Page:The religion of Plutarch, a pagan creed of apostolic times; an essay (IA religionofplutar00oakeiala).pdf/176

 account. Serapion admits that this may be true about vague predictions, but maintains that such detailed prophecies as those he proceeds to quote from history do not owe their accomplishment to chance.

The attention of the disputants—if these calm and dignified colloquies can be called disputes—is here again attracted to the objects of artistic and historical interest surrounding them, among which the guide takes occasion to point out the place where formerly had reposed the iron spits dedicated by the courtezan Rhodopis under the circumstances detailed by Herodotus. Diogenianus warmly protests against such offerings having ever been admitted into the Temple, but Serapion draws his attention to the golden statue of the more notorious Phryne, "that trophy of Greek incontinence,"—as Crates had called it—and condemns the inconsistency of these objections in people who see, without a protest, the temple crowded with offerings made by the Greek cities for victories in their internecine warfare. "It were fitting," exclaims he, "that kings and magistrates should consecrate to the god offerings of justice, temperance, and magnanimity, and not tributes of a golden and luxurious wealth, which the most evil livers often abound in."

The concluding portion of this somewhat discursive tract is devoted to a speech by Theon on the question with which the title only has so far dealt, the cessation of the oracle to use verse. Theon, as we have seen, believes that the god inspires the thought, and not the