Chapter 88

“For I already have been boy and girl,And bush, and bird, and mute fish in the sea,”—

“For I already have been boy and girl,And bush, and bird, and mute fish in the sea,”—

“For I already have been boy and girl,And bush, and bird, and mute fish in the sea,”—

“For I already have been boy and girl,

And bush, and bird, and mute fish in the sea,”—

Euripides transcribes inChrysippus:

“But nothing diesOf things that are; but being dissolved,One from the other,Shows another form.”

“But nothing diesOf things that are; but being dissolved,One from the other,Shows another form.”

“But nothing diesOf things that are; but being dissolved,One from the other,Shows another form.”

“But nothing dies

Of things that are; but being dissolved,

One from the other,

Shows another form.”

And Plato having said, in theRepublic, that women were common, Euripides writes in theProtesilaus:

“For common, then, is woman’s bed.”

“For common, then, is woman’s bed.”

“For common, then, is woman’s bed.”

“For common, then, is woman’s bed.”

Further, Euripides having written:

“For to the temperate enough sufficient is,”—

“For to the temperate enough sufficient is,”—

“For to the temperate enough sufficient is,”—

“For to the temperate enough sufficient is,”—

Epicurus expressly says, “Sufficiency is the greatest riches of all.”

Again, Aristophanes having written:

“Life thou securely shalt enjoy, being justAnd free from turmoil, and from fear live well,”—

“Life thou securely shalt enjoy, being justAnd free from turmoil, and from fear live well,”—

“Life thou securely shalt enjoy, being justAnd free from turmoil, and from fear live well,”—

“Life thou securely shalt enjoy, being just

And free from turmoil, and from fear live well,”—

Epicurus says, “The greatest fruit of righteousness is tranquillity.”

Let these species, then, of Greek plagiarism of sentiments, being such, stand as sufficient for a clear specimen to him who is capable of perceiving.

And not only have they been detected pirating and paraphrasing thoughts and expressions, as will be shown; but they will also be convicted of the possession of what is entirely stolen. For stealing entirely what is the production of others, they have published it as their own; as Eugamon of Cyrene did the entire book on the Thesprotians from Musæus, and Pisander of Camirus the Heraclea of Pisinus of Lindus, and Panyasis of Halicarnassus, the capture of Œchalia from Cleophilus of Samos.

You will also find that Homer, the great poet, took fromOrpheus, from theDisappearanceof Dionysus, those words and what follows verbatim:

“As a man trains a luxuriant shoot of olive.”[946]

“As a man trains a luxuriant shoot of olive.”[946]

“As a man trains a luxuriant shoot of olive.”[946]

“As a man trains a luxuriant shoot of olive.”[946]

And in theTheogony, it is said by Orpheus of Kronos:

“He lay, his thick neck bent aside; and himAll-conquering Sleep had seized.”

“He lay, his thick neck bent aside; and himAll-conquering Sleep had seized.”

“He lay, his thick neck bent aside; and himAll-conquering Sleep had seized.”

“He lay, his thick neck bent aside; and him

All-conquering Sleep had seized.”

These Homer transferred to the Cyclops.[947]And Hesiod writes of Melampous:

“Gladly to hear, what the immortals have assignedTo men, the brave from cowards clearly marks;”

“Gladly to hear, what the immortals have assignedTo men, the brave from cowards clearly marks;”

“Gladly to hear, what the immortals have assignedTo men, the brave from cowards clearly marks;”

“Gladly to hear, what the immortals have assigned

To men, the brave from cowards clearly marks;”

and so forth, taking it word for word from the poet Musæus.

And Aristophanes the comic poet has, in the first of theThesmophoriazusæ, transferred the words from theEmpiprameniof Cratinus. And Plato the comic poet, and Aristophanes inDædalus, steal from one another.Cocalus, composed by Araros,[948]the son of Aristophanes, was by the comic poet Philemon altered, and made into the comedy calledHypobolimæus.

Eumelus and Acusilaus the historiographers changed the contents of Hesiod into prose, and published them as their own. Gorgias of Leontium and Eudemus of Naxus, the historians, stole from Melesagoras. And, besides, there is Bion of Proconnesus, who epitomized and transcribed the writings of the ancient Cadmus, and Archilochus, and Aristocles, and Leandrus, and Hellanicus, and Hecatæus, and Androtion, and Philochorus. Dieuchidas of Megara transferred the beginning of his treatise from theDeucalionof Hellanicus. I pass over in silence Heraclitus of Ephesus, who took a very great deal from Orpheus.

From Pythagoras Plato derived the immortality of the soul; and he from the Egyptians. And many of the Platonists composed books, in which they show that the Stoics, as we said in the beginning, and Aristotle, took the most and principal of their dogmas from Plato. Epicurusalso pilfered his leading dogmas from Democritus. Let these things then be so. For life would fail me, were I to undertake to go over the subject in detail, to expose the selfish plagiarism of the Greeks, and how they claim the discovery of the best of their doctrines, which they have received from us.

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