Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/264

242 violent withal; but contrariwise, his uncle by the father's side would give him entertainment, bear him out, and make much of him: Now when upon a time the Thessalians sent unto Delphos certain lots, to know by the oracle of god Apollo who should be their king? the foresaid uncle of Alenas unwitting to his brother put in one for him: Then Pythia the prophetess gave answer from Apollo and pronounced that Alenas should be king: The father of Alenas denied, and said that he had cast in no lot for him; and it seemed unto every man that there was some error in writing of those bills or names for the lottery: whereupon new messengers were dispatched to the oracle for to clear this doubt; and then Pythia, in confirmation of the former choice, answered:

Thus Alenas, declared and elected king of Thessaly, by the oracle of Apollo, and by the means withal of his father's brother, both proved himself afterward a most noble prince, excelling all his progenitors and predecessors, and also raised the whole nation and his country a great name and mighty puissance.

Furthermore, it is seemly and convenient by joying and taking a glory in the advancement, prosperity, honours and dignities of brothers' children, to augment the same, and to encourage and animate them to virtue, and when they do well, to praise them to the full. Haply it might be thought an odious and unseemly thing for a man to commend much his own son, but surely to praise a brother's son is an honourable thing, and since it proceedeth not from the love of a man's self, it cannot be thought but right, honest, and (in truth) divine: for surely methinks the very name itself (of uncle) is sufficient to draw brethren to affect and love dearly one another, and so consequently their nephews: and thus we ought to propose unto ourselves for to imitate the better sort and such as have been immortalised and deified in times past: for so Hercules, notwithstanding he had seventy sons within twain of his own, yet he loved lolaus, his brother's son, no less than any of them; insomuch as even at this day in most places there is but one altar erected for him and his said nephew together, and men pray jointly unto Hercules and lolaus. Also, when his brother Iphiclus was slain in that famous battle which was fought near