NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

Homiletical.Τῇς ἀρετῆς τὸν πλοῦτον· ἐπεὶ τὸ μὲν ἔμπεδον αἰεί,Χρήματα δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἄλλοτε ἄλλος ἔχει 664Similar to these are the lines of Theognis, 665 in which he says that God (whatever hemeans by “God”) inclines the scale to men now one way and now another, and so at onemoment 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 maywell 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 plainprose, was as follows: 666Once upon a time, when Hercules was quite young, and of just about the same age asyourselves, he was debating within himself which of the two ways he should choose, the oneleading through toil to virtue, the other which is the easiest of all. There approached himtwo women. They were Virtue and Vice, and though they said not a word they straightwayshewed by their appearance what was the difference between them. One was tricked out topresent a fair appearance with every beautifying art. Pleasure and delights were shed aroundher and she led close after her innumerable enjoyments like a swarm of bees. She showedthem to Hercules, and, promising him yet more and more, endeavoured to attract him toher side. The other, all emaciated and squalid, looked earnestly at the lad, and spoke inquite another tone. She promised him no ease, no pleasure, but toils, labours, and perilswithout number, in every land and sea. She told him that the reward of all this would bethat he should become a god (so the narrator tells it). This latter Hercules followed even tothe death. Perhaps all those who have written anything about wisdom, less or more, eachaccording to his ability, have praised Virtue in their writings. These must be obeyed, andthe effort made to show forth their teaching in the conduct of life. For he alone is wise wholxvii664 These lines are attributed to Solon by Plutarch, in the tract πῶς ἄν τις ὑπ᾽ ἐχθρῶν ὠφελοῖτο, but theyoccur among the elegiac “gnomæ” of Theognis, lines 316–318. Fronton du Duc in his notes on the Homiliespoints 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᾽ οὐδὲνἔχεω. Theog. 157.666 The story of The Choice of Hercules used to be called, from Prodicus (of Ceos, not Chios) HerculesProdicius. Suidas says that the title of the work quoted was Ωραι. The allegory is given at length in Xenophon’sMemorabilia (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.116