But among the other things in which he confirms the power of fate, he

thinks as the most-approved philosophers have thought after him,--Plato,

Aristotle, and Theophrastus,--that not all things happen by fate, but

some things are in the power of men, the choice of whom is free. The

same man in a way acts as he desires and falls into what he does not

desire. And this point of view he has clearly expounded in many places,

as in the beginning of each of his poems: in the "Iliad" saying the

wrath of Achilles was the cause of the destruction of the Greeks and

that the will of Zeus was fulfilled; in the "Odyssey" that the comrades

of Odysseus went to their destruction by their own folly. For they had

offended by touching the sacred oxen of the Sun, although they could

have abstained from doing so. Yet it was foreordained (O. xi. 110):--

But if thou hurtest them, I signify ruin for thy ships, and

for thy men, and even though thou shalt thyself escape.

If thou doest them no hurt and art careful to return, so may

ye yet reach Ithaca, albeit in evil case.

So not to violate them depended on themselves, but that those who had

done the evil should perish follows from fate.

It is possible to avoid what happens accidentally by foresight as he

shows in the following (O. v. 436):--

Then of a truth would luckless Odysseus have perished beyond

what was ordained had not gray-eyed Athene given him some

counsel. He rushed in and with both his hands clutched the

rock whereto he clung till the great wave went by.

Then on the other hand running a great danger as he was, he had perished

by fortune; yet by prudence he was saved.

Just as about divine things there are many divine reasonings in the

philosophers taking their origin from Homer, so also with human affairs

it is the same. First we will take up the subject of the soul. The

most noble of the doctrines of Pythagoras and Plato is that the soul

is immortal. To it in his argument Plato affixed wings. Who first

determined this? Homer says this among other things (I. xvi. 856):--

But the soul flying on its members came to Hades,--i.e. into a formless

and invisible place, whether you think it in the air or under the earth.

But in the "Iliad" he makes the soul of Patroclus stand by the side of

Achilles (I. xxiii. 65):--

The soul of wretched Patroclus came.

He makes a small speech for him in which he says this (I. xxiii. 72):--

The spirits and spectres of departed men

Drove me from them, nor allow to

Cross the abhorred river.

In the "Odyssey" through the whole account of the descent to Hades what

else does he show but that souls survive after death, and when they

drink blood can speak. For he knows that blood is the food and drink of

the spirit, but spirit is the same thing as soul or the vehicle of the

soul.

123. Most clearly he reveals that he considers man is nothing else but

soul, where he says (O. xi. 90):--

There came up the soul of the Theban

Tiresias having a golden sceptre.

Purposely he changes the word for soul to the masculine, to show that it

was Tiresias. And afterward (O. xi. 601):--

And after him I described the mighty Heracles, his phantom

I say; but as for himself he hath joy at the banquet among the

deathless gods.

For here again he showed that the semblance thrown off from the body

appeared, but no longer connected with its matter. The purest part of

the soul had gone away; this was Heracles himself.

124. Whence that seems to philosophers a probable theory that the body

is in a way the prison house of the soul. And this Homer first revealed;

that which belongs to the living he calls [Greek omitted] (from

"binding") as in this line (I. i. 115):--

Not the body nor the nature.

O. iv. 196:--

A body came to the woman.

O. xvi. 251:--

By my form, my virtue, my body.

But that which has put off the soul he calls nothing else but body as in

these lines (I. vii. 79):--

To bring home my body again.

And (O. xxiv. 187):--

The bodies lie uncared for in the hall of Odysseus.

O. xi. 53:--

And we left the body in the house of Circe.

For the same thing, while a man lives, was the bond of the soul; when he

dies it is left, as it were, his monument.

To this is related also another doctrine of Pythagoras, namely, that the

souls of the dead pass into other forms of bodies. This did not escape

Homer's notice, for he made Hector talking with horses, and Antilochus

and Achilles himself not only talking with them but listening to them,

and a dog recognizing Odysseus before men, even before his intimates.

What other thing is he establishing but a community of speech and a

relation of soul between men and beasts? Besides, there are those who

ate up the oxen of the Sun and after this fell into destruction. Does he

not show that not only oxen but all other living creatures, as sharers

of the same common nature, are beloved by the gods?

The change of the comrades of Odysseus into swine and that type of

animal signifies this, that the souls of undeserving men are changed

into the likeness of brute beasts; they fall into the circular periphery

of the whole, which he calls Circe; whereas she is justly represented

as the child of the Sun, dwelling in the island of Aeaea, for this word

[Greek omitted] is so called because men lament and wail by reason of

death. But the prudent man Odysseus did not suffer the change, because

from Hermes, i.e. reason, he had received immortality. He went down into

Hades, as it were, dissolving and separating the soul from the body, and

became a spectator of souls both good and bad.

The Stoics define the soul as a cognate spirit, sensible to exhalations.

It has its origin from the humid portions of the body. In this they

follow Homer, who says (I. ix. 609).--

While the breath abides in the breast.

And again (I. xxiii. 100):--

Vanish'd like smoke, the spirit beneath the earth.

Here he makes the vital spirit, being humid, a breath; when it is

extinguished he likens it to smoke. And the word "spirit" itself he uses

for soul (I. xv. 262):--

His words fresh vigor in the chief infus'd.

And (I. iv. 524):--

Breathing away his spirit.

And (I. xxii. 475):--

But when her breath and spirit returned again.

That is, she collected her distracted spirit (I. v. 697):--

But soon revived, as on his forehead blew,

While yet he gasped for breath, the cooling breeze.

While his spirit was failing him in a faint, the outside breeze having

a natural affinity to it brought him back to life. This argument is

strengthened because for the external spirit he uses the word "soul,"

saying (I. xxiii. 440):--

He turned aside with lightest breath.

He wishes to say: "Having got back his breath."

Plato and Aristotle considered the soul incorporeal, but always

associating with the body and needing it as a vehicle. On this account,

then, it drew along the spiritual matter with it, oftentimes as an

image, which had the shape of the body impressed upon it. So therefore

Homer is never in his poetry found calling the soul body, but to what is

deprived of soul he always gives the name, as we have mentioned in what

has gone before.

The soul has, according to the views of the philosophers, a rational

part, seated in the head, and an irrational part of which one element,

the passionate, dwells in the heart and another, the appetitive, in the

intestines. Did not Homer see this distinction when he made in the case

of Achilles, the rational struggling with the passionate, deliberating

in the same moment whether he should drive off the one who had filled

him with grief or should stay his anger (I. i. 193):--

Up to this time he revolved these things in his mind

and heart,

that is, the intelligent part and what is opposed to it? The emotional

anger is represented by him as overcome by prudence. For the appearance

of Athene signifies this. And in these places he makes reason admonish

the emotions, as a ruler giving orders to a subject (O. xx. 18):--

Endure my heart; yea, a baser thing thou once didst bear.

And often the passionate element gives way to reason (I. xx. 22):--

Pallas indeed sat silent and though inly wroth with Jove,

yet answered not a word.

Likewise injury (I. xviii. 112):--

Though still my heart be sore,

Yet will I school my angry spirit down.

Sometimes he shows the passionate element getting the better of reason.

This he does not praise, but openly blames; as when Nestor speaks

upbraiding the insult offered by Agamemnon to Achilles (I. ix. 108):--

Not by my advice

I fain would have dissuaded thee; but thou,

Swayed by the promptings of a lofty soul,

Didst to our bravest wrong dishonoring him

Whom ev'n the Immortals honor'd.

Achilles speaks like things to Ajax (I. ix. 645):--

All thou hast said hath semblance just and fair,

But swells my heart with fury at the thought of him,

Of Agamemnon, who, amid the Greeks

Assembled, held me forth to scorn.

So, too, reason is paralysed by fear, where Hector deliberates whether

he will abide the conflict with Achilles (I. xxii. 129):--

Better to dare the fight and know at once

To whom Olympian Jove the triumph wills,

Then he withdraws when he gets near Achilles (I. xxii. 136):--

Nor dared he there await th' attack, but left

The gates behind, and terror-stricken fled.

It is also plain that he places the emotions about the heart. Anger as

(O. xx. 13):--

The heart within barked for him.

Grief (I. xiv. 128):--

How long, my son, wilt thou thy soul consume with grief

an mourning?

Then fear (I. x. 95):--

And leaps my troubled heart as tho' it would burst

My bosom's bounds; my limbs beneath me shake.

In the same way just as fear, so he declares daring to be about the

heart (I. xvi. 11):--

And fix'd in every breast

The fierce resolve to wage unwearied war.

From these passages the Stoics took the opinion that the leading

element is about the heart. That the appetitive element is placed in the

intestines in many places he declares; in these verses, for example (O.

xviii. 54):--

But my belly's call is urgent on me, that evil worker,--

and (O. xvii. 286):--

But now may conceal a ravening belly, a thing accursed.

And the causes which belong to the passionate element of the soul he

says happen by nature. For wrath created by grief he shows is a kind of

effervescence of the blood and the spirit in it as in the following (I.

i. 103):--

His dark soul filled with fury, and his eyes flashing like

flames of fire.

For he seemed to call spirit [Greek omitted], i.e. wrath, and this in

the case of those who are angry he thinks is extended and inflamed.

Again the spirit, if there is fear, is perturbed and made cold,

generates tremors and terrors and pallors in the body. Pallor, by the

heat coursing into the interior ruddiness leaves the surface. Tremor,

because being, confined within the spirit it shakes the body. Terror,

because when the moisture is congealed the hairs are contracted and

stand on end. All of these Homer clearly indicates when he says (I. xv.

4):--

Pallid from fear.

And (I. vii. 479):--

Pallid fear lay hold on him.

(I. x. 95):--

My valiant members tremble.

And (I. xxiv. 358):--

The old man heard, his mind confus'd with dread,

So grievously he fear'd that every hair

Upon his bended head did stand on end.

According to these passages for "feared" he says "frozen" and "fear" he

calls "freezing." On the other hand, for "daring" and "courage" he uses

[Greek omitted], "heat." Evil effects, he distinguishes in these ways.

Again when Aristotle considers indignation a mercy among the generous

emotions (for when good men are stirred because their neighors seem to

succeed beyond their worth, it is called indignation. When they, beyond

their desert, have misfortunes, it is called pity.) These two Homer

considers to belong, to the good, for he reckons them as belonging to

Zeus. Other passages he has as well as the following (I. xi. 542):--

But Jove, high-throned, the soul of Ajax filled with fear.

And in other places he pities him being chased about the wall.

What opinion the poet had about virtue and vice he shows in many places.

For since one part of the soul is intelligent and rational, and the

other devoid of reason and open to emotions, and on this account man has

a middle position between God and brute, he thinks the highest, virtue,

is divine, and the other extremity, evil, is brutelike. Just as later on

Aristotle thought, he adopts these principles in his companions. For

he always considers good men to be like gods, and as he says (I. ii.

167):--

By a counsel not, unworthy of Zeus.

Among the evil ones he names cowards (I. xiii. 102):--

Like to timid stags,--

and to sheep without a shepherd and to hares in flight. About those

borne headlong and heedlessly to anger (I. xvii. 20):--

Nor pard, nor lion, nor the forest boar,

Fiercest of beasts, and provident of his strength

In their own esteem

With Panthous' sons for courage nor may vie.

The laments of those grieving to no purpose he compares to the sounds of

birds (O. xvi. 218):--

Where Younglings the country folk have taken from the nest

ere yet they are fledged.

The Stoics who place virtue in apathy follow the passages in which he

takes up every feeling, saying about grief (I. xix. 218):--

Behoves us bury out of sight our dead,

Steeling our heart and weeping but a day.

And (I. xvi. 7):--

Why weep over Patroclus as a girl?

About anger (I. xviii. 107):--

May strife perish from gods and men.

About fear (I. v. 252):--

Do not speak of fear, if thou thinkest to persuade me.

And (O. xv. 494):--

Struck and smitten seeing fate and death, he fell heroicly

from the sword. So those challenged to single combat obey

fearlessly, and several arise to take the place of one.

And the wounded man has none the less abiding courage.

(I. xi. 388):--

And now because thy shaft has grazed my foot, thou mak'st

thy empty boast.

And every valiant person is likened to a lion, boar, to a torrent and

whirlwind.

Now the Peripatetics think that freedom from emotion is unattainable

by men. They bring in a certain mean; by taking away excess of feeling,

they define virtue by moderation. And Homer brings in the best men

neither feeble nor altogether fearless nor devoid of pain, but yet

differing from the worst in not being overcome extravagantly by their

feelings. For he says (I. xiii. 279):--

The cowards color changes, nor his soul

Within his heart its even balance keeps

But changing still, from foot to foot he shifts,

And in his bosom loudly beats his heart

Expecting death; and chatter all his teeth.

The brave man's color changes not with fear,

He knows the ambush ent'ring.

For it is evident that by taking away excessive fear from the good man

he leaves the mean between the two. The same must be thought about the

like emotions, pain and anger. To this effect is that verse of his (I.

vii. 215):--

The Trojans' limbs beneath them shrank with fear,

E'en Hector's heart beat quicker in his breast,

The others, even at the sight, trembled.

But he, in the midst of dangers being brave, was only troubled. So

he makes Dolon and Lycaon feeling fear; Ajax and Menelaus, turning

gradually and going away step by step, as lions driven from their

quarry. In the same way he shows the differences of those who grieve and

also of those who rejoice. As Odysseus, relating the way he deceived the

Cyclops, says (O. ix. 413):--

My heart within me laughed.

The suitors seeing the beggar laying on the ground (O. xviii. 100):--

But the proud wooers threw up their hands, and cried outright

for laughter.

But in more trivial matters the difference of moderation appears.

Odysseus though loving his wife, and seeing her lamenting on his

account, contains himself (O. xix. 211):--

His eyes kept steadfast between his eyelids as it were

horn or iron.

But the suitors who were in love with her when they saw her (O. xviii.

212):--

And straightways the knees of the wooers were loosened, and

their hearts were enchanted with love, and each one uttered

a prayer that he might be her bedfellow.

Such is the poet's treatment of the powers and passions of the soul.

Although there are various things said by the philosophers about the

chief end of virtue and happiness, it is agreed by all that virtue of

the soul is the greatest of goods. But the Stoics consider that virtue

by itself is sufficient for happiness, taking the cue from the Homeric

poems in which he has made the wisest and most prudent man on account

of virtue despising trouble and disregarding pleasure. As to the first

point in this way (O. iv. 242):--

Now all of them I could not tell or number, so many as were

the adventures of the patient Odysseus. He bruised himself

with unseemly stripes and cast a sorry covering over his

shoulders, and in the fashion of a servant he went into the

wide-wayed city of the foemen.

And as to the second, i.e. (O. ix. 29):--

Vainly Calypso, the fair goddess, would fain have kept me

with her in her hollow caves longing to have me for her lord.

Circe of Aia would have stayed me in her halls, longing to

have me for her lord. But never did they prevail upon my

heart within my breast.

Especially does he expound his opinion of virtue in the passages in

which he makes Achilles not only brave but most beautiful in form, and

swiftest of foot, and most illustrious in birth and distinguished in

race and aided by the chiefest of the gods; and Odysseus understanding

and firm in soul--in other respects not enjoying an equal fortune.

His stature and aspect not conspicuous, his parentage not altogether

noteworthy, his country obscure, hated by a god who was all but first.

None of these things prevented him from being famous, from gaining the

chief good of the soul.

But the Peripatetic School think the goods of the soul have the

pre-eminence, such as prudence, fortitude, temperance, justice.

Afterward are those of the body, such as health, strength, beauty,

swiftness; and there are besides external goods such as reputation,

nobility, wealth. For they think any one worthy of praise and admiration

if he, fortified by the protective virtues of the soul, holds out

against evils in the midst of sufferings, disease, want, unforeseen

accidents, but that this situation is not a desirable nor a happy one.

For not only the possession of virtue do they think good, but its use

and its activity. And these distinctions Homer directly showed, for he

always makes the gods (O. viii. 325):--

The givers of good things,--

these things also men pray the gods to furnish them, as being plainly

neither useless to them nor indifferent, but advantageous to happiness.

What the goods are men aim at, and through which they are called happy,

he declares in many places. But all of them together were centred in

Hermes (I. xxiv. 376):--

Blessed are thy parents in a son so grac'd,

In face and presence, and of mind so wise.

He bears witness to his beauty of body, his intelligence, and his

lineage. Separately he takes them up (I. vi. 156):--

On whom the gods bestowed

The gifts of beauty and of manly grace,

And Zeus poured out lordly wealth,--

for this, too, is a gift of God (O. vi. 188):--

For Zeus himself gives prosperity to mortals.

Sometimes he esteems honor a good (I. viii. 540):--

Would that I might be adored as Athene and Apollo.

Sometimes good fortune in children (O. iii. 196):--

So good a thing it is that a son of the dead should be left.

Sometimes, too, the benefit of one's family (O. xiii. 39):--

Pour ye the drink offering, and send me safe on my way, and

as for you, fare ye well. For now I have all my heart's

desire,--an escort and loving gifts. May the gods of heaven

give me good fortune with them and may I find my noble wife

in my home, and my friends unharmed while ye, for your part,

abide here, and make glad your gentle wives and children, and

may the gods vouchsafe all manner of good and may no evil

come, nigh the people.

That in a comparison of goods valor is better than wealth, he shows in

the following (I. ii. 872):--

With childish folly to the war he came,

Laden with stress of gold; yet naught availed

His gold to save him from the doom of death.

And (O. iv. 93):--

I have no joy of my lordship among these my possessions.

And that intelligence is better than beauty of form (O. viii. 169):--

For one man is feebler than another in presence, yet the

gods crown his words with beauty.

It is evident that bodily excellence and external things he considers

as good, and that without these virtue alone is not sufficient for

happiness he declares in the following way. He created two men who

attained to the height of virtue, Nestor and Odysseus, different indeed

from one another, but like one another in prudence and valor and power

of eloquence. He has made them not at all equal in fortune, but on the

side of Nestor he has placed the gods (O. iv. 208):--

Right easily is known that man's seed for whom Cronion

weaves the skein of luck at bridal and at birth, even as now

hath he granted prosperity to Nestor forever, for all his

days, that he himself should grow into smooth old age in his

halls, and his sons moreover should be wise and the best

of spearsmen.

But Odysseus, though shrewd and clever and prudent, he often calls

unfortunate. For Nestor goes back home quickly and safely, but Odysseus

wanders about for a long time and endures constantly innumerable

sufferings and dangers. So it is a desirable and blessed thing if

fortune is at hand helping and not opposing virtue.

How the possession of virtue is of no use unless it accomplishes

something, is evident from the passages where Patroclus complains to

Achilles and says (I. xvi. 31):--

Whoe'er may hope in future days by thee

To profit, if thou now forbear to save

The Greeks from shame and loss.

So he speaks to him because he makes his virtue useless by inactivity.

Achilles himself deplores his inactivity (I. xviii. 104:):--

But idly here I sit cumb'ring the ground,

I, who amid the Greeks no equal own

In fight,--

for he laments because though possessing virtue he does not make use of

it; but being indignant with the Greeks (I. i. 490):--

No more he sought

The learned council, nor the battlefield;

But wore his soul away, and only pined

For the fierce joy and tumult of the fight.

And so Phoenix admonished him (I, ix. 433):--

To teach thee how to frame

Befitting speech, and mighty deeds achieve.

After his death he is indignant at that inertia, saying (O. xi. 489):--

Rather would I live upon the soil as the hireling of another

with a lordless man who had no great livelihood, than bear

sway among the dead that are no more.

And he adds the cause (O. xi. 498):--

For I am no longer his champion under the sun, so mighty a

man as once I was, when in wide Troy I slew the best of the

host, succoring the Argives.

That saying of the Stoics, that good men are friends of the gods, is

taken from Homer, who says about Amphiaerus (O. xv. 245):--

Whom Zeus, lord of the ages, and Apollo loved with all

manner of love.

And of Odysseus (O. iii. 52):--

And Athene rejoiced in the wisdom and judgment of the man.

There is, too, an opinion of the same philosophic school that virtue is

teachable, and has for its beginning good birth. For Homer says (O. iv.

206):--

And from such a sire thou too art sprung, wherefore thou dost

even speak wisely.

And by training it is brought to perfection. For virtue is the knowledge

of living rightly, i.e. of doing the things which it is necessary for

those who live well to do. These principles can also be found in Homer,

for he says (I. ix. 440):--

Inexperienced yet in war, that sorrow brings alike on all

And sage debate in which attends renown.

And in other places (I. vi. 446):--

Nor did my heart compel me, since I had learnt to be good,

And Phoenix says of Achilles (I. ix. 442):--

Me then he sent, to teach thee how to frame

Befitting speech, and mighty deeds achieve.

For since life is made up of acts and speech, therefore he says he was

the young man's teacher in these things. From what has been said it is

plain that he declares the whole of virtue to be teachable. So, then,

Homer is the first philosopher in ethics and in philosophy.

Now to the same science belongs arithmetic and music, which Pythagoras

especially honored. Let us see whether these are mentioned by our poet.

Very often. A few examples from very many will suffice. For Pythagoras

thought number had the greatest power and reduced everything to

numbers--both the motions of the stars and the creation of living

beings. And he established two supreme principles,--one finite unity,

the other infinite duality. The one the principle of good, the other of

evil. For the nature of unity being innate in what surrounds the whole

creation gives order to it, to souls virtue, to bodies health, to cities

and dwellings peace and harmony, for every good thing is conversant

with concord. The nature of duality is just the contrary,--to the air

disturbance, to souls evil, to bodies disease, to cities and dwellings

factions and hostilities. For every evil comes from discord and

disagreement. So he demonstrates of all the successive numbers that

the even are imperfect and barren; but the odd are full and complete,

because joined to the even they preserve their own character. Nor in

this way alone is the odd number superior, but also added to itself

it generates an even number. For it is creative, it keeps its original

force and does not allow of division, since PER SE the mind is

superior. But the even added to itself neither produces the odd nor

is indivisible. And Homer seems to place the nature of the one in the

sphere of the good, and the nature of the dual in the opposite many

times. Often he declares a good man to be [Greek omitted] "kind" and the

adjective from it is "benignity"; as follows (I. ii. 204):--

It is not good for many to reign, let there be but one ruler.

And (O. iii. 127):--

We never spake diversely either in the assembly or in the

council, but always were of one mind.

He always makes use of the uneven number as the better. For making

the whole world to have five parts, three of these being the mean, he

divides it (I. xv. 189):--

Threefold was our portion each obtained,

His need of honor due.

Therefore, too, Aristotle thought there were five elements, since the

uneven and perfect number had everywhere the predominance. And to the

heavenly gods he gives the uneven shares. For Nestor nine times to

Poseidon sacrificed nine bulls; and Tiresias bids Odysseus sacrifice (O.

xi. 131):--

A ram and a bull and a boar, the mate of swine.

But Achilles immolated for Patroclus, all in even numbers, four horses

and (I. xxiii. 175):--

Twelve noble sons he slew, the sons of Troy,--

and of nine dogs he casts two on the pyre, in order to leave for himself

seven. And in many places he uses the ternary, quinary, and septenary

number, especially the number nine (I. vii. 161):--

The old man spoke reproachfully; at his words

Uprose nine warriors.

And (O. xi. 311):--

At nine seasons old they were of breadth nine cubits, and

nine fathoms in height.

(I. i. 53):--

Nine days the heavenly Archer on the troops hurl'd his

dread shafts.

And (I. vi 174):--

Nine days he feasted him, nine oxen slew.

Why pray, is the number nine the most perfect? Because it is the square

of the first odd number, and unevenly odd since it is divided into three

triads, of which again each is divided into three units.

But not only the virtue of numbers but a natural way of counting he

showed, as in the catalogue of ships he made (I. ii. 509):--

With these came fifty ships; and in each

Were sixscore youths, Boeotia's noblest flow'r.

And again (I. xvi. 170):--

They were fifty men.

Whence it is possible to compute that as all the ships were near 1200,

and each had 100 men, the whole number is 12 myriads--120,000.

Again speaking. of the Trojans (I. viii. 563):--

A thousand fires burnt brightly; and round each

Sat fifty warriors in the ruddy glare.

He enables one to compute that without counting allies they were 50,000

men.

Now music being closest to the soul, since it is a harmony produced by

different elements, by melodies, and by rhythms, intensifies what is

relaxed and relaxes the intense. The Pythagoreans have clearly proved

this, and before them Homer. For he gives praise to music, in the case

of the Sirens, to which he adds the following (O. xii. 188)

And had joy thereof and gone on his way the wiser.

In another place he introduces in banquets the lyre, as among the

suitors (O. xvii. 271):--

And the voice of the lyre is heard there which the gods made

to be mate of the feast.

And at the house of Alcinous the player on the lyre (O. vii. 266):--

Was composing a beautiful song.

And at marriages (I. xviii. 495):--

The pipes and lyres were sounding.

And in the works of the vintage (I. xvii. 569):--

A boy amid them, from a clear-ton'd pipe

Drew lovely music; well his liquid voice

The strings accompanied.

Besides in war (I. x. 13):--

Of pipes and flutes he heard the sound.

Also he uses music to express grief (I. xxiv. 721):--

Poured forth the music of the mournful dirge,

by the sweetness of melodies softening the bitterness of the soul.

It is clear that melody is twofold,--one of the voice, the other of

instruments, partly wind, partly string. Of sound some are bass, some

treble. These differences Homer knew, since he represents women and boys

with treble voices, by reason of the tenuity of their breath; men, he

makes with bass voices. As in the following (I. xviii. 70):--

She with bitter cry

Clasped in her hands his head, and

Sorrowing spoke.

And again (I. ix. 16):--

So with deep groans he thus addressed the Greeks.

But old men like the locusts (I. iii. 151) he compares to shrill-voiced

creatures. Instruments whose strings are thin and vibrate quickly,

easily cut the air, and give an acute sound. Those with thick ones,

through the slow movement, have a deep sound. Homer calls the pipe

acute--acute because being thin it gives an acute sound. Homer has this

information about music.

Since we are speaking here about Pythagoras, to whom taciturnity and

not expressing those things which it is wrong to speak were especially

pleasing, let us see whether Homer had also this opinion. For about

those drunken with wine he says (O. xiv. 466):--

And makes him speak out a word which were better unsaid.

And Odysseus upbraids Thersites (I. ii. 246):--

Thou babbling fool Therites, prompt of speech,

Restrain thy tongue.

And Ajax speaks, blaming Idomeneus (I. xxiii. 478):--

But thou art ever hasty in thy speech.

And ill becomes thee this precipitance

And while the armies are entering the fight (I. iii. 2-8):--

With noise and clarmor, as a flight of birds,

The men of Troy advanced,

On th'other side the Greeks in silence mov'd.

Clamor is barbaric, silence is Greek. Therefore he has represented the

most prudent man as restrained, in speech. And Odysseus exhorts his son

(O. xvi. 300):--

If in very truth thou art my son and of our blood, then let

no man hear that Odysseus is come home; neither let Laertes

know it nor the swineherd nor any of the household nor

Penelope herself.

And again he exhorts him (O. xix. 42):--

Hold thy peace and keep all this in thine heart and ask

not thereof.

So the opinions of famous philosophers have their origin in Homer.

If it is necessary to mention those who elected for themselves certain

individual views, we could find them taking their source in Homer.

Democritus in constructing his "idola," or representative forms, takes

the thought from the following passage (I. v. 449):--

Meanwhile Apollo of the silver bow

A phantom form prepar'd, the counterpart

Of great Aeneas and alike in arms.

Others deviated into error in ways he would not approve of, but he

represented them as fitting to the special time. For when Odysseus was

detained with Alcinous, who lived in pleasure and luxury, he speaks to

him in a complimentary way (O. ix. 5):--

Nay, as for me I say that there is no more gracious or perfect

delight than when a whole people make merry, and the men sit

orderly at feasts in the halls and listen to the singer, and

the tables by them laden with food and flesh, and a winebearer

drawing the wine serves it into the cups. The fashion seems

to me the fairest thing in the world.

Led by these words, Epicurus took up the opinion that pleasure was

the SUMMUM BONUM. And Odysseus himself is at one time covered with a

precious and thin woven garment, sometimes represented in rags with

a wallet. Now he is resting with Calypso, now insulted by Iros and

Melantheus. Aristippus taking the model of this life not only struggled

valiantly with poverty and toil, but also intemperately made use of

pleasure.

But it is possible to take these as specimens of Homer's wisdom, because

he first enunciated the many excellent sayings of the Wise Men, as

"follow God" (I. i. 218):--

Who hears the gods, of them his prayers are heard,

And "nothing too much" (O. xv. 70):--

I think it shame even in another heart, who loves overmuch

or hates overmuch; measure is in all things best.

And the expression (O. viii. 351):--

A pledge is near to evil,

Evil are evil folks' pledges to hold.

And that saying of Pythagoras to one who asked who is a friend said "an

ALTER EGO."

Homer's parallel saying is (O. xviii. 82):--

The equal to my head.

Belonging to the same species of Apothegm is what is called the Gnome,

a universal expression about life stated briefly. All poets and

philosophers and orators have used it and have attempted to explain

things gnomically. Homer was the first to introduce in his poetry many

excellent Gnomes stating a principle he wishes to lay down; as when he

says (I. i. 80):--

And terrible to men of low estate the anger of a king.

And again what must needs be done or not done (I. ii 24):--

To sleep all night but ill becomes a chief.

Of Homer's many good sayings and admonitions not a few afterward have

been paraphrased. Some examples of these should find a place here; as

the following passage of Homer (I. xv. 104):--

Fools are we all, who madly strive with Jove,

Or hope, by access to his throne, to sway

By word or deed his course! From all apart,

He all our counsels heeds not, but derides!

And boasts o'er all the immortal gods to reign.

Prepare, then, each his several woes to bear.

Like this is a saying of Pythagoras:--

Whatever pains mortals have from the gods, whatever fate

thou hast, bear it nor murmur.

And also these words of Euripides:--

Nor is it fitting to be indignant at events, no good comes

of it; but when things go wrong, if one bears them right,

they do go well.

Again Homer says (I. xxiv. 128):--

How long, my son, wilt thou thy soul consume with grief

and mourning?

So Pythagoras:--

Spare thy life, do not wear out thy soul.

Then Homer says (O. xviii. 136):--

For the spirit of men upon the earth is even as their day,

that comes upon them from the father of gods and men.

Archilochus, who imitates other things of Homer, has paraphrased this

too, saying:--

Such for mortal men, O Glaucus, son of Leptineus, is their

mind, as Zeus directs for a day.

And in other words, Homer says (I. xiii. 730):--

To one the gods have granted warlike might,

While in another's breast all-seeing Jove

Hath plac'd the spirit of wisdom and mind

Discerning for the common good of all.

By him are states preserved! and he himself

Best knows the value of the precious gift.

Euripides has followed this original:--

Cities are well ordered by the instructions of one man.

So, too, a house. One again is mighty in war. For one wise

judgment conquers many hands, but ignorance with a crowd

brings the most evil.

Where he makes Idomeneus exhorting his comrade, he says (I. xii. 322):--

O friend, if we survivors of this war

Could live from age and death forever free,

Thou shouldst not see me foremost in the fight,

Nor would I urge thee to the glorious field;

But since in man ten thousand forms of death

Attend, which none may 'scape, then on that we

May glory in others' gain, or they on us!

Aeschylus saying after him:--

Nor receiving many wounds in his heart does any one die,

unless the goal of life is run. Nor does any one sitting by

the hearth flee any better the decreed fate.

In prose, Demosthenes speaks as follows (O. xviii. 9):--

For all mortals, death is the end of life even if one keeps

himself shut up in a cell; it is necessary ever for good men

to attempt noble things and bravely to bear whatever God

may give.

Again take Homer (I. iii. 65):--

The gifts of Heav'n are not to be despis'd.

Sophocles paraphrases this, saying:--

This is God's gift; whatever the gods may give, one must never

avoid anything, my son.

In Homer there are the words (I. i. 249):--

From whose persuasive lips. Sweeter than

Honey flowed the stream of speech.

Theocritus said (I. vii. 82):--

Therefore the Muse poured in his mouth

Sweet nectar.

How, also, Aratus paraphrased this (I. xviii. 489):--

Sole star that never bathes in th' ocean wave,--

saying:--

The Bears protected from cerulean ocean.

(I. xv. 628):--

They win their soul from death,

is paraphrased:--

He escaped Hades by a small peg.

Let this be enough on this subject.

But civil discourse belongs to the rhetorical art, with which it seems

Homer was first to be familiar. If Rhetoric is the power of persuasive

speaking, who more than Homer depended on this power? He excels all in

eloquence; also in the grasp of his subject he reveals an equal literary

power.

And the first part of this art is Arrangement, which he exhibits in all

his poetry, and especially at the beginning of his narratives. For he

did not make the beginning of the "Iliad" at a distant period, but at

the time when affairs were developing with energy and had come to a

head. The more inactive periods, which came into past time, he goes over

in other places succinctly. The same he did in the "Odyssey," beginning

from the close of the times of Odysseus's wanderings, in which it was

clearly time to bring in Telemachus and to show the haughty conduct of

the suitors. Whatever happened to Odysseus in his wanderings before this

he introduces into Odysseus's narrative. These things he prefers to

show as more probable and more effective, when said by the one who

experienced them.

As therefore all orators make use of introductory remarks to get

the benevolent attention of their audience, so our poet makes use of

exordiums fitted to move and reach the hearer. In the "Iliad" he first

declares that he is about to say how many evils happened to the Achaeans

through the wrath of Achilles and the high-handed conduct of Agamemnon;

and in the "Odyssey" how many labors and dangers Odysseus encountered

and surmounted all of them by the judgment and perseverance of his soul.

And in each one of the exordiums he invokes the Muse that she may make

the value of what is said greater and more divine.

While the characters introduced by him are made to say many things

either to their relatives or friends or enemies or the people, yet to

each he assigns a fitting type of speech, as in the beginning he makes

Chryseis in his words to the Greeks use a most appropriate exordium.

First he desires for them that they may be superior to their enemies and

may return home, in order that he might gain their kindly feeling. Then

he demands his daughter. But Achilles being angered by the threat of

Agamemnon combines a speech for the Greeks and for himself, in order to

make them more friendly disposed. For, he says, all had proceeded to

the war, not on account Of some private enmity, but to please Agamemnon

himself and his brother, and he went on to say he had done many things

himself and had received a present not from Agamemnon and Menelaus,

but from the whole body of the Greeks. Agamemnon replying to him has no

difficulty in winning the crowd. For when Achilles says he means to sail

back home, on account of the insult he has received, he does not say

"go" but "flee," changing what is said abruptly into an attack on

Achilles reputation. And his words are:--

I do not exhort you to remain; there are here who value me.

And this was agreeable to his hearers.

And afterward he introduces Nestor, whom he had previously called sweet

in speech and a shrewd orator (I. i. 249):--

Whose voice flowed from his tongue sweeter than honey.

There could be no greater praise for an orator. He starts off with an

exordium by which he tries to change the minds of the contesting chiefs,

bidding them consider by opposing one another they give occasion of joy

to their enemies. He goes on to admonish both and to exhort them to give

heed to him as their elder. And by telling one to be prudent, he says

what gratifies the other. He advises Agamemnon not to take away what has

been given to a man who has labored much; Achilles, not to strive with

the king who is his superior. And he gives suitable praise to both:

to the one as ruling over more people; to the other, as having more

prowess. In this way he seeks to moderate them.

Again, in what follows, when Agamemnon saw the dream bearing good hopes

to him from Zeus, and exhorting him to arm the Greeks, did he not use

rhetorical art speaking to the multitude, saying the contrary of what

he wishes, to try their feeling and to see if they will be disgusted

by being compelled to do battle for him. But he speaks to please them.

Another of the men able to influence them bids them stay in their

tents, as if the king really wished this. For to those he speaks to he

indicates that he desires the contrary. Odysseus taking up these words,

and making use of a convenient freedom, persuades the leaders by his

mild language; the common people he compels by threats to heed their

superiors. Stopping the mutiny and agitation of the crowd, he persuades

all by his shrewd words, moderately blaming them for not carrying out

what they promised, and at the same time excusing them on the ground

that they have been idle for some time and have been deprived of what is

dearest to them. He persuades them to remain by the hope of the seer's

prophecy.

Likewise Nestor, using arguments unchanged indeed but tending to the

same end, and also using greater freedom to those who have been spoilt

by inaction, brings over the crowd. He places the blame of their

negligence on a few unworthy people and advises the rest. He threatens

the disobedient and immediately takes counsel with the king as to how

the forces are to be drawn up.

Again, when in the deeds of war the Greeks have partly succeeded and

partly failed and been reduced to terror, Diomed, since he has the

audacity of youth and freedom of speech by reason of his success,

before he had shown his valor, took the king's reproof in silence, but

afterward he turns on Agamemnon as if he had counselled flight through

cowardice. For he says (I. ix. 32):--

Atrides I thy folly must confront,

As is my right in council! thou, O King,

Be not offended.

In his speech he tries to advise him and at the same time deprecate his

anger. He then recites the things just performed by him, without envy,

saying (I. ix. 36):--

How justly so

Is known to all the Greeks both young and old.

Afterward he exhorts the Greeks, giving them indirect praise (I. ix.

40):--

How canst thou hope the sons of Greece shall prove

Such heartless cowards as thy words suppose?

And he shames Agamemnon, excusing him if he wishes to depart, saying the

others will be sufficient, or if all flee, he will remain alone with his

comrade and fight (I. ix. 48):--

Yet I and Sthenelaus, we two, will fight.

Nestor commends the excellence of his judgment and his actions. As to

the aim of the council he considers that, as the eldest, he has the

right to offer advice. And he continues endeavoring to arrange for

sending ambassadors to Achilles.

And in the embassy itself he makes the speakers employ different devices

of arguments. For Odysseus, at the opening of his speech, did not say

immediately that Agamemnon repented the taking away of Briseis, and

would give the girl back, and that he was giving some gifts immediately

and promised the rest later. For it was not useful, while his feelings

were excited, to remember these things. But first he wished to provoke

Achilles to sympathize with the misfortunes of the Greeks. Then he

suggests that later on he will want to remedy these disasters and will

not be able to. After this he recalls to him the advice of Peleus;

removing any resentment toward himself, he attributes it to the

character of his father as being more able to move him. And when he

seemed mollified, then he mentioned the gifts of Agamemnon and again

goes back to entreaties on behalf of the Greeks, saying that if

Agamemnon is justly blamed, at least it was a good thing to save those

who had never injured him.

It was necessary to have a peroration of this kind containing nothing to

irritate the hearer. He specifically recalls the purpose of the speech.

The final exhortation has something to stir him against the enemy, for

they are represented as despising him. "For now you can take Hector

if he stands opposed to you! Since he says none of the Greeks is his

equal." But Phoenix, fearing that he has used less entreaties than were

befitting, sheds tears. And first he agrees with his impulse, saying he

will not leave him if he sails away. This was pleasant for him to hear.

And he tells Achilles how Peleus intrusted Phoenix to bring Achilles up,

taking him as a child, and how he was thought worthy to be his teacher

in words and deeds. In passing he relates Achilles' youthful errors,

showing how this period of life is inconsiderate. And proceeding he

omits no exhortation, using briefly all rhetorical forms, saying that

it is a good thing to be reconciled with a suppliant, a man who has sent

gifts, and has despatched the best and most honored ambassadors; that he

himself was worthy to be heard, being his tutor and teacher; that if

he let the present occasion go, he would repent. He makes use of the

example of Meleager who, when called upon to help his fatherland, did

not heed until by the necessity of the calamities that overtook the city

he turned to defend, it. But Ajax used neither entreaty nor pity, but

freedom of speech. He determined to remove Achilles' haughtiness partly

by blaming him seasonably, partly by exhorting him genially not to

be completely embittered. For it befitted his excellency in virtue.

Replying to each of these Achilles shows nobility and simplicity. The

others he refutes cleverly and generously by bringing out worthy causes

of his anger; to Ajax he excuses himself. And to Odysseus he says

that he will sail away on the following day; then being stirred by the

entreaties of Phoenix, he says he will take counsel about leaving. Moved

by the free speech of Ajax, he confesses all that he intends to do: that

he will not go forth to fight until Hector gets as far as his tents and

the ships, after killing many of the Greeks. Then he says, "I think I

shall stop Hector no matter how earnestly he fights." And this argument

he offers in rebuttal to Odysseus about resisting the onslaught of

Hector.

In the words of Phoenix he shows that there is such a thing as the art

of Rhetoric. For he says to Achilles that he had taken him over (I. ix.

440):--

Inexperienced yet in war that sorrow brings alike on all

And sage debate, on which attends renown

Me then he sent, to teach thee how to frame

Befitting speech and mighty deeds achieve.

These words show that the power of speech especially makes men renowned.

It is besides possible to find in many other parts of his poems passages

pertaining to the art of Rhetoric. For he shows the method of accusation

and purgation elsewhere and in the place where Hector taxes his brother,

accusing him of cowardice and dissoluteness. Because he had this

character, he had injured those who were far different from him; so he

had become the cause of evil to his family. And Alexander softens his

brothers' temper by confessing he was rightly blamed; he wipes off the

charge of cowardice by promising to meet Menelaus in combat. And that

Homer was a skilful speaker, no one in his right mind would deny, for it

is all clear from reading his poems.

He did not overlook to give certain types to his speakers. He introduces

Nestor as agreeable and attractive to his hearers; Menelaus, fond of

brevity, attractive, and sticking to his subject; Odysseus, abundant

subtility of speech. These things Antenor testifies about the two

heroes; he had heard them when they came to Ilium as ambassadors. And

these characteristics of speech Homer himself introduces, displaying

them in all his poetry.

He was acquainted with Antithesis in eloquence. This in every subject

introduces the contrary, and proves and disproves the same thing by

clever handling of the art of logic. For he says (I. xx. 248):--

For glibly runs the tongue, and can at will

Give utt'rance to discourse in every vein;

Wide is the range of language, and such words

As one may speak, another may return.

He knew how to say the same things at length, and to repeat them

briefly, which is called Recapitulation, and is used by orators whenever

it is necessary to recall briefly the numerous things which have been

said. For what Odysseus related in four books in the Phaeacians, these

he goes over again shortly in the passage beginning (O. xxiii. 310):--

He began by setting forth how he overcame the Cicones, etc.

But civil discourse embraces also knowledge of laws. No one can really

say whether the word "law" was used in his time. Some say that he

certainly knew it, for he said (O. xvii. 487):--

To watch the violence and righteousness of men.

Aristachus says the word "righteousness" ([Greek omitted]) comes from

the words "to distribute well." Hence law ([Greek omitted]) seems to be

called, because it distributes ([Greek omitted]) equal parts to all or

to each according to his worth. But that he knew the force of law was

conserved, if not in writing at least in the opinion of men, he shows

in many ways. For he makes Achilles talking about the sceptre say (I. i.

237):--

And now 'tis borne,

Emblem of justice, by the sons of Greece,

Who guard the sacred ministry of law

Before the face of Jove.

For usages and customs, the laws of which Zeus is reported as the

lawgiver, with whom Minos the king of the Cretans had converse men say;

which converse is, as Plato bears witness, the learning of the laws.

Clearly in his poems he reveals that it is necessary to follow the laws

and not to do wrong (O. xviii. 141):--

Wherefore let no man forever be lawless any more, but keep

quietly the gifts of the gods, whatsoever they may give.

Homer first of all divided into different parts civil polity. For in

the shield which was made in imitation of the whole world by Hephaestus

(that is, spiritual power) he imagined two cities to be contained:

one enjoying peace and happiness; the other at war, and exposing the

advantages of each he shows that the one life is civil and the other

military. Neither did he pass over even the agricultural. But he showed

this, too, making it clear and beautiful in his language.

In every city it is sanctioned by the law that there is to be a meeting

of a council to consider before the popular assembly is called together.

This is evident from the words of Homer (I. ii. 53):--

But first of all the Elders

A secret conclave Agamemnon called.

Agamemnon collects the Elders, and examines with them how to arm the

people for the fight.

And that it is necessary for the leader before all things to care for

the salvation of the whole, he teaches in his characters by the advice

he gives (I. ii. 24):--

To sleep all night but ill becomes a chief.

And how it is necessary for subjects to obey their leader, and how the

commander should bear himself toward each class; Odysseus shows this,

persuading the superior class by soft words, but using toward the crowd

bitter words of rebuke.

To rise up for one's superiors is sanctioned in all laws. This the gods

themselves do in the case of Zeus (I. i. 535):--

At his entrance all

Rose from their seats at once; not one presumed

To wait his coming.

There is a rule among most that the eldest shall speak. Diomed by

necessity of the war having dared to speak first, requests to be

pardoned (I. xiv. 111):--

Nor take offence that I,

The youngest of all, presume to speak.

And it is an universal rule that voluntary offences are punished and

involuntary ones are excused. This, too, the poet shows, in what the

minstrel says (O. xxii. 350):--

And Telemachus will testify of this, thine own dear son, that

not by mine own will or desire did I resort to thy house to

sing to the wooers after their feasts; but being so many and

stronger than I, they led me by constraint.

There are three forms of polity intended to attain justice and good

laws,--Royalty, Aristocracy, and Democracy. To these are opposed three

which end in injustice and lawlessness,--Tyranny, Oligarchy, and Mob

Rule. Homer does not seem ignorant of these. Throughout his whole poem

he names kingly rule and praises it; for example (I. ii. 196):--

For fierce his anger, and the Lord of counsel, Jove,

From whom proceeds all honor, loves him well.

And what sort of a man a king must be, he plainly reveals (O. ii.

236):--

Be kind and gentle with all his heart.

And (O. iv. 690):--

One that wrought no iniquity toward any man, nor spake aught

unrighteous in the township, as is the wont of divine kings.

And severally where he enumerates five kings of the Boeotians, and among

the Phaeacians (O. viii. 390):--

Behold there are twelve glorious princes who rule among this

people and bear sway, and I myself am the thirteenth.

The image of democracy he shows clearly on the shield, in which he makes

two cities. The one he says is ruled democratically, since they have no

leader, yet all by their own will conduct themselves according to the

laws; then, too, he introduces a trial proceeding. And he exhibits a

democracy when he says (O. xvi. 425):--

In fear of the people, for they were exceedingly wroth against

him, because he had followed with Topheon sea-robbers and

harried the Thesprotians, who were at peace with us.

A man ruling with violence and contrary to the laws he does not call a

tyrant, for the name is of more recent date. But his nature he exhibits

in his deeds (O. vxiii. 85):--

And send thee to the mainland to Echetus the king, the maimer

of all mankind, who will cut off thy nose and ears with the

pitiless steel.

And he shows Aegisthus tyrannical, who killed Agamemnon and lorded over

Mycenae. And when he was killed he says he would have had no sepulchre

if Menelaus had been there. For this was the custom with tyrants (O.

iii. 258):--

Then even in his death would they not have heaped the piled

earth over him, but dogs and fowls of the air would have

devoured him as he lay on the plain far from the town:

so dread was the deed he contrived.

Oligarchy he seems to show in the ambition of the suitors, about whom he

says (O. i. 247):--

As many as lord it in rocky Ithaca.

He describes the mob rule in the Trojan government in which all are

accomplices of Alexander and all are involved in misfortunes. Priam

accuses his sons of being the cause (I. xxiv. 253):--

Haste, worthless sons, my scandal and my shame!

And also another Trojan, Antimachus (I. xi. 124):--

'Twas he who chief

Seduc'd by Paris' gold and splendid gifts

Advis'd the restitution to refuse

Of Helen to her lord.

It is esteemed just among men to distribute to each according to his

worth. This principle concerns especially reverencing the gods, and

honoring parents and relations. Piety toward the gods he teaches in many

passages, introducing the heroes sacrificing, praying, offering gifts to

the gods, and celebrating them in hymns, and as a reward for their piety

they receive from the gods.

Honor to parents he shows especially, in the character of Telemachus,

and in his praise of Orestes (O. i. 298):---

Or hast thou not heard what renown the goodly Orestes got

among all men in that he slew the slayer of his father?

For parents to be cared for in their old age by their children is just

by nature and a debt of retribution; this he showed in one passage where

he says (I. xvii. 302):--

Not destin'd he his parents to repay their early care.

The good will and good faith of brothers to one another he shows in

Agamemnon and Menelaus, of friends in Achilles and Patroclus, prudence

and wifely love in Penelope, the longing of a man for his wife in

Odysseus.

How we should act toward our country he showed especially in these words

(I. xii. 243):--

The best of omens is our country's cause.

And how citizens should share a common friendship (I. ix. 63):--

Outcast from kindred, law, and hearth is he

Whose soul delights in fierce, internal strife.

That truthfulness is honorable and the contrary to be avoided (I. ix.

312):--

Him as the gates of hell my soul abhors

Where outward speech his secret thought belies.

And (O. xviii. 168):--

Who speak friendly with their lips, but imagine evil in the

latter end.

Households are chiefly well ordered when the wife does not make a

fuss over the undeclared plans of her husband nor without his counsel

undertakes to do any thing. Both he shows in the person of Hera; the

former he attributes to Zeus as speaker (I. i. 545):--

Expect not Juno, all my mind to know.

And the latter Hera herself speaks (I. xiv. 310):--

Lest it displease thee, if, to thee unknown,

I sought the Ocean's deeply flowing stream,

There is a custom among all people for those who go to a war or who are

in danger to send some message to their families. Our poet was familiar

with this custom. For Andromache, bewailing Hector, says (I. xxiv.

743):--

For not to me was giv'n to clasp the hand extended from thy

dying bed,

Nor words of wisdom catch, which night and day,

With tears, I might have treasur'd in my heart.

Penelope recalls the commands of Odysseus when he set forth (O. xviii.

265):--

Wherefore I know not if the gods will suffer me to return, or

whether I shall be cut off there in Troy; so do thou have a

care for all these things. Be mindful of my father and my

mother in the halls, even as thou art or yet more than now,

while I am far away. But when thou see'st thy son a bearded

man, marry whom thou wilt and leave thine own house.

He knew also the custom of having stewards (O. ii. 226):--

He it was to whom Odysseus, as he departed in the fleet, had

given the charge over all his house that it should obey the

old man, and that he should keep all things safe.

Grief at the death in one's household he thinks should not be

unmeasured; for this is unworthy, nor does he allow it altogether to

be repressed; for apathy is impossible for mankind, whence he says the

following (I. xxiv. 48):--

He mourns and weeps, but time his grief allays,

For fate to man a patient mind hath given.

Other places he says (I. xix. 228):--

Behooves us bury out of sight our dead

Steeling our hearts and weeping but a day.

He also knew the customs used now at funerals, in other passages and in

the following (I. xvi. 456):--

There shall his brethren and his friends perform

His fun'ral rites, and mound and column raise

The fitting tribute to the mighty dead

And as Andromache says (before) the naked and prostrate body of Hector

(I. xxii. 509):--

But now on thee, beside the beaked ships

Far from thy parents, when the rav'ning dogs

Have had their fill, the wriggling worms shall feed

In thee all naked; while within thy house

Lies store of raiment, rich and rare, the work

Of women's hands: these I will burn with fire

Not for thy need--thou ne'er shalt wear them more

But for thine honor in the sight of Troy.

So, too, Penelope prepares the shroud (O. ii. 99):--

Even this shroud for the hero Laertes.

But these are examples of moderation. But exceeding these are the living

creatures and men Achilles burns on the pyre of Patroclus. He tells us

of them, but does not do so in words of praise. Therefore he exclaims

(I. xxi. 19):--

On savage deeds intent.

And he first of all mentions monuments to the slain (I. vii. 336):--

And on the plains erect

Around the pyre one common pyre for all.

And he gave the first example of funeral games. These are common to

times of peace and war.

Experience in warlike affairs, which some authorities call Tactics, his

poetry being varied by infantry, siege, and naval engagements, and also

by individual contests, covers many types of strategy. Some of these are

worth mentioning. In drawing up armies it is necessary always to put the

cavalry in front, and after it the infantry. This he indicates in the

following verses (I. ii. 297):--

In the front rank, with chariot and with horse,

He plac'd the car-borne warriors; in the rear,

Num'rous and brave, a cloud of infantry!

And as to placing leaders among the soldiers as they are arranged in

files (I. ix. 86):--

Seven were the leaders; and with each went forth,

A hundred gallant youths, with lances armed.

Some of the leaders fight in the front rank; some in the rear exhort the

rest to fight (I. iv. 252):--

And come where round their chief

Idomeneus, the warlike bards of Crete

Were coming for the fight; Idomeneus

Of courage stubborn as the forest boar

The foremost ranks array'd; Meriones

The rearmost squadrons had in charge.

It is necessary for those who are valiant to camp in the extreme limits,

making as it were a wall for the rest; but for the king is pitched his

tent in the safest place, that is, in the midst. He shows this by making

the most valorous men, Achilles and Ajax, encamp in the most exposed

spaces of the fleet, but Agamemnon and the rest in the middle.

The custom of surrounding the camp with earth-works, and digging around

it a deep and wide ditch and planting it in a circle with stakes so that

no one can jump over it by reason of its breadth, nor go down into it

because of its depth, is found in the warlike operations of Homer (I.

xii. 52):--

In vain we seek to drive

Our horses o'er the ditch: it is hard to cross,

'Tis crowned with pointed stakes, and then behind

Is built the Grecian wall; these to descend,

And from our cars in narrow space to fight,

Were certain ruin.

And in battle those who follow the example of Homer's heroes die bravely

(I. xxii. 304):--

Yet not without a struggle let me die,

Nor all inglorious; but let some great act,

Which future days may hear of, mark my fall.

And another time (O. xv. 494):--

And if there be among you who this day shall meet his doom by

sword or arrow slain, e'en let him die! a glorious death is

his who for his country falls.

To those who distinguish themselves he distributes gifts (I. ix. 334):--

To other chiefs and kings he meted out their several portions.

And he threatens deserters (I. xv. 348):--

Whom I elsewhere, and from the ships aloof

Shall find, my hand shall down him on the spot.

Why is it necessary to speak of the heroes in battle? How differently

and variously he makes them give and receive wounds. One he thinks

worthy of mention, because he thinks those wounded in front are the more

honorable because they prove steadfastness and a desire to abide the

shock. Those who are struck in the back or neck were less honorable,

since these blows they received in flight. Both of these are mentioned

in Homer (I. xii. 288):--

Not in the neck behind, nor in thy back

Should fall the blow, but in thy breast in front,

Thy courage none might call in doubt

Shouldst thou from spear or sword receive a wound.

And again (I. xxii. 213):--

Not in my back will I receive thy spear,

But through my heart.

In putting enemies to flight he gives useful advice, not to be busied

with the spoil, nor give time for flight, but to press on and pursue (I.

vi. 68):--

Loiter not now behind, to throw yourselves

Upon the prey, and bear it to the ships;

Let all your aim be now to kill, then

Ye may at leisure spoil your slaughtered foe.

There are in his poetry successful deeds achieved by every age, by which

every one, no matter who he may be, can be encouraged: the man in the

flower of his strength by Achilles, Ajax, and Diomed; by younger ones

Antilochus and Meriones; the mature by Idomeneus and Odysseus; the old

men by Nestor; and every king by all of these named and by Agamemnon.

Such are in Homer the examples of the discourse and action of civilized

life.

Let us see now whether Homer had any familiarity with medicine. That he

held the art in high regard is clear from the following (I. xi. 514):--

Worth many a life is his, the skilful leech.

Medical science appears to be the science of disease and health. That it

is a science any one can learn from this (O. iv. 23):--

There each one is a leech skilled beyond all men.

That it deals with disease and health (O. iv. 230):--

Many that are healing in the cup, and many baneful,--

he indicates with these things.

Medicine has, too, a theoretical side which reaches the knowledge of

particulars by universal reasoning and by inductive method. The parts

of this are the study of symptoms and the knowledge of the courses of

disease. The active part treating of action and effect; the parts of

it diatetic, surgical, medicinal. How did Homer appraise each of these?

That he knew the theoretical side is evident from this (O. iv. 227):--

Medicines of such virtue and so helpful had the daughters

of Zeus.

He calls them "of such virtue" because they were prepared by theoretic

art.

But the study of symptoms he goes over in the case of Achilles. For he

was a disciple of Charon. He first observed, then, the causes of the

pestilence which was attacking the Greeks. For he knew that the causes

of common diseases were from Apollo, who seems to be the same as the

Sun. For he notices the seasons of the year. If these are intemperate,

they become the causes of disease. For, in general, the safety and

destruction of men are to be ascribed to Apollo, of women to Artemis,

i.e. to the Sun and Moon, making them the casters of arrows by reason

of the rays they throw out. So dividing the male and female he makes the

male of the warmer temperament. On this account, at any rate, he

says Telemachus is of this type, "by the guidance of Apollo"; but the

daughters of Tyndarus grew up, he says, under the protection of Artemis.

Moreover, to these gods he attributes death in many places, and among

others in the following (I. xxiv. 605):--

The youths, Apollo with his silver bow;

The maids, the Archer Queen Diana slew.

Where he relates the rising of the Dog Star, the same is a sign and

cause of fever and disease (I. xxii. 30):--

The highest he but sign to mortal man

Of evil augury and fiery heat.

He gives the causes of disease where he speaks about the gods (I. v.

341):--

They eat no bread, they drink no ruddy wine,

Thence are they bloodless and exempt from death.

For food, whether dry or humid, is generative of blood. And this

nourishes the body; if it is excessive or corrupt, it becomes the cause

of disease.

The practical part of medicine he carefully distinguishes. In this is

the dietetic. First, he knew the periods and cures of diseases, as when

he says (O. xi. 171):--

What doom overcame thee of death that lays men at their

length? Was it a slow disease, or did Artemis the archer slay

them with the visitation of her gentle shafts?

It is evident that he thinks a light diet is healthful. For he pictures

his heroes making use of cooked food and so removes extravagant

attention about things to eat. And since the stomach needs constant

repletion, when cooked food, which has the closest relation to the body,

is digested in the heart and veins, and the surfeit is cast forth, he

says words like the following (O. vii. 215):--

But as for me suffer me to sup afflicted as I am; for naught

is there more shameless than a ravening belly, which biddeth a

man perforce be mindful of him.

And again (O. vii. 219):--

Yet ever more he biddeth me eat and drink, and maketh utterly

to forget all my sufferings and commandeth me to take my fill.

He knew, too, the difference in the use of wine: that immoderate

drinking is harmful but moderate profitable; as follows (O. xxi.

294):--

Honey sweet wine, that is the bane of others too, even of all

who take great draughts and drink out of measure.

The other so (I. vi. 261):--

But great the strength,

Which gen'rous wine imparts to men who toil

And that gives additional force.

and (I. xix. 167):--

But he who first with food and wine refreshed

All day maintains the combat with the foe.

His spirit retains unbroken, and his limbs

Unwearied till both armies quit the field.

And he thinks the agreeable taste contributes to good fellowship (O.

vii. 182):--

So spake he, and Pontonous mixed the gladdening wine.

The strong and heady kind Odysseus gives to the Cyclops, the sharp

kind for a medicine, for such is the Promneon brand, which he gives to

wounded Machaon.

That he advises the use of gymnastics is evident in many places, for he

makes his characters always at work, some in appropriate occupations,

some for the sake of exercise. Although the Phaeacians are externally

given to softness, and the suitors are dissolute, he introduces them

doing gymnastic feats. And moderate exercise he thinks is the cause of

health. For a tired body sleep is a remedy. For he says "sleep came upon

Odysseus" after he had been tired out by the sea (O. v. 493):--

That so it might soon release him from his weary travail,

overshadowing his eyelids.

Nature requires a tired body to take rest. And where there is too little

heat, as it is not able to penetrate everywhere, it remains at the

lowest level. Why does the body rest? Because the tension of the soul is

remitted and the members are dissolved and this he clearly says (O. iv.

794):--

And she sank back in sleep, and all her joints were loosened.

As in other things, immoderation is not advantageous; so he declares the

same with regard to sleep, at one time saying (O, xiv. 394):--

Weariness and much sleep.

And another (O. xx. 52):--

To wake and watch all night, this, too, is vexation of spirit.

He knew, too, that clearness of air contributes to health, where he says

(O. iv. 563):--

But the deathless gods will convey thee to the Elysian plain

and the World's end, where is Rhadamanthus of the fair hair,

where life is easiest for men. No snow is there, nor yet

great storm, nor any rain; but always ocean sendeth forth the

breeze of the shrill west to blow cool on men.

He knew remedies for sufferings; for cold revives those who are

fainting, as in the case of Sarpedon (I. v. 697):--

He swooned, and giddy mists o'erspread his eyes,

But soon revived as on his forehead blew

While yet he gasped for breath the cooling breeze.

Heat is a remedy for cold, as in the case of storm-tossed Odysseus, who

bends down in the thicket, where there is a protection against winds and

rains, and he covers himself with the wood about him. And other places

he mentions baths and anointing, as in the case of Diomed and Odysseus

returning from their night expedition. The special usefulness of baths

he shows especially in the following (O. x. 362):--

She bathed me with water from out a great caldron, pouring it

over head and shoulders, where she had mixed it to a pleasant

warmth till from my limbs she took away consuming weariness.

It is plain that the nerves have their origin in the head and shoulders.

So probably from this he makes the healing of fatigue to be taken. This

takes place by the wetting and warming; for labors are parching.

We have now to consider how he treated the function of surgery. Machaon

heals Menelaus by first removing the javelin; then he examines the wound

and presses out the blood, and scatters over it dry medicaments. And it

is evident that this is done by him in a technical fashion. Eurypalus,

who is wounded in the thigh, first treats it with a sharp knife, then he

washes it with clear water; afterward to diminish the pain, he employs

an herb. For there are many in existence that heal wounds. He knew this,

too, that bitter things are suitable; for to dry up wounds requires

exsiccation. After Patroclus has applied the healing art, he did not go

away immediately, but (I. xv. 393):--

Remaining, with his converse soothed the chief.

For a sufferer needs sympathy. Machaon wounded not with a great or fatal

wound on the shoulder, he makes using intentionally a somewhat careless

diet. Perhaps here he shows his art. For he who takes care of himself at

ordinary times is able to heal himself.

This is noted, too, in Homer, that he knows the distinction of drugs.

Some are to be used as plasters, others as powders, as when he says (I.

iv. 218):--

And applied with skilful hand the herbs of healing power.

But some are to be drunk, as where Helen mixes a medicine in a bowl (O.

iv. 221):--

A drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of

every sorrow.

He knows, too, that some poisonous drugs are to be applied as ointments

(O. i. 261):--

To seek a deadly drug, that he might have wherewithal to

smear his bronze-shod arrows.

Others are to be drunk, as in these words (O. ii. 330):--

To fetch a poisonous drug that he may cast it into the bowl

and make an end of all of us.

So much for medicines in the Homeric poems.

Divination is useful to man like medicine. A part of this the Stoics

call artificial, as the inspection of entrails and birds' oracles, lots,

and signs. All of these they call in general artificial. But what is not

artificial, and is not acquired by learning, are trances and ecstasy,

Homer knew, too, of these phenomena. But he also knew of seers, priests,

interpreters of dreams, and augurs. A certain wise man in Ithaca he

tells of (O. ii 159):--

He excelled his peers in knowledge of birds and in uttering

words of fate.

And Odysseus, praying, says (O. xx. 100):--

Let some one I pray of the folk that are waking show me a

word of good omen within and without; let soon other sign be

revealed to me from Zeus.

Snoring with him is a good sign. A divinely inspired seer is with the

suitors, telling the future by divine inspiration. Once, too, Helenus

says (I. vii. 53):--

He was the recipient of a divine voice.

By revelation from th' eternal gods.

He gives cause of believing that Socrates had actually communications

from the voice of the daemon.

What natural or scientific art is left untouched? Tragedy took its start

from Homer, and afterward was raised to supremacy in words and things.

He shows that there is every form of tragedy; great and extraordinary

deeds, appearances of the gods, speech full of wisdom, revealing all

sorts of natures. In a word, his poems are all dramas, serious and

sublime in expression, also in feeling and in subject. But they contain

no exhibition of unholy deeds, lawless marriages, or the murder of

parents and children, or the other marvels of more recent tragedy. But

when he mentions a thing of this kind, he seems to conceal rather than

to condemn the crime. As he does in the case of of Clytemnestra. For he

says (O. iii. 266):--

That she was endowed with an excellent mind as she had with

her a teacher appointed by Agamemnon, to give her the

best advice.

Aegisthus got this tutor out of the way and persuaded her to sin.

He allows that Orestes justly avenged his father's death by killing

Aegisthus; but he passes over in silence the murder of his mother.

Many of the like examples are to be seen in the poet, as a writer of

majestic, but not inhuman, tragedy.

None the less, however, Comedy took from him its origin; for he

contains, although he relates the gravest and most serious things,

episodes which move to laughter, as in the "Iliad" Hephaestus is

introduced limping and pouring out wine for the gods (I. i. 599):--

Rose laughter irrepressible, at sight

Of Vulcan hobbling round the spacious hall.

Thersites is most contemptible in body and most evil in disposition,

from his raising a disturbance, and his slanderous speech and

boastfulness. Odysseus attacks him on this account and gives occasion to

all to laugh (I. ii. 270):--

The Greeks, despite their anger, laugh'd aloud.

In the "Odyssey" among the pleasure-loving Phaeacians their bard sings

the adultery of Ares and Aphrodite. He tells how they fell into the

snares of Hepheastus, and were taken in the act, and caused all the gods

to laugh, and how they joked frequently with one another. And among the

dissolute suitors Irus the beggar is brought in, contesting for a prize

with the most noble Odysseus, and how he appeared ridiculous in the

action. Altogether it is the character of human nature, not only to be

intense, but to take "a moral holiday" so that the men may be equal to

the troubles of life. Such relaxation for the mind is to be found in our

poet. Those who in later days introduced Comedy to produce laughter made

use of bare and naked language, but they cannot claim to have invented

anything better. Of erotic feelings and expression, Homer makes but a

moderate use; as Zeus says (I. iii. 442):--

For never did thy beauty so inflame my sense.

And what follows, and about Helen (I. iii. 156):--

And 'tis no marvel, one to other said,

The valiant Trojans and the well-greaved Greeks

For beauty such as this should long endure

The toils of war.

And other things of the same kind. Other poets have represented

men taken by this passion uncontrollably and immoderately. This is

sufficient for this subject.

Epigrams are a pleasing variety of speech; they are found on statues and

on monuments indicating succinctly to whom they are dedicated. And this,

too, is a mark of Homer where he says (I. vii. 89):--

Lo! there a warrior's tomb of days gone by,

A mighty chief whom glorious Hector slew.

And again (I. vi. 460):--

Lo! this was Hector's wife, who, when they fought

On plains of Troy, was Ilion's bravest chief.

But if any one should say that Homer was a master of painting, he would

make no mistake. For some of the wise men said that poetry was speaking

painting, and painting silent poetry. Who before or who more than Homer,

by the imagination of his thoughts or by the harmony of his verse,

showed and exalted gods, men, places, and different kinds of deeds? For

he showed by abundance of language all sorts of creatures and the most

notable things--lions, swine, leopards. Describing their forms and

characters and comparing them to human deeds, he showed the properties

of each. He dared to liken the forms of gods to those of men. Hephaestus

prepared Achilles' shield; he sculptured in gold, land, sky, sea, the

greatness of the Sun and the beauty of the Moon and the host of the

stars crowning all. He placed on it cities in different states and

fortunes, and animals moving and speaking. Who has more skill than the

artificer of such an art?

Let us see in another example out of many how poems resemble more those

things that are seen than those that are heard. As for example, in the

passage where he tells of the wound of Odysseus, he introduces what

Eurychleias did (O. xix. 468):--

Now the old woman took the scarred limb and passed her hand

down it, and knew it by the touch and let the foot drop

suddenly, so that the knees fell into the bath, and the vessel

broke, being turned over on the other side, and that water was

spilled on the ground. Then grief and joy came on her in one

moment, and her eyes filled with tears, and the voice of her

utterance was stayed, and touching the chin of Odysseus, she

spake to him saying, "Yea, verily, thou art Odysseus, my dear

child, and I knew thee not before till I had handled all the

body of my lord." Therewithal she looked toward Penelope, as

minded to make a sign and the rest.

For here more things are shown than can be in a picture and those can be

weighed by the eyes. They are not to be taken in by the eyes, but by the

intelligence alone: such as the letting go of the foot through emotion,

the sound of the tears, the spilt water and the grief, and at the same

time the joy of the old women, her words to Odysseus, and what she

is about to say as she looks toward Penelope. Many other things are

graphically revealed in the poet which come out when he is read.

It is time to close a work which we have woven, like a crown from a

beflowered and variegated field, and which we offer to Muses. And we,

we shall not lay it to the heart if any one censures us, because the

Homeric poems contain the basis of evil things, if we ascribe to him

various political, ethical, and scientific discussions. Since good

things are by themselves simple, straightforward, and unprepared;

but what is mixed with evil has many different modes and all kinds of

combinations, from which the substance of the matter is derived. If evil

is added to the others, the knowledge and choice of the good is made

easier. And on the whole a subject of this sort gives occasion to the

poet for originating discourse of all kinds, some belonging to himself,

some proper to the characters he introduces. From this circumstance be

gives much profit to his readers. Why should we not ascribe to Homer

every excellence? Those things that he did not work up, they who came

after him have noticed. And some make use of his verses for divination,

like the oracles of God. Others setting forward other projects fit to

them for our use what he has said by changing or transposing it.

END OF TWELVE--------------

THE BANQUET OF THE SEVEN WISE MEN.

THE SEVEN,--SOLON, DIAS, THALES, ANACHARSIS, CLEOBULUS, PITTACUS, CHILO.

NILOXENUS, EUMETIS, ALEXIDEMUS PERIANDER, ARDALUS, AESOP, CLEODEMUS,

MNESIPHILUS, CHERSIAS, GORGIAS, DIOCLES.

DIOCLES TO NICARCHUS

No wonder, my friend Nicarchus, to find old truths so disguised, and

the words and actions of men so grossly and misrepresented and lamely

delivered, seeing people are so disposed to give ear and credit to

fictions of yesterday's standing. For there were not merely seven

present at that feast, as you were informed; there were more than double

the number. I was there myself in person familiarly acquainted with

Periander (my art had gained me his acquaintance); and Thales boarded

at my house, at the request and upon the recommendation of Periander.

Whoever then gave you that account of our feast did it very

inadequately; it is plain he did it upon hearsay and that he was not

there among us. Now, that we are together and at leisure, and possibly

we may not live to find an opportunity so convenient another time,

I will (as you wish it) give you a faithful account of the whole

proceedings at that meeting.

Periander had prepared a dinner for us, not in the town, but in a

dining-hall which stands close to the temple of Venus, to whom there

was a sacrifice that day. For having neglected the duty ever since his

mother died for love, he was resolved now to atone for the omission,

being warned so to do by the dreams of Melissa. In order thereunto,

there was provided a rich chariot for every one of the guests. It was

summer-time, and every part of the way quite to the seaside was hardly

passable, by reason of throngs of people and whole clouds of dust. As

soon as Thales espied the chariot waiting at the door, he smilingly

discharged it, and we walked through the fields to avoid the press and

noise. There was in our company a third person, Niloxenus a Naucratian,

an eminent man, who was very intimately acquainted with Solon and Thales

in Egypt; he had a message to deliver to Bias, and a letter sealed,

the contents whereof he knew not; only he guessed it contained a second

question to be resolved by Bias, and in case Bias undertook not to

answer it, he had in commission to impart it to the wisest men in

Greece. What a fortune is this (quoth Niloxenus) to find you all

together! This paper (showing it us) I am bringing to the banquet.

Thales replied, after his wonted smiling way, If it contains any hard

question, away with it to Priene. Bias will resolve it with the same

readiness he did your former problem. What problem was that? quoth he.

Why, saith Thales, a certain person sent him a beast for sacrifice with

this command, that he should return him that part of his flesh which was

best and worst; our philosopher very gravely and wisely pulled out

the tongue of the beast, and sent it to the donor;--which single act

procured him the name and reputation of a very wise man. It was not

this act alone that advanced him in the estimation of the world, quoth

Niloxenus; but he joyfully embraces what you so carefully shun, the

acquaintance and friendship of kings and great men; and whereas he

honors you for divers great accomplishments, he particularly admires

you for this invention, that with little labor and no help of any

mathematical instrument you took so truly the height of one of the

pyramids; for fixing your staff erect at the point of the shadow which

the pyramid cast, two triangles being thus made by the tangent rays of

the sun, you demonstrated that what proportion one shadow had to the

other, such the pyramid bore to the stick.

But, as I said, you are accused of being a hater of kings, and certain

false friends of yours have presented Amasis with a paper of yours

stuffed with sentences reproachful to majesty; as for instance, being

at a certain time asked by Molpagoras the Ionian, what the most absurd

thing was you had observed in your notice, you replied, An old king.

Another time, in a dispute that happened in your company about the

nature of beasts, you affirmed that of wild beasts, a king, of tame, a

flatterer, was the worst. Such apothegms must needs be unacceptable to

kings, who pretend there is vast difference between them and tyrants.

This was Pittacus's reply to Myrsilus, and it was spoken in jest, quoth

Thales; nor was it an old king I said I should marvel at, but an old

pilot. In this mistake however, I am much of the youth's mind who,

throwing a stone at a dog, hit his stepmother, adding, Not so bad. I

therefore esteemed Solon a very wise and good man, when I understood he

refused empire; and if Pittacus had not taken upon himself a monarchy,

he had never exclaimed, O ye gods! how hard a matter it is to be good!

And Periander, however he seems to be sick of his father's disease,

is yet to be commended that he gives ear to wholesome discourses

and converses only with wise and good men, rejecting the advice of

Thrasybulus my countryman who would have persuaded him to chop off the

heads of the leading men. For a prince that chooses rather to govern

slaves than freemen is like a foolish farmer, who throws his wheat and

barley in the streets, to fill his barns with swarms of locusts and

whole cages of birds. For government has one good thing to make amends

for its many evils, namely, honor and glory, provided one rules good men

as being better than they and great men because greater than they. But

he that having ascended the throne minds only his own interest and ease,

is fitter to tend sheep or to drive horses or to feed cattle than to

govern men.

But this stranger (continues he) has engaged us in a deal of impertinent

chat, for we have omitted to speak or offer any discourse suitable to

the occasion and end of our meeting; for doubtless it becomes the guest

as well as the host, to make preparation beforehand. It is reported that

the Sybarites used to invite their neighbors' wives a whole twelve-month

before to their entertainments, that they might have convenient time

to trim and adorn themselves; for my part, I am of opinion, that he

who would feast as he should ought to allow himself more time for

preparation than they, it being a more difficult matter to compose the

mind into an agreeable temper than to fit one's clothes for the outward

ornament of the body. For a prudent man comes not hither only to fill

his belly, as if he were to fill a bottle, but to be sometimes grave

and serious, sometimes pleasant, sometimes to listen to others, and

sometimes to speak himself what may benefit or divert the company, if

the meeting is intended for any good use or purpose. For if the victuals

be not good, men may let them alone, or if the wine be bad, men may

use water; but for a weak-brained, impertinent, unmannerly, shallow

fellow-commoner there is no cure; he mars all the mirth and music,

and spoils the best entertainment in the world. And it will be no easy

business to lay aside a sullen temper; since we find divers men, angered

in their debauches, have yet remembered the provocation to their dying

day, the spite remaining like a surfeit arising from wrong done or an

insult received in drinking. Wherefore Chilo did very well and wisely;

for when he invited yesterday, he would not promise to come till he had

a particular given him of all their names who were to meet him. For,

quoth he, if my business calls me to sea or I am pressed to serve my

prince in his wars, there is a necessity upon me to rest contented with

whatever company I fall into, though never so unsuitable to my quality

or disagreeable to my nature and humor; but voluntarily and needlessly

to associate myself with any riffraff rabble would ill become any man

pretending to but common discretion.

The Egyptian skeleton which they brought into their feasts and exposed

to the view of their guests, with this advice, that they should not in

their merriment forget they would shortly be themselves such as that

was,--though it was a sight not so acceptable (as may be supposed),--had

yet this conveniency and use, to incite the spectators not to luxury and

drunkenness but to mutual love and friendship, persuading them not to

protract a life in itself short and uncertain by a tedious course of

wickedness.

In discourses of this kind we spent our time by the way, and were now

come to the house. Here Thales would not be washed, for he had but a

while before anointed himself; wherefore he took a round to view the

horse-race and the wrestling-place, and the grove upon the water-side,

which was neatly trimmed and beautified by Periander; this he did, not

so much to satisfy his own curiosity (for he seldom or never admired

anything he saw), but that he might not disoblige Periander or seem to

overlook or despise the glory and magnificence of our host. Of the

rest every one, after he had anointed and washed himself, the servants

introduced into a particular room, purposely fitted and prepared for the

men; they were guided thither through a porch, in which Anacharsis sat,

and there was a certain young lady with him combing his hair. This lady

stepping forward to welcome Thales, he kissed her most courteously, and

smiling said: Madam, make our host fair and pleasant, so that, being (as

he is) the mildest man in the world, he may not be fearful and terrible

for us to look on. When I was curious to inquire who this lady was, he

said, Do you not yet know the wise and famous Eumetis? for so her father

calls her, though others call her after her father's name Cleobulina.

Doubtless, saith Niloxenus, they call her by this name to commend her

judgment and wit, and her reach into the more abstruse and recondite

part of learning; for I have myself in Egypt seen and read some problems

first started and discussed by her. Not so, saith Thales, for she plays

with these as with cockal-bones, and deals boldly with all she meets;

she is a person of an admirable understanding, of a shrewd capacious

mind, of a very obliging conversation, and one that prevails upon her

father to govern his subjects with the greatest mildness. How democratic

she is appears, saith Niloxenus, plainly to any that observes her simple

innocent garb. But pray, continues he, wherefore is it that she shows

such affection to Anacharsis? Because, replied Thales, he is a

temperate and learned man, who fully and freely makes known to her those

mysterious ways of dieting and physicing the sick which are now in use

among the Scythians; and I doubt not she now coaxes and courts the old

gentleman at the rate you see, taking this opportunity to discourse with

him and learn something of him.

As we were come near the dining-room, Alexidemus the Milesian, a bastard

son of Thrasybulus the Tyrant, met us. He seemed to be disturbed, and

in an angry tone muttered to himself some words which we could not

distinctly hear; but espying Thales, and recovering himself out of his

disorder, he complained how Periander had put an insufferable affront

upon him. He would not permit me, saith he, to go to sea, though I

earnestly importuned him, but he would press me to dine with him. And

when I came as invited, he assigned me a seat unbecoming my person and

character, Aeolians and islanders and others of inferior rank being

placed above me; whence it is easy to infer how meanly he thinks of

my father, and it is undeniable how this affront put upon me rebounds

disgracefully in my parent's face. Say you so? quoth Thales, are you

afraid lest the place lessen or diminish your honor and worth, as the

Egyptians commonly hold the stars are magnified or lessened according to

their higher or lower place and position? And are you more foolish than

that Spartan who, when the prefect of the music had appointed him to sit

in the lowest seat in the choir, replied, This is prudently done, for

this is the ready way to bring this seat into repute and esteem? It is

a frivolous consideration, where or below whom we sit; and it is a wiser

part to adapt ourselves to the judgment and humor of our right and left

hand man and the rest of the company, that we may approve ourselves

worthy of their friendship, when they find we take no pet at our

host, but are rather pleased to be placed near such good company. And

whosoever is disturbed upon the account of his place seems to be more

angry with his neighbor than with his host, but certainly is very

troublesome and nauseous to both.

These are fine words, and no more, quoth Alexidemus, for I observe you,

the wisest of men, as ambitious as other men; and having said thus, he

passed by us doggedly and trooped off. Thales, seeing us admiring the

insolence of the man, declared he was a fellow naturally of a blockish,

stupid disposition; for when he was a boy, he took a parcel of rich

perfume that was presented to Thrasybulus and poured it into a large

bowl and mixing it with a quantity of wine, drank it off and was ever

hated for it. As Thales was talking after this fashion, in comes a

servant and tells us it was Periander's pleasure we would come in

and inform him what we thought of a certain creature brought into his

presence that instant, whether it were so born by chance or were a

monster and omen;--himself seeming mightily affected and concerned,

for he judged his sacrifice polluted by it. At the same time he walked

before us into a certain house adjoining to his garden-wall, where we

found a young beardless shepherd, tolerably handsome, who having opened

a leathern bag produced and showed us a child born (as he averred) of

a mare. His upper parts as far as his neck and his hands, was of human

shape, and the rest of his body resembled a perfect horse; his cry was

like that of a child newly born. As soon as Niloxenus saw it, he cried

out. The gods deliver us; and away he fled as one sadly affrighted. But

Thales eyed the shepherd a considerable while, and then smiling (for it

was his way to jeer me perpetually about my art) says he, I doubt not,

Diocles, but you have been all this time seeking for some expiatory

sacrifice, and meaning to call to your aid those gods whose province and

work it is to avert evils from men, as if some greet and grievous thing

had happened. Why not? quoth I, for undoubtedly this prodigy portends

sedition and war, and I fear the dire portents thereof may extend to

myself, my wife, and my children, and prove all our ruin; since, before

I have atoned for my former fault, the goddess gives us this second

evidence and proof of her displeasure. Thales replied never a word,

but laughing went out of the house. Periander, meeting him at the door,

inquired what we thought of that creature; he dismissed me, and taking

Periander by the hand, said, Whatsoever Diocles shall persuade you to

do, do it at your best leisure; but I advise you either not to have such

youthful men to keep your mares, or to give them leave to marry. When

Periander heard him out, he seemed infinitely pleased, for he laughed

outright, and hugging Thales in his arms he kissed him; then saith he,

O Diocles, I am apt to think the worst is over, and what this prodigy

portended is now at an end; for do you not apprehend what a loss we have

sustained in the want of Alexidemus's good company at supper?

When we entered into the house, Thales raising his voice inquired where

it was his worship refused to be placed; which being shown him, he sat

himself in that very place, and prayed us to sit down by him, and said,

I would gladly give any money to have an opportunity to sit and eat

with Ardalus. This Ardalus was a Troezenian by birth, by profession a

minstrel, and a priest of the Ardalian Muses, whose temple old Ardalus

had founded and dedicated. Here Aesop, who was sent from Croesus to

visit Periander, and withal to consult the oracle at Delphi, sitting

by and beneath Solon upon a low stool, told the company this fable:

A Lydian mule, viewing his own picture in a river, and admiring the

bigness and beauty of his body, raises his crest; he waxes proud,

resolving to imitate the horse in his gait and running; but presently,

recollecting his extraction, how that his father was but an ass at best,

he stops his career and cheeks his own haughtiness and bravery. Chilo

replied, after his short concise way, You are slow and yet try to run,

in imitation of your mule.