Kitap 10
75
And Hermippus says, that Theodectes of Phaselus, in his book on the Pupils of Isocrates, was a wonderfully clever man at discovering any riddles that might be proposed to him, and that he too could propose riddles to others with great acuteness. As that riddle about shade, for instance;— for he said that there was a nature which is greatest at its birth and at its decease, and least when at its height. And he speaks thus:— Of all the things the genial earth produces, Or the deep sea, there is no single one, Nor any man or other animal Whose growth at all can correspond to this: For when it first is born its size is greatest; At middle age 'tis scarcely visible, So small it's grown; but when 'tis old and hastens Nigh to its end, it then becomes again Greater than all the objects that surround it. And in the Œdipus, which is a tragedy, he speaks of night and day in the following riddle:— There are two sisters, one of whom brings forth The other, and in turn becomes its daughter.
