[10,23] τί δέ; νομίζεις τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα ἀττικίζειν ἢ δωρίζειν; ἢ τὴν αὐτὴν εἶναι διάλεκτον ἀνθρώπων καὶ θεῶν; ἀλλὰ τοσοῦτον διαφέρει ὥστε τὸν ποταμὸν τὸν ἐν Τροίᾳ Σκάμανδρον παρ´ ἐκείνοις Ξάνθον καλεῖσθαι, καὶ τὴν κύμινδιν τὸ ὄρνεον χαλκίδα, καὶ τόπον τινὰ πρὸ τῆς πόλεως, ὃν οἱ Τρῶες ἐκάλουν Βατίειαν, τοὺς θεοὺς σῆμα Μυρίνης ὀνομάζειν. ὅθεν δὴ καὶ ἀσαφῆ τὰ τῶν χρησμῶν ἐστιν καὶ πολλοὺς ἤδη ἐξηπάτηκεν.

[10,23] "Tell me, do you think Apollo speaks Attic or Doric ? Or that men and gods have the same language? Yet the difference is so great that the Scamander river in Troy is called Xanthus by the gods, and that the bird "kymindis" is called "chalkis", and that a certain spot outside the city which the Trojans called Batieia was called the Sema Myrines by the gods. From this it naturally follows that the oracles are obscure and have already deceived many men.

[10,24] Ὁμήρῳ μὲν οὖν ἀσφαλὲς ἦν ἴσως πορεύεσθαι παρὰ τὸν Ἀπόλλω εἰς Δελφούς, ἅτε {διγλώττῳ} ἐπισταμένῳ τὰς φωνάς, —εἴπερ ἁπάσας ἠπίστατο, ἀλλὰ μὴ ὀλίγ´ ἄττα· ὥσπερ οἱ δύο ἢ τρία Περσικὰ εἰδότες ῥήματα ἢ Μηδικὰ ἢ Ἀσσύρια τοὺς ἀγνοοῦντας ἐξαπατῶσι—σὺ δὲ οὐ δέδοικας μὴ ἄλλα τοῦ θεοῦ λέγοντος ἄλλα διανοηθῇς; ὥσπερ οὖν φασι Λάϊον ἐκεῖνον, τὸν γενόμενον Χρυσίππου ἐραστήν, ὃς ἀφικόμενος εἰς Δελφοὺς ἐπηρώτα τὸν θεὸν ὅπως αὐτῷ ἔσοιντο παῖδες. ἔχρησεν οὖν μὴ γεννᾶν, ἢ ἐκτιθέναι γεννήσαντα.

[10,24] Now for Homer perhaps it was safe to go to Apollo at Delphi, as being bilingual and understanding the dialects—if he really did understand them all and not just a few things, like persons who know two or three Persian, Median, or Assyrian words and thus fool the ignorant. " But how about you? Have you no fear lest, when the god says one thing you may understand another ? As, for instance, the story of the famous Laïus, the man who became the lover of Chrysippus ; when he had gone to Delphi, he asked the god how he might have issue. The god bade him `not to beget, or, having begotten, to expose.'