Letter 702: Those who saw the honors you lavished on Artemis are the luckier ones.
Βακχίῳ. (362)
Οἱ μὲν ἰδόντες εὐδαιμονέστεροι τὰ περὶ τὴν Ἄρτεμιν
σοὶ πεφιλοτιμημένα, γεγόναμεν δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ τοῖς ἠγγελμένοις
ἡδίους καὶ οὐκ ἴσον μὲν ἐκείνοις, οὐ πολὺ δὲ ἔλαττον εἴχομεν.
ὁ γάρ σοι τὰ γράμματα φέρων οὗτος ἐκόμιζέ μοι τῶν πε-
ποιημένων τὸν λόγον, ὅθεν μὶν σὺ τὴν θεὸν ἦγες καὶ ἐν
ὅτῳ σχήματι, ὅπως δὲ ὡπλισμένην, σὸν δὲ εἶναι τὴν σκευὴν
ἀνάλωμα.
καὶ τῶν ἱερείων ἐμνήσθη τοῦ τι ἀργυροῦ συὸς
καὶ τῆς ἐλάφου πομπῆς τε διηγήσατο κόσμον πλῆθός τε δαι-
τυμόνων καὶ πλῆθος ἡμερῶν ἐν πότω καὶ τὸ κάλλιστον·
προσθεῖναι γὰρ ἔφησε τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν λόγων τὸν καλὸν Δημή-
τριον ἑστίασιν, ὥστε με σκιρτήμασιν ἔχεσθαι καὶ συνήδεσθαί
σοι τῆς περὶ τὴν Ἄρτεμιν θεραπείας. ἀλλὰ σύ γε παισί τι
παραδοίης τὴν ἱερωσύνην τῆς τε τῶν θυσιῶν ἐπανόδου γῆ
τε καὶ θάλαττα πάντα ἀπολαύοι τὸν χρόνον.
Related Letters
You are in possession of my work and free to return it slowly -- or keep it, if you wish.
I believe both things: that you copied them out, and that you consider my trifles a treasure.
The governor took part in your festival in the same way I did -- he missed nothing I had heard.
To Basil [most scholars identify this as Basil of Caesarea, later one of the great Cappadocian Fathers of the...
The labours of the field come as no novelty to tillers of the land; sailors are not astonished if they meet a storm at sea; sweats in the summer heat are the common experience of the hired hind; and to them that have chosen to live a holy life the afflictions of this present world cannot come unforeseen. Each and all of these have the known and ...