Letter 321: To Κληματἰῳ. (358)

To Klematios. (358) It is best to enjoy a good wife, but it is no worse to enjoy a beautiful one as well, since this too is held in account among the wiser sort. As for your own wife, I rejoiced while learning her ways from you, and when I saw her beauty I shared in the joy both with her parents and with you: with them for the kind of woman they brought into being, and with you for the kind of woman you have. Such a one indeed, and like to golden Aphrodite and to those women whom Homer adorned [in his verses], anyone would accept everything for. Calling to mind, then, how you grieved the year before last at being separated from your wife, I now have no way to praise you worthily for the things for which I did not praise you at that time: so great was your longing. Consider, then, how you may quickly become a father, so that, since you honored me by showing me your wife, I may be able to repay you with the labors that concern children. And let your mother-in-law be as honored by you as your own mother. For she has a good mind, and she regards you as a son rather than as a son-in-law. And apart from everything else, the length of the road that she travels is worthy of respect. And the greatest thing of all: for, leaving behind a husband who needs her and her household, she comes bringing the daughter to you, taking delight in the things for which she is praised, and reckoning that to hear such things means more than the much that she possessed before.

Κληματἰῳ. (358) Κράτιστον μὲν ἀγαθῆς ἀπολαύειν γυναικός, οὐ χεῖρον δὲ καὶ καλῆς, ἐπειδὴ καὶ rovro παρὰ τοῖς σοφωτέροις ἐν λό- γῳ. τῆς δὲ σῆς τοὺς μὲν τρόπους παρὰ σοῦ μανθάνων ἔχαι- ρον, τὴν δὲ ὥραν ἰδὼν τοῖς τε γονεῦσιν αὐτῆς καὶ σοὶ συνή- σθην, τοῖς μέν, οἕαν ἔφυσαν, σοὶ δέ, οἴαν ἔχεις. Δήλῳ δή ποτε τοῖον καὶἰκέληχρυσῇἈφροδίτῃκαὶοἷςἐκόσμησε γυναῖκας Ὅμηρος πάντα ἂν δέξαιτο ἀναμιμνησκόμενος οὖν, ὅπως ἤλγεις προπέρυσι τῷ τῆς γυναικὸς ἀφεστάναι, ἐφ’ οἶς σε τότε οὐκ ἐπῄνουν, νῦν ἐπαινεῖν οὐκ ἔχω πρὸς ἀξίαν· οὕτω μέγα ἐπόθεις. σκόπει οὖν ὅπως ἔσῃ ταχέως πατήρ, ἴν’, ἐπειδή με ἐτίμησας τῷ τὴν γυναῖκα δειΜ, ἔχοιμί σε ἀμείψασθαι τοῖς περὶ τοὺς παῖδας πόνοις. ἡ πενθερὰ δέ σοι τίμιον ὥσπερ ἡ μήτηρ ἔστω. φρένες τε γὰρ ἀγαθαὶ καὶ σὲ παῖδα μᾶλλον ἢ κηδεστὴν ἡγεῖται. καὶ χωρὶς τῶν ἄλλων τῆς ὁδοῦ τὸ μῆκος ἣν ἔπεισιν ἄξιον αἰδεσθῆναι. καὶ τὸ μέ- γιστον, ἄνδρα γὰρ αὐτῆς δεόμενον καὶ οἶκον ἀφεῖσα σοὶ τὴν θυγατέρα ἄγουσα ἔρχεται τερπομένη τε οἷς ἐπαινῇ καὶ τὸ τοιαῦτα ἀκούειν τοῦ πολλὰ κεκτῆσθαι πρότερον ποιουμένη.