6
Two women, taking me by the hands, were each trying to drag me toward herself with might and main; in fact, they nearly pulled me to pieces in their rivalry. Now one of them would get the better of it and almost have me altogether, and now I would be in the hands of the other. They shouted at each other, too, one of them saying, ‘He is mine, and you want to get him!” and the other: “It is no good your claiming what belongs to someone else.” One was like a workman, masculine, with unkempt hair, hands full of callous places, clothing tucked up, and a heavy layer of warble-dust upon her, just as my uncle looked when he cut stone. The other, however, was very fair of face, dignified in her appearance, and nice in her dress.
6
At length they allowed me to decide which of them I wanted to be with. The first to state her case was the hard-favoured, masculine one.
7
“Dear boy, I am the trade of Sculpture which you began to learn yesterday, of kin to you and related by descent; for your grandfather”—and she gave the name of my mother’s father—“was a sculptor, and so are both your uncles, who are very famous through me. If you are willing to keep clear of this woman’s silly nonsense” —with a gesture toward the other—“and to come and live with me, you will be generously kept and will have powerful shoulders, and you will be a stranger to jealousy of any sort; besides you will never go abroad, leaving your native country and your kinsfolk, and it will not be for mere words, either, that everyone will praise you.
8
“Do not be disgusted at my humble figure and my soiled clothing, for this is the way in which Phidias began, who revealed Zeus, and Polycleitus, who made Hera, Myron, whom men praise, and Praxiteles, at whom they marvel. Indeed, these men receive homage second only to the gods. If you become one of them, will you not yourself be famous in the sight of all mankind, make your father envied, and cause your native land to be admired?”
