Delphi Complete Works of Dio Chrysostom

by Dio Chrysostom

  [42] This, he claimed, was due to Greek love of pleasure. Whatever they delight to hear from anyone’s lips they at once consider to be true. They give their poets full licence to tell any untruth they wish, and they declare that this is the poets’ privilege. Yet they trust them in everything they say and even quote them at times as witnesses in matters of dispute. Among the Egyptians, however, it is illegal to say anything in verse. Indeed they have no poetry at all, since they know this is but the charm with which pleasure lures the ear. “Therefore,” said he, “just as the thirsty have no need of wine, but a drink of water suffices them, so too seekers after truth have no need of verse, but it is quite enough for them to hear the unadorned truth.

  [43] ἐξαρκεῖ αὐτοῖς ἁπλῶς ἀκοῦσαι. ἡ δὲ ποίησις ἀναπείθει τὰ ψευδῆ ἀκούειν ὥσπερ ὁ οἶνος πίνειν μάτην. ὡς οὖν ἤκουσα παρ᾽ ἐκείνου, πειράσομαι εἰπεῖν, προστιθεὶς ἐξ ὧν ἐδόκει μοι ἀληθῆ τὰ λεγόμενα. ἔφη γὰρ ἐν Σπάρτῃ γενέσθαιΤυνδάρεων σοφὸν ἄνδρα καὶ βασιλέα μέγιστον, τούτου δὲ καὶ Λήδας δύο θυγατέρας κατὰ ταὐτὸ ὥσπερ ἡμεῖς ὀνομάζομεν, Κλυταιμνήστρας καὶ Ἑλένην, καὶ δύο ἄρρενας παῖδας διδύμους καλοὺς καὶ μεγάλους καὶ πολὺ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἀρίστους.

  [43] Poetry, however, tempts them to listen to falsehood just as wine leads to over-drinking.”

  Now I shall endeavour to repeat what he told me, adding my reasons for thinking his words to be true. According to his account, Tyndareus, a wise man and a very great king, was born in Sparta. Then Leda and he had two daughters named just as we name them, Clytemnestra and Helen, and two large handsome twin sons, by far the best among the Greeks.

  [44] εἶναι δὲ τὴν Ἑλένην ἐπὶ κάλλει περιβόητον καὶ πολλοὺς μνηστῆρας αὐτῆς ἔτι σμικρᾶσπαιδὸς οὔσης γενέσθαι καὶ ἁρπαγὴν ὑπὸ Θησέως βασιλέως ὄντος Ἀθηνῶν. τοὺς οὖν ἀδελφοὺς τῆς Ἑλένης εὐθέως ἐλθεῖν εἰς τὴν τοῦ Θησέως χώραν καὶ πορθῆσαι τὴν πόλιν καὶ κομίσασθαι τὴν ἀδελφήν. τὰς μὲν οὖν ἄλλας γυναῖκας ἀφιέναι λαβόντας: τὴν δὲ τοῦ Θησέως μητέρα αἰχμάλωτον ἄγειν, τιμωρουμένους αὐτόν: εἶναιγὰρ αὐτοὺς ἀξιομάχους πρὸς ἅπασαν τὴν Ἑλλάδα, καὶ καταστρέψασθαι [p. 127]

  [44] Helen was famed for her beauty, and while yet but a little girl had many suitors and was carried off by Theseus, who was king of Athens. Whereupon her brothers straightway invaded Theseus’ country, sacked the city, and recovered their sister. They freed all the women they had captured except the mother of Theseus, whom they carried off a prisoner in retaliation; for they were a match for all Greece and could have subjugated it easily had they so wished.

  [45] ῥᾳδίως ἄν, εἰ ἐβούλοντο. εἶπον οὖν ὅτι καὶ παρ᾽ ἡμῖν ταῦτα λέγεται, καὶ προσέτι ὡς αὐτὸς ἑορακὼς εἴην ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ ἐν τῷ ὀπισθοδόμῳ τοῦ νεὼ τῆς Ἥρας ὑπόμνημα τῆς ἁρπαγῆς ἐκείνης ἐν τῇ ξυλίνῃ κιβωτῷ τῇ ἀνατεθείσῃ ὑπὸ Κυψέλου, τοὺς Διοσκόρους ἔχοντας τὴν Ἑλένην ἐπιβεβηκυῖαν τῇ κεφαλῇ τῆς Αἴθρας καὶ τῆς κόμης ἕλκουσαν, καὶ ἐπίγραμμα ἐπιγεγραμμένον ἀρχαίοις γράμμασι.

  [45] I remarked that this was our account also and that, moreover, I had myself seen at Olympia in the rear chamber of the temple of Hera a memorial of that abduction upon the wooden chest dedicated by Cypselus. It represents the Dioscuri holding Helen, who is standing upon Aethra’s head pulling her hair, and there is also an inscription in ancient characters.

  [46] μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα, ἔφη, φοβούμενος τοὺς Τυνδαρίδας ὁ Ἀγαμέμνων: ἠπίστατο γὰρ ὅτι ξένος ὢν καὶ ἔπηλυς ἄρχοι τῶν Ἀργείων: ἐβούλετο προσλαβεῖν αὐτοὺς κηδεύσας, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἔγημε Κλυταιμνήστραν: τὴν δὲ Ἑλένην ἐμνήστευε μὲν τῷ ἀδελφῷ, οὐδεὶς δὲ ἔφασκε τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐπιτρέψειν, καὶ γὰρ προσήκειν ἕκαστος αὑτῷ τοῦ γένους μᾶλλον ἢ Μενελάῳ, Πελοπίδῃ ὄντι. ἧκον δὲ καὶ ἔξωθεν πολλοὶ μνηστῆρες διά τε τὴν δόξαν τὴν περὶ τοῦ κάλλους καὶ τὴν δύναμιν τῶν ἀδελφῶν καὶ τοῦ πατρός.

  [46] “Thereupon,” so he continued, “Agamemnon, who feared the sons of Tyndareus — because he knew that, though he ruled the Argives, he was a stranger and a new-comer — sought to win them over by a marriage alliance and for that reason married Clytemnestra. Helen’s hand he sought for his brother, but the Greeks to a man declared that they would not permit it, since each one of them held that she was more closely akin to himself in blood than to Menelaus, who was a descendant of Pelops. Many suitors came from outside Greece also because of Helen’s reputation for beauty and the power of her brothers and father.”

  [47] ἐδόκει οὖν μοι καὶ τοῦτο ἀληθὲς λέγειν, ὅπου τὴν Κλεισθένους θυγατέρα τοῦ Σικυωνίων τυράννου καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ Ἰταλίας τινὰ μνηστεῦσαί φασιν: ἔτι δὲ Ἱπποδάμειαν τὴν Οἰνομάου Πέλοψ ἔγημεν ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίας ἀφικόμενος, Θησεὺς δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ Θερμώδοντος ποταμοῦ μίαν τῶν Ἀμαζόνων:

  [47] Now I thought that this last statement also was true, since the story goes that the daughter of Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon, was wooed by a man from Italy, and that Pelops, who married Hippodameia, the daughter of Oenomaüs, came from Asia, and that Theseus married one of the Amazons from the banks of the Thermodon

  [48] ὡς δὲ ἐκεῖνος ἔφη, καὶ τὴν Ἰὼ ἀφικέσθαι ἐκδοθεῖσαν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, ἀλλὰ μὴ βοῦν γενομένην οὕτως οἰστρήσασαν ἐλθεῖν. οὕτως δὲ ἔθους ὄντος ἐκδιδόναι καὶ λαμβάνειν γυναῖκας παρ᾽ ἀλλήλων καὶ τοὺς πλεῖστον ἀπέχοντας τοῖς ἐνδοξοτάτοις, καὶ τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον ἀφικέσθαι κατὰ μνηστείαν ἔφη, πιστεύοντα τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ πατρός, σχεδόν τι βασιλεύοντος τῆς Ἀσίας ἁπάσης, καὶ οὐδὲ πολὺ τῆς Τροίας ἀπεχούσης, ἄλλως τε καὶ τῶν Πελοπιδῶν ἤδη δυναστευόντων ἐν τῇ Ἑλλάδι καὶ πολλῆς ἐπιμιξίας γενομένης.

  [48] and, as that priest maintained, Io came to Egypt as a betrothed bride and not as a heifer maddened by the gadfly.

  “And,” he added, “since the great houses were accustomed, as we have seen, to make distance no barrier in forming marriage alliances with one another, it came to pass that Paris came as a suitor, trusting in the power of his father, who was the ruler of practically all Asia. Besides, Troy was not far distant, and what was especially important, the descendants of Pelops were already in power in Greece and much intercourse between the two peoples had developed.

  [49] ἐλθόντα δὲ μετὰ πολλοῦ πλούτου καὶ παρασκευῆς ὡς ἐπὶ μνηστείαν, καὶ διαφέροντα κάλλει, εἰς λόγους αὐτὸν καταστῆναι
Τυνδάρεῴ τε καὶ τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς τῆς Ἑλένης, λέγοντα περὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς τῆς Πριάμου καὶ τῶν χρημάτων τοῦ πλήθους καὶ τῆς ἄλλης δυνάμεως, καὶ ὅτι αὑτοῦ γίγνοιτο ἡ βασιλεία: τὸν δὲ [p. 128] Μενέλαον ἰδιώτην ἔφη εἶναι: τοῖς γὰρ Ἀγαμέμνονος παισίν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐκείνῳ τὴν ἀρχὴν προσήκειν: καὶ ὡς θεοφιλὴς εἴη καὶ ὡς ἡ Ἀφροδίτη αὐτῷ ὑπόσχοιτο τὸν ἄριστον γάμον τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις: αὐτὸς οὖν προκρῖναι τῆν ἐκείνου θυγατέρα, ἐξὸν αὐτῷ λαβεῖν ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίας τινά, εἰ βούλοιτο, εἴτε τοῦ Αἰγυπτίων βασιλέως εἴτε

  [49] So when he arrived with a great show of wealth and a great equipage for a mere wooing — and he was strikingly handsome too — he had an interview the Tyndareus and Helen’s brothers, in which he dwelt upon Priam’s empire, the extent of his resources, and his power in general, and added that he was next in succession. Menelaus, he declared, was but a private individual, since the royal prerogative descended to the children of Agamemnon, not to him. He urged that he himself enjoyed the favour of the gods and that Aphrodite had promised him the most brilliant marriage in the world. Accordingly, he had chosen Tyndareüs’ daughter, though he might have taken someone from Asia had he desired, whether an Egyptian or an Indian princess.

  [50] τοῦ Ἰνδῶν. τῶν μὲν γὰρ ἄλλων ἁπάντων ἔλεγεν αὐτὸς ἄρχειν ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ Τροίας μέχρι Αἰθιοπίας: καὶ γὰρ Αἰθιόπων βασιλεύειν τὸν αὑτοῦ ἀνεψιὸν Μέμνονα, ἐκ Τιθωνοῦ ὄντα τοῦ Πριάμου ἀδελφοῦ. καὶ ἄλλα πολλὰ ἔλεγεν ἐπαγωγά, καὶ δῶρα ἐδίδου τῇ τε Λήδᾳ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις τοῖς προσήκουσιν, ὅσα οὐδὲ ξύμπαντεσοἱ Ἕλληνες ἐδύναντο. ἔφη δὲ καὶ ξυγγενὴς εἶναι τῆς Ἑλένης καὶ αὐτός: ἀπὸ γὰρ Διὸς εἶναι τὸν Πρίαμον: πυνθάνεσθαι δὲ κἀκείνους καὶ τὴν ἀδελφὴν αὐτῶν Διὸς ὄντας. τῷ δὲ Ἀγαμέμνονι καὶ τῷ Μενελάῳ μὴ προσήκειν ὀνειδίζειν αὐτῷ τὴν πατρίδα: καὶ γὰρ αὐτοὺς εἶναι Φρύγας ἀπὸ Σιπύλου. πολὺ δὴ κρεῖττον τοῖσβασιλεῦσι κηδεύειν τῆς Ἀσίας ἢ τοῖς ἐκεῖθεν μετανάσταις. καὶ γὰρ Λαομέδοντα Τελαμῶνι δοῦναι τὴν ἑαυτοῦ θυγατέρα Ἡσιόνην: ἐλθεῖν γὰρ αὐτὸν εἰς Τροίαν μνηστῆρα μετὰ Ἡρακλέους, ἄγειν δὲ καὶ τὸν Ἡρακλέα φίλον ὄντα καὶ ξένον Λαομέδοντι.

  [50] As for himself, he said that he was king of all other peoples from Troy to Ethiopia, for the Ethiopians were under the sway of his cousin, Memnon, who was the son of Tithonus, Priam’s brother. Many other enticements did he mention and he offered to Leda and the rest of the family gifts such as all the Greeks together could not have matched.

  “He urged also that he himself was of the same stock as Helen, since Priam was descended from Zeus and he had been told that she and her brothers were also his offspring; that it did not lie with Agamemnon and Menelaus to taunt him on his origin, for they themselves were Phrygians from Mount Sipylus; Tyndareus might much better ally his family with the ruling kings of Asia than with immigrants from that country. For Laomedon too had given his daughter, Hesione, to Telamon, who came with Heracles to Troy to sue for her hand, bringing the latter along also because he was the friend and ally of Laomedon.

  [51] πρὸς οὖν ταῦτα ὁ Τυνδάρεως ἐβουλεύετο μετὰ τῶν παίδων. καὶ ἐδόκει αὐτοῖς σκοποῦσιν οὐ χεῖρον εἶναι προσλαβεῖν τοὺς ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίας βασιλέας. τὴν μὲν γὰρ Πελοπιδῶν οἰκίαν ἔχειν Κλυταιμνήστραν συνοικοῦσαν Ἀγαμέμνονι: λοιπὸν δέ, εἰ Πριάμῳ κηδεύσειαν, καὶ τῶν ἐκεῖ πραγμάτων κρατεῖν καὶ μηδένα αὐτοὺς κωλύειν τῆς Ἀσίας καὶ τῆς Εὐρώπης ἄρχειν ἁπάσης. πρὸς δὲ ταῦτα ἠγωνίζετο

  [51] And so Tyndareus consulted with his sons regarding these matters, and after due consideration they decided that it was not such a bad policy to ally themselves with the kings of Asia. For they saw that the house of Pelops had Clytemnestra, who was the wife of Agamemnon, and besides, if they became allied by marriage with Priam’s house, they would have control of affairs there too and nobody would stand in the way of their governing all Asia and Europe.”

  Agamemnon opposed all this, but the weight of the argument was too strong for him.

  [52] μὲν ὁ Ἀγαμέμνων, ἡττᾶτο δὲ τοῖς δικαίοις. ἔφη γὰρ ὁ Τυνδάρεως ἱκανὸν εἶναι αὐτῷ κηδεύσαντι: καὶ ἅμα ἐδίδασκεν ὅτι οὐδὲ συμφέροι τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ τυγχάνειν τῶν: οὕτω γὰρ μᾶλλον ἐπιβουλεύσειν: οὐδὲ γὰρ Ἀτρεῖ Θυέστην εὔνουν γενέσθαι. μάλιστα δ᾽ ἔπειθε λέγων αὐτὸν ὅτι οὐκ ἀνέξονται οἱ ἄλλοι μνηστῆρες τῶνἙλλήνων ἀποτυχόντες, οὔτε Διομήδης οὔτε Ἀντίλοχος οὔτε Ἀχιλλεύς, ἀλλὰ πολεμήσουσι: καὶ ὅτι κινδυνεύσει τοὺς δυνατωτάτους ποιῆσαι [p. 129]

  [52] For Tyndareus assured him that it was quite enough for him to have become his son-in-law and warned him that it was not at all advisable for his brother to have power equal to his own, since he might thus the more easily undermine him. Thyestes, for example, had not been loyal to Atreus. He dissuaded him most effectively, however, by urging that the other suitors from Greece would not tolerate their own rejection in his interest, neither Diomede nor Antilochus nor Achilles, but would take up arms, and so he would be in danger of making the strongest men among the Greeks his foes.

  [53] τῶν Ἑλλήνων πολεμίους. κρεῖττον οὖν εἶναι μὴ καταλιπεῖν ἀρχὴν πολέμου καὶ στάσεως ἐν τοῖς Ἕλλησι. τὸν δὲ ἄχθεσθαι μέν, οὐκ ἔχειν δὲ ὅπως κωλύσῃ τὸν Τυνδάρεων: κύριον γὰρ εἶναι τῆς αὑτοῦ θυγατρός: καὶ ἅμα φοβεῖσθαι τοὺς παῖδας αὐτοῦ. καὶ οὕτως δὴ λαβεῖν Ἀλέξανδρον τὴν Ἑλένην ἐκ τοῦ δικαίου, πείσαντα τοὺς γονεῖς αὐτῆς καὶ τοὺς ἀδελφούς, καὶ ἀφικέσθαι ἄγοντα μετὰ πολλοῦ ζήλου καὶ χαρᾶς: καὶ τόν τε Πρίαμον καὶ τὸν Ἕκτορα καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἅπαντας ἥδεσθαι τῷ γάμῳ, καὶ τὴν Ἑλένην ὑποδέχεσθαι μετὰ θυσιῶν καὶ εὐχῶν.

  [53] It would, therefore, be better not to leave any cause for war and dissension among the Greeks. This, however, so the priest said, angered Agamemnon, but he was unable successfully to oppose Tyndareus, who was master of his own daughter; and at the same time he stood in awe of Tyndareus’ sons. Thus it was that Paris took Helen as his lawful wife after gaining the consent of her parents and brothers, and took her home with him amid great enthusiasm and rejoicing. And Priam, Hector, and all the others were delighted with the union and welcomed Helen with sacrifices and prayers.

  [54] σκόπει δέ, ἔφη, τὴν εὐήθειαν τοῦ ἐναντίου λόγου, εἴ σοι δοκεῖ δυνατὸν
εἶναι πρῶτον μὲν ἐρασθῆναί τινα γυναικός, ἣν οὐπώποτε εἶδεν: ἔπειτα καὶ πεῖσαι καταλιποῦσαν τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ τὴν πατρίδα καὶ πάντας τοὺς ἀναγκαίους, ἔτι δὲ οἶμαι θυγατρίου γεγονυῖαν μητέρα, συνακολουθῆσαι ἀνδρὶ ἀλλοφύλῳ. διὰ ταύτην γὰρ τὴν ἀλογίαν συνέπλασαν τὸν περὶ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης μῦθον πολὺ τούτων ἀποπληκτότερον.

  [54] “Then see,” continued the priest, “how foolish the opposite story is. Can you imagine it possible for anyone to have become enamoured of a woman whom he had never seen, and then, that she could have let herself be persuaded to leave husband, fatherland, and all her relatives — and that too, I believe, when she was the mother of a little daughter — and follow a man of another race? It is because this is so improbable that they got up that cock-and-bull story about Aphrodite, which is still more preposterous.

  [55] εἰ δὲ ὁ Ἀλέξανδρος ἐνεθυμήθη, πῶς ὅ τε πατὴρ ἐπέτρεψεν οὐκ ὢν ἀνόητος, ἀλλὰ καὶ σφόδρα δοκῶν νοῦν ἔχειν, ἥ τε μήτηρ; πῶς δὲ εἰκὸς τὸν Ἕκτορα ὕστερον μὲν ὀνειδίζειν καὶ λοιδορεῖσθαι αὐτῷ περὶ τῆς ἁρπαγῆς, ὥς φησιν Ὅμηρος: λέγει γὰρ οὕτως: