Plutarch, De Pythiae oraculis, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 8

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[8] By this time we had proceeded until we were opposite the statue of Hiero the despot. The foreign visitor, by reason of his genial nature, made himself listen to the various tales, although he knew them all perfectly well; but when he was told that a bronze pillar of Hiero’s standing above had fallen of itself during that day on which it happened that Hiero was coming to his end at Syracuse, he expressed his astonishment. Whereupon I proceeded to recall to his mind other events of a like nature, such, for example, as the experience of Hiero¹ the Spartan, how before his death, which came to him at Leuctra, the eyes fell out of his statue, and the stars disappeared which Lysander had dedicated from the naval battle at Aegospotami; and the stone statue of Lysander² himself put forth a growth of wild shrubs and grass in such abundance as to cover up the face; and at the time of the Athenian misfortunes in Sicily, the golden dates were dropping from the palm-tree and ravens were pecking off the edge of the shield of Pallas Athena³; and the crown of the Cnidians which Philomela, despot of the Phocians, had presented to the dancing-girl,⁴ Pharsalia caused her death, after she had emigrated from Greece to Italy and was disporting herself in the vicinity of the temple of Apollo at Metapontum; for the young men made a rush for the crown, and as they struggled with one another for the gold, they tore the girl to pieces.

Aristotle⁵ used to say that Homer is the only poet who wrote words possessing movement because of their vigour; but I should say that among votive offerings also, those dedicated here have movement and significance in sympathy with the god’s foreknowledge, and no part of them is void or insensible, but all are filled with the divine spirit.

Yes indeed, said Boethus. It is not enough to incarnate the god once every month in a mortal body, but we are bent upon incorporating him into every bit of stone and bronze, as if we did not have in Chance or Accident an agent responsible for such coincidences.

Then, said I, does it seem to you that chance and accident have ordered every single one of such occurrences; and is it credible that the atoms slipped out of place and were separated one from another and inclined towards one side neither before nor afterwards, but at precisely the time when each of the dedicators was destined to fare either worse or better? And now Epicurus⁶ comes to your aid, apparently, with what he said or wrote three hundred years ago; but it does not seem to you that the god, unless he should transport himself and incorporate himself into everything and be merged with everything, could initiate movement or cause anything to happen to any existent object!

De Pythiae oraculis. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1936.

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Current edition Perseus

The Oracle at Delphi no Longer Given in Verse (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. V. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Περὶ τοῦ μὴ χρᾶν ἔμμετρα νῦν τὴν Πυθίαν Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol II. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1891.) — 8 focus

[8] ἤδη δὲ προϊόντες ἦμεν κατὰ τὸν Ἱέρωνος ἀνδριάντα τοῦ τυράννου· καὶ τῶν μὲν ἄλλων ὁ ξένος εἰδὼς ἅπαντα παρεῖχεν ὅμως ὑπʼ εὐκολίας ἀκροατὴν αὑτόν· ἀκούσας δʼ ὅτι κίων τις ἑστὼς ἄνω χαλκοῦς Ἱέρωνος ἔπεσεν, αὐτομάτως τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης, 10 τὸν Ἱέρωνα συνέβαινεν ἐν Συρακούσαις τελευτᾶν, ἐθαύμασε. κἀγὼ τῶν ὁμοίων ἅμα συνανεμίμνησκον, οἷα δὴ τοῦ Ἱέρωνος¹ μὲν τοῦ Σπαρτιάτου, ὅτι πρὸ τῆς ἐν Λεύκτροις αὐτῷ γενομένης τελευτῆς ἐξέπεσον οἱ 397f ὀφθαλμοὶ τοῦ ἀνδριάντος, οἱ δʼ ἀστέρες ἠφανίσθησαν 15 οὓς Λύσανδρος ἀνέθηκεν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐν Αἰγὸς ποταμοῖς ναυμαχίας. ὁ δʼ αὐτοῦ τοῦ² Λυσάνδρου λίθινος ἀνδριὰς ἐξήνθησεν ἀγρίαν λόχμην καὶ πόαν τοσαύτην τὸ πλῆθος, ὥστε κατακρύψαι τὸ πρόσωπον. ἐν δὲ τοῖς Σικελικοῖς τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἀτυχήμασιν 20 αἵ τε χρυσαῖ τοῦ φοίνικος ἀπέρρεον βάλανοι, καὶ τὴν ἀσπίδα τοῦ Παλλαδίου κόρακες περιέκοπτον. ὁ δὲ Κνιδίων στέφανος, ὃν Φαρσαλίᾳ τῇ ὀρχηστρίδι Φιλόμηλος ὁ Φωκέων τύραννος ἐδωρήσατο, μεταστᾶσαν αὐτὴν ἐκ τῆς Ἑλλάδος εἰς τὴν Ἰταλίαν, 25 ἀπώλεσεν ἐν Μεταποντίῳ παίζουσαν περὶ τὸν νεὼν 398a τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος· ὁρμήσαντες γὰρ ἐπὶ τὸν στέφανον οἱ νεανίσκοι καὶ μαχόμενοι περὶ τοῦ χρυσίου πρὸς ἀλλήλους διέσπασαν τὴν ἄνθρωπον. Ἀριστοτέλης³ μὲν οὖν μόνον Ὅμηρον ἔλεγε κινούμενα ποιεῖν ὀνόματα διὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν ἐγὼ δὲ φαίην ἂν καὶ τῶν ἀναθημάτων τὰ ἐνταυθοῖ⁴ μάλιστα συγκινεῖσθαι καὶ 5 συνεπισημαίνειν τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ προνοίᾳ· καὶ τούτων μέρος μηδὲν εἶναι κενὸν μηδʼ ἀναίσθητον, ἀλλὰ πεπλῆσθαι πάντα θειότητος;. καὶ ὁ Βόηθος ναί εἶπεν· οὐ γὰρ ἀρκεῖ τὸν θεὸν εἰς σῶμα καθειργνύναι 398b θνητὸν ἅπαξ ἑκάστου μηνός, ἀλλὰ καὶ λίθῳ 10 παντὶ καὶ χαλκῷ συμφυράσομεν αὐτόν, ὥσπερ οὐκ ἔχοντες ἀξιόχρεων τῶν τοιούτων συμπτωμάτων τὴν τύχην δημιουργὸν καὶ ταὐτόματον.⁵ εἶτʼ ἔφην ἐγώ τύχῃ σοι δοκεῖ καὶ αὐτόματον τῶν τοιούτων ἕκαστον ἐοικέναι,⁶ καὶ πιθανόν ἐστι τὰς ἀτόμους 15 ἐξολισθεῖν καὶ διαλυθῆναι⁷ καὶ παρεγκλῖναι μήτε πρότερον μήθʼ ὕστερον, ἀλλὰ⁸ κατʼ ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον, ἐν ᾧ τῶν ἀναθέντων ἕκαστος; ἢ χεῖρον ἔμελλε πράξειν ἢ βέλτιον; καὶ σὲ μὲν Ἐπίκουρος ὠφελεῖ νῦν ὡς ἔοικεν ἀφʼ ὧν εἶπεν ἢ ἔγραψε πρὸ ἐτῶν τριακοσίων· 20 398c ὁ θεὸς δʼ, εἰ μὴ συνείρξειε φέρων ἑαυτὸν εἰς ἅπαντα μηδʼ ἀνακερασθείη πᾶσιν, οὐκ ἄν σοι δοκοίη κινήσεως ἀρχὴν καὶ πάθους αἰτίαν⁹ παρασχεῖν οὐδενὶ τῶν ὄντων;ʼ

Translations (1)

Wherefore the Pythian Priestess now Ceases to Deliver her Oracles in Verse Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. III. Goodwin, William W., editor; Philips, John, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 8 focus

[8] Thus walking along, we were by this time got as far as the statue of Hiero the tyrant, while the stranger, although a most learned historian, yet out of his complaisant and affable disposition, attentively leaned to the present relations. But then, among other things, hearing how that one of the brazen pillars that supported the said statue of Hiero fell of itself the same day that the tyrant died at Syracuse, he began to admire the accident. Thereupon at the same time I called to mind several other examples of the like nature: as that of Hiero the Spartan, the eyes of whose statue fell out of its head just before he was slain at the battle of Leuctra;—how the two stars vanished which Lysander offered and consecrated to the Gods after the naval engagement near Aegos Potami, and how there sprung of a sudden from his statue of stone such a multitude of thorny bushes and weeds as covered all his face;—how, when those calamities and misfortunes befell the Athenians in Sicily, the golden dates dropped from the palm-tree, and the ravens with their beaks pecked holes in the shield of Pallas;—how the crown of the Cnidians which Philomelus, the tyrant of the Phocians, gave Pharsalia, a female dancer, was the occasion of her death; for, passing out of Greece into Italy, one day as she was playing and dancing in the temple of Apollo in the city of Metapontum, having that crown upon her head, the young men of the place falling upon her, and fighting one among another for lucre of the gold, tore the damsel in pieces. Now, though Aristotle was wont to say that only Homer composed names and terms that had motion, by reason of the vigor and vivacity of his expressions, for my part I am apt to believe that the offerings made in this city of statues and consecrated presents sympathize with Divine Providence, and move themselves jointly therewith to foretell and signify future events; and that no part of all those sacred donatives is void of sense, but that every part is full of the Deity.

It is very probable, answered Boethus; for, to tell you truth, we do not think it sufficient to enclose the Divinity every month in a mortal body, unless we incorporate him with every stone and lump of brass; as if Fortune and Chance were not sufficient artists to bring about such accidents and events. Say ye so then? said I. Seems it to you that these things happen accidentally and by hap-hazard; and is it likely that your atoms never separate, never move or incline this or that way either before or after, but just in that nick of time when some one of those who have made these offerings is to fare either better or worse? Shall Epicurus avail thee by his writings and his sayings, which he wrote and uttered above three hundred years ago, and shall the Deity, unless he crowd himself into all substances and blend himself with all things, not be allowed to be a competent author of the principles of motion and affection?

Notes on the current edition

The Oracle at Delphie no Longer Given in Verse

1. Cf. Pausanias, x. 9. 7, with Xenophon, Hellenica, vi. 4. 9. Presumably the same man is referred to in both passages, as he may well have lived till the battle of Leuctra in 371 b.c., and he may be mentioned also in Xenophon, Hellenica, i. 6. 32, but where his name was Hiero or Hermon cannot, apparently, be determined with certainty.

2. Cf. Life of Lysander, chap. xviii. (443 a).

3. Cf. Pausanias, x. 15. 5.

4. Cf. Athenaeus, 605 c.

5. Rhetoric, iii. 11 (1411 b 31); cf. Frag. 130 (ed. Rose).

6. Frag. 383.

Plutarch De Pythiae oraculis 8

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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