Letter 787: Not only did your being pulled in both directions over the things delivered show the lover at a loss — unable to...

To Demetrius. (362/63) Not only by the way you were drawn toward each of the two pieces that were delivered did you reveal yourself as a lover at a loss as to which one you ought to give the psalms to first, but even your verdict concerning the speech was a passion belonging to love. For him, indeed, no beauty attends; yet you make him one of the company of Pelops and Ganymede, and you have become one of those very men who praise the snub-nosed and the hook-nosed and the swarthy on the very grounds for which they would be faulted by a man who is not in love. But there is pardon both for those men and for you, for it is the god who brings such things about; you could not, however, be persuaded that this is so, until you cease being in love; but this you will never do, and so you will never be persuaded.

Δημητρίῳ. (362/63) Οὐ μόνον τῷ πρὸς ἑκάτερον ἕλκεσθαι τῶν κομισθέντων ἔδειξας τὸν ἐραστὴν ἀπορῶν, ὁποτέρῳ δεῖ προτὲρῳ δοῦναι τοὺς ψαλμούς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ <περὶ> τοῦ λόγου ψῆφος πάθος ἦν ἐρωτικόν τῷ μέν γε κάλλος οὐκ ἔπεστι, σὺ δ᾿ αὐτὸν τῶν ἀμφὶ Πέλοπα καὶ Γανυμήδην ποιεῖς καὶ γέγονας ἐκείνων δὴ τῶν τοὺς σιμοὺς καὶ γρυποὺς καὶ μέλανας ἐπαινούντων ἐξ αὐτῶν ὧν ἂν ψεχθεῖεν ὑπ’ ἀνδρὸς οὐκ ἐρῶντος. ἀλλ’ ἐκείνοις τε συγγνώμη καὶ σοί, τοιαῦτα γὰρ ὁ θεὸς ἐργάζεται, οὐ μέντοι πείσαις ἂν ὅτι ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχει, πρὶν ὂν ἐρῶν παύσῃ τοῦτο δὲ οὐδέποτε ποιήσεις, ὥστε οὐδέποτε πείσεις.