Sunday, March 24, 2024
Nothing Better
Euripides, Orestes 1155-1156 (tr. Edward P. Coleridge):
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Ah! there is nothing better than a trusty friend, neither wealth nor monarchy; a crowd of people is of no account in exchange for a noble friend.M.L. West ad loc.
φεῦ·
οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδὲν κρεῖσσον ἢ φίλος σαφής,
οὐ πλοῦτος, οὐ τυραννίς· ἀλόγιστον δέ τι
τὸ πλῆθος ἀντάλλαγμα γενναίου φίλου.
cf. HF 11125 with Bond's n., Soph. Phil. 672 f., Men. Dysc. 81 f. Denial of wealth and monarchy as the highest goods goes back to Archil. 19, cf. Sol. 24, 33, Eur. Med. 599 f., Hipp. 1013 ff., Ion 621-32, Phoen. 549 ff., etc.
