Toxaris; Or, Friendship (1)

Mnesippos What do you say, Toxaris? Do you Scythians sacrifice to Orestes and Pylades, and believe in them as gods?

Toxaris We sacrifice to them, certainly; still we do not hold them to be gods, but good men.

Mnesippos But is it customary with you to sacrifice to good men, too, when they die, just as you do to the gods?

Toxaris Not only that, but we keep feast-days and holidays in their honor.

Mnesippos What do you hope to get from them? Surely you don't offer sacrifice for the sake of getting the good-will of dead men.

Toxaris It is no harm to have even the dead on your side. But we also consider that we act for the advantage of the living by keeping the great and good in mind, and for this reason we honor the dead. For it is our belief that by these means many of our people will conceive a desire to be such men as these were.