Buyer
What else, now, do you claim to know?
What else, now, do you claim to know?
Buyer
How clever!
How clever!
Chrysippos
The meshes of argument wherewith I trip up my interlocutors and block their passage and reduce them to silence by actually muzzling them. The name of this faculty is the famous syllogism.
The meshes of argument wherewith I trip up my interlocutors and block their passage and reduce them to silence by actually muzzling them. The name of this faculty is the famous syllogism.
Buyer
By Herkules, it is an irresistible, mighty weapon, from your description.
By Herkules, it is an irresistible, mighty weapon, from your description.
Chrysippos
I will give you a specimen. Have you a child?
I will give you a specimen. Have you a child?
Buyer
Certainly.
Certainly.
Chrysippos
If a crocodile should manage to snatch it, finding it wandering too near the river, and if, then, he should promise to restore it if you could tell him truly whether he had determined to give it back or not, what would you tell him he had in mind?
If a crocodile should manage to snatch it, finding it wandering too near the river, and if, then, he should promise to restore it if you could tell him truly whether he had determined to give it back or not, what would you tell him he had in mind?
Buyer
That is a difficult question, for I do not see which answer would be the more likely to get the child back. But do you, in Heaven's name, answer for me, and save my child before he eats him.
That is a difficult question, for I do not see which answer would be the more likely to get the child back. But do you, in Heaven's name, answer for me, and save my child before he eats him.
Chrysippos
Never fear, I will teach you other things still more surprising.
Never fear, I will teach you other things still more surprising.
Buyer
What sort of things?
What sort of things?
Chrysippos
The Reaper, the Master, and, above all, the Elektra, and the Veiled.
The Reaper, the Master, and, above all, the Elektra, and the Veiled.
Buyer
What do you mean by the "Veiled," or the "Elektra?"
What do you mean by the "Veiled," or the "Elektra?"
Chrysippos
Elektra is that famous person, the daughter of Agamemnon, who at the same moment knows a thing and does not know it; for when Orestes stands beside her, still incognito, she knows, indeed, that Orestes is her brother, but that this is Orestes she does not know. And I will tell you about the "Veiled," too, a most extraordinary figure. Answer me, do you know your father?
Elektra is that famous person, the daughter of Agamemnon, who at the same moment knows a thing and does not know it; for when Orestes stands beside her, still incognito, she knows, indeed, that Orestes is her brother, but that this is Orestes she does not know. And I will tell you about the "Veiled," too, a most extraordinary figure. Answer me, do you know your father?
Buyer
Yes.
Yes.
Chrysippos
Well, then, if I present some veiled person to you and ask whether you know him, what would you say?
Well, then, if I present some veiled person to you and ask whether you know him, what would you say?
Buyer
That I do not, of course.
That I do not, of course.
Vitarum auctio. Lucian of Samosata. Emily James Smith (Translator). Medford, MA. Perseus 5.0.
Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.