108. Are poems thine by right? Do they not rather belong to that old lady who, being bumped on the shoulder by someone that was running violently in the opposite direction, as the story goes, in reviling the vehemence of his haste, gave utterance to an epic verse? And this same verse having greatly taken the young man's fancy, and been more carefully reduced to metre, created thy poetry, so greatly admired. And what of the rest? If thou pridest thyself so much upon arms, from whom dost thou get arms, my noble sir? Is it not from the Cyclops, the inventors of forging metal? And if a great thing in thy estimation----nay, the greatest of all that are----is that imperial purple, in virtue of which thou art a wise man and a lawgiver (of this sort), must not thou take it off and return it to the Tyreans, to whom belongs the sheep-keeping bitch that having fed upon the shell-fish, and stained her lips, thereby made the dye known to the shepherd, and bestowed upon you sovereigns the proud rag so full of woe unto the wicked! And husbandry and shipbuilding----what shall we say if the Athenians debar us from them, when they tell about their Ceres and their Triptolemus, and the Dragons, and Celeus, and Icarius, and the whole stock of legends concerning them, which have turned them into an infamous Mystery, one truly worthy of the night?  

ΡΗʹ. Σὰ τὰ ποιήματα; τί δέ; οὐ τῆς γραὸς μᾶλλον ἐκείνης, ἣ, τὸν ὦμον σεισθεῖσα παρά τινος συντόνως ἀντιπαριόντος, ὡς λόγος, εἶτ' ἐνυβρίζουσα τῷ σφοδρῷ τῆς ὁρμῆς, ἔπος ἐφθέγξατο: καὶ τοῦτ' ἀρέσαν τῷ νεανίᾳ λίαν, καὶ φιλοπονώτερον μετρηθὲν τὴν θαυμασίαν σου ταύτην ἐδημιούργησε ποίησιν; Τί τἄλλα; Εἰ δὲ τοῖς ὅπλοις μέγα φρονεῖς, παρὰ τίνων σοι τὰ ὅπλα, ὦ γενναιότατε; Οὐ τῶν Κυκλώπων, ἐξ ὧν τὸ χαλκεύειν; Εἰ δέ σοι μέγα καὶ μέγιστον τῶν ὄντων ἡ ἁλουργὶς, ἐξ ἧς σοφὸς σὺ, καὶ τῶν τοιούτων νομοθέτης: τί; οὐκ ἀποθήσῃ ταύτην Τυρίοις, παρ' ὧν ἡ ποιμενικὴ κύων, ἡ τῇ κόχλῳ βρωθείσῃ, καὶ τὰ χείλη καθαιμαξάσῃ, τῷ ποιμένι τὸ ἄνθος γνωρίσασα, καὶ διὰ τούτων παραδοῦσα τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν ὑμῖν τὸ πένθιμον τοῖς κακοῖς ῥάκος καὶ ὑπερήφανον; Γεωργίας δὲ καὶ ναυπηγίας, τί φήσομεν, ἂν ἀπελαύνωσιν ἡμᾶς Ἀθηναῖοι, τὰς Δήμητρας καὶ τοὺς Τριπτολέμους διηγούμενοι, καὶ τοὺς δράκοντας, ἔτι δὲ Κελεούς τε καὶ Ἰκαρίους, καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν περὶ ταῦτα μυθολογίαν, ἣ καὶ μυστήριον ὑμῖν αἰσχρὸν ταῦτα ἐποίησε, καὶ νυκτὸς ὄντως ἄξιον;