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Quote of the day: That he would bring the war to conclusio
Notes
Mispogon (beard-haters) by Julian
Translated by Wilmer Cave Wright
Chapter 9
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Come, I [Note 1] am ready to make a fresh start in abusing myself. "You, sir, go regularly to the temples, ill-tempered, perverse and wholly worthless as you are! It is your doing that the masses stream into the sacred precincts, yes and most of the magistrates as well, and they give you a splendid welcome, greeting you with shouts and clapping in the precincts as though they were in the theatres. Then why do you not treat them kindly and praise them? Instead of that you try to be wiser in such matters than the Pythian god [Note 2], and you make harangues to the crowd and with harsh words rebuke those who shout. These are the very words you use to them: 'You hardly ever assemble at the shrines to do honour to the gods, but to do me honour you rush here in crowds and fill the temples with much disorder. Yet it becomes prudent men to pray in orderly fashion, and to ask blessings from the gods in silence. Have you never heard Homer's maxim, "In silence, to yourselves" -- or how Odysseus checked Eurycleia when she was stricken with amazement by the greatness of his success, "Rejoice, old woman, in thy heart, and restrain thyself, and utter no loud cry"? And again, Homer did not show us the Trojan women praying to Priam or to any one of his daughters or sons, nay not even to Hector himself (though he does indeed say that the men of Troy were wont to pray to Hector as a god); but in his poems he did not show us either women or men in the act of prayer to him, but he says that to Athene all the women lifted up their hands with a loud cry, which was in itself a barbaric thing to do and suitable only for women, but at any rate it displayed no impiety to the gods as does your conduct. For you applaud men instead of the gods, or rather instead of the gods you flatter me who am a mere man. But it would be best, I think, not to flatter even the gods but to worship them with temperate hearts.'"

Note 1: I = Julian
Note 2: Pythian God = Apollo

Event: The return of Odysseus