Essays in Portraiture Defended (20)

Since you mentioned flattery, let me say that I praise you for hating flatterers; I would not have it otherwise. But I wish to make a distinction and a difference for you between the achievement of one who praises, and its exaggeration on the part of one who flatters.

The flatterer, since he praises for a selfish reason and has little regard for truth, thinks that he must praise everything to excess, telling falsehoods and contributing a great deal on his own account, so that he would not hesitate to declare Thersites had a better figure than Achilles, and that of all who took part in the expedition against Troy, Nestor was the youngest; he would take his oath upon

it that the son of Croesus had sharper ears than Melampus,[*] and Phineus sharper sight than Lynceus,[*] if only he hoped to gain something by the lie. But the other, in praising the self-same object, instead of telling any lie or adding any quality that did not belong to it, would take the good points that it had by nature, even if they were not very great, and would amplify them and make them greater. He would venture to say, when he wished to praise a horse, which is the lightest of foot and the best runner of all the animals that we know.

Over the top of the flowers he ran without bending them downward.

Iliad20, 227, of the horses of Erichthonius, sired by Boreas. And again he would not hesitate to speak of

the swiftness of wind-footed horses.

Source unknown, if δρόμον is part of the quotation. But for “wind-footed horses,” see Hymn to Venus217, Pindar, frag. 221. And if he were to praise a house that was beautiful and handsomely furnished, he would say:

Surely like this, inside, is the palace of Zeus on Olympus.

Odyssey4, 74, said by Telemachus to his friend, admiring the palace of Menelaus. The flatterer, however, would express himself in that way even about the swineherd’s hut, if only he hoped to get something from the swineherd! Take Cynaethus, the toady of Demetrius Poliorcetes; when he had used up all his means of flattery, he praised Demetrius, who was troubled with a cough, because he cleared his throat melodiously!