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Thereupon the poet Chersias cited, among the eases of persons who had been saved when their plight seemed hopeless, the case of Cypselus,The story is found in Herodotus, v. 92. the father of Periander, who, when he was a new-born babe, smiled at the men who had been sent to make away with him, and they turned away. And when again they changed their minds, they sought for him and found him not, for he had been put away in a chest by his mother. It was because of this that Cypselus constructed the building at Delphi, firmly believing that the god had at that time stopped his crying so that he might escape the notice of those who were searching for him.
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And Pittacus, addressing Periander, said, Chersias certainly did well to mention the building, for I have often desired, Periander, to ask you the reason for those frogs, and what is their significance, carved as they are in such numbers about the base of the palm-tree,The frogs and the palm-tree are mentioned also in Moralia, 399 F. and what relation they have to the god or to the dedicator.
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Periander bade him ask Chersias, for Chersias, he said, knew and was present when Cypselus consecrated the building; but Chersias said with a smile, No, I will not tell until I learn from our friends here what significance they give to the precepts, For information about these famous precepts reference may be made to Plato, Protagoras, p. 343 B, and Charmides, p. 165 A; Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii. 12, 14: Pausanias, x. 24. 1; Plutarch, Moralia, 116 C, 385 D, and 511 B, and De vita et poesi Homeri, 151. Avoid extremes and Know thyself, and, in particular, that one which has kept many from marrying, and many from trusting, and some even from speaking, and this is it: Give a pledge, and mischief attends.
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What need of us to tell you that? said Pittacus; since for this long time you have been praising the stories which Aesop has composed touching each of them, as it seems.
