let him therefore take the money away, and give it to his mother, and say that the king praised her greatly for having borne such a son.
Sayings of Socrates.
267.Socrates, the most celebrated of all philosophers, used to say that nothing should be asked of the gods, who were sure to give to man what they thought right (lit. what seemed good). To a certain man who asked him if he should marry a wife or not, he replied: ‘You will repent of either deed.’ Having been condemned to death by the Athenians, he received the poisoned cup with calm mind and unmoved countenance. When the cup was already in his hands and his grieving wife kept saying, ‘that he died free of all crime;’ ‘ What!’ said he, ‘do you wish me to die as a criminal?’
Berenice’s hair.
268.When Ptolemaeus Euergetes was preparing an expedition to Syria, his wife Berenice, who loved him very much, fearing the danger which he was likely to meet, promised to offer her hair to the gods if he should return home in safety. Now the king came home safe, having completely conquered the enemy. Then, indeed, Berenice cut off her hair, and offered it to the gods. And when it could not be found through the neglect of the priest, the king, in anger, threatened them with death. So a certain Conon, to appease the king’s wrath, proclaimed that the hair had been carried away to heaven by the gods, and had been made a constellation.
True wisdom.
269.Once, when certain Ionians had purchased one throw of a net from some sailors, a golden tripod appeared. Then on the sailors saying that they had only sold the fish which might be caught, and the Ionians on the other hand asserting that everything that had been taken in the net was theirs, a quarrel arose about the tripod. So to settle the dispute they sent to consult the oracle of Delphi. The priestess proclaimed that the tripod should be given to the wisest man among the Greeks. It was given to Thales, who passed it on to Bias; at last it came to Solon, who, thinking that the gods alone were wise, gave it as his opinion that it should be sent to the temple of Apollo.
