§24οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τῆς προνοίας σκοποῦντες, ὀψόμεθα πρὸς τὸ βέλτιον γεγενημένην τὴν μεταβολήν.
Furthermore, when we look at the work of the god and of Providence, we shall see that the change has occurred for the better.
ἀμοιβῇ γὰρ ἔοικε νομίσματος ἡ τοῦ λόγου χρεία, καὶ δόκιμον καὶ αὐτοῦ τὸ σύνηθές ἐστι καὶ γνώριμον, ἄλλην ἐν ἄλλοις χρόνοις ἰσχὺν λαμβάνοντος.
For the use of language is like the exchange of coin, and what is customary and familiar in it is also what is genuine, since it takes on different values at different times.
ἦν οὖν ὅτε λόγου νομίσμασιν ἐχρῶντο μέτροις καὶ μέλεσι καὶ ᾠδαῖς, πᾶσαν μὲν ἱστορίαν καὶ φιλοσοφίαν πᾶν δὲ πάθος ὡς ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν καὶ πρᾶγμα σεμνοτέρας φωνῆς δεόμενον εἰς ποιητικὴν καὶ μουσικὴν ἄγοντες.
There was a time, therefore, when they used meters, melodies, and songs as the coins of language, bringing all history and philosophy, and to speak simply, every passion and subject requiring a more solemn voice, into poetry and music.
οὐ γὰρ μόνον νῦν ὀλίγοι μόλις ἐπαΐουσι, τότε δὲ πάντες ἠκροῶντο καὶ ἔχαιρον ᾀδομένοις
μηλοβόται τʼ ἀρόται τʼ ὀρνιχολόχοι τε
κατὰ Πίνδαρον ἀλλʼ ὑπὸ τῆς πρὸς ποιητικὴν ἐπιτηδειότητος οἱ πλεῖστοι διὰ λύρας καὶ ᾠδῆς ἐνουθέτουν ἐπαρρησιάζοντο παρεκελεύοντο, μύθους καὶ παροιμίας ἐπέραινον, ἔτι δʼ ὕμνους θεῶν εὐχὰς παιᾶνας ἐν μέτροις ἐποιοῦντο καὶ μέλεσιν οἱ μὲν διʼ εὐφυΐαν οἱ δὲ διὰ συνήθειαν.
For not only today do few barely understand, but then everyone listened and rejoiced in what was sung, 'shepherds, plowmen, and bird-catchers' according to Pindar; but owing to their fitness for poetry, the majority of people, through the lyre and song, would admonish, speak frankly, and encourage, ending myths and proverbs, and moreover, they made hymns to the gods, prayers, and paeans in meters and melodies, some through natural talent and others through habit.
οὐκοῦν οὐδὲ μαντικῇ κόσμου καὶ χάριτος ἐφθόνει ὁ θεὸς οὐδʼ ἀπήλαυνεν ἐνθένδε τιμωμένην μοῦσαν τοῦ τρίποδος, ἀλλʼ ἐπήγετο μᾶλλον ἐγείρων τὰς ποιητικὰς φύσεις καὶ ἀσπαζόμενος, αὐτός τε φαντασίας ἐνεδίδου καὶ συνεξώρμα τὸ σοβαρὸν καὶ λόγιον ὡς ἁρμόττον καὶ θαυμαζόμενον.
Therefore, neither did the god grudge ornament and grace to the prophetic art, nor did he drive away the honored Muse from the tripod here, but rather drew her in, awakening and welcoming poetic natures, and he himself supplied imaginations and joined in sending forth the solemn and eloquent style as fitting and admired.
ἐπεὶ δέ, τοῦ βίου μεταβολὴν ἅμα ταῖς τύχαις καὶ ταῖς φύσεσι λαμβάνοντος, ἐξωθοῦσα τὸ περιττὸν ἡ χρεία κρωβύλους τε χρυσοῦς ἀφῄρει καὶ ξυστίδας μαλακὰς ἀπημφίαζε καί που καὶ κόμην σοβαρωτέραν ἀπέκειρε καὶ ὑπέλυσε κόθορνον, οὐ φαύλως ἐθιζομένων ἀντικαλλωπίζεσθαι πρὸς τὴν πολυτέλειαν εὐτελείᾳ καὶ τὸ ἀφελὲς καὶ λιτὸν ἐν κόσμῳ τίθεσθαι μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ σοβαρὸν καὶ περίεργον· οὕτω τοῦ λόγου συμμεταβάλλοντος ἅμα καὶ συναπολυομένου, κατέβη μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν μέτρων ὥσπερ ὀχημάτων ἡ ἱστορία καὶ τῷ πεζῷ μάλιστα τοῦ μυθώδους ἀπεκρίθη τάληθές· φιλοσοφία δὲ τὸ σαφὲς καὶ διδασκαλικὸν ἀσπασαμένη μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ ἐκπλῆττον, διὰ λόγων ἐποιεῖτο τὴν ζήτησιν ἀπέπαυσε δὲ τὴν Πυθίαν ὁ θεὸς
πυρικάους
μὲν ὀνομάζουσαν τοὺς αὑτῆς πολίτας
ὀφιοβόρους
δὲ τοὺς Σπαρτιάτας
ὀρεᾶνας
δὲ τοὺς ἄνδρας
ὀρεμπότας
δὲ τοὺς ποταμούς· ἀφελὼν δὲ τῶν χρησμῶν ἔπη καὶ γλώσσας καὶ περιφράσεις καὶ ἀσάφειαν, οὕτω διαλέγεσθαι παρεσκεύασε τοῖς χρωμένοις ὡς νόμοι τε πόλεσι διαλέγονται καὶ βασιλεῖς ἐντυγχάνουσι δήμοις καὶ μαθηταὶ διδασκάλων ἀκροῶνται, πρὸς τὸ συνετὸν καὶ πιθανὸν ἁρμοζόμενος.
But when, as life received a change along with fortunes and natures, necessity, pushing out the superfluous, took away the golden hair-clasps and stripped off the soft robes, and perhaps also cut short the more pompous hair and undid the buskin, while people became accustomed, not without benefit, to countering luxury with simplicity and to placing the plain and simple in adornment rather than the pompous and elaborate; so, as language changed together with them and was freed at the same time, history descended from meters as if from carriages, and truth was separated from the mythical especially by prose; and philosophy, welcoming the clear and didactic rather than the striking, made its inquiry through words; and the god made the Pythia cease calling her own citizens 'fire-burning', the Spartans 'snake-eating', men 'mountain-dwellers', and rivers 'mountain-travelers'; and removing from the oracles verses, obsolete words, circumlocutions, and obscurity, he thus prepared them to discourse with those who consulted them as laws address cities, as kings converse with assemblies, and as pupils listen to teachers, adapting language to what is intelligible and persuasive.
§25εὖ γὰρ εἰδέναι χρὴ τὸν θεόν, ὥς φησι Σοφοκλῆς,
"
σοφοῖς μὲν αἰνικτῆρα θεσφάτων ἀεί,
σκαιοῖς δὲ φαῦλον κἀν βραχεῖ διδάσκαλον. "
μετὰ δὲ τῆς σαφηνείας καὶ ἡ πίστις οὕτως ἐστρέφετο συμμεταβάλλουσα τοῖς ἄλλοις πράγμασιν, ὥστε πάλαι μὲν τὸ μὴ σύνηθες μηδὲ κοινὸν ἀλλὰ λοξὸν ἀτεχνῶς καὶ περιπεφρασμένον εἰς ὑπόνοιαν θειότητος. ἀνάγοντας ἐκπλήττεσθαι καὶ σέβεσθαι τοὺς πολλούς· ὕστερον δὲ τὸ σαφῶς καὶ ῥᾳδίως, ἕκαστα καὶ μὴ σὺν ὄγκῳ μηδὲ πλάσματι μανθάνειν ἀγαπῶντες ᾐτιῶντο τὴν περικειμένην τοῖς χρησμοῖς ποίησιν, οὐ μόνον ὡς ἀντιπράττουσαν τῇ νοήσει πρὸς τάληθὲς ἀσάφειάν τε καὶ σκιὰν τῷ φραζομένῳ μιγνύουσαν, ἀλλʼ ἢδη καὶ τὰς μεταφορὰς καὶ τὰ αἰνίγματα καὶ τὰς ἀμφιβολίας, ὥσπερ μυχοὺς καὶ καταφυγὰς ἐνδύεσθαι καὶ ἀναχωρεῖν τῷ πταίοντι πεποιημένας τῆς μαντικῆς, ὑφεωρῶντο.
For one must know well that god, as Sophocles says, is 'always a riddler of oracles to the wise, but to the foolish a plain and brief teacher.' And along with clarity, belief also turned in this way, changing together with other things, so that formerly the multitude, tracing what was unusual and not common but utterly oblique and circumlocutory back to a suspicion of divinity, were struck with awe and worshiped; but later, loving to learn each thing clearly and easily, and without pomp or affectation, they blamed the poetry surrounding the oracles, not only as working against comprehension towards the truth and mixing obscurity and shadow with what was spoken, but already they also viewed with suspicion the metaphors, riddles, and ambiguities as being made for the failing prophecy to slip into and retreat, like hiding-places and refuges.
πολλῶν δʼ ἦν ἀκούειν ὅτι ποιητικοί τινες ἄνδρες ἐκδεχόμενοι τὰς φωνὰς καὶ ὑπολαμβάνοντες ἐπικάθηνται περὶ τὸ χρηστήριον, ἔπη καὶ μέτρα καὶ ῥυθμοὺς οἷον ἀγγεῖα τοῖς χρησμοῖς ἐκ τοῦ προστυχόντος περιπλέκοντες.
And it was possible to hear from many that certain poetic men, receiving the voices and taking them up, sat about the oracle, weaving verses, meters, and rhythms like vessels around the responses on the spur of the moment.
Ὀνομάκριτοι δʼ ἐκεῖνοι καὶ Ἡρόδικοι καὶ Κιναίθωνες ὅσην αἰτίαν ἠνέγκαντο τῶν χρησμῶν, ὡς τραγῳδίαν αὐτοῖς καὶ ὄγκον οὐδὲν δεομένοις προσθέντες, ἐῶ λέγειν οὐδὲ προσίεμαι τὰς διαβολάς.
What great blame those famous Onomacrituses, Herodicuses, and Cinaethons brought upon the oracles, by adding tragic style and pomp to things that had no need of them, I omit to say, nor do I accept these slanders.
πλείστης μέντοι ποιητικὴν ἐνέπλησεν ἀδοξίας τὸ ἀγυρτικὸν καὶ ἀγοραῖον καὶ περὶ τὰ μητρῷα καὶ Σεραπεῖα βωμολοχοῦν καὶ πλανώμενον γένος, οἱ μὲν αὐτόθεν οἱ δὲ κατὰ κλῆρον ἔκ τινων γραμματείων χρησμοὺς περαίνοντες οἰκέταις καὶ γυναίοις ὑπὸ τῶν μέτρων ἀγομένοις μάλιστα καὶ τοῦ ποιητικοῦ τῶν ὀνομάτων ὅθεν οὐχ ἥκισθʼ ἡ ποιητικὴ δοκοῦσα κοινὴν ἐμπαρέχειν ἑαυτὴν ἀπατεῶσι καὶ γόησιν ἀνθρώποις καὶ ψευδομάντεσιν ἐξέπεσε τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ τοῦ τρίποδος.
However, that begging, vulgar, and wandering race that plays the buffoon around the temples of the Mother and Serapis filled poetry with the greatest disrepute, some performing oracles on the spot and others by lot from certain tablets for slaves and women, who are especially led by meters and the poetic style of words; whence, not least, poetry, appearing to offer itself in common to cheats, sorcerers, and false prophets, fell away from the truth and from the tripod.