--- title: "On the Virtues and on the Office of Ambassadors. Addressed to Caius" author: "Philo of Alexandria" translator: "C. D. Yonge" languages: [en] shelf: "Second Temple" section: 7 of 29 url: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg031-yonge-ogl/7/ cite: "Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge, On the Virtues and on the Office of Ambassadors. Addressed to Caius, section 7. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg031-yonge-ogl/7/" --- # On the Virtues and on the Office of Ambassadors. Addressed to Caius *Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge* ## 7. Section 78 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg031-yonge-ogl/7/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg031-yonge-ogl/7/#p-N [¶0] For he began at first to liken himself to those beings who are called demigods, such as Bacchus, and Hercules, and the twins of Lacedaemon; turning into utter ridicule Trophonius, and Amphiaraus, and Amphilochus, and others of the same kind, with all their oracles and secret ceremonies, in comparison of his own power. ### Section 79 [¶2] In the next place, like an actor in a theatre, he was continually wearing different dresses at different times, taking at one time a lion’s skin and a club, both gilded over; being then dressed in the character of Hercules; at another time he would wear a felt hat upon his head, when he was disguised in imitation of the Spartan twins, Castor and Pollux; sometimes he also adorned himself with ivy, and a thyrsus, and skins of fawns, so as to appear in the guise of Bacchus. ### Section 80 [¶4] And he looked upon himself as being in this respect superior to all of these beings, because each of them while he had his own peculiar honours had no claim to those which belonged to the others, but he in his envious ambition appropriated all the honours of the whole body of demigods at once, or I should rather say, appropriated the demigods themselves; transforming himself not into the triple-bodied Geryon, so as to attract all beholders by the multitude of his bodies; but, what was the most extraordinary thing of all, changing and transforming the essence of one body into every variety of form and figure, like the Egyptian Proteus, whom Homer has represented as being susceptible of every variety of transformation, into all the elements, and into the animals, and plants, which belong to the different elements. The passage in Homer is to be found at Odyssey iv. 363. It is imitated more concisely by Virgil, who makes Cyrene tell Aristaeus— Verum ubi correptum manibus vinclisque tenebis Turn variae eludent species atque ora ferarum; Fiet enim subito sus horridus atraque tigris Squamosusque draco et fulva cervice Icaena Aut acrem flammae sonitum dabit, atque ita vinclis Excidet, aut in aquas tenues dilapsus abibit.-Georg. iv. 410. Which is thus translated by "Instant he wears, elusive of the rape, The mimic force of every savage shape: Or glides with liquid lapse a murm’ring stream, Or wrapt in flame, he glows at every limb. Yet still retentive, with redoubled might Thro’ each vain passive form constrains his flight. But when, his native shape resumed, he stands Patient of conquest, and your muse demands; The cause that urg’d the bold attempt declare, And soothe the vanquish’d with a victor’s prayer. The bands relaxed, implore the seer to say What godhead interdicts the wat’ry way." ### Section 81 [¶6] And yet why, O Caius! did you think yourself in need of spurious honours, such as the temples and statues of the beings above-mentioned are often filled with? You ought rather to have imitated their virtues. Hercules purified both the earth and the sea, performing labours of the greatest possible importance and of the highest benefit to all mankind, in order to eradicate all that was mischievous and calculated to injure the nature of each of the elements. ### Section 82 [¶8] Bacchus rendered the vine susceptible of cultivation, and extracted a most delicious drink from it, which is at the same time most beneficial to the souls and bodies of men, leading the first to cheerfulness, working in them a forgetfulness of evils and a hope of blessings, and making the latter more healthy, and vigorous, and active, and supple. ### Section 83 [¶10] And individually it renders each man better, and alters populous families and households, leading them from a squalid and laborious life of vexation to a course of relaxation and cheerful happiness, and causing to every city on earth, both Grecian and barbarian, incessant festivity, and mirth, and The passage in Homer is to be found at Odyssey iv. 363. It is imitated more concisely by Virgil, who makes Cyrene tell Aristaeus— Verum ubi correptum manibus vinclisque tenebis Turn variae eludent species atque ora ferarum; Fiet enim subito sus horridus atraque tigris Squamosusque draco et fulva cervice Icaena Aut acrem flammae sonitum dabit, atque ita vinclis Excidet, aut in aquas tenues dilapsus abibit.-Georg. iv. 410. Which is thus translated by "Instant he wears, elusive of the rape, The mimic force of every savage shape: Or glides with liquid lapse a murm’ring stream, Or wrapt in flame, he glows at every limb. Yet still retentive, with redoubled might Thro’ each vain passive form constrains his flight. But when, his native shape resumed, he stands Patient of conquest, and your muse demands; The cause that urg’d the bold attempt declare, And soothe the vanquish’d with a victor’s prayer. The bands relaxed, implore the seer to say What godhead interdicts the wat’ry way." entertainment, and revelry; for of all these things is good wine the cause. ### Section 84 [¶12] Again, it is said that the twin sons of Jupiter, Castor and Pollux, are partakers of immortality. For since the one was mortal and the other immortal, the one who had had the more excellent portion assigned to him did not choose to behave in a selfish manner, but rather to display his good will and affection towards his brother; ### Section 85 [¶14] for having acquired the idea that eternity was never-ending, and considering that he was to live for ever, and that his brother was to be dead for ever, and that in conjunction with his own immortality he should likewise be enduring an undying sorrow on account of his brother, he conceived and carried out a most marvellous system of counterbalancing, mingling mortality with himself and immortality with his brother, and thus he modified inequality, which is the beginning of all injustice, by equality, which is the fountain of justice. ### Section 86 [¶16] All these beings, O Caius! were admired on account of the benefits which they had conferred on mankind, and they are admired for them even up to the present time, and they were deservedly thought worthy of veneration and of the very highest honours. But come now, and tell us yourself in what achievement of yours do you pride yourself and boast yourself as being in the least similar to their actions? ### Section 87 [¶18] Have you imitated the twin sons of Jupiter in their brotherly affection, that I may begin with that point? Did you not rather, O hard-hearted and most pitiless of men! inhumanly slaughter your brother, the joint inheritor of the kingdom with you, even before he had arrived at the full vigour of manhood, when he was still in early youth. Did you not afterwards banish your sisters, lest they also should cause you any reasonable apprehension of the deprivation and loss of your imperial power? ### Section 88 [¶20] Have you imitated Bacchus in any respect? Have you been an inventor of any new blessings to mankind? Have you filled the whole of the habitable world with joy as he did? Are all Asia and Europe inadequate to contain the gifts which have been showered upon mankind by you? ### Section 89 [¶22] No doubt you have invented new arts and sciences, like a common pest and murderer of your kind, by which you have changed all pleasant and acceptable things into vexation and sorrow, and have made life miserable and intolerable to all men everywhere, appropriating to yourself in your intolerable and insatiable greediness all the good and beautiful things which belonged to every one else, whether from the east or from any other country of the universe, carrying off everything from the south, everything from the north, and in requital giving to and pouring down upon those whom you had plundered every sort of mischievous and injurious things from your own bitter spirit, everything which is ever engendered in cruel, and destructive, and envenomed dispositions; these are the reasons why you appeared to us as a new Bacchus. ### Section 90 [¶24] But I suppose you imitated Hercules in your unwearied labours and your incessant displays of valour and virtue; you, O most wretched of men! having filled every continent and every island with good laws, and principles of justice, and wealth, and comfort, and prosperity, and abundance of other blessings, you, wretched man, full of all cowardice and iniquity, who have emptied every city of all the things which can conduce to stability and prosperity, and have made them full of everything which leads to trouble and confusion, and the most utter misery and desolation.