“When Menander was asked what the difference was between Sophokles and Euripides he said that Sophokles makes people feel pleasure while Euripides makes his audience feel anger.”
“When he was asked why he made people with noble characters and Euripides made those of base ones, Sophokles answered “Because I make people how they should be and he makes people as they are.”
“Peleus’ knife”: this is a proverb. Aristophanes also records this: “he thinks more of himself than Peleus did with the knife”. It seems that this thing which Peleus took was a Hephaistos-made gift of prudence.”
“Peleus’ knife. Aristophanes also records this: “he thinks more of himself than Peleus did with the knife”. It seems that this thing which Peleus took was a Hephaistos-made gift of prudence.
This proverb is used for rare and extremely honored possessions. For they say that Peleus received a sword from the gods because of his surplus of prudence. It was made by Hephaistos.”
Of the collections, the Vaticanus is the most interesting and strange. Here are a few sections that jumped out while I translated them today.
15 “In a certain part of the region before Olympos there are trees similar to a tender-leafed willow which people say were once virgins. They changed into these trees when they were fleeing Boreas who was lusting after them. Even to this day, if someone touches the leaves, people claim that the wind gets enraged and immediately blows with a fury and barely stops before the third day”
16 “In the middle of Thrace there is a river which reveals women who have been corrupted through adultery. When their husbands have them drink from the water they also say ‘If you were not corrupted by that water, may you have a son; but if you were, have a daughter’ “
“You ate some lotus”: [this proverb is applied to those] who are forgetful of things in the household and are slow in matters of hospitality. It is based on the lotus which imbues one who eats it with forgetfulness.”
“Agamemnon’s sacrifice”: [a proverb] applied to the difficult to persuade and the stubborn. For when Agamemnon was making a sacrifice, the bull was scarcely caught after it fled.” Or, it is because Agamemnon wanted to sacrifice his daughter. And she fled.”
13“…in the mythical [legend] for those places, in Halicarnassos, when a sacrifice is completed to Zeus Askraios a heard of goats are driven before the temple and stopped [there]; while the prayers are being completed a single goat which is led forward by no one steps ahead and approaches the altar and the priest, after he takes her, sacrifices as a good omen.”
14“Phylarkhos writes in the eighth book of his Histories that there is a spring of water near the Gulf of Arabia from which if anyone ever anoints their feet what transpires miraculously is that their genitals extend pretty far. And for some they do not contract completely, and for others they are put back to shape with great suffering and medical attention.”
15 “Skumnos of Khios says that the Brittanic island is forty-thousand stades in length, and plants grow there without a kernel—for example olive trees do not have seeds nor does the grape vine have stones nor anything similar to this.”
16“Theophrastos, in his work On Plants [says] that the root of sallow, which doctors use, should someone roast it with meat, the many individual pieces becomes one so that it is no longer possible to take it out of the vessel.”
17 “Ktêsias says that there is wood among the Indians which is called parêbos [lit. “beyond its prime”]. This attracts everything which is brought near it to it—like gold, silver, tin, bronze and all the other metals. “ it attracts the sparrows which fly near too” [quotation]. If the wood/material is larger, it [also attracts] goats and sheep and animals of similar types.”
18 “Phularkhos in book 20 of the Histories says that there is a white root imported from India which when [people] cut it and smear it over their feet with water, those who are smeared with it experience forgetfulness of sex and become similar to Eunuchs. For this reason still some apply it before they are fully adults and are not aroused for the rest of their life.”
19 “Herakleides the critic in his book about the cities in Greece writes that on the Pêlion mountain a thistle plant grows which bears fruit. If someone grinds up the fruit with olive and water and anoints his own body or another during the winter, he does not feel cold.”
20 “Ktêsias, in his tenth book of Persian Affairs says that there a some camels born in the Kaspian land which have hair which is soft like Milesian wool. Priests and other prominent individuals wear vestments from these animals.”
“People suffer less because of their enemies than their friends. For they guard against their enemies because they fear them while they remain open to their friends. They too are slippery and likely to conspire.”
“Solon, after he was asked by Periander over drink—when the former happened to be quiet—whether he was silent because of a loss of words or foolishness, said “No fool could ever be quiet at a drinking party.”
“When Menander was asked what the difference was between Sophokles and Euripides he said that Sophokles makes people feel pleasure while Euripides makes his audience feel anger.”
“When he was asked why he made people with noble characters and Euripides made those of base ones, Sophokles answered “Because I make people how they should be and he makes people as they are.”
