58 Ernest Heinrich Klotsche 



It is against the art of soothsaying and those who make it their 

 business of interpreting the flight of birds and other signs of the 

 divine will, that the attacks of Euripides are more especially di- 

 rected, and for the common trust in omens and prophecies he has 

 only ridicule. At Athens especially prophecies sprang up like 

 mushrooms. Soothsayers of all sorts plied a lively trade and 

 were regarded as " fond of money." Even Sophocles, who treats 

 them and their predictions with respect and even with awe, alludes 

 to this notorious quality of the soothsayers, Antig. 1055, where 

 Creon says to Teiresias : 



rb ixavTLKov yap irav (pLXapyvpop yevos. 

 "The race of seers is ever fond of money." 



Euripides defines the fxavr to be " one who speaks few truths, 

 but many lies " (Iph. A. 957), and his most bitter invective against 

 the art of divination is contained in our play : 



Hel. 74.4-57: 



ctXXa TOi, TCL fiavrewv 

 kaelbov cbs (pavX' ecrrl Kal \pevbwv wXea. 

 ovK r)v 'dp' ii7t€s ovbev efnrvpov (pXoyos 

 ov8e TTTepcoTcbv 4>^kyixaT • evrid^es 5e rot. 

 TO Kal 5oKeTv 'opvid^as <h<p€\eii> ^poTOVS. 



K. T. X. 



tL diJTa ixavrevofxeSa; toZs d^eolai, XPW 

 ■dhovras a'cTelv ayad^a, p-avrelas 5 kav 

 Plov yap aXXcos 8k\eap rjvped^ri rode, 

 Kovdels exXoi/Tryo" kp.irvpoic7LV apyos cbv 

 yvup/Tj 5 aplcTT-r} fxavTLS rj t eu/SoyXta. 



"... But the lore of seers, 

 How vain it is I see, how full of lies. 

 Utterly naught then were the altar-flames, 

 The voices of winged things ! Sheer folly this 

 Even to dream that birds may help mankind. 

 Calchas told not, nor gave sign to the host, 

 Yet saw, when for a cloud's sake died his friends : 

 Not Helenus told ; but Troy for nought was stormed ! 

 ' Yea, for the Gods forbade,' thou mightest say. 

 Why seek ye then to seers? With sacrifice 

 To Gods, ask blessings : let soothsayings be, 

 They were but as a bait for greed devised : 

 No sluggard getteth wealth through divination. 

 Sound wit, with prudence, is the seer of seers." 



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