The Vanity of Athena, Athenaeus, 14.7

The Vanity of Athena

Name:   Athenaeus Date:   2nd century CE Region:   Naucratis [modern Egypt] Citation:    Deipnosophists  14.7

But Selinuntius Telestes, refuting Melanippus’ statement, said the following about Athena in his Argive History: “I don’t reckon that Athena, the wisest of minds, took up a musical instrument in the tree-topped mountains, and then, being afraid it would make her look ugly and shameful, threw it away. Instead, the flute gave fame to Marsyas, the noisy nymph-born satyr. Why should she care about being beautiful, since Clotho fated her to be asexual, unmarried, and childless?”

‘ ἀλλ᾽ ὅ γε Σελινούντιος Τελέστης τῷ Μελανιππίδῃ ἀντικορυσσόμενος ἐν Ἀργοῖ ἔφη—ὁ δὲ λόγος ἐστὶ περὶ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς: ὃν σοφὸν σοφὰν λαβοῦσαν οὐκ ἐπέλπομαι νόῳ δρυμοῖς ὀρείοις ὄργανον δῖαν Ἀθάνᾶν, δυσόφθαλμον αἶσχος ἐκφοβηθεῖσαν αὖθις ἐκ χερῶν βαλεῖν νυμφαγενεῖ χειροκτύπῳ φηρὶ Μαρσύᾳ κλέος. τί γαρ νιν εὐηράτοιο κάλλεος ὀξὺς ἔρως ἔτειρεν, ᾇ γὰρ παρθενίαν ἄγαμον καὶ ἄπαιδ᾽ ἀπένειμε Κλωθώ;”

At Selinuntius Telestes, repugnans Melanippidi, in Argo dixit: (agitur autem de Minerva:) “Non mihi credibile videtur, unum omnium sapientissimum instrumentum acceptum Divam sapientem Athenen in montium nemoribus, verentem oris deformitatem adspectu turpem, rursus e manibus proiecisse, Nympha—genito manibus—perstrepenti Sileno Marsyae gloriam. Qui enim illam optabilis pulcritudinis vehemens amor vexasset, cui virginitatem absque nuptiis liberisque tribuit Clotho?” Translated into Latin by Johann Schweighäuser

Athenaeus of Naucratis [2nd century CE, modern Egypt] was a scholar who lived in Naucratis during the reign of the Antonines. His fifteen volume work, the Deipnosophists, are invaluable for the amount of quotations that preserve otherwise lost authors, including the poetry of Sappho.