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


 



Pylades that you raised them to equality with the
gods, though they were strangers in your land
and your bitter foes? For when the Scythians
of that day had seized them after their shipwreck
and driven them off to be sacrificed to Artemis,
they set upon the jailers, overpowered the guard,
slew the king, carried off the priestess, and actually stole the statue of Artemis herself and set
sail, laughing at the commonwealth of Scythia.
Now, if this is the sort of thing you honor the
men for, you cannot be too quick to produce many
like them. But consider yourselves what the result will be, to judge from the past—whether it is
to your advantage to have many cases of Orestes
and Pylades sailing into Scythian ports. To my
mind this would be the quickest way to become
irreverent and godless yourselves, and to banish
the surviving gods from your country. Then, I
suppose, you will transfer your devotions from
the whole body of gods to the men who come to
steal them, and sacrifice to your temple-robbers
as if they were divine. 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.


 



every cape and every peninsula, so to speak, and
late in the autumn they sail back to their own
country. To be consistent, you hold these, too,
as gods-peddlers, and perhaps fish-mongers,
though most of them be. 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.