1. No wonder, my friend Nicarchus, to find old truths so disguised,
and the words and actions of men so grossly 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 and 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 badly; it is plain he did it upon hearsay, and that he was not
there among us. Now, since we are together and at leisure, and possibly
we may not live to find an opportunity so convenient another time, I
will (seeing you desire it) give you a faithful account of the whole
proceedings at that meeting.
2. Periander had prepared a dinner for us, not in the town, but in a
dining-hall at Lechaeum 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
back 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 apophthegms 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 bitch, 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 his nobility. 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 the many evils attending it, namely, honor and glory, provided the
ruler rules good men because he is better than they, and great men
seeming to be greater than they. But he that having ascended the throne
minds only his own interest and ease, remitting all care and concern
for the welfare of the subject, is fitter to tend sheep or to drive
horses or to feed cattle than to govern men of reason.
But this stranger (continues he) has engaged us in a deal of
impertinent chat, for we have neglected 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-headed, 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 rid one’s self of a sullen temper
when once entertained; since we find divers men, affronted in their
debauches, have yet remembered the provocation to their dying day,
the spite remaining like a surfeit arising from wrong done or anger
conceived in drinking wine. Wherefore Chilo did very well and wisely;
for when he was 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.
3. 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
any thing 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 arranging his hair.
This lady stepping forward to welcome Thales, he saluted her most
courteously, and smiling said: Madam, make the stranger fair and
pleasant, so that, being (as he is) the mildest man in the world, he
may not be fearful and hideous for us to look on. When I was curious
to enquire who this lady was whom Thales thus complimented, 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 men do with cockal-bones, and encounters
boldly all she meets, without study or premeditation; she is a person
of an admirable understanding, of a politic capacious mind, of a very
obliging conversation, and one that by her rhetoric and the sweetness
of her temper prevails upon her father to govern his subjects with
the greatest mildness in the world. How popular she is appears, saith
Niloxenus, plainly to any that observes her pleasant innocent garb. But
pray, continues he, wherefore is it that she shows such tenderness and
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 innocence 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, he 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 prodigy 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 part, 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 offering, and intending to call to your aid those Gods whose
province and work it is to avert evils from men, as if some great 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, enquired what we thought of that creature; he dismissed
me, and taking Periander by the hand, said, Whatsoever Diodes shall
persuade you to do, do it at your best leisure; but I advise you either
not to have such young 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?
4. When we entered into the house, Thales raising his voice enquired
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 Esop, 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 checks his own haughtiness and bravery.
Chilo replied, after his short laconic way, You are slow and yet try to
run, in imitation of your mule.
Amidst these discourses in comes Melissa and sits her down by
Periander; Eumetis followed and came in as we were at supper; then
Thales calls to me (I sat me down above Bias), Why do you not make
Bias acquainted with the problems sent him from the King by Niloxenus
this second time, that he may soberly and warily weigh them? Bias
answered, I have been already scared with that news. I have known that
Bacchus is otherwise a powerful God, and for his wisdom is termed
λύσιος, that is, _the interpreter_; therefore I shall undertake
it when my belly is full of wine. Thus they jested and reparteed and
played one upon another all the while they sat at table. Observing
the unwonted frugality of Periander at this time, I considered with
myself that the entertainment of wise and good men is a piece of good
husbandry, and that so far from enhancing a man’s expenses in truth it
serves to save charge, the charge (to wit) of costly foreign unguents
and junkets, and the waste of the richest wines, which Periander’s
state and greatness required him every day in his ordinary treats to
expend. Such costly provisions were useless here, and Periander’s
wisdom appeared in his frugality. Moreover, his lady had laid aside her
richer habit, and appeared in an ordinary, but a very becoming dress.
5. Supper now ended, and Melissa having distributed the garlands, we
offered sacrifice; and when the minstrel had played us a tune or two,
she withdrew. Then Ardalus enquired of Anacharsis, if there were women
fiddlers at Scythia. He suddenly and smartly replied, There are no
vines there. Ardalus asked a second question, whether the Scythians had
any Gods among them. Yes, quoth Anacharsis, and they understand what
men say to them; nor are the Scythians of the Grecian opinion (however
these last may be the better orators), that the Gods are better
pleased with the sounds of flutes and pipes than with the voice of
men. My friend, saith Esop, what would you say if you saw our present
pipe-makers throw away the bones of fawns and hind-calves, to use those
of asses, affirming they yield the sweeter and more melodious sound?
Whereupon Cleobulina made one of her riddles about the Phrygian flute,
... in regard to the sound, and wondered that an ass, a gross animal
and no lover of music, should yet afford bones so fit for harmony.
Therefore it is doubtless, quoth Niloxenus, that the people of Busiris
accuse us Naucratians of folly for using pipes made of asses’ bones, it
being an insufferable fault in any of them to listen to the flute or
cornet, the sound thereof being (as they esteem it) so like the braying
of an ass; and you know an ass is hateful to the Egyptians on account
of Typhon.
6. There happening here a short silence, Periander, observing Niloxenus
willing but not daring to speak, said: I cannot but commend the
civility of those magistrates who give audience first to strangers
and afterwards to their own citizens; wherefore I judge it convenient
that we inhabitants and neighbors should proceed no farther at
present in our discourse, and that now attention be given to those
royal propositions sent us from Egypt, which the worthy Niloxenus
is commissioned to deliver to Bias, who desires that he and we may
scan and examine them together. And Bias said: For where or in what
company would a man more joyfully adventure to give his opinion than
here in this? And since it is his Majesty’s pleasure that I should
give my judgment first, in obedience to his commands I will do so, and
afterwards they shall come to every one of you in order.
Then Niloxenus delivered the paper to Bias, who broke up the seal and
commanded it to be read in all their hearing. The contents were these:—
Amasis the king of Egypt, to Bias, the wisest of the Grecians,
greeting. There is a contest between my brother of Ethiopia and
myself about wisdom; and being baffled in divers other particulars,
he now demands of me a thing absurd and impracticable; for he
requires me to drink up the ocean dry. If I be able to read this
his riddle, divers cities and towns now in his possession are to be
annexed to my kingdom; but if I cannot resolve this hard sentence,
and give him the right meaning thereof, he requires of me my right
to all the towns bordering upon Elephantina. Consider with speed the
premises, and let me receive your thoughts by Niloxenus. Pray lose no
time. If in any thing I can be serviceable to your city or friends,
you may command me. Farewell.
Bias, having perused and for a little time meditated upon the letter,
and whispering Cleobulus in the ear (he sat by him), exclaimed: What a
narration is here, O Niloxenus! Will Amasis, who governs so many men
and is seized of so many flourishing territories, drink up the ocean
for the gain of a few paltry, beggarly villages? Niloxenus replied
with a smile: Consider, good sir, what is to be done, if he will obey.
Why then, said Bias, let Amasis require the Ethiopian king to stop the
streams which from all parts flow and empty themselves in the ocean,
until he have drunk out the whole remainder; for I conceive he means
the present waters, not those which shall flow into it hereafter.
Niloxenus was so overjoyed at this answer, that he could not contain
himself. He hugged and kissed the author, and the whole company liked
his opinion admirably well; and Chilo laughing desired Niloxenus to get
aboard immediately before the sea was consumed, and tell his master he
should mind more how to render his government sweet and potable to his
people, than how to swallow such a quantity of salt water. For Bias, he
told him, understands these things very well, and knows how to oblige
your lord with very useful instructions, which if he vouchsafe to
attend, he shall no more need a golden basin to wash his feet, to gain
respect from his subjects; all will love and honor him for his virtue,
though he were ten thousand times more hateful to them than he is.
It were well and worthily done, quoth Periander, if all of us did pay
him our first-fruits in this kind by the poll (as Homer said). Such a
course would bring him an accession of profit greater than the whole
profit of the voyage, besides being of no little use to ourselves.
7. To this point it is fit that Solon should first speak, quoth Chilo,
not only because he is the eldest in the company and therefore sits
uppermost at table, but because he governs and gives laws to the
amplest and most complete and flourishing republic in the world, that
of Athens. Here Niloxenus whispered me in the ear: O Diocles, saith he,
how many reports fly about and are believed, and how some men delight
in lies which they either feign of their own heads or most greedily
swallow from the mouths of others. In Egypt I heard it reported how
Chilo had renounced all friendship and correspondence with Solon,
because he maintained the mutability of laws. A ridiculous fiction,
quoth I, for then he and we must have renounced Lycurgus, who changed
the laws and indeed the whole government of Sparta.
Solon, pausing awhile, gave his opinion in these words: I conceive that
monarch, whether king or tyrant, were infinitely to be commended, who
would exchange his monarchy for a commonwealth. Bias subjoined, And who
would be first and foremost in conforming to the laws of his country.
Thales added, I reckon that prince happy, who, being old, dies in his
bed a natural death. Fourthly, Anacharsis, If he alone be a wise man.
Fifthly, Cleobulus said, If he trust none of his courtiers. Sixthly,
Pittacus spake thus, If he could cause his subjects to have fear not
of him but for him. Lastly, Chilo concluded thus, A magistrate ought
to have thoughts, purposes, and resolutions not mean and earthly, but
divine and immortal.
When all had given in their judgments upon this point, we requested
Periander he would condescend to give the company the satisfaction to
let them know his thoughts upon the same head. Disorder and discontent
appearing in his countenance, he said, These opinions are enough to
scare any wise man from affecting empire. These things, saith Esop
after his fault-finding way, ought rather to have been discussed
privately among ourselves, lest we be accounted antimonarchical while
we desire to be esteemed friends and loyal counsellors. Solon, gently
clapping him upon the shoulder and smiling, answered: Do you not
perceive that any one would make a king more moderate and a tyrant
more favorable, who should persuade him that it is better not to reign
than to reign? Then we must believe you before the oracle delivered
unto you, quoth Esop, which pronounced that city happy that heard but
one crier. Yes, quoth Solon, and Athens, though now a commonwealth,
hath but one crier and one magistrate, and that is the law, though
the government be democratical; but you, my friend, have been so
accustomed to the croaking of ravens and the prating of jays, that you
do not hear your own voice. For you maintain it to be the happiness
of a city to be under the command of one man, and yet account it the
praise of a feast if liberty is allowed every man to speak his mind
freely upon what subject he pleases. But you have not prohibited your
servants’ drunkenness, as you have forbidden them to love or to use dry
ointments. Solon laughed at this; but Cleodorus the physician said: To
use dry ointment is like talking when a man is drenched with wine; both
are very pleasant. Therefore, saith Chilo, it concerns men the more
carefully to avoid it. Esop proceeds, Thales seemed to imply that he
should soon grow old.
8. Periander said laughing: We suffer deservedly, for, before we have
perfected our animadversions and remarks upon the letter, we are fallen
upon disputes so strangely foreign to the matter under consideration;
and therefore I pray, Niloxenus, read out the remainder of your lord’s
letter, and slip not this opportunity to receive what satisfaction
all that are present shall be able to give you. The command of the
king of Ethiopia, says Niloxenus, is no more and no less than (to
use Archilochus’s phrase) a broken scytale; that is, the meaning is
inscrutable and cannot be found out. But your friend Amasis was more
gentle and civil in his queries; for he commanded him only to resolve
him what was most ancient, most beautiful, greatest, wisest, most
common, and withal, what was most profitable, most pernicious, most
strong, and most easy. Did he resolve and answer every one of these
questions? He did, quoth Niloxenus, and do you judge of his answers
and the soundness thereof: and it is my prince’s purpose not to
misrepresent his responses and condemn unjustly what he saith well, so,
where he finds him under a mistake, not to suffer that to pass without
correction. His answers to the foresaid questions I will read to
you.—What is most ancient? Time. What is greatest? The World. What is
wisest? Truth. What is most beautiful? The light. What is most common?
Death. What is most profitable? God. What is most pernicious? An evil
genius. What is strongest? Fortune. What is most easy? That which is
pleasant.
9. When Niloxenus had read out these answers, there was a short silence
among them; by and by Thales desires Niloxenus to inform him if Amasis
approved of these answers. Niloxenus said, he liked some and disliked
others. There is not one of them right and sound, quoth Thales, but
all are full of wretched folly and ignorance. As for instance, how can
that be most ancient whereof part is past, part is now present, and
part is yet to come; every man knows it is younger than ourselves and
our actions. As to his answer that truth is the most wise thing, it is
as incongruous as if he had affirmed the light to be an eye; if he
judged the light to be the most beautiful, how could he overlook the
sun; as to his solutions concerning the Gods and evil geniuses, they
are full of presumption and peril. What he saith of Fortune is void
of sense, for her inconstancy and fickleness proceeds from want of
strength and power. Nor is death the most common thing; the living are
still at liberty, it hath not arrested them. But lest we be censured as
having a faculty to find fault only, we will lay down our opinions of
these things, and compare them with those of the Ethiopian; and I offer
myself first, if Niloxenus pleases, to deliver my opinion on every one
singly, and I will relate both questions and answers in that method
and order in which they were sent to Ethiopia and read to us. What is
most ancient? Thales answered, God, for he had no beginning. What is
greatest? Place; the world contains all other things, this surrounds
and contains the world. What is most beautiful? The world; for whatever
is framed artificially and methodically is a part of it. What is most
wise? Time; for it has found out some things already, it will find out
the rest in due time. What is most common? Hope; for they that want
other things are masters of this. What is most profitable? Virtue; for
by a right managery of other things she makes them all beneficial and
advantageous. What is most pernicious? Vice; for it depraves the best
things we enjoy. What is the most strong? Necessity; for this alone is
insuperable. What is most easy? That which is most agreeable to nature;
for pleasures themselves are sometimes tedious and nauseating.
10. All the consult approved of Thales’s solutions. Then Cleodemus
said: My friend Niloxenus, it becomes kings to propound and resolve
such questions; but the insolence of that barbarian who would have
Amasis drink the sea would have been better fitted by such a smart
reprimand as Pittacus gave Alyattes, who sent an imperious letter to
the Lesbians. He made him no answer, except to bid him spend his time
in eating his hot bread and onions.
Periander here assumed the discourse, and said: It was the manner of
the ancient Grecians heretofore, O Cleodemus, to propound doubts to one
another; and it hath been told us, that the most famous and eminent
poets once met at the grave of Amphidamas in Chalcis. This Amphidamas
was a leading citizen, one that had perpetual wars with the Eretrians,
and at last lost his life in one of the battles fought for the
possession of the Lelantine plain. Now, because the writings of those
poets were composed in verse, and so made the argument more knotty and
the decision more difficult, and the great names of the antagonists,
Homer and Hesiod, whose excellence was so well known, made the umpires
timorous and shy to determine; they therefore betook themselves to
these sorts of questions, and Homer, says Lesches, propounded this
riddle:—
Tell me, O Muse, what never was
And never yet shall be.