Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

Τῇς ἀρετῆς τὸν πλοῦτον· ἐπεὶ τὸ μὲν ἔμπεδον αἰεί,
Χρήματα δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἄλλοτε ἄλλος ἔχει 664
Similar to these are the lines of Theognis, 665 in which he says that God (whatever he
means by “God”) inclines the scale to men now one way and now another, and so at one
moment they are rich, and at another penniless. Somewhere too in his writings Prodicus,
the Sophist of Chios, has made similar reflexions on vice and virtue, to whom attention may
well be paid, for he is a man by no means to be despised. So far as I recollect his sentiments,
they are something to this effect. I do not remember the exact words, but the sense, in plain
prose, was as follows: 666
Once upon a time, when Hercules was quite young, and of just about the same age as
yourselves, he was debating within himself which of the two ways he should choose, the one
leading through toil to virtue, the other which is the easiest of all. There approached him
two women. They were Virtue and Vice, and though they said not a word they straightway
shewed by their appearance what was the difference between them. One was tricked out to
present a fair appearance with every beautifying art. Pleasure and delights were shed around
her and she led close after her innumerable enjoyments like a swarm of bees. She showed
them to Hercules, and, promising him yet more and more, endeavoured to attract him to
her side. The other, all emaciated and squalid, looked earnestly at the lad, and spoke in
quite another tone. She promised him no ease, no pleasure, but toils, labours, and perils
without number, in every land and sea. She told him that the reward of all this would be
that he should become a god (so the narrator tells it). This latter Hercules followed even to
the death. Perhaps all those who have written anything about wisdom, less or more, each
according to his ability, have praised Virtue in their writings. These must be obeyed, and
the effort made to show forth their teaching in the conduct of life. For he alone is wise who
664 These lines are attributed to Solon by Plutarch, in the tract πῶς ἄν τις ὑπ᾽ ἐχθρῶν ὠφελοῖτο, but they
occur among the elegiac “gnomæ” of Theognis, lines 316–318. Fronton du Duc in his notes on the Homilies
points out that they are also quoted in Plutarch’s life of Solon. Basil was well acquainted with Plutarch. (cf.
references in the notes to the Hexaemeron.)
665 The lines are: Ζεὺς γάρ τοι τὸ τάλαντον ἐπιρρέπει ἄλλοτε ἄλλως ῎Αλλοτε μὲν πλουτεῖν, ἄλλοτε δ᾽ οὐδὲν
ἔχεω. Theog. 157.
666 The story of The Choice of Hercules used to be called, from Prodicus (of Ceos, not Chios) Hercules
Prodicius. Suidas says that the title of the work quoted was Ωραι. The allegory is given at length in Xenophon’s
Memorabilia (II. i. 21) in Dion Chrysostom’s Regnum, and in Cicero (De Officiis i. 32), who refers to Xenophon.
It is imitated in the Somnium of Lucian.
Homiletical.
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