Letter 638
Libanius→Priscianus|libanius
To Priscianus. (361)
Even if your office and the demands pulling you from every direction have driven Plato from your hands, Plato still dwells in your soul — which is why you bring us such fine stories and speeches.
But look: you and Mikkalos have become one again, Hephaestus having wrought this upon you. And a crowd will gather around you, as is natural when two are bound as one — the hair-pluckers will come. But this is your worry; Mikkalos, for his part, presents us with no surplus of hair.
Πρισκιανῷ. (361)
Ἀλλ’ εἰ καὶ τῶν χειρῶν σου τὸν Πλάτωνα ἐξέβαλεν ἥ
τε ἀρχὴ καὶ τὰ πανταχόθεν ἕλκοντα, τήν γε ψυχὴν ὁ Πλατῶν
οἰκεῖ τὴν σήν, ὅθεν ἡμῖν μύθους καὶ λόγους τοιούτους φέ-
ρεις.
ἀλλ’ ἰδού, πάλιν σύ τε καὶ Μίκκαλος εἰς γεγένησθον
τοῦ Ἡφαίστου τοῦθ’ ὑμᾶς ἐργασαμένου. καὶ περιστήσεταί γε
ὑμᾶς ταῦτα, ὥσπερ εἰκός, ἴνα ὄντας· ἥξουσιν οἱ τίλλοντες.
ἀλλὰ σοὶ μὲν οὗτος ὁ φόβος, ὁ Μίκκαλος δὲ ἡμῖν οὐκ ἐν
περιουσίᾳ τριχῶν.
◆
To Priscianus. (361)
Even if your office and the demands pulling you from every direction have driven Plato from your hands, Plato still dwells in your soul — which is why you bring us such fine stories and speeches.
But look: you and Mikkalos have become one again, Hephaestus having wrought this upon you. And a crowd will gather around you, as is natural when two are bound as one — the hair-pluckers will come. But this is your worry; Mikkalos, for his part, presents us with no surplus of hair.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.