10
All the consult approved of Thales’s solutions. Then Cleodemus said: My friend Niloxenus, it becomes kings to propound and resolve such questions; but the insolence of that barbarian who would have Amasis drink the sea would have been better fitted by such a smart reprimand as Pittacus gave Alyattes, who sent an imperious letter to the Lesbians. He made him no answer, except to bid him spend his time in eating his hot bread and onions.
10
Periander here assumed the discourse, and said: It was the manner of the ancient Grecians heretofore, O Cleodemus, to propound doubts to one another; and it hath been told us, that the most famous and eminent poets once met at the grave of Amphidamas in Chalcis. This Amphidamas was a leading citizen, one that had perpetual wars with the Eretrians, and at last lost his life in one of the battles fought for the possession of the Lelantine plain. Now, because the writings of those poets were composed in verse, and so made the argument more knotty and the decision more difficult, and the great names of the antagonists, Homer and Hesiod, whose excellence was so well known, made the umpires timorous and shy to determine; they therefore betook themselves to these sorts of questions, and Homer, says Lesches, propounded this riddle:— Tell me, O Muse, what never was And never yet shall be.
10
Hesiod answered readily and extempore in this wise:— When steeds with sounding hoof, to win The prize, shall run amain; And at the tomb of mighty Jove Their chariots break in twain.
