Toxaris; Or, Friendship (2)

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.