Rhetoric

​And they compete with their equals; and they care for the prudent as telling the truth, and such are the older and the educated.

​And they feel shame more at things before their eyes and in public (whence also the proverb ‘shame is in the eyes’); for this reason they feel more shame before those who will always be present with them and those who attend to them, because both are before their eyes.

​And they feel shame before those who are not guilty of the same things; for it is clear that these hold the opposite opinions. And before those who are not forgiving towards those who appear to err; for what a man does himself, these things he is said not to resent in his neighbors, so that what he does not do, it is clear that he does resent.

​And before those who are apt to tell many people; for it makes no difference whether one does not seem to have done a thing or whether it is not reported. And those apt to tell are both those who have been wronged, because they watch closely, and backbiters; for if they speak ill even of those who do not err, they will do so still more of those who do. And those whose occupation is with their neighbors’ errors, such as mockers and comic poets; for these are in a way backbiters and apt to tell. And before those among whom they have never failed; for they are in the position of being admired. For this reason they also feel shame before those who ask something of them for the first time, as having as yet lost no reputation among them; and such are those who have just wished to be friends (for they have seen only what is best; wherefore Euripides’ answer to the Syracusans was appropriate), and those among their old acquaintances who know nothing against them.

​And they feel shame not only at the shameful things themselves which have been mentioned, but also at their signs; for example, not only when engaging in sexual acts, but also at the signs of it, and not only when doing shameful things, but also when speaking of them. Likewise, they feel shame not only before those who have been mentioned, but also before those who will reveal them to those people, such as their servants and friends.

​But in general they feel no shame before those whose opinion they greatly despise as to its telling the truth (for no one feels shame before children and beasts), nor do they feel shame at the same things before acquaintances and strangers, but before acquaintances they feel shame at things that seem shameful in truth, and before those at a distance at things that seem shameful according to convention.

​And they themselves would feel shame if they were in the following states: first, if there should exist some who stand in such a relation to them as those before whom we said they feel shame. And these were either those whom they admire, or those who admire them, or those by whom they wish to be admired, or those of whom they need some service which they will not obtain if they lose their reputation; and these either seeing them (just as Cydias spoke in his public speech about the allotment of land in Samos; for he asked the Athenians to assume that the Greeks were standing in a circle around them, as seeing and not only about to hear what they might vote), or if such people are near, or are about to perceive it; wherefore also they never wish to be seen by those who once envied them when they are in misfortune; for those who envy them are admirers.

​And when they have deeds and actions that bring shame upon them, either of their own, or of their ancestors, or of some other persons with whom they have a relationship of kinship. And in general on account of those for whom they themselves feel shame; and these are the ones mentioned, and those who relate to them, or of whom they have been teachers or advisers, or if there are others like them with whom they compete.

​For because they feel shame on account of such people, they both do and do not do many things.

​And when they are about to be seen and to associate in public with those who know their secrets, they are more easily ashamed. Whence also Antiphon the poet, when he was about to be executed by Dionysius, seeing those who were to die with him covering their faces as they went through the gates, said, “Why do you cover your faces? Is it because you are afraid that someone of these people will see you tomorrow?” Concerning shame, then, let these things suffice; but concerning unabashedness, it is clear that we shall easily find resources from the opposites.