(Ah, but Pericles, inasmuch as he was a man of lofty soul and was bred as became a free man in a free city, could solace himself with such sublime arguments, whereas I, born of such men as now are,[340] must beguile and console myself with arguments more human; and thus I assuage the excessive bitterness of my sorrow, since I constantly endeavour to devise some comfort for the anxious and uneasy ideas which keep assailing me as they arise from this event, like a charm against some wild beast that is gnawing into my very vitals[341] and my soul. And first and foremost of the hardships that I shall have to face is this, that now I shall be bereft of our guileless intercourse and unreserved conversation. For I have no one now to whom I can talk with anything like the same confidence. What, you say, cannot I easily converse with myself? Nay, will not some one rob me even of my thoughts, and besides compel me to think differently, and to admire what I prefer not to admire? Or does this robbery amount to a prodigy unimaginable, like writing on water or boiling a stone,[342] or tracing the track of the flight of birds on the wing? Well then since no one can deprive us of our thoughts, we shall surely commune with ourselves in some fashion, and perhaps God will suggest some alleviation. For it is not likely that he who entrusts himself to God will be utterly neglected and left wholly desolate. But over him God stretches his hand,[343] endues him with strength, inspires him with courage, and puts into his mind what he must do. We know too how a divine voice accompanied Socrates and prevented him from doing what he ought not. And Homer also says of Achilles, “She put the thought in his mind,”[344] implying that it is God who suggests our thoughts when the mind turns inwards and first communes with itself, and then with God alone by itself, hindered by nothing external. For the mind needs no ears to learn with, still less does God need a voice to teach us our duty: but apart from all sense-perception, communion with God is vouchsafed to the mind. How and in what manner I have not now leisure to inquire, but that this does happen is evident, and there are sure witnesses thereof—men not obscure or only fit to be classed with the Megarians,[345]—but such as have borne the palm for wisdom.)
Οὐκοῦν ἐπειδὴ χρὴ προσδοκᾶν καὶ θεὸν ἡμῖν παρέσεσθαι πάντως καὶ ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς αὑτοῖς συνέσεσθαι, τὸ λίαν δυσχερὲς ἀφαιρετέον ἐστι τῆς λύπης. ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸν Ὀδυσσέα μόνον ἐν τῇ νήσῳ καθειργμένον ἑπτὰ τοὺς πάντας ἐνιαυτούς, εἶτ᾽ ὀδυρόμενον, τῆς μὲν ἄλλης ἐπαινῶ καρτερίας, τῶν θρήνων δὲ οὐκ ἄγαμαι. [250] τί γὰρ ὄφελος πόντον ἐπ᾽ ἰχθυόεντα δέρκεσθαι καὶ λείβειν δάκρυα; τὸ [pg 190] δὲ μὴ προέσθαι μηδ᾽ ἀπαγορεῦσαι πρὸς τὴν τύχην, ἀλλ᾽ ἄνδρα μέχρις ἐσχάτων γενέσθαι πόνων[346] καὶ κινδύνων, τοῦτο ἔμοιγε φαίνεται μεῖζον ἢ κατὰ ἄνθρωπον. οὐ δὴ δίκαιον ἐπαινεῖν μὲν αὐτούς, μὴ μιμεῖσθαι δέ, οὐδὲ νομίζειν, ὡς ἐκείνοις μὲν ὁ θεὸς προθύμως συνελάμβανε, [B] τοὺς δὲ νῦν περιόψεται τῆς ἀρετῆς ὁρῶν ἀντιποιουμένους, δι᾽ ἥνπερ ἄρα κἀκείνοις ἔχαιρεν· οὐ γὰρ διὰ τὸ κάλλος τοῦ σώματος, ἐπεί τοι τὸν Νιρέα μᾶλλον ἐχρῆν ἀγαπᾶσθαι, οὐδὲ διὰ τὴν ἰσχύν, ἀπείρῳ γὰρ ὅσῳ Λαιστρυγόνες καὶ Κύκλωπες ἦσαν αὐτοῦ κρείττους, οὐδὲ διὰ τὸν πλοῦτον, οὕτω γὰρ ἂν ἔμεινεν ἀπόρθητος Τροία. τί δὲ δεῖ πράγματα ἔχειν αὐτὸν ἐπιζητοῦντα τὴν αἰτίαν, δι ἣν Ὀδυσσέα φησὶν [C] ὁ ποιητὴς θεοφιλῆ, αὐτοῦ γε ἐξὸν ἀκούειν;
(It follows therefore that since we may expect that God will be present with us in all our doings, and that we shall again renew our intercourse, our grief must lose its sharpest sting. For indeed in the case of Odysseus[347] too, who was imprisoned on the island for all those seven years and then bewailed his lot, I applaud him for his fortitude on other occasions, but I do not approve those lamentations. For of what avail was it for him to gaze on the fishy sea and shed tears?[348] Never to abandon hope and despair of one's fate, but to play the hero in the extremes of toil and danger, does indeed seem to me more than can be expected of any human being. But it is not right to praise and not to imitate the Homeric heroes, or to think that whereas God was ever ready to assist them he will disregard the men of our day, if he sees that they are striving to attain that very virtue for which he favoured those others. For it was not physical beauty that he favoured, since in that case Nireus[349] would have been more approved; nor strength, for the Laëstrygons[350] and the Cyclops were infinitely stronger than Odysseus; nor riches, for had that been so Troy would never have been sacked. But why should I myself labour to discover the reason why the poet says that Odysseus was beloved by the gods, when we can hear it from himself? It was)
Οὕνεκ᾽ ἐπητής ἐσσι καὶ ἀγχίνοος καὶ ἐχέφρων.
(“Because thou art so wary, so ready of wit, so prudent.”[351])
δῆλον οὖν ὡς, εἴπερ ἡμῖν ταῦτα προσγένοιτο, τὸ κρεῖττον οὐκ ἐλλείψει τὰ παρ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ κατὰ τὸν δοθέντα πάλαι ποτὲ Λακεδαιμονίοις χρησμὸν καλούμενός τε καὶ ἄκλητος ὁ θεὸς παρέσται.
(It is therefore evident that if we have these qualities in addition, God on His side will not fail us, but in the words of the oracle once given of old to the Lacedaemonians, “Invoked or not invoked, God will be present with us.”[352])
[D] Τούτοις ἐμαυτὸν ψυχαγωγήσας ἐπ᾽ ἐκεῖνο τὸ μέρος ἄπειμι πάλιν, ὃ δοκεῖ τῇ μὲν ἀληθείᾳ μικρὸν εἶναι, πρὸς δόξαν δὲ ὅμως οὐκ ἀγεννές. Ὁμήρου τοί φασι δεῖσθαι καὶ τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον, οὐ δήπου συνόντος, ἀλλὰ κηρύττοντος ὥσπερ Ἀχιλλέα καὶ Πάτροκλον καὶ Αἴαντας ἄμφω καὶ τὸν [pg 192] Ἀντίλοχον. ἀλλ᾽ ὁ μὲν ὑπερορῶν ἀεὶ τῶν παρόντων, ἐφιέμενος δὲ τῶν ἀπόντων οὐκ ἠγάπα τοῖς καθ᾽ ἑαυτὸν οὐδὲ ἠρκεῖτο τοῖς δοθεῖσι· καὶ εἴπερ ἔτυχεν Ὁμήρου, [251] τὴν Ἀπόλλωνος ἴσως ἂν ἐπόθησε λύραν, ᾗ τοῖς Πηλέως ἐκεῖνος ἐφύμνησε γάμοις, οὐ τῆς Ὁμήρου συνέσεως τοῦτο πλάσμα νομίσας, ἀλλ᾽ ἀληθὲς ἔργον ἐνυφανθὲν τοῖς ἔπεσιν, ὥσπερ οἶμαι τὸ
(Now that I have consoled myself with these arguments I will go back to that other consideration which, though it seems trivial, nevertheless is generally esteemed to be not ignoble. Even Alexander, we are told, felt a need for Homer, not, of course, to be his companion, but to be his herald, as he was for Achilles and Patroclus and the two Ajaxes and Antilochus. But Alexander, ever despising what he had and longing for what he had not, could never be content with his contemporaries or be satisfied with the gifts that had been granted to him. And even if Homer had fallen to his lot he would probably have coveted the lyre of Apollo on which the god played at the nuptials of Peleus;[353] and he would not have regarded it as an invention of Homer's genius but an actual fact that had been woven into the epic, as when for instance Homer says,)
Ἠὼς μὲν κροκόπεπλος ἐκίδνατο πᾶσαν ἐπ᾽ αἶαν