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And indeed it is an uncle’s duty to rejoice and take pride in the fair deeds and honours and offices of a brother’s sons and to help to give them an incentive to honourable achievement, and, when they succeed, to praise them without stint; for it is, perhaps, offensive to praise one’s own son, yet to praise a brother’s is a noble thing, not inspired by selfishness, but honourable and truly divine; for it seems to me that the very name θεῖος = an uncle and divine. admirably points the way to goodwill and affection for nephews. And one must also strive to emulate the deeds of those beings who are superior to man. So Heracles, though he begat sixty-eight sons, loved his nephew no less than any of them, and even to this day in many places IolaüsHeracles’ nephew, who helped him in his encounter with the Nemean lion. has an altar in common with Heracles and men pray to them together, calling Iolaüs Heracles’ assistant. And when his brother IphiclesTwin-brother of Heracles, son of Alcmene and Amphitryon; cf. Moralia, 285 f. fell at the battle in Lacedaemon, Heracles was filled with great grief and retired from the entire Peloponnesus. And Leucothea,Leucothea is the name of the deified Ino, wife of Athamas, who threw herself into the sea and was changed into a goddess; cf. Life of Camillus, v. (131 b-c); Moralia, 267 d-e. On the Matralia, celebrated in honour of Mater Matuta, see most recently H. J. Rose, Class. Quart., xxviii. 156 f. also, when her sister died, brought up her child and helped to have him consecrated together with herself as a god; whence it is that the women of Rome in the festival of Leucothea, whom they call Matuta, take in their arms and honour, not their own, but their sisters’ children.
