Letter 38: I asked what our fine Iphicrates has been up to, and I heard that he causes no trouble to any human being, but is...

To Iphicrates. I asked what our fine Iphicrates has been up to, and I heard that he causes no trouble to any human being, but is quite the terror of wild animals -- and that the same activities which grieve the beasts delight Artemis herself. For we are well aware of what the poets say the goddess enjoys. Then I asked whether he still spoke of me among his friends as a friend would, and I learned that at every gathering he always says something or other without actually saying it [i.e., implies his regard without stating it directly]. Wondering, then, how you have arrived at this silence toward me -- given all those lavish praises you once scattered across the world -- I have worked it out. In your youth, you were deceived and took a jackdaw for a swan. But old age has taught you that a jackdaw is, after all, just a jackdaw. We, however, considered you a swan then and consider you one still.

**To Iphicrates.** I asked what our fine Iphicrates was up to, and I heard that he causes no man any grief, but causes the wild beasts a great deal — and that by the very same means he grieves those creatures he delights Artemis, for we are not unaware of those things by which the poets say the goddess takes pleasure. I asked again whether he made mention of me among his friends, as one does of a friend, and I learned that in his gatherings, though he is always saying something, this is one thing he does not say. Seeking, then, the reason you have fallen into this silence toward us — after all those abundant praises you once scattered across the world — I discovered that back then you were deceived by youth and took a jackdaw for a swan, but that old age has taught you to regard the jackdaw as what it is: a jackdaw. Well, *we* at any rate regarded you as a swan then, and still do now.

Ἰφικράτει. ἠρόμην, ὅ τι ἡμῖν ὁ καλὸς Ἰφικράτης ποιεῖ, τὸν δὲ ἠκου- σα λυπεῖν ἄνθρωπον μὲν οὐδένα, τὰ θηρία δὲ καὶ πάνυ, καὶ τοῖς αὐτοῖς γε λυπεῖν τε ἐκεῖνα καὶ τὴν Ἄρτεμιν εὐφραίνειν οὐ γὰρ ἀγνοοῦμεν. οἷς τέρπεσθαι λέγουσιν οἱ ποιηταὶ τὴν θεόν πάλιν ἠρόμην, εἴ μου ποιοῖτο μνήμην πρὸς τοὺς φίλους ὥσπερ φίλου, τὸν δὲ ἐμάνθανον ἐν τοῖς συλλόγοις ἀεί τινα λέγοντα τοῦτο οὐ λέγειν. ζητῶν οὖν, ὁπόθεν ἡμῖν εἰς ταύτην ἥκεις τὴν σιγήν, ἐκ τῶν πολλῶν εὐφημιῶν ἐκεί- νων, ἃς διὰ τῆς οἰκουμένης ἔσπειρας, εὗρον, ὅτι τότε μὲν ὑπὸ τῆς νεότητος ἐξηπατῶ καὶ κύκνον ἡγοῦ τὸν κολοιόν, τὸ γῆρας δέ σε ἐπαίδευσε τὸν κολοιὸν ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἡγεῖσθαι κο- λοιόν, ἀλλ᾿ ἡμεῖς γε σὲ καὶ τότε καὶ νῦν κύκνον