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Now, as regards parents, brotherly love is of such sort that to love ones brother is forthwith a proof of love for both mother and father; and again, as regards children, for them there is no lesson and example comparable to brotherly love on their father’s part. And, on the other hand, the contrary is a bad example for children who inherit, as from a father’s testament, his hatred of brothers. For a man who has grown old in law-suits and quarrels and contentions with his brothers, and then exhorts his children to concord, Healer of others, full of sores himself,Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. ², p. 703, Euripides, Frag. 1086; quoted also in Moralia, 71 f, 88 d, 1110 e. Cf. Aeschylus, Prometheus, 473; and ἰατρέ, θεράπευσον σεαυτόν. weakens the force of his words by his own actions. If, at any rate, EteoclesEuripides, Phoenissae, 504-506. of Thebes had said with reference to his brother,Polyneices. To where the sun and stars rise would I go, And plunge beneath the earth-if this I could- To hold Dominion, greatest of the gods, and then had proceeded to exhort his own children Phoenissae, 536-538, but it is Jocasta who speaks here, exhorting Eteocles to concord: cf. Moralia, 643 f. Revere Equality, which ever binds Friend to friend, state to state, allies unto Allies: Nature made equal rights secure, who would not have despised him? And what sort of man would Atreus have been, if, after serving his brother that dinner,Atreus served to his brother Thyestes Thyestes’ own children at a feast of pretended reconciliation. he had then proceeded to preach to his own children: And yet the use of friends, fast joined with ties Of blood, alone brings help when troubles flow?Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. ², p. 912, ades. 384.
