[5]
Tychiades
Very well: now I have just been with the great Eucrates, who treated me to a whole string of old wives’ tales. I came away in‘the middle of it; he was too much for me altogether; Furies could not have driven me out more effectually than his marvel-working tongue.Philocles
What, Eucrates, of all credible witnesses? That venerably bearded sexagenarian, with his philosophic leanings? I could never have believed that he would lend his countenance to other people’s lies, much less that he was capable of such things himselfTychiades
My dear sir, you should have heard the stuff he told me; the way in which he vouched for the truth of it all too, solemnly staking the lives of his children on his veracity! I stared at him in amazement, not knowing what to make of it: one moment I thought he must be out of his mind; the next I concluded he had been a humbug all along, an ape in a lion’s skin. Oh, it was monstrous.Philocles
Do tell me all about it; I am curious to see the quackery that shelters beneath so long a beard.Philopseudes sive incredulus. Lucian. Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator). Medford, MA, USA. 2023-08-01.
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