Demonax (31-35)

When a man asked him if lie thought that the soul was immortal, he said: “Yes, but no more so than everything else.”

Touching Herodes he remarked that Plato was right in saying that we have more than one soul, for a man with only one could not feast Regilla [*] and Polydeuces as if they were still alive and say what he did in his lectures.

Once, on hearing the proclamation which precedes the mysteries, he made bold to ask the Athenians publicly why they exclude foreigners, particularly as the founder of the rite, Eumolpus, was a foreigner and a Thracian to boot!

Again, when he was intending to make a voyage in winter, one of his friends remarked: “Aren’t you afraid the boat will capsize and the fishes will

An. orator whose delivery was wretched was advised by him to practise and exercise; on his replying: “I am always reciting to myself,” Demonax answered: “Then no wonder you recite that way, with a fool for a hearer!”