And Bacchylides having said:
"To few[1] alone of mortals is it given
To reach hoary age, being prosperous all the while,
And not meet with calamities,"—
Moschion, the comic poet, writes:
"But he of all men is most blest,
Who leads throughout an equal life."
And you will find that, Theognis having said:
"For no advantage to a man grown old
A young wife is, who will not, as a ship
The helm, obey,"—
Aristophanes, the comic poet, writes:
"An old man to a young wife suits but ill."
For Anacreon, having written:
"Luxurious love I sing,
With flowery garlands graced,
He is of gods the king,
He mortal men subdues,"—
Euripides writes:
"For love not only men attacks,
And women; but disturbs
The souls of gods above, and to the sea
Descends."
But not to protract the discourse further, in our anxiety to show the propensity of the Greeks to plagiarism in expressions and dogmas, allow us to adduce the express testimony of Hippias, the sophist of Elea, who discourses on the point in hand, and speaks thus: "Of these things some perchance are said by Orpheus, some briefly by Musæus; some in one place, others in other places; some by Hesiod, some by Homer, some by the rest of the poets; and some in prose compositions, some by Greeks, some by Barbarians. And I from all these, placing together the things of most importance and of kindred character, will make the present discourse new and varied."
And in order that we may see that philosophy and history, and even rhetoric, are not free of a like reproach, it is right
- ↑ παύροισι, "few," instead of παρ' οἶσι and πράσσοντας instead of πράσσοντα, and δύαις, "calamities," instead of δύᾳ, are adopted from Lyric Fragments.
