Plut. Mor., Craft of Water and Land Animals 8 — Which are the most crafty, water-animals or those creatures that breed upon the land?

Plut. Mor., Craft of Water and Land Animals 8 — Which are the most crafty, water-animals or those creatures that breed upon the land?, Plutarch; served verbatim

SOCLARUS. Contain yourself, my dearest Autobulus, and forbear these accusations; for here are several gentlemen coming, all great huntsmen, whom it will be very difficult to bring over to your opinion; neither is it convenient to offend them. AUTOBULUS. You give me good advice. However, I know Eubiotus very well, and my kinsman Ariston; nor am I less acquainted with Aeacides and Aristotimus, the sons of Dionysius the Delphian, as also with Nicander the son of Euthydamus, all expert in the chase by land, as Homer expresses it; and therefore likely to take part with Aristotimus. On the other side, yonder comes Phaedimus too, bringing along with him the islanders and neighbors to the sea, Heracleon of Megara, and Philostratus of Euboea, Whose whole delight is all the day The toilsome pastime of the sea. But as for Optatus, our equal in years (like Tydides),— Which of the sides to range him well, So versed in both, we cannot tell. For he is one that offers as well the first-fruits of his fishery to Dictynna, as of his forest spoils to Diana; so that it is apparent he comes among us as one that intends not to be partial to one side more than the other; or else our conjecture is amiss, dear Optatus, that your design is only to be an impartial umpire between these young gentlemen. OPTATUS. You conjecture very truly, Autobulus. For the ancient law of Solon is out of date, that punished those who stood neuters and refused to adhere to either side. AUTOBULUS. Seat yourself then here by us, that if there should be any occasion for a testimony, we may not be troubled to run to Aristotle’s writings, but acquiescing in your experience, may give our suffrages according to what you aver for truth. OPTATUS. Go to then, young gentlemen: are ye agreed upon the method and order of the dispute? PHAEDIMUS. Truly, worthy Soclarus, that very thing occasioned a great debate among us; but at length, according to that of Euripides, The child of Fortune, Chance, the point agreed, And fixed the method how we should proceed, by giving the precedence to the land animals to plead their cause before marine creatures. SOCLARUS. Then, Aristotimus, it is high time for you to speak and for us to hear.

The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.

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Filed here — the addresses this episode attests; counted by the house’s first pass

Ariston — a candidate entry Aristotimus — a candidate entry Aristotle — a life Autobulus — a candidate entry Delphian — a candidate entry Dionysius — a candidate entry Euripides — a life Heracleon — a candidate entry Homer — a life Nicander — a candidate entry Phaedimus — a candidate entry Soclarus — a candidate entry Solon — a life

Which are the most crafty, water-animals or those creatures that breed upon the land?, Plutarch — translated by John Philips> (rev. W. W. Goodwin), 1874
Apparatus shelf + pinned Perseus TEI — Plutarch's Morals (the Moralia), ed. William W. Goodwin, five volumes · 'Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by William W. Goodwin, Ph. D.', with an introduction by R. W. Emerson; Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1874 (five volumes; a minority of the TEI transcriptions were keyed from the same publisher's 1878 reprint)
license: public-domain (US: the Goodwin edition is an 1874 Boston publication of a 1684-1694 translation — title pages verified on all five shelf scans at acquisition; Perseus digital editions CC BY-SA 4.0, attribution recorded per ops/corpus-staging/SOURCES.md pattern)