THE WORKS OF PACHYMERES

And just as if they were oracles from Pytho The site of the famous oracle at Delphi or even Dodona The oldest Greek oracle, where Zeus was said to speak through the rustling of oak leaves, you hold my words—and these even as they offer comfort in the face of danger? What greater honor could I have than that which comes from the entire city of its own free will, and the reputation granted by the people demos: the citizen body, who take joy in honoring me and consider my glory to be their very own? Is it likely that someone who holds honor from those who give it willingly would seek to wrest it from those who are unwilling? Is it possible for one who is magnified by everyone to accept being accused by everyone?

...as if? sent by an oracle, I saw it above? repeated insistently. The Greeks pronounce? it vradiné meaning "late" or "slender", but they write it as βραδινή?, at least those who know how to write according to grammar: the formal rules of the language. But those who write the verb "to delay" βραδυνῶ?, write the names as "slow" or "late" βραδινή: in the same way they write "I hasten" ταχύνω and "fast" ταχινή. They also write the word for "in the evening" τὸ βραδύ. The poet Christopoulos writes: "Yesterday evening? submerged..." and "In sleep yesterday evening?." I have also found the spelling vradē βράδη, while also seeing vradu βράδυ and vradý βραδύ. In these? matters, much must be attributed to antiquity, unless? a usage entirely contrary to antiquity has prevailed. Thus I find the verbs for "the evening falls" spelled as vradiázō, vradiázei, and vraduázō. This last one is surely to be preferred. I have often seen "early" τὸ τάχυ written as morning?. I do not know if some might prefer to tachý just as they prefer to vradý. There is far too much liberty taken regarding orthography spelling. Iotacism: the historical change in Greek where many different vowels and diphthongs came to be pronounced like the English "ee" can hardly be described for how much difficulty it creates in writing vowels, even for learned men, if they are not paying close attention. There is a Bacchic wine-inspired little song by Christopoulos: "Let me get drunk, let me get drunk. To refresh my heart, and to make my mind dizzy." In the famous recent? edition of Anacreon, I found the same: "let me get drunk, let me get drunk." In another book, the very front page displays in these same capital letters: THE LYRICS OF CHRISTOPOULOS. Similarly, Fauriel? Claude Fauriel, a French philologist erred when applying? voices? to the first of the Folk Songs, writing CHRĒSTOS MĒLIŌNĒS instead of CHRISTOS MILIONIS. Those Folk Songs abound with errors? of that kind.
That frequent hyperbole regarding speeches being entirely full of truth, that they are

oracles, or sent as if by an oracle, or a response spoken as if from Delphi, and similar things. Heliodorus writes in Book 2, Chapter 16: "may the tripod at your side win" The tripod was the seat of the Delphic priestess. Psellus in his Short Works, page 144: "I shall become a Pythian oracle to you, or rather a Delphic tripod speaking for itself." See the note there. Synesius in The Praise of Baldness, chapter 22: "For it is an outright oracle." See the note by Krabinger there. Procopius of Gaza in Letter 90 to Maiana: "Truly happy are those whose justice you manage, hanging from your voice as if from some tripod." Theocritus in Poem 15, line 63: "The old woman went away after prophesying oracles." See my little note in the second edition. Nicephorus Gregoras in the Dialogue Florentius—for whose first edition we are indebted to the learned Albert Jahn, and we await a second illustrated with commentary by Parisot, who showed how vigorously and diligently he was engaged in the history of those times in his excellent discourse on the affairs of Cantacuzenus—Gregoras, then, on page 503 says: "everyone The Paris manuscript adds 'everyone' after 'they think' thinks your words are certain dogmas, brought forth as if from a Delphic tripod." Again, Gregoras says later: "I surpass the wise men here, and especially you, the marvelous one, who appears to them as a living rule in speech and a prophesying Apollo." Nor are more recent examples lacking. P. Cornelius Melita The French playwright Pierre Corneille: "A single word from me was an oracle to them." Maria Edgeworth in Helena, speaking of the famous Samuel Johnson: "They used to read to me, and, among other things, some papers of the Rambler, which I liked not at all; its tripod sentences sentences that sound like solemn, heavy oracles tired my ear."