Ἄμυρις μαίνεται
Amyris is mad
Translated by Jennifer Benedict15 Oct 2000Vetting: high6 revisions
Translation
The proverb refers to the man of sound mind.
For a sacred envoy [theoros] had been sent to Delphi by [the] Sybarites concerning their good fortune, and the god1 had prophesied that there would be destruction on [the] Sybarites whenever they began to honor men more than gods. [Amyris], seeing a slave being flogged in front of the shrine and fleeing to the shrine for refuge and then not being set free -- being freed only later, once he had sought refuge at the tomb of the father of the flogger -- understood the oracle, turned his property into cash, and left for the Peloponnese. This, then, Amyris did with good reason, but the Sybarites considered this madness. For a long time he was admired for his pretended insanity.
For a sacred envoy [theoros] had been sent to Delphi by [the] Sybarites concerning their good fortune, and the god1 had prophesied that there would be destruction on [the] Sybarites whenever they began to honor men more than gods. [Amyris], seeing a slave being flogged in front of the shrine and fleeing to the shrine for refuge and then not being set free -- being freed only later, once he had sought refuge at the tomb of the father of the flogger -- understood the oracle, turned his property into cash, and left for the Peloponnese. This, then, Amyris did with good reason, but the Sybarites considered this madness. For a long time he was admired for his pretended insanity.