But if you are now willing, tell what the
parasite is like in war, and whether anybody at all
among the ancient heroes is said to have been a
parasite.
The first orators were found in Homer; notably Odysseus, Nestor, Menelaus. Alsothe beginnings of philosophy (Philod. 2, frg. xxi). So the first parasites should be found there.
Why, my dear friend, no one is so unfamiliar with
Homer, even if he is completely unlettered, as not to
know that in him the noblest of the heroes are
parasites! The famous Nestor, from whose tongue
speech flowed like honey, was parasite to the king’
himself; and neither Achilles, who seemed and was
the finest in physique, nor Diomed nor Ajax was so
lauded and admired by Agamemnon as Nestor. He
does not pray to have ten of Ajax or ten of Achilles,
but says that he would long ago have taken Troy if
he had had ten soldiers like that parasite, old as he
was.
Iliad 2, 371-374.
Idomeneus, too, the son of Zeus, is similarly
spoken of as parasite to Agamemnon.