Τόξαρις ἢ Φιλία

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İngilizce İngilizce İngilizce Yunanca

38

I shall begin with the affair of Dandamis, which happened recently. In our engagement with the Sauromatae, when Amizoces had been taken prisoner, his friend Dandamis—but stay! first let me take my oath for you in our way, since that also was part of the agreement that I made with you in the beginning. I swear by Wind and Glaive that I shall tell you no falsehood, Mnesippus, about Scythian friends.

MNESIPPUS I scarcely felt the need of your swearing, but you did well to avoid taking oath by any god!

TOXARIS What is that you say? Do you not think Wind and Glaive are gods? Were you really so unaware that there is nothing more important to mankind than life and death? Well then, when we swear by Wind and Glaive, we do so because the wind is the source of life, and the glaive the cause of death.Herodotus alludes to Scythian sword-worship (IV, 62), but says nothing of their worshipping the wind, which Rostovtzeff takes to be an invention of Lucian’s. MNESIPPUS Well, really, if that is the reason, you could have many other such gods as Glaive is—Arrow, Spear, Poison, Halter, and the like; for this god Death takes many shapes and puts at our disposal an infinite number of roads that lead to him.