TZETZES, CHILIADES 7

CHILIADES BOOK 7, TRANSLATED BY VASILIKI DOGANI

7.1 CONCERNING THE LAPITHS AND THE CENTAURS (STORY 99)

[1000] The Lapiths, of the Thessalian race, Dryas, Pirithous,
[1] Caeneus and Exadius, Polyphemus and others,
Struck together a fierce war upon the Centaurs.
For the Centaurs, after having been invited as friends, along with the Lapiths,
To the wedding feast of Ixion, son of Pirithous,
(Eurytion was the leader of the Centaurs),
And having become very drunk, abducted the bride from the bridal chamber.
Therefore, the Lapiths killed many of the Centaurs,
And they even cruelly mutilated Eurytion,
Cutting off his nose and lips, genitals and arms.

[10] Now who the Centaurs were, Palaephatus says.
By that time, people had not yet mounted horses;
While wild bulls were wasting the country of the Thessalians,
Some of the mighty youths, after mounting horses,
Started hurling javelins at the bulls; some people saw these men
Hurling javelins at the bulls (taurus) and they named them ‘‘Centaurs’’.
And catching them from afar, they assumed that they were half-human and half-horse.
Likewise, we shall address them Kentotauros and not ‘‘Centaurs’’.
O Palaephatus, the wisest of all! That is the story according to Palaephatus.

The Theban lament (I am telling you of Pindar)
[20] Suggests that the Centaurs were half-horse and half-man,
This is how it relates it in such a complex lyric metre:
“And since Ixion had intercourse with Nephele,
He begot an ungraceful and arrogant offspring,
Who mated with the Magnesian mares in Pelion,
And from them, a horde was born, which resembled both their parents,
Like their mother below, like their father above.”
Did you hear how even Pindar has mythically related the story?
He talked of an offspring, who was born of a misty cloud,
And begot the Centaurs after mating with the mares.

[30] But it did not happen like that, Pindar; now, learn it from Tzetzes.
Ixion, after being purified of his father-in-law’s murder
By Zeus (this way the kings were once invited),
Lusted after Zeus’ wife, queen Hera.
After she told these things to her husband, he (Zeus) became suspicious
And wanting to find out the real truth,
After adorning the maidservant, named Nephele,
Around evening he persuaded her to sleep with that man.
Thus, Ixion, after having intercourse with Nephele instead of Hera,
And not with some watery and misty cloud,
[40] Begot a son, Imbrus, whom people were calling ‘‘Centaur’’,
In other words, a servant’s child; the servants are most assuredly considered to be clouds,
Since Ixion pricked Nephele,
To speak inappropriately, and so from them this one was born.
This Imbrus, who mingled with the mares of Magnesia,
In other words, he was feeding the horses in the land of Thessaly,
Begets sons, skilled in horse-riding because of their growing up together with the horses,
Wherefore they told that their mothers were horses, too.
So Tzetzes writes, o Pindar, about the Centaurs.

7.2 CONCERNING CLEITARCHUS’ WRITING ON THE TENTHREDO (STORY 100)

This Cleitarchus writes on the tenthredo,
[50] Which is some kind of sawfly looking like a bee,
As if he wrote either on the Nemean Lion,
Or that fire-breathing Cretan Bull,
Or the Erymanthian and the Calydonian Boars,
Or one of the grandest and biggest animals,
And as he writes about it, he speaks in a sublime and arrogant manner:
“It dwells the mountains, it flies in the hollows of oaks”.

7.3 CONCERNING THE NEMEAN LION (STORY 101)

Nemea is some land assigned (by lot) to Argos,
For having pastures in great abundance it was called Nemea.
An invulnerable lion was ruining utterly this land,
[60] Heracles shooting this lion with the bow and without damaging it altogether,
And in like manner, smashing his club in its wound,
Afterwards destroyed it, by catching it barehanded.
Later, having ripped the lion's skin with his nails,
He was wearing this one as a not made of iron body armour in the battles.

7.4 CONCERNING THE CALYDONIAN BOAR (STORY 102)

Oeneus, ruling over the Aetolian and Calydonian lands,
Neglected Artemis in the offerings of the first fruits to the gods.
She then sent the boar from the hills of Oetaea:
“Which did much harm haunting the orchard of Oeneus.”
From the many huntsmen, who were gathered together in that place,
[70] Atalanta was the first to shoot the boar with the bow.
Later, Meleager struck and killed it along with the swine slayer.
Each one of his teeth was more than a cubit long.
Soterix and Homer and myriads of others
Have recalled this Calydonian boar.

7.5 CONCERNING THE PROVERB “HE WHO LOVES IS BLINDED BY THE BELOVED” (STORY 103)

All the beloved ones seem to be pleasant to those who love them;
For, in this way the proverb has said wisely.

7.6 CONCERNING THE PINDARIC MAXIM “NOR DOES HOT WATER SO RELAX THE LIMBS AS PRAISE” (STORY 104)

In the baths, hot water softens the limbs,
It even makes loose and smooth the limbs of the exhausted ones.
However, the praises soothe people more than the hot water does;
[80] Wherefore Pindar has spoken in this way.

7.7 CONCERNING TORTOISE’S COMPETING AGAINST THE HARE (STORY 105)

The writer of fables Aesop, by relating in his fables
That the tortoise won the race against the hare,
Encourages simple and mental work, whereas he averts idleness.

7.8 CONCERNING MARSYAS (STORY 106)

Marsyas, a Phrygian flute-player, challenges Apollo;
After having been defeated by the god, he was turned into a wineskin hanging from a pine tree.
Before, I wrote the entire story in a loose manner.

7.9 CONCERNING SALMONEUS, WHO IMPERSONATED THE THUNDERER ZEUS (STORY 107)

Emigrating from Thessaly to Eleia, Salmoneus
Founded a city and he called himself Zeus,
And he acted profanely, by casting torches (in the air) as if they were lightnings,
[90] And dragging dried hides with kettles at his chariot,
Pretending to make thunder, so he was thunderstruck by Zeus.

7.10 CONCERNING THAMYRIS, WHO CHALLENGED THE MUSES (STORY 108)

Thamyris, fair and prominent in beauty,
Was skilled in music and fond of singing; after competing against the Muses,
She was defeated and blinded; these are the mythical details.
Now, here is the more allegorical version; there was a poet, noble by birth,
Who wrote a Cosmogony in five thousand verses.
Since he was arrogant, he thought that his intelligence was superior to everyone else’s.
And after his writings were vanished,
They said that it happened because he was challenging the Muses in music.
[100] “They in their wrath maimed him; they even
Took from him his wondrous singing and made him forget his lyre playing”.

7.11 CONCERNING THE HOMERIC PROVERB “OTHERS CARE FOR THINGS LIKE THESE, THE LYRE AND THE SONG” (STORY 109)

In the Odyssey Homer introduces distressed
Telemachus watching the suitors living luxuriously
And amusing themselves with singing and making poetry,
And he introduces himself saying these exact words:
“Others care for things like these, the lyre and the songs”.

7.12 CONCERNING THE LIVING ONE, WHO IS HELD BACK UPON THE BROAD SEA (STORY 110)

In the Odyssey Proteus says to Menelaus,
How Locrian Ajax has utterly perished in the sea,
And how Agamemnon was saved only to be killed by Aegisthus.
[110] As for Odysseus, he says these words:
“The one who is still alive, is held back upon the broad sea”.
I emended this passage in rhetorical style,
Now, it is to our advantage to say “world” and not “sea”.

7.13 CONCERNING HERACLES, THE AVERTER OF EVIL (STORY 111)

Heracles, son of Alcmena, being a benefactor of the people,
Was moving from one place to another eradicating evil,
By repelling beasts, tyrants and plunderers, adversities,
And every other misfortune of life.

7.14 CONCERNING THE DRINKING GAME COTTABOS (STORY 112)

We have recently explained exactly and thoroughly,
What the propelakismos and the paroenia,
[120] The latage and the cottabos and the eolokrasia mean.
This is the eighty-fifth story.
And turning about, behold it and you shall learn exactly the entire story.

7.15 CONCERNING WHO THE PALAMNAIOI WERE (STORY 113)

The Telchines were some of the envious daemons,
Antaeus, Megalesius, Ormenus and Lycus,
What is more Nikon and Mimon and others along with them.
These men were draining the earth by pouring the water of the Styx onto it,
Seeking to stop men’s crops from developing.
These men are called Alastores and Palamnaioi.
For supervising the ceaseless wanderings of people,
[130] They have been named Alastores, a most suitable name.
For pouring the water of Styx with their palms and hands,
In order to make the fields infertile and destroy them, they have been named Palamnaioi.

7.16 CONCERNING THE INQUIRERS (PEUTHENES), THE SPIES (KATASKOPOI) AND THE HERALDS (PROKERUKES) (STORY 114)

Now, note that the inquirers (peuthenes) are the spies,
As many of them as they send to the enemy camp,
To examine and report upon what the enemies want, what they say, what they do;
As many of them as they send to talk about the matters of war,
Regarding when and where and by which means they are about to make war,
They have called heralds (prokerykes); they, in turn, call messengers (aggeloi)
Those, who bear messages from one encampment to another;
[140] As for them, whom they send for matters of treaties, drink-offerings and peace,
They call these men ambassadors (presbeis).

7.17 WHAT IS A PROBOLOS (STORY 115)

Problis, probletes, probolos are called a sea rock,
And every piece that projects and protrudes
Bending into the sea, as some promontory,
And every waterfront and every rocky shore.
We also call the towers and the city walls,
And everything that provides with protection and the front lines of the foremost fighters (promachus),
And those who speak in others’ defence,
“Protrusions” (probolos), speaking in a rather figurative and improper sense.
[150] A protrusion (probolos) is a rock jutting into the sea, as I stated.
The rock that rests on the surface of the sea, hidden by the waves,
Against which vessels are dashed, as they strike on,
Is called reef, sunken rock, or ladder (schala) by common men.

7.18 CONCERNING THE PYTHAGOREAN SILENCE (STORY 116)

Pythagoras considered silence and the control of one’s tongue
The peak of all philosophy.
Wherefore he was teaching the initiates the end of the entire philosophy
And how to hold silence for five years,
Which was attainable only by few most suitable initiates.

7.19 CONCERNING CILICIA (STORY 117)

The sons of Belus were Ninus, Agenor and Phoenix,
[160] Aegyptus, Danaus and Phineus along with them.
Others consider Agenor to be brother to Belus.
As for me, Tzetzes, I believe that from Belus were descended (two men under the same name)
Agenor, the brother, and Agenor, the son.
As for that Agenor, who desires Antiope, daughter of Belus,
I rather think that he is Belus' brother; Cadmus, Cilix and Phoenix,
After whom the city is named both Cilikia and Phoenike.

7.19 CONCERNING ANTIOCH (STORY 118)

As Pausanias writes on the foundation of Antioch,
Antioch was founded by Seleucus Nicator,
According to some, as the namesake of his own father Antiochus,
[170] According to Lucian, as the namesake of his son Antiochus,
The one, whom they called Soter, whose wife was Stratonice,
The one, who was diagnosed by Erasistratus, just from his pulse,
To be in love with his own stepmother.
Seleucus founds this city of Antioch,
As well as seventy-four other cities.
But as for those, who foolishly claim that Antiochus founded this one,
Attaeus and Perittas, as well as Anaxicrates
Shall refute them most wisely and will expose them to be absurd,
Along with them Asklepiodoros, who happened to be a fellow-slave,
[180] Those men, whom at that time Seleucus made the supervisors of the constructions.

7.20 CONCERNING THE CYRENAIC SILPHIUM (STORY 119)

We have already spoken about the Cyrenaic silphium
In the one hundred-tenth story of the previous ones.
And in the forty-eighth story, in turn, of this very sequence,
The latter was presented much better than the former,
By explaining how the Cyreneans brought it to Battus,
And how he engraved it on coins.
There are three species of silphium, the sisgoudon and the tilis,
As well as the one that is renowned and respective and celebrated among all people,
The one, which avoids cultivated grounds and prospers rather in the desert lands,
[190] As it happens with the caper, according to some of the experts.
Silphium has a stalk like that of ferula,
As for its leaf, they call it maspeton, being similar to celery.
It delivers a broad fruit and two varieties of juice,
One from the stalk, which is called “stalk-juice”, and one from the root, which is called “root-juice”.

7.21 CONCERNING THE HOOP OF THE RING OF GYGES (STORY 120)

Candaules showed to Gyges his own wife naked;
The one, who, after having invited Gyges privately,
Gives him her ring, so that he kills
Her husband, Candaules, after his having informed secretly the bodyguards.
After this had happened, he stealthily killed Candaules
[200] And upon returning the ring to the woman,
He made himself visible to everyone and he took the kingdom.
This is the third story of the first sequence.

7.22 CONCERNING THE RING OF POLYCRATES (STORY 121)

Polycrates, the ruler of Samos, was successful,
At that time the Samians were under the rule of the Egyptians.
Amasis, being afraid of the great success of this man,
Wrote to him: “Polycrates, the one most precious possession in your life,
The one thing that it would most grieve your soul to lose,
This particular you should throw away in any way you like,
If you wish not to tempt my wrath”.
[210] So then Polycrates got very frightened,
The one precious emerald ring he had,
Crafted by the engraver of gems,
Theodorus of Samos, son of Telecles,
He casts in the middle of the sea, after having embarked in a ship,
Grieving deeply for the loss of that very ring.
But on the fifth day someone caught a splendid fish,
And sent it to Polycrates, as a worthy gift for him,
Inside it was found the ring, of which I spoke before.
Amasis, after hearing this very thing, told the men standing by:
[220] “The one assisted by the god, whoever man could hurt?”.

7.23 CONCERNING THE GOLDEN BRICKS OF CROESUS (STORY 122)

Croesus sent to Delphi a thousand bricks, all made of pure gold,
To build a golden altar in honour of Apollo.
You hold the story, the first one among all the others, in a loose manner.

7.24 CONCERNING MIDAS (STORY 123)

Midas of Phrygia, fond of gold, was the son of Gordius,
This man, although being a peasant ploughman, took the kingdom.
This is the second story in line among the first ones,
Which gives an allegorical interpretation of this man’s food, that was made out of gold.
In this very sequence you will clearly find out,
How he, although being a ploughman, took the kingdom,
[230] Of the origins of the city name Medeia
I speak in the seventy-second story.

7.25 CONCERNING “HOW THE HALF IS MORE THAN THE WHOLE” (STORY 124)

Hesiod, dissuading his brother from idleness,
And from allowing the judges to delight in injustice,
Says clearly that the race of judges is unfair,
And that it knows not precisely from where one has to obtain profit,
Neither does it know by how much more is the half than the whole,
In other words, the smallest part of justice,
The one that indeed prevails over many unjust men.

7.26 CONCERNING “YOU THE BEST OF PROPHETS, AND YET DECEIVED FOR SO LONG” (STORY 125)

Sophocles, the tragic poet, in his tragedy Electra,
[240] Introduces Orestes killing his mother by contrivance.
Since even Aegisthus fell into his trap,
After realizing that it is really Orestes the one who is speaking to him,
He said: “It cannot be otherwise; this must be Orestes,
Son of Agamemnon, who was feigned dead, the one who is now speaking to me”.
This being so, therefore Orestes spoke these words to him:
“You the best of prophets, and yet deceived;
Now surely you have learnt and understood these things
Just before you fall into the utmost and fatal misfortunes”.

7.27 CONCERNING CHARITONYMUS OR IOANNES (STORY 126)

In the Hebrew language the iao stands for the unseen,
[250] The name Ionas means dove, and the name Ioannes means grace.

7.28 CONCERNING THE LYDIAN STONE, ALSO CALLED TOUCHSTONE (STORY 127)

Around the lands of Lydia, where the city of Sardis is located,
And around the city of both Ionia and Ephesus,
Smooth and extremely glittering and black in the edges stones,
Similar to the small pebbles with which the girls are playing,
Have been found in small and medium sizes, and some of them even as large as they can be held in the hand.
These are called touchstones, touchstones for the gold,
In other words assessment and testing and trial.
When gold is rubbed on these stones its value is determined,
Whether it is pure gold, or an alloy of gold or just gold of medium quality.
[260] And after them, they have named basanos the punishments,
And the words that are employed to disprove, the oaths and all the rest.

7.29 CONCERNING WHEREFORE PROPETES IS CALLED (STORY 128)

Some of the naturally more developed nestling birds,
Before they grow the plumage of the swift-winged birds sufficiently,
Upon putting themselves in motion to fly, as if they were vigilant,
Suffer a terrible fall, after landing on the ground.
These are equally called propetas and propeteis.
They are called ortalichus as well, for trying eagerly to move quickly.
Of these, everyone who is loquacious or does not say anything properly,
Is called a propetes; Even if some people in a random way,
[270] The one who speaks anything but the right words,
Call a propeten, what is more it is fitting to call that one
Over-bold and uttermost disrespectful and ignorant of order.

7.30 CONCERNING TIMON THE MISANTHROPE (STORY 129)

Timon, son of Echecratides, was an Athenian by race,
He was extremely rich and he relieved everyone who was in want.
After his running out of his wealth and money,
Because not even one had mercy on him,
Having conceived hatred of the course of human life,
And taking a leather coat and a fork, he became a peasant and a labour man.
By digging the ground, he found a treasure in the fields.
[280] And since the rumours of this case were quickly spread,
Making known to everyone that Timon became rich again,
Yet again, everyone was gathering around him pretending to be his friends,
By striking his fork, he was driving the unjust men away saying:
“Now Timon is your friend, O unfair men, now you all recognize him,
The one who was considered benefactor when rich, but despised when poor,
O, you most unfair men, begone from this place”.

7.31 CONCERNING THE XENELASIA OF THE LACONIANS (STORY 130)

The Athenians had a law for accepting the influx of foreigners,
Wherefore everyone called them filoxenoi,
Whereas the Laconians had a law for the expulsion of foreigners.

7.32 CONCERNING THE CYCLOPS WHO HAD A MUTUAL HATRED AND WERE INCOMPATIBLE (STORY 131)

[290] The Cyclops, the former inhabitants of Sicily,
Were scattered, having their own habitations,
And without having intercourse with one another.
But each of them was the master of his own wife and children,
And no foreigner could slip between them,
They were even incompatible with each other and hated one another,
Their population was sparse and they dreaded foreigners,
Lest they sail against them and take over their land.
For they were yet unacquainted with building trading vessels.

7.33 CONCERNING THE SERVILII CAESARES (STORY 132)

Servilius was a consul and Caesar of the Romans,
[300] With forceful method and in a rhetorical manner,
I also call him Servilias, for descending from the Servilii.
But if someone else really wanted, he could have called him Serb Elias.
This is the way of the double-tongued rhetor,
To use facts and names and everything else
For both praise and blame, according to his interest.

7.34 CONCERNING AEACUS, FOR WHOM ZEUS CHANGED THE ANTS INTO HUMAN BEINGS (STORY 133)

According to the mythographers, Zeus, after having intercourse with Aegina,
Begot Aeacus on the island of Aegina.
Who, having grown up, was agitated for being alone in the island.
Zeus, taking pity on his solitude,
[310] Changed the ants which populated the island into human beings.
The mythical details were such as these, now here is the allegory:
As Theagenes wrote about Aegina;
Previously, Aegina had a sparse population,
The inhabitants of that island did not even know how to build trading vessels.
And being scared of the violent attacks by the pirates and everyone else,
They were hiding in underground caves just as the ants.
After Aeacus developed shipping for them,
And because he transferred the people and joined them in colonizing,
Just as Triakon did after Aeacus’ death,
[320] And made them live without fear out of the caves,
He was said to have turned the ants into men.

7.35 CONCERNING THE FLOOD OF DEUCALION, FOR WHOM ZEUS TURNED THE STONES INTO HUMAN BEINGS (STORY 134)

Once the flood in the time of Deucalion was over,
After stepping out of the ark and landing on the land of Parnassus,
Deucalion, was asking for a new race of people by offering sacrifices to Zeus,
Deucalion himself, by throwing stones onto the earth under Zeus' command,
Along with his wife Pyrrha created the new human kind.
All the stones which Deucalion threw became men,
And all the stones which Pyrrha threw, in turn, became women.
They say these details mythically, but the truth is as follows:
[330] After their coming out of the ark, both men and women
And each one of them, on the one hand the men, by piling up
Stones on one side, were setting up an altar of Zeus Phryxios,
On the other hand, each one of the women along with Pyrrha
Were setting up another altar on their side, for having escaped the flood.
And because there were as many stones as the people who were carrying them,
The stones, carried by women, were as many as the women, whereas the stones carried by men were as many as them,
They said, by interpreting inversely the quantity of the multitude,
That the stones turned into as many people
As the stones that Pyrrha and Deucalion threw onto the earth,
[340] Whereas, they ought to have said it in this way: there were as many stones
As the number of the women along with Pyrrha,
And equally, as many of them as the number of the men along with Deucalion.

7.36 CONCERNING PRIAM, WHO BEGOT MANY CHILDREN (STORY 135)

Priam, just as Homer writes in the Iliad,
Begot fifty children, nineteen of them
By his own wife, Queen Hecuba.
He begot the rest of them by concubines, as even he himself says:
"Nineteen children were born to me from a single mother's womb,
The rest by other women in the palace".

7.37 CONCERNING DANAUS AND AEGYPTUS (STORY 136)

From Poseidon and Libya are descended the twin sons,
[350] Belus himself and equally Agenor.
Of whom, Agenor becomes the ruler of Phoenike,
Whereas Belus staying in Egypt, his own country,
Begets Aegyptus and Danaus by Achiroe, the daughter of Nilus.
This Belus, after settling Danaus in Libya,
And Aegyptus in Arabia, settling himself among the Assyrians,
Was the first to be honoured with the titles of god and lord.
For both the Assyrians and the Persians deify their rulers,
As even Aeschylus recounts it in his drama The Persians.
Willing to address Atossa as both the consort of the king,
[360] And mother of another king, equally, he spoke in this way:
"You were the consort of the Persians' god, and of another god the mother".
In this way Belus, arriving in the land of the Assyrians,
Was called a ruler and a god, according to the Assyrian custom.
Aegyptus and Danaus, the sons of Belus,
Aegyptus fathers fifty sons,
Danaus, in turn, fathers fifty daughters,
By several women, by one single woman according to others.
Hippostratus says that Aegyptus has begotten only by Eurryroe,
The daughter of Nilus, fifty sons;
[370] As well as Danaus has begotten all his daughters,
By Europa, the daughter of Nilus, of whom I have spoken.
Up to this time, the sons of noble Argyphe and Aegyptus,
Lynceus along with Proteus, who also got married to brides,
Lynceus to Hypermnestra, Proteus to Gorgophone,
The brides, whom Danaus has begotten by Elephantis,
And Amymone along with them, with whom Poseidon had intercourse.

7.38 CONCERNING THE CHILDREN OF NIOBE AND AMPHION (STORY 137)

Niobe and Amphion had twelve children,
As Homer clearly taught in the Iliad:
“Six daughters, six young sons”.
[380] According to others, they had fourteen children.
You have in a loose manner the entire story behind you.
The story, which relates in an exact manner the names of the children,
And interprets allegorically the story of weeping Niobe, who turned into stone,
And every other detail that it is fitting to be interpreted allegorically.
This very story lies in the first sequence,
Being the one hundred and forty one in line.

7.39 CONCERNING “HOW THE HORSES OF XERXES’ ARMY DRIED UP THE RIVERS BY LEANING OVER TO DRINK WATER” (STORY 138)

Xerxes the Persian, with an innumerable army,
Campaigning against Greece and the Athenians,
Violates nature having the same boasting of Persia as his father’s,
[390] By turning the sea into land, turning the mountains into sea,
Not having counted his army, upon measuring its food,
After having the sun hidden by the Persian arrows,
And causing the rivers dried up by watering his horses,
And having done so many barbarian things that caused a great deal of impression,
Despite having been defeated most splendidly with great disgrace,
He goes back to his homeland of Persia,
Having his delightful youth of Persia wasted in Greece.
You have the entire story in the previous sequence,
Written by me in a loose manner, being the thirty second in line.

7.40 CONCERNING THEBES BEING DESTROYED BY ALEXANDER AND THEIR RECONSTRUCTION BY ALEXANDER HIMSELF FOR THE SAKE OF AN ATHLETE (STORY 139)

[400] It is not reported by many, and it is well known to a few,
That Darius, that emperor of the Persians,
Having heard that Alexander was about to campaign against the Persians,
Honoured Demosthenes with a lot of money,
In order to employ him in Greece.
He (Demosthenes) unfortunately rouses the Thebans against Alexander,
Wherefore Alexander, being angry, destroys utterly Thebes,
To the accompaniment of the flute player Isminias’ lamenting music.
For Isminias was playing on the flute, while the Thebes were being destroyed,
Just as they were being built before by the sounds of Amphion’s lyre.

[410] In such a piteous way Alexander sacked Thebes,
And burnt every house down save one, the house of Pindar,
Saying: “Set not on fire the roof of Pindar, the poet”.
For he praised his ancestor, Alexander.
He seems to insinuate that Demosthenes was the alleged
Reason for Alexander’s destroying Thebes,
By which he writes, directing the words against Aeschines himself:
“He, who now laments over the Thebans”.

In this way Thebes were destroyed by Alexander,
An oracle is being given to the surviving Thebans
[420] Concerning the reconstruction of the city in this way saying in verse:
“Hermes, Alcides and the boxer Polydeuces,
These three, contending with each other, shall rebuild the city of Thebes”.
And what is more, the oracle was finally fulfilled in such a way.
Alexander was glad to attend the gymnastic games,
Cleitomachus of Thebes, having prevailed over everyone in wrestling,
Came to Alexander to be crowned.
The king asked him who he was and whence he came.
And he had said both, his father’s name and his own.
“I have no city, he said, king Alexander”.
[430] After even being victorious in the pancratium, the second contest,
He came to receive the crown from Alexander,
And after having been asked who he was, he said again in the same way;
Both his father’s name and his own, he yet said that he had no city,
Alexander, having been aware of his being a Theban, and feeling gloomy not within due limits,
Although he was very angry with the Thebans,
And thinking that it was unfair for such a man to be without a city,
Said: “If you win, even in boxing, the third contest,
I will rebuild Thebes for you, I will present your fatherland to you as a gift”
After that event had happened, and after he had been most splendidly victorious even in boxing,
[440] Alexander rebuilt the city of Thebes anew.

7.41 CONCERNING THE RECONSTRUCTION OF STAGIRA, A CITY OF OLYNTHUS, FOR ARISTOTLE’S SAKE, IN THE TIME OF PHILIP AND ALEXANDER (STORY 140)

Stagira was one of the cities of Olynthus,
This was the birthplace of the philosopher Aristotle.
So Philip demolished it, for being hostile towards him, along with others;
But later Aristotle makes a request of Alexander,
And they rebuild the city anew for his favour.

7.42 CONCERNING PTOLEMY, THE TRENCHING OF NILE AND ITS CHANNELLING (STORY 141)

Nekos, the son of Psamtik, dug along the Nile before,
As far as the Red Sea, it was four days sailing in length,
And wide enough for two triremes to pass easily abreast.
But, while digging it, twelve myriads of people perished.
[450] Because some persons told that the level of the Red Sea was higher
Than that of the land of Egypt, he ceased his digging,
Lest it ever suddenly overflows the land.
Afterwards Darius, the king of Persia,
That channel of Nekos completed,
And later, Ptolemy had one mouth of the Nile,
Which takes its name from him,
Extended to the Red Sea, by closing ingeniously,
And opening yet again, and he accomplished that without a few expenses.

7.43 CONCERNING PANDION AND TEREUS AND PROCNE (STORY 142)

The king of Athens named Pandion
[460] Had male children and two daughters,
Procne and Philomela; he marries Procne
To Tereus, a man of the Thracian race.
Who, after marrying his wife, carried her off to Thrace.
While Procne was longing for her sister Philomela,
Tereus, arriving in Athens, picks up Philomela,
Meaning to escort her to his own wife.
After having unlawful intercourse with her, he cuts out her tongue.
Using the embroidered mouths on the web,
She reveals everything in detail to her own sister.
[470] Then, Procne, after slaughtering Itys, her son by Tereus,
And boiling him up, served him to Tereus.
Who, of the hands and the head and the other extremities of the body,
Clearly understood what he had just eaten. The gods turned them all
Into birds, Procne into a nightingale,
While they changed Philomela into a swallow,
Whereas they changed Thracian Tereus into the bird hoopoe.
Procne, on the one hand, mourns her son Itys,
Philomela, on the other hand, says: “Tereus cut off my tongue”,
Tereus, searching for them, often chants pou pou.

7.44 CONCERNING EPINOIA AND PSILE EPINOIA AND ANTIPODES AND IDEES OF PLATO (STORY 143)

[480] The terms Nous, logismos, dianoia and epinoia,
And psile epinoia differ considerably from each other.
The mere conception (psile epinoia) is a true belief (doxa) of reasoning (logismos),
Deceitful and untrue, having no consistency at all,
So that it believes that a composite creature, partly ox, partly goat, partly bull, partly man exists,
Or anything else like that which is unnatural and strange,
Which is completely impossible to exist or be at all.
Now, the conception (epinoia) is the belief that comprehends the being (to on) as being real,
However sometimes even the non-being is just as real as well,
So that it conceives that a sitting man is actually standing.
[490] Now, the discursive thought (dianoia) is the touchstone of the immanent thought (logos endiathetos),
Likewise the proof and the test and the accurate inquiry.
Now, reasoning (logismos) is the arena (palaestra) and knowledge via reasoned discourse (logos);
Intellect (nous) is divine and subtle, for knowing everything before the reasoned discourse (logos).
A few, very few men partake of intellect (nous),
As Iamblichus and Porphyry and every wise man says.
Now tell me wherefore the intellect of gods and angels.
For the divine nature knows everything, except that
It does not inquire directly in the arena (palaestra) of reasoning (logismos),
While we humans, being made up of matter,
[500] And lacking judgement of reasoning (logismos) for understanding,
Even refer to reasoning as intellect in an improper sense,
For intellect (nous) does in no way reside in men, but in divine beings only,
Although we say in a more improper sense that we have intellect (nous).

Now in this way note fairly these things according to Tzetzes,
The one, who is being mocked for these things, that is how many
And what sort of worthless people pretend to philosophize,
Such sort of outcasts, most silly, rigid as to their method,
Having read only ten or twelve books,
Although they have learned these, that is how many the strokes of the ox-goad are,
[510] Yet they know nothing at all about their self-substance.
So, this unnatural monstrosity such abominations of nature
Established, and although not being more erudite than Tzetzes,
And not at any rate wittier than the most ingenious
And all alone and by themselves not being able to know everything,
But nonetheless they say that Tzetzes has spoken inaccurately of these.
For they say that all people have the intellect (nous),
But certainly not all of them reasoning (logismos), just as Tzetzes says.

But, you wise outcasts, listen to me again.
We speak properly when we say that intellect (nous) resides only in the divine nature,
[520] In the god, the angels and the others similar to them,
As Xenophanes wrote this and Parmenides as well.
Empedocles, in the third book of his Physics, explaining
The substance of the god, in this way says in verse:
God is not this something, nor this and this,
“But solely a mind, a sacred and ineffable one,
Darting through the whole universe with swift thoughts”

In this way we speak properly of the intellect (nous) of the divine beings;
Whereas we speak in an improper sense of the human intellect.
This thing that we wise men call the perception, the intellect,
[530] Is the knowledge deriving from reasoning (logismos), which is within the humans’ power.
For in people resides the reasoning, from which the knowledge derives,
But there is by no means intellect; For, If people had had intellect,
They would have comprehended everything by themselves, even before hearing of them.
But now, although we have both heard and reckoned so many things,
We barely perceive late in our lives these, which we need to learn.

Now, from this, you the wisest, who insult me,
Learn this thing that we say; If people had had intellect,
No one would have ever yet said it, no wise and ingenious,
Or intelligent, or equally prudent and ingenious man.
[540] Iamblichus and Porphyry and every other wise man say,
That a few, very few men partake of intellect (nous),
And yet, all-wise Plato says in the Timaeus that,
Of the reason (logos) we must say that every man partakes,
But of intellect (nous) only the gods and but a small class of men partake,
Namely those who claim to foreknow things and the prophets.
The ones who foretold the things to come, without hearing of them.
Such as Pythagoras and Anaxagoras,
Empedocles, Democritus, and countless other wise men,
And Phaenno from Epirus as well as the Sibylla,
[550] Phaenno many years ago foretold some things,
Which were accomplished but a little before the times we live in;
Regarding how the Persians would conquer the emperor of the Romans
And bring him into subjection by enslaving him,
And how his own people and nobles would dethrone him,
And how the Persians would occupy the entire Bithynia,
And how the Scythians would fight against the Romans’ race,
Saying this in verse by opening her mouth:
“O king of Thrace, you shall leave your city, among the sheep
You shall rear a great lion, crooked-clawed and terrible,
[560] Who shall plunder the treasures of your country,
And take the land without toil, I say to you,
Not long shall you enjoy your royal honours,
But shall fall from your throne, which is surrounded by such dogs”.
These were the brief utterances of Phaenno; now, the Sibylla foretold,
Even if they did not know about the landing until it happened,
Regarding this very Cyprus and Antioch,
And how now Lebounios shall arrive on Cyprus.
Regarding Cyprus and Antioch in this way she spoke:
“Alas, alas, miserable Cyprus, and a great wave will cover you,
[570] Wretched Antioch, you shall be ruined by their spears”.
These were the prophecies regarding Cyprus and Antioch.
Regarding the arrival of Cilix on Cyprus,
The Sibylla, the wisest of all women, in this way says in verse:
“In time to come, broad-flowing Pyramus
By pushing his banks, shall reach the sacred Cyprus”.

For such men, Iamblichus, Porphyry and others
Said that it is possible to partake of intellect (nous),
Inasmuch as they only understand and foretell everything,
Without reckoning or even hearing of something.
[580] Because of them, they said that a few men partake of intellect (nous).
But, I do not precisely credit these men with intellect.
For either by having heard of something, or by lessons learnt,
Or by having even reasoned so on account of some spectacles,
They said as much as each of them could, and afterwards they departed.
Intellect (nous) immediately comprehends everything and it truly acknowledges,
Without any lesson or reckoning or sight,
So, I do not call these men ingenious and perceptive.
Therefore, let the outcasts hit me even with stones
Concerning these matters of intellect and reasoning and the others.

[590] We must speak of the antipodes and of the idees.
The all-wise philosophers concerning the antipodes
Skilfully teach a wise scientific proposition,
That the lowest point of the earth is opposite to our side,
While our north side is the highest point of the earth.
So, it happens that those men, who walk their own paths,
Are considered to walk with their feet opposite (antipodes) to ours.
Such wise things they say; things which I am not able to comprehend
Differently than what old Demonax has previously explained.
For that man teaching a philosopher such things,
[600] Grabbed him by the hand and led him to a lake and after showing him the shadows,
He said: “Are you speaking about antipodes such as these?”
I believe that the antipodes happen to be such as these.
And the things concerning the antipodes happen to be such as these.

They say that there are three beliefs (doxa) pertaining to the ideas (idees).
For Antisthenes calls these ideas rather than mere thoughts (psilai ennoiai)
By saying: “We see the man as well as the horse,
But neither horseness, nor manness do I see”.
But, Antisthenes, neither do I, Tzetzes, see now
Where there is manness, not even in the patriarchs;
[610] For they are more indiscernible than the indiscernible quicksilver.
They say that Antisthenes these things declare.

They say that Plato regards the ideas (idees) as,
The substantial and real and existing forms,
Which are like seals untouched and archetypal
For the ox, the man and the rest; by looking at them, the divine being
Forms equally the ox, the man and the rest.

They say that Aristotle regards the ideas (idees) as
The god’s previous conception (proennoema) of the entire creation.
For example, if someone is about to make a bed and before he starts working on it,
[620] First, he comprehends via reasoning and he perceives beforehand,
What sort and what type of bed is going to be made.
They say that, regarding the ideas, these are the opinions
Of Antisthenes, Plato and Aristotle.

I rather noticed Plato in the Timaeus,
Saying that these ideas (idees) happen to be the intelligence of the creator,
Since, he at this very place and elsewhere speaks of
Substantial beings and seals of such kind.
But, as many people speak, therefore now have I spoken.

7.45 CONCERNING WHETHER THERE IS ANYTHING MORE MISAPPREHENDED THAN THESE (STORY 144)

There is a book by Scylax of Caryanda
[630] That writes about men who live around the Indian land,
Whom they call the Skiapods and the Panotiis;
Of whom, the Skiapods have extremely wide feet,
After dropping to the ground at noontime,
And by stretching out their feet above them, they make shade for themselves;
The Panotiis, on the other hand, have large ears,
Which they use to cover themselves like parasols.
This same Scylax also writes countless other things
Regarding the One-eyed men and the men with ears large enough to sleep in,
And countless other outlandish marvels.
[640] He tells of these things as if they were true and not fabricated.
But since I am ignorant of these things, I consider them to be lies.
That they really are true is attested by the fact that countless others claim
To have seen such things and other marvels even more incredible in their lifetime,
Ctesias and Iambulus, Isigonus, Rheginus,
Alexander, Sotion and Agathosthenes,
Antigonus and Eudoxus, Hippostratus, countless others,
Including Protagoras himself and even Ptolemy,
And Acestorides himself and other prose-writers,
Some of whom I am personally familiar with and others I am not.
[650] Among those men, whose writings in complex metres I am personally familiar with,
Are Zenothemis, Pherenicus along with Philostephanus,
And, in turn, there are countless others whom I am not familiar with.

For regarding the Libyan snakes an anonymous
Narrative relates in prose rather than verse,
While Posidippus says in verse, that inside their heads
There are some stones called the snake-stones,
Which happen to be self-carved, of which in one particular
He says you could discern a chariot that had been engraved somehow on its own,
So that the engraved form could not be observed until it was stamped with wax.
[660] Now hear the verses of Posidonius:
“It was not a river resounding on its banks,
But the well-bearded head of a snake that once held this stone,
Patched with white; and the chariot engraved upon it
Was carved by the vision of Lynceus
Like a white mark on a nail; For after having been formed
The chariot is seen, but on the surface you could not see any protrusions.
Wherefore a great marvel results from the labour, how the stone worker
While gazing intently did not damage his eyes.”
Posidippus related these things and numerous others.
[670] And Philostephanus relates numerous other details,
Regarding even the lake in Sicilian land, which casts ashore its bathers.
“In the land of Trinacria Sicily
A lake, albeit small, has a stream,
With so strong a flow, the very flow, which, if you step into it
Unwisely, thrusts you back on its dry sand”.
And Pherenicus says about the Hyperboreans,
Just as Zenothemis as well as Aristeas,
Aristeas the wise man, son of Kaystrobios,
Whose few verses I am familiar with,
[680] And even Herodotus recalls them. I will quote the verses by Pherenicus:
“Regarding the Hyperboreans, who dwell in the extremities of the earth,
Under the protection of the temple of Apollo, lacking the experience of war”.
And Zenothemis relates these things in his Periplous:
“Bordering the Arimaspi, a big tribe
Of the Scythian Issedones, dwells beside the streams of the river”.
Now Aristeas says in his Arimaspea:
“The Issedones, exulting in their long flowing hair,
He also says that there are men dwelling farther up and neighbouring them
Up above Boreas, and that they are many and very noble warriors,
[690] Rich in horses, possessing many herds of sheep and many herds of cattle.
Each has a single eye in the middle of his elegant forehead,
They are shaggy with hairs, the strongest of all men”.

Now, concerning the Half-dogs and the Cynocephalians,
Simmias in his Apollo, in this way writes in verse:
“I went above the rich land of the remote Hyperboreans,
With whom the hero king Perseus once feasted,
There dwell the Massagetae, the mounters upon swift horses,
Relying on their quick-striking bows,
And then I came round the wondrous stream of ever-flowing
[700] Campasus, which pours its water into the divine, immortal sea.
From there, I went to islands fenced with all-green olive trees,
And covered with tall-leaved reeds.
There I noticed of a race of giant Cynocephalians,
Above their well-twisted shoulders the head of a dog
Have been grown grisly with very strong jaws.
They issue howl as if they were dogs, but they are not at all,
Ignorant of the articulate voice of other human beings”.
Regarding the Half-dog men Simmias relates these things.

In the Hyperborean and the cold lands Tzetzes
[710] Persistently insists that such things as these do not exist.
In the land of the Ethiopians, in India and Egypt,
And in equally warm lands, he says that there are such creatures as these.

Even Ctesias claims that among the Indians there are such things as
The amber-producing trees and the Dog-headed men,
He says that they are very fair and live by hunting.

In like manner Hierocles in his Philistores relates:
“Speaking in a consequential manner, we saw a country very dry,
And burnt up by the sun, and round about this land we saw men
Naked and homeless near the desert,
[720] Of whom some shaded their faces with their ears,
While others shaded the rest of their bodies, by stretching out their feet above them”.
These details even Strabo recalls, as well as the No-headed,
The Ten-headed and the Four-hands-and-feet men.
Hierocles relates things, which I have never seen.

These things Hierocles related; Iambulus, in turn,
Says of the round animals in the islands of the Ethiopians,
And the double-tongued men who could with one turn of the scale
Converse with two different people.
These things and numerous others Iambulus relates.

[730] Uranius in the third book of his Arabica says,
That there is a sacred grove of reeds in Arabia,
In these reeds they bury only the kings,
As well as their women, brothers and sons,
But in no wise any other; the burial is as follows:
They make hollow one joint of these reeds that we talked about,
They place inside it the dead and they have sweet-oil smeared on his body,
And without cutting off the reed, they let it grow once again.
Should some of the Arabs consider the reeds to be a marvel,
Then Tzetzes says, who would believe Ctesias,
[740] When he writes about the two-fathoms wide reeds of the Indians?
Whose one single joint is as lofty as the height of two merchant vessels?
Those who say about the more unusual fennels,
And the scorpions and the gudgeon fish, and the fish of two-cubits
Even up to three-cubits long, but not longer,
And the Oysters in Calpe, a city of Iberia,
Whose shell was equal to four cotyle,
And about the rest of all the other more unusual things,
Which, if Tzetzes were to insert in this book,
The book could not even include these things alone.
[750] He would need more books to relate these tales,
If he was to write about all the other details in a loose manner.
Because of the stories, as the narration advances, it becomes concentrated,
So that the book might encompass all the stories of the sequence.
Therefore, having spoken briefly of Apollodorus,
And how it is that Tzetzes considers these things as inventions,
Thereafter, we condense the remaining stories,
So that we might manage to write hither all these stories,
As many of them as the inscription of the sequence reports.

Everyone writes about the things we mentioned above as if they were real.
[760] Apollodorus, on the other hand, in the second book of his catalogue,
Having his soul in accordance with the truth, just like Tzetzes,
The monsters and the creatures conceives by writing as follows:
“The Half-dog men, the Long-headed people and the Pygmies, they are creatures,
Just like the Shadow-feet and the Chest-eyed people,
Dog-headed men themselves along with the One-eyed ones,
The mythical Crooked-legged and Bandy-legged men,
As well as the All-eared, the Noseless and the Mouthless people,
And the Backwards-toed and the Not-laughing men”.

7.46 CONCERNING THE BREAD OBELIAS (STORY 145)

Thereupon I called obelias bread
[770] The kind of bread which is unwinnowed and cheap, and probably even made from bran.
Julius Polydeuces, addressing his work to Commodus,
On one side, even himself gives this name to such sort of bread,
Calling obelias the bread which is made from parched barley.
Contrariwise, he calls somewhere else obelias bread,
The kind of loaves, which people brought to Dionysius, by carrying them on their shoulders,
Made of either of two or even of three medimnus of meal,
Stuck around the spits, wherefore they got their name.

7.47 CONCERNING THE EFFEMINATE SARDANAPALUS (STORY 146)

Sardanapalus was the son of Anankyndaraxes,
He ruled the Assyrians, and he was more or less the ruler of the world.
[780] Little does the power of this sovereignty interest him.
He built Tarsus and Anchiale in one day.
His entire life was spent in self-indulgence, including sweet-oil unguents,
Flutes and carousals and songs, the music of every instrument,
Variant clothing and endless baths.
He was shaving, he was having himself smeared with seaweed, just like the women,
This very man, having been clothed in feminine garments,
Was living luxuriously, accompanied by beautiful women, having been shut inside his palace.
He was given up wholly to luxury and voluptuousness, he was a whole woman, aside from his genitals,
His own kingdom was being ruled by the eunuchs.
[790] The voluptuousness of the man is clearly demonstrated to you
By an epigram, which has been engraved on that very man’s tomb.
You have both the epigram and the entire story
Lying in a loose manner among the first stories,
Being the ninety fifth story in line including that one.

7.48 CONCERNING THE DICTUM OF SOLOMON, “VANITY OF VANITIES” (STORY 147)

Solomon, having realized the uncertainty of human life,
Said: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”.
The lyric poet, Pindar, in turn, says somewhere in this way:
“What is someone? What is nobody? Man is the dream of a shadow.”
“The poor man and the rich, we are all dying together.”

[800] Marcus, the emperor, says somewhere about the man,
That it is a mucus, a slight sore, a friction of the nerves.
He himself, maintaining the mortality of his soul,
Says that even the soul is an exhalation from blood.
Of the soul, which can be destroyed and does not remain, he speaks in such a way:
“If souls continue to exist, in other words, if they remain incorruptible,
How does the air contain them from eternity?”

7.49 CONCERNING “JUST AS GALEN TEACHES ABOUT THE ANGRY AND THE WROTH MEN” (STORY 148)

The wroth, and the melancholy-mad men
Galen, the physician, advises people to avoid
Encouraging the pursuit of tranquillity and all kinds of solitude.

7.50 CONCERNING “DEVOURING HIS OWN SOUL AND SHUNNING THE PATHS OF MEN” (STORY 149)

[810] Hipponus the Corinthian, the son of Glaucus, who was the son of Sisyphus,
Killed his own brother, whose name was this:
Either Deliades, or Peiren or even Alkimenes,
Or Belleron, who was the ruler of the Corinthians,
And hence he received this name “Bellerophon”,
And he came to Proetus in Argos to be purified.
Since Antaea and or Stheneboea, Proetus’ wife,
Who was in love with him, was not able to seduce him,
She tells her husband, Proetus, instead that she was violated by this man.
But since Proetus was the messmate and the purifier of this man,
[820] He avoids murdering him with his own hands;
After writing down on a folded tablet (for there were not yet paper-sheets)
The entire story, to this Bellerophon
He gives the message to be delivered to Lycia on his behalf,
To his father-in-law, Iobates, in order for him to kill Bellerophon.

Bellerophon, upon his coming to Iobates,
Is entertained as a guest at the hospitable-board for nine days.
Iobates, after seeing the letter on the tenth day,
Could not kill him either, having already feasted with him.
He sends him to kill the fire-breathing Chimaera,
[830] So that the youth is killed as he struggles with it.

They say that Chimaera was a three-headed beast,
Lion-fronted, a goat in the middle and a snake in the tail.
The youth, after having mounted Pegasus, the winged horse,
In other words, after having boarded a trireme, whose sails were like wings,
(The people round the Adriatic call their ships horses)
Having his own fleet, joined with the other triremes,
And he first achieved victory over the Solymi,
The Mylii or Mylassites, according to the others.
Tzetzes says that the Solymi happen to be the Hebrews,
[840] Whom Homer depicts ruthless as lions.
With a second fleet, he vanquishes, in turn, the Amazons,
Whom (Homer depicts) haunting the precipices and dwelling the mountains,
Homer says that there were two heads,
The one of the Chimera and the other of the goat; About the third
Serpent head of the tail, now, learn,
And about the deceitful contrivance against the youth.
Since Iobates expected Bellerophon to be killed
Either in the battle with the Hebrews, or in the battle with the Amazons,
But not only did not Bellerophon die, but what is more he obtained a victory,
[850] Iobates sets Lycian men in ambush in order to kill him.
But after Bellerophon dealt even with these bald-headed men,
Iobates gave him to his daughter Philonoe as a husband.
So then, he begets Isandrus, Laodameia and Hippolochus.

Now hear about his rising up to the sky with his horse,
And how he gets thrown off Pegasus’ back
And how he wanders over the Aleian plain of Cilicia, being blind,
Now you will have the allegorical interpretation of every detail by Tzetzes, clearly and thoroughly.
The man was exalted through his victories, he had high thoughts in his mind,
Because of the victories, which he achieved via his triremes and the fleet,
[860] And his other victories, as it happens to many people.
Because of this man’s thinking in this way on account of the victories, of which I had spoken,
Out of envy of the wicked deities, Telchines, Erinnyes,
A fortune ill and malignant, the fortune of the misanthropic,
Compensated for the previous good luck of his,
And this fortune kills his son in the battle with the Hebrews,
This man’s son, Isandrus; his daughter, in turn,
(This fortune) mowed down untimely via a severe disease;
(The very thing which the poet calls the archery of Artemis;
They say that the severe deaths are caused by the god Sun and the goddess Moon.)
[870] So having been in this way deprived of his eyes, his children,
(For fathers deem their children to be superior to the light of the eyes)
Or having been deprived even of his mind out of sorrow for his children
(For the mind, according to Epicharmus, both sees and hears)
Round the Aleian plain of Cilicia
He was wasting all his time forsaken in the deserted lands,
“Devouring his own soul and shunning the paths of men,”
Being distressed and avoiding the gatherings of people.
Assuredly every sorrowful man and all the maniacs,
And all the wroth people, as Hippocrates writes,
[880] Become misanthropic and they live far from people,
Considering the physical appearance of their congeners to be the appearance of a different genus.

7.51 CONCERNING “THE MISANTHROPIC ACCORDING TO HIPPOCRATES” (STORY 150)

I wrote this story, having anticipated by all means this one which has just been written;
Assuredly every sorrowful man and all the maniacs,
And all the wroth people, as Hippocrates writes,
Become misanthropic and they live far from people,
Considering the physical appearance of their congeners to be the appearance of a different genus.

7.52 THAT THERSITES’ NAME WAS RECORDED IN EPIC POETRY FOR INSULTING THE HEROES (STORY 151)

Thersites, alongside the Greeks, was the son of Agrios and Dia,
He came from a noble family and Aetolia was his fatherland,
He was a first cousin to Meleager,
[890] And to Tydeus, the father of this very man Diomedes;
He was peaked-headed, cross-eyed, cripple, hunchbacked and bald-headed,
Because he has fallen and he has been thrown off a lofty precipice,
After he had been driven away from the hunt for the Calydonian boar;
This man was recorded in epic poetry for insulting the heroes.
Neither for his lineage, nor for his deeds
Did Homer record him, but for his insults toward the heroes.
In this way the insults made the man noted.

7.53 WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WONDER (TERAS), SIGN (SEMEION), EVIDENCE (TEKMERION), SYMBOL (SYMBOLON) AND LIKELIHOOD (EIKOS) (STORY 152)

Now hear about the differences between wonder (teras) and sign (semeion),
And evidence (tekmerion), as well as, symbol (symbolon),
[900] Likelihood (eikos) and parable (parabole) and paradigm (paradeigma).

Now learn to call a wonder (teras) everything that is unnatural,
As, for example, someone who has six fingers, or three feet or even three hands,
And everything which is alien to the most natural order.

The thing which may appear out of place and out of time on the whole,
Sign (semeion) you should call; Like a rose in the winter,
Like some strange beast which dwells out of its natural environment.

Now, learn to call properly evidence (tekmerion)
This one which assumes something that is unseen out of something visible;
For example, when you see smoke from afar, you assume it comes from a house.
[910] The one which was done after careful consideration, and rather in times of war,
For example, once a dog’s skin is raised on the spear,
It is a signal for fighting the enemies, and anything such as this,
Symbol (symbolon) you should call altogether, and likewise Judas’ speech:
“The man I kiss is the one, arrest him.”

Likelihood (eikos) is a reflection resulting from appropriate reasoning.
For instance, when you say, if a certain one walks during the night,
Either thievish or meretricious wrongdoings he pursues.

Now, here is the difference between the parable (parabole) and the paradigm (paradeigma);
Parable (parabole) is the likeness of the middle terms in an argument;
[920] For example, just like the heavy rain waters the dry ground,
So do the sayings to the souls; or, as the winter chills,
The same does sadness to the souls; and all things of such nature.

On the other hand, the paradigm (paradeigma) derives from things that have already been done;
Look at the one who discourses on god, watch the one who speaks of gold,
We hear about Homer, what sort of person was Demosthenes,
And all the things of that nature, from where one must take an example.

7.54 CONCERNING “EVEN THOUGH BEING MORE EXCELLENT REGARDING HIS RACE” (STORY 153)

For Thersites was the son of Agrios and Dia,
A descendant of the Aetolian royalty.

7.55 CONCERNING “THAT PHIDIAS, AFTER HAVING MADE THE STATUE OF ZEUS AND NEMESIS AT RAMNUS, INSCRIBED ON IT: ‘THIS IS THE STATUE OF AGORACRITUS OF PAROS’” (STORY 154)

Phidias, the legendary Attic sculptor,
[930] Having also been a pupil of Geladas of Argos,
Wanting to please his beloved Agoracritus,
A man even though not gifted in sculpture,
After having made in the manner of the art of Phidias
The statue of Nemesis and Zeus at Ramnus,
To that man ascribes it, after having inscribed on it an inscription:
“This is the statue of Agoracritus of Paros”.

Xenophon did the same thing regarding the Cyrus Anabasis;
For he ascribed a name to the work to please his beloved one:
“There is indeed the book Cyrus Anabasis,
[940] This is the book of Themistogenes the Syracusan”;
Although, in turn, it came to be called the book of Xenophon
So Plato, the philosopher, under the name of his friends
Wrote his Dialogues, and so did countless others.

7.56 CONCERNING “REAPING PERSONAL PAINS, ACCORDING TO HIPPOCRATES” (STORY 155)

This is the Coan physician, the great Hippocrates,
His father was Herakleidas, his mother Phainarete,
Descended from Asclepius, he was the seventeenth in line.
After the sack of Troy, on the opposite coast of Rhodes,
Podalirius, son of Asclepius,
Beget Hippolochus, who begot Sostratus,
[950] Sostratus begot Dardanus, Dardanus begot Krisamis,Krisamis begot Kleomyttades,
Whose son, Theodorus, begot another Sostratus,
And from this Sostratus was born Krisamis II,
From Krisamis II, in turn, was born Theodorus II.
From this Theodorus came Sostratus III,
Who begot Nebrus, who begot Gnosidikus, from whom Hippocrates was born.
To this Hippocrates I, son of Gnosidikus,
Was born Herakleidas, he and Phainarete
Were the parents of the great Hippocrates, also called the second;
He was taught the medical art by his father Herakleidas,
[960] And by Herodicus of Selybria,
Gorgias of Leontinoi taught him rhetoric,
And after them, that man Democritus taught him philosophy.
Hippocrates, having been appointed keeper of the archives in Cos,
Burnt the ancient books of medicine
And the library. Having to flee from there for this reason,
He lived among the Edonians, in Greece and Thessaly,
Being a contemporary of Artaxerxes and Perdikkas.

Hippocrates sons’ were Thessalus and Dracon;
He taught them and Praxagoras the Coan and others
[970] The medical art. He wrote
Fifty three books. And then he died,
Being one hundred and four years old.
After he died, he was buried between Larissa and Gyrton.

Note that there are seven Hippocrates;
The first, son of Gnosidicus, the second, son of Heraclides,
The next, son of Thessalus, the son of Dracon, the two sons of Thymbraeus,
And the seventh Hippocrates, the son of Praxianax.
There were seven Hippocrates. But this one
Was depicted covering his own head with his cloak.
[980] They say there are four reasons for this:
Either because he had a pain in the head, or because he travelled abroad,
Or because he wanted to show that this is the organ of reasoning
Or how it is proper to cover one’s head during a surgery.
That is what the man did and in this way he is depicted.
Some mistakenly call the man an Empiric.
Soranus of Ephesus is my source for what I have said about Hippocrates.
This very Hippocrates, the physician, son of Heracleidas, the Coan,
Proved and he spoke in maxims, that the race of physicians
Shall reap other people’s misfortunes as if they were their own.

7.57 CONCERNING THE SACK OF MILETUS IN THE PLAY OF PHRYNICHUS (STORY 156)

[990] In the time of Darius, the father of Xerxes the Great,
The Persians sucked Miletus because of Histiaeus,
And established the Milesians in Ampe, a city of Erythraea,
However, for them did not mourn the race of Sybarites,
For whom the Milesians showed great lamentation before,
And all the youths at once had their heads shorn,
When Sybaris was taken by the Crotoniates.
Phrynichus the Athenian, made the sack of Miletus,
Being a tragedian, the subject of his tragedy,
So that the whole theatre fell to weeping and wore black clothes,
[1000] He was fined a thousand drachmas by the Athenians,
[1] Who also made an order, that nobody should perform that play.
The sack of Miletus was foretold by an oracle before:
“Then, Miletus, contriver of ill deeds,
For many shall you become a feast and a glorious prize;
Your wives shall wash the feet of many long-haired men;
And others shall care for our Didymian temple.”
Herodotus, the son of Oxylus, writes the story.