Oration 58
Imperial Dio Chrysostom Greek- Achilles asked Chiron: "Why do you teach me archery?" "Because," he said, "this too belongs to the arts of war." "It is the business of cowards," said Achilles, "and aimed at cowards." "How so?" he asked. "Because the archer does not let the enemy come near him." "And he does not let the enemy get far away either." "It is the weapon of men in flight." "No, rather it is aimed at men in flight." "But one ought to overtake the fugitives oneself." "More slowly or more swiftly?" "As swiftly as possible." "Then would a man overtake them faster by running or by flying?" "But surely he does not overtake them himself?" "Who does, then?" "The arrow." "And if you cast a javelin, who overtakes them?" "I do not know." 2. "But when do you yourself overtake and kill a man? When you have laid hold of him and torn him apart, as the wild beasts do? Surely," he said, "you do not consider women the braver, because they fight at the closest quarters, falling upon one another?" As Achilles heard this, he filled at once with anger and with tears, and he railed at Chiron and declared that he would not stay with him, but would go off to Phthia, to his father, and be schooled by him; for Peleus, he said, was far better than Chiron, and was no sophist as Chiron was. And Achilles was still a boy, not yet come to manhood. 3. "How is it, then," said Chiron, "that, being the better man, he does not school you himself?" "Because," he replied, "he has no leisure." "Kept from it by what?" "By his kingship." "Is there any difference, then, between ruling and teaching?" "A great one indeed. But you give me a bit of horn and sinew and little iron points fixed on slender reeds, as though I were to go hunting birds, and not to fight with men or with beasts. One would recognize the wretchedness of these weapons, for all their number, if ever a man came to close quarters and was forced to fight with them hand to hand. No, one must fight while running away, in fear and on his guard not even to be seen, like a base slave; a man who, even after killing his foe, could not strip him, and will never be seen stained with the blood of an enemy. Such are the things you teach me—archery and lyre-playing; and the other day, too, the digging of roots, like the sorceresses." 4. "And does horsemanship not please you either?" Chiron asked him. "You yourself do not please me," he answered, "being such as you are. For you seem to me readier to flee than to stand your ground." Then Chiron, growing angry with him, and in his anger bristling his mane, and casting a terrible sidelong glance like a flash of lightning, scarcely keeping himself from striking him—for he had it in mind to love the boy—5. said: "O wicked and insolent offspring of a sea-born mother, who has ruined you utterly by puffing you up over your lineage. Far worse than she, though, is your father, recounting how the gods sang at his wedding. Yet you have no kinship at all with either sea or sky. And I tell you that you will never be a man of war, though you will seem so to fools, nor will you ever command, wherever you wage war, for all that you are sprung from Thetis and Peleus. Still, because of your boldness and your speed and your strength, men will flatter you and call you the best of men. Nevertheless they will think it fit that you be ruled by others, and they will compel you to fight and to risk your life on their behalf with gifts and empty praises, until you die. 6. And I think you will not even keep your hands off the dead, but will stab these too and drag them about, as though you were accomplishing some great thing—just as little children drag in circles whatever they have killed. And being such a man, you will not die at the hands of any noble warrior, as you suppose; rather, those who are like yourself, the brave and senseless, you will kill with ease, but you will be slain by a man of prudence and skill in war, without so much as having seen him."