Lucian of Samosata, Toxaris vel amicitia, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 6

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[6] All that the went through in each other’s company or for eac other’s sake our ancestors inscribed on a tablet of bronze which they set up in the Oresteum;¹ and they made it the law that the first study and lesson for their children should be this tablet and the memorising of all that had been written upon it. In point of fact, every one of them would sooner forget the name of his own father than fail to know the achievements of Orestes and Pylades. But in the temple close, too, the very same matters that are set forth on the tablet are to be seen represented in paintings by the ancients; Orestes voyaging with his friend, and then, after his ship had been destroyed on the rocks, his arrest and preparation for the sacrifice; Iphigenia is already consecrating them. Opposite this, on the other wall, he is depicted as just out of his fetters, slaying Thoas and many more of the Scythians. Finally, they are sailing off, with Iphigenia and the goddess; the Scythians meanwhile are vainly laying hold of the ship, which is already under way, hanging to the rudders and trying to get aboard; then, unable to accomplish anything, they swim back to land, some of them because they are wounded, others for fear of that. It is just there that one may see how much good-will they displayed in each other’s interest; I mean, in the engagement with the Scythians. For the artist has portrayed each of them paying no heed to the foemen opposite himself, but encountering those who are assailing the other, trying to meet their missiles in his stead, and counting it nothing to die if he saves his friend and intercepts with his own body the stroke that is being directed at the other.

Toxaris vel amicitia. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Toxaris, or Friendship (English) (Lucian, Vol. 5. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Τόξαρις ἢ Φιλία Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 5. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).) — 6 focus

Τόξαρις

καὶ ἅ γε μετʼ ἀλλήλων ἢ ὑπὲρ ἀλλήλων ἔπαθον ἀναγράψαντες οἱ πρόγονοι ἡμῶν ἐπὶ στήλης χαλκῆς ἀνέθεσαν εἰς τὸ Ὀρέστειον, καὶ νόμον ἐποιήσαντο πρῶτον τοῦτο μάθημα καὶ παίδευμα τοῖς παισὶ τοῖς σφετέροις εἶναι τὴν στήλην ταύτην καὶ τὰ ἐπʼ αὐτῆς γεγραμμένα διαμνημονεῦσαι. θᾶττον γοῦν τοὔνομʼ ἂν¹ ἕκαστος αὐτῶν ἐπιλάθοιτο τοῦ πατρὸς ἢ τὰς Ὀρέστου καὶ Πυλάδου πράξεις ἀγνοήσειεν.

ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῷ περιβόλῳ τοῦ νεὼ τὰ αὐτὰ ὁπόσα ἡ στήλη δηλοῖ γραφαῖς ὑπὸ τῶν παλαιῶν εἰκασμένα δείκνυται, πλέων Ὀρέστης ἅμα τῷ φίλῳ, εἶτα ἐν τοῖς κρημνοῖς διαφθαρείσης αὐτῷ² τῆς νεὼς συνειλημμένος καὶ πρὸς τὴν θυσίαν παρεσκευασμένος, καὶ ἡ Ἰφιγένεια ἤδη κατάρχεται αὐτῶν. καταντικρὺ δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ ἑτέρου τοίχου ἤδη ἐκδεδυκὼς τὰ δεσμὰ γέγραπται καὶ φονεύων τὸν Θόαντα καὶ πολλοὺς ἄλλους τῶν Σκυθῶν, καὶ τέλος ἀποπλέοντες, ἔχοντες τὴν Ἰφιγένειαν καὶ τὴν θεόν. οἱ Σκύθαι δὲ ἄλλως ἐπιλαμβάνονται τοῦ σκάφους ἤδη πλέοντος, ἐκκρεμαννύμενοι τῶν πηδαλίων καὶ ἐπαναβαίνειν πειρώμενοι· εἶτʼ οὐδὲν ἀνύσαντες οἱ μὲν αὐτῶν τραυματίαι, οἱ δὲ καὶ δέει τούτου, ἀπονήχονται πρὸς τὴν γῆν. ἔνθα δὴ καὶ μάλιστα ἴδοι τις ἂν ὁπόσην ὑπὲρ ἀλλήλων εὔνοιαν ἐπεδείκνυντο, ἐν τῇ πρὸς τοὺς Σκύθας συμπλοκῇ. πεποίηκεν γὰρ ὁ γραφεὺς ἑκάτερον ἀμελοῦντα μὲν τῶν καθʼ ἑαυτὸν πολεμίων, ἀμυνόμενον δὲ τοὺς ἐπιφερομένους θατέρῳ καὶ πρὸ ἐκείνου ἀπαντᾶν πειρώμενον τοῖς τοξεύμασιν καὶ παρʼ οὐδὲν τιθέμενον εἰ ἀποθανεῖται σώσας τὸν φίλον καὶ τὴν ἐπʼ ἐκεῖνον φερομένην πληγὴν προαρπάσας τῷ ἑαυτοῦ σώματι.

Translations (2)

Toxaris: a Dialogue of Friendship Perseus (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 3. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 6 focus

[6] The sufferings they endured with and for one another our ancestors recorded -on a brazen pillar in the Oresteum; and they made it law, that the education of their children should begin with committing to memory all that is inscribed thereon. More easily shall a child forget his own father’s name than be at fault in the achievements of Orestes and Pylades. Again, in the temple corridor are pictures by the artists of old, illustrating the story set forth on the pillar. Orestes is first shown on shipboard, with his friend at his side. Next, the ship has gone to pieces on the rocks; Orestes is captured and bound; already Iphigenia prepares the two victims for sacrifice. But on the opposite wall we see that Orestes has broken free; he slays Thoas and many a Scythian; and the last scene shows them sailing away, with Iphigenia and the Goddess; the Scythians clutch vainly at the receding vessel; they cling to the rudder, they strive to clamber on board; at last, utterly baffled, they swim back to the shore, wounded or terrified. It is at this point in their conflict with the Scythians that the devotion of the friends is best illustrated: the painter makes each of them disregard his own enemies, and ward off his friend’s assailants, seeking to intercept the arrows before they can reach him, and counting lightly of death, if he can save his friend, and receive in his own person the wounds that are meant for the other.

Toxaris; Or, Friendship Perseus (Selections from Lucian. Smith, Emily James, translator. New York: Harper Brothers, 1892.) — 6 focus

[6] Our ancestors inscribed an account of their sufferings with each other, or for each other, on a bronze pillar and set it up as an offering in the Oresteion, making a law that the earliest training and education of their children should be to learn by heart the inscription on this pillar. The result is that it would be easier for one of them to forget his father's name than to be in ignorance of the deeds of Orestes and Pylades. Moreover, on the wall enclosing the temple there are ancient pictures displaying everything related on the pillar. One shows Orestes sailing in company with his friend; another shows him captured after his ship went to pieces on the rocks and made ready for the sacrifice, with Iphigeneia in the act of beginning the ceremony. On the opposite wall he is seen at the moment when he had burst his bonds and was killing Thoas and a number of other Scythians, and, finally, they are painted sailing away with Iphigeneia and the goddess. The Scythians are vainly trying to stop the ship, which is already under sail, and are hanging in the rigging and trying to board her; but they fail completely and some get wounded, and others, in fear of a like fate, swim off to land.

Notes on the current edition

Toxaris, or Friendship

Nothing could be more natural than for some Graeco- Scythian city in South Russia (Crimea?) to have had an Oresteum like this, with a set of murals commemorating the exploits of Orestes and Pylades. Indeed, the existence of the paintings is practically guaranteed by two considerations: they represent a version of the story of Orestes among the Taurians that is not known to us prior to Lucian except in art; and that version, involving as it does his killing of the king, is not likely to have been preferred to the Euripidean by Lucian for his present purpose, if the paintings were imaginary. Here there seems to be a core of fact which Lucian can have derived only from some previous writer; and we may perhaps also safely believe that the deified heroes obtained sufficient prestige among the native part of the population of the city and its environs to gain them a Scythian name (Korakoi: §7 end). Compare the Herodotean tale (IV, 103) of the worship of Iphigenia among the Taurians. This kernel of fact, however, has been enveloped in a hull of fiction by transporting the sanctuary to a mythical Scythian capital without a name and making it the focus of a great national cult of friendship—a happy conceit in view of the custom of swearing “blood-brotherhood” (§ 37), but sheer fiction none the less. It is perhaps possible that Lucian drew the fact from some Hellenistic AListorian and supplied the fiction himself; but it is more likely that he found both already combined in his source, and connected with one or more of the tales of Scythian friendship that he puts into the mouth of Toxaris (cf. especially p. 173, n. 2).

Lucian of Samosata Toxaris vel amicitia 6

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)

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