7
He would have said more, but Heracleon seized hold of his cloak, and I, being about as intimate with him as anybody, said, Cease provoking the god, my dear Planetiades; for he is of a good and mild disposition, And towards mortal men he hath been judged the most gentle, as Pindar Ibid. 394 a and 1102 e; Pindar, Frag. 149 (ed. Christ). says. And whether he be the sun Cf. 386 b, supra, and the note. or the lord and father of the sun and of all that lies beyond our vision,The language is reminiscent of ἐπέκεινα τῆς οὐσίας (Plato, Republic 509 b). it is not likely that he should deny his utterance to people of the present day because of their unworthiness, when he is responsible for their birth and nurture and their existence and power to think; nor is it likely withal that Providence, like a benign and helpful mother, who does everything for us and watches over us, should cherish animosity in the matter of prophecy only, and take away that from us after having given it to us at the beginning, as if the number of wicked men included among a larger population were not larger at that earlier time when the oracles were established in many places in the inhabited world! Come, sit down again and make a Pythian truceThe sacred truce, made throughout the Greek world, for the duration of the Pythian games. with evil, which you are wont to chastise with words every day, and join us in seeking some other reason for what is spoken of as the obsolescence of oracles; but keep the god benign and provoke him not to wrath.
7
What I had said was so far effective that Planetiades went out through the door without another word.
