Delphi Complete Works of Dio Chrysostom

by Dio Chrysostom

  [59] For, on the one hand, the nature of man is helpless and feeble like Demeter’s tender grain, but when it has progressed to the full measure of its prime, it is a stronger and more conspicuous creation than any plant at all. However, the entire heaven and universe when first it was completed, having been put in order by the wisest and noblest craft, just released from the hand of the creator, brilliant and translucent and brightly beaming in all its parts, remained helpless for no time at all, nor weak with the weakness that nature ordains for man and other mortal beings, but, on the contrary, was fresh and vigorous from the very beginning.

  [60] ἀσθένειαν, νέος δὲ καὶ ἀκμάζων εὐθὺς ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρχῆς. ὅτε δὴ καὶ ὁ δημιουργὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ πατὴρ ἰδὼν ἥσθη μὲν οὐδαμῶς: ταπεινὸν γὰρ ἐν ταπεινοῖς τοῦτο πάθος: ἐχάρη δὲ καὶ ἐτέρφθη διαφερόντως ἥμενος Οὐλύμπῳ, ἐγέλασσε δέ οἱ φίλον ἦτορ γηθοσύνῃ, ὅθ̓ ὁρᾶτο θεοὺς τοὺς ἅπαντας ἤδη γεγονότας καὶ παρόντας. τὴν δὲ τότε μορφὴν τοῦ κόσμου, λέγω δὲ τὴν τε ὥραν καὶ τὸ κάλλος ἀεὶ καλοῦ ὄντος ἀμηχάνως, οὐδεὶς δύναιτ̓ ἂν ἀνθρώπων διανοηθῆναι καὶ εἰπεῖν ἀξίως οὔτε τῶν νῦν οὔτε τῶν πρότερον, εἰ μὴ Μοῦσαί τε καὶ Ἀπόλλων ἐν θείῳ ῥυθμῷ τῆς εἰλικρινοῦς τε καὶ ἄκρας ἁρμονίας.

  [60] At that time, therefore, the Creator and Father of the World, beholding the work of his hands, was not by any means merely pleased, for that is a lowly experience of lowly beings; nay, he rejoiced and was delighted exceedingly,

  As on Olympus he sat, and his heart did laugh

  For joy, beholding the gods

  who were now all created and present before him.”

  But the form of the universe at that moment — I mean both the bloom and the beauty of that which is for ever ineffably beauteous — no man could conceive and fitly express, neither among men of our time nor among those of former days, but only the Muses and Apollo with the divine rhythm of their pure and consummate harmony.

  [61] ὅθεν δὴ καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐάσωμεν τὰ νῦν, ὅσον ἡμῖν δυνατὸν ἐπᾶραι τὸν λόγον οὐκ ὀκνήσαντες. εἰ δὲ ἀτεχνῶς ὑψηλόν τε καὶ ἐξίτηλον ἀπέβη τὸ τοῦ λόγου σχῆμα, ὥσπερ οἱ δεινοὶ περὶ τοὺς ὄρνιθάς φασι τὸν σφόδρα ἄνω χωρήσαντα καὶ τοῖς νέφεσιν ἐγκρύψαντα αὑτὸν ἀτελῆ τὴν μαντείαν ποιεῖν, οὐκ ἐμὲ ἄξιον αἰτιᾶσθαι, τὴν δὲ Βορυσθενιτῶν ἀξίωσιν, ὡς τότε ἐκεῖνοι λέγειν προσέταξαν. [p. 17]

  [61] For that reason let us also refrain for the present, now that we have not shirked exalting the myth to the best of our power. And if the form of that myth has turned out to be utterly lofty and indistinct, just as those who are expert in augury declare that the bird which ascends too high into the heavens hides itself in the clouds makes divination incomplete, still it is not I whom you should blame, but rather the insistence of those men of Borysthenes, because it was they who bade me speak that day.

  THE THIRTY-SEVENTH DISCOURSE: THE CORINTHIAN ORATION

  ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΑΚΟΣ.

  THE THIRTY-SEVENTH DISCOURSE: THE CORINTHIAN ORATION

  This Discourse is plainly not the work of Dio. It is inferior in style, replete with allusions, and often out of harmony with accepted tradition as to matters of history. Moreover, the speaker calls himself a Roman (§§ 25 and 26). Emperius long ago named Favorinus as the author, and that identification has met with general approval.

  The most detailed information regarding Favorinus is provided by Philostratus, Vitae Sophistarum 1.8, though Aulus Gellius, who had studied under Favorinus, often praises his learning. Favorinus was a native of Arelatêº (Arles). He may have obtained his early education at Marseilles, where he could have acquired that facility with the Greek language of which he was so proud (§§ , , ). According to Philostratus, he was said to have listened to Dio, but to have been “as far removed from him as those who hadn’t.” He created a great stir in Rome, even among those who knew no Greek but were “charmed by the sound of his voice, the significance of his glance, and the rhythm of his tongue.”

  Favorinus at first enjoyed the favour of Hadrian, but he lost it, at least for a time, when accused of adultery with the wife of a consul. In consequence, the Athenians threw down the bronze statue with which they had honoured him. It is perhaps that incident to which he makes veiled allusion in § 35. One infers from §§ 32- that Corinth had taken similar action for the same reason, but the peroration, in which the speaker seems to be apostrophizing the missing statue, is very mystifying. A literal reading of the passage would lead to the supposition that there is some hocus pocus by means of which the statue is suddenly placed on view, a prearranged unveiling, as it were. However, Edmonds may be right (Lyra Graeca, I , L. C. L.) in identifying the σιγηλὸν εἴδωλον of § 46 with the oration then being delivered rather than with any statue, real or imaginary. In that case Favorinus might be regarded as dedicating his address to posterity. That he had escaped punishment at the hands of Hadrian might be inferred from the confident tone of §§ 34 and , even if we lacked the express testimony of Philostratus. That he should have travelled widely was to be expected in the case of a man of his calling and reputation, and he refers to his travels with much pride in §§ 26 and . His most famous pupil was doubtless Herodes Atticus, whom he made his heir.

  This Discourse may have been included among the works of Dio because of its superficial likeness to Or. in subject matter, since both dealt with the popular custom of erecting statues and with the strange fate that sometimes overtook such marks of esteem.

  [1] Ὅτε τὸ πρῶτον ἐπεδήμησα τῇ πόλει τῇ ὑμετέρᾳ, ἀφ̓ οὗ δέκα ἔτη σχεδόν, καὶ τῶν λόγων μετέδωκα τῷ δήμῳ καὶ τοῖς τέλεσι τοῖς ὑμετέροις, ἔδοξα ἐπιτήδειος εἶναι ἔτι δὲ ὑμῖν οὕτω σφόδρα ὡς οὐδὲ Ἀρίων ὁ Μηθυμναῖος. Ἀρίονος μέν γε τύπον οὐκ ἐποιήσασθε. ὅταν δὲ ὑμᾶς λέγω, τοὺς προγόνους λέγω τοὺς ὑμετέρους καὶ Περίανδρον τὸν Κυψέλου τὸν σοφόν, ἐφ̓ οὗ Ἀρίων ἐγένετο, ὃς καὶ διθύραμβον πρῶτος ἀνθρώπων ἐποίησε καὶ ὠνόμασε καὶ ἐδίδαξεν ἐν Κορίνθῳ.

  The Thirty-seventh Discourse: The Corinthian Oration

  When I visited your city the first time, nearly ten years ago, and gave your people and magistrates a sample of my eloquence, I seemed to be on friendly, yes intimate, terms with you to a degree not equalled even by Arion of Methymnê. At any rate you did not have a statue made of Arion. Of course when I say you, I am speaking of your forebears and of Periander the sage, son of Cypselus, in whose day Arion flourished, being the first not only to compose a dithyramb but also to call it by that name and to present a dithyrambic chorus in Corinth.

  [2] θεοφιλὴς μὲν γὰρ οὕτως ἦν ὥστε ἀναπλέων ἐνταῦθα μετὰ χρημάτων μεγάλων, ὧν ἔτυχεν εἰργασμένος περὶ Τάραντα καὶ τοὺς ἐκεῖσε Ἕλληνας, μέλλων εἰς τὴν θάλατταν ὑπὸ τῶν πορθμέων ἐκπεσεῖν δἰ αὐτά που ταῦτα τὰ χρήματα, παρῃτήσατο αὐτοὺς πρὸ τῆς ἐκβολῆς ᾆσαι, ὥσπερ φασὶ τοὺς κύκνους μέλλοντας ἀποθνῄσκειν καὶ προορωμένους τὸν θάνατον ἐμβιβ�
�ζειν τὴν ψυχὴν οἷον εἰς

  [2] Now Arion was so dear to the gods that, when on his voyage back to Corinth, bringing great riches which he had had the good fortune to win by his labours in the neighbourhood of Tarentum and among the Greeks of that region, as he was about to be cast into the sea by the sailors — no doubt because of that very wealth of his — he besought them ere they threw him overboard to let him sing, just as men say that swans about to die and foreseeing their death are wont, as it were, to put their soul on board “the bark of song.”

  [3] ὄχημα τὸ μέλος. ὁ μὲν δὴ ᾖδε: καὶ γὰρ ἦν νηνεμία καὶ σιγὴ κατὰ θάλατταν: καὶ τὸ μέλος ᾔσθοντο δελφῖνες, αἰσθανόμενοι δὲ περὶ ναῦν ἦσαν. παυσαμένου δὲ τοῦ Ἀρίονος καὶ τῶν πορθμέων οὐδὲν μαλακὸν ἐνδιδόντων, ὁ μὲν ἔρριψεν ἑαυτὸν εἰς τὸν πόντον, δελφὶς δ̓ ὑπελθὼν ἐξεκόμισε τὸν ᾠδὸν ἐπὶ Ταίναρον ὡς εἶχε σὺν τῇ σκευῇ. Ἀρίων μὲν οὖν τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον σωθεὶς καὶ φθάσας τοὺς πορθμέας ἐν Κορίνθῳ ἦν, αὐτὰ δὴ ταῦτα διηγούμενος τῷ

  [3] So then he sang — calm and silence brooded on the deep — and dolphins heard his song, and as they heard it they rushed about the ship. And when Arion ceased and the sailors showed no relenting, he leaped into the sea; but a dolphin rose beneath him and carried the singer in safety to Taenarum just as he was, gear and all. So then Arion, saved in this manner and having outstripped the sailors, was in Corinth narrating these very happenings to Periander.

  [4] Περιάνδρῳ. ἐπικαταγομένων δὲ τῶν πορθμέων καὶ τοῦ πράγματος ἀχθέντος εἰς ἔλεγχον, οἱ μὲν ἀπέθνῃσκον, Ἀρίων δέ ῾οὐ γὰρ Περίανδρος, ἀλλ̓ Ἀρίων̓ ποιησάμενος μίμημα χαλκοῦν οὐ μέγα ἀνέθηκεν ἐπὶ Ταινάρου, καὶ αὑτὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ εὐεργέτου καθήμενον. ἐγένετο δὲ ὑπὸ τὸν αὐτὸν τοῦτον χρόνον καὶ Σόλων μὲν ἐν Κορίνθῳ, φεύγων τὴν Πεισιστράτου τυραννίδα, οὐ φεύγων δὲ τὴν Περιάνδρου. [p. 18]

  [4] And when the sailors later entered port and the matter was brought to trial, the sailors were put to death, but Arion — not Periander, mark you, but Arion — ordering a bronze likeness of no great size, set it up at Taenarum, a likeness of himself astride the back of his benefactor.

  And about this same time Solon too came to Corinth, fleeing from the tyranny of Peisistratus, but not from that of Periander.

  [5] οὐ γὰρ ἦν ὅμοιον: ὁ μὲν καταλύσας τὴν δημοκρατίαν ἐτυράννευε τῶν Ἀθηναίων, Περίανδρος δὲ παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς διαδεξάμενος τὴν βασιλείαν, ὃν οἱ μὲν Ἕλληνες τύραννον ἐκάλουν, οἱ δὲ θεοὶ βασιλέα. ἢ γὰρ οὐχ οὕτως ὁ χρησμὸς ἔχει;

  ὄλβιος οὗτος ἀνὴρ ὃς ἐμὸν δόμον εἰσαφικάνει,

  Κύψελος Ἠετίδης, βασιλεὺς κλειτοῖο Κορίνθου,

  αὐτὸς καὶ παῖδες.

  [5] No, for that was a different matter — while Peisistratus was tyrant of Athens through having destroyed the democracy, Periander was tyrant through having received the royal power by inheritance from his father, whom the Greeks were wont to call tyrant, though the gods called him king. For is not this the way the oracle has it?

  A happy man is he who to my fane

  Doth come, Eëtion’s Cypselus, the king

  Of famous Corinth, he and his children too.

  [6] ὧν εἷς αὐτὸς ὁ Περίανδρος ὁ τῷ πατρὶ ἐκδεξάμενος. οὕτω δὴ Περίανδρος, ὑπὸ μὲν τοῦ θεοῦ βασιλεύς, ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἀνηγορεύθη σοφός: οὗ μεῖζον ὄνομα οὐδεὶς πώποτε βασιλεὺς ἢ τύραννος ἐκτήσατο: ἀλλ̓ οὐδ̓ Ἀντίοχος ὁ θεὸς ἐπικληθεὶς οὐδὲ Μιθριδάτης ὁ Διόνυσος. ηὔξατο δ̓ ἂν καὶ Πιττακὸς ὁ Μυτιληναῖος ἅμα ἄμφω κεκλῆσθαι καὶ τύραννος καὶ σοφός: νυνὶ δὲ περιεχόμενος τοῦ δευτέρου ὀνόματος ἀπεσκευάσατο τὴν τυραννίδα. Περίανδρος σοφὸς μὲν ἦν μετ̓ ὀλίγων, τύραννος δὲ μετὰ πολλῶν:

  [6] One of these children was Periander himself, who succeeded his father. So then Periander, called king by the god, was proclaimed a sage by the Greeks. No better title did any king or tyrant ever gain, no, not even Antiochus, surnamed Divine, nor Mithridates, surnamed Dionysus. And even Pittacus of Mitylenê might have been proud to be called at one and the same time both tyrant and sage; but, as a matter of fact, in clinging to the second title he stripped himself of his tyranny. Yet as for Periander, while he shared the name of sage with a few and that of tyrant with many, as both tyrant and sage he stood alone.

  [7] ἀμφότερα δὲ καὶ τύραννος καὶ σοφὸς μόνος. παρὰ τοῦτον ὁ Σόλων ἐλθὼν καὶ τυχὼν τῶν κοινῶν: κοινὰ γὰρ τὰ φίλων: ἀλλ̓ ὅμως ἀνδριάντος οὐκ ἔτυχεν, οὐ δήπου καταφρονῶν ἀνδριάντος, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ἐν Σαλαμῖνι χαλκοῦς ἑστάναι μέγα ποιούμενος: πόθεν γε δὴ οὐχὶ ἐν Κορίνθῳ, ἐν τῷ περιπάτῳ τῆς Ἑλλάδος; ἧκε δὲ καὶ Ἡρόδοτος ὁ λογοποιὸς ὡς ὑμᾶς λόγους φέρων Ἑλληνικοὺς ἄλλους τε καὶ Κορινθίους οὐδέπω ψευδεῖς, ἀνθ̓ ὧν ἠξίου παρὰ τῆς πόλεως μισθὸν ἄρνυσθαι. διαμαρτὼν δὲ καὶ τούτου: οὐ γὰρ ἠξίουν οἱ ὑμέτεροι πρόγονοι δόξαν ἀγοράζειν: μετεσκεύασεν ἐκεῖνα ἃ πάντες ἐπιστάμεθα, τὰ περὶ τὴν Σαλαμῖνα καὶ τὸν Ἀδείμαντον.

  [7] Well then, when Solon visited Periander and received a share of their common possessions — for the possessions of friends are held in common — still he received no statue, though surely he did not disdain a statue, no, he esteemed highly the honour of having had a bronze likeness of himself set up at Salamis; then why not so at Corinth, the promenade of Hellas? Again, Herodotus the historian also paid you a visit, bringing tales of Greece, and in particular tales of Corinth — not yet fallacious tales — in return for which he expected to receive pay from the city. But failing of obtaining even that — for your forebears did not deem it fitting to traffic in renown — he devised those tales we all know so well, the tales about Salamis and Adeimantus.

  [8] ἡμᾶς δὲ δὶς ἐπιδημήσαντας οὕτως ἀσμένως ἐπείδετε ὥστε μάλιστα μὲν ἐπειρᾶσθε κατέχειν, ὁρῶντες δὲ ἀδύνατον ὄν, ἀλλά γε τὴν εἰκὼ τοῦ σώματος ἐποιήσασθε καὶ ταύτην φέροντες ἀνεθήκατε εἰς τὰ βιβλία, εἰς προεδρίαν, οὗ μάλιστ̓ ἂν ᾤεσθε τοὺς νέους προκαλέσασθαι τῶν αὐτῶν ἡμῖν ἐπιτηδευμάτων ἔχεσθαι. οὐ γὰρ ὡς ἕνα τῶν πολλῶν καὶ κατ̓ ἐνιαυτὸν καταιρόντων εἰς Κεγχρεὰς [p. 19] ἔμπορον ἢ θεωρὸν ἢ πρεσβευτὴν ἢ διερχόμενον, ἀλλ̓ ὡς μόλις διὰ μακρῶν χρόνων ἀγαπητὸν ἐπιφαινόμενον, οὕτως ἐτιμήσατε.

  [8] However, in my own case,
upon my second visit to Corinth you were so glad to see me that you did your best to get me to stay with you, but seeing that to be impossible, you did have a likeness made of me, and you took this and set it up in your Library, a front-row seat as it were, where you felt it would most effectively stimulate the youth to persevere in the same pursuits as myself. For you accorded me this honour, not as to one of the many who each year put in at Cenchreae as traders or pilgrims or envoys or passing travellers, but as to a cherished friend, who at last, after a long absence, puts in an appearance.

  [9] τιμὴ δ̓ ἠΰτ̓ ὄνειρος ἀποπταμένη πεπότηται. ὥστε ἐμὲ ἐν ἀπόρῳ καθεστάναι καὶ πρὸς ἐμαυτὸν καὶ νὴ Δία ἤδη πρὸς ἕτερον, πότεῤ ὡς ἀληθῶς οὐκ ἔβλεπον οὐδὲ ὕπαρ, ἀλλὰ ὄναρ ἦν τὰ γιγνόμενα, ἢ τὰ μὲν ἦν ταῦτα ταῖς πάσαις ἀκριβείαις, σπουδή τε τοῦ πλήθους καὶ κρίσις τῆς βουλῆς, ὁ δ̓ ἀνδριὰς τῶν

  [9] Yet Honour, dreamlike, takes wing and flies away.

  Therefore I have come to be perplexed, not only as to my own case, but now, by Heaven, as to that of some one else as well, wondering whether I did not truly see, and what took place was not the happenings of my waking moments but merely a dream, or whether the events were really so in all detail, both the enthusiasm of the populace and the decision of the Council, and yet, as luck would have it, the statue was one of the works of Daedalus and slipped away without our notice.