Kitap 6
2.51
Good men he called images of the gods, and love the business of the idle. To the question what is wretched in life he replied, An old man destitute. Being asked what creature’s bite is the worst, he said, Of those that are wild a sycophant’s; of those that are tame a flatterer’s. Upon seeing two centaurs very badly painted, he asked, Which of these is Chiron? (worse man). Ingratiating speech he compared to honey used to choke you. The stomach he called livelihood’s Charybdis.i.e. a whirlpool engulfing a man’s livelihood. Hearing a report that Didymon the flute-player had been caught in adultery, his comment was, His name alone is sufficient to hang him. To the question why gold is pale, his reply was, Because it has so many thieves plotting against it. On seeing a woman carried in a litter, he remarked that the cage was not in keeping with the quarry.
2.52
One day seeing a runaway slave sitting on the brink of a well, he said, Take care, my lad, you don’t fall in. Seeing a boy taking clothes at the baths, he asked, Is it for a little unguent (ἀλειμμάτιον) or is it for a new cloak (ἄλλ’ ἱμάτιον)? Seeing some women hanged from an olive-tree, he said, Would that every tree bore similar fruit. On seeing a footpad he accosted him thus: What mak’st thou here, my gallant? Com’st thou perchance for plunder of the dead?Hom. Il. x. 343, 387. Being asked whether he had any maid or boy to wait on him, he said No. If you should die, then, who will carry you out to burial? Whoever wants the house, he replied.
