You are right. But I will tell you
of a fourth, Zenothemis, the son of Charmoleos,
from Marseilles. He was pointed out to me in
Italy when I was there on an embassy from our
government, and he was a tall, handsome man,
and apparently rich. There sat beside him in
his carriage a woman who was hideous in every
way. Her right side, moreover, was withered,
and she had lost an eye. She was altogether deformed, a revolting scarecrow. On my expressing wonder that a man so handsome and in the
prime of life could endure to have such a woman
ure.
driving about with him, the man who had pointed
him out told me what had necessitated the marriage, for he knew all the circumstances perfectly,
being himself a native of Marseilles. He said
that Menekrates, the father of the ill-favored woman, and Zenothemis were friends, and equals in
riches and position. But after a while Menekrates was deprived of his estate, and at the same
time disfranchised by a condemnation of the Six
Hundred for proposing an unconstitutional meas-
This, he said, was the penalty in Marseilles
for making unconstitutional propositions. Now
Menekrates was in great grief, partly because of
the scandal of the condemnation, and partly because from being a rich and honored man he was
now become poor, and of no reputation. But his
greatest trouble was his daughter, who was already
marriageable, being eighteen years old, but of so
ill-favored an aspect that no one, however humbly
born or poor, would have seen fit to take her
without a struggle, even with all the fortune her
father once possessed. She was also said to have
epileptic fits at the waxing of the moon.
But Zenothemis, to whom he was pouring out
these griefs, said to him, “Cheer up, Menekrates.
You are not utterly destitute, nor will your daughter fail to find a bridegroom worthy of her race."
So saying, he took him by the hand, led him to
his house, and presented him with a share of his
great estate. Then he gave orders for a banquet,
and feasted his friends and Menekrates just as if
he had persuaded one of his companions to agree
to marry the girl. When the banquet was over,
and they had poured libations to the gods, he offered a brimming goblet to Menekrates and said:
"Receive a loving-cup from your son-in-law,
for this day I shall marry your daughter, Kydimache. Her dowry I took a long time ago,
twenty-five thousand dollars."
"Out with you!" cried Menekrates. “I hope
neither you nor I is so mad as to forget your
youth and beauty, and see you yoked with this
unsightly, disfigured girl."
But while he was still speaking the other carried
off the bride and presently came back, having
married her. And from that day he has held to
her with great affection, and takes her everywhere
with him, as you see.