Book 2
8
Let the situation of others be as it may: we, in my opinion, must needs realize our own situation— what it was of old, what it is now, and what we can do to better it. That we live on crags and cultivate rocks is something we need not wait for Homer to tell us—anyone can see it for himself.“Rocky Pytho” is twice mentioned in the Iliad (2, 519; 9, 405). But Lucian is thinking particularly of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, toward the close of which (526f.) the Cretans whom Apollo has settled at Delphi ask him haw they are to live; "for here is no lovely vine-land or fertile glebe.” He tells them that they have only to slaughter sheep, and all that_men bring him shall be theirs. As far as the land is concerned, we should always be cheek by jow] with starvation: the temple, the god, the oracle, the sacrificers and the worshippers—these are the grain-lands of Delphi, these are our revenue, these are the sources of our prosperity and of our subsistence. We-should speak the truth among ourselves, at any rate! “Unsown and untilled,” Homer, Od. 9, 109; 123. as the poets say, everything is grown for us with the god for our husbandman. Not only does he vouchsafe us the good things found among the Greeks, but every product of the Phrygians, the Lydians, the Persians, the Assyrians, the Phoenicians, the Italians and even the Hyperboreans comes to Delphi. And next to the god we are held in honour by all men, and we are prosperous and happy. Thus it was of old, thus it has been till now, and may we never cease leading this life!
