5
Following this a silence ensued, and again the guides began to deliver their harangues. A certain oracle in verse was recited (I think it concerned the kingdom of Aegon the ArgivePlutarch recounts the story of this oracle in Moralia, 340 c., whereupon Diogenianus said that he had often wondered at the barrenness and cheapness of the hexameter lines in which the oracles are pronounced. Yet the god is Leader of the Muses, and it is right and fair that he should take no less interest in what is called elegance of diction than in the sweetness of sound that is concerned with tunes and songs, and that his utterances should surpass Hesiod and Homer in the excellence of their versification. Yet we observe that most of the oracles are full of metrical and verbal errors and barren diction.
5
Sarapion, the poet who was present from Athens, said, Then do we believe these verses to be the god’s, and yet dare to say that in beauty they fall short of the verses of Homer and Hesiod? Shall we not treat them as if they were the best and fairest of poetic compositions, and correct our own judgement, prepossessed as it is as the result of unfortunate habituation?
5
At this point BoëthusCalled the Epicurean in Moralia, 673 c. the mathematician entered into the conversation. (You know that the man is already changing his allegiance in the direction of Epicureanism.) Said he, Do you happen to have heard the story of Pauson the painter? Cf. Aelian, Varia Historia, xiv. 15. According to the scholium on Aristophanes, Plutus, 602, the Pauson mentioned there is probably the same man.
5
No, said Sarapion, I have not.
