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deprives him of 43 consolation and if anyone were to say these words, walling off advice from him. For since he saw others grieving more than the sufferer himself, he was consoling their weakness. And she says: 2,9bα For behold, your memorial is vanished from the earth, 9bβ your sons and your daughters, the pangs and labors of my womb, 9bξ for whom I toiled in vain with hardships. See the malicious and resourceful woman. She does not mention the money, she does not bring up the loss of the cattle, but what was most able to wound him, this first. She knew he was great-souled and considered their loss as nothing. Therefore, so that she might not make the suffering weaker, but might stir up the tragedy, she presents what is most unbearable of all and for which he grieved the most and what bit him the most. And see, how passionately, how pitifully: For behold, she says, your memorial has vanished, all but showing the disaster again and renewing in memory things that had been given over to forgetfulness. She does not speak of present things, but also past things so as to work great confusion in his reasoning. With the same plot with which the devil approached him, with the same she also introduces the counsel, having disturbed him with the memory of his children and expecting by this to turn his reasoning. Then thus she raises the chief of the evils: she did not say, “They died,” which is the common name for the misfortune of all men, she did not use the usual address, but what? Your memorial has vanished. It seems to me she said these things wishing also to represent the cruelty of the disaster. And what she says is something like this: “What change do you expect there will be for you? Is it possible for those who have gone to return hereafter, for those who have vanished to be brought to life?” For children are 44 for this reason especially desired, because they leave behind for us an immortal memory, and all men especially desire this, so as to leave a memorial. “You have perished besides,” she says, “and yourself through your offspring. You have been torn up rootless, childless, without issue.” And see how measuredly she makes her destructive counsel, so as not to move him to anger, but to break him down into pity. She did not say, “God took them and destroyed them,” but used a neutral term. Your sons and your daughters, she says; she mentioned each nature. Then the pathetic part: the pangs and labors, she says, of my womb. Each nature, the words of a thriving and loving mother. “You bear your own things with a great soul,” she says, “pity my loss.” Since from the things that had happened to him she did not expect to bend him, she relates her own more pathetic state. the pangs and labors of my womb—pangs of childbirth, labors of rearing. “I am the one who has suffered more pitifully than all.” For whom I toiled in vain with hardships. See how untimely the funeral speech for the children. And she says these things, in order to show herself also as a sharer in the disaster. For one who is about to counsel and advise one who is suffering badly must not stand outside the terrible things, since he will be an unpersuasive counselor, philosophizing in another's troubles, since his advice will be suspect. For since she was about to advise him to die, so that she might not seem to be saying these things from enmity, she shows herself to have suffered more terrible things and she heightens the disaster with her speech. 2,9c But you yourself, she says, sit in the rot of worms, spending the night in the open air, 2,9dα and I a wanderer and a servant. 45 See how she weaves her own things with his: For behold, your memorial has vanished; this is the husband's. the pangs and labors of my womb; this is the wife's. But you yourself sit in the rot of worms; this is the husband's. and I a wanderer and a servant; this is the wife's. She continually transfers the speech from his things to her own, in order to draw goodwill from the hearer. “Your things are not strong enough; let mine prevail.” But you yourself, she says; great emphasis. “But you yourself; that just man, the wonderful, the great, the sum of our good things.” sit in the rot of worms, spending the night in the open air. “Day and night,” she says; “not even a roof for you someone

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αὐτὸν ἀφαιρεῖται τὴν 43 παραμυθίαν καὶ εἴ τις ταῦτα ἔλεγε τὰ ῥήματα ἀποτειχίζων αὐτῷ τὴν συμβουλήν. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἑώρα μᾶλλον ἑτέρους ἀλγοῦντας ἢ τὸν παθόντα αὐτὸν παρεμυθεῖτο τὴν ἐκείνων ἀσθένειαν. καί φησιν· 2,9bα ἰδοὺ γὰρ ἠφάνισται τὸ μνημόσυνόν σου ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς, 9bβ οἱ υἱοί σου καὶ αἱ θυγατέρες, τῆς ἐμῆς κοιλίας ὠδῖνες καὶ πόνοι, 9bξ οὓς εἰς τὸ κενὸν ἐκοπίασα μετὰ μόχθων. ὅρα κακοῦργον καὶ πολυμήχανον γύναιον. οὐ μέμνηται τῶν χρημάτων, οὐκ ἄγει εἰς μέσον τῶν θρεμμάτων τὴν ἀπώλειαν, ἀλλ' ὃ μάλιστα αὐτοῦ καθάψασθαι δυνατὸν ἦν, τοῦτο πρῶτον. ᾔδει μεγαλόψυχον ὄντα καὶ οὐδὲν ἡγούμενον τὴν ἐκείνων ἀπώλειαν. ἵνα οὖν μὴ τὸ πάθος ἀσθενέστερον ποιήσῃ, ἀλλὰ διεγείρῃ τὴν τραγῳδίαν, τὸ πάντων ἀφορητότερον καὶ ὑπὲρ οὗ μάλιστα ἤλγησε καὶ ὃ μάλιστα αὐτὸν ἔδακνεν, τοῦτο τίθησιν. καὶ ὅρα, πῶς περιπαθῶς, πῶς ἐλεεινῶς· ἰδοὺ γάρ, φησίν, ἠφάνισταί σου τὸ μνημόσυνον, μονονουχὶ δεικνύουσα πάλιν τὴν συμφορὰν καὶ τὰ λήθῃ παραδοθέντα ἀνανεοῦσα τῇ μνήμῃ. οὐ λέγει τὰ παρόντα, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ παρελθόντα ὥστε πολλὴν ἐργάσασθαι σύγχυσιν ἐν τῷ λογισμῷ. μετὰ τῆς αὐτῆς ἐπιβουλῆς, ἧς αὐτῷ προσῆλθεν ὁ διάβολος, μετὰ τῆς αὐτῆς καὶ αὕτη τὴν συμβουλὴν ἐπάγει τῇ μνήμῃ τῶν παίδων αὐτὸν θορυβήσασα καὶ προσδοκήσασα ταύτῃ τρέψειν τὸν λογισμόν. εἶτα οὕτω τὸ κεφάλαιον αἴρει τῶν κακῶν· οὐκ εἶπεν· «ἐτελεύτησαν», ὃ κοινὸν τῆς ἁπάντων ἀνθρώπων συμφορᾶς ἐστιν ὄνομα, οὐκ εἶπε τὴν συνήθη προσηγορίαν, ἀλλὰ τί; ἠφάνισταί σου τὸ μνημόσυνον. ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ καὶ τὸ τῆς συμφορᾶς ὠμὸν παραστῆσαι βουλομένη ταῦτα εἶπεν. ὃ δὲ λέγει, τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν· «ποίαν προσδοκᾷς ἔσεσθαί σοι μεταβολήν; μὴ τοὺς ἀπελθόντας ἐπανελθεῖν ἔνι λοιπόν, μὴ τοὺς ἀφανισθέντας ζωοποιηθῆναι;» τὰ γὰρ παιδία καὶ 44 διὰ τοῦτο μάλιστα ποθεινά, ἐπειδὴ τὴν μνήμην ἡμῖν ἀθάνατον καταλιμπάνει, καὶ τούτου μάλιστα ἄνθρωποι πάντες ἐφίενται ὥστε μνημόσυνον καταλιπεῖν. «προσαπόλωλας», φησίν, «καὶ αὐτὸς διὰ τῶν ἐκγόνων. ἄγονος, ἄπαις, πρόρριζος ἀνεσπάσθης.» καὶ ὅρα, πῶς μεμετρημένως ποιεῖται τὴν ὀλεθρίαν συμβουλήν, ὥστε μὴ εἰς ὀργὴν κινῆσαι, ἀλλ' εἰς ἔλεον κατακλάσαι. οὐκ εἶπεν· «ὁ θεὸς αὐτοὺς ἔλαβε καὶ ἀπώλεσεν», ἀλλὰ μέσῳ κέχρηται ὀνόματι. οἱ υἱοί σου καὶ αἱ θυγατέρες, φησίν· τῆς φύσεως ἑκατέρας ἐμνήσθη. εἶτα τὸ περιπαθές· τῆς ἐμῆς κοιλίας, φησίν, ὠδῖνες καὶ πόνοι. ἑκατέρα ἡ φύσις, εὐθηνουμένης μητρὸς ῥήματα καὶ φιλοστόργου. «τὰ σαυτοῦ μεγαλοψύχως φέρεις», φησίν, «ἐλέησον τὴν ἐμὴν ζημίαν». ἐπειδὴ ἐκ τῶν εἰς αὐτὸν συμβάντων οὐ προσεδόκησεν αὐτὸν ἐπικάμψειν, τὸ ἑαυτῆς περιπαθέστερον διηγεῖται. τῆς ἐμῆς κοιλίας ὠδῖνες καὶ πόνοι-ὠδῖνες τοῦ τόκου, πόνοι τῆς ἀνατροφῆς. «ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ πάντων ἐλεεινότερα παθοῦσα». οὓς εἰς τὸ κενὸν ἐκοπίασα μετὰ μόχθων. ὅρα, πῶς ἄκαιρον τὸ ἐπιτάφιον τῶν παίδων. ταῦτα δὲ λέγει, ἵνα δείξῃ καὶ αὑτὴν κοινωνοῦσαν τῆς συμφορᾶς. τὸν γὰρ μέλλοντα συμβουλεύειν καὶ παραινεῖν τῷ πάσχοντι κακῶς οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον ἔξω τῶν δεινῶν ἑστάναι, ἐπεὶ ἀπίθανος ἔσται σύμβουλος ἐν ἀλλοτρίοις κακοῖς φιλοσοφῶν, ἐπεὶ ὕποπτος ἔσται παραινῶν. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἔμελλεν αὐτῷ συμβουλεύειν ἀποθνῄσκειν, ἵνα μὴ δόξῃ ἀπὸ ἔχθρας ταῦτα λέγειν, δείκνυσιν ἑαυτὴν δεινότερα πεπονθυῖαν καὶ ἐπαίρει τῷ λόγῳ τὴν συμφοράν. 2,9c σὺ δὲ αὐτός, φησίν, ἐν σαπρίᾳ σκωλήκων κάθησαι διανυκτερεύων αἴθριος, 2,9dα κἀγὼ πλανῆτις καὶ λάτρις. 45 ὅρα, πῶς πλέκει τὰ ἑαυτῆς τοῖς ἐκείνου· ἰδοὺ γὰρ ἠφάνισταί σου τὸ μνημόσυνον· τοῦτο τοῦ ἀνδρός. τῆς ἐμῆς κοιλίας ὠδῖνες καὶ πόνοι· τοῦτο τῆς γυναικός. σὺ δὲ αὐτὸς ἐν σαπρίᾳ σκωλήκων κάθησαι· τοῦτο τοῦ ἀνδρός. καὶ ἐγὼ πλανῆτις καὶ λάτρις· τοῦτο τῆς γυναικός. συνεχῶς μεταφέρει τὸν λόγον ἀπὸ τῶν ἐκείνου πρὸς τὰ αὑτῆς, ἵνα εὔνοιαν ἐπισπάσηται παρὰ τοῦ ἀκούοντος. «οὐκ ἰσχύει τὰ σά, κρατείτω τὰ ἐμά.» σὺ δὲ αὐτός, φησίν· μεγάλη ἔμφασις. «σὺ δὲ αὐτός· ἐκεῖνος ὁ δίκαιος, ὁ θαυμαστός, ὁ μέγας, τὸ κεφάλαιον ἡμῖν τῶν ἀγαθῶν.» ἐν σαπρίᾳ σκωλήκων κάθησαι διανυκτερεύων αἴθριος. «ἡμέραν καὶ νύκτα», φησίν· «οὐδὲ στέγης σοί τις