§12ἅμα δὲ τούτων λεγομένων προῄειμεν.
While these things were being said, we went forward.
ἐν δὲ τῷ Κορινθίων οἴκῳ τὸν φοίνικα θεωμένοις τὸν χαλκοῦν, ὅσπερ ἔτι λοιπός ἐστι τῶν ἀναθημάτων, οἱ περὶ τὴν ῥίζαν ἐντετορευμένοι βάτραχοι καὶ ὕδροι θαῦμα τῷ Διογενιανῷ παρεῖχον, ἀμέλει δὲ καὶ ἡμῖν.
And as we were looking at the bronze palm-tree in the treasury of the Corinthians, which is all that is still left of the offerings, the frogs and water-snakes carved around its root caused wonder to Diogenianus, and of course to us as well.
οὔτε γὰρ φοίνιξ, ὡς ἕτερα δένδρα, λιμναῖόν ἐστι καὶ φίλυδρον φυτόν, οὔτε Κορινθίοις· τι βάτραχοι προσήκουσιν, ὥστε σύμβολον ἢ παράσημον εἶναι τῆς πόλεως· ὥσπερ ἀμέλει Σελινούντιοί ποτε χρυσοῦν σέλινον ἀναθεῖναι λέγονται, καὶ Τενέδιοι τὸν πέλεκυν ἀπὸ τῶν καρκίνων τῶν γιγνομένων περὶ τὸ καλούμενον Ἀστέριον παρʼ αὐτοῖς· μόνοι γὰρ ὡς ἔοικεν ἐν τῷ χελωνίῳ τύπον πελέκεως ἔχουσι.
For neither is the palm-tree, like other trees, a marsh-loving and water-loving plant, nor do frogs have any connection with the Corinthians, so as to be a symbol or emblem of their city; just as, indeed, the Selinuntians are said to have once dedicated a golden wild celery, and the Tenedians the axe from the crabs that are found around what is called Asterion among them; for they alone, as it seems, have the figure of an axe on their shell.
καὶ μὴν αὐτῷ γε τῷ θεῷ κόρακας καὶ κύκνους καὶ λύκους καὶ ἱέρακας καὶ πάντα μᾶλλον ἢ ταῦτʼ εἶναι προσφιλῆ τὰ θηρία νομίζομεν εἰπόντος δὲ τοῦ Σαραπίωνος, ὅτι τὴν ἐξ ὑγρῶν ᾐνίξατο τροφὴν τοῦ ἡλίου καὶ γένεσιν καὶ ἀναθυμίασιν ὁ δημιουργός, εἴθʼ Ὁμήρου λέγοντος ἀκηκοώς
"ἠέλιος δʼ ἀπόρουσε λιπὼν, περικαλλέα λίμνην· "
εἴτʼ Αἰγυπτίους ἑωρακὼς ἀρχὴς ἀνατολῆς παιδίον νεγνὸν γράφοντας ἐπὶ λωτῷ καθεζόμενον γελάσας ἐγὼ
ποῦ σὺ πάλιν
εἶπον
ὦ χρηστέ, τὴν Στοὰν δευρὶ παρωθεῖς καὶ ὑποβάλλεις ἀτρέμα τῷ λόγῳ τὰς ἀνάψεις καὶ ἀναθυμιάσεις, οὐχ ὥσπερ αἱ Θετταλαὶ κατάγων τὴν σελήνην καὶ τὸν ἣλιον, ὡς ἐντεῦθεν ἀπὸ γῆς καὶ ὑδάτων βλαστάνοντας καὶ ἀρδομένους;
And indeed, for the god himself, we believe that crows, swans, wolves, and hawks, and anything else rather than these beasts, are dear; but when Sarapion said that the craftsman had cryptically indicated the nourishment, birth, and exhalation of the sun from moisture—either because he had heard Homer saying, "And the sun leaped up, leaving the very beautiful pool," or because he had seen the Egyptians drawing a newborn child sitting on a lotus as the beginning of the rising—laughing, I said, "To what point are you again, my good friend, pushing the Stoa in this direction, and quietly slipping into the argument your ignitions and exhalations, not like the Thessalian women drawing down the moon and the sun, but as if they sprouted and were watered from here, from the earth and the waters?
ὁ μὲν γὰρ Πλάτων καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον οὐράνιον ὠνόμασε φυτόν, ὥσπερ ἐκ ῥίζης ἄνω τῆς κεφαλῆς ὀρθούμενον ὑμεῖς δὲ τοῦ μὲν Ἐμπεδοκλέους καταγελᾶτε, φάσκοντος τὸν ἣλιον περὶ γῆν ἀνακλάσει φωτὸς οὐρανίου γενόμενον αὖθις
"ἀνταυγεῖν πρὸς ὄλυμπον ἀταρβήτοισι προσώποις"
αὐτοὶ δὲ γηγενὲς ζῷον ἢ φυτὸν ἕλειον ἀποφαίνετε τὸν ἥλιον, εἰς βατράχων πατρίδα ἢ ὕδρων ἐγγράφοντες.
For Plato even called man a heavenly plant, as being kept upright from his root above, which is the head; whereas you laugh at Empedocles for saying that the sun, being formed around the earth by the reflection of heavenly light, again "shines back to Olympus with untroubled countenance; "but you yourselves declare the sun to be an earth-born creature or a marshy plant, registering him into the homeland of frogs or water-snakes.
ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν εἰς τὴν Στωικὴν ἀναθώμεθα τραγῳδίαν, τὰ δὲ τῶν χειροτεχνῶν πάρεργα παρέργως ἐξετάσωμεν.
But let us attribute these things to the Stoic tragedy, and let us examine the incidental works of the craftsmen incidently.
ἐν πολλοῖς γάρ εἰσι κομψοί, τὸ δὲ ψυχρὸν οὐ πανταχοῦ καὶ περίεργον ἐκπεφεύγασιν.
For in many things they are elegant, though they have not everywhere escaped what is frigid and over-elaborate.
ὥσπερ οὖν ὁ τὸν ἀλεκτρυόνα ποιήσας ἐπὶ τῆς χειρὸς τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος ἑωθινὴν ὑπεδήλωσεν ὥραν καὶ καιρὸν ἐπιούσης ἀνατολῆς, οὕτως ἐνταῦθα τοὺς βατράχους ἐαρινῆς ὥροις φαίη τις ἂν γεγονέναι σύμβολον ἐν κρατεῖν ἄρχεται τοῦ ἀέρος ὁ ἥλιος καὶ τὸν χειμῶνα διαλύειν, εἴ γε δεῖ καθʼ ὑμᾶς τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα καὶ τὸν ἥλιον μὴ δύο θεοὺς ἀλλʼ ἕνα νομίζειν
καὶ ὁ Σαραπίων
σὺ γάρ
εἶπεν
οὐχ οὕτω νομίζεις ἀλλʼ οἴει τὸν ἣλιον διαφέρειν τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος; ʼ
ἔγωγʼ
εἶπεν
ὡς τοῦ ἡλίου τὴν σελήνην ἀλλʼ αὕτη μὲν οὐ πολλάκις οὐδὲ πᾶσιν ἀποκρύπτει τὸν ἥλιον, ὁ δʼ ἥλιος ὁμοῦ τι πάντας ἀγνοεῖν τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα πεποίηκεν ἀποστρέφων τῇ αἰσθήσει τὴν διάνοιαν ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄντος ἐπὶ τὸ φαινόμενον. §13ἐκ τούτου τοὺς περιηγητὰς; ὁ Σαραπίων ἤρετο τί δὴ τὸν οἶκον οὐ Κυψέλου τοῦ ἀναθέντος ἀλλὰ Κορινθίων ὀνομάζουσιν.
Just as, then, he who made the cock upon the hand of Apollo indicated the morning hour and the season of the coming sunrise, so here one might say that the frogs have become a symbol of the spring season, in which the sun begins to master the air and dissolve the winter—if indeed, according to you, we must believe Apollo and the sun to be not two gods, but one." And Sarapion said, "For do you not think so, but do you suppose that the sun is different from Apollo?" "I do," I said, "as much as the moon differs from the sun; but while she does not often nor from all hide the sun, the sun has made almost everyone ignorant of Apollo, by turning away their intellect by sensation from what is to what appears." After this, Sarapion asked the guides why they called the treasury not after Cypselus who dedicated it, but after the Corinthians.
ἀπορίᾳ δʼ αἰτίας ἐμοὶ γοῦν δοκεῖ σιωπώντων ἐκείνων, ἐπιγελάσας ἐγὼ
τί δʼ εἶπον
ἔτι τούτους οἰόμεθα γιγνώσκειν ἢ μνημονεύειν ἐκπεπληγμένους παντάπασιν, ἡμῶν μετεωρολεσχούντων;
And as they kept silent, in lack of an explanation (at least so it seemed to me), I said with a smile, "Why indeed do we think these men still know or remember anything, when they are completely dumbfounded by our high-flown talk?
ἐπεὶ πρότερὸν γʼ
αὐτῶν ἠκούομεν λεγόντων, ὅτι τῆς τυραννίδος καταλυθείσης ἐβούλοντο Κορίνθιοι καὶ τὸν ἐν Πίσῃ χρυσοῦν ἀνδριάντα καὶ τὸν ἐνταῦθα τουτονὶ θησαυρὸν ἐπιγράψαι τῆς πόλεως.
For earlier we used to hear them say that when the tyranny was overthrown, the Corinthians wanted to inscribe both the golden statue in Pisa and this treasury here with the name of their city.
Δελφοὶ μὲν οὖν ἔδοσαν ὡς δίκαιον, καὶ συνεχώρησαν, Ἠλείους δὲ φθονήσαντας ἐψηφίσαντο μὴ μετέχειν Ἰσθμίων ὅθεν οὐδεὶς ἐξ ἐκείνου γέγονεν Ἰσθμίων ἀγωνιστὴς Ἠλεῖος.
Now the Delphians granted this as just and consented, but the Eleans, being envious, voted that the Corinthians should not participate in the Isthmian games; whence from that time no Elean has ever become a competitor in the Isthmian games.
ὁ δὲ Μολιονιδῶν φόνος ὑφʼ Ἡρακλέους περὶ Κλεωνὰς οὐδέν ἐστι, μεταίτιος, ὡς ἔνιοι νομίζουσιν, Ἠλείοις τοῦ εἴργεσθαι· τοὐναντίον γὰρ ἦν αὐτοῖς προσῆκον εἴργειν, εἰ διὰ τοῦτο Κορινθίοις προσεκεκρούκεσαν. ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν ταῦτʼ εἶπον.
And the slaughter of the Molionidae by Heracles near Cleonae is in no way a contributing cause, as some think, for the Eleans being excluded; for, on the contrary, it would have been fitting for them to exclude the Corinthians, if they had clashed with them on account of this." These, then, are the things I said.