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130 Pages
Page 109
It is in this sense that I think Solon said to the rich,
'All' hemeis autois ou diameipsometha
Tes aretes ton plouton; epei to men empedon aiei,
Chremata d' anthropon allote allos echei [664]
Similar to these are the lines of Theognis, [665] in which he says that God (whatever he means by "God") inclines the scale to men now one way and now another, and so at one moment they are rich, and at another penniless. Somewhere too in his writings Prodicus, the Sophist of Chios, has made similar reflexions on vice and virtue, to whom attention may well be paid, for he is a man by no means to be despised. So far as I recollect his sentiments, they are something to this effect. I do not remember the exact words, but the sense, in plain prose, was as follows: [666]
Once upon a time, when Hercules was quite young, and of just about the same age as yourselves, he was debating within himself which of the two ways he should choose, the one leading through toil to virtue, the other which is the easiest of all. There approached him two women. They were Virtue and Vice, and though they said not a word they straightway shewed by their appearance what was the difference between them. One was tricked out to present a fair appearance with every beautifying art. Pleasure and delights were shed around her and she led close after her innumerable enjoyments like a swarm of bees. She showed them to Hercules, and, promising him yet more and more, endeavoured to attract him to her side. The other, all emaciated and squalid, looked earnestly at the lad, and spoke in quite another tone. She promised him no ease, no pleasure, but toils, labours, and perils without number, in every land and sea. She told him that the reward of all this would be that he should become a god (so the narrator tells it). This latter Hercules followed even to the death. Perhaps all those who have written anything about wisdom, less or more, each according to his ability, have praised Virtue in their writings. These must be obeyed, and the effort made to show forth their teaching in the conduct of life. For he alone is wise who confirms in act the philosophy which in the rest goes no farther than words. They do but flit like shadows. [667]
[664] These lines are attributed to Solon by Plutarch, in the tract pos an tis hup' echthron opheloito, but they occur among the elegiac "gnomae" of Theognis, lines 316-318. Fronton du Duc in his notes on the Homilies points out that they are also quoted in Plutarch's life of Solon. Basil was well acquainted with Plutarch. (cf. references in the notes to the Hexaemeron.)
[665] The lines are: Zeus gar toi to talanton epirrepei allote allos ,'Allote men ploutein, allote d' ouden echeo. Theog. 157.
[666] The story of The Choice of Hercules used to be called, from Prodicus (of Ceos, not Chios) Hercules Prodicius. Suidas says that the title of the work quoted was Orai. The allegory is given at length in Xenophon's Memorabilia (II. i. 21) in Dion Chrysostom's Regnum, and in Cicero (De Officiis i. 32), who refers to Xenophon. It is imitated in the Somnium of Lucian.
[667] cf. Hom., Od. x. 494, where it is said of Teiresias: To kai tethneoti noon pore Persephoneia, Oi& 251; pepnusthai; toi de skiai a& 188;ssousi.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/basil/life-works.asp?pg=109
