§22Λυκῖνος
οὕτω ποιήσομεν, ὦ Σώπολι, ἐπειδήπερ ἡμῖν προωδοποίηται τὰ παρὰ σοῦ· καὶ πρὸς σὲ τὸ λοιπόν, ὦ Λεξίφανες, ἡ συμβουλή.
Lycinus We shall do so, Sopolis, since the way has been prepared for us by you; and for the future, Lexiphanes, my advice is to you.
εἴπερ ἄρʼ ἐθέλεις ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐπαινεῖσθαι ἐπὶ λόγοις κἀν τοῖς πλήθεσιν εὐδοκιμεῖν, τὰ μὲν τοιαῦτα πάντα φεῦγε καὶ ἀποτρέπου, ἀρξάμενος δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀρίστων ποιητῶν καὶ ὑπὸ διδασκάλοις αὐτοὺς ἀναγνοὺς μέτιθι ἐπὶ τοὺς ῥήτορας, καὶ τῇ ἐκείνων φωνῇ συντραφεὶς ἐπὶ τὰ Θουκυδίδου καὶ Πλάτωνος ἐν καιρῷ μέτιθι, πολλὰ καὶ τῇ καλῇ κωμῳδίᾳ καὶ τῇ σεμνῇ τραγῳδίᾳ ἐγγεγυμνασμένος·
If you indeed wish to be truly praised for your speeches and to be well-reputed among the multitudes, flee and turn away from all such things. Beginning with the best poets and reading them under teachers, proceed to the orators; and having been nurtured on their language, proceed in due season to the works of Thucydides and Plato, having also exercised yourself much in beautiful comedy and solemn tragedy.
παρὰ γὰρ τούτων ἅπαντα τὰ κάλλιστα ἀπανθισάμενος ἔσῃ τις ἐν λόγοις·
For by gathering all the fairest blossoms from these, you will be someone of note in speeches.
ὡς νῦν γε ἐλελήθεις σαυτὸν τοῖς ὑπὸ τῶν κοροπλάθων εἰς τὴν ἀγορὰν πλαττομένοις ἐοικώς, κεχρωσμένος μὲν τῇ μίλτῳ καὶ τῷ κυανῷ, τὸ δʼ ἔνδοθεν πήλινός τε καὶ εὔθρυπτος ὤν.
As it is, you have remained unaware that you are like those clay figures fashioned for the market by the doll-makers, painted indeed with red ochre and blue, but on the inside being made of clay and easily broken.
§23Λυκῖνος
ἐὰν ταῦτα ποιῇς, πρὸς ὀλίγον τὸν ἐπὶ τῇ ἀπαιδευσίᾳ ἔλεγχον ὑπομείνας καὶ μὴ αἰδεσθεὶς μεταμανθάνων, θαρρῶν ὁμιλήσεις τοῖς πλήθεσι καὶ οὐ καταγελασθήσῃ ὥσπερ νῦν οὐδὲ διὰ στόματος ἐπὶ τῷ χείρονι τοῖς ἀρίστοις ἔσῃ, Ἕλληνα καὶ Ἀττικὸν ἀποκαλούντων σε τὸν μηδὲ βαρβάρων ἐν τοῖς σαφεστάτοις ἀριθμεῖσθαι ἄξιον.
Lycinus If you do this, enduring for a short time the exposure of your lack of education and not being ashamed to unlearn and relearn, you will associate with the multitudes with confidence, and you will not be laughed at as you are now, nor will you be on the lips of the best people for the worse, when they call you a Greek and an Attic—you who do not even deserve to be numbered among the clearest of barbarians.
πρὸ πάντων δὲ ἐκεῖνο μέμνησό μοι, μὴ μιμεῖσθαι τῶν ὀλίγον πρὸ ἡμῶν γενομένων σοφιστῶν τὰ φαυλότατα μηδὲ περιεσθίειν ἐκεῖνα ὥσπερ νῦν, ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν τοιαῦτα καταπατεῖν, ζηλοῦν δὲ τὰ ἀρχαῖα τῶν παραδειγμάτων.
But above all, remember this for me: do not imitate the worst traits of the sophists who lived shortly before us, nor nibble at them as you do now, but trample such things underfoot and emulate the ancient models.
μηδέ σε θελγέτωσαν αἱ ἀνεμῶναι τῶν λόγων, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸν τῶν ἀθλητῶν νόμον ἡ στερρά σοι τροφὴ συνήθης ἔστω, μάλιστα δὲ Χάρισι καὶ Σαφηνείᾳ θῦε, ὧν πάμπολυ λίαν νῦν ἀπελέλειψο.
Let not the anemones of words charm you, but according to the law of athletes, let solid food be customary for you, and especially sacrifice to the Graces and to Clarity, from whom you have now been left so very far behind.
§24Λυκῖνος
καὶ ὁ τῦφος δὲ καὶ ἡ μεγαλαυχία καὶ ἡ κακοήθεια καὶ τὸ βρενθύεσθαι καὶ λαρυγγίζειν ἀπέστω, καὶ τὸ διασιλλαίνειν τὰ τῶν ἄλλων καὶ οἴεσθαι ὅτι πρῶτος ἔσῃ αὐτός, ἢν τὰ πάντων συκοφαντῇς.
Lycinus And let arrogance, boastfulness, malice, swaggering, and bawling be absent, as well as mocking the writings of others and thinking that you will be first yourself if you slander everyone.
καὶ μὴν κἀκεῖνο οὐ μικρόν, μᾶλλον δὲ τὸ μέγιστον ἁμαρτάνεις, ὅτι οὐ πρότερον τὰς διανοίας τῶν λέξεων προπαρεσκευασμένος ἔπειτα κατακοσμεῖς τοῖς ῥήμασιν καὶ τοῖς ὀνόμασιν, ἀλλὰ ἤν που ῥῆμα ἔκφυλον εὕρῃς ἢ αὐτὸς πλασάμενος οἰηθῇς εἶναι καλόν, τούτῳ ζητεῖς διάνοιαν ἐφαρμόσαι καὶ ζημίαν ἡγῇ, ἂν μὴ παραβύσῃς αὐτό που, κἂν τῷ λεγομένῳ μηδʼ ἀναγκαῖον ᾖ, οἷον πρῴην τὸν θυμάλωπα οὐδὲ εἰδὼς ὅ τι σημαίνει, ἀπέρριψας οὐδὲν ἐοικότα τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ.
Moreover, you commit no small error—or rather, the greatest—in that you do not first prepare your thoughts before your words and then adorn them with verbs and nouns, but if you find an exotic word anywhere or, having coined it yourself, think it is beautiful, you seek to fit a thought to it and consider it a loss if you do not stuff it in somewhere, even if it is not at all necessary for what is being said. For instance, the other day you threw in 'thymālōps' without even knowing what it meant, throwing it out in a way that bore no resemblance to the subject at hand.
καὶ οἱ μὲν ἰδιῶται πάντες ἐτεθήπεσαν ὑπὸ τοῦ ξένου πληγέντες τὰ ὦτα, οἱ πεπαιδευμένοι δὲ ἐπʼ ἀμφοτέροις, καὶ σοὶ καὶ τοῖς ἐπαινοῦσιν, ἐγέλων.
And while the uneducated were all amazed, having their ears struck by its foreignness, those who were educated laughed at both you and your admirers.
§25Λυκῖνος
τὸ δὲ πάντων καταγελαστότατον ἐκεῖνό ἐστιν, ὅτι ὑπεράττικος εἶναι ἀξιῶν καὶ τὴν φωνὴν εἰς τὸ ἀρχαιότατον ἀπηκριβωμένος τοιαῦτα ἔνια, μᾶλλον δὲ τὰ πλεῖστα, ἐγκαταμιγνύεις τοῖς λόγοις ἃ μηδὲ παῖς ἄρτι μανθάνων ἀγνοήσειεν ἄν·
Lycinus But the most ridiculous of all is this: that while you claim to be ultra-Attic and to have refined your speech to the most ancient standard, you mix some such things—or rather, most of them—into your speeches which not even a child just learning would be ignorant of.
οἷον ἐκεῖνα πῶς οἴει κατὰ γῆς δῦναι ηὐχόμην ἀκούων σου ἐπιδεικνυμένου, ὅτε χιτώνιον μὲν καὶ τὸ ἀνδρεῖον ᾤου λέγεσθαι, δουλάρια δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἄρρενας τῶν ἀκολούθων ἀπεκάλεις, ἃ τίς οὐκ οἶδεν ὅτι χιτώνιον μὲν γυναικὸς ἐσθής, δουλάρια δὲ τὰ θήλεα καλοῦσιν;
For instance, how much do you think I wished to sink into the earth when I heard you delivering your display, when you thought that even a man's garment was called 'chitōnion', and you called male attendants 'dularia', when who does not know that 'chitōnion' is a woman's garment, and they call female slaves 'dularia'?
καὶ ἄλλα πολὺ τούτων προφανέστερα, οἷον τὸ ἵπτατο καὶ τὸ ἀπαντώμενος καὶ τὸ καθεσθείς, οὐδὲ μετοικικὰ τῆς Ἀθηναίων φωνῆς.
And other things far more obvious than these, such as 'hiptato' and 'apantōmenos' and 'kathestheis', which are not even worthy of being resident aliens in the speech of the Athenians.
ἡμεῖς οὐδὲ ποιητὰς ἐπαινοῦμεν τοὺς κατάγλωττα γράφοντας ποιήματα.
We do not even praise poets who write poems full of obscure words.
τὰ δὲ σά, ὡς πεζὰ μέτροις παραβάλλειν, καθάπερ ὁ Δωσιάδα Βωμὸς ἂν εἴη καὶ ἡ τοῦ Λυκόφρονος Ἀλεξάνδρα, καὶ εἴ τις ἔτι τούτων τὴν φωνὴν κακοδαιμονέστερος.
Your works, to compare prose with poetry, would be like the 'Altar' of Dosiadas and the 'Alexandra' of Lycophron, and if there is anyone whose language is still more ill-starred than these.
ἂν ταῦτα ζηλώσῃς καὶ μεταμάθῃς, ἄριστα βεβουλευμένος ὑπὲρ σεαυτοῦ ἔσῃ· ἢν δὲ λάθῃς αὖθις εἰς τὴν λιχνείαν κατολισθών, ἐμοὶ μὲν ἀποπεπλήρωται ἡ παραίνεσις, σὺ δὲ σεαυτὸν αἰτιάσῃ, ἄν γε καὶ ξυνῇς χείρων γενόμενος.
If you emulate and relearn these things, you will have taken the best counsel for yourself; but if you slip back again into your greediness without realizing it, my advice has been fully discharged, and you will blame yourself, if indeed you even understand that you have become worse.