Pagina 813 de 1391

or his insubordination to the river-god, on whose divinity he is

ready to lay hands; or his offering to the dead Patroclus of his

own hair, which had been previously dedicated to the other

river-god Spercheius, and that he actually performed this vow; or

that he dragged Hector round the tomb of Patroclus, and

slaughtered the captives at the pyre; of all this I cannot

believe that he was guilty, any more than I can allow our

citizens to believe that he, the wise Cheiron's pupil, the son of

a goddess and of Peleus who was the gentlest of men and third in

descent from Zeus, was so disordered in his wits as to be at one

time the slave of two seemingly inconsistent passions, meanness,

not untainted by avarice, combined with overweening contempt of

gods and men.

You are quite right, he replied.