Many others of his sayings are chronicled; they are more or less apocryphal, as his retort to the man of Seriphos, who hinted that Themistocles owed his greatness to the fact that his city was great. ‘You, Themistocles, would never have been famous if you had been a Seriphian’—‘Nor would you, if you had been an Athenian.’[10] His interpretation of the oracle, explaining ‘wooden walls’ as ships, shows the man ready at need like Odysseus; and the impression that we form of him from the very slight indications which we possess, is of a man always clear and plausible in his statements, never at a loss for an explanation, and perhaps rather a good debater than an orator. Of Pericles, who represents the following generation, we have a clearer picture. We know more about his private life and the associates who influenced his opinions. His earliest instructors were the musicians Damon and Pythoclides, of whom the former remained his intimate friend through life,[11] and, if we believe Plutarch, was capable of giving him advice even on questions of statesmanship.[12] The friendship of Anaxagoras was doubtless a powerful influence, as Plato affirms in a well-known passage of the _Phaedrus_:[13] ‘All the arts require discussion and high speculation about the truths of nature; hence come loftiness of thought and completeness of execution. And this, as I conceive, was the quality which, in addition to his natural gifts, Pericles acquired from his intercourse with Anaxagoras.... He was thus imbued with the higher philosophy ... and applied what suited his purpose to the art of speaking.’ He is said also to have been acquainted with Zeno of Elea, an accomplished dialectician, and with the great Sophist Protagoras. Plutarch represents him as amusing himself by discussing with Protagoras a question which is the theme of one of Antiphon’s tetralogies—a man in a gymnasium accidentally kills another with a javelin: who is to blame?[14] In Xenophon’s _Memorabilia_[15] we find him engaged in sophistical discussion with his young nephew Alcibiades, who, fresh from the rhetorical schools, was apparently his superior in hair-splitting argument. Thucydides puts three speeches into the mouth of Pericles; though the language is that of the historian, some of the thoughts may be those of the statesman. We seem to recognise his high intelligence, developed by philosophical training, and the loftiness and effectiveness of which Plato speaks.[16] The comic poet Eupolis gives us a picture from a different point of view: A. ‘Whenever at Council he rose in his place That powerful speaker—so hot was the pace— Could give other runners three yards in the race.’ B. ‘His speed I admit; in addition to that A mysterious spell on his lips ever sate: He charmed; and alone of the orators he Left something behind, like the sting of a bee.’[17]