Diodorus Siculus, Library

Contents of the Twelfth Book of Diodorus

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XIV. To both the matters we have mentioned above many poets have borne witness in verse; to the law on evil association as follows¹ :

The man who takes delight in converse with
The base, I never ask his kind, aware
He's just like those with whom he likes to be;

Charondas, giver of laws, so men relate,
In legal code says many things, but this
Above all else: Let him who on his offspring
A second mother foists be held without
Esteem nor count among his countrymen
For aught, since it's a bane that he hath brought
From alien source upon his own affairs.
For if, he says to him, you fortunate were
When wedded first, forbear when you're well off,
And if your luck was bad, a madman's act
It surely is to try a second wife.

Amazement holds me, no longer if a man
Has gone to sea, but if he's done it twice.

¹ Eur. Phoenix fr. 812 (Nauck). The passage in fuller form is quoted by Aeschin. 1.152. These lines are also attributed to Menander, who, Kock thinks (Menander fr. 414), may have quoted them from Euripides.

² From an unknown comic poet (anon. fr. 110 (Kock)).

This text is based on the following book(s):
Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.
OCLC: 24758311
ISBN: 0674994132, 0674994221, 0674994396, 0674994280, 0674994647

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