Toxaris; Or, Friendship (1-5)

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.

Mnesippos You are right about that. But what was it you found so admirable in Orestes and

But if it is not for these achievements that you honor Orestes and Pylades, tell me, Toxaris, what else they ever did for your good, in return for which you have now reversed your former judgment and sacrifice to them, bringing victims to those who once came extremely near being victims themselves. It seems absurdly inconsistent with the past.

Toxaris And yet, Mnesippos, those were noble deeds, though you laugh at them. Just think, they were only two men, and yet they dared this gallant adventure; sailed all this distance from home and ventured into the Pontos, unknown as yet to the Greeks, except those who manned the Argo in the expedition against Kolchis, and they were not frightened by the stories about this sea or its name of "The Inhospitable," gained for it, I suppose, by the savage tribes on its shores. And when they were captured they took the affair in such a courageous way that they were not contented merely to make their escape, but when they had first taken their revenge and carried off the statue of Artemis, then they sailed away. Now, are not these wonderful achievements, and really worthy of divine honor from any one who gives bravery his approval? Still, it is not because we see these traits in Orestes and Pylades that we deem them heroes.

Mnesippos Do go on and tell of something else they did, really divine and godlike. As far as their voyage and their journey into foreign lands are concerned, I could show you a great many more godlike among the merchants, particularly the Phoenicians, who not only sailed into the Pontos and as far as the Maiotis and the Bosporos, but to every point in Greek or barbarian wa- These people make an annual round of ters.

Toxaris Now listen, my amazing friend, and observe how much more candidly we barbarians judge good men than you Greeks. In Argos and Mykenai there is not even a noble tomb to be seen of Orestes and Pylades, but in our country there is shown a temple raised to them in common, as was natural since they were comrades, and sacrifices are offered to them and all other honors. The fact that they were foreigners, not Scythians, does not in the least prevent their being adjudged good men. For we do not ask whence noble and good people come, and we bear them no grudge for working good deeds, even if they are not our friends. On the contrary we applaud their acts, and adopt them as countrymen on the strength of them. But what we chiefly wondered at and praised in these men was this, that they seemed to us to be the noblest pair of friends in the world, and authorized to lay down for the rest of mankind the principle that friends must share all fortunes, and thus win the reverence of the best of the Scythians.