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Trace: • Ancient World History: Lucian of Samosata • Avicenna's Psychology • Diogenes of Sinope | Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae Book II.49.a-b • Pancrates
2012:croesus

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2012:croesus [2012/03/07 21:02] – frank2012:croesus [2015/12/16 11:03] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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 ====== Croesus ====== ====== Croesus ======
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 +<html><p xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" style="border-style: none;" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><br />This work (by <a href="https://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki" rel="dct:creator">https://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki</a>), identified by <a href="http://meninpublishing.org" rel="dct:publisher"><span property="dct:title">Frank Redmond</span></a>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</p></html>
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 +==== Authored by Frank Redmond, 2012 ====
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 {{:2012:croesus.jpg?300|}}\\ {{:2012:croesus.jpg?300|}}\\
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 As such, I think it will be interesting to trace Croesus' appearances in the works of Lucian in this post.\\ As such, I think it will be interesting to trace Croesus' appearances in the works of Lucian in this post.\\
 \\ \\
-[[http://lucianofsamosata.info/TimontheMisanthrope.html|Timon the Misanthrope]]\\+[[http://lucianofsamosata.info/TimonTheMisanthrope.html|Timon the Misanthrope]]\\
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 <blockquote>Pl . Ah, those are special cases, Hermes. I do not go on my own feet on those occasions, and it is not Zeus who sends me, but Pluto, who has his own ways of conferring wealth and making presents; Pluto and Plutus are not unconnected, you see. When I am to flit from one house to another, they lay me on parchment, seal me up carefully, make a parcel of me and take me round. The dead man lies in some dark corner, shrouded from the knees upward in an old sheet, with the cats fighting for possession of him, while those who have expectations wait for me in the public place, gaping as wide as young swallows that scream for their mother’s return.\\ <blockquote>Pl . Ah, those are special cases, Hermes. I do not go on my own feet on those occasions, and it is not Zeus who sends me, but Pluto, who has his own ways of conferring wealth and making presents; Pluto and Plutus are not unconnected, you see. When I am to flit from one house to another, they lay me on parchment, seal me up carefully, make a parcel of me and take me round. The dead man lies in some dark corner, shrouded from the knees upward in an old sheet, with the cats fighting for possession of him, while those who have expectations wait for me in the public place, gaping as wide as young swallows that scream for their mother’s return.\\
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 All the same, I would give a good deal to have the fact of my enormous wealth generally known; they would all be fit to hang themselves over it.... Why, what is this? Well, that is quick work. Here they come running from every point of the compass, all dusty and panting; they have smelt out the gold somehow or other. Now, shall I get on top of this knoll, keep up a galling fire of stones from my point of vantage, and get rid of them that way? Or shall I make an exception to my law by parleying with them for once? contempt might hit harder than stones. Yes, I think that is better; I will stay where I am, and receive them. Let us see, who is this in front? Ah, Gnathonides the flatterer; when I asked an alms of him the other day, he offered me a halter; many a cask of my wine has he made a beast of himself over. I congratulate him on his speed; first come, first served.''\\</blockquote> All the same, I would give a good deal to have the fact of my enormous wealth generally known; they would all be fit to hang themselves over it.... Why, what is this? Well, that is quick work. Here they come running from every point of the compass, all dusty and panting; they have smelt out the gold somehow or other. Now, shall I get on top of this knoll, keep up a galling fire of stones from my point of vantage, and get rid of them that way? Or shall I make an exception to my law by parleying with them for once? contempt might hit harder than stones. Yes, I think that is better; I will stay where I am, and receive them. Let us see, who is this in front? Ah, Gnathonides the flatterer; when I asked an alms of him the other day, he offered me a halter; many a cask of my wine has he made a beast of himself over. I congratulate him on his speed; first come, first served.''\\</blockquote>
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-[[http://lucianofsamosata.info/DialoguesoftheDead.html|Dialogues of the Dead]]\\+[[http://lucianofsamosata.info/DialoguesOfTheDead.html|Dialogues of the Dead]]\\
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 II\\ II\\
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 Her . This blunt sincerity is not to the Lydian’s taste. Things are come to a strange pass, he thinks, if a poor man is to hold up his head, and speak his mind in this frank manner! He will remember Solon presently, when the time comes for Cyrus to conduct him in chains to the pyre. I heard Clotho, the other day, reading over the various dooms. Among other things, **Croesus** was to be led captive by Cyrus, and Cyrus to be murdered by the queen of the Massagetae. There she is: that Scythian woman, riding on a white horse; do you see?</blockquote>\\ Her . This blunt sincerity is not to the Lydian’s taste. Things are come to a strange pass, he thinks, if a poor man is to hold up his head, and speak his mind in this frank manner! He will remember Solon presently, when the time comes for Cyrus to conduct him in chains to the pyre. I heard Clotho, the other day, reading over the various dooms. Among other things, **Croesus** was to be led captive by Cyrus, and Cyrus to be murdered by the queen of the Massagetae. There she is: that Scythian woman, riding on a white horse; do you see?</blockquote>\\
 \\ \\
-[[http://lucianofsamosata.info/SaleofCreeds.html|Sale of Creeds]]\\+[[http://lucianofsamosata.info/SaleOfCreeds.html|Sale of Creeds]]\\
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 <blockquote>First D . You would have been just the creed for **Croesus’s** son! But I have a tongue in my head; I have no ambition to be a statue. And after the five years’ silence?</blockquote>\\ <blockquote>First D . You would have been just the creed for **Croesus’s** son! But I have a tongue in my head; I have no ambition to be a statue. And after the five years’ silence?</blockquote>\\
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-[[http://lucianofsamosata.info/ApologyfortheDependantScholar.html|Apology for the Dependant Scholar]]\\+[[http://lucianofsamosata.info/ApologyForTheDependentScholar.html|Apology for the Dependant Scholar]]\\
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 <blockquote>Dear Sabinus,\\ <blockquote>Dear Sabinus,\\
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 <blockquote>These directions were precisely followed; the lions swam across to the enemy’s bank, where they were clubbed to death by the barbarians, who took them for dogs or a new kind of wolves; and our forces immediately after met with a severe defeat, losing some twenty thousand men in one engagement. This was followed by the Aquileian incident, in the course of which that city was nearly lost. In view of these results, Alexander warmed up that stale Delphian defence of the **Croesus** oracle: the God had foretold a victory, forsooth, but had not stated whether Romans or barbarians should have it.</blockquote>\\ <blockquote>These directions were precisely followed; the lions swam across to the enemy’s bank, where they were clubbed to death by the barbarians, who took them for dogs or a new kind of wolves; and our forces immediately after met with a severe defeat, losing some twenty thousand men in one engagement. This was followed by the Aquileian incident, in the course of which that city was nearly lost. In view of these results, Alexander warmed up that stale Delphian defence of the **Croesus** oracle: the God had foretold a victory, forsooth, but had not stated whether Romans or barbarians should have it.</blockquote>\\
 \\ \\
-[[http://lucianofsamosata.info/DefenceofthePortraitStudy.html|Defence of the Portrait Study]]\\+[[http://lucianofsamosata.info/DefenseOfThePortraitStudy.html|Defence of the Portrait Study]]\\
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 <blockquote>You used the word flattery. To dislike those who practise it is only what you should do, and I honour you for it. But I would have you distinguish between panegyric proper and the flatterer’s exaggeration of it. The flatterer praises for selfish ends, cares little for truth, and makes it his business to magnify indiscriminately; most of his effects consist in lying additions of his own; he thinks nothing of making Thersites handsomer than Achilles, or telling Nestor he is younger than any of the host; he will swear **Croesus’s** son hears better than Melampus, and give Phineus better sight than Lynceus, if he sees his way to a profit on the lie. But the panegyrist pure and simple, instead of lying outright, or inventing a quality that does not exist, takes the virtues his subject really does possess, though possibly not in large measure, and makes the most of them. The horse is really distinguished among the animals we know for light-footed speed; well, in praising a horse, he will hazard:\\ <blockquote>You used the word flattery. To dislike those who practise it is only what you should do, and I honour you for it. But I would have you distinguish between panegyric proper and the flatterer’s exaggeration of it. The flatterer praises for selfish ends, cares little for truth, and makes it his business to magnify indiscriminately; most of his effects consist in lying additions of his own; he thinks nothing of making Thersites handsomer than Achilles, or telling Nestor he is younger than any of the host; he will swear **Croesus’s** son hears better than Melampus, and give Phineus better sight than Lynceus, if he sees his way to a profit on the lie. But the panegyrist pure and simple, instead of lying outright, or inventing a quality that does not exist, takes the virtues his subject really does possess, though possibly not in large measure, and makes the most of them. The horse is really distinguished among the animals we know for light-footed speed; well, in praising a horse, he will hazard:\\
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 <blockquote>Da. About oracles, friend, the less said the better; I shall ask you to choose your instances, you see. Will Apollo’s answer to the Lydian suit you? That was as symmetrical as a double-edged knife; or say, it faced both ways, like those Hermae which are made double, alike whether you look at front or back. Consider; will **Croesus’s** passage of the Halys destroy his own realm, or Cyrus’s? Tet the wretched Sardian paid a long price for his ambidextrous hexameter.</blockquote>\\ <blockquote>Da. About oracles, friend, the less said the better; I shall ask you to choose your instances, you see. Will Apollo’s answer to the Lydian suit you? That was as symmetrical as a double-edged knife; or say, it faced both ways, like those Hermae which are made double, alike whether you look at front or back. Consider; will **Croesus’s** passage of the Halys destroy his own realm, or Cyrus’s? Tet the wretched Sardian paid a long price for his ambidextrous hexameter.</blockquote>\\
 \\ \\
-[[http://lucianofsamosata.info/TheCock.html|The Cock]]\\+[[http://lucianofsamosata.info/TheRooster.html|The Rooster]]\\
 \\ \\
 <blockquote>Lydian **Croesus** is troubled because his son is dumb; Persian Artaxerxes, because Clearchus is raising a host for Cyrus; Dionysius, because Dion whispers in Syracusan ears; Alexander, because Parmenio is praised. Perdiccas has no peace for Ptolemy, Ptolemy none for Seleucus. And there are other griefs than these: his favourite is cold; his concubine loves another; there is talk of a rebellion; there has been muttering among a half-dozen of his guards. And the bitterness of it is, that his nearest and dearest are those whom he is most called on to distrust; from them he must ever look for harm. One we see poisoned by his son, another by his own favourite; and a third will probably fare no better.</blockquote>\\ <blockquote>Lydian **Croesus** is troubled because his son is dumb; Persian Artaxerxes, because Clearchus is raising a host for Cyrus; Dionysius, because Dion whispers in Syracusan ears; Alexander, because Parmenio is praised. Perdiccas has no peace for Ptolemy, Ptolemy none for Seleucus. And there are other griefs than these: his favourite is cold; his concubine loves another; there is talk of a rebellion; there has been muttering among a half-dozen of his guards. And the bitterness of it is, that his nearest and dearest are those whom he is most called on to distrust; from them he must ever look for harm. One we see poisoned by his son, another by his own favourite; and a third will probably fare no better.</blockquote>\\
2012/croesus.1331175775.txt.gz · Last modified: 2014/01/14 22:46 (external edit)
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