The dialogue, briefly called “On the Pythian Responses,” deals, as the Greek title indicates, with the fact that the Pythia at Delphi no longer uses verse as the instrument of her inspired utterances. It takes the form of a conversation in the Delphic temple, between Philinus, Diogenianus, Theon, Serapion, and Boethus—the first of whom reports the conversation to his friend Basilocles, who has grown quite weary of waiting while the rest of the party conduct Diogenianus, a visitor, on a tour of inspection among the sacred offerings in the Temple.[276] Philinus[277] tells how “after the Ciceroni (οἱ περιηγηταὶ) had gone through their wonted programme, disregarding our requests that they would cut short their formal narratives and their explanations of most of the inscriptions,” the conversation had turned by a series of natural gradations from the interesting objects, that so strongly attracted the attention of visitors, to the medium through which the oracles of the God had been conveyed to humanity.[278] Diogenianus had noted that “the majority of the oracular utterances were crowded with faults of inelegance and incorrectness, both of composition and metre.” Serapion, to whom previous reference has been made, and who is here described as “the poet from Athens,” will not admit the correctness of this impious indictment.[279] “You are of opinion, then,” said he, “that, believing these verses to be the work of the god, we may assert that they are inferior to those of Homer and Hesiod? Shall we not rather regard them as being the best and most beautiful of all compositions, and reconstitute, by the standard which they supply, our own taste and judgment, so long corrupted by an evil tradition?” Boethus, “the geometrician,” who has lately joined the Epicureans, uses a neat form of the _argumentum ad hominem_ in refutation of Serapion, paying him a polished compliment at the same time.[280] “Your own poems,” says he, “grave, indeed, and philosophic in matter, are, in power and grace and finish, much more after the model of Homer and Hesiod than of the Pythia;” and he gives concise expression to the two opposing mental attitudes in which questions of this kind are universally approached. “Some will maintain that the oracles are fine poems because they are the god’s, others that they cannot be the god’s because they are not fine poems.” Serapion emphatically re-asserts the former of these two views, maintaining that “our eyes and our ears are diseased. We have become accustomed, by long indulgence in luxury and effeminacy, to regard sweetness as identical with beauty.”[281] Theon[282] is the exponent of a compromise not unknown in modern discussions on the “Inspiration of the Scriptures”—“Since these verses are inferior to those of Homer, it cannot be maintained that the god is their author. He supplies the primary inspiration to the prophetess, who gives expression thereto in accordance with her natural aptitude and capacity.