Book 10

Pherenice brought her son to Olympia to compete. When the Hellanodicae forbade her to watch the contest, she came forward and pleaded her case, saying that she had a father who was an Olympic victor, and three brothers, and that she herself had a son competing at Olympia; and she prevailed over the people and the law that barred women from the spectacle, and she watched the Olympic games.

Lais, when she saw Eubotas of Cyrene, fell most ardently in love with him, and made proposals of marriage. He, fearing some plot from her, promised that he would do so; yet Eubotas did not consort with her, living a temperate life. His promise was to be fulfilled after the contest. Having won, then, that he might not seem to have broken his agreements with the woman, he had a portrait of Lais painted and carried it to Cyrene, saying that he was bringing Lais and not breaking the compact. In return for this the wife whom he married lawfully set up for him a most enormous statue in Cyrene, rewarding him for his self-restraint.

The chicks of partridges, as soon as they get their feet out of the shell, are from that moment most swift of foot. The chicks of ducks swim the very moment they come from the womb. And the cubs of lions claw the wombs of their mothers, eager to come to the light.

Alexander son of Philip, having marched four hundred stades three times in succession under arms, joined battle with the enemy and, before he had let his army rest, mastered his foes.

This is a Phrygian tale, for it belongs to Aesop the Phrygian. The tale says that the sow, if anyone touches her, squeals, and with good reason; for the sow has neither wool nor milk nor anything else but her flesh. So at once she dreams of death, knowing for what purpose she is by nature useful to those who will use her. And tyrants are like Aesop's sow, suspecting and fearing everything; for they know that, just as the sows do, they too owe their lives to all.

They were mocked in comedy for their thinness: Sannyrion the comic poet, and Meletus the tragic poet, and Cinesias the writer of dithyrambic choruses, and Philetas the poet of hexameters. And Archestratus the seer, when captured by the enemy and placed on a scale, was found to weigh the weight of an obol, so they say. And Panaretus too was very thin; yet he continued free of sickness. They say that Hipponax the poet was not only small of body but also thin. And Philippides too, against whom there is a speech by Hyperides, was very thin. Hence to grow very lean of body they used to call "to be Philippidized," they say. Alexis is the witness.

Oenopides of Chios the astronomer dedicated at Olympia a bronze tablet, inscribing upon it the astronomy of fifty-nine years, saying that this was the Great Year. And Meton of Leuconoe the astronomer set up pillars, and recorded the solstices of the sun, and discovered the Great Year, as he said, and declared it to be nineteen years.

Aristotle of Cyrene used to say that one should not accept a benefit from anyone; for either, trying to repay it, one would have trouble, or, not repaying it, one would seem ungrateful.

Philoxenus was a glutton and a slave to his belly. Once, when a dish was being cooked in a tavern, for a while he enjoyed himself and feasted on the smell; but when his appetite grew stronger and he was overcome by his nature — a bad one, ye gods — then, unable to bear it, he ordered his slave to buy the dish. When the slave said that the tavern-keeper was selling it for a high price, he said: "It will be all the more pleasant to me, if I buy it for more." One must remember such things too, not to emulate them, but to flee from them.

When the art of painting was just beginning, and was, so to speak, at the breast and in swaddling-clothes, painters represented animals so unskilfully that they had to write over them: "This is an ox, that a horse, this a tree."

Diogenes had a pain in his shoulder, either, I suppose, from a wound or from some other cause. When he seemed to be in great pain, one of those who were vexed with him jeered at him, saying: "Why, then, do you not die, Diogenes, and free yourself from your troubles?" And he said: "Those who know what one must do in life and what one must say — these it is fitting should live," and he admitted that he himself was of their number. "For you, then," he said, "who do not know what should be said and done, it is well to die; but for me, who have knowledge of these things, it is fitting to live."

Archytas used to say: "Just as it is hard work to find a fish without a bone, so too a man who possesses nothing deceitful and thorny."

Critias blames Archilochus for having spoken most ill of himself. "For if," he says, "that man had not put about such a reputation of himself among the Greeks, we should not have learned that he was the son of Enipo the slave-woman, nor that, leaving Paros because of poverty and want, he came to Thasos, nor that, having come, he became hateful to those there, nor indeed that he spoke ill of friends and enemies alike. And besides this," he says, "we should not know either that he was an adulterer, had we not learned it from him, nor that he was lecherous and insolent, and — what is still more shameful than these — that he threw away his shield. Archilochus, then, was no good witness for himself, leaving behind such a glory and such a report of himself." These things I do not charge against Archilochus, but Critias does.

Socrates used to say that idleness is the sister of freedom. And as proof he cited the Indians and the Persians, the bravest and most free of men, both of them most idle when it comes to money-making; whereas the Phrygians and Lydians are most industrious, but slaves.

The daughters of Aristides, while he was still alive, were courted by those among the Greeks who seemed to be of distinction. But they were looking, in fact, not to the life of Aristides, nor did they admire his justice; for if they had been emulators of these, they would have persisted in their suit afterward as well. As it was, when he died, they thought there was no common concern with the girls; for at his death the son of Lysimachus was found to be poor. This it was that turned those wretched men away from a marriage at once glorious and most honourable, in my judgment. Much the same happened in the case of Lysander too; for when they learned that he was poor, they ran away from the marriage.

When Antisthenes was urging many to philosophy, but they paid no heed to him, at last in vexation he received no one. And so he tried to drive Diogenes too from his company. But when Diogenes grew more persistent and pressed on, then indeed he threatened to strike him with his staff; and once he even struck him on the head. But Diogenes did not depart, but pressed on still more eagerly, thirsting to hear him, and said: "Strike, if you wish, but I will offer my head; and you will not find a staff hard enough to drive me away from your discourses." And Antisthenes welcomed him warmly.

Critias says that Themistocles son of Neocles, before he began to take part in public life, had a patrimony of three talents; but when he had taken the lead in public affairs and then went into exile, and his property was confiscated, he was found to have an estate of more than a hundred talents. Likewise Cleon too, before he came forward into public life, had nothing of his own free of debt; but afterward he left a house worth fifty talents.

Daphnis the cowherd some say was the beloved of Hermes, others his son; and that he got his name from what befell him. He was born of a Nymph, and at his birth was exposed among the laurels. The cattle he herded, they say, were sisters of the cattle of the Sun, of which Homer makes mention in the Odyssey. As Daphnis was herding in Sicily, one of the Nymphs fell in love with him, and consorted with him, fair and young as he was and just getting his first beard, when youth is at its most charming in beautiful young men, as Homer says somewhere. She made a compact that he should come near no other woman, and threatened that it was fated for him to be deprived of his sight if he transgressed; and they had a sworn agreement with each other about this. Some time later, when a king's daughter fell in love with him, he, made drunk, broke the agreement and consorted with the girl. From this the bucolic songs were first sung, and they had as their subject the affliction of his eyes. And it was Stesichorus of Himera who first composed this kind of song.

Eurydamas of Cyrene won a boxing match, although his teeth had been knocked out by his opponent; he swallowed them, that his adversary might not perceive it.

The Persian king wrote to Agesilaus, asking to have him as his friend. But Agesilaus wrote back that it was not possible for him to be the king's friend privately; but if the king were a friend to the Lacedaemonians in common, then clearly he would be a friend to him also; for in that case he too would be counted among them all.

Perictione was carrying Plato in her arms; and while Ariston was sacrificing on Hymettus to the Muses or the Nymphs, the rest were busy with the rite, but she laid Plato down among the myrtles nearby, which were thick and dense. As he slept, a swarm of bees settled on his lips and sang, foretelling thereby the eloquence of Plato.

Dioxippus, in the presence of Alexander and the Macedonians, took a club, and fighting in single combat against Corragus the Macedonian heavy-armed soldier, struck aside his spear, seized the man with his full armour, and stepping on the neck of the fallen man, snatched the sword that hung at his side and killed the soldier. But he was hated by Alexander. And in despair, hated as he was by Alexander, and downcast, he took his own life."