HER BETROTHAL

Filling her time with these and the like occupations, and attaining besides a considerable proficiency in wool-work, the growing girl reached her twelfth year, the age when the bloom of adolescence begins to appear. In which connection it is noteworthy that the girl's beauty could not be concealed in spite of efforts to hide it. Nor in all the countryside, so it seems, was there anything so marvellous as her beauty in comparison with that of others. So fair was she that even painters' hands could not do justice to her [964B] comeliness; the art that contrives all things and essays the greatest tasks, so as even to model in imitation the figures of the heavenly bodies, could not accurately reproduce the loveliness of her form. In consequence a great swarm of suitors seeking her in marriage crowded round her parents. But her father---- a shrewd man with a reputation for forming right decisions----picked out from the rest a young man related to the family, who was just leaving school, of good birth and remarkable steadiness, and decided to betroth his daughter to him, as soon as she was old enough. Meantime he aroused great hopes, and he offered to his future father-in-law his fame in public speaking, as it were one of the bridegroom's gifts; for he displayed the [964C] power of his eloquence in forensic contests on behalf of the wronged.

Τούτοις συναυξανομένη καὶ τοῖς τοιούτοις ἐπιτηδεύμασι καὶ τὴν χεῖρα πρὸς τὴν ἐριουργίαν διαφερόντως ἀσκήσασα πρόεισιν εἰς δωδέκατον ἔτος, ἐν ᾧ μάλιστα τὸ τῆς νεότητος ἄνθος ἐκλάμπειν ἄρχεται. Ἔνθα δὴ καὶ θαυμάζειν ἄξιον, ὅπως οὐδὲ κεκρυμμένον τῆς νέας τὸ κάλλος ἐλάνθανεν οὐδέ τι κατὰ τὴν πατρίδα πᾶσαν ἐκείνην τοιοῦτον θαῦμα ἐδόκει οἷον ἐν συγκρίσει τοῦ κάλλους ἐκείνου καὶ τῆς εὐμορφίας εἶναι, ὡς μηδὲ ζωγράφων χεῖρας ἐφικέσθαι δυνηθῆναι τῆς ὥρας: ἀλλὰ τὴν πάντα μηχανωμένην τέχνην καὶ τοῖς μεγίστοις ἐπιτολμῶσαν, ὡς καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν στοιχείων τὰς εἰκόνας διὰ τῆς μιμήσεως ἀνατυποῦσθαι, τὴν τῆς μορφῆς ἐκείνης εὐκληρίαν μὴ ἰσχῦσαι δι' ἀκριβείας μιμήσασθαι. Τούτου χάριν πολὺς ἑσμὸς τῶν μνηστευόντων τὸν γάμον αὐτῆς τοῖς γονεῦσι περιεχεῖτο. Ὁ δὲ πατὴρ (ἦν γὰρ δὴ σώφρων καὶ κρίνειν τὸ καλὸν ἐπεσκεμμένος) εὐδόκιμόν τινα τῶν ἐκ τοῦ γένους, γνώριμον ἐπὶ σωφροσύνῃ, ἄρτι τῶν παιδευτηρίων ἐπανήκοντα τῶν λοιπῶν ἀποκρίνας ἐκείνῳ κατεγγυᾶν ἐγνώκει τὴν παῖδα, εἴπερ εἰς ἡλικίαν ἔλθοι. Ἐν τούτῳ δὲ ὁ μὲν ἐν ἐλπίσιν ἦν ταῖς χρηστοτέραις καὶ καθάπερ τι τῶν κεχαρισμένων ἕδνων τὴν διὰ τῶν λόγων εὐδοκίμησιν προσῆγε τῷ πατρὶ τῆς νέας, ἐν τοῖς ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀδικουμένων ἀγῶσι τὴν τῶν λόγων ἐπιδεικνύμενος δύναμιν.