Delphi Complete Works of Dio Chrysostom

by Dio Chrysostom

  [43] Or can it be that a race of men has been created with the gift of music in their noses (as swans are said to have the gift of music in their wings), so that like shrill-voiced birds these men delight one another in the streets and at symposia without any need of lyre and pipes? No doubt the lyre and pipes are antiquated and, furthermore, instruments that produce a harsh and rustic kind of music. Ah well, another style now is flourishing, superior to lyres and more agreeable. Therefore, in course of time, we shall even institute choruses to accompany that variety of tune, choruses of boys and girls, most carefully instructed.

  [44] ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι μὲν ἄχθεσθε ἀκούοντες σαφῶς οἶδα, καὶ προεῖπον ὅτι τοὺς λόγους ἀποδέξεσθε οὐχ ἡδέως. ὑμεῖς δ᾽ ἴσως με περὶ ἄστρων καὶ γῆς ἐδοκεῖτε διαλέξεσθαι. καὶ τινὲς μὲν ὑμῶν ὀργίζονται καί φασί με ὑβρίζειν τὴν πόλιν, τοὺς δὲ ταῦτα ποιοῦντας οὐκ αἰτιῶνται: τινὲς δὲ ἴσως καταγελῶσιν, εἰ περὶ μηδενὸς κρείττονος εὗρον εἰπεῖν: ἐγὼ δὲ ὁρῶ καὶ τοὺς ἰατροὺς ἔσθ᾽ ὅτε ἁπτομένους ὧν οὐκ ἂν ἤθελον, οὐχὶ τῶν καλλίστων τοῦ σώματος, καὶ πολλοὺς οἶδα τῶν θεραπευομένων ἀγανακτοῦντας, ὅταν ἅπτηται τοῦ πεπονθότος. ὁ δὲ πολλάκις ἀμύττει τοῦτο καὶ τέμνει βοῶντος. [p. 310] οὔκουν ἀνήσω περὶ τούτου λέγων, πρὶν ἂν σφόδρα δηχθῆτε. καίτοι πάνυ ἀσθενοῦς φαρμάκου τυγχάνετε τοῦ λόγου τούτου καὶ πολὺ ἐλάττονος ἢ κατὰ τὴν ἀξίαν.

  [44] Well, I understand perfectly that you are vexed with me for what I have been saying, and indeed I told you beforehand that you would not receive my words with any pleasure. However, you may have supposed that I was going to discourse on astronomy and geology. And though some of you are angry and claim that I am insulting your city, still they do not blame those who guilty of the things I mention; on the other hand, others may be laughing at me because I could find nothing better to talk about. However, I find that physicians too sometimes handle things they would rather not, parts of the body that are not the most beautiful, and many of their patients, I know, are irritated when the physician touches the sore spot. But he often scarifies and lances it despite the outcry. I, therefore, shall not cease to talk upon this theme until I make you smart indeed. And yet, after all, it is a very mild medicine you are getting in this speech of mine, much less severe than your case calls for.

  [45] ἄγε δὴ πρὸς τοῦ Ἡρακλέους καὶ τοῦ Περσέως καὶ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος καὶ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς καὶ τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν, οὓς τιμᾶτε, ἀποκρίνασθέμοι προθύμως, εἴ τις ὑμῶν ἐβούλετο γυναῖκα τοιαύτην ἔχειν, λέγω δέ, ὥσπερ κιθαρίστρια καλεῖται γυνὴ καὶ νὴ Δία αὐλητρὶς ἢ ποιήτρια καὶ τἄλλα ὁμοίως ἀπὸ τῶν ἄλλων ἐπιτηδευμάτων, οὕτως ἣν ἄν τις συνήθως ὀνομάσειεν ἀπὸ τούτου τοῦ ἔργου. καὶ μὴ δυσχεραίνετε μηδὲ ἄχθεσθε: τοὺς γὰρ λόγους τούτους αὐτὸπαρέχει τὸ πρᾶγμα τῷ βουλομένῳ περὶ αὐτοῦ λέγειν, οὐκ ἐγώ ποθεν ἀνευρίσκω. γυναικὶ μὲν δὴ τοιαύτῃ ξυνοικεῖν οὐδεὶς ἂν ἐθελήσειεν ὑμῶν οὐδὲ ἐπὶ πεντακοσίοις ταλάντοις οἶμαι, θυγατέρα δὲ σχεῖν ἕλοιτο ἄν; ἀλλὰ νὴ Δία μητέρα πως οὐ χαλεπὸν τοιαύτην ἔχειν καὶ γηροβοσκεῖν: σεμνὸν γὰρ δῆλον ὅτι καὶ πρεσβυτέραις πρέπον

  [45] Come now, in the name of Heracles and Perseus and Apollo and Athenê and the other deities whom you honour, tell me freely whether any one of you would want to have a wife like that — I mean a wife whom men would habitually call by a name derived from the practice of which I speak, just as a woman receives the name of harpist or flautist or poetess, and so forth, each in keeping with its own activity. And pray do not be displeased or vexed; for these words of mine are words that the situation itself supplies to any man who chooses to deal with the subject, rather than some invention of my own. Well then, no one among you would be willing to live with a wife like that, not even, methinks, for five hundred talents; then would he choose a daughter of her kind? I grant you that perhaps, by Zeus, it may not be so distressing to have a mother of that sort and to support her in old age; for evidently snorting is a solemn performance and rather suited to the elderly!

  [46] μᾶλλον. εἶεν: οὐκοῦν ἐπὶ μὲν γυναικὸς ἢ θυγατρὸς οὐδ᾽ ἀκούοντες ἀνέχεσθε, πόλιν δὲ τοιαύτην καὶ πατρίδα οἰκεῖν οὐ δεινὸν ὑμῖν δοκεῖ; καὶ ταῦθ᾽, ὃ τῷ παντὶ χαλεπώτερον, οὐ τοιαύτην οὖσαν ἐξ ἀρχῆς, ἀλλ᾽ ἣν αὐτοὶ ποιεῖτε. καίτοι μητρόπολις ὑμῶν ἐστιν ἡ πόλις, ὥστε καὶ τὴν σεμνότητα καὶ τὸ ἀξίωμα ἔχει τὸ τῆσμητρός: ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως οὔτε τοῦ ὀνόματος οὔτε τῆς ἀρχαιότητος οὔτε τῆς δόξης φείδεσθε.

  [46] Very well, then if, when it is a question of wife or daughter, you cannot endure even to hear of such a thing, does it not seem to you an awful calamity to reside in a city or a country of that kind? And furthermore — a thought which makes it altogether more distressing — a city or a country which was not like that to begin with, but which you yourselves are making so? And yet the city in question is your mother-city, and so it has the dignity and the esteem belonging to a mother-city; but still neither its name nor its antiquity nor its renown are spared by you.

  [47] τί δὴ οἴεσθε, εἰ καθάπερ εἰκός ἐστι καί φασι τοὺς οἰκιστὰς ἥρωας ἢ θεοὺς πολλάκις ἐπιστρέφεσθαι τὰς αὑτῶν πόλεις τοῖς ἄλλοις ὄντας ἀφανεῖς ἔν τε θυσίαις καί τισιν ἑορταῖς δημοτελέσιν, ἔπειθ᾽ ὁ ἀρχηγὸς ὑμῶν Ἡρακλῆς παραγένοιτοἤτοι πυρᾶς οὔσης, ἣν πάνυ καλὴν αὐτῷ ποιεῖτε, σφόδρα γε ἂν αὐτὸν ἡσθῆναι τοιαύτης ἀκούσαντα φωνῆς; οὐκ ἂν εἰς Θρᾴκην ἀπελθεῖν μᾶλλον ἢ Λιβύην καὶ τοῖς Βουσίριδος ἢ τοῖς Διομήδους ἀπογόνοις θύουσι παρεῖναι; τί δέ; ὁ Περσεὺς οὐκ ἂν ὄντως ὑπερπτῆναι δοκεῖ τὴν πόλιν; καὶ τί δεῖ μεμνῆσθαι θεῶν;[p. 311]

  [47] What would you think, if, just as you might reasonably expect (and as men report) that founding heroes or deities would often visit the cities they have founded, invisible to everybody else (both at sacrificial rites and at certain other public festivals) — if, I ask you, your own founder, Heracles, should visit you (attracted, let us say, by a funeral pyre such as you construct with special magnificence in his honour), do you think he would be extremely pleased to hear such a sound? Would he not depart for Thrace instead, or for Libya, and honour with his presence the descendants of Busiris or of Diomedes when they sacrifice? What! Do you not think that Perseus himself would really pass over your city in his flight?

  [48] ἀλλὰ Ἀθηνόδωρος ὁ πρῴην γενόμενος, ὃν ᾐδεῖτο ὁ Σεβαστός, ἆρα οἴεσθε, εἴπερ ἔγνω τοιαύτην οὖσαν τὴν πόλιν, προύκρινεν ἂν τῆς μετ᾽ ἐκεί�
�ου διατριβῆς τὴν ἐνθάδε; πρότερον μὲν οὖν ἐπ᾽ εὐταξίᾳ καὶ σωφροσύνῃ διαβόητος ἦν ὑμῶν ἡ πόλις καὶ τοιούτους ἀνέφερεν ἄνδρας: νῦν δὲ ἐγὼ δέδοικα μὴ τὴν ἐναντίαν λάβῃ τάξιν, ὥστε μετὰ τῶνδε καὶ τῶνδε ὀνομάζεσθαι. καίτοι πολλὰ τῶν νῦν ἔτι μενόντων ὅπως δήποτε ἐμφαίνει τὸ σῶφρον καὶ τὸ αὐστηρὸν τῆς τότε ἀγωγῆς, ὧν ἐστι τὸ περὶ τὴν ἐσθῆτα τῶν γυναικῶν, τὸ τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον κατεστάλθαι καὶ βαδίζειν ὥστε μηδένα μηδὲ ἓν αὐτῶν μέρος ἰδεῖν μήτε τοῦ προσώπου μήτε τοῦ λοιποῦ σώματος,

  [48] And yet what need have we to mention deities? Take Athenodorus, who became governor of Tarsus, whom Augustus held in honour — had he known your city to be what it is to-day, would he, do you suppose, have preferred being here to living with the emperor? In days gone by, therefore, your city was renowned for orderliness and sobriety, and the men it produced were of like character; but now I fear that it may be rated just the opposite and so be classed with this or that other city I might name. And yet many of the customs still in force reveal in one way or another the sobriety and severity of deportment of those earlier days. Among these is the convention regarding feminine attire, a convention which prescribes that women should be so arrayed and should so deport themselves when in the street that nobody could see any part of them, neither of the face nor of the rest of the body, and that they themselves might not see anything off the road.

  [49] μηδὲ αὐτὰς ὁρᾶν ἔξω τῆς ὁδοῦ μηδέν. καίτοι τί δύνανται τοιοῦτον ἰδεῖν οἷον ἀκούουσιν; τοιγαροῦν ἀπὸ τῶν ὤτων ἀρξάμεναι τῆς διαφθορᾶς ἀπολώλασιν αἱ πλείους. ἡ γὰρ ἀσέλγεια καὶ δι᾽ ὤτων καὶ δι᾽ ὀφθαλμῶν πανταχόθεν εἰσδύεται. ὥστε τὰ μὲν πρόσωπα κεκαλυμμέναι βαδίζουσι, τῇ ψυχῇ δὲ ἀκαλύπτῳ καὶ σφόδρα ἀναπεπταμένῃ. τοιγαροῦν ὀξύτερον βλέπουσιν ἑνὶ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν,

  [49] And yet what could they see as shocking as what they hear? Consequently, beginning the process of corruption with the ears, most of them have come to utter ruin. For wantonness slips in from every quarter, through ears and eyes alike. Therefore, while they have their faces covered as they walk, they have their soul uncovered and its doors thrown wide open. For that reason they, like surveyors, can see more keenly with but one of their eyes.

  [50] ὥσπερ οἱ γεωμέτραι. καὶ τουτὶ μὲν ἔκδηλόν ἐστι τὸ τῶν ῥινῶν. ἀνάγκη δὲ καὶ τἄλλα ἀκολουθεῖν τῷ τοιούτῳ ῥυθμῷ. μὴ γὰρ οἴεσθε, ὥσπερ ἑτέρων πολλάκις εἴς τινα μέρη κατασκήπτει, χεῖρας ἢ πόδας ἢ πρόσωπον, οὕτω καὶ παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ἐπιχώριόν τι νόσημα ταῖς ῥισὶν ἐμπεπτωκέναι, μηδ᾽ ὥσπερ Λημνίων ταῖς γυναιξὶ τὴν Ἀφροδίτην ὀργισθεῖσαν λέγουσι διαφθεῖραι τὰς μασχάλας, κἀνθάδε νομίζετε τῶν πλειόνων διεφθάρθαι τὰς ῥῖνας ὑπὸ δαιμονίου χόλου, κἄπειτα τοιαύτην φωνὴν ἀφιέναι: πόθεν; ἀλλ᾽ ἔστι σημεῖον τῆς ἐσχάτης ὕβρεως καὶ ἀπονοίας καὶ τοῦ καταφρονεῖν τῶν καλῶν ἁπάντων καὶ μηδὲν αἰσχρὸν ἡγεῖσθαι.

  [50] And while this nasal affliction is wholly manifest, it is inevitable that everything else also must be a fit accompaniment for a condition such as that. For you must not suppose that, just as other disorders often attack certain particular parts of other people, such as hands or feet or face, so also here among you a local disorder has assailed your noses; nor that, just as Aphroditê, angered at the women of Lemnos, is said to have polluted their armpits, to also here in Tarsus the noses of the majority have been polluted because of divine anger, in consequence of which they emit that dreadful noise. Rubbish! No, that noise is a symptom of their utter wantonness and madness, and their belief that nothing is dishonourable.

  [51] φημὶ δὴ διαλέγεσθαι τούτοις ὁμοίως καὶ βαδίζειν καὶ βλέπειν. εἰ δὲ μηδὲν ἔκδηλον οὕτω ποιεῖν διὰ τῶν ἀμμάτων δύνανται, ὥστε ἐπιστρέφειν ἅπαντας, ἢ [p. 312] μηδέπω τὴν τέχνην ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον προαγηόχασιν, οὐδὲν ἐπιεικέστερον τἄλλα ἔχουσιν. εἶτ᾽ ἄχθεσθε τοῖς Αἰγεῦσι καὶ τοῖς Ἀδανεῦσιν, ὅταν ὑμᾶς λοιδορῶσι, τοὺς δὲ ἐκείνοις μαρτυροῦντας ὡς ἀληθῆ λέγουσι τῶν ὑμετέρων πολιτῶν οὐκ ἐξελαύνετε τῆς πόλεως;

  [51] So I assert that the talk of these women is quite in keeping with their gait and the glance of their eye. And if they cannot make anything so manifest by means of their eyes as to cause everyone to turn and gaze at them, or if they have not yet carried their art so far, still they are by no means the more respectable in other ways.

  In view of that are you irritated at the people of Aegae and of Adana when they revile you, while on the other hand you fail to banish from Tarsus those of your own people who testify to the truth of what your neighbours declare?

  [52] οὐκ ἴστε ὅτι τὸ μὲν ποιεῖν τι τῶν ἀπορρήτων καὶ τῶν παρὰ φύσινὑποψίαν ἐπὶ τῶν πλείστων μόνον ἔχει, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἑόρακεν οὐδὲν τῶν πολλῶν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐν τῷ σκότει που καὶ κρύφα λανθάνοντες ἀσεβοῦσιν οἱ κακοδαίμονες: τὰ δὲ τοιαῦτα ξύμβολα τῆς ἀκρασίας μηνύει τὸ ἦθος καὶ τὴν διάθεσιν, ἡ φωνή, τὸ βλέμμα, τὸ σχῆμα, καὶ δὴ καὶ ταῦτα τὰ δοκοῦντα σμικρὰ καὶ ἐν μηδενὶ λόγῳ, κουρά,περίπατος, τὸ τὰ ὄμματα ἀναστρέφειν, τὸ ἐγκλίνειν τὸν τράχηλον, τὸ ταῖς χερσὶν ὑπτίαις διαλέγεσθαι. μὴ γὰρ οἴεσθε αὐλήματα μὲν καὶ κρούματα καὶ μέλη τὰ μὲν ἐμφαίνειν τὸ ἀνδρεῖον, τὰ δὲ τὸ θῆλυ, κινήσεις δὲ καὶ πράξεις μὴ διαφέρειν μηδ᾽ εἶναι μηδένα ἐν τούτοις ἔλεγχον. ἀλλ᾽ ἐγὼ βούλομαί τινα λόγον ὑμῖν εἰπεῖν,ὃν ἴσως καὶ ἄλλοτε ἀκηκόατε.

  [52] Do you not know that, while the charge of doing some forbidden thing, something in violation of Nature’s laws, in most cases rests only on suspicion, and no one of the masses has really seen anything at all, but, on the contrary, it is in some dark and secret retreat that the wretched culprits commit their heinous deeds all unobserved; yet such symptoms of their incontinence as the following reveal their true character and disposition: voice, glance, posture; yes, and the following also, which are thought to be petty and insignificant details: style of haircut, mode of walking, elevation of the eye, inclination of the neck, the trick of conversing with upturned palms. For you must not think that the notes of pipes and lyre or songs reveal sometimes manliness and sometimes femininity, but that movements and actions do not vary according to sex and afford no clue to it.

  [53] τῶν γὰρ ἐνθάδε δεινῶν τινα λέγουσιν εἴς τινα πόλιν ἐλθεῖν αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἔργον πεποιημένον, ὥστε εὐθὺς εἰδέναι τ�
��ν τρόπον ἑκάστου καὶ διηγεῖσθαι τὰ προσόντα, καὶ μηδενὸς ὅλως ἀποτυγχάνειν: ἀλλ᾽ ὥσπερ ἡμεῖς τὰ ζῷα γιγνώσκομεν ὁρῶντες, ὅτι τοῦτο μέν ἐστι πρόβατον, εἰτύχοι, τοῦτο δὲ κύων, τοῦτο δὲ ἵππος ἢ βοῦς: οὕτως ἐκεῖνος τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἠπίστατο ὁρῶν καὶ λέγειν ἠδύνατο ὅτι οὗτος μὲν ἀνδρεῖος, οὗτος δὲ δειλός, οὗτος δὲ ἀλαζών, οὗτος δὲ ὑβριστὴς ἢ κίναιδος ἢ μοιχός.

  [53] But I should like to tell you a story, one that you may possibly have heard before. It seems that one of the clever people of Tarsus — so the story runs — once went to a certain city. He was a man who had made it his special business to recognize instantly the character of each individual and to be able to describe his qualities, and he had never failed with any person; but just as we recognize animals when we see them and know that this, for instance, is a sheep, if such is the case, and this a dog and this a horse or ox, so that man understood human beings when he saw them and could say that this one was brave and this one a coward and this one an impostor and this man wanton or a catamite or an adulterer.

  [54] ὡς οὖν θαυμαστὸς ἦν ἐπιδεικνύμενος καὶ οὐδαμῇ διημάρτανε, προσάγουσιν αὐτῷ σκληρόν τινα τὸ σῶμα καὶσύνοφρυν ἄνθρωπον, αὐχμῶντα καὶ φαύλως διακείμενον καὶ ἐν ταῖς χερσὶ τύλους ἔχοντα, φαιόν τι καὶ τραχὺ περιβεβλημένον ἱμάτιον, δασὺν ἕως τῶν σφυρῶν καὶ φαύλως κεκαρμένον: καὶ τοῦτον ἠξίουν εἰπεῖν ὅστις ἦν. ὁ δὲ ὡς πολὺν χρόνον ἑώρα, τελευταῖον ὀκνῶν μοι δοκεῖ τὸ παριστάμενον λέγειν οὐκ ἔφη ξυνιέναι, καὶ[p. 313] βαδίζειν αὐτὸν ἐκέλευσεν. ἤδη δὲ ἀποχωρῶν πτάρνυται: κἀκεῖνος εὐθὺς ἀνεβόησεν ὡς εἴη κίναιδος.