Alcibiades II | Page 9

the
argument is fallacious, it would be difficult for me to find another
which I could trust.
SOCRATES: And you are right in thinking so.
ALCIBIADES: Well, that is my opinion.
SOCRATES: But tell me, by Heaven:--you must see now the nature
and greatness of the difficulty in which you, like others, have your part.
For you change about in all directions, and never come to rest
anywhere: what you once most strongly inclined to suppose, you put

aside again and quite alter your mind. If the God to whose shrine you
are going should appear at this moment, and ask before you made your
prayer, 'Whether you would desire to have one of the things which we
mentioned at first, or whether he should leave you to make your own
request:'--what in either case, think you, would be the best way to take
advantage of the opportunity?
ALCIBIADES: Indeed, Socrates, I could not answer you without
consideration. It seems to me to be a wild thing (The Homeric word
margos is said to be here employed in allusion to the quotation from the
'Margites' which Socrates has just made; but it is not used in the sense
which it has in Homer.) to make such a request; a man must be very
careful lest he pray for evil under the idea that he is asking for good,
when shortly after he may have to recall his prayer, and, as you were
saying, demand the opposite of what he at first requested.
SOCRATES: And was not the poet whose words I originally quoted
wiser than we are, when he bade us (pray God) to defend us from evil
even though we asked for it?
ALCIBIADES: I believe that you are right.
SOCRATES: The Lacedaemonians, too, whether from admiration of
the poet or because they have discovered the idea for themselves, are
wont to offer the prayer alike in public and private, that the Gods will
give unto them the beautiful as well as the good:--no one is likely to
hear them make any further petition. And yet up to the present time
they have not been less fortunate than other men; or if they have
sometimes met with misfortune, the fault has not been due to their
prayer. For surely, as I conceive, the Gods have power either to grant
our requests, or to send us the contrary of what we ask.
And now I will relate to you a story which I have heard from certain of
our elders. It chanced that when the Athenians and Lacedaemonians
were at war, our city lost every battle by land and sea and never gained
a victory. The Athenians being annoyed and perplexed how to find a
remedy for their troubles, decided to send and enquire at the shrine of
Ammon. Their envoys were also to ask, 'Why the Gods always granted
the victory to the Lacedaemonians?' 'We,' (they were to say,) 'offer
them more and finer sacrifices than any other Hellenic state, and adorn
their temples with gifts, as nobody else does; moreover, we make the
most solemn and costly processions to them every year, and spend

more money in their service than all the rest of the Hellenes put
together. But the Lacedaemonians take no thought of such matters, and
pay so little respect to the Gods that they have a habit of sacrificing
blemished animals to them, and in various ways are less zealous than
we are, although their wealth is quite equal to ours.' When they had
thus spoken, and had made their request to know what remedy they
could find against the evils which troubled them, the prophet made no
direct answer,--clearly because he was not allowed by the God to do
so;--but he summoned them to him and said: 'Thus saith Ammon to the
Athenians: "The silent worship of the Lacedaemonians pleaseth me
better than all the offerings of the other Hellenes."' Such were the
words of the God, and nothing more. He seems to have meant by 'silent
worship' the prayer of the Lacedaemonians, which is indeed widely
different from the usual requests of the Hellenes. For they either bring
to the altar bulls with gilded horns or make offerings to the Gods, and
beg at random for what they need, good or bad. When, therefore, the
Gods hear them using words of ill omen they reject these costly
processions and sacrifices of theirs. And we ought, I think, to be very
careful and consider well what we should say and what leave unsaid.
Homer, too, will furnish us with similar stories. For he tells us how the
Trojans in making their encampment,
'Offered up whole hecatombs to the immortals,'
and how the 'sweet savour' was borne 'to the heavens by the winds;
'But the blessed Gods