13
Right, but she will show you who she is, just by speaking.
14
Ah! What are you all doing in the upper world, Plato and Chrysippus and Aristotle and the rest of you, the very fore-front of my studies? Why have you come back to life? Did anything in the underworld ‘distress you? You certainly appear to be angry. And who is this man whom you have taken into custody? Some ghoul or murderer or profaner of holiness, I suppose.
14
“Yes, indeed, Philosophy, the most impious of all profaners, for he made bold to speak ill of you, than whom nothing is more holy, and of us, one and all, who learned something from you and have left it to those who came after us.
14
Then it made you angry to be vituperated? And yet you knew that in spite of the hard names which Comedy calls me during the festival of Dionysus, I have held her my friend, and neither sued her at law nor berated her in private, but permit her to make the fun that is in keeping and customary at the festival. I am aware, you see, that no harm can be done by a joke; that, on the contrary, whatever is beautiful shines brighter and becomes more conspicuous, like gold cleansed by its minting. But you, for some reason or other, have grown hot-tempered and violent. Tell me, why do you throttle him?
14
"Obtaining leave of absence for this one day, we came to get him, so that he may pay the penalty for what he has done; for rumours repeatedly told us what sort of language he used in public against us.
15
Then you intend to put him to death before trial, without even a chance to defend himself? It is certainly clear that he wants to make.a statement.
15
No: we have referred the whole matter to you, and you are to conclude the trial as you think best.
15
You, there, what do you say?
15
Precisely what they do, my Lady Philosophy; for. you, even without aid, could discover the truth. In fact, it was only with difficulty, after a deal of entreaty, that I secured the reservation of the case for you.
