Texte grec :
| [33,45] ἄγε δὴ πρὸς τοῦ Ἡρακλέους καὶ τοῦ Περσέως καὶ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος
καὶ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς καὶ τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν, οὓς τιμᾶτε, ἀποκρίνασθέ
μοι προθύμως, εἴ τις ὑμῶν ἐβούλετο γυναῖκα τοιαύτην ἔχειν,
λέγω δέ, ὥσπερ κιθαρίστρια καλεῖται γυνὴ καὶ νὴ Δία αὐλητρὶς
ἢ ποιήτρια καὶ τἄλλα ὁμοίως ἀπὸ τῶν ἄλλων ἐπιτηδευμάτων,
οὕτως ἣν ἄν τις συνήθως ὀνομάσειεν ἀπὸ τούτου τοῦ ἔργου.
καὶ μὴ δυσχεραίνετε μηδὲ ἄχθεσθε· τοὺς γὰρ λόγους τούτους αὐτὸ
παρέχει τὸ πρᾶγμα τῷ βουλομένῳ περὶ αὐτοῦ λέγειν, οὐκ ἐγώ
ποθεν ἀνευρίσκω. γυναικὶ μὲν δὴ τοιαύτῃ ξυνοικεῖν οὐδεὶς ἂν
ἐθελήσειεν ὑμῶν οὐδὲ ἐπὶ πεντακοσίοις ταλάντοις οἶμαι, θυγατέρα
δὲ σχεῖν ἕλοιτο ἄν; ἀλλὰ νὴ Δία μητέρα πως οὐ χαλεπὸν τοιαύτην
ἔχειν καὶ γηροβοσκεῖν· σεμνὸν γὰρ δῆλον ὅτι καὶ πρεσβυτέραις πρέπον
(46) μᾶλλον. εἶεν· οὐκοῦν ἐπὶ μὲν γυναικὸς ἢ θυγατρὸς οὐδ´ ἀκούοντες
ἀνέχεσθε, πόλιν δὲ τοιαύτην καὶ πατρίδα οἰκεῖν οὐ δεινὸν
ὑμῖν δοκεῖ; καὶ ταῦθ´, ὃ τῷ παντὶ χαλεπώτερον, οὐ τοιαύτην οὖσαν
ἐξ ἀρχῆς, ἀλλ´ ἣν αὐτοὶ ποιεῖτε. καίτοι μητρόπολις ὑμῶν ἐστιν
ἡ πόλις, ὥστε καὶ τὴν σεμνότητα καὶ τὸ ἀξίωμα ἔχει τὸ τῆς
μητρός· ἀλλ´ ὅμως οὔτε τοῦ ὀνόματος οὔτε τῆς ἀρχαιότητος
(47) οὔτε τῆς δόξης φείδεσθε. τί δὴ οἴεσθε, εἰ καθάπερ εἰκός ἐστι
καί φασι τοὺς οἰκιστὰς ἥρωας ἢ θεοὺς πολλάκις ἐπιστρέφεσθαι
τὰς αὑτῶν πόλεις τοῖς ἄλλοις ὄντας ἀφανεῖς ἔν τε θυσίαις καί
τισιν ἑορταῖς δημοτελέσιν, ἔπειθ´ ὁ ἀρχηγὸς ὑμῶν Ἡρακλῆς παραγένοιτο
ἤτοι πυρᾶς οὔσης, ἣν πάνυ καλὴν αὐτῷ ποιεῖτε, σφόδρα
γε ἂν αὐτὸν ἡσθῆναι τοιαύτης ἀκούσαντα φωνῆς; οὐκ ἂν εἰς Θρᾴκην
ἀπελθεῖν μᾶλλον ἢ Λιβύην καὶ τοῖς Βουσίριδος ἢ τοῖς Διομήδους
ἀπογόνοις θύουσι παρεῖναι; τί δέ; ὁ Περσεὺς οὐκ ἂν
ὄντως ὑπερπτῆναι δοκεῖ τὴν πόλιν; καὶ τί δεῖ μεμνῆσθαι θεῶν;
(48) ἀλλὰ Ἀθηνόδωρος ὁ πρῴην γενόμενος, ὃν ᾐδεῖτο ὁ Σεβαστός, ἆρα
οἴεσθε, εἴπερ ἔγνω τοιαύτην οὖσαν τὴν πόλιν, προύκρινεν ἂν τῆς
μετ´ ἐκείνου διατριβῆς τὴν ἐνθάδε; πρότερον μὲν οὖν ἐπ´ εὐταξίᾳ
καὶ σωφροσύνῃ διαβόητος ἦν ὑμῶν ἡ πόλις καὶ τοιούτους ἀνέφερεν
ἄνδρας· νῦν δὲ ἐγὼ δέδοικα μὴ τὴν ἐναντίαν λάβῃ τάξιν, ὥστε
μετὰ τῶνδε καὶ τῶνδε ὀνομάζεσθαι. καίτοι πολλὰ τῶν νῦν ἔτι
μενόντων ὅπως δήποτε ἐμφαίνει τὸ σῶφρον καὶ τὸ αὐστηρὸν τῆς
τότε ἀγωγῆς, ὧν ἐστι τὸ περὶ τὴν ἐσθῆτα τῶν γυναικῶν, τὸ τοῦτον
τὸν τρόπον κατεστάλθαι καὶ βαδίζειν ὥστε μηδένα μηδὲ ἓν
αὐτῶν μέρος ἰδεῖν μήτε τοῦ προσώπου μήτε τοῦ λοιποῦ σώματος,
(49) μηδὲ αὐτὰς ὁρᾶν ἔξω τῆς ὁδοῦ μηδέν. καίτοι τί δύνανται τοιοῦτον
ἰδεῖν οἷον ἀκούουσιν; τοιγαροῦν ἀπὸ τῶν ὤτων ἀρξάμεναι τῆς διαφθορᾶς
ἀπολώλασιν αἱ πλείους. ἡ γὰρ ἀσέλγεια {καὶ δι´ ὤτων
καὶ δι´ ὀφθαλμῶν} πανταχόθεν εἰσδύεται. ὥστε τὰ μὲν πρόσωπα
κεκαλυμμέναι βαδίζουσι, τῇ ψυχῇ δὲ ἀκαλύπτῳ καὶ σφόδρα ἀναπεπταμένῃ.
τοιγαροῦν ὀξύτερον βλέπουσιν ἑνὶ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν,
ὥσπερ οἱ γεωμέτραι.
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Traduction française :
| [33,45] Come now, in the name of Heracles and Perseus
and Apollo and Athenê and the other deities whom
you honour, tell me freely whether any one of you
would want to have a wife like that—I mean a wife
whom men would habitually call by a name derived
from the practice of which I speak, just as a woman
receives the name of harpist or flautist or poetess,
and so forth, each in keeping with its own activity.
And pray do not be displeased or vexed; for these
words of mine are words that the situation itself
supplies to any man who chooses to deal with the
subject, rather than some invention of my own.
Well then, no one among you would be willing to
live with a wife like that, not even, methinks, for
five hundred talents ; then would he choose a daughter
of her kind? I Brant you that perhaps, by Zeus, it
may not be so distressing to have a mother of that
sort and to support her in old age ; for evidently
snorting is a solemn performance and rather suited
to the elderly ! V'ery well, then if, when it is a
question of wife or daughter, you cannot endure even
to hear of such a thing, does it not seem to you an
awful calamity to reside in a city or a country of that
kind? And furthermore—a thought which makes
it altogether more distressing—a city or a country
which was not like that to begin with, but which
you yourselves are making so ? And yet the city in
question is your mother-city, and so it has the dignity
and the esteem belonging to a mother-city ; but still
neither its name nor its antiquity nor its renown are
spared by you. What would you think, if, just as you
might reasonably expect (and as men report) that
founding heroes or deities would often visit the
cities they have founded, invisible to everybody else
(both at sacrificial rites and at certain other public
festivals)—if, I ask you, your own founder, Heracles,
should visit you (attracted, let us say, by a funeral
pyre such as you construct with special magnificence
in his honour), do you think he would be extremely
pleased to hear such a sound ? Would he not depart
for Thrace instead, or for Libya, and honour with
his presence the descendants of Busiris or of
Diomedes when they sacrifice? What ! Do you
not think that Perseus himself would really pass
over your city in his flight ?
(48) And yet what need have we to mention deities?
Take Athenodorus, who became governor of Tarsus,
whom Augustus held in honour—had he known
your city to be what it is to-day, would he, do you
suppose, have preferred being here to living with the
emperor ? In days gone by, therefore, your city
was renowned for orderliness and sobriety, and the
men it produced were of like character; but now I
fear that it may be rated just the opposite and so be
classed with this or that other city I might name.
And yet many of the customs still in force reveal in
one way or another the sobriety and severity of
deportment of those earlier days. Among these is
the convention regarding feminine attire, a convention
which prescribes that women should be so
arrayed and should so deport themselves when in the
street that nobody could see any part of them,
neither of the face nor of the rest of the body, and
that they themselves might not see anything off the road.
And yet what could they see as shocking as
what they hear ? Consequently, beginning the process
of corruption with the ears, most of them have
come to utter ruin. For wantonness slips in from
every quarter, through ears and eyes alike. Therefore,
while they have their faces covered as they walk,
they have their soul uncovered and its doors thrown
wide open. For that reason they, like surveyors,
can see more keenly with but one of their eyes.
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