The Stromata, or Miscellanies

“Than a good wife, no man a better thing
Ere gained; than a bad wife, a worse,”—

Simonides said:—

“A better prize than a good wife no man
Ere gained, than a bad one nought worse.”

Again, Epicharmas having said:—

“As destined long to live, and yet not long,
Think of yourself.”—

Euripides writes:—

“Why? Seeing the wealth we have uncertain is,
Why don't we live as free from care, as pleasant
As we may?”

Similarly also, the comic poet Diphilus having said:—

“The life of men is prone to change,”—

Posidippus says:—

“No man of mortal mould his life has passed
From suffering free. Nor to the end again
Has continued prosperous.”

Similarly speaks to you Plato, writing of man as a creature subject to change. Again, Euripides having said:—

“Oh life to mortal men of trouble full,
How slippery in everything are you!
Now you grow, and now you decay away.
And there is set no limit, no, not one,
For mortals of their course to make an end,
Except when Death's remorseless final end
Comes, sent from Zeus,”—

Diphilus writes:—

“There is no life which has not its own ills,
Pains, cares, thefts, and anxieties, disease;
And Death, as a physician, coming, gives
Rest to their victims in his quiet sleep.”

Furthermore, Euripides having said:—

“Many are fortune's shapes,
And many things contrary to expectation the gods perform,”—

The tragic poet Theodectes similarly writes:—

“The instability of mortals' fates.”

And Bacchylides having said:—

“To few alone of mortals is it given
To reach hoary age, being prosperous all the while,
And not meet with calamities,”—

Moschion, the comic poet, writes:—

“But he of all men is most blest,
Who leads throughout an equal life.”

And you will find that, Theognis having said:—

“For no advantage to a man grown old
A young wife is, who will not, as a ship
The helm, obey,”—

Aristophanes, the comic poet, writes:—

“An old man to a young wife suits but ill.”

For Anacreon, having written:—

Luxurious love I sing,
With flowery garlands graced,
He is of gods the king,
He mortal men subdues,—

Euripides writes:—

“For love not only men attacks,
And women; but disturbs
The souls of gods above, and to the sea
Descends.”

But not to protract the discourse further, in our anxiety to show the propensity of the Greeks to plagiarism in expressions and dogmas, allow us to adduce the express testimony of Hippias, the sophist of Elea, who discourses on the point in hand, and speaks thus: “Of these things some perchance are said by Orpheus, some briefly by Musæus; some in one place, others in other places; some by Hesiod, some by Homer, some by the rest of the poets; and some in prose compositions, some by Greeks, some by Barbarians. And I from all these, placing together the things of most importance and of kindred character, will make the present discourse new and varied.”

And in order that we may see that philosophy and history, and even rhetoric, are not free of a like reproach, it is right to adduce a few instances from them. For Alcmæon of Crotona having said, “It is easier to guard against a man who is an enemy than a friend,” Sophocles wrote in the Antigone:—

“For what sore more grievous than a bad friend?”

And Xenophon said: “No man can injure enemies in any way other than by appearing to be a friend.”

And Euripides having said in Telephus:—

“Shall we Greeks be slaves to Barbarians?”—

Thrasymachus, in the oration for the Larissæans, says: “Shall we be slaves to Archelaus— Greeks to a Barbarian?”

And Orpheus having said:—

“Water is the change for soul, and death for water;
From water is earth, and what comes from earth is again water,
And from that, soul, which changes the whole ether;”

and Heraclitus, putting together the expressions from these lines, writes thus:—

“It is death for souls to become water, and death for
water to become earth; and from earth comes water,
and from water soul.”

And Athamas the Pythagorean having said, “Thus was produced the beginning of the universe; and there are four roots— fire, water, air, earth: for from these is the origination of what is produced,”— Empedocles of Agrigentum wrote:—

“The four roots of all things first do you hear—
Fire, water, earth, and ether's boundless height:
For of these all that was, is, shall be, comes.”

And Plato having said, “Wherefore also the gods, knowing men, release sooner from life those they value most,” Menander wrote:—

“Whom the gods love, dies young.”

And Euripides having written in the Œnomaus:—

“We judge of things obscure from what we see;”

and in the Phœnix:—

“By signs the obscure is fairly grasped,”—

Hyperides says, “But we must investigate things unseen by learning from signs and probabilities.” And Isocrates having said, “We must conjecture the future by the past,” Andocides does not shrink from saying, “For we must make use of what has happened previously as signs in reference to what is to be.” Besides, Theognis having said:—

“The evil of counterfeit silver and gold is not intolerable,
O Cyrnus, and to a wise man is not difficult of detection;
But if the mind of a friend is hidden in his breast,
If he is false, and has a treacherous heart within,
This is the basest thing for mortals, caused by God,
And of all things the hardest to detect,”—

Euripides writes:—

“Oh Zeus, why have you given to men clear tests
Of spurious gold, while on the body grows
No mark sufficing to discover clear
The wicked man?”

Hyperides himself also says, “There is no feature of the mind impressed on the countenance of men.”

Again, Stasinus having composed the line:—

“Fool, who, having slain the father, leaves the children,”—

Xenophon says, “For I seem to myself to have acted in like manner, as if one who killed the father should spare his children.” And Sophocles having written in the Antigone:—

“Mother and father being in Hades now,
No brother ever can to me spring forth,”—

Herodotus says, “Mother and father being no more, I shall not have another brother.” In addition to these, Theopompus having written:—

“Twice children are old men in very truth;”

And before him Sophocles in Peleus:—

“Peleus, the son of Æacus, I, sole housekeeper,
Guide, old as he is now, and train again,
For the aged man is once again a child,”—

Antipho the orator says, “For the nursing of the old is like the nursing of children.” Also the philosopher Plato says, “The old man then, as seems, will be twice a child.” Further, Thucydides having said, “We alone bore the brunt at Marathon,” — Demosthenes said, “By those who bore the brunt at Marathon.” Nor will I omit the following. Cratinus having said in the Pytine: —

“The preparation perchance you know,”

Andocides the orator says, “The preparation, gentlemen of the jury, and the eagerness of our enemies, almost all of you know.” Similarly also Nicias, in the speech on the deposit, against Lysias, says, “The preparation and the eagerness of the adversaries, you see, O gentlemen of the jury.” After him Æschines says, “You see the preparation, O men of Athens, and the line of battle.” Again, Demosthenes having said, “What zeal and what canvassing, O men of Athens, have been employed in this contest, I think almost all of you are aware;” and Philinus similarly, “What zeal, what forming of the line of battle, gentlemen of the jury, have taken place in this contest, I think not one of you is ignorant.” Isocrates, again, having said, “As if she were related to his wealth, not him,” Lysias says in the Orphics, “And he was plainly related not to the persons, but to the money.” Since Homer also having written:—

“O friend, if in this war, by taking flight,
We should from age and death exemption win,
I would not fight among the first myself,
Nor would I send you to the glorious fray;
But now— for myriad fates of death attend
In any case, which man may not escape
Or shun— come on. To some one we shall bring
Renown, or some one shall to us,” —

Theopompus writes, “For if, by avoiding the present danger, we were to pass the rest of our time in security, to show love of life would not be wonderful. But now, so many fatalities are incident to life, that death in battle seems preferable.” And what? Child the sophist having uttered the apophthegm, “Become surety, and mischief is at hand,” did not Epicharmus utter the same sentiment in other terms, when he said, “Suretyship is the daughter of mischief, and loss that of suretyship?” Further, Hippocrates the physician having written, “You must look to time, and locality, and age, and disease,” Euripides says in Hexameters: —