Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"Plutarch
Philosophy
Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"
Plutarch
Classical literature; Essays; Ethics; Philosophy
13. After this, Serapio put the question to the Historical Directors,
why that same hall did not bear the name of Cypselus, who was both the
founder and the consecrator, but was called the Corinthians’ Hall?
When all the rest were silent, because perhaps they knew not what
to say; How can we imagine, said I with a smile, that these people
should either know or remember the reason, having been so amused and
thunderstruck by your high-flown discourses of prodigies altogether
supernatural? However we have heard it reported, when the monarchical
government of Corinth was dissolved by the ruin of Cypselus, the
Corinthians claimed the honor to own both the golden statue at Pisa,
and the treasure that lay in that place; which was also by the
Delphians decreed to be their just right. This glory being envied
them by the Eleans, they were by a decree of the Corinthians utterly
excluded from the solemnities of the Isthmian games. This is the true
reason, that never since any person of the country of Elis was admitted
to any trial of skill at those festivals. For as for that murder of the
Molionidae, slain by Hercules near Cleonae, that was not the reason
wherefore Eleans were excluded, as some have vainly alleged; for on
the contrary it had been more proper for the Eleans themselves to have
excluded the Corinthians from the Olympic games, had they any animosity
against them on this account. And this is all that I have to say in
reference to this matter.
14. But when we came into the treasury of the Acanthians and Brasidas,
the director showed us the place where formerly stood the obelisks
dedicated to the memory of the courtesan Rhodopis. Then Diogenianus
in a kind of passion said: It was no less ignominy for this city to
allow Rhodopis a place wherein to deposit the tenth of her gains got
by the prostitution of her body, than to put Aesop her fellow-servant
to death. But why should you be offended at this, said Serapio, when
you have but to cast up your eye, and you may yonder behold the golden
statue of Mnesarete standing between kings and emperors, which Crates
averred to be a trophy of the Grecian intemperance? The young man
observed the statue, and said: But it was Phryne of whom Crates uttered
that expression. That is very true, replied Serapio; for her proper
name was Mnesarete; but Phryne was a nickname, given her by reason of
the yellowness of her complexion, like the color of a toad that lies
among moist and overgrown bushes, called in Greek φρύνη. For many times
it happens that nicknames eclipse and drown the proper names both
of men and women. Thus the mother of Alexander, whose true name was
Polyxena, was afterwards called Myrtale, then Olympias, and Stratonice;
Eumetis the Corinthian was afterwards called from her father’s
name Cleobule; and Herophyle of the city of Erythraea, skilful in
divination, was called Sibylla. And the grammarians will tell you that
Leda herself was first called Mnesionoe, and Orestes Achaeus. But how,
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