De Pythiae oraculis

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. V. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).

What do you think, then, said Diogenianus, has been the cause of the colour of the bronze here?

Theon replied, When of the primal and simplest

elements in Nature, as they are called and actually are — fire, earth, air, and water — there is none other that comes near to the bronze or is in contact with it, save only air, it is clear that the bronze is affected by this, and that because of this it has acquired whatever distinctive quality it has, since the air is always about it and environs it closely.[*](Cf.Life of Coriolanus, chap. xxxviii. (232 a).) Of a truth

All this I knew before Theognis’ day,[*](Kock, Com. Att. Frag. iii. p. 495, Adespota, no. 461. Plutarch quotes this again in Moralia, 777 c.)

as the comic poet has it. But is it your desire to learn what property the air possesses and what power it exerts in its constant contact, so that it has imparted a colouring to the bronze?

As Diogenianus assented, Theon said, And so also is it my desire, my young friend; let us, therefore, investigate together, and before anything else, if you will, the reason why olive-oil most of all the liquids covers bronze with rust. For, obviously, the oil of itself does not deposit the rust, since it is pure and stainless when applied.

Certainly not, said the young man. My own opinion is that there must be something else that causes this, for the oil is thin, pure, and transparent, and the rust, when it encounters this, is most visible, but in the other liquids it becomes invisible.

Well done, my young friend, said Theon, and excellently said. But consider, if you will, the reason given by Aristotle. [*](Not to be found in Aristotle’s extant works.)

Very well, said he, I will.

Now Aristotle says that when the rust absorbs any of the other liquids, it is imperceptibly disunited and dispersed, since these are unevenly and thinly constituted; but by the density of the oil it is prevented from escaping and remains permanently as it is collected. If, then, we are able of ourselves to invent some such hypothesis, we shall not be altogether at a loss for some magic spell and some words of comfort to apply to this puzzling question.

Since, therefore, we urged him on and gave him his opportunity, Theon said that the air in Delphi is dense and compact, possessing a certain vigour because of the repulsion and resistance that it encounters from the lofty hills; and it is also tenuous and keen, as the facts about the digestion of food bear witness. So the air, by reason of its tenuity, works its way into the bronze and cuts it, disengaging from it a great quantity of rust like dust, but this it retains and holds fast, inasmuch as its density does not allow a passage for this. The rust gathers and, because of its great abundance, it effloresces and acquires a brilliance and lustre on its surface.

When we had accepted this explanation, the foreign visitor said that the one hypothesis alone was sufficient for the argument. The tenuity, said he, will seem to be in contravention to the reputed density of the air, but there is no need to bring it in. As a matter of fact the bronze of itself, as it grows old, exudes and releases the rust which the density of the air confines and solidifies and thus makes it visible because of its great abundance.

Theon, taking this up, said, My friend, what is there to prevent the same thing from being both

tenuous and dense, like the silken and linen varieties of cloth, touching which Homer[*](Od. vii. 107. Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. xxxvi. (686 c); Athenaeus, 582 d.) has said Streams of the liquid oil flow off from the close-woven linen, showing the exactitude and fineness of the weaving by the statement that the oil does not remain on the cloth, but runs off over the surface, since the fineness and closeness of the texture does not let it through? In fact the tenuity of the air can be brought forward, not only as an argument regarding the disengaging of the rust, but, very likely, it also makes the colour itself more agreeable and brilliant by blending light and lustre with the blue.

Following this a silence ensued, and again the guides began to deliver their harangues. A certain oracle in verse was recited (I think it concerned the kingdom of Aegon the Argive[*](Plutarch recounts the story of this oracle in Moralia, 340 c.), whereupon Diogenianus said that he had often wondered at the barrenness and cheapness of the hexameter lines in which the oracles are pronounced. Yet the god is Leader of the Muses, and it is right and fair that he should take no less interest in what is called elegance of diction than in the sweetness of sound that is concerned with tunes and songs, and that his utterances should surpass Hesiod and Homer in the excellence of their versification. Yet we observe that most of the oracles are full of metrical and verbal errors and barren diction.

Sarapion, the poet who was present from Athens, said, Then do we believe these verses to be the

god’s, and yet dare to say that in beauty they fall short of the verses of Homer and Hesiod? Shall we not treat them as if they were the best and fairest of poetic compositions, and correct our own judgement, prepossessed as it is as the result of unfortunate habituation?

At this point Boëthus[*](Called the Epicurean in Moralia, 673 c.) the mathematician entered into the conversation. (You know that the man is already changing his allegiance in the direction of Epicureanism.) Said he, Do you happen to have heard the story of Pauson the painter? [*](Cf. Aelian, Varia Historia, xiv. 15. According to the scholium on Aristophanes, Plutus, 602, the Pauson mentioned there is probably the same man.)

No, said Sarapion, I have not.

Well, it is really worth hearing. It seems that he had received a commission to paint a horse rolling, and painted it galloping. His patron was indignant, whereupon Pauson laughed and turned the canvas upside down, and, when the lower part became the upper, the horse now appeared to be not galloping, but rolling. Bion says that this happens to some arguments when they are inverted. So some people will say of the oracles also, not that they are excellently made because they are the god’s, but that they are not the god’s because they are poorly made! The first of these is in the realm of the unknown; but that the verses conveying the oracles are carelessly wrought is, of course, perfectly clear to you, my dear Sarapion, for you are competent to judge. You write poems in a philosophic and restrained style, but in force and grace and diction they bear more resemblance to the poems of Homer and

Hesiod than to the verses put forth by the prophetic priestess.

The fact is, Boëthus, said Sarapion, that we are ailing both in ears and eyes, accustomed as we are, through luxury and soft living, to believe and to declare that the pleasanter things are fair and lovely. Before long we shall be finding fault with the prophetic priestess because she does not speak in purer tones than Glaucê,[*](Cf. the scholium on Theocritus, iv. 31.) who sings to the lyre, and because she is not perfumed and clad in purple when she goes down into the inner shrine, and does not burn upon the altar cassia or ladanum or frankincense, but only laurel and barley meal. Do you not see, he continued, what grace the songs of Sappho have, charming and bewitching all who listen to them? But the Sibyl with frenzied lips, as Heracleitus[*](Diels, Frag. der Vorsokratiker, i. p. 96, Heracleitus, no. 92.) has it, uttering words mirthless, unembellislied, unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice through the god. And Pindar[*](Pindar, Frag. 32 (ed. Christ).) says that Cadmus heard the god revealing music true, not sweet nor voluptuous nor with suddenly changing melody. For the emotionless and pure does not welcome Pleasure, but she, as well as Mischief,[*](Cf. H. Richards in the Classical Review, xxix. 233.) was thrown down here, and the greater part of the evil in her has, apparently, gathered together to flood the ears of men. [*](Cf.Moralia, 38 a-b.)