[21,3] (Dion) Ναὶ μὰ Δία, πλὴν ὡς Πέρσαι γε ἐνόμιζον· Ἑλλήνων δὲ οὐδεὶς ἢ εἴ τις, ἐκ τῶν τριάκοντα. ἢ οὐκ οἶσθα Κριτίαν τὸν τῶν τριάκοντα, ὅτι κάλλιστον ἔφη εἶδος ἐν τοῖς ἄρρεσι τὸ θῆλυ, ἐν δ´ αὖ ταῖς θηλείαις τοὐναντίον; οὐκοῦν δικαίως Ἀθηναῖοι νομοθέτην αὐτὸν εἵλοντο ἐπί γε τῷ μεταγράψαι τοὺς παλαιοὺς νόμους, ὃς οὐδένα αὐτῶν ἔλιπεν. (Autre) Εἶεν· οἱ δὲ Πέρσαι πῶς ἐνόμιζον;

[21,3] (Dion) Yes indeed we ought, at least as the Persians regarded beauty; but no one of the Greeks so regarded it, except one of the Thirty. Or do you not know the story about that Critias, who was a member of the Thirty ? He said that the most beautiful figure among males was the effeminate, but among the females, on the other hand, the opposite. Therefore the Athenians were justified in choosing him as lawgiver that he might alter the old laws, for in fact he left not one of them unchanged. (Autre) Very well ! But how did the Persians regard beauty ?

[21,4] (Dion) Οὐ γὰρ φανερόν, ὅτε εὐνούχους ἐποίουν τοὺς καλούς, ὅπως αὐτοῖς ὡς κάλλιστοι ὦσιν; τοσοῦτον διαφέρειν ᾤοντο πρὸς κάλλος τὸ θῆλυ. σχεδὸν δὲ καὶ πάντες οἱ βάρβαροι, ᾗπερ τὰ ἄλλα ζῷα, * διὰ τὸ μόνον τὰ ἀφροδίσια ἐννοεῖν. ὡς οὖν λέγεται Δαίδαλος ποιῆσαι τὸν ταῦρον ἐξαπατῶν, περιτεῖναι τῷ ξύλῳ δέρμα βοός, κἀκεῖνοι γυναικὸς εἶδος περιτιθέασι τοῖς ἄρρεσιν, ἄλλως δὲ οὐκ ἐπίστανται ἐρᾶν.

[21,4] (Dion) Why, does it need any explanation, seeing that they made eunuchs of the beautiful males in order that they might have them as beautiful as possible? So greatly superior in beauty did they think the female to be. And practically all the barbarians treated them in the same way, just as they did the animals—because the only thing they thought of was the lust of the flesh. Then, just as Daedalus is said to have acted when he deceived the bull by stretching a cow's hide over a framework of wood, so they try to put a feminine appearance on the males, being incapable of loving them in any other way.