Now listen, my amazing friend, and
observe how much more candidly we barbarians
judge good men than you Greeks. In Argos and
Mykenai there is not even a noble tomb to be
seen of Orestes and Pylades, but in our country
there is shown a temple raised to them in common, as was natural since they were comrades,
and sacrifices are offered to them and all other
honors. The fact that they were foreigners, not
Scythians, does not in the least prevent their
being adjudged good men. For we do not ask
whence noble and good people come, and we
bear them no grudge for working good deeds,
even if they are not our friends. On the contrary we applaud their acts, and adopt them as
countrymen on the strength of them. But what
we chiefly wondered at and praised in these men
was this, that they seemed to us to be the noblest
pair of friends in the world, and authorized to
lay down for the rest of mankind the principle
that friends must share all fortunes, and thus win
the reverence of the best of the Scythians.
Our ancestors inscribed an account of their
sufferings with each other, or for each other, on a
bronze pillar and set it up as an offering in the
Oresteion, making a law that the earliest training
and education of their children should be to learn
by heart the inscription on this pillar. The result is that it would be easier for one of them to
forget his father's name than to be in ignorance
of the deeds of Orestes and Pylades. Moreover,
on the wall enclosing the temple there are ancient
pictures displaying everything related on the pillar. One shows Orestes sailing in company with
his friend; another shows him captured after his
ship went to pieces on the rocks and made ready
for the sacrifice, with Iphigeneia in the act of beginning the ceremony. On the opposite wall he
is seen at the moment when he had burst his
bonds and was killing Thoas and a number of
other Scythians, and, finally, they are painted
sailing away with Iphigeneia and the goddess.
The Scythians are vainly trying to stop the ship,
which is already under sail, and are hanging in
the rigging and trying to board her; but they fail
completely and some get wounded, and others,
in fear of a like fate, swim off to land.