Demosthenes, Against Boeotus I, Augustus Taber Murray (Translator), 23

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[23] For even if he might have got into some quarrel with the mother of these children, he would not have hated them, if he believed them to be his own.¹ For man and wife are much more apt, in cases where they are at variance with one another, to become reconciled for the sake of their children, than, on the ground of the injuries which they have done one to the other, to hate their common children also. However, it is not from these facts alone that you may see that he will be lying, if he makes these statements; but, before he claimed to be a kinsman of ours, he used to go to the tribe Hippothontis to dance in the chorus of boys.²

Against Boeotus I. Demosthenes. Augustus Taber Murray (Translator). London. 1936.

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Current edition Perseus

Mantitheus Against Boeotus I (English) (Demosthenes, Vol. IV: Private Orations, Vol 1. Murray, A. T., translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).)

Editions (1)

πρὸς Βοιωτὸν περὶ τοῦ Ὀνόματος Perseus (Demosthenes. Orationes, Vol. II, Part 2. Rennie, W., editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921.) — 23 focus

[23] οὐδὲ γὰρ εἴ τι τῇ μητρὶ πρὸς ὀργὴν ἦλθεν τῇ τούτων, τούτους ἂν ἐμίσει, νομίζων αὑτοῦ εἶναι· πολὺ γὰρ μᾶλλον εἰώθασιν, ὧν ἂν ἑαυτοῖς διενεχθῶσιν ἀνὴρ καὶ γυνή, διὰ τοὺς παῖδας καταλλάττεσθαι ἢ διʼ ἃν ἀδικηθῶσιν ὑφʼ αὑτῶν, τοὺς κοινοὺς παῖδας πρὸς μισεῖν. οὐ τοίνυν ἐκ τούτων ἔστιν ἰδεῖν μόνον ὅτι ψεύσεται, ταῦτʼ ἂν λέγῃ, ἀλλὰ πρὶν ἡμέτερος φάσκειν συγγενὴς εἶναι, εἰς Ἱπποθωντίδʼ ἐφοίτα φυλὴν εἰς παῖδας χορεύσων.

Notes on the current edition

Against Boeotus I

1. This passage is repeated with slight changes in the following oration, Dem. 40.29 .

2. That is, to the tribe to which his mother belonged, not to that of Mantias, which was the Acamantis. The speaker would have this indicate that the mother was conscious that the boy was not the son of Mantias.

Demosthenes Against Boeotus I 23

Augustus Taber Murray (Translator)

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