This being so, if old Heracles here drags
men after him who are tethered by the ears to
his tongue, don’t be surprised at that, either: you
know the kinship between ears and tongue. Nor is
it a slight upon him that his tongue is pierced.
Indeed,” said he, “I call to mind a line or two of
comedy which I learned in your country:
the talkative
Have, one and all, their tongues pierced at the tip. Source unknown (Kock, Com. Att. Fragm., adesp. 398). 

 

In general, we consider that the real Heracles
was a wise man who achieved everything by
eloquence and applied persuasion as his principal
force. His arrows represent words, I suppose, keen,
sure and swift, which make their wounds in souls.
In fact, you yourselves admit that words are
winged.” Homer, passim.