Τόξαρις ἢ Φιλία

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İngilizce İngilizce İngilizce Yunanca

1 MNESIPPUS What about it, Toxaris? Do you Scythians sacrifice to Orestes and Pylades, and have you come to believe that they are gods?

1 TOXARIS We sacrifice, Mnesippus, we sacrifice; not, however, because we think them gods, but good men.The existence of a cult of Orestes and Pylades in Scythia is not otherwise attested, and is credible only in a limited sense, as a local development of Greek hero-worship; see below, on the Oresteum, § 6. MNESIPPUS Is it your custom to sacrifice to good men when they are dead, as if they were gods?

1 TOXARIS Not only that, but we honour them with festivals and pilgrimages.

1 MNESIPPUS What do you crave from them? For surely it is not to gain their grace that you sacrifice to them, in view of the fact that they are dead. TOXARIS Well, we should be none the worse off, perhaps, if even the dead should be gracious to us. However, we think it will be better for the living if we do not forget men of high achievement, and we honour them after death because we consider that in this way we can get many to wish to become like them.