The Ε at Delphi (4-5)

Ammonius smiled quietly, suspecting privately that Lamprias had been indulging in a mere opinion of his own and was fabricating history and tradition regarding a matter in which he could not be held to account. Someone else among those present said that all this was similar to the nonsense which the Chaldean visitor had uttered a short time before: that there are seven vowels in the alphabet and seven stars that have an independent and unconstrained motion; that E is the second in order of the vowels from the beginning, and the sun the second planet after the moon, and that practically all the Greeks identify Apollo with the Sun.[*] But all this, said he, has its source in slate and prate[*] and in nothing else.

Apparently Lamprias had unwittingly stirred up the persons connected with the temple against his remarks. For what he had said no one of the Delphians knew anything about; but they were used to bring forward the commonly accepted opinion which the guides give, holding it to be right that neither the appearance nor the sound of the letter has any cryptic meaning, but only its name.

For it is, as the Delphians assume, - and on this occasion Nicander, the priest, spoke for them and said, the figure and form of the consultation of the god, and it holds the

first place in every question of those who consult the oracle and inquire if they shall be victorious, if they shall marry, if it is to their advantage to sail the sea, if to take to farming, if to go abroad.[*] But the god in his wisdom bade a long farewell to the logicians who think that nothing real comes out of the particle if combined with what the consultant thinks proper to undertake, for the god conceives of all the inquiries subjoined to this as real things and welcomes them as such. And since to inquire from him as from a prophet is our individual prerogative, but to pray to him as to a god is common to all, they think that the particle contains an optative force no less than an interrogative. If only I could, is the regular expression of a wish, and Archilochus[*] says,

If to me it might be granted Neobulê’s hand to touch.

And in using if only they assert that the second word is added unnecessarily, like Sophron’s[*] surely:

Surely in want of children as well.

This is found also in Homer[*]

Since I surely shall break your might

but, as they assert, the optative force is adequately indicated by the if.