The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1881-05-04
GREEK WIT.
some Instances OF Fun From . serisas
PEOPLE.

A truly diadactic saying is attributed
by Klian to the Spartan magistrates.
"When certain persons from Clazomen@
had come 10 Sparta and smeared with
SCOT the seats on which the Spartan
magistrates sat discharging public du-
ties; on discovering what had been done
and by whom, they expressed no indig-
nation, but merely ordered q public
proclamation to be made, Let 1t be law
mi for the people Of Clazomenm to make
! blackguards Of themselves. A very
arge number Of apothegms, proverbs,
" savings Of more or less wit occur up
and down the collected works Of Plutarch,
although Schncidewin does not hesitate
10 attribute those to some impOster
l,urplng his name. At any rate they
are handily classified, and form a bulky
addition b Mr. Paley's translated
specimens. Here is brief and bright
saying which this writer attaches to King
Arrhclaus, when laxative barber, trim
ming his beard, asked him; How shall
cut it, IN silence, replied the
King The anccdotc recalls one Of
Charles H. e Dragging BARRIERS, who
boosted ohimh he could cut His Majcsty's
throat when he would a boast for
which he was only dismissed though
for like rash yaunt, according 10 Peter
Cunningham, the barber Of DionySiuS,
was crurlhcd. 70 return to Plutarch,
he tells the following stories, both good
in their way, Of Philip Macedon. In
passing sentence on two rogues he Jr-
lcrcd one 10 leave Macedonia with all
speed and the other to try to catch him
No less astuto was his query as to ii
strong position he wished to occupy,
which was reported by the scouts TO be
almost lmpregnablc.
as there not, he asked, "eyen a
pathway 10 it wide enough for an ass
laden with gold?'
Philip, too, according TO Plutarch, is
entitled to the fatherhood Of an adaQc
which retains its ancient fame about
'calling a spade n spade. Another
sample Of witty saying from Putarch's
mint is that attributed to Themistoclcs,
that his son was the strongest man i'll
Greece.
For" said he, "the Anthcnians,
rule the Hellenes. Irule the Anthenians,
your mother rules me, and you rule your
mother.
We must cite one or two other Of the
many examples from Plutarch This is
attributed by him TO Leotychidas, son Of
Aristo. A snake having twined itself
round key, which was declared by the
seers to be portent, Leotychidas re-
marked; 1t would have been more Of
portcnt if the key had twined itself
round snake" Others are connected
with ornithology, like the apothcgm OF
one who pluckcd the feathers from
nightingale, and finding it very small
bird exclaimed: "You little wretch,
you're nothing but voice." and again, the
repartee of Laconian to man Of
Sparta, who twittcd him with being I'M
able to stand as long as himself on one
leg. ono" replied the other, "but my
goose can. When Dcmadcs, the ora
tor, remarked that the swords of the
Spartans were 80 short that they could
be swallowed by conjurers, Agis, the
younger king of that name, replied; we
find them quite long enough TO reach the
enemy An anecdotc Of StrabO gives
n vivid picture Of the clashing of y har-
per's performances with the sounding Of
a bell for opening Of the fish market All
the audience vanished at once save
little deaf man. The harper expressed
himself unuterably fattercd at his hav-
ing resisted the importantly Of the fish
bell.
What" cried the deaf man, "has
the fish bell rung2 Then, I'm off, too.
Good-byc"