Kitap 1
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To return to the Sage: the story goes that a young man took counsel with him about marriage, and received this answer, as given by Callimachus in his EpigramsAnth. Pal. vii. 89.:
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A stranger of Atarneus thus inquired of Pittacus, the son of Hyrrhadius: Old sire, two offers of marriage are made to me; the one bride is in wealth and birth my equal; The other is my superior. Which is the better? Come now and advise me which of the two I shall wed. So spake he. But Pittacus, raising his staff, an old man’s weapon, said, See there, yonder boys will tell you the whole tale. The boys were whipping their tops to make them go fast and spinning them in a wide open space. Follow in their track, said he. So he approached near, and the boys were saying, Keep to your own sphere. When he heard this, the stranger desisted from aiming at the lordlier match, assenting to the warning of the boys. And, even as he led home the humble bride, so do you, Dion, keep to your own sphere.
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The advice seems to have been prompted by his situation. For he had married a wife superior in birth to himself: she was the sister of Draco, the son of Penthilus, and she treated him with great haughtiness.
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Alcaeus nicknamed him σαράπους and σάραπος because he had flat feet and dragged them in walking; also Chilblains, because he had chapped feet, for which their word was χειράς; and Braggadocio, because he was always swaggering; Paunch and Potbelly, because he was stout; a Diner-in-the-Dark, because he dispensed with a lamp; and the Sloven, because he was untidy and dirty. The exercise he took was grinding corn, as related by Clearchus the philosopher.
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The following short letter is ascribed to him:
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Pittacus to Croesus
