Plutarch’s moralia
(548)ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΥΠΟ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΙΟΥ ΒΡΑΔΕΩΣ ΤΙΜΩΡΟΥΜΕΝΩΝ1
1. Τοιαῦτα μὲν ὁ Ἐπίκουρος2 εἰπών, ὦ Κυῆτε,3 Bκαὶ πρὶν ἀποκρίνασθαί τινα, πρὸς τῷ πέρατι τῆς στοᾶς γενομένων ἡμῶν, ᾤχετο ἀπιών· ἡμεῖς δὲ ὅσον τι θαυμάσαι τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὴν ἀτοπίαν ἐπιστάντες σιωπῇ καὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους διαβλέψαντες ἀνεστρέφομεν πάλιν ὥσπερ ἐτυγχάνομεν περιπατοῦντες.
Εἶτα πρῶτος ὁ Πατροκλέας,4 “τί οὖν;” εἶπεν. “ἐᾶν δοκεῖ τὴν ζήτησιν, ἢ τῷ λόγῳ καθάπερ παρόντος καὶ μὴ παρόντος5 ἀποκρινώμεθα6 τοῦ εἰπόντος;”
Ὑπολαβὼν δὲ ὁ Τίμων, “ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ εἰ βαλών,” εἶπεν, “ἀπηλλάγη, καλῶς εἶχε περιορᾶν τὸ βέλος Cἐγκείμενον. ὁ μὲν γὰρ Βρασίδας ὡς ἔοικεν ἐξελκύσας τὸ δόρυ τοῦ σώματος αὐτῷ τούτῳ τὸν βαλόντα πατάξας ἀνεῖλεν· ἡμῶν δὲ ἀμύνασθαι μὲν οὐδὲν
- 1π. τ. ὑπὸ τ. θ. βρ. τιμ.] περὶ βραδέως κολαζομένων ὑπὸ τοῦ θείου Lamprias; [περὶ τῶν ὑπὸ τοῦ] θείου [βραδέως κολα]ζομένων F1 K1 at the end (the bracketed letters are lost in F); ὅτι βράδιον οἱ θεοὶ τιμωροῦνται Sopater (Photius, Bibl. 104a40).
- 2ἐπίκουρος (cf. p. 175 note, supra)] Ἐπικούρειος Fabricius.
- 3Κυητέ Patzig: κύνιε (κύριε Vv).
- 4Πατροκλέας] Vv have πατροκλέης and its cases everywhere (at 549 b V1ss has -εις); Y2 has -έης here and at 548 c; G X1t F Z2 I have -εις at 549 b; G3? F have -εις at 553 d. The error spread from 549 b, where all except D W2 have -έους for -έου.
- 5παρόντος καὶ μὴ παρόντος] παρόντος G1 hki.
- 6ἀποκρινώμεθα X3 K2 M VvY2: ὑποκρινώμεθα (so N2) or ὑποκρινόμεθα (ὑπὸκρινόμεθα N1)
The Divine Vengeance
On the Delays of the Diving Vengeance
1. When he had made this speech, my dear Quietus, Epicurus did not even wait for an answer, but made off on our reaching the end of the colonnade. The rest of us, pausing only long enough to exchange mute glances of astonishment at the fellow’s singularity, turned about and resumed our walk.
Patrocleas was the first to speak. “Well, what shall we do?” he asked. “Shall we drop the question, or answer the arguments of the speaker in his absence as we should have done in his presence?”
Timon replied: “Why, if he had escaped after striking us with a real shaft,a we could not have left it sticking in us. We are told, indeed, that Brasidas plucked the spear from his body and with that very weapon struck and killed the thrower.b It is, however,