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of the wine, and they devise by drunkenness an intensification of drunkenness; for because of their extreme well-being they fall into the opposite disposition, as the wine makes the drunkards glisten and sets them on fire. Away with licentious drunkenness, you licentious man, so that you may not be carried away to the opposite inclination, when fortune takes away what it has also given; for with such penalties are the ungrateful disciplined.

53 Minthes to Rhizon The river Chrysaspis has plundered a portion of our little plot of land and has added it to your field, doing something foolish and stupid; for it professes generosity with gifts that belong to others. But if you are not able to bear the burden of law courts on your shoulders, do not accept the gifts of rivers; but if you desire what belongs to others, you will soon weep, being deprived of your own things and punished by the verdicts of an arbitrator.

54 Medea to Jason Nothing has become so eagerly sought after by humans, nor yet more cloying, than an erotic relationship. Where are the streams of your tears, which you made to surge at our feet? Where have the myriad kinds of those speeches flown away from you, and the humble and groveling tone of your words? I think that neither do borrowers use such words to their lenders, nor a wounded man captured by the hands of his enemies. The intense sleeplessness has passed away, you have abandoned the morning songs; I will pass over the countless embassies, the libations which you poured for me through procuresses. You have suddenly slipped away to another maiden, just as sleepers immediately pass from one dream subject to another. I praise the painters; for they depict the Erotes as winged and by their art they shape the realities, and in their creations they represent the truth in a marvelous way.

55 Parmenides to Chrysosthenes To be always awake is a property of immortal nature, but to sleep moderately is, it seems, a characteristic of us, and human; but to sleep beyond what is proper is more suited to the dead than to the living. You have taken away, Chrysosthenes, the greatest portions of your life; for you are always sleeping, and you have departed from your lot here like some Odysseus, wandering outside our inhabited world, swimming in some ocean of sleep and looking at the sun neither rising nor setting.

56 Daphnon to Aigeiros Your fig trees have spread their roots toward my little plot of land, no longer willing to be under your authority, and having taken away your right, they generously offer me their fruits; for they have deserted to my boundaries. And this is the law for farmers; so obey the time-honored laws, old man. But if you wish to speak against our customs, we cast you out from the farmers' assemblies as a new and recent lawgiver and we ostracize you from our boundaries as a foreigner.

57 Pyrrhias to Philonides If you are in love, do not accuse your beloved of unseemliness. For a soul in love cannot help but be blind; for the passion of lovers is invincible. But if you are not in love, why do you weep and groan, and bring upon yourself a self-chosen storm? You wrong both, therefore, at one time desiring as a lover, at another detesting as an antagonist.

58 Damaskios to Antigonos If Socrates does not possess pledges of life, let him not be appointed as a tutor for your child. And let children be understood as pledges of life; for he whom nature has taught to be a father, this one is also trustworthy to be a tutor, having learned by experience both the relation of birth and the pains of affection.

59 Kepias to Koriannos Be a fellow-worker for me at the hour of noon, Koriannos; for I would fence the field with a stone wall. For we have bad travelers; I am not able to contend with both irrational animals and with men. The hare the vines, and the caterpillar

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τοῦ οἴνου, καὶ σοφίζονται τῇ μέθῃ μέθης ἐπίτασιν· διὰ γὰρ τὴν ἐς ἄκρον εὐεξίαν πρὸς τὴν ἐναντίαν διάθεσιν μεταπίπτουσι, περιγανοῦντος τοῦ οἴνου τοὺς οἰνόφλυγας καὶ ἐκκαίοντος. ἄπαγε τῆς ἀκολάστου μέθης, ἀκόλαστε, ἵνα μὴ πρὸς τὴν ἐναντίαν ῥοπὴν μεταχθῇς, ἀφαιρουμένης τῆς τύχης ἅπερ καὶ δέδωκε· τοιαύταις γὰρ τοὺς ἀχαρίστους ποιναῖς σωφρονίζεται.

53 Μίνθης Ῥίζωνι Ὁ ποταμὸς Χρύσασπις τοῦ γηδίου τοῦ ἡμετέρου μοῖραν ἐσύλησε καὶ τῷ σῷ ἀγρῷ προσεκύρωσε, μῶρόν τι ποιῶν καὶ ἠλίθιον· ἀλλοτρίοις γὰρ δώροις τὸ φιλότιμον ἐπαγγέλλεται. ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν δικαστηρίων φόρτον ἐπὶ τοῖς ὤμοις φέρειν οὐχ οἷός τε εἶ, δῶρα ποταμῶν μὴ προσίεσο· εἰ δὲ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων ἐρᾷς, μετ' οὐ πολὺ δακρύσεις τῶν ἰδίων στερούμενος καὶ ψήφοις διαιτητοῦ τιμωρούμενος.

54 Μήδεια Ἰάσωνι Οὐδὲν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις οὔτε περισπούδαστον οὕτως, οὔτε δὲ προσκορέστερον ἐρωτικῆς καθέστηκε σχέσεως. ποῦ σοι τῶν δακρύων τὰ ῥεῖθρα, ἃ τοῖς ἡμετέροις ποσὶν ἐπεκύμαινες; ποῦ σοι διέπτησαν τὰ μυρία γένη τῶν λόγων ἐκείνων τῶν τε ῥημάτων τὸ ὑφειμένον τε καὶ χαμαίζηλον; οἶμαι μήτε τοὺς δανειζομένους τοιούτοις πρὸς τοὺς δανειστὰς κεχρῆσθαι τοῖς ῥήμασι, μήτε τραυματίαν ταῖς τῶν πολεμίων ἁλόντα χερσίν. ἡ σύντονος ἀγρυπνία παρῴχηκε, τὰ ἑωθινὰ καταλέλοιπας ᾄσματα· παρώσω τὰς μυρίας πρεσβείας, τὰς σπονδὰς ἃς διὰ τῶν προαγωγῶν γυναίων ἐσπείσω μοι. πρὸς ἑτέραν ἄφνω παρθένον ὠλίσθησας, ὥσπερ οἱ καθεύδοντες ἀμέσως ἀφ' ἑτέρας πρὸς ἑτέραν ἐνυπνίων ὑπόθεσιν μεταβαίνοντες. ἐπαινῶ τοὺς ζωγράφους· ὑποπτέρους γὰρ τοὺς Ἔρωτας ἀναγράφουσι καὶ τέχνῃ διαμορφοῦσι τὰ πράγματα καὶ τοῖς πλάσμασι τὴν ἀλήθειαν τερατεύονται.

55 Παρμενίδης Χρυσοσθένει Τὸ μὲν ἐγρηγορέναι διὰ παντὸς ἀθανάτου φύσεως ἴδιον, ὑπνοῦν δὲ μετρίως τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐστιν, ὡς ἔοικε, καὶ ἀνθρώπινον· τὸ δὲ πέρα καθεύδειν τοῦ πρέποντος τοῖς τεθνηκόσι μᾶλλον ἤπερ τοῖς ζῶσιν ἁρμόδιον. τὰς πλείστας, Χρυσόσθενες, τῆς σῆς ζωῆς μοίρας ἀφῄρησαι· ἀεὶ γὰρ καθεύδεις, καὶ τῆς ἐνθάδε μεταβέβηκας λήξεως οἷά τις Ὀδυσσεύς, τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς οἰκουμένης ἔξω πλανώμενος, ὠκεανῷ τινι τῷ ὕπνῳ νηχόμενος καὶ μήτε ἀνίσχοντα μήτε δυόμενον προσβλέπων τὸν ἥλιον.

56 ∆άφνων Αἰγείρῳ Αἱ συκαῖ σου πρὸς τὸ ἐμὸν γήδιον τὰς ῥίζας ἡπλώσαντο, ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν ἐξουσίαν ἔτι τελεῖν οὐκ ἐθέλουσαι, καὶ τὸ σὸν ἀφελόμεναι δίκαιον φιλοτιμοῦνταί μοι τὰ κυήματα· τοῖς ἐμοῖς γὰρ ηὐτομόλησαν ὅροις. καὶ τοῦτο νόμος ἐστὶ γεωργοῖς· καὶ γεγηρακόσι νόμοις πείθου, γερόντιον. εἰ δὲ τοῖς παρ' ἡμῖν ἔθεσιν ἀντιφθέγγεσθαι θέλεις, ὡς καινὸν ὄντα σε νομοθέτην καὶ πρόσφατον τῶν γεωργικῶν συλλόγων ἐκβάλλομεν καὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων ὅρων ἐξοστρακίζομεν ὡς ἀλλότριον.

57 Πυρρίας Φιλωνίδῃ Εἰ ἐρᾷς, μὴ κατηγόρει τῆς ἐρωμένης ἀπρέπειαν. οὐ δύναται γὰρ μὴ τυφλώττειν ἐρῶσα ψυχή· ἀήττητος γὰρ ἡ τῶν ἐρώντων προσπάθεια. εἰ δὲ οὐκ ἐρᾷς, τί δακρύεις καὶ στένεις, καὶ κλύδωνα σαυτῷ προσφέρεις αὐθαίρετον; ἀδικεῖς οὖν ἑκάτερον, ποτὲ μὲν ὡς ἐραστὴς ἐφιέμενος, ποτὲ δὲ ὡς ἀνταγωνιστὴς βδελυττόμενος.

58 ∆αμάσκιος Ἀντιγόνῳ Εἰ μὴ βίου Σωκράτης ἐνέχυρα κέκτηται, παιδαγωγὸς τοῦ σοῦ μὴ προχειριζέσθω παιδός. ἐνέχυρα δὲ βίου παῖδες νοείσθωσαν· ὃν γὰρ εἶναι πατέρα φύσις ἐδίδαξε, τοῦτον καὶ παιδαγωγεῖν ἐστιν ἀξιόπιστον, πείρᾳ μαθόντα καὶ γεννήσεως σχέσιν καὶ στοργῆς ἀλγηδόνας.

59 Κηπίας Κοριάννῳ Συνέριθος ἔσο μοι μεσημβρίας ὥρᾳ, Κορίαννε· αἱμασιᾷ γὰρ τὸν ἀγρὸν περιφράξαιμι. κακοὺς γὰρ τοὺς ὁδίτας κεκτήμεθα· οὐχ οἷός τέ εἰμι καὶ ζῴοις ἀλόγοις καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συμπλέκεσθαι. ὁ λαγὼς τὰς ἀμπέλους, ἡ δὲ κάμπη