§43Τυχιάδης
ἐπίσταμαι ταῦτα· ἀλλʼ οὗτοι μὲν ῥήτορες καὶ λόγους λέγειν ἠσκηκότες, ἀρετὴν δὲ οὔ.
Tychiades: I know these things; but those are rhetoricians, practiced in speaking words, but not virtue.
τί δὲ περὶ τῶν φιλοσόφων λέγεις;
But what do you say about the philosophers?
οὐ γὰρ δὴ τούτους ἔχεις ὥσπερ ἐκείνους αἰτιᾶσθαι.
For surely you cannot accuse them as you did those.
Σίμων
οὗτοι πάλιν, ὦ Τυχιάδη, οἱ περὶ τῆς ἀνδρείας ὁσημέραι διαλεγόμενοι καὶ κατατρίβοντες τὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς ὄνομα πολλῷ μᾶλλον τῶν ῥητόρων φανοῦνται δειλότεροι καὶ μαλακώτεροι.
Simon: These again, Tychiades, who discourse daily about courage and wear out the name of virtue, will appear far more cowardly and soft than the rhetoricians.
σκόπει δὴ οὕτως. πρῶτον μὲν οὐκ ἔστιν ὅστις εἰπεῖν ἔχοι φιλόσοφον ἐν πολέμῳ τετελευτηκότα·
Consider it thus: first, there is no one who can mention a philosopher who died in war.
ἤτοι γὰρ οὐδὲ ὅλως ἐστρατεύσαντο, ἢ εἴπερ ἐστρατεύσαντο, πάντες ἔφυγον.
For either they did not serve at all, or if they did serve, they all fled.
Ἀντισθένης μὲν οὖν καὶ Διογένης καὶ Κράτης καὶ Ζήνων καὶ Πλάτων καὶ Αἰσχίνης καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης καὶ πᾶς οὗτος ὁ ὅμιλος οὐδὲ εἶδον παράταξιν· μόνος δὲ τολμήσας ἐξελθεῖν εἰς τὴν ἐπὶ Δηλίῳ μάχην ὁ σοφὸς αὐτῶν Σωκράτης φεύγων ἐκεῖθεν ἀπὸ τῆς Πάρνηθος εἰς τὴν Ταυρέου παλαίστραν κατέφυγεν.
Antisthenes, Diogenes, Crates, Zeno, Plato, Aeschines, Aristotle, and all this crowd never even saw a battle line; and their wise man Socrates, who alone dared to go out to the battle of Delium, fled from there via Parnes and took refuge in the palaestra of Taureas.
πολὺ γὰρ αὐτῷ ἀστειότερον ἐδόκει μετὰ τῶν μειρακυλλίων καθεζόμενον ὀαρίζειν καὶ σοφισμάτια προβάλλειν τοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσιν ἢ ἀνδρὶ Σπαρτιάτῃ μάχεσθαι.
For it seemed to him far more sophisticated to sit and chat with little boys and propose sophisms to those he met than to fight a Spartan man.
Τυχιάδης
ὦ γενναῖε, ταῦτα μὲν ἤδη καὶ παρʼ ἄλλων ἐπυθόμην, οὐ μὰ Δία σκώπτειν αὐτοὺς καὶ ὀνειδίζειν βουλομένων· ὥστε οὐδέν τί μοι δοκεῖς χαριζόμενος τῇ σεαυτοῦ τέχνῃ καταψεύδεσθαι τῶν ἀνδρῶν.
Tychiades: My noble friend, I have already heard these things from others too, and by Zeus, not from people wishing to mock and reproach them; so you do not seem to me to be lying about these men to curry favor with your own art.
§44Τυχιάδης
ἀλλʼ εἰ δοκεῖ ἤδη, φέρε καὶ σὺ τὸν παράσιτον ὁποῖός τίς ἐστιν ἐν πολέμῳ λέγε, καὶ εἰ καθόλως λέγεται παράσιτός τις γενέσθαι τῶν παλαιῶν;
Tychiades: But if it seems good now, come, tell me also what the parasite is like in war, and whether any of the ancients is said to have been a parasite at all.
Σίμων
καὶ μήν, ὦ φιλότης, οὐδεὶς οὕτως ἀνήκοος Ὁμήρου, οὐδʼ ἂν πάμπαν ἰδιώτης τύχῃ, ὃς οὐκ ἐπίσταται παρʼ αὐτῷ τοὺς ἀρίστους τῶν ἡρώων παρασίτους ὄντας.
Simon: Indeed, my friend, no one is so unacquainted with Homer, not even if he happens to be completely unlearned, as not to know that in his works the best of the heroes are parasites.
ὅ τε γὰρ Νέστωρ ἐκεῖνος, οὗ ἀπὸ τῆς γλώττης ὥσπερ μέλι ὁ λόγος ἀπέρρει, αὐτοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως παράσιτος ἦν, καὶ οὔτε τὸν Ἀχιλλέα, ὅσπερ ἐδόκει τε καὶ ἦν τὸ σῶμα γενναιότατος, οὔτε τὸν Διομήδην οὔτε τὸν Αἴαντα ὁ Ἀγαμέμνων οὕτως ἐπαινεῖ τε καὶ θαυμάζει ὥσπερ τὸν Νέστορα.
For that famous Nestor, from whose tongue speech flowed sweeter than honey, was a parasite of the king himself, and Agamemnon does not praise or admire Achilles—who seemed to be and was most noble in body—nor Diomedes, nor Ajax, as much as he does Nestor.
οὐδὲ γὰρ δέκα Αἴαντας εὔχεται γενέσθαι αὑτῷ οὔτε δέκα Ἀχιλλέας· πάλαι δʼ ἂν ἑαλωκέναι τὴν Τροίαν, εἰ τοιούτους ὁποῖος ἦν οὗτος ὁ παράσιτος, καίπερ γέρων ὤν, στρατιώτας εἶχεν δέκα.
For he does not pray for ten Ajaxes to be born to him, nor ten Achilleses; but Troy would have been captured long ago if he had had ten such soldiers as this parasite was, although he was an old man.
καὶ τὸν Ἰδομενέα τὸν τοῦ Διὸς ἔγγονον παράσιτον Ἀγαμέμνονος ὁμοίως λέγει.
And he likewise speaks of Idomeneus, the grandson of Zeus, as a parasite of Agamemnon.
§45Τυχιάδης
ταῦτα μὲν καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπίσταμαι· οὔπω γε μὴν δοκῶ μοι γιγνώσκειν, πῶς δὴ τὼ ἄνδρε τῷ Ἀγαμέμνονι παράσιτοι ἦσαν.
Tychiades: I know these things myself too; yet I do not think I understand yet how those two men were parasites to Agamemnon.
Σίμων
ἀναμνήσθητι, ὦ γενναῖε, τῶν ἐπῶν ἐκείνων ὧνπερ αὐτὸς ὁ Ἀγαμέμνων πρὸς τὸν Ἰδομενέα λέγει.
Simon: Remember, my noble friend, those verses which Agamemnon himself says to Idomeneus.
Τυχιάδης
ποίων;
Tychiades: Which ones?
Σίμων
"
σὸν δὲ πλεῖον δέπας αἰεὶ
ἕστηχʼ ὥσπερ ἐμοὶ πιέειν ὅτε θυμὸς ἀνώγοι. "
ἐνταῦθα γὰρ τὸ αἰεὶ πλεῖον δέπας εἴρηκεν οὐχ ὅτι τὸ ποτήριον διὰ παντὸς πλῆρες ἑστήκει τῷ Ἰδομενεῖ καὶ μαχομένῳ καὶ καθεύδοντι, ἀλλʼ ὅτι αὐτῷ διʼ ὅλου τοῦ βίου μόνῳ συνδειπνεῖν ὑπῆρχεν τῷ βασιλεῖ, οὐχ ὥσπερ τοῖς λοιποῖς στρατιώταις πρὸς ἡμέρας τινὰς καλουμένοις.
Simon: "But your cup always stands full, just as mine, to drink when your spirit bids." For here he said "your cup always full" not because the cup stood completely full for Idomeneus all the time, both while fighting and sleeping, but because it was his privilege to dine with the king alone throughout his life, unlike the rest of the soldiers who were invited for certain days.
τὸν μὲν γὰρ Αἴαντα, ἐπεὶ καλῶς ἐμονομάχησεν τῷ Ἕκτορι,
εἰς Ἀγαμέμνονα δῖον ἄγον,
φησίν, κατὰ τιμὴν ἀξιωθέντα ὀψὲ τοῦ παρὰ τῷ βασιλεῖ δείπνου.
For Ajax, after he had fought well in single combat with Hector, "they led him to divine Agamemnon," he says, having been deemed worthy of dinner with the king late as an honor.
ὁ δὲ Ἰδομενεὺς καὶ ὁ Νέστωρ ὁσημέραι συνεδείπνουν τῷ βασιλεῖ, ὡς αὐτός φησιν.
But Idomeneus and Nestor dined with the king daily, as he himself says.
Νέστωρ δὲ παράσιτός μοι δοκεῖ τῶν βασιλέων μάλιστα τεχνίτης καὶ ἀγαθὸς γενέσθαι· οὐ γὰρ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἀγαμέμνονος ἄρξασθαι τῆς τέχνης, ἀλλὰ ἄνωθεν ἐπὶ Καινέως καὶ Ἐξαδίου· δοκεῖ δὲ οὐδὲ ἂν παύσασθαι παρασιτῶν, εἰ μὴ ὁ Ἀγαμέμνων ἀπέθανεν.
And Nestor seems to me to have been the most skillful and good parasite of kings; for he did not begin his art under Agamemnon, but earlier under Caeneus and Exadius; and it seems he would not even have ceased to play the parasite, if Agamemnon had not died.
Τυχιάδης
οὑτοσὶ μὲν γενναῖος ὁ παράσιτος.
Tychiades: This parasite indeed is noble.
εἰ δὲ καὶ ἄλλους τινὰς οἶσθα, πειρῶ λέγειν.
But if you know any others too, try to tell.