§252τί δʼ ἂν εἴποις τὸ φρέαρ τὸ ἱερόν;
What would you say about the sacred fountain?
ἢ δῆλον ὅτι τὴν τοῦ λόγου μέμφει φύσιν ὡς οὐχ ἱκανῶς ἐπὶ πάντα ἀφικνουμένην οὐδʼ ἐνδείξασθαι δυναμένην ἐνίοτε ἀρκούντως τὸ ὄν;
Or is it clear that you blame the nature of speech, on the ground that it does not sufficiently reach everything, nor is it sometimes able to demonstrate reality adequately?
τοῦτο γοῦν οὐδʼ ἂν εἷς λόγος ὁποῖόν τι τὸ κάλλος καὶ τὴν ἡδονήν ἐστιν ἐνδείξαιτο, ἀλλʼ ἀμείνους ἐσμὲν πίνειν τούτου τοῦ ὕδατος καὶ λούεσθαι καὶ προσορᾶν ἡδέως ἢ ἔχειν εἰπεῖν τι περὶ αὐτοῦ, ὥσπερ οἱ τῶν καλῶν ἐρῶντες, οἳ τῇ μὲν δυνάμει τοῦ κάλλους ἑαλώκασι καὶ ἴσασιν οἵων ἐρῶσιν, ἐὰν δέ τις αὐτοὺς ἔρηται, οὐκ ἂν ἔχοιεν εἰπεῖν περὶ ἀπόντων, παρόντας δὲ οἶμαι δείξαιεν ἄν.
At any rate, not a single speech could demonstrate what kind of beauty and pleasure this is; rather, we are better suited to drink of this water, to bathe in it, and to look upon it with pleasure, than to be able to say something about it. It is just like those who love beautiful things: they have been captured by the power of beauty and know what kind of things they love, but if someone should ask them, they would not be able to speak about them when they are absent, though I think they would show them when they are present.
τὸ δʼ αὐτὸ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ φρέατος πεπόνθαμεν, καὶ ἐσμὲν ἐρασταὶ μὲν αὐτοῦ πάμπολλοι, μᾶλλον δὲ πάντες σχεδὸν, ὁποίου δὲ ὄντος οὐκ ἔχομεν εἰπεῖν.
We have experienced the very same thing regarding the fountain: we are its lovers in great numbers, or rather, almost all of us, yet we are not able to say of what kind it is.
ἀλλʼ ἐάν τινα ἡμῶν ἀπολαβών τις ἐρωτᾷ, παραλαβόντες ἂν αὐτὸν ἄγειν ἀξιοίημεν ἐπʼ αὐτὸ καὶ δεικνύοιμεν.
But if someone, taking one of us aside, should ask, we would think it right to take him and lead him to it and show it.
τῷ δὲ οὐδὲ τοῦτο ἀποχρήσει, γευσάμενος δὲ καὶ πειραθεὶς τοῦ παρʼ Ὁμήρῳ λωτοῦ γεγεῦσθαι δόξει, μένειν ἐθέλων καὶ χαλεπῶς ἀξιῶν ἀποχωρεῖν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ.
And for him, even this will not suffice, but having tasted and made trial of it, he will seem to have tasted the lotus in Homer, wishing to remain and reluctantly consenting to depart from it.
ἀλλʼ οὐ μὲν δὴ χρὴ τὸ τῶν διψώντων, φασὶ, πίνειν σιωπῇ, ἀλλʼ ἐπικοσμῆσαί τι καὶ λόγῳ, καὶ προσειπεῖν τόν τε σωτῆρα θεὸν, οὗ καὶ τόδʼ ἐστὶν ἔργον τε καὶ ποίημα, καὶ τὰς ἐχούσας αὐτὸ Νύμφας καὶ συνεργαζομένας, καὶ ἡμῖν χρῆσθαι τῇ χάριτι τοῦ θεοῦ χαριζομένας τε καὶ συνυπηρετούσας.
Indeed, we must not drink in silence like the thirsty, as they say, but we must adorn it also with speech, and address both the savior god, whose work and creation this is, and the Nymphs who possess and work together with it, who favor us and assist us in enjoying the grace of the god.
τίς οὖν δὴ γένοιτʼ ἂν ἀρχὴ, ἢ ὥσπερ ἡνίκʼ ἂν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ πίνωμεν, προσθέντες τοῖς χείλεσι τὴν κύλικα οὐκέτι ἀφίσταμεν, ἀλλʼ ἀθρόον εἰσεχεάμεθα, οὕτω καὶ ὁ λόγος ἀθρόα πάνθʼ ἕξει λεγόμενα;
What starting point, then, could there be? Or, just as when we drink from it, having applied the cup to our lips we no longer withdraw it but pour it in all at once, will speech also have all things said at once?
ἔστω δὲ ἀντὶ τῆς τῷ χείλει προσαγωγῆς ἐκεῖνο ἡμῖν, ὅτι ἐν τῷ καλλίστῳ τῆς πάσης οἰκουμένης ἐστίν.
Let us have, instead of the application to the lip, this starting point: that it is in the most beautiful part of the whole inhabited world.
ὃ γὰρ ἐξ ἁπάντων χωρίων εἵλετο ὁ θεὸς ὡς ὑγιεινότατον καὶ καθαρώτατον, καὶ ὃ ταῖς εὐεργεσίαις ταῖς παρʼ αὑτοῦ πεποίηκεν ἁπάντων ἐκφανέστατον, ἦ που σφόδρα τοῦτο §253κάλλιστόν ἐστι τῶν ἐν γῇ πάντων.
For that which the god chose from all places as the healthiest and purest, and which by his own benefits he has made the most manifest of all, surely this is extremely the most beautiful of all things on earth.
καὶ γὰρ οὐχ ὥσπερ ἄλλοι ἄλλοις τόποις θεοὶ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐγγενεῖς εἰσι, καίτοι καὶ τούτους τιμίους οἶμαι χρὴ δοκεῖν κατʼ αὐτὸ τὸ λαχεῖν αὐτοὺς τοὺς θεοὺς, ἀλλὰ τοῦτό γε μεῖζόν ἐστιν ὅτι ἀπʼ αὐτῆς τῆς Ἐπιδαύρου δεῦρο ὁρμηθεὶς ὁ θεὸς ἠράσθη δὴ μάλιστα, ὡς δῆλόν ἐστιν ὅτι ἑλόμενός τε αὐτὸ ἐγκατέμεινε τὸ λοιπὸν καὶ προκρίνας τῶν ἄλλων.
For indeed, it is not as other gods are native to other places from the beginning—though I think even these must be deemed honorable by the very fact that the gods themselves obtained them—but this is indeed greater, that the god, having set out from Epidaurus itself to this place, loved it most of all, as is clear from the fact that having chosen it, he remained in it for the future, having preferred it to the others.
ᾧ δὲ θεὸς καὶ θεῶν ὁ πραότατός τε καὶ φιλανθρωπότατος προσέχειν ἔκρινε, πῶς ἡμῖν γε, καὶ ταῦτα τοῖς τούτου θεράπουσιν, ἄλλο τι λέγειν ἔνεστιν ἢ ὡς τοῦτʼ ἐστὶ τὸ βέλτιστον;
And when a god, and the gentlest and most philanthropic of the gods, has judged to give his attention to it, how is it possible for us, and especially for us his servants, to say anything else than that this is the best?
ἐν καλλίστῳ μὲν δὴ τῆς οἰκουμένης οὕτως ἔστιν εἰπεῖν.
Thus it is possible to say that it is in the most beautiful part of the inhabited world.
ἔτι δʼ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἱεροῦ ὅσος ὑπαίθριος χῶρος καὶ βάσιμος ἐν τῷ καλλίστῳ ἐστί· μέσον γὰρ ἐν μέσῳ ἵδρυται.
Moreover, of the sanctuary itself, all the open-air and walkable space is in the most beautiful part; for it is established as the middle of the middle.
τὸ δὲ ὕδωρ εἰ μὲν βούλει, ἀπὸ πλατάνου ῥεῖ, ὥσπερ γὰρ ἄλλο τι σύμβολον καὶ τοῦτο παραπέφυκεν, εἰ δὲ βούλει, τὸ ἔτι κάλλιόν τε καὶ ἱερώτερον, ἀπʼ αὐτῶν τῶν βάθρων ἐκρεῖ, ἐφʼ ὧν ὁ νεὼς ἕστηκεν.
And the water, if you wish, flows from a plane tree—for this too has grown beside it as another symbol—or, if you wish, what is still more beautiful and sacred, it flows out from the very foundations on which the temple stands.
ὥστε παντί γε ταύτην τὴν δόξαν καὶ πίστιν ὑπεῖναι, ὅτι ἀπὸ ὑγιεινοῦ καὶ ὑγιείας χορηγοῦ χωρίου φέρεται, ἀπό γε τοῦ ἱεροῦ καὶ τῶν ποδῶν τοῦ σωτῆρος ὁρμώμενον· οὐ γὰρ ἄν τι ἐξ ὑγιεινοτέρων ἢ καθαρωτέρων τόπων ὕδωρ ῥυείη ἢ τοῦτο ἐκ τούτων ῥέον.
So that everyone has this underlying opinion and belief, that it is carried from a healthy and health-bestowing place, starting indeed from the sanctuary and the feet of the savior; for no water could flow from healthier or purer places than this flowing from these.
ἐν τοιούτῳ δὴ φαινόμενον καὶ ἀπὸ τοιούτων ὁρμώμενον, ὡς τὸ εἰκὸς ἔχει, κάλλιστόν ἐστι.
Appearing in such a place and starting from such places, as is natural, it is most beautiful.
πρῶτον μέν γε λεπτότατον ἐγγυτάτω ἀέρος, ἔπειτα ὃ τούτῳ ἕπεται, κουφότατόν τε καὶ πραότατον, τρίτον γλυκύτατόν τε καὶ ποτιμώτατον, αὐτόχυτον, ὃ πίνων οὐκ ἂν οἴνου προσδεηθείης.
First indeed, it is the thinnest, closest to air; then, what follows this, lightest and gentlest; third, sweetest and most drinkable, pouring itself, drinking which you would have no need of wine.
Ὅμηρος μὲν γὰρ ἔφη τὸν Τιταρήσιον ἐπιρρεῖν ἐπὶ τοῦ Πηνειοῦ, ὥσπερ ἄνδρα ἐπινηχόμενον ὑπὸ κουφότητος τοῦ ὕδατος· τὸ δέ μοι δοκεῖν εἰ ἐπιρρήξαις αὐτῷ ὕδωρ ἕτερον, ἀντάνεισιν εἰς τὸ ἄνω, τὸ δὲ δύεται ὥσπερ ὕφαλοι νεύοντες εἰς μυχὸν ἐκ τοῦ μετεώρου· εἰ μὴ καὶ τοῦτʼ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν ὅτι μοι δοκεῖ κἂν τὸ ἐπεγχυθὲν ὑψῶσαι τῇ ἑαυτοῦ κουφότητι.
For Homer indeed said that the Titaresios flows upon the Peneios, like a man swimming on top because of the lightness of the water; but to my mind, if you should pour other water upon it, this water rises to the top, while the other sinks like divers plunging into the depth from the height; unless indeed one can also say this, that it seems to me even to raise the water poured upon it by its own lightness.
ὡς δὲ οὐ κομπάζομεν, σταθμῷ κρίνεται.
And that we do not boast, it is judged by weight.
καίτοι τί ἂν εἴποι ὁ τῆς Στυγὸς ἀπορρὼξ ὅταν ἀνθιστάμενος ῥέπῃ;
And yet what would the branch of Styx say when, standing in opposition, it tilts the scale?
πρόσεστι δὲ τούτῳ ὅτι
And to this is added that...