Come, and let us adduce the Greeks as witnesses against themselves to the theft. For, inasmuch as they pilfer from one another, they establish the fact that they are thieves; and although against their will, they are detected, clandestinely appropriating to those of their own race the truth which belongs to us. For if they do not keep their hands from each other, they will hardly do it from our authors. I shall say nothing of philosophic dogmas, since the very persons who are the authors of the divisions into sects, confess in writing, so as not to be convicted of ingratitude, that they have received from Socrates the most important of their dogmas. But after availing myself of a few testimonies of men most talked of, and of repute among the Greeks, and exposing their plagiarizing style, and selecting them from various periods, I shall turn to what follows.
Orpheus, then, having composed the line:
“Since nothing else is more shameless and wretched than woman,”—
Homer plainly says:
“Since nothing else is more dreadful and shameless than a woman.”[911]
And Musæus having written:
“Since art is greatly superior to strength,”—
Homer says:
“By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly superior.”[912]
Again, Musæus having composed the lines: