Hesiod, too, saying:
"But for the fire to thee I'll give a plague,[1]
For all men to delight themselves withal,"—
Euripides writes:
"And for the fire
Another fire greater and unconquerable,
Sprung up in the shape of women."[2]
And in addition, Homer, saying:
"There is no satiating the greedy paunch,
Baneful, which many plagues has caused to men."[3]
Euripides says:
"Dire need and baneful paunch me overcome;
From which all evils come."
Besides, Callias the comic poet having written:
"With madmen, all men must be mad, they say,"—
Menander, in the Poloumenoi, expresses himself similarly, saying:
"The presence of wisdom is not always suitable:
One sometimes must with others play[4] the fool."
And Antimachus of Teos having said:
"From gifts, to mortals many ills arise,"—
Augias composed the line:
"For gifts men's mind and acts deceive."
And Hesiod having said:
"Than a good wife, no man a better thing
Ere gained; than a bad wife, a worse,"—
Simonides said:
"A better prize than a good wife no man
Ere gained, than a bad one nought worse."
- ↑ From Jupiter's address (referring to Pandora) to Prometheus, after stealing fire from heaven. The passage in Hesiod runs thus:
"You rejoice at stealing fire and outwitting my mind;
But I will give you, and to future men, a great plague.
And for the fire will give to them a bane in which
All will delight their heart, embracing their own bane." - ↑ Translated as arranged by Grotius.
- ↑ Odyss.
- ↑ συμμανῆναι is doubtless here the true reading, for which the text has συμβῆναι.
