Æschylus. 525-456 b. c.
I would far rather be ignorant than wise in the foreboding of evil.[695:1]
Suppliants, 453.
"Honour thy father and thy mother" stands written among the three laws of most revered righteousness.[695:2]
Suppliants, 707.
Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.[695:3]
Prometheus, 378.
Time as he grows old teaches many lessons.
Prometheus, 981.
God's mouth knows not to utter falsehood, but he will perform each word.[695:4]
Prometheus, 1032.
Learning is ever in the freshness of its youth, even for the old.[695:5]
Agamemnon, 584.
Few men have the natural strength to honour a friend's success without envy.... I well know that mirror of friendship, shadow of a shade.
Agamemnon, 832.
Exiles feed on hope.
Agamemnon, 1668.
Success is man's god.
Choephoræ, 59.
[696]
So in the Libyan fable it is told
That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,
Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,
"With our own feathers, not by others' hands,
Are we now smitten."[696:1]
Frag. 135 (trans. by Plumptre).
Of all the gods, Death only craves not gifts:
Nor sacrifice, nor yet drink-offering poured
Avails; no altars hath he, nor is soothed
By hymns of praise. From him alone of all
The powers of heaven Persuasion holds aloof.
Frag. 146 (trans. by Plumptre).
O Death the Healer, scorn thou not, I pray,
To come to me: of cureless ills thou art
The one physician. Pain lays not its touch
Upon a corpse.
Frag. 250 (trans. by Plumptre).
A prosperous fool is a grievous burden.
Frag. 383.
Bronze is the mirror of the form; wine, of the heart.
Frag. 384.
It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.
Frag. 385.
Footnotes
[695:1] See Gray, page 382.
[695:2] The three great laws ascribed to Triptolemus are referred to,—namely, to honour parents; to worship the gods with the fruits of the earth; to hurt no living creature. The first two laws are also ascribed to the centaur Cheiron.
[695:3]
Apt words have power to suage
The tumours of a troubl'd mind.
Milton: Samson Agonistes.
[695:4] God is not a man that he should lie;... hath he said, and shall he not do it?—Numbers xxiii. 19.
[695:5] See Shakespeare, page 64.
[696:1] See Waller, page 219.