ΑΥΤΟΒΟΥΛΟΣ. καὶ ὁ Πεμπτίδης ἐπιγελάσας ἀμέλει καὶ σώματός τις ἔφη νόσος ἔστιν, ἣν ἱερὰν καλοῦσιν· οὐδὲν οὖν ἄτοπον, εἰ καὶ ψυχῆς τὸ μανικώτατον πάθος καὶ μέγιστον ἱερὸν καὶ θεῖον ἔνιοι προσαγορεύουσιν. εἶθʼ ὥσπερ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ποτὲ γείτονας ἑώρων δύο διαμφισβητοῦντας, ὄφεως προσερπύσαντος εἰς τὴν ὁδόν, ἀμφοτέρων μὲν ἀγαθὸν δαίμονα καλούντων, ἑκατέρου δʼ ἔχειν ἀξιοῦντος ὡς ἴδιον· οὕτως ὁρῶν ὑμῶν ἄρτι τοὺς μὲν εἰς τὴν ἀνδρωνῖτιν ἕλκοντας τὸν Ἔρωτα τοὺς δʼ εἰς τὴν γυναικωνῖτιν, ὑπερφυὲς καὶ θεῖον ἀγαθόν, οὐκ ἐθαύμαζον, εἰ τηλικαύτην δύναμιν ἔσχε καὶ τιμὴν τὸ πάθος, οἷς ἦν προσῆκον ἐξελαύνειν αὐτὸ πανταχόθεν καὶ κολούειν, ὑπὸ τούτων αὐξανόμενον καὶ σεμνυνόμενον. ἄρτι μὲν οὖν ἡσυχίαν ἦγον· ἐν γὰρ ἰδίοις μᾶλλον ἢ κοινοῖς ἑώρων τὴν ἀμφισβήτησιν οὖσαν· νυνὶ δʼ ἀπηλλαγμένος Πεισίου, ἡδέως ἂν ὑμῶν ἀκούσαιμι πρὸς τί βλέψαντες ἀπεφήναντο τὸν Ἔρωτα θεὸν οἱ πρῶτοι τοῦτο λέξαντες.
AUTOB. Then Pemptides smiling: Truly, said he, there is a certain disease of the body, which they call sacred; so that it is no wonder if some men give the appellation of sacred and divine to the most raging and vehement passion of the mind. But as in Egypt once I saw two neighbors hotly contending about a serpent which crept before them in the road, while both concluded it to be good luck, and each assumed the happy omen to himself; so seeing some of you at this time haling love into the chambers of men, others into the cabinets of the women, as a divinely transcendent good, I do not wonder, since it is a passion so powerful and greatly esteemed, that it is magnified and held in greatest veneration by those that have most reason to clip its wings and expel and drive it from them. Hitherto therefore I have been silent, perceiving the debate to be rather about a particular concern, than any thing for the public good. But now that Pisias is gone, I would willingly understand from one of you, upon what account it was that they who first discoursed of love were so fond to deify it.
ΑΥΤΟΒΟΥΛΟΣ. παυσαμένου δὲ τοῦ Πεμπτίδου καὶ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀρξαμένου τι περὶ τούτων λέγειν, ἕτερος ἧκεν ἐκ πόλεως, τὸν Ἀνθεμίωνα μεταπεμπομένης τῆς Ἰσμηνοδώρας· ἐπέτεινε γὰρ ἡ ταραχή, καὶ τῶν γυμνασιάρχων ἦν διαφορά, τοῦ μὲν οἰομένου δεῖν τὸν Βάκχωνα ἀπαιτεῖν τοῦ δὲ πολυπραγμονεῖν οὐκ ἐῶντος. ὁ μὲν οὖν Ἀνθεμίων ἀναστὰς ἐβάδιζεν· ὁ δὲ πατὴρ τὸν Πεμπτίδην ὀνομαστὶ προσαγορεύσας μεγάλου μοι δοκεῖς ἅπτεσθαι εἶπεν καὶ παραβόλου πράγματος, ὦ Πεμπτίδη, μᾶλλον δʼ ὅλως τὰ ἀκίνητα κινεῖν τῆς περὶ θεῶν δόξης ἣν ἔχομεν, περὶ ἑκάστου λόγον ἀπαιτῶν καὶ ἀπόδειξιν· ἀρκεῖ γὰρ ἡ πάτριος καὶ παλαιὰ πίστις, ἧς οὐκ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν οὐδʼ ἀνευρεῖν τεκμήριον ἐναργέστερον οὐδʼ εἰ διʼ ἄκρας τὸ σοφὸν εὕρηται φρενός, ἀλλʼ ἕδρα τις αὕτη καὶ βάσις ὑφεστῶσα κοινὴ πρὸς εὐσέβειαν, ἐὰν ἐφʼ ἑνὸς ταράττηται καὶ σαλεύηται τὸ βέβαιον αὐτῆς καὶ νενομισμένον, ἐπισφαλὴς γίγνεται πᾶσι καὶ ὕποπτος. ἀκούεις δὲ δήπου τὸν Εὐριπίδην, ὡς ἐθορυβήθη ποιησάμενος ἀρχὴν τῆς Μελανίππης ἐκείνης, Ζεύς, ὅστις ὁ Ζεύς, οὐ γὰρ οἶδα πλὴν λόγῳ, μεταλαβὼν δὲ χορὸν ἄλλον ἐθάρρει δʼ ὡς ἔοικε τῷ δράματι γεγραμμένῳ πανηγυρικῶς καὶ περιττῶς ἤλλαξε τὸν στίχον ὡς νῦν γέγραπται Ζεύς, ὡς λέλεκται τῆς ἀληθείας ὕπο. τί οὖν διαφέρει τὴν περὶ τοῦ Διὸς δόξαν ἢ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ἢ τοῦ Ἔρωτος εἰς ἀμφίβολον τῷ λόγῳ θέσθαι ἢ καὶ ἄδηλον; οὐ γὰρ νῦν αἰτεῖ πρῶτον βωμὸν ὁ Ἔρως καὶ θυσίαν οὐδʼ ἔπηλυς ἔκ τινος βαρβαρικῆς δεισιδαιμονίας, ὥσπερ Ἄτται τινὲς καὶ Ἀδώνιοι λεγόμενοι, διʼ ἀνδρογύνων καὶ γυναικῶν παραδύεται κρύφα τιμὰς οὐ προσηκούσας καρπούμενος, ὥστε παρεισγραφῆς δίκην φεύγειν καὶ νοθείας τῆς ἐν θεοῖς. ἀλλʼ ὅταν Ἐμπεδοκλέους ἀκούσῃς λέγοντος, ὦ ἑταῖρε, καὶ Φιλότης ἐν τοῖσιν ἴση μῆκός τε πλάτος τε, / τὴν σὺ νόῳ δέρκου, μηδʼ ὄμμασιν ἧσο τεθηπώς· / ταῦτʼ οἴεσθαι χρὴ λέγεσθαι περὶ Ἔρωτος· οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ὁρατὸς ἀλλὰ δοξαστὸς ἡμῖν ὁ θεὸς οὗτος ἐν τοῖς πάνυ παλαιοῖς· ὧν ἂν περὶ ἑκάστου τεκμήριον ἀπαιτῇς, παντὸς ἁπτόμενος ἱεροῦ καὶ παντὶ βωμῷ σοφιστικὴν ἐπάγων πεῖραν, οὐδένʼ ἀσυκοφάντητον οὐδʼ ἀβασάνιστον ἀπολείψεις πόρρω γὰρ οὐκ ἄπειμι τὴν δʼ Ἀφροδίτην οὐχ ὁρᾷς ὅση θεός; / ἥδʼ ἐστὶν ἡ σπείρουσα καὶ διδοῦσʼ ἔρον, / οὗ πάντες ἐσμὲν οἱ κατὰ χθόνʼ ἔκγονοι. / ζείδωρον γὰρ αὐτὴν Ἐμπεδοκλῆς εὔκαρπον δὲ Σοφοκλῆς ἐμμελῶς πάνυ καὶ πρεπόντως ὠνόμασαν. ἀλλʼ ὅμως τὸ μέγα τοῦτο καὶ θαυμαστὸν Ἀφροδίτης μὲν ἔργον Ἔρωτος δὲ πάρεργόν ἐστιν Ἀφροδίτῃ συμπαρόντος· μὴ συμπαρόντος δὲ κομιδῇ τὸ γιγνόμενον ἄζηλον ἀπολείπεται καὶ ἄτιμον κἄφιλον. ἀνέραστος γὰρ ὁμιλία καθάπερ πεῖνα καὶ δίψα πλησμονὴν ἔχουσα πέρας εἰς οὐδὲν ἐξικνεῖται καλόν· ἀλλʼ ἡ θεὸς Ἔρωτι τὸν κόρον ἀφαιροῦσα τῆς ἡδονῆς φιλότητα ποιεῖ καὶ σύγκρασιν. διὸ Παρμενίδης μὲν ἀποφαίνει τὸν Ἔρωτα τῶν Ἀφροδίτης ἔργων πρεσβύτατον, ἐν τῇ κοσμογονίᾳ γράφων πρώτιστον μὲν Ἔρωτα θεῶν μητίσατο πάντων. Ἡσίοδος δὲ φυσικώτερον ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ ποιεῖν Ἔρωτα πάντων προγενέστατον, ἵνα πάντα διʼ ἐκεῖνον μετάσχῃ γενέσεως. ἂν οὖν τὸν Ἔρωτα τῶν νενομισμένων τιμῶν ἐκβάλλωμεν, οὐδʼ αἱ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης κατὰ χώραν μενοῦσιν. οὐδὲ γὰρ τοῦτʼ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν, ὅτι τῷ μὲν Ἔρωτι λοιδοροῦνταί τινες ἀπέχονται δʼ ἐκείνης, ἀλλʼ ἀπὸ μιᾶς σκηνῆς ἀκούομεν ἔρως γὰρ ἀργὸν κἀπὶ τοιούτοις ἔφυ· καὶ πάλιν ὦ παῖδες, ἥ τοι Κύπρις οὐ Κύπρις μόνον, / ἀλλʼ ἔστι πολλῶν ὀνομάτων ἐπώνυμος. / ἔστιν μὲν Ἅιδης, ἔστι δʼ ἄφθιτος βία, / ἔστιν δὲ λύσσα μανιάς· / ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν σχεδὸν ἀλοιδόρητος οὐδεὶς ἐκπέφευγε τὴν εὐλοιδόρητον ἀμαθίαν. σκόπει δὲ τὸν Ἄρην καθάπερ ἐν πίνακι χαλκῷ τὴν ἀντικειμένην ἐκ διαμέτρου τῷ Ἔρωτι χώραν ἔχοντα πηλίκας εἴληχε τιμὰς ὑπʼ ἀνθρώπων καὶ πάλιν ὅσα κακῶς ἀκούει, τυφλὸς γάρ, ὦ γυναῖκες, οὐδʼ ὁρῶν Ἄρης / συὸς προσώπῳ πάντα τυρβάζει κακά. / καὶ μιαιφόνον Ὅμηρος αὐτὸν καλεῖ καὶ ἀλλοπρόσαλλον ὁ δὲ Χρύσιππος ἐξηγούμενος τοὔνομα τοῦ θεοῦ κατηγορίαν ποιεῖ καὶ διαβολήν· ἀναιρεῖν γὰρ εἶναι τὸν Ἄρην φησίν, ἀρχὰς διδοὺς τοῖς τὸ μαχητικὸν ἐν ἡμῖν καὶ διάφορον καὶ θυμοειδὲς Ἄρην κεκλῆσθαι νομίζουσιν. ἕτεροι δʼ αὖ φήσουσι τὴν Ἀφροδίτην ἐπιθυμίαν εἶναι καὶ τὸν Ἑρμῆν λόγον καὶ τέχνας τὰς Μούσας καὶ φρόνησιν τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν. ὁρᾷς δήπου τὸν ὑπολαμβάνοντα βυθὸν ἡμᾶς ἀθεότητος, ἂν εἰς πάθη καὶ δυνάμεις καὶ ἀρετὰς διαγράφωμεν ἕκαστον τῶν θεῶν;
AUTOB. So soon as Pemptides had done, and my father was about to say something in answer to his question, another messenger came from the city in Ismenodora’s name, requesting Anthemion to come to her; for that the tumult increased, and the presidents of the games could not agree, while one was of opinion that Baccho was to be demanded and delivered into their hands, and the other thought it an impertinence to meddle with that which nothing concerned them.
AUTOB. Thus Anthemion being gone, my father addressed himself to Pemptides by name, and so entered into the following discourse: You seem to me, sir, to have hit upon a very strange and nice point, or rather, as I may so say, to have endeavored to stir things which are not to be moved, in reference to the opinion which we have of the Gods, while you demand a reason and demonstration of every thing in particular. For it is sufficient to believe according to the faith of our forefathers and the instructions of the country where we have been bred and born, than which we cannot utter or invent a more certain argument; For surely all the wit of human brain / This part of knowledge never could attain. /
AUTOB. For this is a foundation and basis common to all piety and religion; of which if the steady rule and decreed maxims be once disordered and shaken, all the rest must totter and become suspected. And no question but you have heard what a clamor was raised against Euripides when he made this beginning of his Melanippe: Jupiter, if his name be so; / ’Tis only by hearsay that I know. /
AUTOB. But when he exhibited the tragedy a second time, he seems to have had such a confidence in the lofty style and elaborate eloquence of his work, that he thus altered the verse: Jove, for we own he has received that name / From truth alone, and not from common fame. /
AUTOB. What difference then is there between calling in question the name of Jupiter and Minerva, and doubting of the name of Cupid or Love? For it is not of late that Love has challenged altars and sacrifices, neither is he a foreigner started up out of any barbarian superstition, as were the Attae and the Adonii, introduced by I know not what sort of hermaphrodites and idle women. Nor has he clandestinely crept into honors no way becoming him, to avoid the accusation of bastardy and being unduly enrolled in the catalogue of the Gods. But when you hear Empedocles thus saying, And friendship too (observe my song) / Is like to these, both broad and long; / But this thou must not think to find / With eyes of body, but of mind, /
AUTOB. you ought to believe all this to be said of Love. For Love is no more visible than any of the rest of the ancient Deities, but apprehended only by opinion and belief; for every one of which if you require a reason and demonstrative argument, by enquiring after every temple and making a sophistical doubt upon every altar, you shall find nothing free from inquisition and malicious slander. For, that I may go no farther, observe but these: I do not Venus see with mortal eyes, / The Goddess unto whom we sacrifice; / Yet this is she that mighty Cupid bare, / Whose offspring all terrestrial beings are. /
AUTOB. Therefore Empedocles gives her the epithet of the Giver of Life, and Sophocles calls her Fruitful; both very aptly and pertinently. For indeed the great and wonderful work of generation is properly the work of Venus, where Love is only an assistant when present with Venus; but his absence renders the act itself altogether irksome, dishonorable, harsh, and ungrateful. For the conjunction of man and woman without true affection, like hunger and thirst, terminates in satiety, and produces nothing truly noble or commendable; but when the Goddess by means of Love puts away all loathsome glut of pleasure, she perpetuates delight by a continual supply of friendship and harmony of temper. Therefore Parmenides asserts Love to be the most ancient of all the works of Venus, writing thus in his Cosmogony: Of all the Gods that rule above, / She first brought forth the mighty Love. /
AUTOB. But Hesiod, in my opinion, seems more philosophically to make Love the eldest of all the Gods, as from whom all the other Deities derive their beginning. Therefore, should we deprive Love of the honors which are decreed him, the ceremonies we ascribe to Venus will be no longer in request. For it is not sufficient to say, that some men reproach Love and load him with contumelies, but abstain from giving her an ill word; for upon the same theatre we hear these scandals fixed upon both: Love, idle of himself, takes up his rest / And harbors only in the slothful breast. /
AUTOB. And in another place thus upon Venus: She does not the name of Cypris only own, / But by a hundred other names is known: / She’s hell on earth, continued violence, / And rage subduing all the force of sense. /
AUTOB. As indeed we may say of the rest of the Gods, that there is not one that has escaped the scandalous jibes of illiterate scurrility. Look upon Mars, as in a brazen sculpture, possessing the place just opposite to Love, how highly has he been honored, how lowly degraded by men? Swine-snouted Mars, and as a beetle blind, — / ’Tis he, fair dames, disorders all mankind. /
AUTOB. Homer also gives him the epithets of murderous and Jacka-both-sides. Moreover, Chrysippus, explaining the name of this Deity, fixes a villanous accusation upon him. For, says he, Ares is derived from ἀναιρεῖν, which signifies to destroy; thereby affording an occasion for some to give the name of Ares or Mars to that same proneness and perverse inclination of men to wrath and passion, and to quarrel and fight one with another. Others affirm Venus to be nothing but our concupiscence; that Mercury is no more than the faculty of speech; that the Muses are only the names for the arts and sciences; and that Minerva is only a fine word for prudence. And thus you see into what an abyss of atheism we are like to plunge ourselves, while we go about to range and distribute the Gods among the various passions, faculties, and virtues of men.
ΑΥΤΟΒΟΥΛΟΣ. ὁρῶ εἶπεν ὁ Πεμπτίδης ἀλλʼ οὔτε πάθη τοὺς θεοὺς ποιεῖν ὅσιον οὔτε αὖ πάλιν τὰ πάθη θεοὺς νομίζειν καὶ ὁ πατήρ τί οὖν ἔφη τὸν Ἄρην, θεὸν εἶναι νομίζεις ἢ πάθος ἡμέτερον; ἀποκριναμένου δὲ τοῦ Πεμπτίδου θεὸν ἡγεῖσθαι τὸν Ἄρην κοσμοῦντα τὸ θυμοειδὲς ἡμῶν καὶ ἀνδρῶδες; ἀνακραγὼν ὁ πατήρ εἶτʼ ἔφη τὸ μὲν παθητικόν, ὦ Πεμπτίδη, καὶ πολεμικὸν καὶ ἀντίπαλον θεὸν ἔχει, τὸ δὲ φιλητικὸν καὶ κοινωνικὸν καὶ συνελευστικὸν ἄθεόν ἐστι; καὶ κτείνοντας μὲν ἄρα καὶ κτεινομένους ἀνθρώπους ὅπλα τε καὶ βέλη καὶ τειχομαχίας καὶ λεηλασίας ἔστι τις ἐφορῶν καὶ βραβεύων θεὸς Ἐνυάλιος καὶ Στράτιος· πάθους δὲ γάμου καὶ φιλότητος εἰς ὁμοφροσύνην καὶ κοινωνίαν τελευτώσης οὐδεὶς θεῶν μάρτυς οὐδʼ ἐπίσκοπος οὐδʼ ἡγεμὼν ἢ συνεργὸς ἡμῖν γέγονεν; ἀλλὰ δορκάδας μὲν θηρεύουσι καὶ λαγωοὺς καὶ ἐλάφους ἀγρότερός τις συνεπιθωΰσσει καὶ συνεξορμᾷ θεός, εὔχονται δʼ Ἀρισταίῳ δολοῦντες ὀρύγμασι καὶ βρόχοις λύκους καὶ ἄρκτους, ὃς πρῶτος θήρεσσιν ἔπηξε ποδάγρας· ὁ δʼ Ἡρακλῆς ἕτερον θεὸν παρακαλεῖ μέλλων, ἐπὶ τὸν ὄρνιν αἴρεσθαι τὸ τόξον, ὡς Αἰσχύλος φησίν, ἀγρεὺς δʼ Ἀπόλλων ὀρθὸν ἰθύνοι βέλος· ἀνδρὶ δὲ τὸ κάλλιστον ἐπιχειροῦντι θήραμα φιλίαν ἑλεῖν οὔτε θεὸς οὔτε δαίμων ἀπευθύνει καὶ συνεφάπτεται τῆς ὁρμῆς; ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲ δρυὸς οὐδὲ μορίας οὐδʼ ἣν Ὅμηρος ἡμερίδα σεμνύνων προσεῖπεν ἀκαλλέστερον ἔρνος οὐδὲ φαυλότερον ἡγοῦμαι φυτὸν ἄνθρωπον, ὦ φίλε Δαφναῖε, βλαστήσεως ὁρμὴν ἔχοντα διαφαίνουσαν ὥραν καὶ κάλλος ἅμα σώματος καὶ ψυχῆς.
AUTOB. I plainly perceive it, replied Pemptides; for I neither believe it lawful to make the Gods to be passions, nor on the other side, to make the passions to be Deities. To whom my father: Well then, said he, do you believe Mars to be a God, or a passion of ours? To which when Pemptides replied, that he thought Mars to be the Deity that rectified the angry and courageous part of man; my father presently retorted upon him: Why then? said he, shall our passionate part, and those wrathful inclinations within us that provoke us to mischief and bloodshed, have a Deity to overrule and govern them; and will you not allow the same guardianship over our better propensities to love, friendship, society, and peace? Is there a Deity called Enyalius and Stratius that presides and has the superintendence over those that kill and are slain, a Deity that bears rule in matters of arms, all warlike preparations, assaults of cities, and depredations of countries, and distributes rewards as he sees occasion; and shall there be no Deity to be a witness and overseer, a supreme governor and director, of conjugal affection, which terminates in concord and happy society? Nay, do we find that they who make it their sport to hunt wild goats, hares, and deer, are not without their forest Deity to encourage them; and they that make it their business to trepan wolves and bears into snares and pitfalls, pray for good luck to Aristaeus, Who first of all for the wild beasts of prey / With gins and snares in secret ambush lay; /
AUTOB. and that Hercules, having bent his bow, before he let fly at the bird which he intended to hit, invoked another Deity, as we find in Aeschylus, Hunter Apollo, and to hunters kind, / Direct this arrow to the mark designed; /
AUTOB. but for men that hunt the most noble game of love and friendship, is there no God nor so much as one Daemon to assist and prosper so laudable an enterprise? Truly, Daphnaeus, for my part, I cannot believe a man to be a more inconsiderable plant than an oak or mulberry tree, or the vine which Homer reverently calls by the name of Hemeris, considering that man in his due season also is endued with a powerful faculty to bud and pleasantly put forth the beauties both of his body and mind.
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