The Oracle at Delphi no Longer Given in Verse (6)

The fact is, Boëthus, said Sarapion, that we are ailing both in ears and eyes, accustomed as we are, through luxury and soft living, to believe and to declare that the pleasanter things are fair and lovely. Before long we shall be finding fault with the prophetic priestess because she does not speak in purer tones than Glaucê,[*] who sings to the lyre, and because she is not perfumed and clad in purple when she goes down into the inner shrine, and does not burn upon the altar cassia or ladanum or frankincense, but only laurel and barley meal. Do you not see, he continued, what grace the songs of Sappho have, charming and bewitching all who listen to them? But the Sibyl with frenzied lips, as Heracleitus[*] has it, uttering words mirthless, unembellislied, unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice through the god. And Pindar[*] says that Cadmus heard the god revealing music true, not sweet nor voluptuous nor with suddenly changing melody. For the emotionless and pure does not welcome Pleasure, but she, as well as Mischief,[*] was thrown down here, and the greater part of the evil in her has, apparently, gathered together to flood the ears of men. [*]