What Euripides says, that
"Of all fair things the autumn, too, is fair,"
is by no means universally true. But it happened so with
Alcibiades, amongst few others, by reason of his happy
constitution and natural vigor of body. It is said that his
lisping, when he spoke, became him well, and gave a grace and
persuasiveness to his rapid speech. Aristophanes takes notice of
it in the verses in which he jests at Theorus: "How like a colax
he is," says Alcibiades, meaning a corax*; on which it is
remarked,
"How very happily he lisped the truth,"
(*This fashionable Attic lisp, or careless articulation, turned
the sound r into l. Colax, a flatterer; corax, a crow.)
His conduct displayed many inconsistencies, not unnaturally, in
accordance with the many wonderful vicissitudes of his fortunes;
but, among the many strong passions of his real character, the
most powerful of all was his ambition for superiority, which
appears in several anecdotes told of him while he was a child.
Once being hard pressed in wrestling, and fearing to be thrown, he
got the hand of his antagonist to his mouth, and bit it with all
his force; and when the other loosed his hold presently, and said,
"You bite, Alcibiades, like a woman.
Pages:
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333