beneficent beings -from whom we ask wealth, plenty, peace, concord, a successful <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -issue for our best of words and works. And then these men -reckon slavery a misfortune, and say:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>A dire mishap it is, for man or maid,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>To pass to service of some ill-starred lord.</i><a id='r271' /><a href='#f271' class='c006'><sup>[271]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Yet how much more dire is it, think you, for them to pass to -lords from whom is no flight, or running away, no shifting. -The slave has an altar to flee unto, even for robbers many -temples are inviolable, and fugitives in war, if they lay hold -of shrine or temple, take courage. The superstitious shudders in -alarm at those very things beyond all others, wherein those who -fear the worst find hope. Never drag the superstitious man -from temples; within them is punishment and retribution <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -for him. Why more words? ‘Death is the limit of life to -all mankind.’<a id='r272' /><a href='#f272' class='c006'><sup>[272]</sup></a> Yes, but even death is no limit to superstition; -superstition crosses the boundaries to the other side, and makes -fear endure longer than life. It attaches to death the apprehension -of undying ills, and when it ceases from troubles, it <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>167<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -thinks to enter upon troubles which never cease. Gates are -opened for it into a very depth of Hades, rivers of fire and streams -which flow out of Styx mingle their floods; darkness itself -is spread with phantoms manifold, obtruding cruel visions and -pitiful voices; there are judges and tormentors, and chasms and -abysses which teem with myriad evil things. Thus has superstition, -that God-banned fear of Gods, made that inevitable to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>itself by anticipation, of which it had escaped the suffering -in act.<a id='r273' /><a href='#f273' class='c006'><sup>[273]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>V. None of these horrors attaches to atheism. Yet its -ignorance is distressing; it is a great misfortune to a soul -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> to see so wrong and grope so blindly about such great matters, -because the light is extinguished of the brightest and most -availing out of many eyes when the perception of God is lost. -But to the opinion now before us there does attach from the -very first, as we have already said, an emotional element, cankering, -perturbing, and slavish. Plato<a id='r274' /><a href='#f274' class='c006'><sup>[274]</sup></a> says that music, whose -work it is to make men’s lives harmonious and rhythmical, -was given to them by Gods, not for wanton tickling of the ears, -but to clear the revolutions and harmonies of the soul -from the disturbing impulses which rove within the body, -such as most often run riot, where the Muse is not or the Grace, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and do violence and mar the tune; to bring them to order, to -roll them smooth, to lead them aright, and settle them.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>But they whom Zeus not loves</i> (says Pindar)<a id='r275' /><a href='#f275' class='c006'><sup>[275]</sup></a></div> - <div class='line'><i>Turn to the sound a dim disdainful ear</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>What time the Muses’ voice they hear.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Yes, they grow savage and rebellious, as the tigers, they say, -are maddened and troubled at the sound of the drum, and at -last tear themselves to pieces. A lesser evil then it is for those -who, through deafness and a dulled ear, are apathetic and -insensible to music. Tiresias was unfortunate that he could -not see his children and familiar friends, but far worse was the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> case of Athamas and of Agave, who saw them as lions and stags. -Better, I think, it was for Hercules in his madness not to see -his sons, or feel their presence, than to treat his dearest ones -as enemies.</p> - -<p class='c005'>VI. What then? Comparing the feeling of the atheists with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>that of the superstitious, do we not find a similar difference? -The former see no Gods at all, the latter think that they exist as -evil beings. The former neglect them, the latter imagine that -to be terrible which is kind, that tyrannical which is fatherly, -loving care to be injury, the ‘unapproachable’<a id='r276' /><a href='#f276' class='c006'><sup>[276]</sup></a> to be savage and -brutal. Then, trusting to coppersmiths, or marble workers, or -modellers in wax, they fashion the forms of the Gods in human -shape, and these they mould and frame and worship; while <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -they despise philosophers and men who know life, if they point -them to the majesty of God consisting with goodness, and magnanimity, -and patience, and solicitude. Thus in the former the -result is insensibility and want of belief in all that is fair and -helpful, in the latter confusion and fear in the presence of help. -In a word, atheism is an apathy for the Divine which fails to -perceive the good, superstition is an excess of feeling which -suspects that the good is evil. They fear the Gods, and they -flee to the Gods for refuge; they flatter and they revile them; -they invoke and they censure them. It is man’s common lot -not to succeed always or in all. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>They, from sickness free and age,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Quit of toils, the deep-voiced rage</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Of Acheron for ay have left behind</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>as Pindar<a id='r277' /><a href='#f277' class='c006'><sup>[277]</sup></a> says; but human sufferings and doings flow in -a mingled stream of vicissitude, now this way, now that.</p> - -<p class='c005'>VII. Now look with me at the atheist, first when things cross -his wishes, and consider his attitude. If he is a decent, quiet -person, he takes what comes in silence, and provides his own -means of succour and consolation. If he be impatient and -querulous, he directs all his complainings against Fortune, and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>168<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the way things happen; he cries out that nothing goes by -justice or as Providence ordains, all is confused and jumbled up; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>the tangled web of human life is unpicked. Not so the superstitious: -if the ill which has befallen him be the veriest trifle, -still he sits down and builds on to his annoyance a pile of troubles, -grievous and great and inextricable, heaping up for himself fears, -dreads, suspicions, worries, a victim to every sort of groaning -and lamentation; for he blames not man, nor fortune, nor -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> occasion, nor himself, but for all the God. From that quarter -comes pouring upon him, he says, a Heaven-sent stream of woe; -he is punished thus by the Gods not because he is unfortunate, -but because he is specially hated by them, all that he suffers is -his own proper deserts. Then the atheist, when he is sick, -reckons up his own surfeitings, carouses, irregularities in diet, -or over-fatigues, or unaccustomed changes of climate or place. -Or, again, if he have met with political reverses, become unpopular -or discredited in high quarters, he seeks for the cause in -himself or his party.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Where my transgression? or what have I done? what duty omitted?</i><a id='r278' /><a href='#f278' class='c006'><sup>[278]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>But to the superstitious every infirmity of his body, every -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> loss of money, any death of a child, foul weather and failures -in politics, are reckoned for blows from the God and assaults -of the fiend. Hence he does not even take courage to help -himself, to get rid of the trouble, or to remedy it, or make -resistance, lest he should seem to be fighting the Gods, and -resisting when punished. So the doctor is thrust out of the -sick man’s chamber, and the mourner’s door is closed against the -sage who comes to comfort and advise. ‘Man,’ he says, ‘let -me take my punishment, as the miscreant that I am, an accursed -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> object of hate to Gods and daemons.’ It is open to a man who -has no conviction that there are Gods, when suffering from some -great grief and trouble, to wipe away a tear, to cut his hair, to -put off his mourning. How are you going to address the superstitious -<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>in like case, wherein to bring him help? He sits outside, -clothed in sackcloth, or with filthy rags hanging about him, as -often as not rolling naked in the mud, while he recites errors -and misdoings of his own, how he ate this, or drank that, or -walked on a road which the spirit did not allow. At the very -best, if he have taken superstition in a mild form, he sits in -the house fumigating and purifying himself. The old women -‘make a peg of him’, as Bion says, and on it they hang—whatever <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -they choose to bring!</p> - -<p class='c005'>VIII. They say that Tiribazus, when arrested by the -Persians, drew his scimitar, being a powerful man, and fought -for his life; then, when they loudly protested that the arrest -was by the king’s orders, at once dropped his point, and held -out his hands to be tied. Is not this just what happens in the -case before us? Other men make a fight against mischances and -thrust all aside, that they may devise ways of escape and evade -what is unwelcome to themselves. But the superstitious man -listens to nobody, and addresses himself thus: ‘Poor wretch, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -thy sufferings come from Providence, and by the order of the -God.’ So he flings away all hope, gives himself up, flies, -obstructs those who try to help him. Many tolerable troubles -are made deadly by various superstitions. Midas<a id='r279' /><a href='#f279' class='c006'><sup>[279]</sup></a> of old, -as we are to believe, dispirited and distressed by certain dreams, -was so miserable that he sought a voluntary death by drinking -bulls’ blood. Aristodemus, king of the Messenians, during the -war with the Lacedaemonians, when dogs were howling like -wolves, and rye grass sprouting around his ancestral hearth, in -utter despair at the extinction of all his hopes, cut his own throat. -Perhaps it would have been better for Nicias<a id='r280' /><a href='#f280' class='c006'><sup>[280]</sup></a>, the Athenian <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>169<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -general, to find the same release from superstition as Midas or -<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>Aristodemus, and not, in his terror of the shadow when the -moon was eclipsed, to sit still under blockade, and afterwards, -when forty thousand had been slaughtered or taken alive, to be -taken prisoner and die ingloriously. For there is nothing so -terrible when the earth blocks the way, or when its shadow -meets the moon in due cycle of revolutions; what is terrible is -that a man should plunge<a id='r281' /><a href='#f281' class='c006'><sup>[281]</sup></a> into the darkness of superstition, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and that its dark shadow should confound a man’s reason and -make it blind in matters where reason is most needed.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Glaucus, see! the waves already from the depth of ocean stirred,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>And a cloud is piling upwards, right above the Gyrean point,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Certain presage of foul weather.</i><a id='r282' /><a href='#f282' class='c006'><sup>[282]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>When the helmsman sees this, he prays that he may escape -out of the peril, and calls on the Gods that save; but, while he -prays, his hand is on the tiller, and he lowers the yard-arm,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Furls his mainsail, and from billows black as Erebus he flees.</i><a id='r283' /><a href='#f283' class='c006'><sup>[283]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Hesiod<a id='r284' /><a href='#f284' class='c006'><sup>[284]</sup></a> tells the farmer to pray to Zeus below the earth -and holy Artemis before he ploughs or sows, but to hold on to -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> the plough-handle as he prays. Homer<a id='r285' /><a href='#f285' class='c006'><sup>[285]</sup></a> tells us that Ajax, -before meeting Hector in single combat, commanded the -Greeks to pray for him to the Gods; then, while they were -praying, he was arming. Agamemnon, when he had given orders -to the fighters:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Let each his spear set, and prepare his shield</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>then begs of Zeus:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Grant that this hand make Priam’s halls a heap.</i><a id='r286' /><a href='#f286' class='c006'><sup>[286]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>For God is the hope of valour, not the subterfuge of cowardice. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span>The Jews, on the other hand, because it was a sabbath, sat on in -uncleansed clothes, while their enemies planted their ladders -and took the walls, never rising to their feet, as though entangled -in the one vast draw-net of their superstition.<a id='r287' /><a href='#f287' class='c006'><sup>[287]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>IX. Such then is superstition in disagreeable matters and on <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -what we call critical occasions, but it has no advantage, even in -what is more pleasant, over atheism. Nothing is more pleasant -to men than feasts, temple banquets, initiations, orgies, prayers -to the Gods, and solemn supplications. See the atheist there, -laughing in a wild sardonic peal at the proceedings, probably -with a quiet aside to his intimates, that those who think -this all done for the Gods are crazed and possessed; but that -is the worst that can be said of him. The superstitious man -wants to be cheerful and enjoy himself, but he cannot.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Rife too the city is with heavy reek</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Of victims slain, and rife with divers cries,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>The wail for healing and the moan for death.</i><a id='r288' /><a href='#f288' class='c006'><sup>[288]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> So is the soul of the superstitious. With the crown on his head -he grows pale; while he sacrifices he shudders; he prays with -a quivering voice and offers incense with hands that shake; he -shows all through that Pythagoras<a id='r289' /><a href='#f289' class='c006'><sup>[289]</sup></a> talks nonsense when he says: -‘We reach our best when we draw near to the Gods.’ For it is -then that the superstitious are at their miserable worst; the -halls and temples of the Gods which they approach are for them -dens of bears, lairs of serpents, caverns of monsters of the sea!</p> - -<p class='c005'>X. Hence it comes upon me as a surprise when men say that <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -atheism is impiety, but that superstition is not. Yet Anaxagoras -had to answer a charge of impiety for saying that the sun -is a stone, whereas no one has called the Cimmerians impious -for thinking that there is no sun at all. What do you say? Is -the man who recognizes no Gods a profane person, and does -<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>not he, who takes them for such beings as the superstitious -think, hold a far more profane creed? I know that I would -rather men said about me that there is not, and never has come -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>170<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> into existence, a Plutarch, than that there is a man Plutarch -unstable, shifty, readily provoked, revengeful over accidents, -aggrieved at trifles; who, if you leave him out of your supper -party, if you are busy and do not come to the door, if you pass -him without a greeting, will cling to your flesh like a leech and -gnaw it, or will catch your child, and thrash him to pieces, or will -turn some beast, if he keep one, into your crops, and ruin the -harvest. When Timotheus was singing of Artemis at Athens -in the words:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Wanderer, frenzied one, wild and inebriate!</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Cinesias the composer rose from his place with ‘Such a daughter -be thine!’ Yet the like of this, and worse things too, do the -superstitious hold about Artemis:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>She would burn a hanging woman,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>She a mother in her pangs;</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>She would bring pollution to you</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>From the chamber of a corpse.</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>In the crossways swoop upon you,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Fix on you a murderer’s shame.</i><a id='r290' /><a href='#f290' class='c006'><sup>[290]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Nor will their views about Apollo, or Hera, or Aphrodite be a -whit more decent, they fear and tremble at them all. Yet what -was there in Niobe’s blasphemy about Latona, compared to what -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> superstition has persuaded fools to believe about that goddess, how -she felt herself insulted and actually shot down the poor woman’s</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Six daughters, beauteous all, six blooming sons</i>,<a id='r291' /><a href='#f291' class='c006'><sup>[291]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>so greedy of calamities for another woman, so implacable! For -if the Goddess had really been full of wrath and resentment of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>wickedness, and felt aggrieved at insults to herself, disposed to -resent, rather than to smile at human folly and ignorance, why -then she ought to have shot down those who lyingly imputed -to her such savage bitterness, in speech or books. Certainly we -denounce the bitterness of Hecuba as savage and beastly: <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>In whose mid-liver I my teeth would set,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>And cling and gnaw.</i><a id='r292' /><a href='#f292' class='c006'><sup>[292]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>But of the Syrian Goddess superstitious men believe that if one -eats sprats or anchovies, she munches his shins, fills his body -with sores, and rots his liver.<a id='r293' /><a href='#f293' class='c006'><sup>[293]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>XI. How then? Is it impious to say bad things about the -Gods, but not impious to think them? Or is it the thought of the -blasphemer which makes his voice amiss? We men scout abusive -language as the outward sign of ill-feeling. We reckon for -enemies those who speak ill of us because we think that they -also think ill. Now you see the sort of things which the superstitious -think about the Gods; they take them to be capricious, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -faithless, shifty, revengeful, cruel, vexed about trifles, all reasons -why the superstitious must perforce hate and fear the Gods. -Of course he does, when he thinks that they have been, and will -be again, authors of his greatest ills. But if he hates and fears -the Gods, he is their enemy. Yet he worships, and sacrifices, -and sits before their shrines. And no wonder; men salute tyrants -also, and court them, and set up their figures in gold. But ‘in -silence’ they hate them, ‘wagging the head’.<a id='r294' /><a href='#f294' class='c006'><sup>[294]</sup></a> Hermolaus -remained Alexander’s courtier, Pausanias served on Philip’s <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -bodyguard, Chaereas on that of Caligula; but each of them -would say while he attended on his master</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Sure thou shouldst rue it if my arm were strong.</i><a id='r295' /><a href='#f295' class='c006'><sup>[295]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>The atheist thinks there are no Gods, the superstitious wishes -that there were none; he believes against his will, for he -fears to disbelieve. And yet, as Tantalus would gladly slip -from beneath the stone swinging over his head, so is it with the -superstitious and his fear, a pressure no less sore. He would -reckon the atheist’s mood a blessed one, for there is freedom -in it. As things are, the atheist is quite clear of superstition; -the superstitious is at heart an atheist, only too weak to believe -what he wishes to believe about the Gods.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>171<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> XII. Again, the atheist is in no sense responsible for -superstition, whereas superstition provides atheism with a -principle which brings it into being, and then an apology for -its existence which is neither true nor honest, but is in a sense -colourable. For it is not because they find anything to blame in -sky, or stars, or seasons, or cycles of the moon, or movements of -the sun around the earth, ‘those artificers of day and night’,<a id='r296' /><a href='#f296' class='c006'><sup>[296]</sup></a> or -espy confusion and disorder in the breeding of animals or the -increase of fruits, that they condemn the universe to godlessness. -No! Superstition and its ridiculous doings and emotions, words, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> gestures, juggleries, sorceries, coursings around and beatings of -cymbals, purifications which are impure, and cleansings which -are filthy, weird illegal punishments and degradations at -temples—these give certain persons a pretext for saying that -better no Gods than Gods, if Gods accept such things and take -pleasure in them, Gods so violent, so petty, so sore about trifles.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIII. Were it not better then for those Gauls<a id='r297' /><a href='#f297' class='c006'><sup>[297]</sup></a> and Scythians -to have had no notion at all about Gods, neither imagination nor -record of them, than to think that there are Gods who take -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> pleasure in the blood of slaughtered men and who accept that -as the supreme form of solemn sacrifice? What? Were it not -an advantage to the Carthaginians to have had a Critias or -a Diagoras for their first lawgiver and to recognize neither God -<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>nor daemon, than to offer such sacrifices as they did offer to -Cronus?<a id='r298' /><a href='#f298' class='c006'><sup>[298]</sup></a> It was not the case which Empedocles puts against -those who sacrifice animals:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Father, uplifting his son, not marking the change of the body,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Prays as he takes the dear life, poor fool.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Knowing and recognizing their own children, they used to -sacrifice them—nay, the childless would buy children from -poor parents and cut their throats as though they were lambs or -chickens—, and the mother would stand by dry-eyed and with <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -never a groan. If she should groan or weep, she would have to -lose the merit, and the child was sacrificed all the same, while the -whole space in front of the shrine was filled with the rattle of -drums and the din of fifes, in order that the sound of the wailing -might be drowned. Suppose that Typhons, say, or Giants, -had turned out the Gods and were our rulers, in what sacrifices -but these would they delight, or what other solemnities would -they require? Amestris,<a id='r299' /><a href='#f299' class='c006'><sup>[299]</sup></a> wife of Xerxes, buried twelve men -alive, as her own offering to Hades, who, as Plato<a id='r300' /><a href='#f300' class='c006'><sup>[300]</sup></a> tells us, is <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -kind and wise and detains souls by persuasion and reason, and -so has been named ‘Hades’. Xenophanes,<a id='r301' /><a href='#f301' class='c006'><sup>[301]</sup></a> the natural philosopher, -when he saw the Egyptians beating their breasts and -wailing at their feasts, gave them a home lesson: ‘If these are -Gods, do not mourn them; if men, why sacrifice to them?</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIV. There is no sort of disease so capricious and so varied -in emotions, such a medley of opposite, or rather conflicting, -opinions, as is that of superstition. We must flee from it then, -but as safety and advantage point, not like men who run for -their lives from robbers or beasts or fire, never looking round or -using their heads, and plunge into pathless wastes with pits and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -precipices. For that is how some flee from superstition and -plunge into a rough and flinty atheism, overleaping Piety -seated in the middle space.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span> - <h3 id='app1' class='c016'>APPENDIX <br /> A SHORT DISCOURSE OF SUPERSTITION</h3> -</div> -<h3 class='c009'>By JOHN SMITH</h3> -<h3 class='c009'>THE CONTENTS OF THE ENSUING DISCOURSE</h3> -<p class='c004'><i>The true Notion</i> of Superstition <i>well express’d by</i> Δεισιδαιμονία, -i.e. <i>an over-timorous and dreadful apprehension of the Deity.</i></p> - -<p class='c005'><i>A false opinion of the Deity the true cause and rise of</i> Superstition.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Superstition <i>is most incident to such as Converse not with the -Goodness of God, or are conscious to themselves of their own unlikeness -to him.</i></p> - -<p class='c005'><i>Right apprehensions of God beget in man a Nobleness and -Freedome of Soul.</i></p> - -<p class='c005'>Superstition, <i>though it looks upon God as an angry Deity, yet -it counts him easily pleas’d with flattering Worship.</i></p> - -<p class='c005'><i>Apprehensions of a Deity and Guilt meeting together are apt to -excite Fear.</i></p> - -<p class='c005'><i>Hypocrites to spare their Sins seek out waies to compound with -God.</i></p> - -<p class='c005'><i>Servile and Superstitious Fear is encreased by Ignorance of the -certain Causes of Terrible Effects in Nature, &c., as also by -frightful Apparitions of Ghosts and Spectres.</i></p> - -<p class='c005'><i>A further Consideration of</i> Superstition <i>as a Composition of -Fear and Flattery.</i></p> - -<p class='c005'><i>A fuller Definition of</i> Superstition, <i>according to the Sense of the -Ancients.</i></p> - -<p class='c005'>Superstition <i>doth not alwaies appear in the same Form, but passes -from one Form to another, and sometimes shrouds it self under -Forms seemingly Spiritual and more refined.</i></p> -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span> - <h3 class='c009'>Of Superstition</h3> -</div> -<p class='c004'>Having now done with what we propounded as a <i>Preface</i> to -our following <i>Discourses</i>, we should now come to treat of the -<i>main Heads and Principles of Religion</i>. But before we doe that, -perhaps it may not be amiss to enquire into some of those <i>Anti-Deities</i> -that are set up against it, the chief whereof are <span class='sc'>Atheism</span> -and <span class='sc'>Superstition</span>; which indeed may seeme to comprehend in -them all kind of Apostasy and Praevarication from Religion. -We shall not be over-curious to pry into such foule and rotten -carkasses as these are too narrowly, or to make any subtile anatomy -of them; but rather enquire a litle into the Original and -Immediate Causes of them; because it may be they may be -nearer of kin then we ordinarily are aware of, while we see -their Complexions to be so vastly different the one from the -other.</p> - -<p class='c005'>And first of all for <span class='sc'>Superstition</span> (to lay aside our Vulgar notion -of it which much mistakes it) it is the same with that Temper -of Mind which the Greeks call Δεισιδαιμονία, (for so Tully frequently -translates that word, though not so fitly and emphatically -as he hath done some others:) It imports <i>an overtimorous and -dreadfull apprehension of the Deity</i>; and therefore with <i>Hesychius</i> -Δεισιδαιμονία and Φοβοθεΐα are all one, and Δεισιδαίμων is -by him expounded ὁ εἰδωλολάτρης, ὁ εὐσεβής, καὶ δειλὸς παρὰ -θεοῖς, <i>an Idolater, and also one that is very prompt to worship the -Gods, but withall fearfull of them</i>. And therefore <i>the true Cause -and Rise of Superstition</i> is indeed nothing else but <i>a false opinion</i> -of the Deity, that renders him dreadfull and terrible, as being -rigorous and imperious; that which represents him as austere -and apt to be angry, but yet impotent, and easy to be appeased -again by some <i>flattering devotions</i>, especially if performed with -sanctimonious shewes and a solemn sadness of Mind. And -I wish that that Picture of God which some Christians have -drawn of him, wherein Sowreness and Arbitrariness appear so -much, doth not too much resemble it. According to this sense, -Plutarch hath well defined it in his book περὶ δεισιδαιμονίας -<span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>in this manner, δόξαν ἐμπαθῆ καὶ δέους ποιητικὴν ὑπόληψιν -οὖσαν ἐκταπεινοῦντος καὶ συντρίβοντος τὸν ἄνθρωπον, οἰόμενον -τε εἶναι θεοὺς εἶναι δὲ λυπηροὺς καὶ βλαβερούς, <i>a strong -passionate Opinion, and such a Supposition as is productive of a -fear debasing and terrifying a man with the representation of -the Gods as grievous and hurtfull to Mankind</i>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Such men as these converse not with the <i>Goodness</i> of God, -and therefore they are apt to attribute their impotent passions -and peevishness of Spirit to him. Or it may be because some -secret advertisements of their Consciences tell them how <i>unlike</i> -they themselves are <i>to God</i>, and how they have provoked him; -they are apt to be as much displeased with him as too troublesome -to them, as they think he is displeased with them. They -are apt to count this Divine Supremacy as but a piece of tyranny -that by its Soveraign Will makes too great encroachments upon -their Liberties, and that which will eat up all their Right and -Property; and therefore are lavishly afraid of him, τὴν τῶν -θεῶν ἀρχὴν ὡς τυραννίδα φοβούμενοι σκυθρωπὴν καὶ ἀπαραίτητον, -<i>fearing Heaven’s Monarchy as a severe and churlish Tyranny from -which they cannot absolve themselves</i>, as the same Author speaks: -and therefore he thus discloseth the private whisperings of their -minds, ᾅδου τινες ἀνοίγονται πύλαι βαθείαι, καὶ ποταμοῖ πυρὸς -ὁμοῦ καὶ στυγὸς ἀπορρῶγες ἀναπετάννυνται, &c., <i>the broad gates -of hell are opened, the rivers of fire and Stygian inundations -run down as a swelling flood, there is thick darkness crowded -together, dreadfull and gastly Sights of Ghosts screeching and -howling, Judges and tormentors, deep gulfes and Abysses full of -infinite miseries</i>. Thus he. The Prophet <i>Esay</i> gives us this -Epitome of their thoughts, chap. 33: <i>The Sinners in Zion</i> are -afraid, fearfulness hath surprized the hypocrites: who shall -dwell with the devouring fire? who shall dwell with everlasting -burnings? Though I should not dislike these dreadful and -astonishing thoughts of future torment, which I doubt even -good men may have cause to press home upon their own spirits, -while they find Ingenuity less active, the more to restrain sinne; -yet I think it little commends God, and as little benefits us, to -fetch all this horror and astonishment from the Contemplations -of a Deity, which should alwayes be the most serene and lovely: -our apprehensions of the Deity should be such as might <i>ennoble</i> -our Spirits, and not <i>debase</i> them. A right knowledge of God -<span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>would beget a <i>freedome</i> and <i>Liberty</i> of Soul within us, and not -<i>servility</i>; ἀρετῆς γὰρ ἐλπὶς ὁ Θεός εστιν οὐ δουλείας πρόφασις, -as Plutarch hath well observ’d; our thoughts of a Deity should -breed in us hopes of Vertue, and not gender to a spirit of -bondage.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But that we may pass on. Because this unnaturall resemblance -of God as an angry Deity in impure minds, should it -blaze too furiously, like the Basilisk would kill with its looks; -therefore these Painters use their best arts a little to sweeten it, -and render it less unpleasing. And those that fancy God to be -most hasty and apt to be displeased, yet are ready also to imagine -him so impotently mutable, that his favour may be won again -with their uncouth devotions, that he will be taken with their -formall praises, and being thirsty after glory and praise and -solemn addresses, may, by their pompous furnishing out all -these for him, be won to a good liking of them: and thus they -represent him to themselves as Lucian, in his <i>De Sacrificiis</i> [c. I] -speaks too truly, though it may be too profanely, ὡς κολακευόμενον -ἥδεσθαι, καὶ ἀγανακτεῖν ἀμελούμενον. And therefore -<i>Superstition</i> will alwaies abound in these things whereby this -Deity of their own, made after the similitude of men, may be -most gratified, slavishly crouching to it. We will take a view of -it in the words of <i>Plutarch</i>, though what refers to the <span class='sc'>Jews</span>, if -it respects more their rites than their Manners, may seem to -contain too hasty a censure of them. <i>Superstition</i> brings in -πηλώσεις, καταβορβορώσεις, σαββατισμούς, ῥίψεις ἐπὶ πρόσωπον, -αἰσχρὰς προκαθίσεις, ἀλλοκότους προσκυνήσεις, <i>wallowings in -the dust, tumblings in the mire, observations of Sabbaths, prosternations, -uncouth gestures, and strange rites of worship</i>. Superstition -is very apt to think that Heaven may be bribed with -such false-hearted devotions; as Porphyrie, <i>Lib.</i> 2, περὶ ἀποχῆς, -hath well explained it by this, that it is ὑπόληψις τοῦ δεκάζειν -δύνασθαι τὸ θεῖον, <i>an apprehension that a man may corrupt and -bribe the Deity</i>; which (as he there observes) was the Cause -of all those bloudy sacrifices and of some inhumane ones among -the Heathen men, imagining διὰ τῶν θυσιῶν ἐξωνεῖσθαι τὴν -ἁμαρτίαν like him in the Prophet that thought by the fruit of -his body and the firstlings of his flock to expiate the sinne of -his Soul. <i>Micah</i> 6.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But it may be we may seeme all this while to have made too -<span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>Tragicall a Description of <i>Superstition</i>; and indeed one Author -whom we have all this while had recourse to, seemes to have set -it forth, as anciently Painters were wont to doe those pieces in -which they would demonstrate most their own skill; they would -not content themselves with the shape of one Body onely, but -borrowed severall parts from severall Bodies as might most fit -their design and fill up the picture of that they desired chiefly -to represent. <i>Superstition</i> it may be looks not so foul and -deformed in every Soul that is dyed with it, as he hath there set -it forth, nor doth it every where spread it self alike: this πάθος -that shrowds it self under the name of <i>Religion</i>, wil <i>variously</i> -discover it self as it is seated in Minds of a <i>various</i> temper, and -meets with <i>variety of matter</i> to exercise it self about.</p> - -<p class='c005'>We shall therefore a little further inquire into it, and what the -Judgments of the soberest men anciently were of it; the rather -that a learned Author of our own seems unwilling to own that -Notion of it which we have hitherto out of <i>Plutarch</i> and others -contended for; who though he have freed it from that gloss -which the late Ages have put upon it, yet he may seem to have -too strictly confined it to a Cowardly Worship of the ancient -Gentile Daemons, as if <i>Superstition and Polytheism</i> were indeed -the same thing, whereas <i>Polytheism</i> or <i>Daemon-worship</i> is but -one branch of it, which was partly observed by the learned -<i>Casaubon</i> in his Notes upon that Chapter of <i>Theophrastus</i> περὶ -δεισιδαιμονίας, when it is described to be δειλία πρὸς τὸ -δαιμόνιον, which he thus interprets, Theophrastus <i>voce</i> δαιμόνιον -<i>et Deos et Daemones complexus est, et quicquid divinitatis -esse particeps malesana putavit antiquitas</i>. And in this sense it -was truly observed by <i>Petronius Arbiter</i>,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Primus in orbe Deos fecit Timor</i>—</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>The whole progeny of the ancient Daemons, at least in the -Minds of the Vulgar, sprung out of <i>Fear</i>, and were supported by -it: though notwithstanding, this Fear, when in a Being void of -all true sense of Divine goodness, hath not escaped the censure -of <i>Superstition</i> in <i>Varro’s</i> judgment, whose Maxim it was, as -S. <i>Austin</i> tells us, <i>Deum a religioso vereri, a superstitioso timeri</i>: -which distinction <i>Servius</i> seems to have made use of in his -Comment upon <i>Virgil</i>, <i>Aeneid</i> 6, where the Poet describing the -torments of the wicked in hell, he runs out into an Allegoricall -<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>exposition of all, it may be too much in favour of <i>Lucretius</i>, whom -he there magnifies. His words are these, <i>Ipse etiam Lucretius -dicit per eos super quos jamjam casurus imminet lapis</i>, Superstitiosos -<i>significare, qui inaniter semper verentur, et de Diis et Cœlo et -locis superioribus male opinantur; nam</i> Religiosi <i>sunt qui per -reverentiam timent</i>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But that we may the more fully unfold the <i>Nature</i> of this -πάθος, and the effects of it, which are not alwaies of one sort, -we shall first premise something concerning the Rise of it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The <i>Common Notions</i> of a Deity, strongly rooted in Mens -Souls, and meeting with the Apprehensions of <i>Guiltiness</i>, are -very apt to excite the <i>Servile</i> fear: and when men love their -own filthy lusts, that they may spare them, they are presently apt -to contrive some other waies of appeasing the Deity and compounding -with it. Unhallowed minds, that have no inward -foundation of true Holiness to fix themselves upon, are easily -shaken and tossed from all inward peace and tranquillity; and -as the thoughts of some Supreme power above them seize upon -them, so they are struck with the lightning thereof into inward -affrightments, which are further encreas’d by a vulgar observation -of those strange, stupendious, and terrifying Effects in -Nature, whereof they can give no certain reason, as Earthquakes, -Thundrings, and Lightnings, blazing Comets and other Meteors -of a like Nature, which are apt to terrifie those especially who -are already unsetled and Chased with an inward sense of guilt, -and, as Seneca speaks, <i>inevitabilem metum ut supra nos aliquid -timeremus incutiunt</i>. <i>Petronius Arbiter</i> hath well described this -business for us,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Primus in orbe Deos fecit Timor, ardua cœlo</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Fulmina cum caderent, discussaque moenia flammis,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Atque ictus flagraret Athos</i>—</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>From hence it was that the <i>Libri fulgurales</i> of the <i>Romanes</i>, and -other such volumes of <i>Superstition</i>, swelled so much, and that the -<i>pulvinaria Deorum</i> were so often frequented, as will easily appear -to any one a little conversant in <i>Livy</i>, who everywhere sets forth -this Devotion so largely, as if he himself had been too passionately -in love with it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>And though as the <i>Events</i> in Nature began sometimes to be -found out better by a discovery of their immediate Natural -<span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>Causes, so some particular pieces of Superstitious Customs were -antiquated and grown out of date (as is well observ’d concerning -those <i>Charms</i> and <i>Februations</i> anciently in use upon the appearing -of an Eclipse, and some others) yet often affrights and -horrours were not so easily abated, while they were unacquainted -with the Deity, and with the other mysterious events in Nature, -which begot those Furies and unlucky Empusas ἀλάστορας καὶ -παλαμναίους δαίμονας, in the weak minds of men. To all which -we may adde the frequent <i>Spectres</i> and frightfull <i>Apparitions</i> of -Ghosts and <i>Mormos</i>: all which extorted such a kind of Worship -from them as was most correspondent to such Causes of it. And -those Rites and Ceremonies which were begotten by Superstition, -were again the unhappy Nurses of it, such as are well -described by <i>Plutarch</i> in his <i>De defect. Oracul.</i>, Ἑορταὶ καὶ θυσίαι, -ὥσπερ ἡμέραι ἀποφράδες, καὶ σκυθρωπαί, ἐν αἷς ὠμοφαγίας, &c. -<i>Feasts and Sacrifices, as likewise observations of unlucky and fatall -dayes, celebrated with eating of raw things, lacerations, fastings, -and howlings, and many times filthy Speeches in their sacred rites</i>, -and frantick behaviour.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But as we insinuated before, This Root of <i>Superstition</i> diversely -branched forth it self, sometimes into <i>Magick</i> and <i>Exorcismes</i>, -other times into Pædanticall Rites and idle observations of -<i>Things</i> and <i>Times</i>, as <i>Theophrastus</i> hath largely set them forth -in his Tract περὶ δεισιδαιμονίας: in others it displayed itself -in inventing as many <i>new Deities</i> as there were severall Causes -from whence their affrights proceeded, and finding out many -φρικτὰ μυστήρια appropriate to them, as supposing they ought -to be worshipt <i>cum sacro horrore</i>. And hence it is that we hear -of those inhumane and Diabolicall sacrifices called ἀνθρωποθυσίαι, -frequent among the old Heathens (as among many others -<i>Porphyry</i> in his <i>De abstinentia</i> hath abundantly related) and of -those dead mens bones which our Ecclesiastick writers tell us -were found in their Temples at the demolishing of them. -Sometimes it would express itself in a prodigall way of sacrificing, -for which <i>Ammianus Marcellinus</i> (an heathen Writer, but yet -one who seems to have been well pleased with the simplicity -and integrity of Christian Religion) taxeth <i>Julian</i> the Emperor -for Superstition. <i>Iulianus, Superstitiosus magis quam legitimus -sacrorum observator, innumeras sine parsimonia pecudes mactans, -ut æstimaretur, si revertisset de Parthis, boves iam defuturos</i>: -<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>like that Marcus Caesar, of whom he relates this common -proverb, οἱ λευκοὶ βέες Μάρκῳω τῷ Καίσαρι, ἄν συ νικήσῃς, ἡμεῖς -ἀπωλόμεθα. Besides many other ways might be named wherein -<i>Superstition</i> might occasionally shew it self.</p> - -<p class='c005'>All which may best be understood, if we consider it a little -in that Composition of <i>Fear</i> and <i>Flattery</i> which before we intimated: -and indeed <i>Flattery</i> is most incident to <i>base</i> and -<i>slavish</i> minds; and when the fear and jealousy of a Deity disquiet -a wanton dalliance with sin, and disturb the filthy pleasure -of Vice, then this fawning and crouching disposition will find -out devices to quiet an angry conscience within, and an offended -God without, (though as men grow more expert in this cunning, -these fears may in some degree abate). This the -ancient Philosophy hath well taken notice of, and therefore -well defin’d δεισιδαιμονία by κολακεία, and useth these terms -promiscuously. Thus we find Max. Tyrius in his Dissert. 4 -concerning the difference between a <i>Friend</i> and a <i>Flatterer</i>. -ὁ μὲν εὐσεβής, φίλος θεῷ, ὁ δὲ δεισιδαίμων, κόλαξ θεοῦ· καὶ -μακάριος ὁ εὐσεβής, ὁ φίλος θεοῦ, δυστυχὴς δὲ ὁ δεισιδαίμων. ὁ -μὲν θαρσῶν τῇ ἀρετῇ, πρόσεισι τοῖς θεοῖς ἄνευ δέους· ὁ δὲ -ταπεινὸς διὰ μοχθηρίαν, μετὰ πολλοῦ δέους, δύσελπις, καὶ δεδιὼς -τοὺς θεοὺς ὥσπερ τοὺς τυράννους. The sense whereof is this, -<i>The Pious man is God’s friend, the Superstitious is a flatterer -of God: and indeed most happy and blest is the condition of -the Pious man, God’s friend, but right miserable and sad is the -state of the Superstitious. The Pious man, emboldened by a good -Conscience and encouraged by the sense of his integrity, comes to -God without fear and dread: but the Superstitious being sunk -and deprest through the sense of his own wickedness, comes not -without much fear, being void of all hope and confidence, and -dreading the Gods as so many Tyrants.</i> Thus <i>Plato</i> also sets -forth this <i>Superstitious</i> temper, though he mentions it not -under that name, but we may know it by a property he -gives of it, viz.: <i>to colloque with Heaven</i>, Lib. 10, <i>de Legibus</i>, -where he distinguisheth of Three kinds of Tempers in reference -to the Deity, which he then calls πάθη, which are, <i>Totall -Atheism</i>, which he saies never abides with any man till his Old -age; and <i>Partial Atheism</i>, which is a Negation of Providence; -and a Third, which is a perswasion concerning the Gods ὅτι -εὐπαράμυθοί εἰσι θύμασι καὶ εὐχαῖς, <i>that they are easily won -<span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>by sacrifices and prayers</i>, which he after explaines thus, ὅτι -παραιτητοί εἰσι τοῖσιν ἀδικοῦσιν, δεχόμενοι δῶρα, &c., <i>that -with gifts unjust men may find acceptance with them</i>. And this -Discourse of <i>Plato’s</i> upon these three kinds of Irreligious πάθη -<i>Simplicius</i> seems to have respect to in his comment upon -<i>Epictetus</i>, cap. 38, which treats about <i>Right Opinions</i> in Religion; -and there having pursued the two former of them, he thus states -the latter, which he calls ἀθεΐας λόγον as well as the other two, -as a conceit θεοὺς παρατρέπεσθαι δώροις, καὶ ἀναθήμασι, καὶ -κερματίου διαδόσεσιν, <i>quod muneribus et donariis et stirpis -distributione a sententia deducuntur</i>, such men making account by -their devotions to draw the Deity to themselves, and winning -the favour of Heaven, to procure such an indulgence to their -lusts as no sober man on earth would give them; they in the -meanwhile not considering ὡς μεταμέλειαι, καὶ ἱκετεῖαι, καὶ -εὐχαί, καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, ἀναλογοῦσι τῷ κάλῳ, that <i>Repentance, -Supplications, and Prayers, &c., ought to draw us nearer to God, -not God nearer to us; as in a ship, by fastning a Cable to a firm -Rock, we intend not to draw the Rock to the Ship, but the Ship to -the Rock</i>. Which last passage of his is therefore the more worthy -to be taken notice of, as holding out so large an Extent that this -Irreligious temper is of, and of how subtil a Nature. This fond -and gross dealing with the Deity was that which made the -scoffing <i>Lucian</i> so much sport, who in his Treatise <i>De Sacrificiis</i> -tells a number of stories how the Daemons loved to be feasted, -and when and how they were entertained, with such devotions -which are rather used Magically as Charms and Spells for such -as use them, to defend themselves against those Evils which their -own Fears are apt perpetually to muster up, and to endeavour -by bribery to purchase Heaven’s favour and indulgence, as -<i>Juvenal</i> speaks of the Superstitious Aegyptian,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Illius lacrimae mentitaque munera præstant</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Ut veniam culpae non abnuat, ansere magno</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Scilicet et tenui popano corruptus Osiris.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Though all this while I would not be understood to condemn -too severely all servile fear of God, if it tend to make men avoid -true wickedness, but that which settles upon these lees of -Formality.</p> - -<p class='c005'>To conclude, Were I to define <i>Superstition</i> more generally -<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>according to the ancient sense of it, I would call it <i>Such an -apprehension of God in the thoughts of men, as renders him grievous -and burdensome to them, and so destroys all free and cheerfull -converse with him; begetting in the stead thereof a forc’d and -jejune devotion, void of inward Life and Love.</i> It is that which -discovers itself <i>Pædantically</i> in the worship of the Deity, in -anything that makes up but onely the <i>Body</i> or <i>outward Vesture</i> -of Religion; though then it may make a mighty bluster; and -because it comprehends not the true Divine good that ariseth -to the Souls of men from an <i>internall frame</i> of Religion, it is -therefore apt to think that all its <i>insipid devotions</i> are as so -many <i>Presents</i> offered to the Deity and <i>gratifications</i> of him. -How <i>variously</i> Superstition can discover and manifest itself, we -have intimated before: To which I shall only adde this, That -we are not so well rid of <i>Superstition</i>, as some imagine when -they have expell’d it out of their Churches, expunged it out of -their Books and Writings, or cast it out of their Tongues, by -making Innovations in names (wherein they sometimes imitate -those old <i>Caunii</i> that <i>Herodotus</i> speaks of, who that they might -banish all the forrein Gods that had stollen in among them, took -their procession through all their Country, beating and scourging -the Aire along as they went;) No, for all this, <i>Superstition</i> -may enter into our chambers, and creep into our closets, it may -twine about our secret Devotions, and actuate our Formes of -belief and Orthodox opinions, when it hath no place else to -shroud itself or hide its head in; we may think to flatter the -Deity by these, and to bribe it with them, when we are grown -weary of more pompous solemnities: nay it may mix it self -with a seeming Faith in Christ; as I doubt it doth now in too -many, who laying aside all sober and serious care of true Piety, -think it sufficient to offer up their Saviour, his Active and -Passive Righteousness, to a severe and rigid Justice, to make -expiation for those sins they can be willing to allow themselves in.</p> -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span> - <h3 id='chap09' class='c016'>ON THE FACE WHICH APPEARS ON THE ORB OF THE MOON <br /> A DIALOGUE</h3> -</div> -<h3 class='c009'>INTRODUCTION</h3> -<p class='c004'>Plutarch’s Dialogue on <i>The Face in the Moon</i> is not a -scientific treatise, and its author would have disclaimed any -intention of writing to advance science. It is discussion for -the sake of discussion, the ‘good talk’ of which Plutarch wished -that Athens should have no monopoly, any more than she had -when the Boeotian Simmias and Cebes were among the trusted -friends of Socrates, or, later, when ‘plain living and high -thinking’ could be exhibited in lofty perfection in the Theban -home of Epaminondas. A mixed company, which includes an -astronomer, another mathematician, a literary man, and professed -philosophers (there is no Epicurean here), with Lamprias, -Plutarch’s brother, for president, discusses the movements and -physical nature of the moon, from many points of view. Reference -is made throughout to a previous discussion at which -Lamprias, and Lucius, another of the speakers, had been -present, when a person called ‘Our Comrade’ had dealt faithfully -with the Peripatetic view, endorsed by the Stoics, that the -moon is not of substance like our earth, but is a fiery or starlike -body. This discussion had wandered into mystical theories as -to the moon’s office in the birth and death of human souls, and -her connexion with ‘daemons’. Sylla has joined the present -company with a myth to relate bearing on these deep subjects, -which had come to him at Carthage as a traveller’s tale. Its -production is delayed until the end of the Dialogue, which it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>closes after the manner of a Platonic myth; the phrases with -which it is opened and dismissed may be compared with those -of the <i>Gorgias</i>. This double device, of referring part of the -matter to a former conversation (as the <i>E at Delphi</i> is a recollection -of an old discourse by Ammonius), and part to a new -and strange tale, skilfully relieves this elaborate Dialogue. Some -difficulty is caused by the imperfect, or doubtful, condition of -the text of the opening chapter, as no complete explanation -seems to be given as to the place or time of the former discussion. -Probably this abruptness is intentional, but the text -requires careful attention.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Perhaps this Dialogue throws more light on the views about -the solar system accepted or under discussion in the first century -of our era than a scientific treatise could have done. No -reference is made to the great astronomical work of Ptolemy, -which belongs to the second century, and closed most questions -until the sixteenth. The estimate, e.g. of the moon’s distance -(56 earth’s radii) is not Ptolemy’s (59). Some of the geographical -details, as that of the Caspian Sea, seem to show that Ptolemy’s -geographical work was not known to the Author.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It may be useful to enumerate some of the simpler of the -accepted views about the heavens :</p> - -<p class='c005'>(1) That the earth is a Sphere was known to Pythagoras and -allowed by Plato (<i>Phaedo</i> 110 <span class='fss'>B</span>), and affirmed by Aristotle, <i>De -Caelo</i>, 2, 14, 297 b 18. The moon, and, according to Aristotle, -the stars, are also spherical.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(2) That the moon derived her light from the sun was a -discovery due to Anaxagoras (fifth century <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>).</p> - -<p class='c005'>(3) The true cause of eclipses was known to the Pythagoreans, -and is stated by Aristotle, and, with more precision, by -Posidonius.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(4) The inclination of the equator to the sun’s path is stated -by Oenopides of Chios (a little after Anaxagoras).</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>(5) That the moon revolves round the earth at a moderate -distance is stated by Empedocles.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(6) The other planets (including the sun) revolve round the -earth at a distance vastly less than that of the fixed stars. (No -actual estimate of the distances or sizes is given even by Ptolemy, -who is not able to state a parallax for any, or an angular diameter.)</p> - -<p class='c005'>(7) That the planets share in the (apparent) daily motion of -the stars, and also have an (apparent) motion of their own in the -reverse direction was held by Pythagoras.</p> - -<p class='c005'>All these refer to physical facts and can be stated without the -use of mathematical language, though many of the discoverers -were expert mathematicians. Gradually, and certainly from -the time of the great astronomer Hipparchus (about 130 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>), -attention came to be fixed upon the accurate mathematical -interpretation of observed <i>apparent</i> facts; in a favourite phrase, -the object was ‘to save the phenomena’, irrespective of physical -and actual fact.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In the case of the moon, the two lines of inquiry are less -sharply divided than in that of other bodies. Very correct -statements as to her size and distance from the earth may be -gathered from Plutarch’s Dialogue. A guess is even hazarded -that she is lighter than the earth, bulk for bulk, because of the -action of fire in the past.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The mathematical account of the movements of the moon has -its history. As we have seen, it was early realized that she -revolved round and near the earth in a circular orbit. Soon it -appeared that there were irregularities in this movement. The -‘First Anomaly’, a difference of speed observed at different -parts of the orbit, was well understood by Hipparchus. It -could be expressed, so as to ‘save the phenomena’, by either of -two methods, both resting on the assumption that no curve except -a circle was admissible, and both superseding the ingenious -but cumbrous arrangement of ‘concentric Spheres’ known to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>Aristotle. One was that of ‘movable eccentrics’, where the -orbit of the planet was round a point outside the earth, itself -shifting. The other, which prevailed, and was finally adopted -by Ptolemy, was that of epicycles, circles described round -points in the primary orbit, by means of which the planet’s -motion could be retarded or quickened at will, and its position -modified. By this device, the visible <i>movement</i> could be, and -was, recorded with great accuracy, but sometimes at the expense -of physical truth. Thus the epicyclic arrangement for the -moon’s orbit involved, if closely looked into, the consequence -that her distance from us at nearest must be half that at the -farthest, and her angular diameter double! Kepler, after the -work of a lifetime (1571-1630), discovered the cause of this -‘anomaly’ in the shape of the orbit, which is elliptical, not -circular, and substituted ‘eccentricity’ for ‘anomaly’ as the -key-word. Newton (1642-1727) proved that a body revolving -round another <i>must</i> move in an ellipse, with the larger body at -one focus. Thus the wheel had come full circle, and physical -and mathematical inquiry met after two thousand years of -separation. The ‘Second Anomaly’ due to the action of the -sun (the ‘Evection’) was indicated by Hipparchus, worked out -as a phenomenon by Ptolemy, and its physical cause explained -by Newton. The inclination of the moon’s path to the sun’s -was known to Hipparchus as 5°, and the recession of her nodes -was familiar to him. A third anomaly now known as ‘Variation’ -is instructive because its discovery has been claimed for -an Arabian astronomer of about <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 1000. After an exhaustive -discussion during the last century (1836-71), it seems to be proved -that the claim rested upon a mistake, and that the sole credit -is due to Tycho Brahe (see Dreyer, p. 252). In fact, whatever -in astronomy does not belong to modern science is Greek, after -allowing for what the Greeks may have learnt in early ages from -Chaldaeans or Egyptians. The Romans contributed nothing, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>the Indians learnt much from scientific men who accompanied -Alexander, and used it skilfully, but did not advance it. And -the modern makes a really continuous whole with the ancient -Greeks, for it is not only astronomy which should be considered, -but the essential preliminaries, such as the study of the Conic -Sections, which, in its geometrical form, is purely Greek.</p> - -<p class='c005'>One authority to whom Plutarch twice refers by name requires -special mention. This was Aristarchus of Samos, who belongs -to the middle or later part of the third century <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> He is the -author of a work on ‘The Sizes and Distances of the Sun and -Moon’ which is extant. It was well edited by Wallis for the -Oxford Press in 1688, and more recently (1913) and in a modern -form, by Sir Thomas Heath, F.R.S., who has prefixed an -invaluable history of astronomy prior to Aristarchus. The -book is rigorously mathematical, and contains six ‘hypotheses’, -and eighteen propositions deduced from them. The second of -the hypotheses, ‘That the earth is in the relation of a point and -centre to the sphere in which the moon moves’, is quoted by -Plutarch, apparently as being accepted by Hipparchus. The -sixth, ‘That the moon subtends one-fifteenth part of a sign of the -Zodiac (i. e. 2°)‘, raises a curious point which is fully considered -by Sir T. Heath. That Aristarchus should at any time have -thus exaggerated (multiplied by four) a measurement which -seems open to some sort of simple observation, and have based -good work upon it, seems very strange, firstly, because he must -have considered the matter, (since he is aware that the same -figure may stand for sun and moon); and, secondly, because -Archimedes (287-212 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>), whose knowledge and good faith -are beyond question, says that ‘Aristarchus discovered that the -sun appeared to be about one seven hundred and twentieth -part of the circle of the Zodiac (30´)‘, which is roughly correct.<a id='r302' /><a href='#f302' class='c006'><sup>[302]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The fourth hypothesis runs: ‘That when the moon appears -<span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>to us halved, its distance from the sun is then less than a quadrant -by one-thirtieth of a quadrant (i.e. is 87°).’ From this is -directly deduced (Hypothesis 6 is not here used) Prop. 7, an -elaborate proof that ‘the distance of the sun from the earth is -greater than eighteen times, but less than twenty times, the -distance of the moon from the earth’, quoted by Plutarch in -c. 10. The fact assumed does not appear to be open to observation; -perhaps Aristarchus, or a predecessor, arrived at it by -comparing the average times taken by the moon over the first -and second quarters of her orbit. The true (theoretical) -figure is 89° 50´. The sequel is very interesting. Hipparchus, -a century later, adopted the result in calculating the parallax of -the sun, which he found to be 3´ of arc (more than twenty times -too much). This was adopted by Ptolemy in the second -century <span class='fss'>A.D.</span>, and remained the official estimate until nearly -<span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 1700, though both Hipparchus and Kepler had protested, -the latter stating as his opinion that the parallax could not be -greater than one minute of arc, or the distance less than twelve -millions of miles. Shortly before <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 1700 improved knowledge -of the orbit and distances of Mars enabled the sun’s parallax -to be reduced to 9-1/2 seconds of arc, and his distance stated -at eighty-seven millions of miles, which is not very inadequate. -It was a great achievement of Aristarchus, though he -led the world into error, to state a reasoned figure at all, and -to think in such mighty units.</p> - -<p class='c005'>His cosmical speculation is even more daring. It is known to -us from this Dialogue (c. 6) and also from Archimedes, who records -it in his (extant) <i>Arenarius</i> without comment. Aristarchus -proposed to ‘disturb the hearth of the universe’ by his hypothesis -that the heaven of the stars is fixed, while the earth has -a daily motion on her axis and an annual motion round the sun. -It was a brilliant intuition, possible in an age of comparatively -simple knowledge, which could not easily have been advanced -<span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>when the complexity of the several orbits was increasingly -realized (see Dreyer, pp. 147-8). Dr. Dreyer (p. 145) makes -the interesting suggestion that Aristarchus took the idea from -some early form of the system of ‘movable eccentrics’, and, -further (p. 157), that if that system had prevailed against that -of epicycles, it must have flashed, sooner or later, upon some -bright mind, that there was one eccentric point, namely, one -in the sun, central to the orbits of all the planets.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It is to be observed that ‘Heraclides of Pontus’ (at one time -a pupil of Plato’s) discovered the movement of the two inner -planets round the sun. It is possible (as contended by Sciaparelli) -that he believed all the planets to move round the sun, -and the sun round the earth, in fact anticipated Tycho Brahe. -Further, there is a statement that he anticipated Aristarchus as -to the movement of the earth; but Sir T. Heath, who examines -the evidence very fully, concludes that the evidence has been -misread. Aristarchus certainly contended for the diurnal -rotation of the earth, but this was rejected by Hipparchus and -passed out of account for many centuries.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The history of the emergence of the heliocentric theory has -a curiously close counterpart in that of the circulation of the -blood. Harvey communicated his discovery to the College of -Physicians on April 17, 1616, but he had kept it back for twelve -years out of deference to the great and deserved authority of -Galen, which it was dangerous to dispute, as Copernicus held -back his ‘Treatise of Revolutions’ for thirty years, because it -was very dangerous, even for the nephew of a Bishop, himself -the Canon of a cathedral far north of the Alps, to question the -findings of Ptolemy. ‘Yet for years the profession had been in -latent possession of a knowledge of the circulation. Indeed -a good case has been made out for Hippocrates, in whose works -occur some remarkably suggestive sentences’ (see <i>The Growth -of Truth</i>, the Harveian Oration of 1906, by Sir William Osler, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>M.D., F.R.S.). Bacon, who ‘writes philosophy like a Lord -Chancellor’—i.e. seeks to eliminate error from facts stated, and -then to apply the law (see De Morgan, <i>Bundle of Paradoxes</i>, -p. 50)—, would have none of the Copernican hypothesis. Nor -would Sir Thomas Browne, though he preferred Dr. Harvey’s -discovery ‘to that of America’. But truth will out, at her -own time and through the ministers of her choice.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Behind the horseplay of the Stoics and Academics, on the -subject of the centre of the universe and the laws which light -and heavy bodies obey, there seems to lie some real groping after -a general cosmic law, such as gravitation. Thus the earth and -the moon draw bodies, each from its own surface to its own -centre, and if the earth draws the moon, it is as a part of herself, -once ejected and now reclaimed.</p> - -<p class='c005'>There is no direct evidence of the time or place when this -Dialogue is supposed to take place, nor of the date of its composition. -Much of the matter is common to it with the Dialogue -<i>On the cessation of the Oracles</i>, one passage of which has -been thought (by Adler) to be an extract from it. Lamprias -takes the principal place in both, and Plutarch is not present, -at least under his own name. The solar eclipse mentioned in -c. 19 as recent would give a clue if it could be identified. Ginzel -(<i>Spezieller Kanon</i>) has selected three for special consideration, -viz., those of April 30, <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 59, March 20, <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 71, and January 5, -<span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 75. By the kindness of J. K. Fotheringham, Esq., D.Litt., -Fellow of Magdalen College, who has made the laborious computation, -I am able to state the respective magnitude of these -eclipses at Chaeroneia as 11·08, 11·82, 10·38 (totality = 12). -Thus Ginzel’s preference for No. 2 is confirmed; it was there -a large partial eclipse, and the time of greatest phase was -11 hours 4·1 minutes local solar time. Several stars would -become visible, 66/67 of the sun’s diameter being obscured; a few -might be visible during No. 1, none during No. 3.</p> -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span> - <h3 class='c009'>PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE</h3> -</div> -<p class='c004'>1. <span class='sc'>Sextius Sylla</span>, the Carthaginian, mentioned in the <i>Life of -Romulus</i> (c. 15) as ‘a man wanting neither learning nor ingenuity’, -who had supplied Plutarch with a piece of archaeological -information. Elsewhere (<i>De cohib. ira</i>, c. 1) he is addressed -as ‘O most eager Sylla!’ In another Dialogue he declines to be -led into a discussion on all cosmology by answering the question -‘whether the egg or the bird comes first?’ (<i>Sympos.</i> 2, 3).</p> - -<p class='c005'>He has a story, or myth, to tell about the moon, which he is -impatient to begin. This story, which he had heard from a -friend in Carthage, is mainly geographical in interest. The -details remind us of those quoted from Pytheas about his -journeys to Britain and the Northern Seas. The whole conception -of the globe is clearly earlier than that of Ptolemy (see -especially as to the Caspian Sea, c. 26). The myth also introduces -us to the worship of Cronus as practised at Carthage, and -connects it with the wonders of the moon, and her place in the -heavenly system.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In c. 17 <span class='sc'>Sylla</span> raises a good point, about the half-moon, which -was being passed over.</p> - -<p class='c005'>2. <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span>, a brother, probably an elder brother, of Plutarch -directs the course of the conversation, and himself expounds the -Academic view, referring to Lucius for his recollections of a -recent discussion at which both had been present, when the -Stoic doctrines on physics had been criticized.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In some of the Symposiacs and other dialogues Lamprias takes -a similar place; in others both brothers take part. Lamprias -probably died early.</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘Evidently a character, a good trencherman, as became a -Boeotian, one who on occasion could dance the Pyrrhic war -dance, who loved well a scoff and a jest ... and who, if he -thrust himself somewhat brusquely into discussions which are -going forward, was quite able to justify the intrusion.’—Archbishop -Trench.</p> - -<p class='c005'>3. <span class='sc'>Apollonides</span>, astronomer and geometrician; perhaps -the latter would be the more correct designation. In another -Dialogue (<i>Sympos.</i> 3, 4) a ‘tactician’ of the name appears.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>As Apollonius, the great mathematician (living about 200 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>) -was also a geometrician who contributed to astronomical theory, -not himself an astronomer, it seems likely that the name Apollonides -has been coined by Plutarch for ‘one of the clan of -Apollonius’, i. e. a young professor of geometry. Apollondes is -treated rather brusquely by Lamprias, certainly with less respect -than Menelaus. He seems to have cast in his lot with the -Stoics in their physical opinions.</p> - -<p class='c005'>4. <span class='sc'>Aristotle</span>, a Peripatetic. Perhaps the name was given to -him to mark the School to which he belonged. In the Dialogue -<i>On the Delays in Divine Punishment</i> an ‘Epicurus’ is a -representative Epicurean.</p> - -<p class='c005'>5. <span class='sc'>Pharnaces</span>, a Stoic, who sturdily supports his physical -creed against all comers.</p> - -<p class='c005'>6. <span class='sc'>Lucius</span>, an Etruscan pupil of Moderatus the Pythagorean, -spoken of in one place (<i>Sympos.</i> 8, 7 and 8) as ‘Lucius our -comrade’. He is elsewhere reticent as to the inner Pythagorean -teaching, but is courteous and ready to discuss ‘what is probable -and reasonable’.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Kepler is inclined to complain of his professorial tone and -longwindedness in the present Dialogue. This is hardly fair, as -he is for the most part reporting a set discourse heard elsewhere, -and that by request. Lamprias has to give him time to remember -the points (c. 7). In c. 5 he asks that justice may be done -to the Stoics. He associates himself with the Academics on -physical matters.</p> - -<p class='c005'>7. <span class='sc'>Theon</span> (see Preface, p. xii), represents literature (as he does -in other Dialogues, notably in that on the <i>E at Delphi</i>). He -is a welcome foil to the more severe disputants. In c. 24 he -interrupts by moving the previous question—‘Why a moon at -all?’ and is congratulated on the cheerful turn which he has -given to the discussion. Theon may sometimes recall to readers -of Jules Verne’s pleasant <i>Voyage autour de la lune</i> the sallies of -Michel Ardan the poet.</p> - -<p class='c005'>8. <span class='sc'>Menelaus</span>, a distinguished astronomer who lived and -observed at Alexandria. Observations of his, which include -some taken in the first year of Trajan, <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 98, are recorded by -Ptolemy (<i>Magna Syntaxis</i>, 7, 3, p. 170) and other writers.</p> -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span> - <h3 class='c009'>ANALYSIS</h3> -</div> -<p class='c004'>[The opening chapters are lost. There must have been an -introduction of the speakers, with some explanation as to time -and place, a reference to a set discussion at which some of the -speakers had been present, and a promise of Sylla to narrate a -myth, bearing upon the moon and her markings, which he had -heard in Carthage. This conversation had taken a turn, prematurely -as <span class='sc'>Sylla</span> thinks, towards the mythical or supernatural -aspects of the moon.] But see note (1) on p. <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>c. 1. It is agreed that the current scientific or quasi-scientific -views on the markings of the moon’s face shall be first considered, -then the supernatural.</p> - -<p class='c005'>cc. 2-4. <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span> mentions</p> - -<p class='c005'>(i) The view that the markings are due to weakness of human -eyesight. This is easily refuted.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(ii) The view of Clearchus, the Peripatetic, that they are -caused by reflexion of the ocean on the moon’s face. But -ocean is continuous, the markings are broken; they are seen -from all parts of the earth, including ocean itself (and the -earth is not a mere point in space, but has dimensions of its -own); and, thirdly, they are not seen on any other heavenly -body.</p> - -<p class='c005'>c. 3. The mention of Clearchus brings up the view, adopted -from him by the Stoics, that the moon is not a solid or earth-like -body, but is fire or air, like the stars. This view had been -severely handled in the former conference.</p> - -<p class='c005'>c. 6. <span class='sc'>Pharnaces</span> complains that the Academics always criticize, -never submit to be criticized. Let them first answer for their -own paradox in confusing ‘up’ and ‘down’, if they place a -heavy body, such as the moon is now said to be, above. <span class='sc'>Lucius</span> -retorts: ‘Why not the moon as well as the earth, a larger body, -yet poised in space?’ <span class='sc'>Pharnaces</span> is unconvinced.</p> - -<p class='c005'>cc. 7-15. To give Lucius time to remember his points, -<span class='sc'>Lamprias</span> reviews the absurd consequences from the Stoic tenet -that all weights converge towards the centre of our earth. Why -should not every heavy body, not earth only, attract its parts -towards its own centre? Again, if the moon is a light fiery body, -how do we find her placed near the earth and immeasurably far -from the sun, planets, and stars? How can we assume that earth -<span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span>is the middle point of the Whole, that is, of Infinity? Lastly, -allow that the Moon, if a heavy body, is out of her natural place. -Yet why not? She may have been removed by force from the -place naturally assigned to her to one which was better. Here -the tone of the speaker rises as he lays down, often following the -thought and the words of Plato’s <i>Timaeus</i>, the theory of creative -‘Necessity’ and ‘The Better’.</p> - -<p class='c005'>c. 16. <span class='sc'>Lucius</span> is now ready to speak, but <span class='sc'>Aristotle</span> intervenes -with a reference to the view, held by his namesake, that the -stars are composed of something essentially different from the -four elements, and that their motion is naturally circular, not up -or down. <span class='sc'>Lucius</span> points out that it is degrading to the moon to -call her a star, being inferior to the stars in lustre and speed, -and deriving her light from the sun. For this, the view of -Anaxagoras and of Empedocles, is the only one consistent with -her phases as we see them (not that quoted from Posidonius the -Stoic).</p> - -<p class='c005'>cc. 17, 18. To an inquiry from <span class='sc'>Sylla</span> whether the difficulty of -the half-moon (i. e. how does reflexion, being at equal angles, then -carry sunlight to the earth, and not off into space beyond us?) -had been met, Lucius answers that it had. The answer given -was: (i) Reflexion at equal angles is not a law universally admitted -or true; (ii) there may be cross lights and a complex -illumination; (iii) it may be shown by a diagram, though this -could not be done at the time (such a diagram is supplied by -Kepler), that some rays would reach the earth; (iv) the difficulty -arises at other phases also. He repeats the argument drawn -from the phases as we see them; and ends with an analogy: -Sunlight acts on the moon as it does on the earth, not as on the -air; therefore the moon resembles earth rather than air.</p> - -<p class='c005'>c. 19. This is well received, and <span class='sc'>Lucius</span> refers (a second -analogy) to solar eclipses, and in particular to a recent one, to -show that the moon, like the earth, can intercept the sun’s light, -and is therefore, like it, a solid body. The fact that the track of -the shadow is narrow in a solar eclipse is explained.</p> - -<p class='c005'>c. 20. <span class='sc'>Lucius</span> continues his report, and describes in detail -what happens in a lunar eclipse. If the moon, he concludes, -were fiery and luminous, we should only see her at eclipse times, -i. e. at intervals, normally of six months, occasionally of five.</p> - -<p class='c005'>c. 21. <span class='sc'>Pharnaces</span> and <span class='sc'>Apollonides</span> both rise to speak. <span class='sc'>Apollonides</span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span>raises a verbal point about the word ‘shadow’; <span class='sc'>Pharnaces</span> -observes that the moon does show a blurred and fiery -appearance during an eclipse, to which <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span> replies by -enumerating the successive colours of the moon’s face during -eclipse, that proper to herself being dark and earth-like, not -fiery. He concludes that the moon is like our earth, with a -surface broken into heights and gullies, which are the cause of -the markings.</p> - -<p class='c005'>c. 22. <span class='sc'>Apollonides</span> objects that there can be no clefts on the -moon with sides high enough to cast such shadows. <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span> -replies that it is the distance and position of the light which -matter, not the size of objects which break it;</p> - -<p class='c005'>c. 23. And goes on himself to supply a stronger objection—that -we do not see the sun’s image in the moon—and the -answer. This is twofold: (<i>a</i>) general, the two cases differ in all -details; (<i>b</i>) personal to those who, like himself, believe the moon -to be an earth, and to have a rough surface. Why should we see -the sun mirrored in the moon, and not terrestrial objects or -stars?</p> - -<p class='c005'>c. 24. Sylla’s myth is now called for, and the company sits -down to hear it. But <span class='sc'>Theon</span> interposes: Can the moon have -inhabitants or support any life, animal or vegetable? If not, -how is she ‘an earth’, and what is her use?</p> - -<p class='c005'>c. 25. Theon’s sally is taken in good part, and gravely -answered at some length by <span class='sc'>Lamprias</span>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>c. 26. The mention of life on the moon calls up <span class='sc'>Sylla</span>, who -again feels that he has been anticipated. He begins his myth, -heard from a stranger met in Carthage, who had himself made -the northward voyage and returned. Once in every thirty years -(or year of the planet Saturn) an expedition is sent out from -Carthage to certain islands in the Northern Atlantic where -Cronus (Saturn) reigns in banishment. The stranger had -charged Sylla to pay special honour to the moon,</p> - -<p class='c005'>cc. 27-29. instructing him as to the functions of Persephone -in bringing about the second death—the separation of mind -from soul—which takes place on the moon, and the genesis of -‘daemons’,</p> - -<p class='c005'>c. 30. to whom are assigned certain functions on earth. -<span class='sc'>Sylla</span> commends the myth to his hearers.</p> -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span> - <h3 class='c016'>OF THE FACE WHICH APPEARS <br /> ON THE ORB OF THE MOON</h3> -</div> -<p class='c004'>I. Here Sylla said:<a id='r303' /><a href='#f303' class='c006'><sup>[303]</sup></a> ‘All this belongs to my story, and comes <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>920 <span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -out of it. But I should like to ask in the first place whether -you really backed on to those views about the moon’s face -which are in every one’s hand and on every one’s lips.’ ‘Of -course we did,’ I answered, ‘it was just the difficulty -which we found in these which thrust us off upon the others. -In chronic diseases, patients grow weary of the common -remedies and plans of treatment, and turn to rites and charms -and dreams. Just so in obscure and perplexing enquiries, -when the common, received, familiar accounts are not convincing, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -we cannot but try those which lie further afield; we -must not despise them, but simply repeat to ourselves the spells -which the old people used, and use all means to elicit the truth.</p> - -<p class='c005'>II. ‘To begin, you see the absurdity of calling the figure -which appears in the moon an affection of our eyesight, too -weak to resist the brightness, or, as we say, dazzled; and of -not observing that this ought rather to happen when we look -at the sun, who meets us with his fierce strong strokes. Empedocles -has a pretty line giving the difference between the two:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>The sun’s keen shafts, and moon with kindly beams.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Thus he describes the attractive, cheerful, painless quality of -her light. Further, the reason is given why men of dim and -weak eyesight do not see any distinct figure in the moon; <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -her orb shines full and smooth to them, whereas strong-sighted -<span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>persons get more details, and distinguish the features impressed -there with clearer sense of contrast. Surely the reverse should -happen if it were a weakness and affection of the eye which -produced the image; the weaker the organ the clearer should -be the appearance. The very irregularity of the surface is -sufficient to refute this theory; this image is not one of continuous -and confluent shadow, but is well sketched in the -words of Agesianax: <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>All round as fire she shines, but in her midst,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Bluer than cyanus, lo, a maiden’s eye,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Her tender brow, her face in counterpart.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>For the shadowy parts really pass beneath the bright ones -which they encircle, and in turn press and are cut off by them; -thus light and shade are interwoven throughout, and the face-form -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> is delineated to the life. The argument was thought -to meet your Clearchus also, Aristotle, no less unanswerably; -for yours he is, and an intimate of your namesake of old, although -he perverted many doctrines of the Path.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>III. Here Apollonides interposed to ask what the view of -Clearchus was. ‘No man’, I said, ‘has less good right than -you to ignorance of a doctrine which starts from geometry, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>921<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> as from its native hearth. Clearchus says that the face, -as we call it, is made up of images of the great ocean mirrored -in the moon. For our sight<a id='r304' /><a href='#f304' class='c006'><sup>[304]</sup></a> being reflected back from many -points, is able to touch objects which are not in its direct line; -and the full moon is of all mirrors the most beautiful and the -purest in uniformity and lustre. As then you geometers think -that the rainbow is seen in the cloud when it has acquired -a moist and smooth consistence, because our vision is reflected -on to the sun,<a id='r305' /><a href='#f305' class='c006'><sup>[305]</sup></a> so Clearchus held that the outer ocean is seen -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> in the moon, not where it really is, but in the place from which -<span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>reflexion carried our sight into contact with it and its dazzle. -Agesianax has another passage:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Or ocean’s wave that foams right opposite,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Be mirrored like a sheet of fire and flame.</i>’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>IV. This pleased Apollonides. ‘What a fresh way of -putting a view; that was a bold man, and there was poetry in -him. But how did the refutation proceed on your side?’ ‘In -this way’, I answered. ‘First, the outer ocean is uniform, -a sea with one continuous stream, whereas the appearance -of the dark places in the moon is not uniform; there are -isthmuses, so to call them, where the brightness parts and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -defines the shadow; each region is marked off and has its proper -boundary, and so the places where light and shade meet assume -the appearance of height and depth, and represent very naturally -human eyes and lips. Either, therefore, we must assume that -there are more oceans than one, parted by real isthmuses and -mainlands, which is absurd and untrue; or, if there is only -one, it is impossible to believe that its image could appear thus -broken up. Now comes a question which it is safer to ask in -your presence than it is to state an answer. Given that the -habitable world is “equal in breadth and length”,<a id='r306' /><a href='#f306' class='c006'><sup>[306]</sup></a> is it possible -that the view of the sea as a whole, thus reflected from the moon, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -should reach those sailing upon the great sea itself, yes, or living -on it as the Britons do, and this even if the earth does, as you -said that it does, occupy a point central to the sphere in which -the moon moves?<a id='r307' /><a href='#f307' class='c006'><sup>[307]</sup></a> This’, I continued, ‘is a matter for you -to consider, but the reflexion of vision from the moon is a further -question which it is not for you to decide, nor yet for Hipparchus. -I know, my dear friend [that Hipparchus is a very -great astronomer], but many people do not accept his view -<span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span>on the physical nature of vision, since it is probably a sympathetic -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> blending and commixture, rather than a succession of strokes and -recoils such as Epicurus devised for his atoms. Nor will you find -Clearchus ready to assume with you that the moon is a weighty -and solid body. Yet “an ethereal and luminous star”, to use -your words, ought to break and divert the vision, so there -is no question of reflexion. Lastly, if any one requires us to -do so, we will put the question, how is it that only one face -is seen, the sea mirrored on the moon, and none in any of all -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> the other stars? Yet reason demands that our vision should -be thus affected in the case of all or of none. But now,’ I said, -turning to Lucius, ‘remind us which of our points was mentioned -first.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>V. ‘No;’ said Lucius, ‘to avoid the appearance of merely -insulting Pharnaces, if we pass over the Stoic view without -a word of greeting, do give some answer to Clearchus, and his -assumption that the moon is a mere mixture of air and mild -fire, that the air grows dark on its surface, as a ripple courses -over a calm sea, and so the appearance of a face is produced.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘It is kind of you, Lucius,’ I said, ‘to clothe this absurdity -in sounding terms. That is not how our comrade dealt with it. -He said the truth, that it is a slap in the face to the moon when -they fill her with smuts and blacks, addressing her in one breath -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>922<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> as Artemis and Athena,<a id='r308' /><a href='#f308' class='c006'><sup>[308]</sup></a> and in the very same describing a caked -compound of murky air and charcoal fire, with no kindling or -light of its own, a nondescript body smoking and charred like -those thunderbolts which poets<a id='r309' /><a href='#f309' class='c006'><sup>[309]</sup></a> address as “lightless” and -“sooty”. That a charcoal fire, such as this school makes out -the moon to be, has no stability or consistence at all, unless -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> it find solid fuel at once to support and to feed it, is a point -<span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>not so clearly seen by some philosophers as it is by those who -tell us in jest that Hephaestus has been called lame because -fire progresses no better without wood than lame people -without a stick! If then the moon is fire, whence has it all -this air inside it? For this upper region, always in circular -motion, belongs not to air but to some nobler substance, -which has the property of refining and kindling all things. -If air has been generated, how is it that it has not been vaporized -by the fire and passed away into some other form, but is preserved -near fire all this time, like a nail fitted into the same -place and wedged there for ever? If it is rare and diffused, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -it should not remain stable, but be displaced. On the other -hand, it cannot subsist in a solidified form, because it is mingled -with fire, and has neither moisture with it nor earth, the only -agents by which air can be compacted. Again, rapid motion -fires the air which is contained in stones, and even in cold -lead, much more then that which is in fire, when whirled round -with such velocity. For they are displeased with Empedocles, -when he describes the moon as a mass of air frozen like hail and -enclosed within her globe of fire. Yet they themselves hold -that the moon is a globe of fire which encloses air variously -distributed, and this though they do not allow that she has <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -clefts in herself, or depths and hollows (for which those who -make her an earth-like body find room), but clearly suppose -that the air lies upon her convex surface. That it should do -so is absurd in point of stability, and impossible in view of what -we see at full moon; for we ought not to be able to distinguish -black parts and shadow then; either all should be dull and -shrouded, or all should shine out together when the moon is -caught by the sun. For look at our earth; the air which lies -in her depths and hollows, where no ray penetrates, remains -in shadow unilluminated; that which is outside, diffused over -the earth, has light and brilliant colouring, because from its -<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>rarity it easily mingles, and takes up any quality or influence. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> By light, in particular, if merely touched, or, in your words, -grazed, it is changed all through and illumined. This is at -once an excellent ally to those who thrust the air into depths -and gullies on the moon, and also quite disposes of you, who -strangely compound her globe of air and fire. For it is impossible -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> that shadow should be left on her surface when the sun touches -with his light all that part of the moon which is framed within -our own field of vision.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>VI. Here Pharnaces, while I was still speaking, broke in: -‘Round it goes again, the old scene-shifter of the Academy -brought out against us; they amuse themselves with arguing -against other people, but in no case submit to be examined -on their own views, they treat their opponents as apologists, -not accusers. I can speak for myself at any rate; you are not -going to draw me on to-day to answer your charges against the -Stoics, unless we first get an account of your conduct in turning -the universe upside down.’ Lucius smiled: ‘Yes, my friend,’ -he said, ‘only do not threaten us with the writ of heresy, -such as Cleanthes used to think that the Greeks should have -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>923<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> had served upon Aristarchus of Samos, for shifting the hearth -of the universe, because that great man attempted “to save -phenomena” with his hypothesis that the heavens are stationary, -while our earth moves round in an oblique orbit, at the -same time whirling about her own axis. We Academics have -no view of our own finding, but do tell me this—why are those, -who assume that the moon is an earth, turning things upside -down, any more than you, who fix the earth where she is, -suspended in mid air, a body considerably larger than the moon? -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> At least mathematicians tell us so, calculating the magnitude of -the obscuring body from what takes place in eclipses, and from -the passages of the moon through the shadow. For the shadow -of the earth is less as it extends, because the illuminating -<span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>body is greater, and its upper extremity is fine and narrow, -as even Homer,<a id='r310' /><a href='#f310' class='c006'><sup>[310]</sup></a> they say, did not fail to notice. He called -night “pointed” because of the sharpness of the shadow. -Such, at any rate, is the body by which the moon is caught in -her eclipses, and yet she barely gets clear by a passage equal -to three of her own diameters. Just consider how many moons -go to make an earth, if the earth cast a shadow as broad, at its -shortest, as three moons. Yet you have fears for the moon -lest she should tumble, while as for our earth, Aeschylus<a id='r311' /><a href='#f311' class='c006'><sup>[311]</sup></a> has -perhaps satisfied you that Atlas <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Stands, and the pillar which parts Heaven and Earth</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>His shoulders prop, no load for arms t’ embrace.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Then, you think that under the moon there runs light air, quite -inadequate to support a solid mass, while the earth, in Pindar’s<a id='r312' /><a href='#f312' class='c006'><sup>[312]</sup></a> -words, is compassed “by pillars set on adamant”. And this -is why Pharnaces has no fear on his own account of the earth’s -falling, but pities those who lie under the orbit of the moon, -Ethiopians, say, or Taprobanes, on whom so great a weight -might fall! Yet the moon has that which helps her against -falling, in her very speed and the swing of her passage round, -as objects placed in slings are hindered from falling by the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -whirl of the rotation. For everything is borne on in its own -natural direction unless this is changed by some other force. -Therefore the moon is not drawn down by her weight, since -that tendency is counteracted by her circular movement. -Perhaps it would be more reasonable to wonder if she were -entirely at rest as the earth is, and unmoved. As things are, the -moon has a powerful cause to prevent her from being borne down -upon us; but the earth, being destitute of any other movement, -might naturally be moved<a id='r313' /><a href='#f313' class='c006'><sup>[313]</sup></a> by its own weight; being heavier -<span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span>than the moon not merely in proportion to its greater bulk, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> but because the moon has been rendered lighter by heat and -conflagration. It would actually seem that the moon, if she -is a fire, is in need of earth, a solid substance whereon she moves -and to which she clings, so feeding and keeping up the force -of her flame. For it is impossible to conceive fire as maintained -without fuel. But you Stoics say that our earth stands firm -without foundation or root.’ ‘Of course,’ said Pharnaces, -‘it keeps its proper and natural place, namely the essential -middle point, that place around which all weights press and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> bear, converging towards it from all sides. But all the upper region, -even if it receive any earth-like body thrown up with force, -immediately thrusts it out hitherward, or rather lets it go, -to be borne down by its own momentum.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>VII. At this point, wishing Lucius to have time to refresh -his memory, I called on Theon: ‘Theon, which of the tragic -poets has said that physicians</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Purge bitter bile with bitter remedies?</i>’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Theon answered that it was Sophocles.<a id='r314' /><a href='#f314' class='c006'><sup>[314]</sup></a> ‘And physicians must -be allowed to do so,’ I said, ‘we cannot help it. But philosophers -must not be listened to, if they choose to meet paradoxes -with paradoxes, and, when contending against strange views, -to invent views which are more strange and wonderful still. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>924<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Here are these Stoics with their “tendency towards the middle”! -Is there any paradox which is not implicit there? That our -earth, with all those depths and heights and inequalities, is -a Sphere? That there are people at our antipodes who live -like timber-worms or lizards, their lower limbs turned upper-most -as they plant them on earth? That we ourselves do not -keep perpendicular as we move, but remain on the slant, -swerving like drunkards? That masses of a thousand talents’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>weight, borne through the depth of the earth, stop when they -reach the middle point, though nothing meets or resists them; -or, if mere momentum carry them down beyond the middle -point, they wheel round and turn back of themselves? That <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -segments of beams<a id='r315' /><a href='#f315' class='c006'><sup>[315]</sup></a> sawn off at the surface of the earth on either -side, do not move downwards all the way, but as they fall upon -the surface receive equal thrusts from the outside inwards and -are jammed around the middle? That water rushing violently -downwards, if it should reach this middle point—an incorporeal -point as they say—would stand balanced around it for a pivot, -swinging with an oscillation which never stops and never can -be stopped? Some of these a man could not force himself <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -to present to his intellect as possible, even if untrue! This -is to make</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Up down, down up, where Topsy-Turvy reigns</i>,<a id='r316' /><a href='#f316' class='c006'><sup>[316]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>all from us to the centre down, and all below the centre becoming -up in its turn! So that if a man, by the “sympathy” of earth, -were to stand with the central point of his own body touching -the centre, he would have his head up and his feet up too! -And if he were to dig into the space beyond, the down part of -his body would bend upwards, and the soil would be dug out -from above to below; and if another man could be conceived -meeting him, the feet of both would be said to be up, and would -really become so!</p> - -<p class='c005'>VIII. ‘Such are the monstrous paradoxes which they -shoulder and trail along, no mere wallet, Heaven help us! but <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -a conjurer’s stock-in-trade and show-booth; and then they -call other men triflers, because they place the moon, being an -earth, up above, and not where the middle point is. And yet -<span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>if every weighty body converges to the same point with all its -parts, the earth will claim the heavy objects, not so much -because she is middle of the whole, as because they are parts -of herself; and the inclination of falling bodies will testify, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> not to any property of earth<a id='r317' /><a href='#f317' class='c006'><sup>[317]</sup></a>, as middle of the universe, but -rather to a community and fellowship between earth and her -own parts, once ejected, now borne back to her. For as the -sun draws into himself the parts of which he has been composed, -so earth receives the stone as belonging to her, and drawn down -towards herself; and thus each of such objects becomes united -with her in time and grows into herself. If there is any body -neither assigned originally to the earth, nor torn away from it, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> but having somehow a substance and nature of its own, such as -they would describe the moon to be, what is there to prevent -its existing separately, self-centred, pressed together and -compacted by its own parts? For it is not proved that earth -is the middle of the universe, and, further, the way in which -bodies here are collected and drawn together towards the earth -suggests the manner in which bodies which have fallen together -on to the moon may reasonably be supposed to keep their place -with reference to her. Why the man who forces all earth-like -and heavy objects into one place, and makes them parts of -one body, does not apply the same law of coercion to light -bodies, I cannot see, instead of allowing all those fiery structures -to exist apart; nor why he does not collect all the stars into -the same place, and hold distinctly that there must be a body -common to all upward-borne and fiery units.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>925<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> IX. ‘But you and your friends, dear Apollonides, say that -the sun is countless millions of stades distant from the highest -circle, and that Phosphor next to him, and Stilbon, and the -other planets, move in a region below the fixed stars and at -great intervals from one another; and yet you think that the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>universe provides within itself no interval in space for heavy -and earth-like bodies. You see that it is ridiculous to call the -moon no earth because she stands apart from the region below, -and then to call her a star while we see her thrust so many <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -myriads of stades away from the upper circle as though sunk -into an abyss. She is lower than the stars by a distance which -we cannot state in words, since numbers fail you mathematicians -when you try to reckon it, but she touches the earth in a sense -and revolves close to it,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Like to the nave of a wagon, she glances</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>says Empedocles,<a id='r318' /><a href='#f318' class='c006'><sup>[318]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'><i>which near the mid axle....</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>For she often fails to clear even the shadow of earth, rising but -little,<a id='r319' /><a href='#f319' class='c006'><sup>[319]</sup></a> because the illuminating body is so vast. But so nearly -does she seem to graze the earth and to be almost in its embrace -as she circles round, that she is shut off from the sun by it unless <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -she rises enough to clear that shaded, terrestrial region, dark as -night, which is the appanage of earth. Therefore I think we -may say with confidence that the moon is within the precincts -of earth when we see her blocked by earth’s extremities.</p> - -<p class='c005'>X. ‘Now leave the other fixed stars and planets, and consider -the conclusion proved by Aristarchus in his <i>Magnitudes and -Distances</i>;<a id='r320' /><a href='#f320' class='c006'><sup>[320]</sup></a> that the distance of the sun is to the distance -of the moon from us in a ratio greater than eighteen to one, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -less than twenty to one. Yet the highest estimate of the distance -of the moon from us makes it fifty-six times the earth’s radius, -and that is, even on a moderate measurement, forty thousand -stades. Upon this basis, the distance of the sun from the moon -works out to more than forty million three hundred thousand -stades. So far has she been settled from the sun because of -her weight, and so nearly has she approached the earth, that, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>if we are to distribute estates according to localities, the “portion -and inheritance of the earth” invites the moon to join -her, and the moon has a next claim to chattels and persons -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> on earth, in right of kinship and vicinity. And I think that we -are not doing wrong in this, that while we assign so great -and profound an interval to what we call the upper bodies, -we also leave to bodies below as much room for circulation as -the breadth from earth to moon. For he who confines the -word “upper” to the extreme circumference of heaven, and -calls all the rest “lower”, goes too far, and on the other hand -he who circumscribes “below” to earth, or rather to her centre, -is preposterous. On this side and on that the necessary interval -must be granted,<a id='r321' /><a href='#f321' class='c006'><sup>[321]</sup></a> since the vastness of the universe permits. -Against the claim that everything after we leave the earth is -“up” and poised on high, sounds the counterclaim that everything -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> after we leave the circle of the fixed stars is “down”!</p> - -<p class='c005'>XI. ‘Look at the question broadly. In what sense is the -earth “middle”, and middle of what? For the Whole is -infinite; now the Infinite has neither beginning nor limit, -so it ought not to have a middle; for a middle is in a sense -itself a limit, but infinity is a negation of limits. It is amusing -to hear a man labour to prove that the earth is the middle -of the universe, not of the Whole, forgetting that the universe -itself lies under the same difficulties; for the Whole, in its -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>926<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> turn, left no middle for the universe. “Hearthless and homeless”<a id='r322' /><a href='#f322' class='c006'><sup>[322]</sup></a> -it is borne over an infinite void towards nothing which -it can call its own; or, if it find some other cause for remaining, -it stands still, not because of the nature of the place. Much -the same can be conjectured about the earth and the moon; -if one stands here unshaken while the other moves, it is in -virtue of a difference of soul rather than of place and of nature. -Apart from all this, has not one important point escaped -<span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>them? If anything, however great, which is outside the centre -of the earth is “up”, then no part of the universe is “down”. -Earth is “up”, and so are the things on the earth, absolutely <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -every body lying or standing about the earth becomes “up”; -one thing alone is “down”, that incorporeal point which has -of necessity to resist the pressure of the whole universe, if -“down” is naturally opposed to “up”. Nor is this absurdity -the only one. Weights lose the cause of their downward tendency -and motion here, since there is no body below towards -which they move. That the incorporeal should have so great -a force as to direct all things towards itself, or hold them -together about itself, is not probable, nor do they mean this. -No! it is found on all grounds<a id='r323' /><a href='#f323' class='c006'><sup>[323]</sup></a> to be irrational, and against the -facts, that “up” should be the whole universe, and “down” -nothing but an incorporeal and indivisible limit. The other -view is reasonable, which we state thus, that a large space, -possessing breadth, is apportioned both to “the above” and -to “the below”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XII. ‘However, let us assume, if you choose, that it is <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -contrary to nature that earth-like bodies should have their -motions in heaven; and now let us look quietly, with no -heroics, at the inference, which is this, not that the moon is -not an earth, but that she is an earth not in its natural place. -So the fire of Aetna is fire underground, which is contrary to -nature, yet is fire; and air enclosed in bladders is light and -volatile by nature, but has come perforce into a place unnatural -to it. And the soul, the soul itself,’ I went on, ‘has it not been -imprisoned in the body contrary to nature, a swift, and, as -you hold, a fiery soul in a slow, cold body, the invisible within -the sensible? Are we therefore to say that soul in body is nothing, -and not rather that Reason, that divine thing, has been made -subject to weight and density, that one which ranges all heaven <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>and earth and sea in a moment’s flight has passed into flesh -and sinews, marrow and humours, wherein is the origin of -countless passions?<a id='r324' /><a href='#f324' class='c006'><sup>[324]</sup></a> Your Lord Zeus, is he not, so long as -he preserves his own nature, one great continuous fire? Yet -we see him brought down, and bent, and fashioned, assuming, -and ready to assume, any and every complexion of change. -Look well to it, my friend, whether when you shift all things -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> about, and remove each to its “natural” place, you are not -devising a system to dissolve the universe and introducing -Empedoclean strife, or rather stirring up the old Titans against -Nature, in your eagerness to see once more the dreadful disorder -and dissonance of the myth? All that is heavy in a place by -itself, and all that is light in another,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Where neither sun’s bright face is separate seen,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Nor earth’s rough brood, nor ocean any more</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> as Empedocles says! Earth had nothing to do with heat, -water with wind; nothing heavy was found above, nothing -light below; without commixture, without affection were the -principles of all things, mere units, each desiring no intercourse -with each or partnership, performing their separate scornful -motions in mutual flight and aversion, a state of things which -must always be, as Plato<a id='r325' /><a href='#f325' class='c006'><sup>[325]</sup></a> teaches, where God is absent, the -state of bodies deserted by intelligence and soul. So it was until -the day when Providence brought Desire into Nature, and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>927<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Friendship was engendered there, and Aphrodite, and Eros, -as Empedocles tells us and Parmenides too and Hesiod,<a id='r326' /><a href='#f326' class='c006'><sup>[326]</sup></a> -so that things might change their places, and receive faculties -from one another in turn, and, from being bound under stress, -and forced, some to be in motion some to rest, might all begin -to give in to the Better, instead of the Natural, and shift their -places and so produce harmony and communion of the Whole.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>XIII. ‘For if it be true that no other part of the universe -departed from Nature, but that each rests in its natural place, -not needing any transposition or rearrangement, and never -from the first having needed any, I am at a loss to know what -there is for Providence to do, or of what Zeus, “in art most -excellent”,<a id='r327' /><a href='#f327' class='c006'><sup>[327]</sup></a> is the maker and the artist-father. There would <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -be no need of tactics in an army if each soldier knew of himself -how to take and keep place and post at the proper time; nor -of gardeners or builders if the water of its own nature is to -flow over the parts which need it, and moisten them, or if -bricks and beams should of themselves adopt the movements -and inclinations which are natural, and arrange themselves -in their fitting places. If such a theory strike out Providence <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -altogether, and if it be God’s own attribute to order and -discriminate things, what marvel is it that Nature has been -so disposed and partitioned that fire is here and stars there, -and again that earth is planted where it is and the moon -above, each held by a firmer bond than that of Nature, the bond -of Reason? Since, if all things are to observe natural tendencies, -and to move each according to its nature, let the sun no longer -go round in a circle, nor Phosphorus, nor any of the other stars, -because it is the nature of light and fiery bodies to move upwards, -not in a circle! But if Nature admits of such local -variation as that fire, here seen to ascend, yet when it reaches -heaven, joins in the general rotation, what marvel if heavy <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and earthlike bodies too, when placed there, assume another -kind of motion, mastered by the circumambient element? -For it is not according to Nature that light things lose their -upward tendency in heaven, and yet heaven cannot prevail -over those which are heavy and incline downwards. No, -heaven at some time had power to rearrange both these and -those, and turned the nature of each to what was better.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span>XIV. ‘However, if we are at last to have done with notions -enslaved to usage,<a id='r328' /><a href='#f328' class='c006'><sup>[328]</sup></a> and to state fearlessly what appears to be -true, it is probable that no part of a whole has any order, or -position, or movement of its own which can be described in -absolute terms as natural. But when each body places itself at -the disposal of that on account of which it has come into being, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and in relation to which it naturally exists or has been created, -to move as is useful and convenient to it, actively and passively -and in all its own states conforming to the conservation, -beauty, or power of that other, then, I hold, its place, movements -and disposition are according to Nature. In man certainly, -who has, if anything has, come into being according to Nature, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> the heavy and earth-like parts are found above, mostly about -the head, the hot and fiery in the middle regions; of the teeth -one set grows from above, the other from below, yet neither -contrary to Nature; nor can it be said of the fire in him -that when it is above and flashes in his eyes it is natural, but -when it is in stomach or heart, unnatural; each has been -arranged as is proper and convenient.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Mark well the tortoise and the trumpet-shell</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>says Empedocles, and, we may add, the nature of every shell-fish, -and</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Earth uppermost, flesh under thou shalt see.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Yet the stony substance does not squeeze or crush the growth<a id='r329' /><a href='#f329' class='c006'><sup>[329]</sup></a> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>928<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> within, nor again does the heat fly off and be lost because of -its lightness; they are mingled and co-ordinated according to -the nature of each.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XV. ‘And so it is probably with the universe, if it be -indeed a living structure; in many places it contains earth, in -many others fire, water, and wind, which are not forced out -<span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span>under stress, but arranged on a rational system. Take the eye; -it is not where it is in the body owing to pressure acting on -its light substance, nor has the heart fallen or slipped down <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -into the region of the chest because of its weight; each is -arranged where it is because it was better so. Let us not then -suppose that it is otherwise with the parts of the universe; -that earth lies here where it has fallen of its own weight, that -the sun, as Metrodorus of Chios used to think, has been pressed -out into the upper region because of his lightness, like a bladder, -or that the other stars have reached the places which they -now hold as if they had been weighed in a balance and kicked -the beam. No, the rational principle prevailed; and some, -like eyes to give light, are inserted into the face of the Whole -and revolve; the sun acts as a heart, and sheds and distributes -out of himself heat and light, as it were blood and breath. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Earth and sea are to the universe, according to Nature, what -stomach and bladder are to the animal. The moon, lying -between sun and earth, as the liver or some other soft organ -between heart and stomach, distributes here the gentle warmth -from above, while she returns to us, digested, purified, and -refined in her own sphere, the exhalations of earth. Whether -her earth-like solid substance contributes to any other useful -purposes, we cannot say. We do know that universally the Better -prevails over the law of Stress. How can the view of the Stoics -lead us to any probable result? That view is, that the luminous -and subtle part of the atmosphere has by its rarity formed the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -sky, the dense and consolidated part stars, and that, of the stars, -the moon is the dullest and the grossest. However, we may see -with our eyes that the moon is not entirely separated from the -atmosphere, but moves within a great belt of it, having beneath -itself a wind-swept region, where bodies are whirled, and amongst -them comets. Thus these bodies have not been placed -in the scales according to the weight or lightness of each, -but have been arranged upon a different system.’</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span>XVI. This said, as I was passing the turn to Lucius, the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> argument now reaching the stage of demonstration, Aristotle -said with a smile: ‘I protest that you have addressed your -whole reply to those who assume that the moon herself is half -fire, and who say of all bodies in common that they have an -inclination of their own, some an upward one, some a downward. -If there is a single person who holds that the stars move in -a circle according to Nature, and are of a substance widely -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> different from the four elements, it has not occurred to our -memory, even by accident; so that I am out of the discussion, -and you also, Lucius.’ ‘No, no, good friend’, said Lucius. -‘As to the other stars, and the heaven in general, when your -school asserts that they have a nature which is pure and transparent, -and removed from all changes caused by passion, and -when they introduce a circle of eternal<a id='r330' /><a href='#f330' class='c006'><sup>[330]</sup></a> and never-ending -revolution, perhaps no one would contradict you, at least for -the present, although there are countless difficulties. But -when the theory comes down and touches the moon, it no -longer retains in her case the “freedom from passion” and the -beauty of form of that body. Leaving out of account her -other irregularities and points of difference, this very face -which appears upon her has come there either from some passion -proper to herself or by admixture of some other substance. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>929<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Indeed, mixture implies some passion, since there is a loss of its -own purity when a body is forcibly filled with what is inferior -to itself. Consider her own torpor and dullness of speed, and -her heat, so faint and ineffectual, wherein, as Ion<a id='r331' /><a href='#f331' class='c006'><sup>[331]</sup></a> says—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>The black grape ripens not</i>;</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>to what are we to assign this, but to weakness in herself and -passion, if passion can have place in an eternal and Olympian -body? It comes to this, dear Aristotle; look on her as earth, -and she appears a very beautiful object, venerable and highly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span>adorned; but as star, or light, or any divine or heavenly body, -I fear she may be found wanting in shapeliness and grace, -and do no credit to her beautiful name, if out of all the multitude -in heaven she alone goes round begging light of others, as -Parmenides says, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>For ever peering toward the sun’s bright rays.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Now when our comrade, in his dissertation, was expounding -the proposition of Anaxagoras, that “the sun places the brightness -in the moon”, he was highly applauded. But I am not -going to speak of things which I learned from you or with you, -I will gladly pass on to the remaining points. It is then probable -that the moon is illuminated not as glass or crystal by the -sunlight shining in and through her, nor yet by way of accumulation -of light and rays, as torches when they multiply their -light. For then we should have full moon at the beginning -of the month just as much as at the middle, if she does not -conceal or block the sun, but allows him<a id='r332' /><a href='#f332' class='c006'><sup>[332]</sup></a> to pass through <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -because of her rarity, or if he, by way of commixture, shines -upon the light around her and helps to kindle it with his own. -For it is not possible to allege any bending or swerving aside -on her part at the time of her conjunction, as we can when -she is at the half, or is gibbous or crescent. Being then “plumb -opposite”, as Democritus puts it, to her illuminant, she -receives and admits the sun, so that we should expect to see -her shining herself and also allowing him to shine through -her. Now she is very far from doing this; she is herself -invisible at those times, and she often hides him out of our -sight.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>So from above for men</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>as Empedocles says, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>She quenched his beams, shrouding a slice of earth</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Wide as the compass of the glancing moon</i>;</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span>as though his light had fallen, not upon another star, but upon -night and darkness.</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘The view of Posidonius, that it is because of the depth of the -moon’s body that the light of the sun is not passed through to us, -is wrong on the face of it. For the air, which is unlimited, and -has a depth many times that of the moon, is filled throughout -with sunlight and brightness. There is left then that of -Empedocles, that the illumination which we get from the moon -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> arises in some way from the reflexion of the sun as he falls -upon her. Hence her light reaches us without heat or lustre, -whereas we should expect both if there were a kindling by him -or a commixture of lights. But as voices return an echo weaker -than the original sound, and missiles which glance off strike -with weaker impact,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>E’en so the ray which smote the moon’s white orb</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>reaches us in a feeble and exhausted stream, because the force -is dispersed in the reflexion.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XVII. Here Sylla broke in: ‘All these things no doubt -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> have their probabilities; but the strongest point on the other -side was either explained away or it escaped our comrade’s -attention; which was it?’</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘What do you mean?’ said Lucius. ‘The problem of the -half-moon, I suppose?’</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘Precisely,’ said Sylla, ‘for as all reflexion takes place at equal -angles, there is some reason in saying that when the moon is -in mid-heaven at half-moon, the light is not carried from her -on to the earth, but glances off beyond it; for the sun, being -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>930<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> on the horizon, touches the moon with his rays, which will -therefore, being reflected at equal angles, fall on the further -side and beyond us, and will not send the light here; or else -there will be a great distortion and variation in the angle, which -is impossible.’</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span>‘I assure you’, said Lucius, ‘that point was mentioned also;’ -and here he glanced at Menelaus the mathematician, as he -went on: ‘I am ashamed, dear Menelaus,’ he said, ‘in your -presence to upset a mathematical assumption which is laid -down as fundamental in all the Optics of Mirrors. But I feel -obliged to say’, he continued, ‘that the law which requires -reflexion in all cases to be at equal angles is neither self-evident <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -nor admitted. It is impugned in the instance of convex mirrors, -when magnified images are reflected to the one point of sight. -It is impugned also in that of double mirrors, when they are -inclined towards one another so that there is an angle between -them, and each surface returns a double image from one face, -four images in all, two on the right, two on the left, two from -the outer parts of the surfaces, two dimmer ones deep within the -mirrors.<a id='r333' /><a href='#f333' class='c006'><sup>[333]</sup></a> Plato<a id='r334' /><a href='#f334' class='c006'><sup>[334]</sup></a> gives the cause why this takes place. He has told <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -us that if the mirrors be raised on either side, there is a gradual -shifting of the visual reflexion as it passes from one side to the -other. If then some images proceed directly to us, while -others glance to the opposite side of the mirrors, and are -returned thence to us, it is impossible that reflexion in all cases -takes place at equal angles. They observe<a id='r335' /><a href='#f335' class='c006'><sup>[335]</sup></a> that these images -meet in one point, and further claim that the law of equal -angles is disproved by the streams of light which actually -proceed from the moon to the earth, holding the fact to be <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -far more convincing than the law. However, if we are so far -to indulge the beloved geometry as to make her a present of this -law, in the first place it may be expected to hold of mirrors -which have been made accurately smooth. But the moon has -many irregularities and rough parts, so that the rays proceeding -<span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span>from a large body, when they fall on considerable eminences, -are exposed to counter-illuminations and reciprocal dispersion; -the cross-light is reflected, involved, and accumulated as though -it reached us from a number of mirrors. In the next place, -even if we allow that the reflexions are produced at equal -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> angles upon the actual surface of the moon, yet, when the -distance is so great, it is not impossible that the rays may be -broken in their passage, or glance around, so that the light -reaches us in one composite stream. Some go further, and show -by a figure that many lights discharge their rays along a line inclined -to the hypothenuse; but it was not possible to construct -the diagram while speaking, especially before a large audience.<a id='r336' /><a href='#f336' class='c006'><sup>[336]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>XVIII. ‘Upon the whole question,’ he went on, ‘I am at -a loss to see how they bring up the half-moon against us; the -point fails equally upon her gibbous and crescent phases. -For if the moon were a mass of air or fire which the sun illuminated, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> he would not have left half her sphere always in shadow -and darkness as seen by us; but even if he touched her in his -circuit only in a small point, the proper consequence would -follow, she would be affected all through, and her entire -substance changed by the light penetrating everywhere with -ease. When wine touches water on its extreme surface, or -a drop of blood falls into liquid, the whole is discoloured at -once, and turned to crimson. But the air itself, we are told, -is not filled with sunshine by emanations or beams actually -mingling with it, but by a change and alteration caused by -something like a prick or touch. Now, how can they suppose -that when star touches star or light light, it does not mingle -with or alter the substance throughout, but only illuminates -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>931<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> those points which it touches superficially? The circular orbit -of the sun as he passes about the moon, which sometimes -coincides with the line dividing her visible and invisible parts, -and at other times rises to right angles with that line so as to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span>cut those parts in two, and in turn be cut by her, produces -her gibbous and crescent phases by the varying inclination and -position of the bright part relatively to that in shadow. This -proves beyond all question that the illumination is contact -not commixture, not accumulation of light but its circumfusion. -But the fact that she is not only illuminated herself but also sends <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -on the image of her brightness to us, allows us to insist the more -confidently on our theory of her substance. For reflexions do -not take place on a rarefied body, or one formed of subtle -particles, nor is it easy to conceive light rebounding from light, -or fire from fire; the body which is to produce recoil and reflexion -must be heavy and dense, that there may be impact -upon it and resilience from it. To the sun himself the air -certainly allows a passage, offering no obstructions or resistance; -whereas if timber, stones, or woven stuffs be placed to meet his -light many cross rays are caused, and there is illumination all <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -round them. We see the same thing in the way his light reaches -the earth. The earth does not pass his ray into a depth as water -does, nor yet throughout her whole substance as air does. -Just as his orbit passes round the moon, gradually cutting off -a certain portion of her, so a similar orbit passes round the earth, -illuminating a similar part of it and leaving another unilluminated, -for the part of either body which receives light appears -to be a little larger than a hemisphere. Allow me to speak -geometrically in terms of proportion. Here are three bodies -approached by the sun’s light, earth, moon, air; we see that -the moon is illuminated like the earth, not like the air; but -bodies naturally affected in the same way by the same must be -themselves similar.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XIX. When all had applauded Lucius, ‘Bravo!’ said I, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘a beautiful proportion fitted to a beautiful theory; for you -must not be defrauded of your own.’ ‘In that case,’ he said, -with a smile, ‘I must employ proportion a second time, in -order that we may prove the moon like the earth, not only -<span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span>as being affected in the same way by the same body, but also -as producing the same effect on the same. Grant me that no -one of the phenomena relating to the sun is so like another -as an eclipse to a sunset, remembering that recent concurrence<a id='r337' /><a href='#f337' class='c006'><sup>[337]</sup></a> -of sun and moon, which, beginning just after noon, showed us -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> plainly many stars in all parts of the heavens, and produced -a chill in the temperature like that of twilight. If you have -forgotten it, Theon here will bring up Mimnermus and Cydias, -and Archilochus, and Stesichorus and Pindar<a id='r338' /><a href='#f338' class='c006'><sup>[338]</sup></a> besides, all -bewailing at eclipse time “the brightest star stolen from the sky” -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and “night with us at midday”, speaking of the ray of the sun -as “a track of darkness” and, besides all these, Homer<a id='r339' /><a href='#f339' class='c006'><sup>[339]</sup></a> saying -that the faces of men are “bound in night and gloom” and -“the sun is perished out of the heaven”, i.e. around the moon, -and how this occurs according to Nature, “when one moon -perishes and one is born”. The remaining points have been -reduced, I think, by the accuracy of mathematical methods -to the one<a id='r340' /><a href='#f340' class='c006'><sup>[340]</sup></a> certain principle that night is the shadow of earth, -whereas an eclipse of the sun is the shadow of the moon when -it falls within our vision. When the sun sets he is blocked -from our sight by the earth; when he is eclipsed, by the moon. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>932<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> In both cases there is overshadowing; in his setting it is caused -by the earth, in his eclipses by the moon, her shadow intercepting -our vision. From all this it is easy to draw out a theory as to -what happens. If the effect is similar, the agents are similar; -for the same effects upon the same body must be due to the -same agents. If the darkness of eclipses is not so profound, and -does not affect the atmosphere so forcibly, let us not be surprised; -the bodies which cause respectively night and eclipse are similar -in nature, but unequal in size. The Egyptians, I believe, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span>say that the moon’s bulk is one two-and-seventieth part of the -earth’s, Anaxagoras made her as large as Peloponnesus; but <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Aristarchus<a id='r341' /><a href='#f341' class='c006'><sup>[341]</sup></a> proves that the diameter of the earth bears to -that of the moon a ratio which is less than sixty to nineteen, -and greater than a hundred and eight to forty-three. Hence -the earth because of its size removes the sun entirely from -our sight, the obstruction is great and lasts all night; whereas -if the moon sometimes hides the sun entirely, yet the eclipse -does not last long and has no breadth; but a certain brightness -is apparent around the rim, which does not allow the shadow -to be deep and absolute. Aristotle,<a id='r342' /><a href='#f342' class='c006'><sup>[342]</sup></a> I mean the ancient -philosopher, after giving other reasons why the moon is more <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -often visibly eclipsed than the sun, adds this further one, that -the sun is eclipsed by the interposition of the moon,<a id='r343' /><a href='#f343' class='c006'><sup>[343]</sup></a> [the moon -by that of the earth and of other bodies also.] But Posidonius -gives this definition of what occurs: an eclipse of the sun is a -concurrence of the shadow of the moon with our vision<a id='r344' /><a href='#f344' class='c006'><sup>[344]</sup></a> ... -for there is no eclipse, except to those whose view of the sun can -be intercepted by the shadow of the moon. In allowing that -the shadow of the moon reaches to us, I do not know what he has -left himself to say. There can be no shadow of a star; shadow -means absence of light, and it is the nature of light to remove -shadow, not to cause it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XX. ‘But tell me’, he went on, ‘what proof was mentioned <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -next?’ ‘That the moon was eclipsed in the same way’, I said. -‘Thank you for reminding me’, he said. ‘But now am I to -turn at once to the argument, assuming that you are satisfied, -and allow that the moon is eclipsed when she is caught in the -shadow, or do you wish me to set out a studied proof, with all the -steps in order?’ ‘By all means,’ said Theon, ‘let us have the -proof in full. For my own part, I still somehow need to be convinced; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> I have only heard it put thus, that when the three bodies, -earth, sun, and moon, come into one straight line eclipses occur, -the earth removing the sun from the moon, or the moon the -sun from the earth; that is, the sun is eclipsed when the moon, -the moon when the earth, is in the middle of the three, the first -case happening at her conjunction, the second at the half-month.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>Lucius replied: ‘These are perhaps the most important -points mentioned; but first, if you will, take the additional -argument drawn from the shape of the shadow. This is a cone, -such as is caused by a large spherical body of fire or light overlapping -a smaller body also spherical. Hence in eclipses the lines -which mark off the dark portions of the moon from the bright -give circular sections. For when one round body approaches -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> another, the lines of mutual intersection are invariably circular -like the bodies themselves. In the second place, I think you -are aware that the first parts of the moon to be eclipsed are -those towards the East, of the sun those towards the West, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>933<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and the shadow of the earth moves from East to West, -that of<a id='r345' /><a href='#f345' class='c006'><sup>[345]</sup></a> the moon on the contrary to the East. This is made -clear to the senses by the phenomena, which may be explained -quite shortly. They go to confirm our view of the cause of -the eclipse. For since the sun is eclipsed by being overtaken, -the moon by meeting the body which causes the eclipse,<a id='r346' /><a href='#f346' class='c006'><sup>[346]</sup></a> it is -likely, or rather it is necessary, that the sun should be overtaken -from behind, the moon from the front, the obstruction beginning -from the first point of contact with the obstructing body. -The moon comes up with the sun from the West as she races -against him, the earth from the East because it is moving from -the opposite direction. As a third point, I will ask you to -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> notice the duration and the magnitude of her eclipses. If she -<span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span>is eclipsed when high up and far from the earth, she is hidden -for a short time; if near the earth and low down when the -same thing happens to her, she is firmly held and emerges -slowly out of the shadow; and yet when she is low her speed -is greatest, when high it is least. The cause of the difference lies -in the shadow; for being broadest about the base, like all cones, -and tapering gradually, it ends in a sharp, fine head. Hence, -if the moon be low when she meets the shadow, she is caught -in the largest circles of the cone, and crosses its most profound -and darkest part; if high, she dips as into a shallow pond, -because the shadow is thin, and quickly makes her way out. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -I omit the points of detail mentioned as to bases and permeations, -which can also be rationally explained as far as the subject-matter -allows. I go back to the theory put before us founded -on our senses. We see that fire shines through more visibly -and more brightly out of a place in shadow, whether because -of the density of the darkened air, which does not allow it to -stream off and be dispersed, but holds its substance compressed -where it is, or whether this is an affection of our senses; as -hot things are hotter when contrasted with cold, and pleasures -are more intense by contrast with pains, so bright things stand -out more clearly by the side of dark, setting the imagination -on the alert by the contrast. The former cause appears the more <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -probable, for in the light of the sun everything in the nature of -fire not only loses its brightness, but is outmatched and becomes -inactive and blunted, since the sun’s heat scatters and dissipates -its power. If then the moon possess a faint, feeble fire, being -a star of somewhat turbid substance, as the Stoics themselves -say, none of the effects which she now exhibits ought to follow, -but the opposite in all respects; she ought to appear when she -is now hidden, and be hidden when she now appears; be hidden, -that is, all the time while she is dimmed by the surrounding <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -atmosphere, but shine brightly out at intervals of six months, or -occasionally at intervals of five, when she passes under the shadow -<span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span>of the earth. (For of the 465 full moons at eclipse intervals, -404 give periods of six months, the remainder periods of five.) -At such intervals then the moon ought to appear shining -brightly in the shadow. But, as a fact, she is eclipsed and loses -her light in the shadow, and recovers it when she has cleared -the shadow; also she is often seen by day, which shows that -she is anything but a fiery or starlike body.’</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> XXI. When Lucius had said this, Pharnaces and Apollonides -sprang forward together to oppose. Apollonides made way to -Pharnaces, who observed that this is a very strong proof that -the moon is a star or fire; for she does not disappear entirely in -eclipses, but shows through with a grim ashy hue peculiar to -herself. Apollonides objected to the word ‘shadow’, a term -always applied by mathematicians to a region which is not -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>934<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> lighted, whereas the heavens admit of no shadow. ‘This -objection’, I said, ‘is contentious, and addressed to the name, -not to the thing in any physical or mathematical sense. If -any one should prefer to call the region blocked by the earth -not “shadow”, but “an unlighted place”, it is still necessarily -true that the moon when it reaches that region is darkened. -It is merely childish’, I went on, ‘not to allow that the shadow -of the earth reaches it, since we know that the shadow of the -moon, falling upon the sight and reaching to the earth, causes an -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> eclipse of the sun. I will now turn to you, Pharnaces. That -ashy charred colour in the moon, which you say is peculiar -to her, belongs to a body which has density and depth. For -no remnant or trace of flame will remain in rarefied bodies, -nor can burning matter come into existence, without a substantial -body, deep enough to allow of ignition and to maintain -it, as Homer<a id='r347' /><a href='#f347' class='c006'><sup>[347]</sup></a> has somewhere said:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>When fire’s red flower was flown, and spent the flames,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Which smoothed the embers.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span>For burning matter is evidently not fire but a body submitted -to fire, and altered by it, which fire is attached to a solid stable -mass and is permanent there, whereas flames are the kindling <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and streaming away of rarefied fuel which is quickly dissolved -because it is weak.</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘Thus no such clear proof could exist that the moon is earth-like -and dense, as this cinder-like colour, if it really were her -own proper colour. But it is not so, dear Pharnaces; in the -course of an eclipse she goes through many changes of complexion, -and scientific men divide these accordingly by time and hour. -If she is eclipsed at early evening, she appears strangely black till -three and a half hours have elapsed; if at midnight, she emits -that red and flame-like hue over her surface which we know; -after seven and a half hours the redness begins to be removed, -and at last towards dawn she takes a bluish or light-grey hue, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -which is the real reason why poets and Empedocles invoke her -as “grey-eyed”. Now, people who see the moon assume so -many hues as she passes through the shadow do wrong in fastening -upon one, the cinder-like, which may be called the one -most foreign to her, being rather an admixture and remnant of -light which shines round her through the shadows, than her -own peculiar complexion, which is black and earth-like. But -whereas we see on our earth that places in shadow which are -near purple or scarlet cloths, or near lakes, or rivers open to -the sun, partake in the brilliance of these colours and offer -many varied splendours because of the reflexions, what wonder <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -if a great stream of shadow, falling upon a celestial sea of light, -not stable or calm but agitated by myriads of stars and admitting -of combinations and changes of every kind, presents to us -different colours at different times impressed on it by the moon? -For a star or a fire could not show when in shadow as black -or grey or blue. But our hills and plains and seas are coursed -over by many-coloured shapes coming from the sun and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span>by shadows also and mists, resembling the hues produced by -white light over a painter’s pigments. For those seen on the -sea Homer has endeavoured to find such names as he could, -as “violet” for the sea, and “wine-dark” and again “purple -wave”, and elsewhere “grey sea” and “white calm”. But -the varying colours which appear on land at different times he -has passed over as being infinite in number. Now, it is not -likely that the moon has one surface as the sea has, but rather -that she resembles in substance the earth, of which Socrates<a id='r348' /><a href='#f348' class='c006'><sup>[348]</sup></a> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>935<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> of old used to tell the legend, whether he hinted at the moon, -or meant some other body. For it is nothing incredible or -wonderful if, having nothing corrupt or muddy in her, but -enjoying light from heaven, and being stored with a heat not -burning or furious, but mild and harmless and natural, she -possesses regions of marvellous beauty, hills clear as flame, -and belts of purple, her gold and silver not dispersed within -her depths, but flowering forth on the plains in plenty, or set -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> around smooth eminences. Now, if a varying view of these -reaches us from time to time through the shadow, owing to -some change and shifting of the surrounding air, surely the -moon does not lose her honour or her fame, nor yet her Divinity, -when she is held by men to be holy earth of a sort and not, -as the Stoics say, fire which is turbid, mere dregs of fire. Fire -is honoured in barbarous fashions by the Medes and Assyrians, -who fear what injures them, and pay observance or rites of -propitiation to that, rather than to what they revere. But the -name of earth, we know, is dear and honourable to every Greek, -we reverence her as our fathers did, like any other God. But, -being men, we are very far from thinking of the moon, that -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Olympian earth, as a body without soul or mind, having no -share in things which we duly offer as first-fruits to the Gods, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span>taught by usage to pay them a return for the goods they give -us, and by Nature to reverence that which is above ourselves -in virtue and power and honour. Let us not then think that -we offend in holding that she is an earth, and that this her -visible face, just like our earth with its great gulfs, is folded -back into great depths and clefts containing water or murky -air, which the light of the sun fails to penetrate or touch, but -is obscured, and sends back its reflexion here in shattered -fragments.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXII. Here Apollonides broke in: ‘Then in the name of <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the moon herself,’ he said, ‘do you think it possible that shadows -are thrown there by any clefts or gullies, and from thence -reach our sight, or do you not calculate what follows, and am -I to tell you? Pray hear me out, though you know it all. The -diameter of the moon shows an apparent breadth of twelve -fingers at her mean distance from us. Now, each of those -black shadowy objects appears larger than half a finger, and is -therefore more than a twenty-fourth part of the diameter. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Very well; if we were to assume the circumference of the moon -to be only thirty thousand stades, and the diameter ten thousand, -on that assumption each of these shadowy objects on her -would be not less than five hundred stades. Now, consider -first whether it be possible for the moon to have depths and -eminences sufficient to cause a shadow of that size. Next, -if they are so large, how is it that we do not see them?’</p> - -<p class='c005'>At this, I smiled on him and said, ‘Well done, Apollonides, -to have found out such a demonstration! By it you will prove -that you and I too are greater than the Aloades<a id='r349' /><a href='#f349' class='c006'><sup>[349]</sup></a> of old, not <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -at any time of day, however, but in early morning for choice, -and late afternoon; when the sun makes our shadows prodigious, -and thereby presents to our sense the splendid inference, -that if the shadow thrown be great, the object which throws it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_290'>290</span>is enormous. Neither of us, I am sure, has ever been in Lemnos, -but we have both heard the familiar line,<a id='r350' /><a href='#f350' class='c006'><sup>[350]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Athos the Lemnian heifer’s flank shall shade.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>For the shadow of the cliff falls, it seems, on a certain brazen -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>936<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> heifer over a stretch of sea of not less than seven hundred stades. -Will you think then that the height which casts the shadow -is the cause, forgetting that distance of the light from objects -makes their shadows many times longer? Now consider the -sun at his greatest distance from the moon, when she is at the -full, and shows the features of the face most expressly because -of the depth of the shadow; it is the mere distance of the light -which has made the shadow large, not the size of the several -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> irregularities on the moon. Again, in full day the extreme -brightness of the sun’s rays does not allow the tops of mountains -to be seen, but deep and hollow places appear from a long -distance, as also do those in shadow. There is nothing strange -then if it is not possible to see precisely how the moon too is -caught by the light, and illuminated, and yet if we do see -by contrast where the parts in shadow lie near the bright -parts.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXIII. ‘But here’, said I, ‘is a better point to disprove -the alleged reflexion from the moon; it is found that those -who stand in reflected rays, not only see the illuminated but -also the illuminating body. For instance, when light from water -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> leaps on to a wall, and the eye is placed in the spot so illuminated -by reflexion, it sees the three objects, the reflected rays, the water -which caused the reflexion, and the sun himself, from whom -proceeds the light so falling on the water and reflected. All -this being granted and apparent, people require those who -contend that the earth receives the moon’s light by reflexion, to -point out the sun appearing in the moon at night, as he appears -<span class='pageno' id='Page_291'>291</span>in the water by day when he is reflected off it. Then, as he does -not so appear, they suppose that the illumination is caused by -some process other than reflexion, and that, failing reflexion, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the moon is no earth.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘What answer then is to be given to them?’ said Apollonides, -‘for the difficulty about reflexion seems to apply equally to -us.’ ‘Equally no doubt in one sense,’ I answered, ‘but in -another sense not at all so. First look at the details of the simile, -how “topsy turvy”<a id='r351' /><a href='#f351' class='c006'><sup>[351]</sup></a> it is, rivers flowing up stream! The water -is below and on earth, the moon is above the earth and poised -aloft. So the angles of reflexion are differently formed; in the -one case the apex is above in the moon, in the other below on -the earth. They should not then require that mirrors should -produce every image and like reflexions at any distance, since <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -they are fighting against clear fact. But from those like ourselves -who seek to show that the moon is not a fine smooth -substance like water, but heavy and earth-like, it is strange -to ask for a visible appearance of the sun in her. Why, milk -does not return such mirrored images, nor produce optical -reflexion, the reason being the unevenness and roughness of -its parts. How can the moon possibly send back the vision off <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -herself as the smoother mirrors do? We know that even in these, -if any scratch or speck or roughness is found at the point -from which the vision is naturally reflected it is obscured; -the blemishes are seen, but they do not return the light. A man -who requires that she should either turn our vision back to -the sun, or else not reflect the sun from herself to us, is a humorist; -he wants our eye to be the sun, the image light, man -heaven! That the reflexion of the sun’s light conveyed to -the moon with the impact of his intense brilliance should be -borne back to us is reasonable enough, whereas our sight is -weak and slight and merely fractional. What wonder if it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_292'>292</span>deliver a stroke which has no resilience, or, if it does rebound, -no continuity, but is broken up and fails, having no store of -light to make up for dispersion about the rough and uneven -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>937<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> places. For it is not impossible that the reflexion should -rebound to the sun from water and other mirrors, being still -strong and near its point of origin; whereas from the moon, -even if there are glancings of a sort, yet they will be weak and -dim, and will fail by the way because of the long distance. -Another point: concave mirrors return the reflected light in -greater strength than the original, and thus often produce -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> flames; convex and spherical mirrors one which is weak and dim, -because the pressure is not returned from all parts of the surface. -You have seen, no doubt, how when two rainbows appear, -one cloud enfolding another, the enveloping bow shows the -colours dim and indistinct, for the outer cloud lying further -from the eye does not return the reflexion in strength or -intensity. But enough! Whereas the light of the sun reflected -from the moon loses its heat entirely, and only a scanty and -ineffectual remnant of its brilliance reaches us, do you really -think it possible that when sight has the double course to travel, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> any remnant whatever should reach the sun from the moon? -No! say I. Look for yourselves’, I went on. ‘If the effects -of the water and of the moon on our sight were the same, the -full moon ought to show us images of earth and plants and men -and stars, as other mirrors do. If, on the other hand, our vision -is never carried back on to these objects, whether because of -its own feebleness or of the roughness of the moon’s surface, -then let us never demand that it should be carried by reflexion -on to the sun.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXIV. ‘We have now’, I said, ‘reported all that was said -then, and has not escaped our memory. It is time to call -on Sylla, or rather to claim his story, as he was allowed to be -a listener on terms. So, if it meet your approval, let us cease our -<span class='pageno' id='Page_293'>293</span>walk, and take our places on the benches and give him a seated <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -audience.’ This was at once agreed, and we had taken our -seats, when Theon said: ‘I want as much as any of you, Lamprias, -to hear what is now to be said, but first I should like to hear -about the alleged dwellers in the moon, not whether there are -any such, I mean, but whether there can be; for if the thing is -impossible, then it is also absurd that the moon should be an -earth; it will appear that she has been created for no end or -use, if she bears no fruit, offers no abode to human beings, no -existence, no livelihood, the very things for which we say that -she has been created, in Plato’s<a id='r352' /><a href='#f352' class='c006'><sup>[352]</sup></a> words, “our nurse, and of <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -day and night the unswerving guardian and maker”. You see -that many things are said about this, some in jest, some seriously. -For instance, that the moon hangs poised over the heads of those -who dwell beneath her, as if they were so many Tantali; while -as for those who dwell on her, they are lashed on like Ixions by -the tremendous speed. Yet hers is not a single motion, but, as <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -it is somewhere put, she is a Goddess of the Three Ways. She -moves in longitude over the Zodiac, in latitude, and in depth; -one movement is revolution, another a spiral, the third is strangely -named “Anomaly” by scientific men, although there is nothing -irregular or confused to be seen in her returns to her stations. -Therefore it is no wonder if a lion<a id='r353' /><a href='#f353' class='c006'><sup>[353]</sup></a> did once fall on to Peloponnesus, -owing to the velocity; the wonder is that we do not -see every day</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Fallings of men, lives trampled to the dust</i>,<a id='r354' /><a href='#f354' class='c006'><sup>[354]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>men tumbling off through the air and turning somersaults. Yet <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>938<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -it is ridiculous to raise a discussion about their remaining there, -if they can neither come into being nor subsist at all. When we -see Egyptians and Troglodytes, over whose heads the sun stands -for the space of one brief day at the solstice and then passes on, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_294'>294</span>all but shrivelled up by the dryness of the air around them, is -it likely, I ask you, that people in the moon can endure twelve -summers in each year, the sun standing plumb straight above -them at every full moon? Then as to winds and clouds and -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> showers, without which plants can neither receive nor maintain -existence, it is out of the question to conceive of their being -formed, because the surrounding atmosphere is too hot and too -rare. For even here the highest mountain tops do not get our -fierce and conflicting storms, the air being already in turmoil -from its lightness escapes any such condensation. Or are we -really to say that, as Athena dropped a little nectar and ambrosia -into Achilles’ mouth when he was refusing nourishment, even -so the moon, who is called and who is Athena,<a id='r355' /><a href='#f355' class='c006'><sup>[355]</sup></a> feeds man by -sending up ambrosia day by day, in which form old Pherecydes -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> thinks that the Gods take food! For as to that Indian root, -of which Megasthenes tells us that men, who neither eat nor -drink but are without mouths,<a id='r356' /><a href='#f356' class='c006'><sup>[356]</sup></a> burn a little, and make a smoke, -and are nourished by the smells, how is it to be found growing -there if there is no rain on the moon?’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXV. When Theon had finished: ‘Well and kindly done,’ -I said, ‘to unbend our brows by your witty argument; it makes -us bold in reply, since we have no very harsh or severe criticism -to expect. It is a true saying that there is little to choose -between those who are vehemently convinced in such matters -and those who are vehemently offended at them and incredulous, -and will not look quietly into the possibilities. To begin, -supposing that men do not inhabit the moon, it does not follow -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> that she has come into being just for nothing. Why, our earth, -as we see, is not in active use or inhabited in her whole extent; -but a small part of her only, mere promontories or peninsulas -which emerge from the abyss, is fertile in animals and plants; -of the other parts, some are desert and unfruitful owing to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_295'>295</span>storms and droughts, while most are sunk under the ocean. -But you, lover and admirer of Aristarchus that you are, do not -attend to Crates and his reading:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Ocean, the birth and being of us all,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Both men and Gods, covers the most of earth.</i><a id='r357' /><a href='#f357' class='c006'><sup>[357]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>‘However, this is a long way from saying that all has been -brought into being for nothing. The sea sends up soft exhalations, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and delightful breezes in midsummer heat; from the -uninhabited and icebound land snows quietly melt which open -and fertilize all; earth stands in the midst, in Plato’s<a id='r358' /><a href='#f358' class='c006'><sup>[358]</sup></a> words, -“unswerving guardian and maker of day and night”. Nothing -then prevents the moon too, though barren of animal life, -from allowing the light around her to be reflected and to stream <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -about, and the rays of the stars to flow together and to be -united within her; thus she combines and digests the vapours -proceeding from earth, and at the same time gets rid of what -is scorching and violent in the sun’s heat. And here we will -make bold to yield a point to ancient legend, and to say that -she has been held to be Artemis, a maiden and no mother, -but in other ways helpful and serviceable. For, surely, nothing -which has been said, dear Theon, proves it to be impossible -that she is inhabited in the way alleged. For her revolution -is one very gentle and calm; which smoothes the air, and duly <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>939<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -blends and distributes it, so that there is no fear of those -who have lived there falling or slipping off her. If not this, -neither are the changes and variety of her orbit due to anomaly -or confusion, but astronomers make us see a marvellous order -and progress in it all, as they confine her within circles which -roll around other circles, according to some not herself stirring, -according to others moving gently and evenly and with uniform -<span class='pageno' id='Page_296'>296</span>speeds. For these circles and revolutions, and their relations -to one another, and to us, work out with very great accuracy -the phenomena of her varying height and depth and her -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> passages in latitude as well as in longitude. As to the great -heat and continuous charring caused by the sun, you will no -longer fear these if you will set against the [eleven]<a id='r359' /><a href='#f359' class='c006'><sup>[359]</sup></a> summer -conjunctions the full-moons, and the continuity of the change, -which does not allow extremes to last long, tempering both -extremes, and producing a convenient temperature, while between -the two the inhabitants enjoy a climate nearly resembling -our spring. In the next place, the sun sends down to us, and -drives home through her thick and resisting atmosphere, heat fed -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> by exhalations; but there a fine and transparent air scatters -and distributes the stream of light, which has no body or fuel -beneath it. As to woods and crops, here where we live they -are nourished by rains, but in other places, as far up as round -your Thebes and Syene, the earth drinks water which comes -out of herself, not from rain; it enjoys winds and dews, and -would not, I think, thank us for comparing it in fruitfulness -with our own, even where the rainfall is heaviest. With us, -plants of the same order, if severely pinched by winter frosts, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> bring forth much excellent fruit, while in Libya, and with -you in Egypt, they bear cold very badly and shrink from the -winters. Again, while Gedrosia, and Troglodytis which -reaches down to ocean, are unproductive and treeless in all -parts because of the drought, yet, in the adjacent and surrounding -sea, plants grow to a marvellous size and luxuriate in its depths; -some of these called “olive-trees”, some “laurels”, some -“hair of Isis”. But the “love-come-back” as it is called, -if taken out of the earth, not only lives when hung up for as -long as you please, but also sprouts. Some are sown close on -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> to winter, some in the height of summer, sesame or millet -<span class='pageno' id='Page_297'>297</span>for instance; thyme or centaury, if sown in a good rich soil -and watered, changes its qualities and strength; both rejoice -in drought and reach their proper growth in it. But -if, as is said, like most Arabian plants, they do not endure even -dews, but fade and perish when moistened, what wonder, -I ask, if roots and seeds and trees grow on the moon which -need no rains or snows, but are fitted by Nature for a light -and summer-like atmosphere? Why, again, may it not be -probable that breezes ascend warmed by the moon and by the -whirl of her revolution, and that she is accompanied by quiet -breezes, which shed dews and moisture around, and when <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -distributed suffice for the grown plants, her own climate being -neither fiery nor dried up, but mild and engendering moisture. -For no touch of dryness reaches us from her, but many effects -of moisture and fertility, as increase of plants, putrefaction -of flesh, turning of wine to flatness, softening of wood, easy -delivery to women. I am afraid of stirring Pharnaces to the fray <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>940<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -again, now that he is quiet, if I enumerate as cases of restoring -moisture the tides of the ocean (as his own school describes -them), and the fillings of gulfs when their flood is augmented -by the moon. So I will rather turn to you, dear Theon, for -you told us in explaining these words of Alcman,<a id='r360' /><a href='#f360' class='c006'><sup>[360]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Dew feeds them, born of Zeus and Lady Moon</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>that here he calls the atmosphere Zeus, and says that it is -liquefied and turned into dew by the moon. Probably, my -friend, her nature is opposite to the sun’s, since not only does -he naturally consolidate and dry things which she softens and <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -disperses, but she also liquefies and cools his heat, as it falls -upon her from him, and mingles with herself. Certainly they -are in error who hold that the moon is a fiery and charred body; -and those who require for animals there all the things which -they have here, seem to lack eyes for the inequalities of Nature, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_298'>298</span>since it is possible to find greater and more numerous divergencies -and dissimilarities between animals and animals than between -them and the inanimate world. And grant that men without -mouths and nourished on smells are not to be found—I do not -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> think they are—, but the potency which Ammonius himself used -to expound to us has been hinted at by Hesiod<a id='r361' /><a href='#f361' class='c006'><sup>[361]</sup></a> in the line</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Nor yet in mallow and in asphodel</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>How great the virtue.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>But Epimenides made it plain in actual experience, teaching that -Nature always keeps the fire of life in the animal with but little -fuel, for if it get as much as the size of an olive, it needs no more -sustenance. Now men in the moon, if men there be, are -compactly framed, we may believe, and capable of being -nourished on what they get; for the moon herself they say, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> like the sun who is a fiery body many times larger than the earth, -is nourished on the humours coming from the earth, as are the -other stars too in their infinite numbers. Light, like them, and -simple in their needs, may we conceive those animals to be which -the upper region produces. We do not see such animals, nor -yet do we see that they require a different region, nature, -climate. Supposing that we were unable to approach the sea -or touch it, but merely caught views of it in the distance, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> and were told that its water is bitter and undrinkable and briny, -and then some one said that it supports in its depths many great -animals with all sorts of shapes, and is full of monsters, to all -of whom water is as air to us, he would seem to be making -up a parcel of fairy tales; just so is it with us, it seems, and -such is our attitude towards the moon, when we refuse to believe -that she has men dwelling on her. Her inhabitants, I think, -must wonder still more greatly at this earth, a sort of sediment -and slime of the universe appearing through damps, and mists, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_299'>299</span>and clouds, a place unlighted, low, motionless; and must ask -whether it breeds and supports animals with motion, respiration <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and warmth. And if they should anyhow have a chance of -hearing those lines of Homer:<a id='r362' /><a href='#f362' class='c006'><sup>[362]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Grim mouldy regions which e’en Gods abhor</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>and—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>‘Neath hell so far as earth below high heaven</i>,<a id='r363' /><a href='#f363' class='c006'><sup>[363]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>they will say they are written about a place exactly such as this, -and that Hades is a colony planted here, and Tartarus, and that -there is only one earth—the moon—being midway between the -upper regions and these lower ones.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXVI. I had scarcely finished speaking when Sylla broke -in: ‘Stop, Lamprias, and shut the door on your oratory, lest -you run my myth aground before you know it, and make -confusion of my drama, which requires another stage and a different -setting. Now, I am only its actor, but I will first, if you -see no objection, name the poet, beginning in Homer’s<a id='r364' /><a href='#f364' class='c006'><sup>[364]</sup></a> words: <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>941<span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Far o’er the brine an isle Ogygian lies</i>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>distant from Britain five days’ sail to the West. There are three -other islands equidistant from Britain and from one another, -in the general direction of the sun’s summer setting. The -natives have a story that in one of these Cronus has been <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -confined by Zeus, but that he, having a son for gaoler,<a id='r365' /><a href='#f365' class='c006'><sup>[365]</sup></a> has been -settled beyond those islands and the sea, which they call the -Gulf of Cronus. To the great continent by which the ocean -is fringed is a voyage of about five thousand stades, made in -row-boats, from Ogygia, of less from the other islands, the sea -being slow of passage and full of mud because of the number -of streams which the great mainland discharges, forming -alluvial tracts and making the sea heavy like land, whence an -opinion prevailed that it was actually frozen. The coasts of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_300'>300</span>mainland are inhabited by Greeks living around a bay as large -as the Maeotic, with its mouth nearly opposite that of the Caspian -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> Sea. These Greeks speak of themselves as continental, and of -those who inhabit our land as islanders, because it is washed -all round by the sea. They think that those who came with -Hercules and were left behind by him, mingled later on with -the subjects of Cronus, and rekindled, so to speak, the Hellenic -life which was becoming extinguished and overborne by -barbarian languages, laws, and ways of life, and so it again -became strong and vigorous. Thus the first honours are paid -to Hercules, the second to Cronus. When the star of Cronus, -called by us the Shining One, by them, as he told us, the -Night Watcher, has reached Taurus again after an interval of -thirty years, having for a long time before made preparation for -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> the sacrifice and the voyage, they send forth men chosen by -lot in as many ships as are required, putting on board all the -supplies and stuff for the great rowing voyage before them, -and for a long sojourn in a strange land. They put out, and -naturally do not all fare alike; but those who come safely out -of the perils of the sea land first on the outlying islands, which -are inhabited by Greeks, and day after day, for thirty days, -see the sun hidden for less than one hour. This is the night, -with a darkness which is slight and of a twilight hue, and has -a light over it from the West. There they spend ninety days, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> meeting with honourable and kindly treatment, and being -addressed as holy persons, after which they pass on, now with -help from the winds. There are no inhabitants except themselves, -and those who have been sent before them. For those -who have joined in the service of the God for thirty years are -allowed to sail back home, but most prefer to settle quietly -in the place where they are, some because they have grown -used to it, some because all things are there in plenty without -pain or trouble, while their life is passed in sacrifices and festivals, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_301'>301</span>or given to literature or Philosophy. For the natural beauty <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -of the isle is wonderful, and the mildness of the environing air. -Some, when they are of a mind to sail away, are actually prevented -by the God, who manifests himself to them as to familiars -and friends, not in dreams only or by signs, for many meet with -shapes and voices of spirits, openly seen and heard. Cronus -himself sleeps within a deep cave resting on rock which looks -like gold, this sleep being devised for him by Zeus in place -of chains. Birds fly in at the topmost part of the rock, and bear -him ambrosia, and the whole island is pervaded by the fragrance -shed from the rock as out of a well. The spirits of whom -we hear serve and care for Cronus, having been his comrades in <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>942<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the time when he was really king over Gods and men. Many -are the utterances which they give forth of their own prophetic -power, but the greatest and most important they announce -when they come down as dreams of Cronus; for the things which -Zeus premeditates, Cronus dreams, when sleep has stayed<a id='r366' /><a href='#f366' class='c006'><sup>[366]</sup></a> the -Titanic motions and stirrings of the soul within him, and that -which is royal and divine alone remains, pure and unalloyed. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<p class='c005'>‘Now the stranger, having been received here, as he told us, -and serving the God at his leisure, attained as much skill in -astronomy as is attainable by the most advanced geometry; -of other Philosophy he applied himself to the physical branches. -Then, having a strange desire and yearning to see “the Great -Island” (for so it appears they call our world), when the thirty -years were passed, and the relief parties arrived from home, -he said farewell to his friends and sailed forth, carrying a complete -equipment of all kinds, and abundant store of provision -for the way in golden beakers. All the adventures which befell -him, and all the men whose lands he visited, how he met with <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -holy writings and was initiated into all the mysteries, it would -take more than one day to enumerate as he did, well and carefully -<span class='pageno' id='Page_302'>302</span>and with all details. Listen now to those which concern -our present discussion. He spent a very long time in Carthage.<a id='r367' /><a href='#f367' class='c006'><sup>[367]</sup></a>... -He there discovered certain sacred parchments which had -been secretly withdrawn when the older city was destroyed, -and had lain a long time in the earth unnoticed; and he said -that of all the Gods who appear to us we ought specially to -honour the moon with all our substance (and so he charged -me to do), because she was most potent in our life.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXVII. ‘When I marvelled at this, and asked for clearer -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> statements, he went on: “Many tales, Sylla, are told among -the Greeks about the Gods, but not all are well told. For -instance, about Demeter and Cora, they are right in their -names, but wrong in supposing that they both belong to the -same region; for the latter is on earth, and has power over -earthly things, the former is in the moon and is concerned -with things of the moon. The moon has been called both -Cora and Persephone, Persephone because she gives light, -Cora because we also use the same Greek word for the pupil -of the eye, in which the image of the beholder flashes back, -as the sunbeam is seen in the moon. In the stories told about -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> their wanderings and the search there is an element of truth. -They yearn for one another when parted, and often embrace -in shadow. And what is told of Cora, that she is sometimes in -heaven and in light, and again in night and darkness, is no -untruth, only time has brought error into the numbers; for -it is not during six months, but at intervals of six months, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> that we see her received by the earth, as by a mother, in the -shadow, and more rarely at intervals of five months; for to -leave Hades is impossible to her, who is herself a ‘bound of -Hades’, as Homer<a id='r368' /><a href='#f368' class='c006'><sup>[368]</sup></a> well hints in the words,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Now to Elysian plains, earth’s utmost bound.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>For where the shadow of the earth rests in its passage, there -<span class='pageno' id='Page_303'>303</span>Homer placed the limit and boundary of earth. To that limit -comes no man that is bad or impure, but the good after death -are conveyed thither, and pass a most easy life, not, however, -one blessed or divine until the second death.”‘</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXVIII. ‘But what is that, Sylla?’ ‘Ask me not of these -things, for I am going to tell you fully myself. The common <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>943<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -view that man is a composite creature is correct, but it is not -correct that he is composed of two parts only. For they suppose -that mind is in some sense a part of soul, which is as great -a mistake as to think that soul is a part of body; mind is as -much better a thing and more divine than soul, as soul is than -body. Now the union of soul with body makes up the -passion or emotion, the further union with mind produces -reason; the former is the origin of pleasure and pain, the latter -of virtue and vice. When these three principles have been -compacted, the earth contributes body to the birth of man, -the moon soul, the sun reason, just as he contributes her light to -the moon. The death which we die is of two kinds; the one <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -makes man two out of three, the other makes him one out of two; -the one takes place in the earth which is the realm of Demeter, -and is initiation unto her,<a id='r369' /><a href='#f369' class='c006'><sup>[369]</sup></a> so that the Athenians used in ancient -times to call the dead “Demetrians”, the other is in the moon, -and is of Persephone; Hermes is the associate on earth of the -one, of the other in heaven. Demeter parts soul from body -quickly and with force; Persephone parts mind from soul -gently and very slowly, and therefore has been called<a id='r370' /><a href='#f370' class='c006'><sup>[370]</sup></a> “Of -the Birth to Unity”, for the best part of man is left in oneness, -when separated by her. Each process happens according to <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Nature, as thus: It is appointed that every soul, irrational -or rational, when it has quitted the body, should wander -in the region between earth and moon, but not all for an equal -<span class='pageno' id='Page_304'>304</span>time; unjust and unchaste souls pay penalties for their wrongdoings; -but the good must for a certain appointed time, -sufficient to purge away and blow to the winds, as noxious -exhalations, defilements from the body, which is their -vicious cause, be in that mildest part of the air which -they call “The Meadows of Hades”; then they return as -from long and distant exile back to their country, they taste -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> such joy as men feel here who are initiated, joy mingled with -much amazement and trouble, yet also with a hope which is -each man’s own. For many who are already grasping at the -moon she pushes off and washes away, and some even of those -souls which are already there and are turning round to look -below are seen to be plunged again into the abyss. But those -which have passed above, and have found firm footing, first go -round like victors wreathed with crowns of feathers called -“crowns of constancy”, because they kept the irrational -part of the soul obedient to the curb of reason, and well ordered -in life. Then with countenance like a sunbeam, and soul borne -lightly upwards by fire, as here, namely that of the air about -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> the moon, they receive tone and force from it, as iron takes an -edge in its bath; for that which is still volatile and diffuse is -strengthened and becomes firm and transparent, so that they -are nourished by such vapour as meets them, and well did -Heraclitus<a id='r371' /><a href='#f371' class='c006'><sup>[371]</sup></a> say that “Souls feed on smell in Hades.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXIX. First they look on the moon herself, her size, her -beauty, and her nature, which is not single or unmixed, but -as it were a composition of earth and star. For as the earth -has become soft by being mixed with air and moisture, and as -the blood infused into the flesh produces sensibility, so the moon, -they say, being mingled with air through all her depth, is -endowed with soul and with fertility, and at the same time -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> receives a balance, lightness set against weight. Even so the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_305'>305</span>universe itself, duly framed together of things having some -an upward tendency, some a downward, is freed from all -movement of place. This Xenocrates apprehended, it would -seem, by some divine reasoning, having received the suggestion -from Plato. For it is Plato<a id='r372' /><a href='#f372' class='c006'><sup>[372]</sup></a> who showed that every star has -been compounded of earth and fire by means of intermediate -natures given in proportion, since nothing reaches the senses -into which earth and light do not enter. But Xenocrates says -that the stars and the sun are compounded out of fire and the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>944<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -first density, the moon out of the second density and her -own air, and earth out of water, fire, and the third density; -and that as an universal law, neither the dense alone nor the -rarefied alone is capable of receiving soul. So much then for -the substance of the moon. But her breadth and bulk are not -what geometricians say, but many times greater. The reason -why she but seldom measures the shadow of the earth with -[three of] her own diameters, is not its smallness, but her heat, -whereby she increases her speed that she may swiftly pass through -and beyond the dark region, bearing from out it the souls of -the good, as they hasten and cry aloud, for being in the shadow -they no longer hear the harmony of heaven. At the same <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -time there are borne up from below through the shadow the -souls of those who are to be punished, with wailing and loud -cries. Hence comes the widespread custom of clanking vessels -of brass during eclipses, with a din and a clatter to reach the -souls. Also the face, as we call it, terrifies them, when they are -near, so grim and weird is it to their sight. Really it is nothing -of the kind; but as our earth has gulfs deep and great, one here -which streams inwards towards us from the Pillars of Hercules, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -outwards the Caspian, and those about the Red Sea, even -such are those depths and hollows of the moon. The largest -of them they call the Gulf of Hecate, where the souls endure -<span class='pageno' id='Page_306'>306</span>and exact retribution for all the things which they have suffered -or done ever since they became spirits; two of them are long, -through which the souls pass, now to the parts of the moon -which are turned toward heaven, now back to the side next -to earth. The parts of the moon toward heaven are called -“the Elysian plain”, those toward earth “the plain of Persephone -Antichthon”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>XXX. ‘However, the spirits do not pass all their time upon -her, they come down here to superintend oracles, take part -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> in the highest rites of initiation and mysteries, become guardian -avengers of wrongdoing, and shine forth as saving lights in -war and on the sea. In these functions, whatever they do in -a way which is not right, from anger or to win unrighteous -favour, or in jealousy, they suffer for it, being thrust down to -earth again and imprisoned in human bodies. From the better -of them, the attendants of Cronus said that they are themselves -sprung, as in earlier times the Dactyli of Ida, the Corybantes -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>E</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> in Phrygia, the Trophoniades in Udora of Boeotia, and countless -others in many parts of the inhabited world; whose temples -and houses and appellations remain to this day. Some there -are whose powers are failing because they have passed to another -place by an honourable exchange. This happens to some -sooner, to others later, when mind has been separated from soul; -the separation comes by love for the image which is in the sun; -through it there shines upon them that desirable, beautiful, -divine, and blessed presence for which all Nature yearns, yet in -different ways. For it is through love of the sun that the moon -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>F</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> herself makes her circuit, and has her meetings with him to -receive from him all fertility. That Nature which is the soul -remains on the moon, preserving traces and dreams of the former -life, and of it you may take it that it has been rightly said:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Winged as a dream the soul takes flight away.</i><a id='r373' /><a href='#f373' class='c006'><sup>[373]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_307'>307</span>Not at the first, and not when it is quit of the body does this -happen to it, but afterwards when it becomes deserted and -solitary, set free from mind. Of all that Homer has told us -I think that there is nothing more divine than where he speaks -of those in Hades:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Next was I ware of mighty Hercules,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>His ghost—himself among the immortals dwells.</i><a id='r374' /><a href='#f374' class='c006'><sup>[374]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>For the self of each of us is not courage, nor fear, nor desire, -any more than it is a parcel of flesh and of humours; it is that -whereby we understand and think. The soul being shaped by <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>945<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the mind and itself shaping the body and encompassing it upon -all sides, stamps its form upon it, so that even if it is separated -from both for a long time, yet it possesses the likeness and the -stamp, and is rightly called an image. Of these, the moon, -as has been said, is the element, for they are resolved into her -just as are the bodies of the dead into earth; the temperate -speedily, those who embraced a life of quiet and Philosophy; -for, having been set free by mind, and having no further use -for the passions, they wither away. But of the ambitious, <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>B</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and active, and sensuous, and passionate, some are distracted -as though in sleep, dreaming out their memories of life, as the -soul of Endymion; but when their restless and susceptible -nature starts them out of the moon and draws them to another -birth, she does not suffer it, but draws them back and soothes -them. For no trifling matter is it, nor quiet, nor conventional, -when in the absence of mind, they get them a body by passionate -endeavour; Tityi and Typhones, and that Typhon who seized -Delphi and confounded the oracle there by insolence and force, -came of such souls as these, deserted by reason, and left to the <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>C</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -wild wanderings of their emotional part. But in course of -time the moon receives even these unto herself and brings -<span class='pageno' id='Page_308'>308</span>them to order; then, when the sun again sows mind, she -receives it with vital power and makes new souls, and, thirdly, -earth provides a body; for earth gives nothing after death -of what she received for birth; the sun receives nothing, -save that he receives back the mind which he gives, but the -moon both receives and gives, and compounds, and distributes -in diverse functions; she who compounds has Ilithyia for -her name, she who distributes, Artemis. And of the three Fates -Atropus has her station about the sun and gives the first impulse -of generation; Clotho moving about the moon combines and -mingles, lastly Lachesis, upon the earth, lends her hand, and -she has most to do with Fortune; for that which is without -soul is powerless in itself and is affected by others, mind is free -from affection and sovereign; soul a compound and a middle -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='fss'>D</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> term, has, like the moon, been formed by the God, a blend -and mixture of things above and things below, and thus bears -the same relation to the sun which the earth does to the moon.’</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘Such’, said Sylla, ‘is the story which I heard the stranger -relate, but he had it from the chamberlains and ministers of -Cronus, as he himself used to say. But you and your friends, -Lamprias, may take the story in what way you will.’</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_309'>309</span> - <h2 id='notes' class='c003'>NOTES</h2> -</div> -<p class='c004'>(1) c. 1, 920 B. The opening of the Dialogue is abrupt; compare -that of ‘On the Instances of Delay in Divine Punishment’. Many -of the Symposiacs open as abruptly, and there a former conversation -is sometimes resumed by the same speakers. It seems not impossible -that there had been a previous Dialogue on the Face in the Moon, -and, again, that the περὶ ψυχῆς preceded the <i>De Sera numinum -Vindicta</i>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Wyttenbach reads τῷ γ᾽ ἐμῷ for the MSS. τῷ γὰρ ἐμῷ, but suggests -τῷ παρ᾽ ἐμοί, which seems better. Sylla is not the author, but the -depository, of the myth.</p> - -<p class='c005'>For εἰ δεῖ τι ... προσανακρούσασθαι he reads εἰ δή τι ... προσανεκρούσασθε. -The past indicative is required by the τί δὲ οὐκ ἐμέλλομεν -which follows, the reference being to the previous discussion (see -Introduction). The combination εἰ δή or εἰ δή τι is a frequent one. -If δή was altered to δεῖ, the further alteration of the verb would -follow. Sylla’s language is nautical, as in c. 26, ‘Did you really -stop rowing, and back-water on to the received views?’</p> - -<p class='c005'>(2) c. 3. 921 A. <i>For our sight.</i> ὄψις is an old correction for ἴτυς -of the MSS., and is required by the context.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(3) c. 4. 921 C. <i>Equal in breadth and length.</i> Empedocles (Fr. 17, -20) has a line</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>καὶ Φιλότης ἐν τοῖσιν, ἴση μῆκός τε πλάτος τε.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>This poetical quotation is introduced to indicate that the world -is not a mere point, but has sensible dimensions. In literal truth, -the habitable world was held to be twice as long as it was wide -(i. e. N. to S.).</p> - -<p class='c005'>The words as to the earth occupying ‘a point central to the -sphere (i. e. orbit) of the moon’ are quoted from the Second Hypothesis -of Aristarchus (see Introduction). It has been proposed (by -Dr. Max Adler) to substitute the name of Clearchus for that of Hipparchus. -But the quarrel of Lamprias is not with philosophers but -with astronomers and mathematicians, represented by Apollonides -and Menelaus. The greatest of them is of absolute authority as to -angles of reflexion, &c., not so when he propounds a physical theory of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_310'>310</span>vision, which many find unsatisfactory. For the theory itself see -the quasi-Plutarchean <i>De Placitis</i>, 4, 13.</p> - -<p class='c005'>For the words καίτοι γε φίλε πρίαμ᾽ (omitted in the translation), -Turnebus proposed καίτοι γε φίλε Λαμπρία, which is very attractive -as to the letters, but impossible, unless the text be wholly reconstructed, -because Lamprias is himself the speaker.</p> - -<p class='c005'>For discrepancies between the mathematically correct theory of -reflexion and its physical application see chapters 17 and 23.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(4) c. 7, 924 B. <i>That segments of beams....</i> The sense intended -by the translation is this: A beam is sawn into two segments on -the earth’s surface. The two segments, which at first are separated -by a short interval, move simultaneously towards the earth’s centre, -but in converging, not parallel, lines, and jam each other long -before they reach it. (This is suggested by Aristotle, <i>de Caelo</i>, 2, 14, -296 b 18.)</p> - -<p class='c005'>For ἀποκρίπτεσθαι Dr. Purser suggests ἀποθρύπτεσθαι, which I have -rendered; ἀποκύπτεσθαι (Aristoph. Lysis. 1003), ‘to crouch aside’, -seems possible.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(5) c. 9, 925 B. Perhaps the line of Empedocles may run ἅρματος -ὡσπερανεὶ (L. C. P.) χνόη ᾄσσεται.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(6) c. 10, 925 E. The MSS. have ἀλλὰ καὶ κινητικὸ ταύτῃ διάστημα -τὸ δέον, for which Madvig (<i>Adv. Crit.</i>, vol. i, p. 665) makes the -admirable correction: ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐκείνῃ καὶ ταύτῃ δυίστημα δοτέον.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(7) c. 14, 927 F. <i>The growth within.</i> I read αὔξησιν, which is -sometimes confused with ἕξιν. Cp. Ar. <i>Eth. N.</i> 3, 14, 149 b 4.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(8) c. 19, 932 C. [<i>the moon ... bodies also</i>]. The words in -brackets have been supplied from the substance of the passage of -Aristotle mentioned in the footnote.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(9) c. 19, 932 C. Posidonius’ definition is introduced because -it contains an admission that the moon casts a shadow, and is therefore -an earthlike, not a starlike, body. It has been proposed to alter -σκιᾶς into σκιᾷ, and the construction with σύνοδος could be justified -by Platonic examples (see R. Kunze in <i>Rhein. Mus.</i> vol. 64, p. 635), -but the assumed corruption is improbable. E appears<a id='r375' /><a href='#f375' class='c006'><sup>[375]</sup></a> to read οἷς -not ἧς; the clause introduced by the relative seems to contain -<span class='pageno' id='Page_311'>311</span>a limitation of the phenomenon to ‘those who experience the obscuration’, -i.e. those in the track of the shadow over the earth’s surface. -In this case, the words may either have come from a marginal gloss -on τόδε τὸ πάθος, or should be transposed with those words, as -suggested by Dr. Purser. This will be consistent with the account -of a solar eclipse given by Cleomedes (2, 3, p. 172), doubtless after -Posidonius; it is not αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ πάθος ἀλλὰ τῆς ἡμετέρας ὄψεως, -whereas an eclipse of the moon is αὐτῆς τῆς θεοῦ πάθος, irrespective -of the place of the terrestrial observer.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(10) c. 24, 937 F. <i>A lion.</i> Kepler suggests that there was an old -confusion between λῖς, a lion, and λᾶς, a stone.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(11) c. 24, 938 C. <i>without mouths.</i> The MSS. have εὐστόμους, but -ἀστόμους is an old correction adopted by W. Pliny, <i>N. H.</i> 7, 2, 25, -quotes Megasthenes for a mouthless people living near the sources -of the Ganges. See also Müller, <i>Fragm. Hist. Graec.</i> 2, 427 (Adler). -For the notion of living by smell cp. Heraclitus (Fr. 38).</p> - -<p class='c005'>(12) c. 26, 941 A. This interesting passage should be read by -the side of <i>De Defectu Oraculorum</i>, c. 18, p. 19 F (p. 135 above), -which has a close verbal resemblance, and is perhaps extracted -from it (Adler). Briareus may have been named in the full text -here, as the son of Cronus. In Hesiod, <i>Theogon.</i> 147, he is the son of -Uranus, and so Eustathius on Hom. <i>Il.</i> 1, 403, but a little later on -Eustathius mentions Cronus as his father on the authority of Arrian. -παρακάτω κεῖσθαι of the MSS. is difficult. Adler would read Βριάρεων -δὲ τὸν υἱὸν ὡς ἔχοντα φρουρὰν τῶν τε νήσων ἐκείνων καὶ τῆς -θαλάττης, ἣν Κρόνιον πέλαγος ὀνομάζουσιν, παρακατῳκίσθαι. Dr. Purser -points out that the Straits of Gibraltar were first called the Pillars -of Cronus, afterwards the Pillars of Briareus, and lastly the Pillars -of Hercules (<i>Schol. ad Dionys. Perieg.</i> 64 in Müller’s <i>Fragm. Hist. -Gr.</i> 3, 640).</p> - -<p class='c005'>I have followed the reading of Emperius πέραν κατῳκίσθαι, -but without much confidence. Cronus could not well, as Dr. -Purser points out, have been <i>in</i> one of the islands, and also -<i>beyond</i> it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(13) c. 26, 942 C. I venture to suggest that the text may have -run something as follows:</p> - -<p class='c005'>Πλεῖστον γὰρ ἐν Καρχηδόνι χρόνον διέτριψεν ἅτε δὴ παρ᾽ ἡμῖν -μέταλλα ἔχων, ὃς καί τινας, ὅθ᾽ ἡ προτέρα πόλις ἀπώλλυτο, κτλ.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_312'>312</span>The long sojourn of the stranger in Carthage would be explained -if he owned mines there.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In the sequel φαινομένων may perhaps stand for Φοινικικῶν and -χρῆναι for χρηστήρια εἶναι.</p> - -<p class='c005'>408 F (p. 110, l. 19). πρὸς δὲ πίστιν ἐπισφαλὴς καὶ ὑπεύθυνος. If -ἐπισφαλής stands, it should rather mean ‘liable to take good faith -(like an infection)‘, a very common use of the adjective and its -adverb in Plutarch. See e. g. 661 B, 631 C. This seems rather a -forced oxymoron here. Wyttenbach doubted, and Madvig proposed -ἀνεπισφαλής, a word said to be found in Themistius.</p> - -<p class='c005'>On the passage see J. H. W. Strijd in <i>Class. Rev.</i>, xxviii, p. 219.</p> -<h3 class='c009'>Supplemental Notes 1918</h3> -<p class='c004'>418 A (p. 132, above). ... πυθυμένου (Φιλίππου) τίσιν ἀντιμαρτυρεῖν -θεοῖς οἴεται τοὺς ἀνταγωνιζομένους, Τούτοις, ἔφη, τοῖς περὶ τὸ -χρηστήριον, οἷς ἄρτι τοὺς ἔξω Πυλῶν πάντας Ἕλληνας ἡ πόλις -κατοργιάζουσα μέχρι Τεμπῶν ἐλήλακεν.</p> - -<p class='c005'>I have followed Amyot, whose version is perhaps more intelligible -than the Latin, but involves the change of θεοῖς to θείοις (Turnebus) -and the transposition of Tempe and Thermopylae. If θεοῖς can be -retained, the reference will be to Dionysus and Apollo, the two gods -connected with the sanctuary (pp. 67, 138, &c.) and the purgation -of the latter at Tempe, commemorated by periodical rites. θείοις -appears to correspond more closely to ἱεροῖς above.</p> - -<p class='c005'>926 C-D (pp. 271-2). διὰ τοῦτο οὖν σώματι ψυχὴν μὴ λέγομεν -εἶναι μηδέν, οὐ χρῆμα θεῖον ὑπὸ βρίθους ἢ πάχους, οὐρανόν τε πάντα καὶ -γῆν καὶ θάλασσαν ἐν ταὐτῷ περιπολοῦντα, καὶ διιστάμενον εἰς σάρκας -ἥκειν καὶ νεῦρα, καὶ μυελούς, καὶ παθέων μυρίων μεθ᾽ ὑγρότητος. For -διιστάμενον W. proposes διιπτάμενον. I have, with great hesitation, -followed Herwerden’s μηδὲ νοῦν (Emperius μηδὲ νοῦ χρῆμα), as the -substantive agrees with the participle, but the whole passage is -difficult. ὑπὸ βρίθους ἢ πάχους seems to be out of place (can ὑπό -stand for something equivalent to ἄνευ or to Madvig’s ἀθῷον ὑπό)?</p> - -<p class='c005'>In the paper mentioned on p. 54 Dr. Max Adler adduces an -interesting passage from Maximus Tyrius (diss. 22, 6) closely -parallel to this, as proving that Plutarch was drawing upon -Posidonius. The participle διιπταμένη occurs.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_313'>313</span> - <h2 id='myths' class='c003'>NOTE ON THE MYTHS IN PLUTARCH</h2> -</div> -<p class='c004'>The three ‘myths’ which are found in these Dialogues are all -avowedly Platonic; they are introduced and dismissed in Platonic -formulae, and much of the imagery is drawn from Plato. Yet the -treatment is Plutarch’s own, and the style, though dignified and -elevated after his fashion, never suggests an imitation of Plato which -could only be parody. New matter is brought in, mostly gleaned -from the astronomy of his day. The movements of the heavenly -bodies have been an inspiration to later poets of verse and prose:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>Minerva breathes on me, Apollo guides,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>And the nine Muses point me to the Bears.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>To Plutarch the subject was rather one of earnest curiosity, as he -turns to account the details and their theological application, read -by him in the philosophers of, or nearly of, his own age.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The purpose of the Platonic myth is to carry the argument beyond -and above the region of logic and analysis, into that of poetry and -constructive truth, upon matters where strict proof was impossible. -The reader may be referred to Bishop Westcott’s Essay on <i>Religious -Thought in the West</i>, and to Professor J. A. Stewart’s book on <i>The -Myths of Plato</i>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(1) It will be convenient to look first into the myth of Thespesius -in Plutarch’s Dialogue <i>On the Instances of Delay in Divine Punishment</i> -(see pp. <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>-13 of this book). The motive is identical with that of -the myth of Er in the <i>Republic</i>, yet with a difference. Plato gives -us an experience from the world beyond death, granted to one who -had been taken for dead during several days, in order to carry to -a higher plane his argument for the victory here and hereafter of -Justice over Injustice. Plutarch, as a moral teacher and ‘physician -of souls’, concerned to restore individuals who have fallen, and -to keep the falling on their feet, gives us the picture of ‘The Rake -Reformed’, taking an extreme instance of a vicious character -restored to sanity by glimpses of penalties and of bliss beyond this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_314'>314</span>life, in order to deter and encourage others under temptation. The -name Aridaeus, changed to Thespesius, ‘The Divine’, as an earnest -of the reformation, reminds us of Ardiaeus the tyrant, in Plato. -The language naturally falls into that of the Judgement-myth in -the <i>Gorgias</i>. It is introduced by a similar form of words:</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘Now listen while I tell you a very beautiful story (λόγος) which -you I think will call a myth (μῦθος), for all that I am about to say -I wish to be regarded as true’ (Plato).</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘I can tell you a story which I have lately heard, yet I hesitate -lest it may appear to you a myth.... Let me first make good the -“probability” of my view, then we will start the myth, if myth -indeed it be’ (Plutarch).</p> - -<p class='c005'>The details in Plutarch are fuller and grimmer, and the language, -though solemn, lacks the stately reticence of Plato. We are often -reminded of words and thoughts in the <i>Eumenides</i> of Aeschylus. -The celestial imagery is vague, and does not seem to suggest any -special source more modern than Plato. It has a general resemblance -to a passage in the <i>Phaedo</i> (c. 58, p. 109 <span class='fss'>D</span>, <span class='fss'>E</span>).</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘We, dwelling in a hollow of the Earth, think that we dwell upon -the Earth itself; and the air we call Heaven, and think that it is -that Heaven wherein are the courses of the stars: whereas, by -reason of weakness and sluggishness, we cannot go forth out of the -air; but if a man could journey to the edge thereof, or having gotten -wings could fly up, it would come to pass that even as fishes here -which rise out of the sea do behold the things here, he, looking out, -would behold the things there, and if his strength could endure the -sight thereof, would see that there are the True Heaven, and the -True Light, and the True Earth’ (Tr. J. A. Stewart).</p> - -<p class='c005'>The daemons are only mentioned as Ministers or Ushers in the -after-world; there is no threefold division of the man into body, -soul, and mind, only one into body and soul; there is one reference -to Delphi and its oracle, where a popular belief that Night and -Apollo were partners is corrected. An attentive reading will bring -out a resemblance of words and phrases to those familiar to us in the -Sixth Book of the <i>Aeneid</i>, the subject of E. Norden’s fruitful and -convincing study.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(2) The beautiful story of Timarchus, the young friend of Socrates’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_315'>315</span>son, who passed into a trance in the cave of Trophonius, and saw -things of the unseen world which were to be fully revealed to him -three months later, i. e. in actual death, comes into the Dialogue -<i>On the Genius of Socrates</i> (pp. 36-40) to explain the special correspondence -during life between the God and those gifted souls who possess -mind, and become daemons or spirits after death. Here the three-fold -division into body, soul, and mind (see p. 303) is maintained. -A practical application of the myth is drawn by Theanor, the young -Pythagorean visitor.</p> - -<p class='c005'>As the supposed Dialogue takes place in <span class='fss'>B. C.</span> 378, we do not expect -to find in it the astronomy of Plutarch’s day, though he would not -have shrunk from any anachronism. The general imagery is again -that of the <i>Phaedo</i>, but there is a sea on which circular bodies, the -stars which are men’s souls, float. The current which bears them -is circular, yet not completely circular, not ending in the point where -it started, but describing a continuous spiral (just as the moon does -with reference to the earth’s path). This sea is inclined to the middle -and highest point of the firmament by ‘a little less than eight-ninths -of the whole’. This is puzzling; it may suggest the inclination -of the ecliptic to the equator, or, again, that of the Milky Way to -the ecliptic. Doubtless some explanation will be forthcoming. An -interesting detail is ‘Styx, a way to Hades’, clearly the shadow in -a lunar eclipse, since the moon ‘only avoids Styx by a slight elevation, -and is caught once in one hundred and seventy-seven secondary -measures’, the exact number of periods of twenty-four hours contained -in six lunar months, the normal interval between two eclipses (see -p. 286). ‘Secondary measures’ is a curious expression, since Plutarch -elsewhere (Plat. Quaest. 3, p. 1006 <span class='fss'>E</span>) calls periods of a day and -a night ‘the primary measures’. It seems not impossible that -δευτέροις here has replaced some word which the scribe could not -make out, such as νυχθημέροις. We have the four principles of -birth and death, as in the <i>Face in the Moon</i>; only there Clotho -takes the moon for her sphere of office, and Lachesis the earth, here -Lachesis takes the moon, Clotho the sun, Atropus the ‘unseen’. -Neither list agrees with the assignment of functions by Xenocrates -(see the end of Dr. M. Adler’s Dissertation mentioned below).</p> - -<p class='c005'>(3) Sylla’s tale in the <i>Face in the Moon</i> (pp. 299-308), a traveller’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_316'>316</span>story picked up in Carthage from one of those curious characters found -on the outer margin of the Greek world in whom Plutarch delighted, -is brought in with admirable dramatic fitness, shown in Sylla’s eagerness -to produce it at the very outset, in the preparation for it by -the skirmish between Theon and Lamprias, and in the vivacity of -the narrative. It is dismissed with a Platonic formula:</p> - -<p class='c005'>‘Such is the story which I heard the stranger relate.... But you and -your friends, Lamprias, may take the story in what way you will.’ -Compare: ‘I am persuaded, O Callicles, that these things that are -told are true.... Perchance this shall seem to you an old wife’s fable, -and thou wilt despise it: well mightest thou despise it, if by searching -we could find out aught better and truer’ (<i>Gorgias</i>, 526 <span class='fss'>D</span>, 527 <span class='fss'>A</span>). -The astronomy of the myth is in the main that of the preceding -Dialogue, and Sylla shows considerable familiarity with Plato and -also with Xenocrates. It is perhaps noticeable how little interest -Plutarch shows in geographical detail, contenting himself with such -vague and antiquated views as sufficed for a setting to the story. -He appears not to name Pytheas at all in the <i>Lives</i>, and only once -(on a question of the tides) in the <i>Moralia</i>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The whole Dialogue has been the subject of a careful study by -Dr. Max Adler of Vienna (<i>Dissertationes Vindobonenses</i>, 1910). Without -entering into his general view of the structure, we may observe -that Dr. Adler seems to be very successful in establishing the close -connexion between it and the Dialogue <i>On the Cessation of the Oracles</i>, -which he is probably right—though he reserves the proofs—in regarding -as based upon it, and later in date. This comes out especially in -the passages about the captivity of Cronus (cp. p. 301 with pp. -135-6), and the argument about ‘the Middle’ (cp. p. 270 with p. 144). -He produces a happy quotation from Maximus Tyrius to establish -beyond doubt that the source of an important passage about mind -(pp. 271-2) was in Posidonius. His general conclusion as to the -myth, is that it too is in the main from Posidonius, and that when -Plutarch draws upon Xenocrates, it is through Posidonius. The latter -appears to have been a writer of great industry and encyclopaedic -learning, quoted as an authority on matters of history, physical geography, -and what we should now call anthropology; not an original -force in Philosophy, but successful in reconciling systems and making -<span class='pageno' id='Page_317'>317</span>them available for human needs; one the aim of whose life-work was, -in the words of one of his most recent exponents, <i>to make men at home -in the universe</i> (<i>Stoics and Sceptics</i>, by Edwyn Bevan, p. 98).</p> - -<p class='c005'>Any one who will read Sylla’s myth, with a good map of the moon’s -surface before him, will be able to locate for himself the ‘Gulf of -Hecate’, and the long valleys leading to the Elysian plains, which, -on her side remote from earth, enjoy diffused sunlight. There need -be no idea of shafts or tunnels driven through the solid body of the -moon.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Cicero’s <i>Dream of Scipio</i>, written more than a century before -Plutarch’s Dialogue, and also drawn from Posidonius, will be found -an admirable companion piece, enforcing, in language of singular -beauty and elevation, those duties to country and ancestors which -find inadequate expression in the Greek thought of the first century -of our era.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_318'>318</span> - <h2 id='chap10' class='c003'>NOTE ON THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS AND THE FIVE REGULAR SOLIDS</h2> -</div> -<p class='c004'>The opinion that our World, or universe, is not the only one in -the Whole, is attributed, in general terms, to many of the early -Greek philosophers, notably to Anaximander. The exact meaning -of a ‘Cosmos’, in this connexion, is perhaps not easy to fix. Aristotle -is clear that the circle of the fixed stars is one and constant, -but the author of the Stoical treatise on the Cosmos, found among -his works, takes stars to be a part of the (one) Cosmos. An earth, -such as ours with her atmosphere and moon, is essential, and a sun, -or access to sunlight, and perhaps some planets. In the <i>Dream -of Scipio</i> our solar system, with the earth in its centre, is described -with great distinctness as a unit in space. The planets are always -regarded as luminous points, stars somewhat out of place (see p. <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>), -possessing no definite magnitude or solid substance.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In theory the number of Cosmi might be infinite, but a shrinking -from the vague ‘Infinity’, in later times associated with the Epicureans, -led Plato, for instance, to restrict the number to a possible -five. That he based this number upon that of the five regular -solids may seem fanciful, but the solid angles and forms observed in -crystals might reasonably suggest the hypothesis that the ultimate -constituents of the crust of the earth would be found in the most -perfect solid structures known to theory. In theory there is much -that is attractive in these five solids. To one coming fresh from -a study of Plane Polygonal Figures, which exist in infinite number, -and, when regular, approximate more and more closely to the Plane -Circle, it comes as a surprise to find that, in the next higher degree, -the number of solid bodies so approximating to the Sphere is five -only. Again, it seems almost a paradox that, of these five, the -nearest approximation to the Sphere is attained, not by the body with -twenty fine faces, but by that which shews only twelve, and those -comparatively blunted and unshapely (pentagons). It was perhaps -<span class='pageno' id='Page_319'>319</span>from such considerations that the Dodecahedron was held of special -importance by the Pythagoreans. Plato’s study of the several faces -of these solids, as available for construction or reconstruction of -a world, leaves nothing to be desired, assuming that a solid body -can be built out of plane figures, an assumption which appears to -belong to the same habit of thought as that which makes the point -the square of unity, and the lineal measure corresponding to the -number two the first rectangle. As the pentagon defies the analysis -available for the equilateral triangle or for the square, the Dodecahedron -remains over, a model or pattern of a stitch-work world, as -viewed from outside (<i>Phaedo</i> 110 B and <i>Timaeus</i> 55 C; see also -Burnet’s <i>Early Greek Philosophy</i>, p. 341 foll.). It may not be amiss -to be reminded that Kepler, mathematician as well as astronomer, -spent many toilsome years in the endeavour to arrange the members -of our solar system upon a plan based on the five solids. ‘If -Kepler went out “to seek his father’s asses”, he found a kingdom, for -it was in the course of these speculations, and through them, that he -discovered not only his own “Third Law”, but also the truth, overlooked -by Copernicus, that the orbit of each planet lies in a plane -which passes through the centre of the sun.’ (Dreyer, <i>Planetary -Systems</i>, p. 410.)</p> - -<p class='c005'>The discussion of the plurality of worlds, in the modern sense, -begins with the very attractive work of Fontenelle, brought out, -in its original form, in 1686, a year before Newton’s <i>Principia</i>, being -a series of conversations between the Author and a witty and accomplished -Marquise, as to the habitability of the several members of the -solar system. The argument which followed is distinguished by -many great names, those of Newton himself, Bentley, Huyghens, -the Herschels, Dr. Chalmers, till it was brought to a head in the -middle of the nineteenth century by Dr. Whewell and Sir David -Brewster, writing respectively against and for the hypothesis. The -subject was then one (as readers of Anthony Trollope will remember) -upon which any one might be called upon to take a side in a London -drawing-room. In more recent times interest has been concentrated -upon Mars, who now possesses the distinction of having two satellites. -We are only concerned to invite the reader to compare the religious -argument addressed to the Stoics by Plutarch (p. 142 foll.) with the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_320'>320</span>religious argument drawn by Dr. Chalmers and Sir David Brewster -from the enrichment of the providential scheme for man upon our -earth which would follow the conception of other earths tenanted by -other beings perhaps of a higher order.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But it is natural that any such speculation should begin with the -moon, and in fact we find the question of her habitability discussed -by Theon and by Lamprias (pp. 293-9). With the later treatises on -this subject, beginning with Lucian’s witty flight of fancy, we are not -concerned. But an exception must be made for the very able works -of Savinien de Cyrano, known to us as Cyrano de Bergerac, whose -<i>Histoire comique des États et Empires de la Lune</i> appeared, probably, -in 1650, and was followed by a similar work about the sun. Cyrano -appears to be familiar with Plutarch: thus he meets in the moon -the ‘daemon of Socrates’, who has also been the tutelary spirit of -Epaminondas, of Cato of Utica, and of Brutus. The idea (due in the -first place to Heraclitus) of being fed on smells, is worked out with -much vivacity. But with so original and daring a writer, it is not -quite easy to settle how much is due to any hint from others and how -much to himself. A modern reader will not need to be reminded -that Cyrano was not a person of whom it was wise to give an outspoken -opinion in his lifetime. But I had wished to speak with -nothing but respect of a man of real learning and genius, who, from -whatever cause, did not bring to perfection any work worthy of -himself.</p> - -<p class='c005'>See, on the general subject, an Essay by the late Professor -Henry J. S. Smith in <i>Oxford Essays</i>, 1855.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_321'>321</span> - <h2 id='index' class='c003'>INDEX <br /> OF PERSONS AND PLACES MENTIONED BY PLUTARCH IN THESE DIALOGUES</h2> -</div> -<p class='c004'>¶ In this Index the Greek spelling of ei (Lat. ī) has been usually -retained.</p> - -<p class='c005'>All dates are <span class='fss'>B. C.</span> unless otherwise stated.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The dates are often approximate and conventional.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Other numerals refer to pages of this volume.</p> - -<p class='c005'>For the speakers in each Dialogue see that Dialogue <i>passim</i> and the -Introductions.</p> - -<p class='c005'>(The ‘Three Pythian Dialogues’ are quoted under that designation -See p. <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.)</p> - -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c017'>A.</li> - <li class='c017'>Academy, Academic, the School founded by Plato in ‘the most beautiful suburb of Athens’ (Thuc. ii. 34), <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Acanthus, Acanthian, a town of the Chalcidice, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Achaeans, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Achaeus, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Achĕron, a river of the lower world, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Achilles, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Admētus, king of Pherae in Thessaly, and husband of Alcestis, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Adōnis (‘Gardens of Adonis’ were cut flowers planted in pots), <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Adrasteia, a name for Nemesis, ‘the unescapable’, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aegīna, an island in the Saronic Gulf, opposite to Athens, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aegon, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aegos Potami, a river, and in later times a town, in the Chersonese, famous for the sea-battle of 405, in which Lysander defeated the Athenian fleet, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aemiliānus, a rhetorician, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aeolian, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aeolĭdae, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aeschylus, tragic poet of Athens, (525-456), <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aesop of Samos, writer of fables (fl. 570), a freedman of Iadmon of Samos, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aetna, Mount, in Sicily, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aetolians, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Agamemnon, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Agathŏclēs, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Agāvē, daughter of Cadmus, and mother of Pentheus, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Agenorĭdas, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Agesianax (or Hegesianax), a poet, probably of Alexandria, third century, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Agesilaüs II, the lame king of Sparta, reigned 398-361 (see his <i>Life</i>) <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aglaonīcē, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aglaŏphon, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Agrigentum (Acragas), a town on the south coast of Sicily, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aïdoneus (Hades), <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ajax, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Alcaeus, of Lesbos, lyric poet (fl. 600), <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Alcibiădes 450-404, Athenian politician, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Alcman, lyric poet of Sparta (fl. 630), <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Alcmēna, wife of Amphitryon and mother of Hercules; (on her sanctuary, in a grove near Thebes, see Pausan. ix. 16. 4), <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Alĕüs, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Alexander, the Great, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Alexis, of Thurii, poet of the so-called ‘Middle Attic Comedy’, fourth century, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aloădes, Otus and Ephialtes, giant sons of Iphimedeia, wife of Aloeus (<i>Od.</i> xi. 307 foll., and <i>Il.</i> v. 385), <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Alopĕcus, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Alphēüs, a river of Arcadia and Elis, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Alyattes, king of Lydia and father of Croesus (d. 560), <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Alyrius, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Amēstris, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ammon, the temple of Zeus Ammon in an oasis of the Libyan Desert to the N.W. of Egypt, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ammonius, an Athenian philosopher of the first century <span class='fss'>A. D.</span>, the instructor of Plutarch. A speaker in the First and Third Pythian Dialogues. <i>See also</i> <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>, and cp. Sympos. 3, 1, 2; 8, 3; 9, 1, 2, 5, 14; and <i>Life of Themistocles</i>, end.</li> - <li class='c017'>Amphiaraüs of Argos, prince and seer, who accompanied the Seven Chieftains against Thebes, and was swallowed up by the earth there, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Amphictyons, ‘Dwellers around’, whose council met at Thermopylae and at Pylaea, a suburb of Delphi, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Amphilŏchus, son of Amphiaraüs, worshipped at Malli in Cilicia, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Amphīon, the district of Thebes between the rivers Strophia and Ismenus (Pausan. ix. 16 and 17), <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Amphipolis, a town of Macedon on the Strymon, taken by Brasidas in 424, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a> <i>n.</i></li> - <li class='c017'>Amphitheüs, a Theban patriot, imprisoned by the Polemarchs, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Amphitryon, father of Hercules, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Anactorium, a town and promontory of Acarnania, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Anaxagoras, 499-427, a philosopher of Clazomenae in Ionia, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Andocĭdes, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Androcleidas, a Theban patriot, assassinated when a refugee in Athens, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Antichthon, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Antigŏnus, younger son of Demetrius Sotēr, king of Syria (d. 125), <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Antipater, son of Cassander, king of Macedon, succeeded his brother Philip, and was himself murdered, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Antiphon, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aphroditē, goddess of love, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Apollo, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Apollocrates, son of Dionysius the younger, of Syracuse (d. 354), <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Apollodōrus, tyrant of Cassandria (Potidaea) from 379, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Apollonia, a town in Illyria founded from Corinth, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Apollonia, a town in Pisidia, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Apollonides, a speaker in the <i>Face in the Moon</i>. ὁ τακτικός (<i>Sympos.</i> 3, 4).</li> - <li class='c017'>Arabia, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Arcadia, Arcadians, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Arcĕsus, Lacedaemonian Harmost, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Arcĕsus, of Sicily, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Archelaüs, king of Macedon, 413-399, friend and host of Euripides, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Archias, of Athens, the priest, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Archias, of Thebes. A member of the oligarchical party, and made a Polemarch by Sparta, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Archidāmus, an Athenian, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Archilŏchus, 714-676, of Paros, lyric and iambic poet, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Archīnus, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Archȳtas of Tarentum, mathematician and statesman, fl. 300 (see <i>Life of Marcellus</i>, c. 14), <a href='#Page_14'>14</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Argos, Argive, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aridaeus, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aristarchus of Samos, astronomer and physicist (310-230), <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aristarchus, critic, of Samothrace and Alexandria (fl. 156), <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aristocrătes, king of Arcadia (stoned to death 668), <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aristodēmus, king of Messenia (d. 723), <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ariston, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aristonīca, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aristotle, 384-322, founder of the Peripatetic School at Athens, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aristotle (see p. <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>), a Peripatetic, who takes part in the Dialogue on the <i>Face in the Moon</i>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Aristyllus, an astronomer (fl. 233), <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Arnē, a town in Thessaly, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Arsălus, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Artĕmis, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Artemisium, on the north coast of Euboea, where the Greek fleet defeated that of Xerxes in 480, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Asclepius (Aesculapius), <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Assyrians, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Asterium, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Athămas, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Athena (Pallas Athene), <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Athens, Athenian, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Atlas, a giant son of Iapĕtus and brother of Prometheus, identified with a mountain in NW. Africa, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Atrŏpus, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Attĭca, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Augeas, king of the Epeans; slain for bad faith by Hercules, and succeeded by Phyleus, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ausonius, a Latin poet of Bordeaux (<span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 310-90), <a href='#Page_127'>127</a> <i>n.</i></li> - <li class='c017'>Autolycus, son of Hermes, and grandfather of Ulysses, famed for his cunning, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>B.</li> - <li class='c017'>Bacchus, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Bacchylĭdas, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Bacis, an ancient Boeotian seer, connected in story with the Corycian cave, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Bakerwoman, the, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Basilocles, a speaker in the introductory part of the Second Pythian Dialogue.</li> - <li class='c017'>Battus, of Thera, founder of Cyrene (see Herod. 4, 150 foll.), <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Bessus, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Bias, sixth century; of Priēnē in Ionia; one of the Seven Wise Men, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Bion, a Scythian philosopher and wit of the third century, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Boeotia, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Boēthus, a young geometrician and Epicurean (probably an Athenian), a speaker in the Second Pythian Dialogue (cp. <i>Sympos.</i> 5, 1 and 8, 3).</li> - <li class='c017'>Branchĭdae, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Brasĭdas, the Spartan general (d. 422), <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Briăreus, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, cf. <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Britain, Briton, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Byzantium, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>C.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cabirĭchus, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cadmeia, the citadel of Thebes, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Caesar, the Emperor Augustus (63-<span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 14), <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Caligŭla, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Callias, a rich Athenian, see the <i>Symposium</i> of Xenophon and the <i>Protagoras</i> of Plato, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Callippus, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Callistrătus, of Athens, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Callistratus, archon of Delphi, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Calondas, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Capheisias, of Thebes, son of Polymnis and brother of Epaminondas; the chief speaker in the First Pythian Dialogue.</li> - <li class='c017'>Caria, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Carthage, Carthaginian, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Carystus, on the S. coast of Euboea, noted for its marble and asbestos, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Caspian Sea, supposed until Ptolemy to be an inlet of Ocean, though Herodotus describes it as an inland water (1, 202-3), <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cassander, 354-297, king of Macedon, began the restoration of Thebes in 315: <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cĕbēs, of Thebes, a companion of Socrates (see the <i>Critias</i> and <i>Phaedo</i> of Plato), <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cecrops, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cephisodōrus, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Chaereas, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Chaerēmon, an Athenian tragic poet (fl. 380), <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Chaeroneia, in Boeotia, on the borders of Phocis; Plutarch’s native town, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Chaldaeans, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Charillus, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Charon, a Theban patriot, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Charybdis, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cheiron, the Centaur, instructor of Achilles, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Chersonese, the Thracian, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Chilon, one of the Seven Wise Men, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Chios, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Chius, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Chlidon, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cleanthes, a Stoic philosopher, b. 300, at Assos in the Troad, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Clearchus, a Peripatetic philosopher of Soli, pupil of Aristotle, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Chonūphis, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Chrysippus (280-207), the Stoic philosopher, born at Soli in Cilicia, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cilicia, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cimmerians, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cimon, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cinaethon, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cinēsias, dithyrambic poet of Athens (fl. 400), <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cithaeron, the mountain range between Attica and Boeotia, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Clazomĕnae, a city in Ionia, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cleander, of Aegina, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cleisthĕnes, of Sicyon, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cleobulīnē, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cleobūlus, tyrant of Lindus in Rhodes, sixth century. One of the Seven Wise Men, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cleombrŏtus, of Lacedaemon, a speaker in the Third Pythian Dialogue.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cleon, of Daulia, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cleōnae, a city in the Peloponnesus, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cleonīcē, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cleotīmus, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Clio, the Muse of History, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Clotho, one of the Fates, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Clytaemnēstra, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cnidus, a city of Caria, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Conon, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Copreus, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cora (Persephone), daughter of Demeter, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Corax, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Corcȳra, Corcyrean, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Corētas, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Corinth, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Corōnē (Crow), <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Corybantes, priests of Cybele, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Corycium, the Corycian cave, on the slopes of Parnassus, 7-1/2 miles NE. of Delphi, and 3,500 feet above it (Pausanias x. 32, 2), <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cosmos, i. e. Apollo, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Crates, a Cynic philosopher (fl. 328), <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Crates, a critic, of Pergamos (born at Mallus in Cilicia, fl. 155), <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'><i>Cratylus</i>, a Dialogue of Plato, on etymology, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Crete, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cretīnus, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Critias, of Carthage, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Croesus, king of Lydia, d. 540 (see Herod. 1-3), <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Crŏnus (Saturn), father of Zeus, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Crotōna, a Greek colony in southern Italy, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'><i>Cyclops</i>, a satyric play of Euripides, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>; - <ul> - <li>and see <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c017'>Cydias, an early poet, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cydnus, a river of Cilicia, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cylon, Cylonians, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cymé (Cumae), a city on the coast of Campania, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cypsĕlus, of Corinth, tyrant 655-625, father of Periander, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Cyzĭcus, a city of Mysia, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>D.</li> - <li class='c017'>Dactyli, workers in iron, &c., of Mt. Ida in Phrygia, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Daïphantus, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Damocleidas, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Daulia, a town of Phocis, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Deinomĕnes, of Syracuse, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Delium in Boeotia, battle of, 424 (see <i>Life of Alcibiades</i>, c. 7, and Plato, <i>Apol.</i> 28, and <i>Sympos.</i> 221 <span class='fss'>A</span>).</li> - <li class='c017'>Dēlos, an island in the Aegean, sacred to Apollo, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Delphi, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Dēmētēr, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a>, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Demetrius, a speaker in the Third Pythian Dialogue.</li> - <li class='c017'>Demetrius, king of Macedon 294-287 (Poliorcētēs), <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Democrĭtus, a philosopher, of Abdēra in Thrace (460-361), <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Diagŏras, of Melos, a disciple of Democritus (fl. 420), <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Diës (plural of Zeus), <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Dicaearcheia, the old name of Puteŏli, a city on the coast of Campania, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Dicaearchus, a Peripatetic philosopher and writer on questions of literary history, contemporary with Aristotle, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'><a id='index-didymus'></a></li> - <li class='c017'>Didymus, a Cynic philosopher (nicknamed Planetiădes), takes part in the opening of the Third Pythian Dialogue.</li> - <li class='c017'>Diogenianus, a speaker in the Second Pythian Dialogue. For his father, of the same name, cp. <i>Sympos.</i> 7, 7 and 8, 1, 2, 9.</li> - <li class='c017'>Diŏmede, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Dion of Syracuse (d. 356), see his <i>Life</i>, by Plutarch, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Dionysius, the Elder, 430-367, tyrant of Syracuse, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Dionȳsus (or Bacchus), the wine-god, born at Thebes, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Diotŏnus, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Dircē, daughter of Helios, wife of Lycus, whose sons by Antiope, Amphion and Zethus, slew her and threw her body into a well at Thebes. The Fountain of Dirce was near the Crenaean Gate, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>. - <ul> - <li>R. Dirce was the westernmost of the three Theban streams.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c017'>Dolon, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Dorian, Doric, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Dryus, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>E.</li> - <li class='c017'>Earth (temple of, at Delphi), <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Echecrătēs, a ‘prophet’ of Tegyra, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Echinădĕs, islands off the coast of Acarnania, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Egypt, Egyptian, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Elis, Elean, a state of the Peloponnesus, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ellopion, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Elysian, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Empedocles of Agrigentum, philosopher and poet (fl. 444), <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_287'>287</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Endymion, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Epameinondas, son of Polymnis, brother of Capheisias, and friend of Pelopidas (fell at Mantineia 362), <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Epicharmus, of Cos and Syracuse, writer of philosophical comedies (540-450), <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Epicūrus, of Samos, 342-270, philosopher and founder of the School of ‘The Garden’ at Athens, and Epicureans, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>. - <ul> - <li>A modern ‘Epicurus’ is introduced into the Dialogue on the <i>Delays in Divine Punishment</i>, but leaves before its beginning.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c017'>Epicȳdēs, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Epidaurus, a town and state next to Argolis, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Epimenĭdes, of Phaestus in Crete, a poet and prophet (fl. 600), <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Epitherses, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Erĕbus, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Erĕsus, a city of Lesbos, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Eretria, a city on the west coast of Euboea, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Erianthes, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Eridănus, the river Po, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Erinnys, the, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Eriphȳlē, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Erōs (Love), <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Erythrae, an Ionian city, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ethiopia, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Euboea, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Eudoxus, of Cnidus, 408-355, astronomer and mathematician, and founder of the School of Cyzicus, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Eumētis, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Eumolpĭdas, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Euripides, 485 (or 480)-405, the Athenian tragedian, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Eurycleis, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Eurymĕdon, a river in Pamphylia; in 469 Cimon defeated the Persians on its banks, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Eustrŏphus, a speaker in the First Pythian Dialogue.</li> - <li class='c017'>Euthyphron, a disciple of Socrates (see the Dialogue of Plato which bears his name), <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>F.</li> - <li class='c017'>Fates, the, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Fortune, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>G.</li> - <li class='c017'>Galaxidōrus, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Galaxius, in Boeotia, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Gauls, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Gedrosia, a district on the Indus and Indian Ocean (SE. part of Beloochistan), <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse (d. 478), <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Getae, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Giants, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Glaucé, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Glaucus, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Gorgias, of Leontini, 480-398, teacher of rhetoric (see the <i>Gorgias</i> of Plato), <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Gorgĭdas, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Great Mother, the (Cybele), <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Great Year, the, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Guides, the, of the temple and treasures of Delphi, apparently two in number, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>. - <ul> - <li>Cp. <i>Sympos.</i> 5, 3, and 8, 4.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c017'>Gullies, the (cp. Rhetiste), <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Gyrean, cape, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>H.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hādēs, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a>, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Haliartus, a town of Boeotia on Lake Copaïs, 15 miles NW. of Thebes, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hamadryads, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hecăte, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hector, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hecŭba, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hegētor, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Helĕnus, son of Priam, a prophet, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Helĭcon, of Cyzicus, mathematician and astronomer, mentioned in Plutarch’s <i>Life of Dion</i>, as having foretold a solar eclipse, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Helĭcon, a mountain (5,000 ft.) in Boeotia, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hellas (Greece), <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hephaestus, the lame god of fire (see <i>Il.</i> 1. 590), <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hēra, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Heracleia, probably a town in Phrygia, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Heracleidae, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Heracleitus, philosopher of Ephesus (end of sixth century), <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Heraea, the, a festival at Thebes, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Heraea, a town of Arcadia, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Heracleon, of Megara, a speaker in the Third Pythian Dialogue.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hercules (Heraclēs), <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hercŭlēs, Pillars of, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Herippĭdas, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hermes, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hermodōrus, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hermolaüs, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Herodĭcus, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Herodŏtus, the historian, of Halicarnassus (484-408), <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Herophĭlé, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hesiod, the ancient Boeotian poet, eighth century, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hesperus (the Evening Star, or planet Venus), <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hiĕro, of Syracuse, brother of Gelon (d. 467). A munificent benefactor of Delphi, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hiĕro, the Lacedaemonian (killed in the battle of Leuctra 371), <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Himĕra, a town of Sicily, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hipparchus, the astronomer, of Rhodes and Alexandria, native of Nicaea in Bithynia (fl. from 160), <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hipparchus (son of Pisistratus), <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hippocrătes, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hippostheneidas, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hippys, of Rhegium, an early Greek historian, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Homer, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a>, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hoplītes, river in Boeotia, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hyampeia, one of two cliffs above Thebes, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hypătes, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Hypatodōrus, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>I.</li> - <li class='c017'>Iadmōn, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ida, Mt., in Phrygia, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Iêïus, ‘invoked with the cry iē! (or iē paion!),‘ i. e. Apollo, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ilithyia, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ilium (Troy), <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Indian, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ino, daughter of Cadmus and wife of Athamas, a tragic heroine, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ion Chius, a writer of plays, and anecdotist (fl. 450), <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Iphĭtus, killed by Hercules, who had stolen the oxen of his father Eurytus, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Isis, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ismenian, a name of Apollo, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ismenias, a Theban of the popular party and Polemarch, arrested by Leontides, tried by a commission appointed by Sparta, on a charge of ‘medizing’, and executed (see <i>Life of Pelopidas</i>), 8.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ismenidōrus, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ismēnus, the principal (most easterly) river of Thebes, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Isodaités, ‘equal divider,’ a name of Dionysus, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ister, a Greek historian, or antiquarian, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ister, the Danube, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Isthmus (of Corinth), Isthmian, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Italy, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ithaca, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>·</li> - <li class='c017'>Ixīon, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>J.</li> - <li class='c017'>Jason, Tagus of Thessaly (d. 370), known as ‘Prometheus’; (see Plutarch <i>On getting advantage from enemies</i>, c. 6, p. 89 <span class='fss'>C</span>, and Xenophon, <i>Hellenica</i>, 2, 3, 18) <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Jews, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>L.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lacedaemon, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lachărēs, an Athenian demagogue (fl. 296), <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lachēs, Athenian general; fell at Mantineia, 418. A Dialogue of Plato bears his name, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lachĕsis, one of the Fates, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lamia, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lamprias, Plutarch’s brother (also the name of his grandfather); a speaker in the First and Third Pythian Dialogues and in the <i>Face in the Moon</i>. Cp. <i>Sympos.</i> 2, 2; 4, 5; 9, 15.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lamprocles, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Latōna, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Law Courts, the, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lebadeia, near the western frontier of Boeotia, the seat of the oracle of Trophonius, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lēda, daughter of Thestius, and mother of Helen and Clytaemnēstra, Castor, and Polydeuces, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lemnos, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Leontĭdes, one of the polemarchs at Thebes, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Leontīni, a city of Sicily, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lesbos, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Leschenorian, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lēthē (‘Oblivion’), <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Leucas, Leucadia, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Leuctra, a village of Boeotia, between Thespiae and Plataea (famous for the battle between the Spartans and Thebans in 371), <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Libya (Africa), <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lindos, a town on the eastern coast of Rhodes, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Livia, the empress, wife of Augustus, and mother, by her first marriage, of Tiberius (d. <span class='fss'>A. D.</span> 29), <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Locris, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lucania, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lucius, a speaker in the Dialogue on the <i>Face in the Moon</i>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lycians, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lyciscus, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lycormae, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, ninth century, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lycuria (an ancient name for the summit of Parnassus), a village near the Corycian cave, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lydia, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lydiădas, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lysander, the Spartan naval commander who finished the Peloponnesian war. He fell in battle against the Thebans, 395, at Haliartus (see his <i>Life</i>, c. 29): <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lysanorĭdas, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lysimăchus, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lysis, a Pythagorean teacher, driven from Italy to Thebes, where he died, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lysitheides, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Lysitheüs, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>M.</li> - <li class='c017'>Maeotic Bay (Sea of Azov), <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Magi, the, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Magnesia, district of Thessaly, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Malis, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Marăthon, on the east coast of Attica (famous for the battle of 490), <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Mardonius, the Persian general (defeated and killed at Plataea, 479), <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Marius, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Medes, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Megalopŏlis, the chief town of Arcadia, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Megăra, a city on the Saronic gulf, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Megasthĕnēs, a Greek writer on India (fl. 300), <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Melanthius, an Athenian tragic poet (fl. 420), <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Melētus, one of the three accusers of Socrates, a poet, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Melissus, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Mĕlon, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Melos, an island in the Aegean, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Memphis, a city of Egypt, on the Nile, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Menaechmus, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a> <i>n.</i></li> - <li class='c017'>Menelaüs, a speaker in the Dialogue on the <i>Face in the Moon</i>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Mercury (the planet), <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, cp. <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Meriŏnēs, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Messenians, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Metapontium (Metapontum), a Greek city in Southern Italy, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Mētrodōrus, of Chios, a disciple of Democritus (fl. 330), <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Midas, a mythical king of Phrygia, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Milētus, a city of Caria, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Miltiădes, son of Cimon, the victor of Marathon, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Mimnermus, elegiac poet, of Smyrna and Colophon (fl. 600), <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Minos, son of Zeus, king of Crete, and afterwards a judge in Hades, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Mitys, of Argos, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Mnesarĕtē (Phryne), <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Mnesinoē, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Molionĭdae, the sons of Actor, by Molione, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Molus, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Mopsus, founder of Mallos in Cilicia, where he had an oracle, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Muses, the, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Myrĭna, an Aeolian town on the west coast of Mysia, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Myron, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Myrtălē, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Mys, a Carian, employed by Mardonius to consult the oracles in Greece, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>N.</li> - <li class='c017'>Nāïd, the, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Nauplia, the port of Argos, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Navel, the, at Delphi, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Naxos, an island in the Aegean, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Neleus, father of Nestor, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Neobūlē, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Neochōrus, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Neoptolĕmus, son of Achilles, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Nero, <span class='fss'>A. D.</span> 37-68. The Roman Emperor. He visited Greece (the province of Achaia) in <span class='fss'>A. D.</span> 67, and proclaimed its freedom at the Isthmian games: <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Nesĭchus, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Nestor, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Nicander, a priest of the temple at Delphi, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Nicias, the Athenian general (d. 414 at Syracuse, see his <i>Life</i>), <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Night, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Night-watcher (Nycturus), the, an early name for the planet Cronus (Saturn), <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Niŏbē, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Nisaeus, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Nisibeüs, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Nyctelius, ‘nightly’; used as a name of Dionysus, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>O.</li> - <li class='c017'>Odysseus (Ulysses), <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Oechalia, a town in Euboea (according to the story followed by Sophocles) taken by Hercules, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Oeta, a mountain range in Thessaly, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ogygia, the name given by Homer to the island of Calypso (<i>Od.</i> 1, 50, &c.), <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Olympia, in Elis, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Olympicus, a speaker in the Dialogue on the <i>Delays in Divine Punishment</i>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Olympus, a mountain (9,754 ft.) between Thessaly and Macedon, the seat of Zeus, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Olynthus, a town in the Chalcidice (taken by Sparta 379), <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Onomacrĭtus, an Athenian poet and antiquarian (520-485), <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Opheltiădae, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Opus, Opuntian, a Locrian town, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Orchalĭdes, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Orchomĕnus, a city of Boeotia, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Orestes, son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnēstra, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Orneae, a town in Argolis, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Orpheus, of Thrace, a minstrel, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Orphic, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Orthagŏras, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Osīris, an Egyptian deity, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>P.</li> - <li class='c017'>Paeonia, a district of Thrace, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pallas (Athene); her image at Athens (Palladium) was believed to have been brought from Troy by Diomede. Another Palladium stood on the Acropolis (Pausanias i. 28-9): <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Palōdĕs, the, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pan, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pandărus, a Lycian archer, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Parmenĭdes, of Elea in Italy, a philosopher (b. 513), <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Parnassus, the mountain (8,000 ft.) above Delphi, the highest point of a range of the same name, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Parnēs, a mountain range near the northern frontier of Attica, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Path, the, the Peripatetic School, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Patrocleas; Plutarch’s son-in-law, a speaker in the Dialogues on the <i>Delays in Divine Punishment</i> and on <i>The Soul</i>. Cp. <i>Sympos.</i> 2, 9; 5, 7; 7, 2.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pausanias, (1) Spartan statesman and general (d. 470), <a href='#Page_99'>99</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>; - <ul> - <li>(2) the slayer of Philip of Macedon, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c017'>Pauson, a Greek painter of the fourth century. Aristotle (<i>Poet.</i> c. 2) speaks of his style as that of caricature: <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Paxi, two islands south of Corcyra, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Peace (a woman’s name), <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Peisistrătus, tyrant of Athens, (d. 527), <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pelopĭdas, Theban general and friend of Epaminondas; fell at Cynoscephalae 364 (see his <i>Life</i>), <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Peloponnesus, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Penelope, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Peparēthus, an island in the Aegean, off Thessaly, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Periander, tyrant of Corinth from 625; one of the Seven Wise Men, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pericles, Athenian statesman (d. 429), <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Persephŏnē, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Persia, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Petraeus, of Delphi, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Petron, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phaestus, in Crete, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phaĕthon, a son of the Sun, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phalanthus, a Lacedaemonian, founder of Tarentum (about 708), <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phalăris, tyrant of Agrigentum from 570: <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phanaean, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phanias, of Erĕsus in Lesbos, a Peripatetic philosopher, and pupil of Aristotle, who wrote also on history, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pharnăces (see p. <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>), a Stoic, speaker in the Dialogue on the <i>Face in the Moon</i>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pharsalia, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pheidolaüs, of Haliartus, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pheneātae, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phenĕüs, a town in Arcadia, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pherecȳdēs, a learned man of Syros (fl. 544), <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pherenīcus, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Philēbus, a late Dialogue of Plato, on <i>Pleasure</i>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Philīnus, a speaker in the Second Pythian Dialogue. Cp. <i>Sympos.</i> 1, 6; 4, 1; 5, 10; 8, 7.</li> - <li class='c017'>Philip of Macedon (d. 336), <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Philip, son of Cassander, king of Macedon (d. 296), <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Philip V, 237-179, king of Macedon, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Philippus, historian (of Prusa?), a speaker in the Third Pythian Dialogue. Cp. <i>Sympos.</i> 7, 8.</li> - <li class='c017'>Philippus, of Thebes, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Philochŏrus of Athens, antiquarian and writer on legend (d. 260), <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Philolaüs, an early Pythagorean, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Philomēlus, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phlĕgyas, of Orchomenus, a mythical hero, slain for impiety, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phocis, Phocians, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phoebĭdas, a Spartan general, who treacherously seized the Cadmeia in 382: <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phoebus, ‘The Bright’, an appellation of Apollo, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'><i>Phoenissae</i>, a play of Euripides, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a> n.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phosphor, Phosphorus (the planet Venus), <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phrygia, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phrynē, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phyleus, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Phyllĭdas, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pillars of Hercules (on the Straits of Gibraltar), <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pindar, the Theban lyric poet (518-438), <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pisa, a town in, or adjoining, Elis, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pittăcus (652-569), patriot, and sole-ruler (‘aesymnete’) of Mytilēnē, one of the Seven Wise Men, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Planetiădes (see <a href='#index-didymus'>Didymus</a>).</li> - <li class='c017'>Plataea, a city of Boeotia on the Asopus, near the frontier of Attica, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Plato, of Athens, 430-347, founder of the Academy, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>; - <ul> - <li><i>Cratylus</i>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li> - <li><i>Laws</i>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>;</li> - <li><i>Minos</i>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>;</li> - <li><i>Phaedo</i>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>;</li> - <li><i>Republic</i>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>;</li> - <li><i>Sophistes</i>, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>;</li> - <li><i>Symposium</i>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>;</li> - <li><i>Timaeus</i>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c017'>Plato, of Thebes, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pleisthĕnes, son of Atreus and father of Agamemnon (but there are variations in the story), <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pleistoănax, a king of Sparta (d. 408), <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Plutarch, introduced only into the Dialogues on the <i>‘E’ at Delphi</i> (First Pythian Dialogue) and on the <i>Delays in Divine Punishment</i>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pluto, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Polycrătes, of Delphi, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Polycrătes, of Samos, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Polygnōtus, of Thasos, painter, chiefly of Homeric subjects at Athens and Delphi (fl. 450), <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Polymnis, of Thebes, father of Epaminondas and Capheisias, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Polystyle (e mute), the, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Polyxĕna, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pompey the Great (d. 48), <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Porch, the, the Stoic School at Athens, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Poseidon, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Poseidonius, of Apamea in Syria, a Stoic philosopher who taught Cicero, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Praxitĕles, the Athenian sculptor (fl. 364), <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Priam, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus and father-in-law of Periander, seventh century, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Promētheus, son of the Titan Iapĕtus, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Prōteus, a mythical king of Egypt (Herod. 2, 112), <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Protogĕnes, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Prytaneum, the, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ptolemaeus (‘Ceraunus’, the Thunderbolt), king of Macedon (d. 280), <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ptōüm, a mountain on the eastern side of the Copaïc lake, with a sanctuary of Apollo, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Punic, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pylaea, a suburb of Delphi, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pyrilampēs, a kinsman of Plato, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pythagoras, of Samos, sixth century, philosopher and traveller, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pythia, the, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pythian, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Python, the serpent slain by Apollo, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Pythōnĕs (ventriloquists), <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>Q.</li> - <li class='c017'>Quintus, the friend to whom the Dialogue on the <i>Delays in Divine Punishment</i> is inscribed, also that on <i>Love between Brothers</i>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>R.</li> - <li class='c017'>Red Sea (Mare Erythraeum). Before Ptolemy, the term was used loosely to include the Persian Gulf, &c.: <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Rhea, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Rhegium, a Greek town in South Italy, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Rhetiste (cp. the <i>Gullies</i>), <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Rhodes, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Rhodōpis (see Herodotus ii. 134-5), <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Rome, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>S.</li> - <li class='c017'>Samĭdas, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Samos, an island in the Aegean, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Sappho, the great woman lyric poet, a Lesbian, of the seventh century, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Sardis, the capital of Lydia, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Satilaeans, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Scythians, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Scythīnus, of Teos, an iambic poet of unknown date, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Seleucus, king of Syria, assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus in 280: <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Selīnus, a Greek colony on the S.W. coast of Sicily, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Selymbria, a town of Thrace, on the Propontis, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Semĕlē, the mother of Dionysus (Bacchus), <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Serapion, or Sarapion, an Athenian poet, to whom the First Pythian Dialogue is inscribed, and a speaker in the Second.</li> - <li class='c017'>Serāpis, an Egyptian deity, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Shining-One, the, a name for the planet Cronus (Saturn), <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Sibylla, the Sibyl, the name of an early prophetess of Delphi; in later times an official title, also applied to other prophetic women, localized in various countries, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Siceliot, of the Greek colonies in Sicily, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Sicily, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Sicyon, on the south shore of the Corinthian gulf, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Simmias, a Theban, a companion of Socrates, and (with Cebes) present at his death (see the <i>Crito</i> and <i>Phaedo</i> of Plato), <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Simonĭdēs of Ceos, a lyric poet (556-467), <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Sisyphus, a knavish king of Corinth; some accounts make him father of Odysseus: <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Skotios, ‘of darkness’, i. e. Hades (Pluto), <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Socrates, of Athens (d. 399), <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Soli, a city of Cilicia, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Solon, 638-558, the Athenian law-giver; one of the ‘Seven Wise Men’, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Solymi, a people of Lycia, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'><i>Sophistés</i>, a Dialogue of Plato’s later period, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Sophists, the, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Sophocles, 495-405, tragic poet of Athens, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a> <i>n.</i></li> - <li class='c017'>Sōphrōn (latter part of fifth century), a mime-writer of Syracuse, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Sparta, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Sparti, the, ‘sown men’, the armed men who sprang up out of the ground at Thebes, when Cadmus sowed the dragon’s teeth, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Spinthărus, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Sporădes, the, a group of islands, off Britain, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Statuaries, street of the, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Stesichŏrus (Tisias), 632-560, lyric poet of Himera in Sicily, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'><i>Stheneboea</i>, a play of Euripides, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a> <i>n.</i></li> - <li class='c017'>Stilbon (the planet Mercury), <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Stoics, the, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Strabo, cognomen of the father of Pompey the Great, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Stratonīcē, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Styx, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Suitors, the, i.e. of Penelope, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Sybaris, a Greek town of Lucania in South Italy, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Syēnē (Assouan), taken by Eratosthenes to be directly under the sun at the summer solstice, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Sylla, a speaker in the Dialogue on the <i>Face in the Moon</i>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Symbŏlum, the, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Syracuse, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Syrian goddess (Cybele?), <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>T.</li> - <li class='c017'>Taenărus, a cape and town in the south of Laconia, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Tantălus, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Taprobăne (Ceylon), <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Tarentum, a town in S. Italy, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Tarsus, in Cilicia, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Tartărus, the penal region of the lower world, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Tegyra, a village of Boeotia, near Orchomenus, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Teiresias, a blind prophet, of Thebes, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Teletias, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Tempē, the gorge between Olympus and Ossa in Thessaly, through which the river Penēus flows, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Tenĕdos, an island off the coast of the Troad, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Terentius Priscus, the friend to whom the Third Pythian Dialogue is inscribed, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Terpander, of Lesbos, the father of Greek music (fl. 700), <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Terpsion, of Megara, a disciple of Socrates (see the <i>Theaetetus</i> of Plato), <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Tettix, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thalēs, of Miletus (seventh and sixth centuries), an early philosopher, one of the Seven Wise Men, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thamus, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thasos, an island in the Aegean off Thrace, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Theānōr, a young Pythagorean, who came to Thebes from Crotona, as a deputation, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thebes, the Boeotian, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thebes, the Egyptian, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thĕmis, the goddess of Justice, for some time in charge of the oracle at Delphi, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Themistocles, Athenian statesman (514-449), <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Theocrĭtus, of Thebes, ‘the prophet’, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>; - <ul> - <li>see <i>Life of Pelopidas</i>, c. 22.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c017'>Theodōrus, of Soli, in Cilicia, a mathematician, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Theognis, of Megara, elegiac and gnomic poet (570-490), <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Theon, of Hyampolis, a family friend of Plutarch, a speaker in the First and Second Pythian Dialogues, and in the <i>Face in the Moon</i>. Cp. <i>Sympos.</i> 1, 4; 4, 3; 8, 6, and the Dialogue <i>Non posse suaviter</i>, where the Epicureans are attacked.</li> - <li class='c017'>Theophrastus, born at Erĕsus, a philosopher of Athens, Aristotle’s successor, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Theopompus, a Theban patriot, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Theopompus, of Chios, historian (d. 305), <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Theōrius, a designation of Apollo, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Theoxenia, the, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thera, Therasia, islands off Crete, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thermopylae, the coast pass between Thessaly and Locris, famous for the defence of Leonidas in 480: <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thespesius (Aridaeus), <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thespiae, a town of Boeotia, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thessaly, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thrace, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thrasybūlus, of Athens, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thrasybūlus, tyrant of Syracuse after Hiero (467), <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thrasymēdēs, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thucydides, the Athenian historian (d. 401), <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thunderbolt (Ceraunus), Ptolemy, king of Macedon (d. 280), <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Thymĕlē, the altar of Dionysus in the theatre, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar, <span class='fss'>B. C.</span> 42-37 <span class='fss'>A. D.</span> (Emperor from <span class='fss'>A. D.</span> 14), <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Timarchus, of Athens, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Timarchus, of Chaeroneia, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Timochăris, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Timoleon, ruler of Syracuse (d. 357), <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>: see his <i>Life</i>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Timon, Plutarch’s brother, a speaker in the Dialogues on the <i>Delays in Divine Punishment</i> and on the <i>Soul</i>. Cp. <i>Sympos.</i> 1, 2, and 2, 5; and <i>On Love between Brothers</i>, c. 16.</li> - <li class='c017'>Timotheüs, an Athenian, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Timotheüs, of Miletus, musician and poet (446-357), <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Tiribazus, satrap of western Armenia (d. 385), <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Titans, giant sons of Uranus, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Tityus, a giant of Euboea, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Trench, battle at, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Troglodytes, cave-dwellers, about the Red Sea, &c., <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Trophoniădes, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Trophonius, tutelary hero of Lebadeia and its oracle, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Trosobius, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Troy, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Trunkmakers’ street, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Tyndarĭdae, Castor and Polydeucēs (Pollux), <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Typhons, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>U.</li> - <li class='c017'>Udōra, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Ulysses (Odysseus), <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Urănus (‘Heaven’), the father of Cronus, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>V.</li> - <li class='c017'>Venus (the planet), <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Vespasian, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a> <i>n.</i></li> - <li class='c017'>Vesuvius, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>W.</li> - <li class='c017'>Wise Men of Greece, the (see the <i>Dinner-Party of the Seven Sages</i> by Plutarch, translated by Professor Tucker in this series), <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>X.</li> - <li class='c017'>Xenocrătes, of Chalcēdon, 396-314, a philosopher, associate of Plato, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Xenophănēs, philosopher of Colophon, fourth century, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Xenophon, Athenian general and historian (d. about 359), <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Xerxes, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</li> - <li class='c018'>Z.</li> - <li class='c017'>Zagreus, a name of the mystic Dionysus, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Zēnĕs (plural of Zeus), <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Zeus, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Zeus Agoraios, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Zodiac, the, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Zones, the, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.</li> - <li class='c017'>Zoroaster, Persian sage, of uncertain date, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li> -</ul> - -<p class='c005'>Printed in England at the Oxford University Press</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='large'>Footnotes</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote' id='f1'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. </span>‘Tout abregé sur un bon livre est un sot abregé.’—<i>Montaigne</i>, -iii. 8.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f2'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. </span>Xylander reads οὐδέν, but οὐ before πολλά seems simpler, and -makes better logic.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f3'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. </span>See, e. g., p. <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f4'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r4'>4</a>. </span>On this point, and on Plutarch’s life generally, see the buoyant -and chivalrous pages of the late Mr. George Wyndham’s introduction -to North’s <i>Lives</i> in the <i>Tudor Translations</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f5'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r5'>5</a>. </span>See pp. <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>. I have searched such numbers of the <i>Dissertations</i> -as appear to have reached this country from Vienna since 1910, -without coming upon the continuation of Dr. Adler’s argument. It -will be of great interest when it comes to hand, but could not -adequately be discussed here.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f6'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r6'>6</a>. </span>‘Où je puyse comme les Danaïdes, remplissant et versant sans -cesse.’—i. 25.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f7'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r7'>7</a>. </span>The <i>Symposiacs</i> were specially favourite reading of Archbishop -Trench, whose bright little volume of <i>Lectures</i> is perhaps the best -introduction for English readers to the <i>Moralia</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f8'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r8'>8</a>. </span>The same argument might perhaps be applied to the <i>Lives</i>, even -as far as that of Dion, but there is no elaborate dedication there.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f9'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r9'>9</a>. </span>Dr. Mahaffy has acutely pointed out that the tract <i>De Tranquillitate -animi</i> must have been written before the accession of -Titus in <span class='fss'>A. D.</span> 79, because it contains a remark (467 <span class='fss'>E</span>) that no Roman -Emperor had yet been succeeded by his son. It is this sort of evidence -of a date which we seek, but do not find, in the <i>Symposiacs</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f10'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r10'>10</a>. </span>Some of Plutarch’s characters exemplify the ‘sternness of the -judgements of youth’, as the younger Diogenianus.—See p. <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f11'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r11'>11</a>. </span>See Vol. I, p. 25.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f12'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r12'>12</a>. </span>See his Preface in Vol. I, p. xlii.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f13'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r13'>13</a>. </span>M. Chenevière’s study mentioned on p. <a href='#Page_53'>53</a> is very helpful but -not easily accessible.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f14'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r14'>14</a>. </span>See p. <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>; see also <i>Apollonius of Perga</i>, by Sir Thomas Heath, -F.R.S., Introd., p. xxi.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f15'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r15'>15</a>. </span>‘Forte’ is always used where we expect ‘fortasse’, and ‘nisi’ -often for ‘si non’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f16'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r16'>16</a>. </span>Adrien Turnĕbus (i. q. Toranebus?) was a native of Les Andelys -(Eure), near Rouen, and the name is said to be of local origin. -Montaigne, who knew him personally, always writes Turnebus; -the later form Turnèbe seems to be due to false analogy.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f17'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r17'>17</a>. </span>I may now name Mr. Walter Sumner Gibson, M.A. of Balliol -College, formerly an assistant-master at Charterhouse, who died on -the 20th January, 1918, having in recent years acted as a Reader -to the Clarendon Press.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f18'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r18'>18</a>. </span>ii. 4.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f19'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r19'>19</a>. </span>1514-93.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f20'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r20'>20</a>. </span>See, however, an article by Mr. R. F. Macnaghten in the <i>Classical -Review</i> of September 1914 (vol. 28, p. 185 foll.).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f21'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r21'>21</a>. </span><i>Isthm.</i> 1, 2.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f22'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r22'>22</a>. </span>So C. F. Hermann (ap. Ed. Teub.) for δυσί τῶν ἱερῶν.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f23'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r23'>23</a>. </span>Here several words of the text have been lost.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f24'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r24'>24</a>. </span>Many words have been lost (three separate lacunae).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f25'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r25'>25</a>. </span>Reading διεκώλυεν for διακούων.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f26'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r26'>26</a>. </span>Supplying προσδοκῶν, as Ed. Teub.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f27'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r27'>27</a>. </span>Many words are here lost, to the general effect of those in the brackets.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f28'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r28'>28</a>. </span>i. e. each of the four sides of each of the six faces. The Greek -word for ‘side’ and ‘face’ is the same.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f29'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r29'>29</a>. </span>This problem (mentioned by Plutarch also in the <i>E at Delphi</i>, see -p. <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>) was in fact solved by Menaechmus, a pupil of Eudoxus, through -Conic Sections, and also by Archytas, whose method is much more -elaborate. See Preface, p. <a href='#Page_xiv'>xiv</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f30'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r30'>30</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 10, 279; <i>Od.</i> 13, 300-1.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f31'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r31'>31</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 20, 95.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f32'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r32'>32</a>. </span>συμπιέσας for the MSS. reading συμπείσας (Reiske).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f33'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r33'>33</a>. </span>πταρμὸς ἤ (Ed. Teub.), for ἐφαρμόσει, is attractive, but it seems better -not to anticipate the word.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f34'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r34'>34</a>. </span>ἐπὶ ῥειτοῖς is K. O. Müller’s reading for ἐπὶ ρητις της of the MSS. -See Wordsworth’s <i>Athens and Attica</i>, p. 9.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f35'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r35'>35</a>. </span>Fr. 284 (the well-known fragment of the <i>Autolycus</i> about Athletes) -l. 22.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f36'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r36'>36</a>. </span>Cp. <i>Od.</i> 1, 170, &c.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f37'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r37'>37</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 1, 27.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f38'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r38'>38</a>. </span>See <i>Life of Nicias</i>, c. 3.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f39'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r39'>39</a>. </span>Aeschylus, <i>Prometheus</i>, 545.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f40'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r40'>40</a>. </span>Cp. Bacchylides, Fr. 37 (<i>Life of Numa</i>, c. 4): ‘Broad is the road’, -i. e. ‘there is room for divergent opinions.’</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f41'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r41'>41</a>. </span>Compare <i>Life of Coriolanus</i>, c. 32, p. 229, with this difficult passage.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f42'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r42'>42</a>. </span>Of the participle so translated only the termination remains. Reiske’s -μεταλλευόντων well completes this fine image.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f43'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r43'>43</a>. </span>This word is not in the Greek text.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f44'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r44'>44</a>. </span>See note on the Myths of Plutarch, p. <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f45'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r45'>45</a>. </span>Lucian (Musc. Encom. c. 7) tells the same story of Hermodorus. -Plutarch has probably made a slip, as elsewhere, in names. See p. <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f46'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r46'>46</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 7, 44-5.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f47'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r47'>47</a>. </span>l. 53.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f48'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r48'>48</a>. </span>i. e. in the Wooden Horse, <i>Od.</i> 11, 526-32.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f49'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r49'>49</a>. </span>Perhaps rather ‘the Laconizing party’, as the Teubner editor -suggests.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f50'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r50'>50</a>. </span>8,000 feet above the sea. The Phaedriades rose to about 800 feet.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f51'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r51'>51</a>. </span>Fr. 960.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f52'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r52'>52</a>. </span>i.e. at draughts, with a play on words.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f53'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r53'>53</a>. </span>Fr. 71.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f54'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r54'>54</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 17, 29.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f55'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r55'>55</a>. </span>See p. <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f56'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r56'>56</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 1, 70.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f57'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r57'>57</a>. </span>So Emperius, whose reading is that of the Paris MS. E. (See Paton -<i>in loco</i>.)</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f58'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r58'>58</a>. </span>Fr. 22.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f59'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r59'>59</a>. </span>A reference to the complaint with which the first attempts of Aeschylus -and others to give literary form to the popular hymns in honour of Dionysus -were greeted.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f60'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r60'>60</a>. </span>i.e. ‘not many’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f61'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r61'>61</a>. </span>See p. <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f62'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r62'>62</a>. </span>Fr. 392.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f63'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r63'>63</a>. </span>Terms used by Heraclitus (Fr. 24), adapted by the Stoics for the -periodic conflagration and renewal of the universe.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f64'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r64'>64</a>. </span><i>Timaeus</i>, 31 <span class='fss'>A</span> and 55 <span class='fss'>E</span> foll.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f65'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r65'>65</a>. </span><i>De Caelo</i>, 1, 8-9, 276 a 18.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f66'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r66'>66</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 15, 190.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f67'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r67'>67</a>. </span>See <i>Iph. Aul.</i> 865 and <i>Herc. Fur.</i> 1221.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f68'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r68'>68</a>. </span>P. 409 <span class='fss'>A</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f69'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r69'>69</a>. </span>Pp. 255-6.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f70'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r70'>70</a>. </span>P. 23 <span class='fss'>D</span> and p. 66 <span class='fss'>C</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f71'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r71'>71</a>. </span>Cp. Pindar’s:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><i>All vocal to the hearing of the wise,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>All voiceless to the herd.</i>—<i>Ol.</i> 2, 152-3.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f72'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r72'>72</a>. </span>From Simonides, a favourite phrase with Plutarch.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f73'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r73'>73</a>. </span>Fr. 41.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f74'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r74'>74</a>. </span>Fr. 25.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f75'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r75'>75</a>. </span>See on this remarkable passage E. Norden, <i>Agnostos Theos</i>, p. 231 f., -and the view of H. Diels, communicated to him. I have followed Norden -in reading εἶ, ἤ (he suggests with hesitation προσεπιθειάζειν) (and so Paton -and Diels). Diels thinks that οἱ παλαιοί may cover later philosophers -such as Xenophanes.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f76'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r76'>76</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 4, 141.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f77'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r77'>77</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 15, 362.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f78'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r78'>78</a>. </span>Pindar (probably from a Threnos).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f79'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r79'>79</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 9, 158.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f80'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r80'>80</a>. </span>Fr. 149.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f81'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r81'>81</a>. </span><i>Suppl.</i> 975.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f82'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r82'>82</a>. </span>Fr. 50.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f83'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r83'>83</a>. </span>Fr. 728, probably from the <i>Thamyras</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f84'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r84'>84</a>. </span>Again quoted by Plutarch, p. 777 <span class='fss'>C</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f85'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r85'>85</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 7, 107.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f86'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r86'>86</a>. </span>Fr. 7.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f87'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r87'>87</a>. </span>In a lost ‘Hymn’, Fr. 32.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f88'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r88'>88</a>. </span>See H. Richards in <i>Classical Review</i>, vol. 29, p. 233.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f89'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r89'>89</a>. </span>Reading Ἑλλήνων as Ed. Teub. fr. Stegmann.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f90'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r90'>90</a>. </span><i>Rhet.</i> 3, 11.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f91'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r91'>91</a>. </span>Puteoli.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f92'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r92'>92</a>. </span>πετρῶν καταφλεγομένων (J. H. W. Strijd in <i>Class. Rev.</i> vol. 28, p. 218).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f93'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r93'>93</a>. </span>Quoted by Menander, Fr. 243 (Meineke).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f94'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r94'>94</a>. </span>Quoted also in the <i>Life of Agesilaus</i>, c. 3, p. 597.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f95'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r95'>95</a>. </span>Palaea Kaumene, a volcanic island ejected in 196 <span class='fss'>B. C.</span> See Tozer’s -<i>Islands of the Aegean</i>, p. 97 foll.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f96'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r96'>96</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 3, 1.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f97'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r97'>97</a>. </span><i>Tim.</i> 90.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f98'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r98'>98</a>. </span>See p. <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f99'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r99'>99</a>. </span>Xen. <i>Sympos.</i> c. 2.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f100'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r100'>100</a>. </span>Reading χώρας for δωρεᾶς with Emperius (ap. Ed. Teub.).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f101'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r101'>101</a>. </span>See Herod. 1, 51.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f102'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r102'>102</a>. </span>Fr. 44.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f103'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r103'>103</a>. </span>Here the text is defective.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f104'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r104'>104</a>. </span>Here the text is defective.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f105'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r105'>105</a>. </span><span class='fss'>I</span>, 118.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f106'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r106'>106</a>. </span>MSS. have ‘Pausanias’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f107'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r107'>107</a>. </span>These words are supplied from the text of Thucydides, 5, 10.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f108'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r108'>108</a>. </span>The word ἀναγκαῖον is suggested by the Teubner Editor.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f109'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r109'>109</a>. </span>Fr. 11.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f110'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r110'>110</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 2, 372.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f111'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r111'>111</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 2, 169 foll.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f112'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r112'>112</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 4, 86 foll.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f113'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r113'>113</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 5, beg.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f114'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r114'>114</a>. </span>The MSS. have ‘Pandarus’, but ‘Pindar’ is a likely correction. Yet -Plutarch cannot have supposed Pindar to have written this iambic line. -It is quoted by Aristophanes, <i>Peace</i>, 699, in connexion with the stinginess -of Sophocles <i>or</i> Simonides, and the scholiast quotes from Pindar a censure -of that vice in a poet: so some confusion is possible.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f115'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r115'>115</a>. </span><i>Oeconom.</i> 7, 4 foll.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f116'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r116'>116</a>. </span>In the <i>Stheneboea</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f117'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r117'>117</a>. </span><i>Isthm.</i> 2, 3.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f118'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r118'>118</a>. </span>Fr. 16 (Nauck).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f119'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r119'>119</a>. </span><i>Isthm.</i> 1, 69.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f120'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r120'>120</a>. </span>Fr. 707.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f121'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r121'>121</a>. </span>So Cobet (for Cinesons).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f122'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r122'>122</a>. </span><i>Phoen.</i> 958.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f123'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r123'>123</a>. </span>See Herod. 4, 155 foll. and Pind. <i>Pyth.</i> 4. There is something amiss -with Plutarch’s text here.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f124'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r124'>124</a>. </span>See his <i>Life</i>, c. 29.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f125'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r125'>125</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 2, 190.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f126'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r126'>126</a>. </span>See additional note on p. <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f127'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r127'>127</a>. </span>Fragm. adespota, 90.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f128'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r128'>128</a>. </span>Whose account is, for convenience, somewhat recast and amplified. -The fact is understated. ‘There cannot be more than five solids, each -of which has all its faces with the same number of sides, and all its solid -angles formed with the same number of plane angles.’ Todhunter, -<i>Spherical Trigonometry</i>, c. 151.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f129'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r129'>129</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 10, 173, and Leaf’s note.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f130'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r130'>130</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 3, 367-8.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f131'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r131'>131</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 10, 394. See p. <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f132'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r132'>132</a>. </span>Herodotus, 8, 133-5. I have followed W.’s reconstruction.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f133'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r133'>133</a>. </span>See <i>Life of Aristides</i>, c. 19.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f134'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r134'>134</a>. </span><i>W. and D.</i> 199.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f135'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r135'>135</a>. </span>See p. <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f136'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r136'>136</a>. </span>Fr. 149: see above, p. <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f137'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r137'>137</a>. </span>Herod. 9, 28 (and see ib. c. 21).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f138'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r138'>138</a>. </span>Fr. 729. Cp. <i>O. C.</i> 607.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f139'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r139'>139</a>. </span>The words ‘and here—heroes’ have been supplied from a quotation -in Eusebius, <i>Praep. Evan.</i> 5, 4.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f140'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r140'>140</a>. </span>From a fragment, Gaisford, <i>Poetae Minores</i>, ii, p. 489 (cp. Ausonius, -<i>Id.</i> 18; and Sir T. Browne, <i>Vulgar Errors</i>, 3, 9).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f141'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r141'>141</a>. </span>Fr. 165.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f142'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r142'>142</a>. </span>As Ausonius, loc. cit.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f143'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r143'>143</a>. </span>Fr. 87.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f144'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r144'>144</a>. </span>1 + 2 × 1 + 3 × 1 + 2<sup>2</sup> + 3<sup>2</sup> + 2<sup>3</sup> + 3<sup>3</sup> = 54.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f145'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r145'>145</a>. </span>See <i>Timaeus</i>, 35.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f146'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r146'>146</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 20, 8-9.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f147'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r147'>147</a>. </span>See Heraclitus, Fr. 34.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f148'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r148'>148</a>. </span>Inserting, with Mezirius, ἢ δεκάκις before τεσσάρων.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f149'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r149'>149</a>. </span>The meaning is simply that 40 × 3<sup>5</sup> = 9720, and ‘triangle-wise’ seems -irrelevant.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f150'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r150'>150</a>. </span>Fr. 961 (from the <i>Phaethon</i>).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f151'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r151'>151</a>. </span><i>Sympos.</i> 202 F.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f152'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r152'>152</a>. </span><i>W. and D.</i> 125. Cp. Plato, <i>Crat.</i> 397.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f153'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r153'>153</a>. </span>2, 171.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f154'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r154'>154</a>. </span>Pindar, Fr. 208 (cp. <i>Sympos.</i> 7, 5, 4).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f155'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r155'>155</a>. </span><i>Suppl.</i> 214.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f156'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r156'>156</a>. </span>Fr. 730.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f157'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r157'>157</a>. </span>See additional note, p. <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f158'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r158'>158</a>. </span>Cp. <i>Life of Timoleon</i>, c. 1.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f159'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r159'>159</a>. </span>Cp. Herod. 2, 145.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f160'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r160'>160</a>. </span>See p. <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f161'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r161'>161</a>. </span>Reading οὐ πολλά (‘nihil secum trahit impossibile’. Xylander). -See Preface, p. <a href='#Page_vi'>vi</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f162'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r162'>162</a>. </span><i>Timaeus</i>, 55.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f163'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r163'>163</a>. </span>As Aristotle, <i>De Caelo</i>, I, 8, 276 a 18.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f164'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r164'>164</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 21, 397.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f165'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r165'>165</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 15, 189.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f166'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r166'>166</a>. </span><i>Tim.</i> 31 <span class='fss'>A</span>, 55 <span class='fss'>C</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f167'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r167'>167</a>. </span>Reading, with Madvig (partly anticipated by Emperius) ... ὃ μὴ -κοινῶς ποιὸν ἢ ἰδίως ἐστίν· ὁ δὲ κόσμος οὐ λέγεται κοινῶς εἶναι ποιός· ἰδίως -τοίνυν ...</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f168'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r168'>168</a>. </span>See e. g. <i>De Caelo</i>, 1, 6, 275 b 29, and Burnet, <i>Early Greek Philosophy</i>, -p. 397 note; see also p. 270 foll.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f169'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r169'>169</a>. </span>Inserting κάτω, with Meziriac.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f170'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r170'>170</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 13, 1 foll.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f171'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r171'>171</a>. </span>See p. <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f172'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r172'>172</a>. </span><i>Tim.</i> 55 <span class='fss'>E</span>, foll.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f173'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r173'>173</a>. </span>There is a play on the words for ‘fire’, ‘Pyramid’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f174'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r174'>174</a>. </span><i>Soph.</i> 249 <span class='fss'>B.</span></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f175'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r175'>175</a>. </span><i>Is. et Osir.</i> c. 12.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f176'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r176'>176</a>. </span><i>De Caelo</i>, 2, 4, 286 b 10.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f177'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r177'>177</a>. </span><i>Tim.</i> 55 <span class='fss'>C</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f178'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r178'>178</a>. </span><i>Tim.</i> 57 <span class='fss'>C</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f179'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r179'>179</a>. </span><i>Tim.</i> 52 <span class='fss'>E</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f180'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r180'>180</a>. </span>Fr. 925.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f181'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r181'>181</a>. </span>See p. <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f182'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r182'>182</a>. </span><i>W. and D.</i> 124.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f183'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r183'>183</a>. </span><i>W. and D.</i> 122.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f184'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r184'>184</a>. </span>μᾶλλον δὲ ὄντα. Cp. Plato, <i>Philebus</i>, 33, διὰ μνήμης πᾶν ἔστι τὸ -γεγονός.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f185'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r185'>185</a>. </span>See Thuc. 1, 12.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f186'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r186'>186</a>. </span>Fr. 963.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f187'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r187'>187</a>. </span><i>Bacchae</i>, 297-8.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f188'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r188'>188</a>. </span>Fr. 75.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f189'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r189'>189</a>. </span>The text is corrupt, but probably contained ὁμίχλην. Cp. Plato, -<i>Sympos.</i> 736 <span class='fss'>A</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f190'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r190'>190</a>. </span><i>Theogon.</i> 117.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f191'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r191'>191</a>. </span>Fr. 371.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f192'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r192'>192</a>. </span><i>Meteor.</i> 1, 3, 340 b 29.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f193'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r193'>193</a>. </span><i>Cyclops</i>, I. 332-3 (Shelley’s tr.).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f194'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r194'>194</a>. </span><i>Phaedo</i>, 97 <span class='fss'>C</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f195'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r195'>195</a>. </span>1, 25, where the work is ascribed to Glaucus.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f196'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r196'>196</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 9, 393.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f197'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r197'>197</a>. </span><i>Rep.</i> 6, 18, 507 <span class='fss'>C</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f198'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r198'>198</a>. </span>Cp. Plato, <i>Laws</i>, 716 <span class='fss'>E</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f199'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r199'>199</a>. </span>See p. <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f200'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r200'>200</a>. </span>On the proverb ‘Post Lesbium Cantorem’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f201'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r201'>201</a>. </span>i. e. in the battle of Amphipolis. See Thuc. 5, 10 and Plut. <i>Life of -Nicias</i>, c. 9.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f202'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r202'>202</a>. </span><i>Orestes</i>, 420.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f203'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r203'>203</a>. </span>3, 38.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f204'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r204'>204</a>. </span>See Pausanias, 4, 17.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f205'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r205'>205</a>. </span>Fr. 969.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f206'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r206'>206</a>. </span>The author of this famous line is unknown.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f207'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r207'>207</a>. </span>Fr. 57.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f208'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r208'>208</a>. </span><i>Minos</i>, 319 <span class='fss'>C</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f209'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r209'>209</a>. </span>No specific passage can be identified with the words in the text. -For the sequel cp. <i>Timaeus</i>, 30 <span class='fss'>A</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f210'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r210'>210</a>. </span>Cp. <i>Rep.</i> 6, 508 <span class='fss'>A</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f211'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r211'>211</a>. </span>See p. <a href='#Page_181'>181</a> n. 1.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f212'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r212'>212</a>. </span>This line is a continuation of the quotation from Melanthius above.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f213'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r213'>213</a>. </span>Cp. Aesch. <i>Cho.</i> 313, &c.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f214'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r214'>214</a>. </span>Quoted several times as from Pindar (see Fr. 77), but perhaps rather -Simonides.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f215'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r215'>215</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 15, 641.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f216'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r216'>216</a>. </span>Cp. Aristot. <i>Poet.</i> c. 9.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f217'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r217'>217</a>. </span><i>W. and D.</i> 266, 265.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f218'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r218'>218</a>. </span><i>Laws</i>, 5, 728 <span class='fss'>C</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f219'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r219'>219</a>. </span>i.e. under Roman law. See Smith’s <i>Dict. Ant.</i>, <i>s.v.</i> Crux.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f220'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r220'>220</a>. </span><i>Rep.</i> 406 <span class='fss'>B</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f221'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r221'>221</a>. </span>See H. Richards in <i>Class. Rev.</i> vol. 29, p. 235, and, for the quotation, -the <i>Life of Lucullus</i>, c. 1.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f222'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r222'>222</a>. </span>Fr. 42, and see Jebb’s Introd. to the <i>Electra</i> of Sophocles.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f223'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r223'>223</a>. </span>See <i>Life of Aristides</i>, c. 6. also Dion Chrys. <i>Orat.</i> 64.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f224'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r224'>224</a>. </span>See <i>Life of Cimon</i>, c. 6.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f225'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r225'>225</a>. </span>Again quoted, <i>De Curiosit.</i> 520 <span class='fss'>A</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f226'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r226'>226</a>. </span>Eur. <i>Ino</i>, Fr. 403.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f227'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r227'>227</a>. </span>Fr. 970.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f228'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r228'>228</a>. </span>See Herod. 2, 134.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f229'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r229'>229</a>. </span>i. e. Polyphemus. See <i>Od.</i> 9, 375 foll.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f230'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r230'>230</a>. </span>See Herod. 66, 74, and Pausan. 4, 252, and 8, 18.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f231'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r231'>231</a>. </span>From an unknown poet; Euphorion and Arctinus are suggested.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f232'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r232'>232</a>. </span>Fr. 123.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f233'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r233'>233</a>. </span>Hence a proverb applied to what was second-rate.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f234'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r234'>234</a>. </span>Arist. <i>H. A.</i> 9, 3, 610 b 29.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f235'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r235'>235</a>. </span>See Thuc. 2, 48; also <i>Plague and Pestilence in Literature and Art</i>, -by Raymond Crawfurd, M.D., chap. 2 and Appendix.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f236'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r236'>236</a>. </span>Cp. Plato, <i>Laws</i>, 4, 715 <span class='fss'>A</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f237'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r237'>237</a>. </span>Fr. 41.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f238'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r238'>238</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 6, 146.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f239'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r239'>239</a>. </span>Fr. 211.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f240'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r240'>240</a>. </span><i>W. and D.</i> 735-6.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f241'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r241'>241</a>. </span>Eur. Fr. 970.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f242'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r242'>242</a>. </span>I have transposed the verbs as suggested in Wyttenbach’s Commentary.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f243'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r243'>243</a>. </span>Cp. Dante, <i>Purg.</i> 3, 19 foll. The idea is Pythagorean (see <i>Quaest. -Graec.</i> 40, p. 300).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f244'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r244'>244</a>. </span>Cp. Plato, <i>Gorg.</i> 524 <span class='fss'>D</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f245'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r245'>245</a>. </span>See H. Richards in <i>Class. Rev.</i>, vol. 29, p. 236.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f246'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r246'>246</a>. </span>Cp. p. 215, n. 1.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f247'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r247'>247</a>. </span>Cp. p. 89.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f248'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r248'>248</a>. </span>Probably a Sibylline verse. See Suetonius, <i>Life of Vespasian</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f249'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r249'>249</a>. </span>Reading ἅτε δή with C. F. Hermann.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f250'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r250'>250</a>. </span>Cp. Aristot. <i>Hist. Anim.</i> 2, 14, 505 b 13, and 10, 37, 621 a 6.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f251'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r251'>251</a>. </span>Where it is ascribed to Themistius. It was reclaimed for Plutarch -by Wyttenbach in the Preface to his edition of the <i>De Sera Numinum -Vindicta</i>—Leiden 1772.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f252'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r252'>252</a>. </span>In the Dialogue (<i>Ne suaviter quidem</i>, c. 26) in which the Epicureans -are attacked, the ‘hope of eternal existence’ or ‘desire to be’, is spoken -of as the ‘oldest and greatest of loves’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f253'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r253'>253</a>. </span>θάνατος—ἀναθεῖν εἰς θεόν.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f254'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r254'>254</a>. </span>γένεσις—γῆ, νεῦσις. Cp. p. 210, l. 6.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f255'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r255'>255</a>. </span>γενέθλιον—γένεσις ἄθλων.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f256'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r256'>256</a>. </span>Reading ἂν δὲ ἔρῃ, καὶ σώματος for ἂν δὲ ἔρημαι σώματος. See the -Lex.-Plat. <i>s.v.</i> ἔρομαι.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f257'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r257'>257</a>. </span>e.g. <i>Od.</i> 1, 423.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f258'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r258'>258</a>. </span>τελευτᾶν—τελεῖσθαι.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f259'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r259'>259</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 12, 432 foll.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f260'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r260'>260</a>. </span><i>W. and D.</i> 42.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f261'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r261'>261</a>. </span>Fr. 122.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f262'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r262'>262</a>. </span>Polybius (6, 56) points to ‘Deisidaimonia’ as the force which has held -the Roman Commonwealth together, and kept the Romans honest.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f263'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r263'>263</a>. </span>See Nauck, p. 910 (Hercules speaks).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f264'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r264'>264</a>. </span>δεῖμα—δέω: τάρβος—ταράσσω.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f265'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r265'>265</a>. </span>Cf. Aristot. <i>Eth. Nic.</i> 3, 7.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f266'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r266'>266</a>. </span>Eur. <i>Or.</i> 211-12.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f267'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r267'>267</a>. </span>Nauck, p. 910, Fragm. 375 (probably from Aeschylus).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f268'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r268'>268</a>. </span>Eur. <i>Tro.</i> 759.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f269'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r269'>269</a>. </span>Meineke 4, p. 670.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f270'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r270'>270</a>. </span>Fr. 95.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f271'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r271'>271</a>. </span>Nauck, Fragm. adespota, 376.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f272'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r272'>272</a>. </span>Dem. <i>de Cor.</i>, s. 97.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f273'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r273'>273</a>. </span>A difficult passage. I follow W.’s suggested restoration.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f274'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r274'>274</a>. </span><i>Tim.</i> 47 <span class='fss'>C</span>, &c.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f275'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r275'>275</a>. </span><i>Pyth.</i> 1, 25.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f276'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r276'>276</a>. </span>Or perhaps ‘that which knows no wrath’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f277'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r277'>277</a>. </span>Fr. 143, quoted twice elsewhere by Plutarch.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f278'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r278'>278</a>. </span>Pythag. <i>Carm. Aur.</i> 42.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f279'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r279'>279</a>. </span>See <i>Life of T. Q. Flamin.</i> c. 20.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f280'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r280'>280</a>. </span><i>Life of Nicias</i>, c. 23. Thuc. 7, 50, 86.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f281'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r281'>281</a>. </span>i.e. as the moon plunges into the shadow of the earth. See p. <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f282'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r282'>282</a>. </span>Archilochus, Fr. 54, Bergk.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f283'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r283'>283</a>. </span>Nauck, Fragm. adespota, 377.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f284'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r284'>284</a>. </span><i>W. and D.</i> 465 foll.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f285'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r285'>285</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 7, 193 foll.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f286'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r286'>286</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 2, 382, 414.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f287'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r287'>287</a>. </span>1 Maccab. 2, 32 foll.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f288'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r288'>288</a>. </span>Soph. <i>O. T.</i> 4.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f289'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r289'>289</a>. </span>See p. <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f290'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r290'>290</a>. </span>In the main from Wyttenbach’s reconstruction of this desperate -passage.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f291'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r291'>291</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 24, 604.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f292'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r292'>292</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 24, 212.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f293'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r293'>293</a>. </span>Cp. Menander, Fragm. of <i>Demiurgus</i>, Meineke 4, p. 102.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f294'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r294'>294</a>. </span>Soph. <i>Ant.</i> 291.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f295'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r295'>295</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 22, 20.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f296'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r296'>296</a>. </span>Plat. <i>Tim.</i> 40 <span class='fss'>E</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f297'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r297'>297</a>. </span>See Strabo, 4, c. 4.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f298'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r298'>298</a>. </span>Cp. p. 183.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f299'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r299'>299</a>. </span>Herod. 7, 114.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f300'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r300'>300</a>. </span><i>Crat.</i> 403 <span class='fss'>A</span>, 404 <span class='fss'>B</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f301'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r301'>301</a>. </span>Cp. Arist. <i>Rhet.</i> 2, 23, 27, 1400 b 5, where the Eleatae are named.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f302'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r302'>302</a>. </span>In c. 22 Apollonides is made to state the angular diameter of the -moon at 12 ‘fingers’, i. e. one degree.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f303'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r303'>303</a>. </span>See Note (1), p. <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f304'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r304'>304</a>. </span>See Note (2), p. <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f305'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r305'>305</a>. </span>Arist. <i>Probl.</i> 12, 3.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f306'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r306'>306</a>. </span>See Note (3), p. <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f307'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r307'>307</a>. </span>See Aristarchus, <i>Magnitudes and Distances</i>, Hypothesis 2.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f308'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r308'>308</a>. </span>See the Homeric <i>Hymn to Hermes</i>, 99-100, where the moon is the -daughter of Pallas (‘the Pallantean orb sublime’, Shelley), cp. p. 294.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f309'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r309'>309</a>. </span>As Homer, <i>Od.</i> 23, 330; 24, 539; Hesiod, <i>Theog.</i> 515.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f310'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r310'>310</a>. </span>e. g. <i>Il.</i> 10, 394. Cp. Heraclides Ponticus, 15.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f311'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r311'>311</a>. </span><i>P. V.</i> 349.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f312'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r312'>312</a>. </span>Fr. 88.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f313'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r313'>313</a>. </span>W. reads μένειν (E has κινεῖν), but renders by ‘cieri’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f314'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r314'>314</a>. </span>Fr. 733.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f315'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r315'>315</a>. </span>See note (4), p. <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f316'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r316'>316</a>. </span>Professor Henry Jackson has pointed out that the words form -a hexameter line. For the Greek word see p. <a href='#Page_291'>291</a>. Its introduction -here is due to M. Bernardakis.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f317'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r317'>317</a>. </span>Reading τῇ γῇ, with Madvig.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f318'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r318'>318</a>. </span>See note (5), p. <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f319'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r319'>319</a>. </span>αἰρομένη MSS.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f320'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r320'>320</a>. </span>Prop. 7.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f321'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r321'>321</a>. </span>See note (6), p. <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f322'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r322'>322</a>. </span>Cf. <i>Il.</i> 9, 63.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f323'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r323'>323</a>. </span>Reading ὅλως (Emperius, ap. Ed. Teub.), for ὅμως.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f324'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r324'>324</a>. </span>See additional note, p. <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f325'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r325'>325</a>. </span>See e. g. <i>Tim.</i> 32 <span class='fss'>C</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f326'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r326'>326</a>. </span><i>Theog.</i> 120, 195.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f327'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r327'>327</a>. </span>Pindar, Fr. 57: see p. <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f328'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r328'>328</a>. </span>Reading ἕξει, with Emperius.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f329'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r329'>329</a>. </span>See note (7), p. <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f330'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r330'>330</a>. </span>Reading ᾀἱδίου, with Emperius.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f331'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r331'>331</a>. </span>Ion Chius, Fr. 57 (Nauck).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f332'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r332'>332</a>. </span>Reading διίησιν, with Madvig.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f333'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r333'>333</a>. </span>I have followed the paraphrase of the Greek words suggested by -Wyttenbach. For the physical facts see Ganot’s <i>Physics</i>, 516.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f334'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r334'>334</a>. </span><i>Timaeus</i>, 46 <span class='fss'>A</span>-<span class='fss'>C</span> (Plato does not discuss plane folding mirrors).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f335'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r335'>335</a>. </span>Reading χωρεῖν for χωροῦντες.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f336'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r336'>336</a>. </span>Kepler has supplied such a diagram (in his translation, p. 131).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f337'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r337'>337</a>. </span>See p. <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f338'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r338'>338</a>. </span>Pindar, Fr. 107. Paean 9 (see <i>Oxy. Pap.</i> 1908, 841).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f339'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r339'>339</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 20, 352 and 357; 14, 162; 19, 307.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f340'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r340'>340</a>. </span>Reading τὸ ἕν for τόν.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f341'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r341'>341</a>. </span>Prop. 17.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f342'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r342'>342</a>. </span><i>De Caelo</i>, 2, 13, 293 b 20.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f343'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r343'>343</a>. </span>See note (8), p. <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f344'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r344'>344</a>. </span>See note (9), p. <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f345'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r345'>345</a>. </span>Reading ἡ δὲ τῆς Σελήνης with Mr. W. R. Paton, see <i>Class. Rev.</i> vol. 26, -p. 269.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f346'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r346'>346</a>. </span>Strictly speaking, both cases are of ‘overtaking’, but the results -follow as stated.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f347'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r347'>347</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 9, 212.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f348'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r348'>348</a>. </span>See Plato, <i>Phaedo</i>, 110 <span class='fss'>B</span>-<span class='fss'>C</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f349'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r349'>349</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 311.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f350'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r350'>350</a>. </span>Soph. (<i>Lemnians</i>), Fr. 348.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f351'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r351'>351</a>. </span>τραπέμπαλιν is due here to Meineke, ap. Ed. Teub., see p. 267.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f352'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r352'>352</a>. </span><i>Tim.</i> 40 <span class='fss'>B</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f353'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r353'>353</a>. </span>See note (10), p. <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f354'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r354'>354</a>. </span>Aesch. <i>Suppl.</i> 937.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f355'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r355'>355</a>. </span>See p. <a href='#Page_262'>262</a> and note.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f356'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r356'>356</a>. </span>See n. (11), p. <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f357'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r357'>357</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 14, 246. The second line appears to have been added by Crates -and is not in our texts.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f358'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r358'>358</a>. </span><i>Tim.</i> 40 <span class='fss'>C</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f359'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r359'>359</a>. </span>Kepler would read ‘twelve’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f360'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r360'>360</a>. </span>Fr. 48.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f361'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r361'>361</a>. </span><i>W. and D.</i> 41.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f362'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r362'>362</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 20, 64.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f363'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r363'>363</a>. </span><i>Il.</i> 8, 16.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f364'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r364'>364</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 7, 244.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f365'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r365'>365</a>. </span>See n. (13), p. <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f366'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r366'>366</a>. </span>Reading ἐπειδὰν παύσῃ, with Madvig.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f367'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r367'>367</a>. </span>See n. (14), p. <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f368'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r368'>368</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 9, 563.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f369'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r369'>369</a>. </span>i. e. the words τελεῖν, τελευτᾶν are allied, see p. <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f370'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r370'>370</a>. </span>Plato, <i>Tim.</i> 31 <span class='fss'>B</span> and end.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f371'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r371'>371</a>. </span>Fr. 38.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f372'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r372'>372</a>. </span><i>Tim.</i> 31 <span class='fss'>B</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f373'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r373'>373</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 11, 222.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f374'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r374'>374</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> 11, 600.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f375'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r375'>375</a>. </span>From a note made in 1910, which cannot at present (1916) be -verified.</p> -</div> -<div> - - <ul class='ul_1 c002'> - <li>Transcriber’s Notes: - <ul class='ul_2'> - <li>Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected. - </li> - <li>Typographical errors were silently corrected. - </li> - <li>Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a predominant - form was found in this book. - </li> - <li>Footnotes have been collected at the end of the text, and are linked for ease of - reference. - </li> - </ul> - </li> - </ul> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Selected Essays of Plutarch, Vol. II., by Plutarch - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELECTED ESSAYS OF PLUTARCH, VOL II *** - -***** This file should be named 62858-h.htm or 62858-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/8/5/62858/ - -Produced by Turgut Dincer, David King, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. 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