LAWS
[or ON LEGISLATION, political]
CHARACTERS
An Athenian Stranger, Clinias of Crete,
Megillus of Lacedaemon
BOOK I
ath. To whom do you ascribe the authorship of your legal arrangements, Strangers? To a god or to some man?
clin. To a god, Stranger, most rightfully to a god. We Cretans call Zeus our lawgiver; while in Lacedaemon, where our friend here has his home, I believe they claim Apollo as theirs. Is not that so, Megillus?
meg., Yes.
ath. Do you then, like Homer,[1] say that Minos used to go every ninth year to hold converse with his father Zeus, and that he was guided by his divine oracles in laying down the laws for your cities?
clin. So our people say, And they say also that his brother Rhadamanthys,—no doubt you have heard the name,—was exceedingly just. And certainly we Cretans would maintain that he won this title owing to his righteous administration of justice in those days.
- ↑ 1 Cp. Hom. Od. 19. 178f
