Yet he contended (and perhaps he will say this to you now
 also) that he would not have faced this trial if he had been conscious of committing a
 crime like this. As if all thieves and temple-robbers did not use this argument! It is an
 argument which goes to prove their shamelessness rather than the fact of their innocence.
 That is not the point at issue; we need the assurance that he did not sail, that he did
 not leave the city or settle at Megara . These are the facts by which the truth can be established. As for his appearance in
 court: surely some god brought him specially for punishment, so that, after shirking an
 honorable danger, he might meet a death of disgrace and shame and place himself at the
 mercy of the men he betrayed. If misfortune befalls him in some other place it is hardly
 clear if this is the crime for which he is being punished. But here, among the men whom he
 betrayed, it is obvious that his own transgressions of the law have brought upon him this
 reward. For the first step taken by the gods in the case of wicked men is to unhinge their
 reason; and personally I value as the utterance of an oracle these lines, composed by
 ancient poets and handed down to posterity The authorship
 of these verses is not known. : When gods in anger seek a mortal’s harm, First they
 deprive him of his sanity, And fashion of his mind a baser
 instrument, That he may have no knowledge when he errs. unknown 
 Who does not know the fate of Callistratus, Callistratus, an orator whom Demosthenes much admired, was
 instrumental in building up the Second Athenian Confederacy. After a raid by Alexander
 of Pherae on the Piraeus he was condemned
 to death by the Athenians ( 361 B.C.); and, though at first he
 fled to Methone , he returned later and the
 sentence was carried out. His name is mentioned by Hyperides ( Hyp.
 4.1 ). which the older among you remember and the younger have heard
 recounted, the man condemned to death by the city? How he fled and later, hearing from the
 god at Delphi that if he returned to
 Athens he would have fair treatment by the
 laws, came back and taking refuge at the altar of the twelve gods was none the less put to
 death by the state, and rightly so, for fair treatment by the laws is, in the case of
 wrongdoers, punishment. And thus the god too acted rightly in allowing those who had been
 wronged to punish the offender. For it would be an unseemly thing if revelations made to
 good men were the same as those vouchsafed to malefactors. It is my belief, gentlemen, that the guidance of the gods
 presides over all human affairs and more especially, as is to be expected, over our duty
 towards our parents, towards the dead and towards the gods themselves. For in our dealings
 with those to whom we owe our being, at whose hands we have enjoyed the greatest benefits,
 it is the utmost sacrilege that we should fail, not merely to do our duty, but even to
 dedicate our lives to their service.