ON THE CONTEMPT OF DEATH.
61
whom the rest of the deities have assigned the province of
divining with an accuracy superior to that of all the rest.
XLVIII. There is also a story told of Silenus, who, when taken prisoner by Midas, is said to have made him this present for his ransom namely, that he informed him 1 that never to have been born was by far the great est blessing that could happen to man; and that the next best thing was to die very soon; which very opinion Euripides make* use of in his Cresphontes, saying,
When man is born, 'tis fit, with solemn show,
We speak our sense of his approaching woe;
With other gestures and a different eye,
Proclaim our pleasure when he's bid to die. 3
There is something like this in Grantor's Consolation; for he says that Terina3us of Elysia, when he was bitterly lamenting the loss of his son, came to a place of divination to be informed why he was visited with so great affliction, and received in his tablet these three verses :
Thou fool, to murmur at Euthynous' death!
The blooming youth to fate resigns his breath :
The fate, whereon your happiness depends,
At once the parent and the son befriends. 3
On these and similar authorities they affirm that the question has been determined by the Gods. Nay, more; Alcidamas, an ancient rhetorician of the very highest reputation, wrote even in praise of death, which he endeavored to establish by an enumeration of the evils of life; and his Dissertation has a great deal of eloquence in it; but
This was expressed in the Greek verses,
'ApX'l* fit'v fit] Qvvat iirtx9ovioi<Ttv aptarov, ipiivra 6' OTTUK wK.tara TruAar 'Aiduo vepriaai' which by some authors are attributed to Homer.
This is the first fragment of the Cresphontes. Ed. Var. vji., p. 594. rst fragment ot the urespnontes. .t "Eifi -nap r'ljuur <rvo-</ov TfoiovfJ.ivom Tov divv-ra iipnvftv, fit o<r' epVfTai Kami. T ' A* T fi ' u ' ' ' aipo at eutpri/JLCHVTa? eKitffiirftv &6p.tav
- The Greek verses are quoted by Plutarch :
"Hirov vrjirie, |Ai'#io< ipptvft uvdpiav
OVK n" Tfp ^taeiv Kav avrw ofnt