The gentlest of all Gods to mortals is declared.
And therefore Euripides rightly also said:
These mournful songs suit well with men deceased,
With which gold-haired Apollo’s no way pleased.
And before him Stesichorus:
Apollo joys in sports and pleasant tones,
But Pluto takes delight in griefs and moans.
Sophocles also evidently attributes to either of them his proper
instruments, in these words:
Neither the lute nor psaltery is fit
For mournful matters.
For it is but very lately, and in a manner of yesterday, that the pipe
has dared to introduce itself into delightful matters; having in former
times drawn men to mourning, and possessing about these things no very
honorable or splendid employment. But afterwards all was brought into
confusion, which was due especially to those who confounded the affairs
of the Gods with those of the Genii.
But the sentence, Know thyself, seems in one respect to contradict this
word _ΕΙ_, and in another to agree with it. For the one is pronounced
with admiration and veneration to God, as being eternal; and the other
is a remembrance to mortal men of their nature and infirmity.