---
title: "On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance · De sera numinis vindicta"
author: "Plutarch"
translator: "John Philips, rev. William W. Goodwin"
languages: [grc, en]
shelf: "Philosophy"
section: 2 of 3
url: https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-delays-of-divine-vengeance/2/
cite: "Plutarch, tr. John Philips, rev. William W. Goodwin, On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance · De sera numinis vindicta, section 2. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-delays-of-divine-vengeance/2/"
---

# On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance · De sera numinis vindicta

*Plutarch, tr. John Philips, rev. William W. Goodwin*

Why do the gods punish the wicked late, or punish their children? A dialogue ending in a vision of the afterlife.

> Greek: ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-greekLit, tlg0007.tlg107, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: John Philips, rev. William W. Goodwin, from the Perseus Digital Library (tlg0007.tlg107.perseus-eng2). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (chapters and sections), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## 2. Sections 11–19

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-delays-of-divine-vengeance/2/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-delays-of-divine-vengeance/2/#p-N

[¶0] 11. Therefore, if nothing befalls the soul after the expiration of this life, but death is the end of all reward and punishment, I might infer from thence rather that the Deity is remiss and indulgent in swiftly punishing the wicked and depriving them of life. For if a man shall assert that in the space of this life the wicked are no otherwise affected than by the convincement that crime is a fruitless and barren thing, that produces nothing of good, nothing worthy of esteem, from the many great and terrible combats and agonies of the mind, the consideration of these things altogether subverts the soul. As it is related that Lysimachus, being under the violent constraint of a parching thirst, surrendered up his person and his dominions to the Getae for a little drink; but after he had quenched his draught and found himself a captive, Shame of this wickedness of mine, cried he, that for so small a pleasure have lost so great a kingdom. But it is a difficult thing for a man to resist the natural necessity of mortal passions. Yet when a man, either out of avarice, or ambition of civil honor and power, or to gratify his venereal desires, commits any enormous and heinous crime, after which, the thirst and rage of his passion being allayed, he comes to set before his eyes the ignominious and horrible passions tending to injustice still remaining, but sees nothing useful, nothing necessary, nothing conducible to make his life happy; may it not be probably conjectured that such a person is frequently solicited by these reflections to consider how rashly, either prompted by vain-glory, or for the sake of a lawless and barren pleasure, he has overthrown the noblest and greatest maxims of justice among men, and overflowed his life with shame and trouble? As Simonides jesting was wont to say, that the chest which he kept for money he found always full, but that which he kept for gratitude he found always empty; thus wicked men, contemplating their own wickedness, find it always void altogether and destitute of hope (since pleasure gives but a short and empty delight), but ever weighed down with fears and sorrows, ungrateful remembrances, suspicions of futurity, and distrusts of present accidents. Thus we hear Ino complaining upon the theatre, after her repentance of what she had done:
Dear women, tell me, with what face
Shall I return to dwell with Athamas,
As if it ne’er had been my luckless fate
The worst of foul misdeeds to perpetrate?
Thus is it not reason to believe, that the soul of every wicked man revolves and reasons within itself, how by burying in oblivion former transgressions, and casting from itself the consciousness and the guilt of hitherto committed crimes, to fit frail mortality under her conduct for a new course of life? For there is nothing for a man to confide in, nothing but what vanishes like smoke, nothing durable or constant in whatever impiety proposes to itself,—unless, by Jove, we will allow the unjust and vicious to be sage philosophers,—but wherever eager avarice and voluptuousness, inexorable hatred, enmity, and improbity associate together, there you shall also be sure to find superstition nestling and herding with effeminacy and terror of death, a swift change of the most violent passions, and an arrogant ambition after undeserved honor. Such men as these stand in continual dread of their contemners and backbiters, they fear their applauders, believing themselves injured by their flatteries; and more especially, they are at enmity with bad men, because they are so free to extol those that seem good. However, that which hardens men to mischief soon cankers, grows brittle, and shivers in pieces like bad iron. So that in process of time, coming to understand themselves better and to be more sensible of their miscarriages, they disdain, abhor, and utterly disclaim their former course of life. And when we see how a wicked man who restores a trust or becomes security for his friend, or ambitious of honor contributes more largely to the benefits of his country, is immediately in a condition of repentance and sorry for what he has just done, by reason of the natural inclination of his mind to ramble and change; and how some men, being clapped and hummed upon the theatre, presently fall a weeping, their desire of glory relapsing into covetousness; we surely cannot believe that those which sacrificed the lives of men to the success of their tyrannies and conspiracies, as Apollodorus, or plundered their friends of their treasure and deprived them of their estates, as Glaucus the son of Epicydes, did not repent and abhor themselves, or that they were not sorry for the perpetration of such foul enormities. For my part, if it may be lawful for me to deliver my opinion, I believe there is no occasion either for the Gods or men to inflict their punishment upon the most wicked and sacrilegious offenders; seeing that the course of their own lives is sufficient to chastise their crimes, while they remain under the consternations and torments attending their impiety.

> Greek: 11. ὥστʼ, εἰ μηδὲν ἔστι τῇ ψυχῇ μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ χάριτος πέρας ἁπάσης καὶ τιμωρίας ὁ θάνατος, μᾶλλον ἄν τις εἴποι τοῖς ταχὺ κολαζομένοις τῶν πονηρῶν καὶ ἀποθνῄσκουσι μαλακῶς καὶ ῥαθύμως χρῆσθαι τὸ δαιμόνιον. καὶ γὰρ εἰ μηδὲν ἄλλο φαίη τις ἂν τῷ βίῳ καὶ τῷ χρόνῳ τῶν πονηρῶν ὑπάρχειν κακόν, ἀλλʼ ἐξελεγχομένης που τῆς ἀδικίας, πράγματος ἀκάρπου καὶ ἀχαρίστου, καὶ χρηστὸν οὐδὲν οὐδʼ ἄξιον σπουδῆς ἀναφέροντος ἐκ πολλῶν καὶ μεγάλων ἀγώνων, ἡ αἴσθησις αὐτῶν ἀνατρέπει τὴν ψυχήν. οἷον ἱστοροῦσι δήπου Λυσίμαχον ὑπὸ δίψης ἐκβιασθέντα καὶ παραδόντα τοῖς Γέταις τὸ σῶμα καὶ τὴν δύναμιν, ὡς ἔπιεν ὑποχείριος γενόμενος, εἰπεῖν φεῦ τῆς ἐμῆς κακίας, ὃς διʼ ἡδονὴν οὕτω βραχεῖαν ἐστέρημαι βασιλείας τηλικαύτης. καίτοι γε πρὸς φυσικὴν πάθους ἀνάγκην ἀντιβῆναι παγχάλεπόν ἐστιν· ὅταν δʼ ἄνθρωπος ἢ χρημάτων ἕνεκα πλεονεξίας ἢ φθόνῳ πολιτικῆς δόξης καὶ δυνάμεως ἢ διʼ ἡδονήν τινα συνουσίας ἄνομον ἔργον ἐργασάμενος καὶ δεινόν, εἶτα τοῦ πάθους ἀφιεὶς τὸ διψῶδες καὶ μανικὸν ἐν χρόνῳ καθορᾷ τὰ αἰσχρὰ καὶ φοβερὰ τῆς ἀδικίας πάθη παραμένοντα, χρήσιμον δὲ μηδὲν μηδʼ ἀναγκαῖον μηδʼ ὀνησιφόρον, ἆρʼ οὐκ εἰκὸς ἐμπίπτειν αὐτῷ πολλάκις λογισμόν, ὡς ὑπὸ κενῆς δόξης ἢ διʼ ἡδονὴν ἀνελεύθερον καὶ ἀχάριστον ἀνατρέψας τὰ κάλλιστα καὶ μέγιστα τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις δικαίων ἐμπέπληκεν αἰσχύνης καὶ ταραχῆς τὸν βίον; ὥσπερ γὰρ ὁ Σιμωνίδης ἔλεγε παίζων τὴν τοῦ ἀργυρίου κιβωτὸν εὑρίσκειν ἀεὶ πλήρη τὴν δὲ τῶν χαρίτων κενήν, οὕτως οἱ πονηροὶ τὴν κακίαν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς διορῶντες ἡδονῆς μὲν εὐθὺς κενὴν χάριν ἐχούσης καὶ ἐλπίδος χρηστῆς ἔρημον εὑρίσκουσι, φόβων δὲ καὶ λυπῶν καὶ μνήμης ἀτερποῦς καὶ πρὸς τὸ μέλλον μὲν ὑποψίας ἀπιστίας δὲ πρὸς τὸ παρὸν ἀεὶ γέμουσαν. ὥσπερ ρ. μαλιμ ἅπερ γὰρ, σεδ ξφ. π. 463 δτῆς Ἰνοῦς ἐν τοῖς θεάτροις λεγούσης ἀκούομεν, ἐφʼ οἷς ἔδρασε μεταμελομένης
φίλαι γυναῖκες, πῶς ἂν ἐξ ἀρχῆς δόμους
Ἀθάμαντος οἰκήσαιμι τῶν πεπραγμένων
δράσασα μηδέν;
ταῦθʼ ἑκάστου τῶν πονηρῶν εἰκὸς τὴν ψυχὴν ἀναπολεῖν ἐν αὑτῇ καὶ διαλογίζεσθαι πῶς ἂν ἐκβᾶσα τῆς μνήμης τῶν ἀδικημάτων καὶ τὸ συνειδὸς ἐξ ἑαυτῆς ἐκβαλοῦσα καὶ καθαρὰ γενομένη, βίον ἄλλον ἐξ ἀρχῆς βιώσειεν. οὐ γάρ ἐστι θαρραλέον οὐδʼ ἄτυφον οὐδὲ μόνιμον καὶ βέβαιον ἐν οἷς προαιρεῖται τὸ πονηρόν, εἰ μὴ νὴ Δία σοφούς τινας εἶναι φήσομεν τοὺς ἀδικοῦντας· ἀλλʼ ὅπου φιλοπλουτία καὶ φιληδονία περιμάχητος καὶ φθόνος ἄκρατος ἐνοικίζεται μετὰ δυσμενείας ἢ κακοηθείας, ἐνταῦθα καὶ δεισιδαιμονίαν σκοπῶν ἀνευρήσεις ὑποκαθημένην καὶ μαλακίαν πρὸς πόνον καὶ δειλίαν πρὸς θάνατον καὶ μετάπτωσιν ὀξεῖαν ὁρμῶν καὶ χαυνότητα πρὸς δόξαν ὑπʼ ἀλαζονείας καὶ τοὺς ψέγοντας φοβοῦνται, καὶ τοὺς ἐπαινοῦντας δεδίασιν ὡς ἀδικουμένους τῇ ἀπάτῃ, καὶ μάλιστα τοῖς κακοῖς πολεμοῦντας ὅτι τοὺς δοκοῦντας ἀγαθοὺς ἐπαινοῦσι, προθύμως. τὸ γὰρ σκληρὸν ἐν κακίᾳ καθάπερ ἐν φαύλῳ σιδήρῳ σαθρόν ἐστι καὶ τὸ ἀντίτυπον εὔθραυστον. ὅθεν ἐν χρόνῳ πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὡς ἔχουσιν αὑτοὺς καταμανθάνοντες ἄχθονται καὶ δυσκολαίνουσι καὶ προβάλλονται τὸν ἑαυτῶν βίον. οὐ γὰρ δήπου παρακαταθήκην μὲν ἀποδοὺς καὶ γνώριμον ἐγγυησάμενος καὶ πατρίδι μετὰ δόξης καὶ φιλοτιμίας ἐπιδοὺς καὶ συνεισενεγκὼν ὁ φαῦλος, εὐθύς ἐστιν ἐν μεταμελείᾳ καὶ τοῖς πεπραγμένοις ἀνιᾶται διὰ τὸ πάντῃ μεταπτωτὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ πλανώμενον τῆς γνώμης, καὶ κροτούμενοί τινες ἐν τοῖς θεάτροις εὐθὺς στένουσιν, ὑπονοστούσης τῆς φιλοδοξίας εἰς τὴν φιλαργυρίαν οἱ δὲ καταθύοντες ἀνθρώπους ἐπὶ τυραννίσι καὶ συνωμοσίαις ὡς Ἀπολλόδωρος, καὶ χρήματα φίλων ἀποστεροῦντες ὡς Γλαῦκος ὁ Ἐπικύδους, οὐ μετενόουν οὐδʼ ἐμίσουν ἑαυτοὺς οὐδʼ ἠνιῶντο τοῖς γεγενημένοις. ἐγὼ μὲν γάρ, εἰ θέμις ἐστὶν εἰπεῖν, οὔτε τινὸς θεῶν οὔτε ἀνθρώπων δεῖσθαι κολαστοῦ νομίζω τοὺς ἀνοσιουργοῦντας, ἀλλὰ τὸν βίον αὐτῶν ἐξαρκεῖν ὑπὸ τῆς κακίας διεφθαρμένον ὅλον καὶ συντεταραγμένον.

[¶1] 12. And now consider whether my discourse have not enlarged itself too far. To which Timon: Perhaps (said he) it may seem to have been too long, if we consider what remains behind, and the length of time required for the discussion of our other doubts. For now I am going about to put forward the last question, like a new champion, since we have contended already long enough upon the former. Now, as to what we have further to say, we find that Euripides delivers his mind freely, and censures the Gods for imputing the transgressions of forefathers unto their offspring. And I am apt to believe that even they who are most silent among us do the like. For if the offenders themselves have already received their reward, then there is no reason why the innocent should be punished, since it is not equal to punish even criminals twice for the same fact. But if remiss and careless, the Gods, omitting opportunely to inflict their penalties upon the wicked, send down their tardy rigor on the blameless, they do not well to repair their defective slowness by injustice. As it is reported of Aesop, that he came upon a time to Delphi, having brought along with him a great quantity of gold which Croesus had bestowed upon him, on purpose to offer a most magnificent oblation to the Gods, and with a design moreover to distribute among the priests and the people of Delphi four minas apiece. But there happening some disgust and difference between him and the Delphians, he performed his solemnity, but sent back his money to Sardis, not deeming those ungrateful people worthy of his bounty. Upon which the Delphians, laying their heads together, accused him of sacrilege, and then threw him down headlong from a steep and prodigious precipice, which is there, called Hyampia. Upon which it is reported that the Deity, being highly incensed against them for so horrid a murder, brought a famine upon the land, and infested the people with noisome diseases of all sorts; insomuch that they were constrained to make it their business to travel to all the general assemblies and places of public concourse in Greece, making public proclamation wherever they came, that, whoever they were that would demand justice for the death of Aesop, they were prepared to give him satisfaction and to undergo whatever penalty he should require. Three generations afterwards came one Idmon, a Samian, no way of kin or otherwise related to Aesop, but only descended from those who had purchased Aesop in Samos; to whom the Delphians paid those forfeitures which he demanded, and were delivered from all their pressing calamities. And from hence (by report) it was, that the punishment of sacrilegious persons was transferred from the rock Hyampia to that other cliff which bears the name of Nauplia. Neither is Alexander applauded by those who have the greatest esteem for his memory (of which number are we ourselves), who utterly laid waste the city of Branchidae, putting men, women, and children to the sword, for that their ancestors had long before delivered up the temple of Miletus. In like manner Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, when the Corcyraeans requested to know the reason of him, why he depopulated their island, deriding and scoffing at their demand, replied: For no other reason, by Jove, but because your forefathers entertained Ulysses. And when the islanders of Ithaca expostulated with him, asking why his soldiers carried away their sheep; because, said he, when your king came to our island, he put out the eyes of the shepherd himself. And therefore do you not think Apollo more extravagant than all these, for punishing so severely the Pheneatae by stopping up that profound and spacious receptacle of all those floods that now cover their country, upon a bare report that Hercules a thousand years ago took away the prophetic tripod and carried it to Pheneus?—or when he foretold to the Sybarites, that all their calamities should cease, upon condition they appeased the wrath of Leucadian Juno by enduring three ruinous calamities upon their country? Nor is it so long since, that the Locrians surceased to send their virgins to Troy;
Who like the meanest slaves, exposed to scorn,
Barefoot, with limbs unclad, at earliest morn
Minerva’s temple sweep; yet all the while,
No privilege has age from weary toil.
Nor, when with years decrepit, can they claim
The thinnest veil to hide their aged shame;
and all this to punish the lasciviousness of Ajax. Now where is the reason or justice of all this? Nor is the custom of the Thracians to be approved, who to this day abuse their wives in revenge of their cruelty to Orpheus. And with as little reason are the Barbarians about the river Po to be extolled, who once a year put themselves into mourning for the misfortune of Phaethon. And still more ridiculous than all this it would certainly be, when all those people that lived at the time took no notice of Phaethon’s mischance, that they, who happened to be born five or ten generations after, should be so idle as to take up the custom of going into black and bewailing his downfall. However, in all these things there is nothing to be observed but mere folly; nothing pernicious, nor any thing dangerous. But as for the anger of the Gods, what reason can be given why their wrath should stop and conceal itself upon a sudden, like some certain rivers, and when all things seem to be forgot, should break forth upon others with so much fury, as not to be atoned but with some remarkable calamities?

> Greek: 12. ἀλλὰ σκοπεῖτε τὸν λόγον ἔφην μὴ τοῦ καιροῦ πορρωτέρω πρόεισι καὶ ὁ Τίμων τυχόν ἔφη πρὸς τὸ μέλλον καὶ τὸ λειπόμενον αὐτῷ μῆκος ἤδη γὰρ ὥσπερ ἔφεδρον ἀνίστημι τὴν τελευταίαν ἀπορίαν, ἐπεὶ ταῖς πρώταις διηγώνισται μετρίως. ἃ γὰρ Εὐριπίδης ἐγκαλεῖ καὶ παρρησιάζεται πρὸς τοὺς θεούς, τὰ τῶν τεκόντων σφάλματʼ εἰς τοὺς ἐκγόνους τρέποντας, αἰτιᾶσθαι νόμιζε καὶ τοὺς σιωπῶντας ἡμῶν. εἴτε γὰρ οἱ δράσαντες αὐτοὶ δίκην ἔδοσαν, οὐδὲν ἔτι δεῖ κολάζειν τοὺς μὴ ἀδικήσαντας, ὅπου δὶς ἐπὶ τοῖς αὐτοῖς οὐδὲ τοὺς δράσαντας δίκαιον· εἴτε ῥᾳθυμίᾳ καταπροέμενοι τὴν τιμωρίαν ἐν τοῖς πονηροῖς ὀψὲ παρὰ τῶν ἀναιτίων εἰσπράττουσιν, οὐκ εὖ τὸ ἀδίκως τοῦ βραδέως ἀντιλαμβάνουσιν. οἷον ἐνταῦθα δήπουθεν λέγεται ἐλθεῖν Αἴσωπον, ἔχοντα παρὰ Κροίσου χρυσίον ὅπως θύσῃ τε τῷ θεῷ μεγαλοπρεπῶς καὶ Δελφῶν ἑκάστῳ διανείμῃ μνᾶς τέσσαρας· ὀργῆς δέ τινος, ὡς ἔοικε, καὶ διαφορᾶς αὐτῷ γενομένης πρὸς τοὺς αὐτόθι, τὴν μὲν θυσίαν ἐποιήσατο, τὰ δὲ χρήματʼ ἀνέπεμψεν εἰς Σάρδεις, ὡς οὐκ ἀξίων ὄντων ὠφεληθῆναι τῶν ἀνθρώπων οἱ δὲ συνθέντες; αἰτίαν ἐπʼ αὐτὸν ἱεροσυλίας ἀπέκτειναν, ὤσαντες ἀπὸ τῆς πέτρας ἐκείνης ἣν Ὑάμπειαν καλοῦσιν. ἐκ δὲ τούτου λέγεται μηνῖσαν τὸ θεῖον αὐτοῖς ἀφορίαν τε γῆς ἐπαγαγεῖν καὶ νόσων ἀτόπων ἰδέαν πᾶσαν, ὥστε περιιόντας ἐν ταῖς Ἑλληνικαῖς; πανηγύρεσι κηρύσσειν καὶ καλεῖν ἀεὶ τὸν βουλόμενον ὑπὲρ Αἰσώπου δίκην λαμβάνειν παρʼ αὐτῶν. τρίτῃ δὲ γενεᾷ Σάμιος Ἰάδμων ἀφίκετο, γένει μὲν οὐδὲν Αἰσώπῳ προσήκων ἀπόγονος δὲ τῶν πριαμένων αὐτὸν ἐν Σάμῳ γεγονώς· καὶ τούτῳ τινὰς δίκας δόντες οἱ Δελφοὶ τῶν κακῶν ἀπηλλάγησαν. ἐξ ἐκείνου δέ φασι καὶ τὴν τιμωρίαν τῶν ἱεροσύλων ἐπὶ τὴν Ναυπλίαν ἀπὸ τῆς Ὑαμπείας μετατεθῆναι. καὶ τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον οὐδʼ οἱ πάνυ φιλοῦντες, ὧν ἐσμεν καὶ ἡμεῖς, ἐπαινοῦσι, τὸ Βραγχιδῶν ἄστυ συγχέαντα καὶ διαφθείραντα πᾶσαν ἡλικίαν διὰ τὴν γενομένην τοῦ περὶ Μίλητον ἱεροῦ προδοσίαν ὑπὸ τῶν προπάππων αὐτῶν. Ἀγαθοκλῆς δʼ ὁ Συρακοσίων τύραννος, καὶ σὺν γέλωτι χλευάζων Κερκυραίους ἐρωτῶντας διὰ τί πορθοίη τὴν νῆσον αὐτῶν, ὅτι νὴ Δίʼ εἶπεν οἱ πατέρες ὑμῶν ὑπεδέξαντο τὸν Ὀδυσσέα. καὶ τῶν Ἰθακησίων ὁμοίως ἐγκαλούντων ὅτι πρόβατα λαμβάνουσιν αὐτῶν οἱ στρατιῶται, ὁ δʼ ὑμέτερος ἔφη βασιλεὺς ἐλθὼν πρὸς ἡμᾶς καὶ τὸν ποιμένα προσεξετύφλωσεν ἆρʼ οὖν οὐκ ἀτοπώτερος τούτων ὁ Ἀπόλλων, εἰ Φενεάτας ἀπόλλυσι τοὺς νῦν, ἐμφράξας τὸ βάραθρον καὶ κατακλύσας τὴν χώραν ἅπασαν αὐτῶν, ὅτι πρὸ χιλίων ἐτῶν, ὥς φασιν, ὁ Ἡρακλῆς ἀνασπάσας τὸν τρίποδα τὸν μαντικὸν εἰς Φενεὸν ἀπήνεγκε· Συβαρίταις δὲ φράζων ἀπόλυσιν τῶν κακῶν, ὅταν τρισὶν ὀλέθροις ἱλάσωνται τὸ μήνιμα τῆς Λευκαδίας Ἥρας; καὶ μὴν οὐ πολὺς χρόνος, ἀφʼ οὗ Λοκροὶ πέμποντες εἰς Τροίαν πέπαυνται τὰς παρθένους,
αἳ καὶ ἀναμπέχονοι γυμνοῖς ποσὶν ἠύτε δοῦλαι
ἠοῖαι σαίρεσκον Ἀθηναίης περὶ βωμόν,
νόσφι κρηδέμνοιο, καὶ εἰ βαρὺ γῆρας ἱκάνοι,
διὰ τὴν Αἴαντος ἀκολασίαν. ποῦ δὴ ταῦτα τὸ εὔλογον ἴσχει καὶ δίκαιον; οὐδὲ γὰρ Θρᾷκας ἐπαινοῦμεν, ὅτι στίζουσιν ἄχρι νῦν, τιμωροῦντες Ὀρφεῖ, τὰς αὑτῶν γυναῖκας· οὐδὲ τοὺς περὶ Ἠριδανὸν βαρβάρους, μελανοφοροῦντας ἐπὶ πένθει τοῦ Φαέθοντος, ὥσπερ λέγουσιν. ἔτι δʼ ἂν οἶμαι γελοιότερον ἦν εἰ, τῶν τότʼ ἀνθρώπων, ὅτε διεφθάρη Φαέθων, παραμελησάντων, οἱ πέντε γενεαῖς ἢ δέκα τοῦ πάθους ὕστερον γεγονότες ἤρξαντο τὴν ἐσθῆτα μεταβάλλειν ἐπʼ αὐτῷ καὶ πενθεῖν. καίτοι τοῦτʼ ἀβελτερίαν μὲν ἔχει μόνον οὐδὲν δὲ δεινὸν οὐδʼ ἀνήκεστον αἱ δὲ τῶν θεῶν ὀργαὶ τίνι λόγῳ παραχρῆμα δυόμεναι καθάπερ ἔνιοι τῶν ποταμῶν, εἶθʼ ὕστερον ἐπʼ ἄλλους ἀναφερόμεναι πρὸς ἐσχάτας συμφορὰς τελευτῶσιν;

[¶2] 13. Upon that, so soon as he had done speaking, not a little afraid lest, if he should begin again, he would run himself into many more and greater absurdities, I asked: Do you believe, sir, all that you have said to be true? Then he: Though all that I have alleged may not be true, yet if only some part may be allowed for truth, do not you think there is the same difficulty still remaining in the question? It may be so, said I. And thus it is with those who labor under a vehement burning fever; for, whether covered with one blanket or many, the heat is still the same or very little different; yet for refreshment’s sake it may be convenient sometimes to lighten the weight of the clothes; and if the patient refuse your courtesy, to let him alone. Yet I must tell you, the greatest part of these examples look like fables and fiction. Call to mind therefore the feast called Theoxenia lately celebrated, and that most noble portion which the public criers proclaim to be received as their due by the offspring of Pindar; and recollect with yourself, how majestic and grateful a mark of grandeur you look upon that to be. Truly, said he, I judge there is no man living who would not be sensible of the curiosity and elegancy of such an honor, displaying antiquity void of tincture and false glitter, after the Greek manner, unless he were such a brute that I may use the words of Pindar himself:
Whose coal-black heart, from natural dross unpurged,
Had only by cold flames at first been forged.
Therefore I forbear, said I, to mention that proclamation not much unlike to this, usually made in Sparta,—“After the Lesbian singer,”—in honor and memory of the ancient Terpander. But you, on the other side, deem yourself worthy to be preferred above all the rest of the Boeotians, as being of the noble race of the Opheltiadae; and among the Phocians you claim undoubted pre-eminence, for the sake of your ancestor Daiphantus. And, for my part, I must acknowledge that you were one of the first who assisted me, as my second, against the Lycormaeans and Satilaeans, claiming the privilege of wearing crowns and the honor due by the laws of Greece to the descendants from Hercules; at what time I affirmed, that those honors and guerdons ought more especially to be preserved inviolable to the immediate progeny of Hercules, in regard that, though he were so great a benefactor to the Greeks, yet in his lifetime he was not thought worthy of any reward or return of gratitude. You recall to my remembrance, said he, a most noble contest, and worthy the debate of philosophy itself. Dismiss therefore, said I, that vehement humor of yours that excites you to accuse the Gods, nor take it ill, if many times celestial punishment discharges itself upon the offspring of the wicked and vicious; or else be not too much overjoyed or too forward to applaud those honors which are due to nobility of birth. For it becomes us, if we believe that the reward of virtue ought to be extended to posterity, by the same reason to take it for granted that punishment for impieties committed ought not to be stayed and cease any sooner, but that it should run forward at equal pace with the reward, which will in turn requite every man with what is his due. And therefore they that with pleasure behold the race of Cimon highly honored in Athens, but on the other side, fret and fume at the exilement of the posterity of Lachares or Ariston, are too remiss and oscitant, or rather too morose and over quarrelsome with the Deity itself, one while accusing the Divinity if the posterity of an unjust and wicked person seem to prosper in the world, another time no less moody and finding fault if it fall cut that the race of the wicked come to be utterly destroyed and extirpated from the earth. And thus, whether the children of the wicked or the children of the just fall under affliction, the case is all one to them; the Gods must suffer alike in their bad opinions.

> Greek: 13. ὡς δὲ πρῶτον ἐπέσχε, δείσας ἐγὼ μὴ πάλιν ἐξ ὑπαρχῆς ἐπαγάγῃ πλείονας καὶ μείζονας ἀτοπίας, εὐθὺς ἠρόμην αὐτὸν εἶεν ἔφην, ταῦτα γὰρ πάντα ἀληθινὰ ἡγῇ; κἀκεῖνος εἰ δὲ μὴ πάντʼ εἶπεν ἀλλʼ ἔνια, τὴν αὐτὴν ἀπορίαν ἔχειν οὐ νομίζεις τὸν λόγον; ἴσως ἔφην ἐγὼ καὶ τοῖς σφόδρα πυρέττουσιν, ἐάν θʼ ἓν ἱμάτιον ἐάν τε πολλὰ περιβεβλημένοι τυγχάνωσι, ταὐτὸ καῦμα καὶ παραπλήσιον, ὅμως δʼ εἰς παραμυθίαν ἀφελεῖν τὸ πλῆθος· εἰ δὲ μὴ βούλει, τοῦτο μὲν ἔασον· καίτοι τὰ πλεῖστα μύθοις ἔοικε καὶ πλάσμασιν· ἀναμνήσθητι δὲ τῶν ἔναγχος Θεοξενίων καὶ τῆς καλῆς ἐκείνης μερίδος, ἣν ἀφαιροῦντες τοὺς Πινδάρου κηρύττουσι λαμβάνειν ἀπογόνους, ὥς σοι τὸ πρᾶγμα σεμνὸν ἐφάνη καὶ ἡδὺ τίς δʼ οὐκ ἄν εἶπεν ἡσθείη τῇ χάριτι τῆς τιμῆς οὕτως Ἑλληνικῶς καὶ ἀφελῶς ἀρχαϊζούσης, εἰ μὴ μέλαιναν καρδίαν κεχάλκευται ψυχρᾷ φλογί κατʼ αὐτὸν τὸν Πίνδαρον; ἐῶ τοίνυν ἔφην ὅμοιον ἐν Σπάρτῃ κήρυγμα τούτῳ τὸ μετὰ Λέσβιον ᾠδόν ἐπὶ τιμῇ καὶ μνήμῃ Τερπάνδρου τοῦ παλαιοῦ κηρυττόμενον ὁ γὰρ αὐτός ἐστι λόγος. ἀλλʼ ὑμεῖς γε δήπου πλέον ἔχειν ἑτέρων ἔν τε Βοιωτοῖς Ὀφελτιάδαι γένος ὄντες ἀξιοῦτε καὶ παρὰ Φωκεῦσι διὰ Δαΐφαντον, ἐμοὶ δὲ καὶ παρῆτε καὶ συνελαμβάνεσθε πρῶτον, ὅτε Λυκόρμαις καὶ Σατιλαίοις τὴν πάτριον Ἡρακλειδῶν μετιοῦσι τιμὴν καὶ στεφανηφορίαν συνανασῴζων ἔλεγον, ὅτι δεῖ μάλιστα τοῖς ἀφʼ Ἡρακλέους γεγονόσι τὰς τιμὰς ὑπάρχειν βεβαίους καὶ τὰς χάριτας, ὧν τοὺς Ἕλληνας εὐεργετήσας οὐκ ἔτυχεν αὐτὸς ἀξίας χάριτος οὐδʼ ἀμοιβῆς. καλοῦ γʼ εἶπεν ἡμᾶς ἀγῶνος καὶ φιλοσοφίᾳ μάλα πρέποντος ἀνέμνησας. ἄφες οὖν εἶπον ὦ τᾶν, τὸ σφοδρὸν τοῦτο τῆς κατηγορίας, καὶ μὴ φέρε πικρῶς εἰ κολάζονταί τινες ἐκ κακῶν γεγονότες ἢ πονηρῶν, ἢ μὴ χαῖρε μηδʼ ἐπαίνει τιμωμένης εὐγενείας. δεῖ γάρ, εἰ τὴν χάριν ἐν τῷ γένει τῆς ἀρετῆς ἀνασῴζομεν, εὐλόγως μηδὲ τὴν κόλασιν οἴεσθαι δεῖν ἀπαυδᾶν καὶ προαπολείπειν ἐπὶ ταῖς ἀδικίαις ἀλλὰ συνεκτρέχειν ἐκείνῃ τὸ κατʼ ἀξίαν ἀντιστρόφως ἀποδιδούσῃ. ὁ δὲ τοὺς ἀπὸ Κίμωνος ἡδέως ὁρῶν Ἀθήνησι τιμωμένους, τῶν δὲ Λαχάρους ἢ Ἀρίστωνος ἐκγόνων ἐλαυνομένων ἀχθόμενος καὶ ἀγανακτῶν, ὑγρός ἐστι λίαν καὶ ῥᾴθυμος μᾶλλον δὲ φιλαίτιος ὅλως καὶ δύσκολος πρὸς τὸ θεῖον· ἐγκαλῶν μέν, ἂν ἀνδρὸς ἀδίκου καὶ πονηροῦ παῖδες ἐκ παίδων εὐτυχεῖν δοκῶσιν, ἐγκαλῶν δὲ πάλιν, ἂν τὰ γένη κολούηται καὶ ἀφανίζηται τῶν φαύλων αἰτιώμενός δὲ τὸν θεὸν ὁμοίως μέν, ἂν χρηστοῦ πατρὸς τέκνα πράττῃ κακῶς, ὁμοίως δέ, ἂν πονηροῦ.

[¶3] 14. These, said I, are the preliminaries, which I would have you make use of against those choleric accusers and testy snarlers of whom I have given you warning. But now to take in hand once more, as it were, the first end of the bottom of thread, in this same dark discourse of the Gods, wherein there are so many windings and turnings and gloomy labyrinths, let us by degrees and with caution direct our steps to what is most likely and probable. For, even in those things which fall under our daily practice and management, we are many times at a loss to determine the undoubted and unquestioned truth. For example, what certain reason can be given for that custom amongst us, of ordering the children of parents that die of a consumption or a dropsy to sit with both their feet soaking in the water till the dead body be burnt? For people believe, that thereby the disease is prevented from becoming hereditary, and also that it is a charm to secure those children from it as long as they live. Again, what should be the reason, that if a goat take a piece of sea-holly in her mouth, the whole herd will stand still till the goat-herd come and take it out? Other hidden properties there are, which, by virtue of certain touches and transitions, pass from some bodies into others with incredible swiftness and often to incredible distances. But we are more apt to wonder at distances of time than those of space. And yet there is more reason to wonder, that Athens should be infected with an epidemic contagion taking its rise in Ethiopia, that Pericles should die and Thucydides be smitten with the infection, than that, upon the impiety of the Delphians and Sybarites, delayed vengeance should at length overtake their posterity. For these hidden powers and properties have their sacred connections and correspondences between their utmost endings and their first beginnings; of which although the causes be concealed from us, yet silently they bring to pass their proper effects.

> Greek: 14. καὶ ταῦτα μέν ἔφην ὥσπερ ἀντιφράγματά σοι κείσθω πρὸς τοὺς ἄγαν πικροὺς καὶ κατηγορικοὺς ἐκείνους. ἀναλαβόντες δʼ αὖθις ὥσπερ ἀρχὴν κλωστῆρος ἐν σκοτεινῷ καὶ πολλοὺς ἑλιγμοὺς καὶ πλάνας ἔχοντι τῷ περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγῳ, καθοδηγῶμεν αὑτοὺς μετʼ εὐλαβείας ἀτρέμα πρὸς τὸ εἰκὸς καὶ πιθανόν, ὡς τό γε σαφὲς καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν οὐδʼ ἐν οἷς αὐτοὶ πράττομεν ἀσφαλῶς εἰπεῖν ἔχομεν· οἷον, διὰ τί τῶν ὑπὸ φθίσεως ἢ ὑδέρου διαφθαρέντων τοὺς παῖδας εἰς ὕδωρ τὼ πόδε βρέχοντας καθίζεσθαι κελεύομεν, ἕως ἂν ὁ νεκρὸς κατακαῇ; δοκεῖ γὰρ οὕτω τὸ νόσημα μὴ μεθίστασθαι μηδὲ προσπελάζειν αὐτοῖς. ἢ πάλιν, διʼ ἣν αἰτίαν, αἰγὸς τὸν ἠρυγγίτην λαβούσης εἰς τὸ στόμα, ὅλον ἐφίσταται τὸ αἰπόλιον, ἄχρι ἂν ἐξέλῃ προσελθὼν ὁ αἰπόλος; ἄλλαι τε δυνάμεις ἁφὰς; ἔχουσαι καὶ διαδόσεις ἀπίστους ὀξύτησι καὶ μήκεσι διʼ ἑτέρων εἰς ἕτερα περαίνουσιν. ἀλλʼ ἡμεῖς τὰ κατὰ τοὺς χρόνους διαλείμματα θαυμάζομεν οὐ τὰ κατὰ τοὺς τόπους. καίτοι θαυμασιώτερον εἰ, πάθους ἐν Αἰθιοπίᾳ λαβόντος ἀρχήν, ἀνεπλήσθησαν αἱ Ἀθῆναι καὶ Περικλῆς ἀπέθανε καὶ Θουκυδίδης ἐνόσησεν, ἢ εἰ, Δελφῶν καὶ Συβαριτῶν γενομένων πονηρῶν, ἡ δίκη φερομένη περιῆλθεν εἰς τοὺς παῖδας. ἔχουσι γάρ τινας αἱ δυνάμεις ἀναφορὰς ἀπὸ τῶν ἐσχάτων ἐπὶ τὰ πρῶτα καὶ συνάψεις· ὧν ἡ αἰτία, κἂν ὑφʼ ἡμῶν ἀγνοῆται, σιωπῇ περαίνει τὸ οἰκεῖον.

[¶4] 15. Not but that there is a reason ready at hand for the public punishments showered down from heaven upon particular cities. For a city is a kind of entire thing and continued body, a certain sort of creature, never subject to the changes and alterations of age, nor varying through process of time from one thing to another, but always sympathizing and in unity with itself, and receiving the punishment or reward of whatever it does or has ever acted in common, so long as the community, which makes it a body and binds it together with the mutual bands of human benefit, preserves its unity. For he that goes about of one city to make many, and perhaps an infinite number, by distinguishing the intervals of time, seems to be like a person who would make several of one single man, because he is now grown elderly who before was a young man, and before that a mere stripling. Or rather, it resembles the method of disputing amongst the Epicharmians, the first authors of that manner of arguing called the increaser. For example: he that formerly ran in debt, although he never paid it, owes nothing now, as being become another man; and he that was invited yesterday to supper comes the next night an unbidden guest, for that he is quite another person. And indeed the distinctions of ages cause greater alterations in every one of us than commonly they do in cities. For he that has seen Athens may know it again thirty years after; the present manners, motions, pastimes, serious studies, their familiarities and marks of their displeasure, little or nothing differing from what formerly they were. But after a long absence there is many a man who, meeting his own familiar friend, hardly knows him again, by reason of the great alteration of his countenance and the change of his manners, which are so easily subject to the alterations of language, labor, and employment, all manner of accidents, and mutation of laws, that even they who are most usually conversant with him admire to see the strangeness and novelty of the change; and yet the man is reputed still to be the same from his birth to his decease. In the same manner does a city still remain the same; and for that reason we think it but justice, that a city should as well be obnoxious to the blame and reproach of its ancient inhabitants, as participate the glory of their former puissance and renown; else we shall throw every thing before we know it into the river of Heraclitus, into which (he says) no one can step twice, since Nature by her changes is ever altering and transforming all things.

> Greek: 15. οὐ μὴν ἀλλά γε τὰ δημόσια τῶν πόλεων μηνίματα τὸν τοῦ δικαίου λόγον ἔχει πρόχειρον. ἓν γάρ τι πρᾶγμα καὶ συνεχὲς ἡ πόλις ὥσπερ ζῷον οὐκ ἐξιστάμενον αὑτοῦ ταῖς καθʼ ἡλικίαν μεταβολαῖς οὐδʼ ἕτερον ἐξ ἑτέρου τῷ χρόνῳ γιγνόμενον, ἀλλὰ συμπαθὲς· ἀεὶ καὶ οἰκεῖον αὑτῷ, καὶ πᾶσαν ὧν πράττει κατὰ τὸ κοινὸν ἢ ἔπραξεν αἰτίαν καὶ χάριν ἀναδεχόμενον, μέχρι ἂν ἡ ποιοῦσα καὶ συνδέουσα ταῖς ἐπιπλοκαῖς κοινωνία τὴν ἑνότητα διαφυλάττῃ. τὸ δὲ πολλὰς πόλεις διαιροῦντα τῷ χρόνῳ ποιεῖν μᾶλλον δʼ ἀπείρους, ὅμοιόν ἐστι τῷ πολλοὺς τὸν ἕνα ποιεῖν ἄνθρωπον, ὅτι νῦν πρεσβύτερός ἐστι πρότερον δὲ νεώτερος ἀνωτέρω δὲ μειράκιον ἦν. μᾶλλον δʼ ὅλως ταῦτά γε τοῖς Ἐπιχαρμείοις ἔοικεν, ἐξ ὧν ὁ αὐξόμενος ἀνέφυ τοῖς σοφισταῖς λόγος ὁ γὰρ λαβὼν πάλαι τὸ χρέος, νῦν οὐκ ὀφείλει γεγονὼς ἕτερος· ὁ δὲ κληθεὶς ἐπὶ δεῖπνον ἐχθὲς ἄκλητος ἣκει τήμερον· ἄλλος; γάρ ἐστι. καίτοι μείζονάς γε παραλλαγὰς αἱ ἡλικίαι περὶ ἕκαστον ἡμῶν ποιοῦσιν ἢ κοινῇ περὶ τὰς πόλεις γνοίη γὰρ ἄν τις ἰδὼν τὰς Ἀθήνας ἔτει τριακοστῷ, καὶ τὰ νῦν ἤθη καὶ κινήματα παιδιαί τε καὶ σπουδαὶ καὶ χάριτες καὶ ὀργαὶ τοῦ δήμου πάνυ γε τοῖς παλαιοῖς ἐοίκασι· ἀνθρώπου δὲ μόλις ἄν τις οἰκεῖος ἢ φίλος ἐντυχὼν διὰ χρόνου μορφὴν γνωρίσειεν αἱ δὲ τῶν ἠθῶν μεταβολαὶ παντὶ λόγῳ καὶ πόνῳ καὶ πάθει καὶ νόμῳ ῥᾳδίως τρεπόμεναι καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἀεὶ συνόντα τὴν ἀτοπίαν καὶ τὴν καινότητα θαυμαστὴν ἔχουσιν. ἀλλʼ ἄνθρωπός τε λέγεται μέχρι τέλους εἷς ἀπὸ γενέσεως, πόλιν τε τὴν αὐτὴν ὡσαύτως διαμένουσαν ἐνέχεσθαι τοῖς ὀνείδεσι τῶν προγόνων ἀξιοῦμεν, ᾧ δικαίῳ μέτεστιν αὐτῇ δόξης τε τῆς ἐκείνων καὶ δυνάμεως· ἢ λήσομεν εἰς τὸν Ἡρακλείτειον ἅπαντα πράγματα ποταμὸν ἐμβαλόντες, εἰς ὃν οὔ φησι δὶς ἐμβῆναι τῷ πάντα κινεῖν καὶ ἑτεροιοῦν τὴν φύσιν μεταβάλλουσαν.

[¶5] 16. Now then, if a city be one entire and continued body, the same opinion is to be conceived of a race of men, depending upon one and the same beginning, and carrying along with it a certain power and communion of qualities; in regard that what is begotten cannot be thought to be severed from that which begets it, like a piece of workmanship from the artificer; the one being begotten of the person, the other framed by him. So that what is engendered is a part of the original from whence it sprung, whether meriting honor or deserving punishment. So that, were it not that I might be thought to be too sportive in a serious discourse, I would affirm, that the Athenians were more unjust to the statue of Cassander when they caused it to be melted down and defaced, and that the Syracusans were more rigorous to the dead carcass of Dionysius when they cast it forth of their own confines, than if they had punished their posterity; for that the statue did no way partake of the substance of Cassander, and the soul of Dionysius was absolutely departed from the body deceased. Whereas Nisaeus, Apollocrates, Antipater, Philip, and several others descended from wicked parents, still retained the most principal part of those who begot them, not lazily and sluggishly dormant, but that very part by which they live, are nourished, act and move, and become rational and sensible creatures. Neither is there any thing of absurdity, if, being the offspring of such parents, they should retain many of their bad qualities. In short, therefore, I affirm that, as it is in the practice of physic, that whatever is wholesome and profitable is likewise just, and as he would be accounted ridiculous that should aver it to be an act of injustice to cauterize the thumb for the cure of the sciatica, or when the liver is imposthumated, to scarify the belly, or when the hoofs of laboring oxen are over tender, to anoint the tips of their horns; in the same manner is he to be laughed at who seeks for any other justice in the punishment of vice than the cure and reformation of the offender, and who is angry when medicine is applied to some parts for the cure of others, as when a chirurgeon opens a vein to give his patient ease upon an inflammation of the eyes. For such a one seems to look no farther than what he reaches by his senses, forgetting that a schoolmaster, by chastising one, admonishes all the rest of his scholars, and that a general, condemning only one in ten, reduces all the rest to obedience. And thus there is not only a cure and amendment of one part of the body by another; but many times the very soul itself is inclined to vice or reformation, by the lewdness or virtue of another, and indeed much more readily than one body is affected by another. For, in the case of the body, as it seems natural, the same affections and the same changes must always occur; while the soul, being agitated by fancy and imagination, becomes better or worse, as it is either daring and confident or timorous and mistrustful.

> Greek: 16. εἰ δʼ ἐστὶ πόλις ἓν πρᾶγμα καὶ συνεχές, ἔστι δήπου καὶ γένος ἐξηρτημένον ἀρχῆς μιᾶς καὶ δύναμίν τινα καὶ κοινωνίαν διαπεφυκυῖαν ἀναφερούσης καὶ τὸ γεννηθὲν οὐχ ὥς τι δημιούργημα πεποιημένον ἀπήλλακται τοῦ γεννήσαντος· ἐξ αὐτοῦ γὰρ οὐχ ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ γέγονεν· ὥστʼ ἔχει τι καὶ φέρεται τῶν ἐκείνου μέρος ἐν ἑαυτῷ καὶ κολαζόμενον προσηκόντως καὶ τιμώμενον. εἰ δὲ μὴ δόξαιμι παίζειν, ἐγὼ φαίην ἂν ἀνδριάντα Κασάνδρου καταχαλκευόμενον ὑπʼ Ἀθηναίων πάσχειν ἀδικώτερα καὶ τὸ Διονυσίου σῶμα μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν ἐξοριζόμενον ὑπὸ Συρακοσίων ἢ τοὺς ἐκγόνους αὐτῶν δίκην τίνοντας. τῷ μὲν γὰρ ἀνδριάντι τῆς Κασάνδρου φύσεως οὐθὲν ἔνεστι, καὶ τὸν νεκρὸν ἡ Διονυσίου ψυχὴ προλέλοιπε· Νυσαίῳ δὲ καὶ Ἀπολλοκράτει καὶ Ἀντιπάτρῳ καὶ Φιλίππῳ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ὁμοίως παισὶ τῶν πονηρῶν τὸ κυριώτατον ἐμπέφυκε καὶ πάρεστι μέρος, οὐχ ἡσυχαῖον οὐδʼ ἀργόν, ἀλλὰ ζῶσιν αὐτῷ καὶ τρέφονται καὶ διοικοῦνται καὶ φρονοῦσι. καὶ οὐθὲν δεινὸν οὐδʼ ἄτοπον, ἂν ἐκείνων ὄντες ἔχωσι τὰ ἐκείνων· καθόλου δʼ εἰπεῖν, ὥσπερ ἐν ἰατρικῇ τὸ χρήσιμον καὶ δίκαιόν ἐστι, καὶ γελοῖος ὁ φάσκων ἄδικον εἶναι τῶν ἰσχίον πονούντων κάειν τὸν ἀντίχειρα, καὶ τοῦ ἥπατος ὑπούλου γεγονότος ἀμύσσειν τὸ ἐπιγάστριον, καὶ τῶν βοῶν, ἂν εἰς τὰς χηλὰς μαλακιῶσι, προσαλείφειν τὰ ἄκρα τῶν κεράτων· οὕτως ὁ περὶ τὰς κολάσεις ἄλλο τι δίκαιον ἢ τὸ θεραπεῦον τὴν κακίαν ἡγούμενος, καὶ ἀγανακτῶν ἐάν τις διʼ ἑτέρων ἐφʼ ἑτέρους ἀναφέρῃ τὴν ἰατρείαν, ὥσπερ οἱ τὴν φλέβα διαιροῦντες ἵνα τὴν ὀφθαλμίαν κουφίσωσιν, οὐδὲν ἔοικε περαιτέρω τῆς αἰσθήσεως ἐφορᾶν οὐδὲ μνημονεύειν, ὅτι καὶ διδάσκαλος παίδων ἑνὸς καθικόμενος ἑτέρους ἐνουθέτησε, καὶ στρατηγὸς ἐκ δεκάδος ἀνελὼν ἕνα, πάντας ἐνέτρεψε. καὶ οὕτως οὐ μέρει διὰ μέρους ἑτέρου μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ψυχῇ διὰ ψυχῆς γίγνονταί τινες διαθέσεις καὶ κακώσεις καὶ ἐπανορθώσεις μᾶλλον ἢ σώματι διὰ σώματος· ἐκεῖ μὲν γάρ, ὡς ἔοικε, ταὐτὸ δεῖ πάθος ἐγγίγνεσθαι καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν μεταβολὴν ἐνταῦθα δʼ ἡ ψυχὴ ταῖς φαντασίαις ἀγομένη κατὰ τὸ θαρρεῖν καὶ δεδιέναι χεῖρον ἢ βέλτιον διαγίγνεσθαι πέφυκεν.

[¶6] 17. While I was yet speaking, Olympicus interrupting me said: You seem by this discourse of yours to infer as if the soul were immortal, which is a supposition of great consequence. It is very true, said I, nor is it any more than what yourselves have granted already; in regard the whole dispute has tended from the beginning to this, that the supreme Deity overlooks us, and deals to every one of us according to our deserts. To which the other: Do you then believe (said he) it follows of necessity that, because the Deity observes our actions and distributes to every one of us according to our merits, therefore our souls should exist and be altogether incorruptible, or else for a certain time survive the body after death? Not so fast, good sir, said I. But can we think that God so little considers his own actions, or is such a waster of his time in trifles, that, if we had nothing of divine within us, nothing that in the least resembled his perfection, nothing permanent and stable, but were only poor creatures, that (according to Homer’s expression) faded and dropped like withered leaves, and in a short time too, yet he should make so great account of us—like women that bestow their pains in making little gardens, no less delightful to them than the gardens of Adonis, in earthen pans and pots—as to create us souls to blossom and flourish only for a day, in a soft and tender body of flesh, without any firm and solid root of life, and then to be blasted and extinguished in a moment upon every slight occasion? And therefore, if you please, not concerning ourselves with other Deities, let us go no farther than the God Apollo, whom here we call our own; see whether it is likely that he, knowing that the souls of the deceased vanish away like clouds and smoke, exhaling from our bodies like a vapor, requires that so many propitiations and such great honors be paid to the dead, and such veneration be given to the deceased, merely to delude and cozen his believers. And therefore, for my part, I will never deny the immortality of the soul, till somebody or other, as they say Hercules did of old, shall be so daring as to come and take away the prophetical tripod, and so quite ruin and destroy the oracle For as long as many oracles are uttered even in these our days by the Delphic soothsayer, the same in substance which was formerly given to Corax the Naxian, it is impious to declare that the human soul can die. Then Patrocleas: What oracle was this? Who was that same Corax? For both the answer itself and the person whom you mention are strangers to my remembrance. Certainly, said I, that cannot be; only it was my error which occasioned your ignorance, in making use of the addition to the name instead of the name itself. For it was Calondas, who slew Archilochus in fight, and who was surnamed Corax. He was thereupon ejected by the Pythian priestess, as one who had slain a person devoted to the Muses; but afterwards, humbling himself in prayers and supplications, intermixed with undeniable excuses of the fact, was enjoined by the oracle to repair to the habitation of Tettix, there to expiate his crime by appeasing the ghost of Archilochus. That place was called Taenarus; for there it was, as the report goes, that Tettix the Cretan, coming with a navy, landed, built a city not far from the Psychopompaeum (or place where ghosts are conjured up), and stored it with inhabitants. In like manner, when the Spartans were commanded by the oracle to atone the ghost of Pausanias, they sent for several exorcisers and conjurers out of Italy, who by virtue of their sacrifices chased the apparition out of the temple.

> Greek: 17. ἔτι δʼ ἐμοῦ λέγοντος, ὑπολαβὼν ὁ Ὀλύμπιχος ἔοικας ἔφη τῷ λόγῳ μεγάλην ὑπόθεσιν ὑποτίθεσθαι, τὴν ἐπιμονὴν τῆς ψυχῆς. καὶ ὑμῶν γʼ εἶπον ἐγώ διδόντων μᾶλλον δὲ δεδωκότων· ὡς γὰρ τοῦ θεοῦ τὸ κατʼ ἀξίαν νέμοντος ἡμῖν, ὁ λόγος ἐξ ἀρχῆς δεῦρο προελήλυθε κἀκεῖνος εἶτα δʼ ἔφη νομίζεις ἕπεσθαι τῷ τοὺς θεοὺς ἐπιβλέπειν καὶ νέμειν ἕκαστα τῶν καθʼ ἡμᾶς τὸ τὰς ψυχὰς ὑπάρχειν ἢ, πάμπαν ἀφθάρτους ἢ χρόνον τινὰ μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν ἐπιμενούσας; οὔκ, ὦ γαθέ εἶπον ἀλλὰ μικρὸς οὕτω καὶ κενόσπουδος ὁ θεός ἐστιν, ὥστε μηδὲν ἡμῶν ἐχόντων θεῖον ἐν αὑτοῖς μηδὲ προσόμοιον ἁμωσγέπως ἐκείνῳ καὶ διαρκὲς καὶ βέβαιον, ἀλλὰ φύλλοις, ὡς Ὅμηρος ἔφη, παραπλησίως ἀπομαραινομένων παντάπασι καὶ φθινόντων ἐν ὀλίγῳ, ποιεῖσθαι λόγον τοσοῦτον, ὥσπερ αἱ τοὺς Ἀδώνιδος κήπους ἐπʼ ὀστράκοις τισὶ τιθηνούμεναι καὶ θεραπεύουσαι γυναῖκες, ἐφημέρους ψυχὰς ἐν σαρκὶ τρυφερᾷ καὶ βίου ῥίζαν ἰσχυρὰν οὐ δεχομένῃ βλαστανούσας, εἶτʼ ἀποσβεννυμένας εὐθὺς ὑπὸ τῆς τυχούσης προφάσεως· εἰ δὲ βούλει, τοὺς ἄλλους θεοὺς ἐάσας σκόπει τουτονὶ τὸν ἐνταυθοῖ τὸν ἡμέτερον, εἴ σοι δοκεῖ, τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν τελευτώντων ἀπολλυμένας ἐπιστάμενος εὐθύς, ὥσπερ ὁμίχλας ἢ καπνοὺς ἀποπνεούσας τῶν σωμάτων, ἱλασμούς τε πολλοὺς προσφέρειν τῶν κατοιχομένων καὶ γέρα μεγάλα καὶ τιμὰς ἀπαιτεῖν τοῖς τεθνηκόσιν, ἐξαπατῶν καὶ φενακίζων τοὺς πιστεύοντας. ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἂν προείμην τῆς ψυχῆς τὴν διαμονήν, εἰ μή τις, ὥσπερ ὁ Ἡρακλῆς, ὑφελὼν τὸν τρίποδα τῆς Πυθίας ἀναιρήσει καὶ διαφθερεῖ τὸ χρηστήριον. ἄχρι δὲ τοῦ πολλὰ τοιαῦτα προθεσπίζεσθαι καὶ καθʼ ἡμᾶς, οἷα καὶ Κόρακι τῷ Ναξίῳ χρησθῆναι λέγουσιν, οὐχ ὅσιόν ἐστι τῆς ψυχῆς καταγνῶναι θάνατον καὶ ὁ Πατροκλέας τί δʼ ἦν ἔφη τὸ χρησθὲν ἢ τίς ὁ Κόραξ οὗτος; ὡς ἐμοὶ καὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα καὶ τοὔνομα ξένον. οὐδαμῶς εἶπον, ἀλλʼ αἴτιος ἐγὼ παρωνύμῳ χρησάμενος ἀντὶ τοῦ ὀνόματος. ὁ γὰρ· ἀποκτείνας ἐν τῇ μάχῃ τὸν Ἀρχίλοχον ἐκαλεῖτο Καλλώνδης, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἦν δʼ αὐτῷ Κόραξ ἐπωνύμιον. ἐκβληθεὶς δὲ τὸ πρῶτον ὑπὸ τῆς Πυθίας ὡς ἱερὸν ἄνδρα τῶν Μουσῶν ἀνῃρηκώς, εἶτα χρησάμενος. λιταῖς τισι καὶ προστροπαῖς μετὰ δικαιολογίας ἐκελεύσθη πορευθεὶς ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ Τέττιγος οἴκησιν ἱλάσασθαι τὴν τοῦ Ἀρχιλόχου ψυχήν. τοῦτο δʼ ἦν ὁ Ταίναρος· ἐπεῖ γάρ φασιν ἐλθόντα μετὰ στόλου Τέττιγα τὸν Κρῆτα πόλιν κτίσαι καὶ κατοικῆσαι παρὰ τὸ ψυχοπομπεῖον. ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ Σπαρτιάταις χρησθὲν ἱλάσασθαι τὴν Παυσανίου ψυχήν, ἐξ Ἰταλίας μεταπεμφθέντες οἱ ψυχαγωγοὶ καὶ θύσαντες ἀπεσπάσαντο τοῦ ἱεροῦ τὸ εἴδωλον.

[¶7] 18. Therefore, said I, there is one and the same reason to confirm the providence of God and the immortality of the soul; neither is it possible to admit the one, if you deny the other. Now then, the soul surviving after the decease of the body, the inference is the stronger that it partakes of punishment and reward. For during this mortal life the soul is in continual combat like a wrestler; but after all those conflicts are at an end, she then receives according to her merits. But what the punishments and what the rewards of past transgressions or just and laudable actions are to be while the soul is thus alone by itself, is nothing at all to us that are alive; for either they are altogether concealed from our knowledge, or else we give but little credit to them. But those punishments that reach succeeding posterity, being conspicuous to all that are living at the same time, restrain and curb the inclinations of many wicked persons. Now I have a story that I lately heard, which I might relate to show that there is no punishment more grievous or that touches more to the quick, than for a man to behold his children born of his body suffering for his crimes; and that, if the soul of a wicked and lawless criminal were to look back to earth and behold, not his statues overturned and his dignities reversed, but his own children, his friends, or his nearest kindred ruined and overwhelmed with calamity, such a person, were he to return to life again, would rather choose the refusal of all Jupiter’s honors than abandon himself a second time to his wonted injustice and extravagant desires. This story, I say, I could relate, but that I fear lest you should censure it for a fable. And therefore I deem it much the better way to keep close to what is probable and consentaneous to reason. By no means, replied Olympicus; but proceed, and gratify us with your story also, since it was so kindly offered. Thereupon, when the rest of the company likewise made me the same request, Permit me, said I, in the first place, to pursue the rational part of my discourse, and then, according as it shall seem proper and convenient, if it be a fable, you shall have it as cheap as I heard it.

> Greek: 18. εἷς οὖν ἐστιν ἔφην λόγος ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν πρόνοιαν ἅμα καὶ τὴν διαμονὴν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ψυχῆς βεβαιῶν, καὶ θάτερον οὐκ ἔστιν ἀπολιπεῖν ἀναιροῦντα θάτερον. οὔσῃ δὲ τῇ ψυχῇ μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν μᾶλλον εἰκός ἐστι καὶ τιμὰς ἀποδίδοσθαι καὶ τιμωρίας·· ἀγωνίζεται γὰρ ὥσπερ ἀθλητὴς κατὰ τὸν βίον· ὅταν δὲ διαγωνίσηται, τότε τυγχάνει τῶν προσηκόντων. ἀλλʼ ἃς μὲν ἐκεῖ καθʼ ἑαυτὴν οὖσα κομίζεται τῶν προβεβιωμένων χάριτας ἤ τινας κολάσεις, οὐδέν εἰσι πρὸς ἡμᾶς τοὺς ζῶντας, ἀλλʼ ἀπιστοῦνται καὶ λανθάνουσιν αἱ δὲ διὰ τῶν παίδων ἰοῦσαι καὶ διὰ γένους, ἐμφανεῖς τοῖς δεῦρο γενόμεναι, πολλοὺς ἀποτρέπουσι καὶ συστέλλουσι τῶν πονηρῶν. ὅτι δʼ οὐκ ἔστιν αἰσχίων καὶ λυποῦσα μᾶλλον ἑτέρα κόλασις ἢ τοὺς ἐξ ἑαυτῶν κακὰ πάσχοντας διʼ αὑτοὺς ὁρᾶν, καὶ ὅτι ψυχὴν ἀνδρὸς; ἀσεβοῦς καὶ παρανόμου μετὰ θάνατον ἐφορῶσαν οὐκ ἀνδριάντας οὐδὲ τιμάς τινας, ἀνατρεπομένας ἀλλὰ παῖδας ἢ φίλους ἢ γένος οἰκεῖον αὑτῆς ἀτυχήμασι χρωμένους μεγάλοις διʼ αὑτὴν καὶ δίκην τίνοντας, οὐδεὶς ἂν ἀναπείσειεν αὖθις ἐπὶ ταῖς τοῦ Διὸς τιμαῖς ἄδικον γενέσθαι καὶ ἀκόλαστον, ἔχω μέν τινα καὶ· λόγον εἰπεῖν ἔναγχος ἀκηκοώς, ὀκνῶ δὲ μὴ φανῇ μῦθος ὑμῖν· μόνῳ οὖν χρῶμαι τῷ εἰκότι. μηδαμῶς εἶπεν ὁ Ὀλύμπιχος ἀλλὰ δίελθε κἀκεῖνον τὰ δʼ αὐτὰ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων δεομένων, ἐάσατʼ εἶπον ἀποδοῦναί με τῷ λόγῳ τὸ εἰκός· ὕστερον δὲ τὸν μῦθον, ἐὰν δόξῃ, κινήσομεν, εἴ γε δὴ μῦθός ἐστιν.

[¶8] 19. Bion was of opinion that God, in punishing the children of the wicked for the sins of their fathers, seems more irregular than a physician that should administer physic to a son or a grandchild, to cure the distemper of a father or a grandfather. But this comparison does not run cleverly; since the amplification of the similitude agrees only in some things, but in others is altogether defective. For if one man be cured of a disease by physic, the same medicine will not cure another; nor was it ever known that any person troubled with sore eyes or laboring under a fever was ever restored to perfect health by seeing another in the same condition anointed or plastered. But the punishments or executions of malefactors are done publicly in the face of the world, to the end that, justice appearing to be the effect of prudence and reason, some may be restrained by the correction inflicted upon others. So that Bion never rightly apprehended where the comparison answered to our question. For oftentimes it happens, that a man comes to be haunted with a troublesome though not incurable disease, and through sloth and in temperance increases his distemper, and weakens his body to that degree that he occasions his own death. After this, it is true, the son does not fall sick; only he has received from his father’s seed such a habit of body as makes him liable to the same disease; which a good physician or a tender friend or a skilful apothecary or a careful master observing confines him to a strict and spare diet, restrains him from all manner of superfluity, keeps him from all the temptations of delicious fare, wine, and women, and making use of wholesome and proper physic, together with convenient exercise, dissipates and extirpates the original cause of a distemper at the beginning, before it grows to a head and gets a masterless dominion over the body. And is it not our usual practice thus to admonish those that are born of diseased parents, to take timely care of themselves, and not to neglect the malady, but to expel the original nourishment of the inbred evil, as being then easily movable and apt for expulsion? It is very true, cried they. Therefore, said I, we cannot be said to do an absurd thing, but what is absolutely necessary,—nor that which is ridiculous, but what is altogether useful,—while we prescribe to the children of the epileptic, the hypochondriacal, and those that are subject to the gout, such exercises, diet, and remedies as are proper, not so much because they are at that time troubled with the distemper, as to prevent the malady. For a man begotten by an unsound body does not therefore deserve punishment, but rather the preservation of proper physic and good regimen; which if any one call the punishment of fear or effeminacy, because the person is debarred his pleasures and put to some sort of pain by cupping and blistering, we mind not what he says. If then it be of such importance to preserve, by physic and other proper means, the vitiated offspring of another body, foul and corrupted; ought we to suffer the hereditary resemblances of a wicked nature to sprout up and bud in the youthful character, and to wait till they are diffused into all the affections of the mind, and bring forth and ripen the malignant fruit of a mischievous disposition? For such is the expression of Pindar.

> Greek: 19. ὁ γὰρ Βίων τὸν θεὸν κολάζοντα τοὺς παῖδας τῶν πονηρῶν γελοιότερον εἶναί φησιν ἰατροῦ, διὰ νόσον πάππου καὶ πατρὸς ἔκγονον ἢ παῖδα φαρμακεύοντος. ἔστι δὲ πῆ μὲν ἀνόμοια τὰ πράγματα πῆ δʼ ἐοικότα καὶ ὅμοια. νόσου μὲν γὰρ ἄλλος ἄλλον οὐ παύει θεραπευόμενος, οὐδὲ βέλτιόν τις ἔσχε τῶν ὀφθαλμιώντων ἢ πυρεττόντων ἰδὼν ἄλλον ὑπαλειφόμενον ἢ καταπλαττόμενον αἱ δὲ τιμωρίαι τῶν πονηρῶν διὰ τοῦτο δείκνυνται πᾶσιν, ὅτι δίκης κατὰ λόγον περαινομένης ἔργον ἐστὶν ἑτέρους διʼ ἑτέρων κολαζομένων ἐπισχεῖν. δὲ προσέοικε τῷ ζητουμένῳ τὸ παραβαλλόμενον ὑπὸ τοῦ Βίωνος ἔλαθεν αὐτόν· ἤδη γὰρ ἀνδρὸς εἰς νόσημα μοχθηρὸν οὐ μὴν ἀνίατον ἐμπεσόντος, εἶτʼ ἀκρασίᾳ καὶ μαλακίᾳ προεμένου τῷ πάθει τὸ σῶμα καὶ διαφθαρέντος υἱὸν οὐ δοκοῦντα νοσεῖν, ἀλλὰ μόνον ἐπιτηδείως ἔχοντα πρὸς τὴν αὐτὴν νόσον ἰατρὸς ἢ οἰκεῖος ἢ ἀλείπτης καταμαθὼν ἢ δεσπότης χρηστός, ἐμβαλὼν εἰς δίαιταν αὐστηρὰν καὶ ἀφελὼν ὄψα καὶ πέμματα καὶ πότους καὶ γύναια, φαρμακείαις δὲ χρησάμενος ἐνδελεχέσι καὶ διαπονήσας τὸ σῶμα γυμνασίοις, ἐσκέδασε καὶ ἀπέπεμψε, μεγάλου πάθους σπέρμα μικρὸν οὐκ ἐάσας εἰς μέγεθος προελθεῖν. ἦ γὰρ οὐχ οὕτω παρακελευόμεθα, προσέχειν ἀξιοῦντες ἑαυτοῖς καὶ παραφυλάττεσθαι καὶ μὴ παραμελεῖν ὅσοι γεγόνασιν ἐκ πατέρων ἢ μητέρων νοσηματικῶν, ἀλλʼ εὐθὺς ἐξωθεῖν τὴν ἐγκεκραμένην ἀρχὴν εὐκίνητον οὖσαν καὶ ἀκροσφαλῆ προκαταλαμβάνοντας; πάνυ μὲν οὖν ἔφασαν. οὐ τοίνυν ἄτοπον εἶπον ἀλλʼ ἀναγκαῖον, οὐδὲ γελοῖον ἀλλʼ ὠφέλιμον πρᾶγμα ποιοῦμεν, ἐπιληπτικῶν παισὶ καὶ μελαγχολικῶν καὶ ποδαγρικῶν γυμνάσια καὶ διαίτας καὶ φάρμακα προσάγοντες οὐ νοσοῦσιν ἀλλʼ ἕνεκα τοῦ μὴ νοσῆσαι· τὸ γὰρ ἐκ πονηροῦ σώματος γιγνόμενον σῶμα τιμωρίας μὲν οὐδεμιᾶς ἰατρείας δὲ καὶ φυλακῆς ἄξιόν ἐστιν· ἣν εἴ τις, ὅτι τὰς ἡδονὰς ἀφαιρεῖ καὶ δηγμὸν ἐπάγει καὶ πόνον, τιμωρίαν ὑπὸ δειλίας καὶ μαλακίας ἀποκαλεῖ, χαίρειν ἐατέον. ἆρʼ οὖν σῶμα μὲν ἔκγονον φαύλου σώματος ἄξιόν ἐστι θεραπεύειν καὶ φυλάττειν, κακίας δὲ ὁμοιότητα συγγενικὴν ἐν νέῳ βλαστάνουσαν ἤθει καὶ ἀναφυομένην ἐᾶν δεῖ καὶ περιμένειν καὶ μέλλειν, ἄχρι ἐν ἐκχυθεῖσα τοῖς πάθεσιν ἐμφανὴς γένηται
κακόφρονά τʼ ἀμφάνῃ πραπίδων
καρπόν
ὥς φησι Πίνδαρος;