Note 284 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.
William Dansey translation
Οὐκ ἀγαθὸν ἀπειθεῖν τῷ θείῳ. Homer himself draws many similar inferences in the progress of his interesting tales both of the Iliad and the Odyssey—χαλεπόν τοι ἐρισθενέος Κρονίωνος—παισὶν ἐριζέμεναι—and again, θεόθεν δ’ οὐκ ἐστ’ ἀλέασθαι: and Pindar abounds with like injunctions of humble submission to the divinePyth. ii. vs. 161. and 173. will—χρὴ δὲ πρὸς—θεὸν οὐκ ἐρίζειν, κ. τ. λ.—ποτὶ κέντρον δέ τοι—λακτιζέμεν, τελέθει—ὀλισθηρὸς οἶμος. See also vs. 89. ejusd. Carm. The reader cannot but recollect the memorable counterpart to these words, (with reverence be they cited!) in the Act. Apost. c. ix.Apostolic history of the conversion of St. Paul—σκληρόν σοι πρὸς κέντρα λακτίζειν.
How beautiful the metaphor that runs through the following lines of the poet of Cilicia!
Oppian. Hal. L. ii. 12.
ἀλλ’ αἰεὶ μάκαρες πανυπέρτατοι ἡνία πάντη κλίνουσ’, ᾗ κ’ ἐθέλωσιν· ὁ δ’ ἕσπεται, ὅς κε σαόφρων, πρὶν χαλεπῇ μάστιγι καὶ οὐκ ἐθέλων ἐλάηται.
See the sensible remarks of Xenophon on the words ΣΥΝ ΘΕΩ ΠΡΑΤΤΕΙΝ, at the conclusion of his treatise De Offic. Magistr. Equit. c. ix.