§1## ΤΟΙΣ ΕΠΤΑ ΦΩΝΗΕΣΙΝ
[Ἐπὶ ἄρχοντος Ἀριστάρχου Φαληρέως, Πυανεψιῶνος ἑβδόμῃ ἱσταμένου, γραφὴν ἔθετο τὸ Σῖγμα πρὸς τὸ Ταῦ ἐπὶ τῶν ἑπτὰ Φωνηέντων βίας καὶ ὑπαρχόντων ἁρπαγῆς, ἀφῃρῆσθαι λέγον πάντων τῶν ἐν διπλῷ ταῦ ἐκφερομένων. ] §2Μέχρι μέν, ὦ Φωνήεντα δικασταί, ὀλίγα ἠδικούμην ὑπὸ τουτουὶ τοῦ Ταῦ καταχρωμένου τοῖς ἐμοῖς καὶ καταίροντος ἔνθα μὴ δεῖ, οὐ βαρέως ἔφερον τὴν βλάβην καὶ παρήκουον ἔνια τῶν λεγομένων ὑπὸ τῆς μετριότητος, ἣν ἴστε με φυλάσσοντα πρός τε ὑμᾶς καὶ τὰς ἄλλας συλλαβάς·
## BEFORE THE SEVEN VOWELS [Under the archon Aristarchus of Phalerum, on the seventh day of the rising month of Pyanepsion, Sigma filed an indictment against Tau before the seven Vowels, for violence and plunder of property, claiming to have been deprived of all those words pronounced with a double tau.] As long as, O Vowel judges, I was injured only slightly by this Tau, who abused my possessions and intruded where he ought not, I did not take the damage hard, and I turned a deaf ear to some of the reports out of the moderation which you know I preserve toward you and the other syllables.
ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐς τοσοῦτον ἥκει πλεονεξίας τε καὶ ἀνομίας, ὥστε ἐφʼ οἷς ἡσύχασα πολλάκις οὐκ ἀγαπῶν, ἄλλʼ ἤδη καὶ πλείω προσβιάζεται, ἀναγκαίως αὐτὸ εὐθύνω νῦν παρὰ τοῖς ἀμφότερα εἰδόσιν ὑμῖν.
But since he has reached such a pitch of greed and lawlessness that he is not content with those things about which I have often kept silent, but is now forcing his way into even more, I am of necessity bringing him to trial now before you, who know both sides of the case.
δέος δὲ οὐ μικρόν μοι ἐπὶ τούτοις τῆς ἀποθλίψεως ἐπέρχεται τῆς ἐμαυτοῦ· τοῖς γὰρ προπεπραγμένοις ἀεί τι μεῖζον προστιθὲν ἄρδην με τῆς οἰκείας ἀποθλίψει χώρας, ὡς ὀλίγου δεῖν ἡσυχίαν ἀγαγόντα μηδὲ ἐν γράμμασιν ἀριθμεῖσθαι, ἐν ἴσῳ δὲ κεῖσθαι τοῦ ψόφου.
Moreover, a no small fear of my own squeeze-out comes upon me in these circumstances; for by constantly adding some greater wrong to his past deeds, he will completely squeeze me out of my own territory, so that, having been reduced almost to silence, I shall not even be numbered among the letters, but shall be placed on a level with mere noise.
§3δίκαιον οὖν οὐχ ὑμᾶς, οἳ δικάζετε νῦν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ γράμματα τῆς πείρας ἔχειν τινὰ φυλακήν·
Therefore, it is just that not only you, who are now judging, but also the rest of the letters should keep some guard against this experience.
εἰ γὰρ ἐξέσται τοῖς βουλομένοις ἀπὸ τῆς καθʼ αὑτὰ τάξεως ἐς ἀλλοτρίαν βιάζεσθαι καὶ τοῦτο ἐπιτρέψετε ὑμεῖς, ὧν χωρὶς οὐδὲν καθόλου τι γράφεται, οὐχ ὁρῶ τίνα τρόπον αἱ συντάξεις τὰ νόμιμα, ἐφʼ οἷς ἐτάχθη τὰ κατʼ ἀρχάς, ἕξουσιν.
For if it is to be permitted to anyone who wishes to force his way from his own proper rank into another's, and if you—without whom nothing at all can be written—permit this, I do not see how the combinations of words will keep the lawful rules under which they were originally ordered.
ἀλλʼ οὔτε ὑμᾶς οἶμαί ποτε ἐς τοσοῦτον ἀμελείας τε καὶ παροράσεως ἥξειν, ὥστε ἐπιτρέψαι τινὰ μὴ δίκαια, οὔτε, εἰ καθυφήσετε τὸν ἀγῶνα ὑμεῖς, ἐμοὶ παραλειπτέον ἐστὶν ἀδικουμένῳ.
But I neither think that you will ever reach such a pitch of negligence and oversight as to permit unjust things, nor, even if you should slacken in this contest, must I, who am wronged, abandon it.
§4ὡς εἴθε καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀνεκόπησαν τότε αἱ τόλμαι εὐθὺς ἀρξαμένων παρανομεῖν, καὶ οὐκ ἂν ἐπολέμει μέχρι νῦν τὸ Λάμβδα τῷ Ῥῶ διαμφισβητοῦν περὶ τῆς κισήρεως καὶ κεφαλαργίας, οὔτε τὸ Γάμμα τῷ Κάππα διηγωνίζετο καὶ ἐς χεῖρας μικροῦ δεῖν ἤρχετο πολλάκις ἐν τῷ γναφείῳ ὑπὲρ γναφάλλων, ἐπέπαυτο δʼ ἂν καὶ πρὸς τὸ Λάμβδα μαχόμενον, τὸ μόγις ἀφαιρούμενον αὐτοῦ καὶ μάλιστα παρακλέπτον, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ δʼ ἂν ἠρέμει συγχύσεως ἄρχεσθαι παρανόμου·
Would that the bold attempts of the others had also been checked immediately when they first began to break the law! Then Lambda would not be at war down to this day with Rho, disputing over the pumice-stone and headache, nor would Gamma be struggling to the death with Kappa and often almost coming to blows in the fuller's shop over flocks of wool, and its battle against Lambda would also have ceased—Lambda, which barely snatches things from it and most of all steals them away—and the rest of the letters would be quiet instead of beginning unlawful confusion.
καλὸν γὰρ ἕκαστον μένειν ἐφʼ ἧς τετύχηκε τάξεως· τὸ δὲ ὑπερβαίνειν ἐς ἃ μὴ χρὴ λύοντός ἐστι τὸ δίκαιον.
For it is beautiful for each to remain in the rank it has obtained, whereas to transgress into what is not permitted is the mark of one who destroys justice.
§5καὶ ὅ γε πρῶτος ἡμῖν τοὺς νόμους τούτους διατυπώσας, εἴτε Κάδμος ὁ νησιώτης εἴτε Παλαμήδης ὁ Ναυπλίου, — καὶ Σιμωνίδῃ δὲ ἔνιοι προσάπτουσι τὴν προμήθειαν ταύτην — οὐ τῇ τάξει μόνον, καθʼ ἣν αἱ προεδρίαι βεβαιοῦνται, διώρισαν, τί πρῶτον ἔσται ἢ δεύτερον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ποιότητας, ἃς ἕκαστον ἡμῶν ἔχει, καὶ δυνάμεις συνεῖδον.
And indeed, he who first formulated these laws for us, whether Cadmus the islander or Palamedes the son of Nauplius—though some attribute this foresight also to Simonides—did not only determine by rank, in accordance with which precedence is secured, what should be first or second, but also perceived the qualities and powers which each of us possesses.
καὶ ὑμῖν μέν, ὦ δικασταί, τὴν μείζω δεδώκασι τιμήν, ὅτι καθʼ αὑτὰ δύνασθε φθέγγεσθαι, ἡμιφώνοις δὲ τὴν ἐφεξῆς, ὅτι προσθήκης εἰς τὸ ἀκουσθῆναι δεῖται· πασῶν δὲ ἐσχάτην ἐνόμισαν ἔχειν μοῖραν ἐννέα τῶν πάντων, οἷς οὐδὲ φωνὴ πρόσεστι καθʼ αὑτά.
And to you, O judges, they have given the greater honor, because you are able to sound by yourselves, and to the semivowels the next in order, because they require an addition in order to be heard; while they deemed that the nine in all, which do not even have any sound by themselves, should hold the last place of all.
τὰ μὲν οὖν φωνήεντα φυλάσσειν ἔοικε τοὺς νόμους τούτους.
The Vowels, then, seem to guard these laws.
§6τὸ δέ γε Ταῦ τοῦτο, οὐ γὰρ ἔχω χείρονι αὐτὸ ὀνομάσαι ῥήματι ἢ ᾧ καλεῖται, ὃ μὰ τοὺς θεούς, εἰ μὴ ἐξ ὑμῶν δύο συνῆλθον ἀγαθοὶ καὶ καθήκοντες ὁραθῆναι, τό τε Ἄλφα καὶ τὸ Ὗ, οὐκ ἂν ἠκούσθη μόνον, τοῦτο τοίνυν ἐτόλμησεν ἀδικεῖν με πλείω τῶν πώποτε βιασαμένων, ὀνομάτων μὲν καὶ ῥημάτων ἀπελάσαν πατρῴων, ἐκδιῶξαν δὲ ὁμοῦ συνδέσμων ἅμα καὶ προθέσεων, ὡς μηκέτι φέρειν τὴν ἔκτοπον πλεονεξίαν.
But this Tau here—for I have no worse word to call him than that by which he is named—who, by the gods, if two excellent ones among you, fit to be seen, Alpha and Upsilon, had not come together, would not even have been heard at all—this very character has dared to wrong me more than any who have ever used force, banishing me from ancestral nouns and verbs, and expelling me at once from conjunctions and prepositions, so that I can no longer bear his extraordinary greed.
§7ὅθεν δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ τίνων ἀρξάμενον, ὥρα λέγειν.
It is now time to tell whence and from what beginnings he started.
ἐπεδήμουν ποτὲ Κυβέλῳ, — τὸ δέ ἐστι πολίχνιον οὐκ ἀηδές, ἄποικον, ὡς ἔχει λόγος, Ἀθηναίων — ἐπηγόμην δὲ καὶ τὸ κράτιστον Ῥῶ, γειτόνων τὸ βέλτιστον·
I was once staying in Cybelus—which is a not unpleasant little town, a colony of the Athenians, as the story goes—and I had with me also the excellent Rho, the best of neighbors.
κατηγόμην δὲ παρὰ κωμῳδιῶν τινι ποιητῇ· Λυσίμαχος ἐκαλεῖτο, Βοιώτιος μέν, ὡς ἐφαίνετο, τὸ γένος ἀνέκαθεν, ἀπὸ μέσης δὲ ἀξιῶν λέγεσθαι τῆς Ἀττικῆς·
I was lodging with a certain comic poet; he was called Lysimachus, a Boeotian by descent, as it appeared, though claiming to be from the very heart of Attica.
παρὰ τούτῳ δὴ τῷ ξένῳ τὴν τοῦ Ταῦ τούτου πλεονεξίαν ἐφώρασα·
It was at the house of this host, indeed, that I detected the greed of this Tau.
μέχρι μὲν γὰρ ὀλίγοις ἐπεχείρει, τέτταρα κατατολμῶν καὶ τετταράκοντα λέγειν, ἔτι δὲ τήμερον καὶ τὰ ὅμοια ἐπισπώμενον ἴδια ταυτὶ λέγειν, ἀποστεροῦν με τῶν συγγεγενημένων καὶ συντεθραμμένων γραμμάτων, συνήθειαν ᾤμην καὶ οἰστὸν ἦν μοι τὸ ἄκουσμα καὶ οὐ πάνυ τι ἐδακνόμην ἐπʼ αὐτοῖς.
For as long as he laid hands on only a few things, having the audacity to say 'tettara' and 'tettarakonta', and further to drag in 'temeron' and the like to speak of them as his own, depriving me of the letters born and bred with me, I thought it was mere custom and the sound was tolerable to me, and I was not very much annoyed by them.