Lucian, Piscator, Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator), 22

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Philosophy

So. Now we are seated, ready to hear your words. Choose one of your number, the best accuser you may, make your charge, and bring your proofs. Were all to speak, there would be no end. And you, Parrhesiades, shall afterwards make your defence.

Chrysippus

Plato, none of us will conduct the prosecution better than you. Your thoughts are heaven-high, your style the perfect Attic; grace and persuasion, insight and subtlety, the cogency of welltordered proof—all these are gathered in you. Take the spokesman’s office and say what is fitting on our behalf. Call to memory and roll in one all that ever you said against Gorgias, Polus, Hippias, Prodicus; you have now to do with a worse than them. Let him taste your irony; ply him with your keen incessant questions; and if you will, perorate with the mighty Zeus charioting his winged car through Heaven, and grudging if this fellow get not his deserts.

Piscator. Lucian. Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator). Medford, MA, USA. 2023-08-01.

Current edition Perseus

The Fisher (English) (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 1. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.)

Editions (1)

Ἀναβιοῦντες ἢ Ἁλιεύς Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 3. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921.) — 22 focus

Φιλοσοφία

Εἶεν· ἡμεῖς μὲν ὑμῖν καὶ δὴ καθήμεθα ἕτοιμοι ἀκούειν τῶν λόγων, ὑμεῖς δὲ προελόμενοί τινα ἐξ ἁπάντων, ὅστις ἄριστα κατηγορῆσαι ἂν δοκεῖ, συνείρετε τὴν κατηγορίαν καὶ διελέγχετε· πάντας γὰρ ἅμα λέγειν ἀμήχανον.¹ σὺ δέ, ὦ Παρρησιάδη, ἀπολογήσῃ τὸ μετὰ τοῦτο.

Πλάτων

τίς οὖν ὁ ἐπιτηδειότατος ἐξ ἡμῶν ἂν γένοιτο πρὸς τὴν δίκην;

Χρύσιππος

σύ, ὦ Πλάτων. ἥ τε γὰρ μεγαλόνοια θαυμαστὴ καὶ ἡ καλλιφωνία δεινῶς Ἀττικὴ καὶ τὸ κεχαρισμένον καὶ πειθοῦς μεστὸν ἥ τε σύνεσις καὶ τὸ ἀκριβὲς καὶ τὸ ἐπαγωγὸν ἐν καιρῷ τῶν ἀποδείξεων, πάντα ταῦτά σοι ἀθρόα πρόσεστιν· ὥστε τὴν προηγορίαν δέχου καὶ ὑπὲρ ἁπάντων εἰπὲ τὰ εἰκότα. νῦν ἀναμνήσθητι πάντων ἐκείνων καὶ συμφόρει εἰς τὸ αὐτό, εἴ τί σοι πρὸς Γοργίαν ἢ Πῶλον ἢ Πρόδικον ἢ Ἱππίαν εἴρηται· δεινότερος οὗτός ἐστιν. ἐπίπαττε οὖν καὶ τῆς εἰρωνείας καὶ τὰ κομψὰ ἐκεῖνα καὶ συνεχῆ ἐρώτα, κἄν σοι δοκῇ, κἀκεῖνό που παράβυσον, ὡς ὁ μέγας ἐν οὐρανῷ Ζεὺς πτηνὸν ἅρμα ἐλαύνων ἀγανακτήσειεν ἄν, εἰ μὴ οὗτος ὑπόσχοι τὴν δίκην.

Translations (1)

The Dead Come to Life, or the Fisherman Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 3. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921.) — 22 focus

PHILOSOPHY

Well and good. Here we are for you, gentlemen, all seated in readiness to hear the speeches. Choose one of your number who in your opinion can best conduct the prosecution, and when you have done so, build up your complaint and establish your charge; it is not feasible for all to speak at once. You, Frankness, shall make your defence thereafter. PLATO Which. of us, I wonder, would be the best fitted to handle the case?

CHRYSIPPUS

You, Plato. Marvellous sublimity, superlatively Attic elegance, charm and _ persuasiveness, insight, subtlety, opportune seductiveness in demonstration— all this is yours to the full. Accept the spokesmanship, therefore, and say whatever is appropriate in behalf of us all. Remember now all your former successes and put together any points you have urged against Gorgias or Polos or Hippias or Prodicus: this man is more able than they. So apply a light sprinkling of irony, too, put those clever, incessant questions of yours, and if you think best, also slip it in somewhere that “great Zeus in heaven driving his winged car” would be angry if this man should not be punished.

Lucian Piscator 22

Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator)

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Philosophy

So. Now we are seated, ready to hear your words. Choose one of your number, the best accuser you may, make your charge, and bring your proofs. Were all to speak, there would be no end. And you, Parrhesiades, shall afterwards make your defence.

Current edition Perseus

Πλάτων

τίς οὖν ὁ ἐπιτηδειότατος ἐξ ἡμῶν ἂν γένοιτο πρὸς τὴν δίκην;

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Philosophy So. Now we are seated, ready to hear your words. Choose one of your number, the best accuser you may, make your charge, and bring your proofs. Were all to speak, there would be no end. And you, Parrhesiades, shall afterwards make your defence.

Current edition Perseus

Πλάτων τίς οὖν ὁ ἐπιτηδειότατος ἐξ ἡμῶν ἂν γένοιτο πρὸς τὴν δίκην;

Stable identifiers

Philosophy

So. Now we are seated, ready to hear your words. Choose one of your number, the best accuser you may, make your charge, and bring your proofs. Were all to speak, there would be no end. And you, Parrhesiades, shall afterwards make your defence.

Πλάτων

τίς οὖν ὁ ἐπιτηδειότατος ἐξ ἡμῶν ἂν γένοιτο πρὸς τὴν δίκην;