Memorabilia

own by Lamprocles, the elder of his sons, towards t

ever hear of certain peop

(replied the

stood what it is they d

eated, and has it in his power to requite the kind

people reckon the ungr

p.

it, ingratitude may not perhaps resemble some such conduct as the enslavement, say, o

o matter who confers the kindness, friend or foe, the recipient

stands, ingratitude would be an inst

sented to the

greatness of the benefit conferred, the greater

es again

into being, who granted them to look upon all these fair sights, and to partake of all those blessings which the gods bestow on man, things so priceless in our eyes that one and a

f these as large a store as possible. The woman, conceiving, bears her precious burthen with travail and pain, and at the risk of life itself — sharing with that within her womb the food on which she herself is fed. And when with much labour she has borne to the end and brought forth her offspring, she feeds it and watches over it with tender care — not in return for any good thing previously received, for indeed the babe itself is little conscious of its benefactor and cannot even signify its wants; only she, the mother, making conjecture of what is good for it, and wh

done all that, and twenty times as much, no soul on

would be harder to bear — a wil

other’s — at least if

ne you any injury — such as people freque

, she uses words which any one would

se, by fretfulness and peevishness in word and deed, night and day, si

or did anything to brin

n to your mother’s speeches than for actor to listen to actor o

inquisitor may cross-question, but he will not inflict a fine; the threatener may h

, she is so far from meaning you mischief that she is actually wishing blessings to descend upo

I do not t

for nothing which may help you; and, more than all, who is perpetually pleading for blessings in your behalf and offering her vows to Heaven155 — can yo

stand alone? Prepared not to please or try to please a single soul? to follow none? To obey neither ge

ertainly I o

may kindle a fire for you in your need, may prove himself a ready helpmate in good fort

I am w

hat of any others, you may light upon? is it indifferent to you whether these be friends or

p.

parents, on him the finger of the law is laid; his name is struck off the roll; he is forbidden to hold the archonship — which is as much as to say, “Sacrifices in behalf of the state offered by such a man would be no offerings, being tainted with impiety; nor could aught else be ‘well and justly’ performed of which he is the doer.” Heaven help us! If a man fail to adorn the sepulchre of his dead parents the state takes cognisance of the matter, and inquisition is made in the scrutiny of the magistrates.156 And as for you, my s

“the joys o

of children.” See below,

o leave nou

G.” viii. 457; Pl

“payin

imasia.” See Gow,

h atimia.”