Zeus the Tragedian (48-50)

Damis

And among the sailors themselves you will find that one who is lazy, unskilled, and afraid of his duties draws double or treble pay, while another, who is an expert swimmer and quick to spring to the yards, and who knows the best thing to do in every case, this man is set simply to bale out bilge-water. You will find the same sort of thing among the passengers, too. A worthless rascal occupies the place of honor next the captain, and receives attention. Another, an indecent fellow, or a parricide, or a temple-robber, is honored above others, and has taken possession of the upper deck, while many men of culture are penned together in a corner of the vessel and trodden underfoot by those who are really their inferiors. At any rate, you remarked how Sokrates made the voyage, and Aristeides and Phokion, without either daily bread enough or room to stretch their legs on the bare deck along the hold, and on the other hand how well Kallias and Meidias and Sardanapalos fared in their overweening luxury, spitting on those beneath.

Damis

This is the sort of thing that goes on in your ship, sage Timokles, wherefore the shipwrecks are countless. But if any pilot stood at the helm, and kept a lookout and ordered everything, he would know in the first place who were good and who were worthless of the ship's company, and he would apportion to

each what befitted his merits, giving the better quarters near himself on deck to the better men, and the lower parts to the worse, and he would cause some of the better sort to sit at table together and come to terms of confidence. Among the sailors a zealous man would be distinguished by being put on the lookout or made captain of a watch, or set over all the others. But a lazy shirk would get the rope's end about his head five times a day. So, my friend, your comparison seems to have capsized because it fell into the hands of a bad pilot.

Momos

Things are running with the tide for Damis now, and he is sailing to victory with a fair wind.

Zeus

Your metaphor is just, Momos, and Timokles invents no forcible argument. He only ladles out easily refuted commonplaces one after another that are in every one's mouth.