QUESTION IV. WHICH OF VENUS'S HANDS DIOMEDES WOUNDED.

HERMEAS, ZOPYRION, MAXIMUS.

Hermeas would have replied to Zopyrion, but we desired him to hold; and
Maximus the rhetorician proposed to him this far-fetched question out of
Homer, Which of Venus's hands Diomedes wounded. And Zopyrion presently
asking him again, of which leg was Philip lame?--Maximus replied, It is
a different case, for Demosthenes hath left us no foundation upon which
we may build our conjecture. But if you confess your ignorance in this
matter, others will show how the poet sufficiently intimates to an
understanding man which hand it was. Zopyrion being at a stand, we all,
since he made no reply, desired Maximus to tell us.

And he began: The verses running thus

Then Diomedes raised his mighty spear,
And leaping towards her just did graze her hand;
("Iliad," v. 335. It is evident from what follows that
Plutarch interprets [Greek omitted] in this passage HAVING
LEAPED TO ONE SIDE. (G.))

it is evident that, if he designed to wound her left hand, there had
been no need of leaping, since her left hand was opposite to his right.
Besides, it is probable that he would endeavor to wound the strongest
hand, and that with which she drew away Aeneas; and which being wounded,
it was likely she would let him go. But more, after she returned to
Heaven, Minerva jeeringly said,

No doubt fair Venus won a Grecian dame,
To follow her beloved Trojan youths,
And as she gently stroked her with her hand,
Her golden buckler scratched this petty wound.
("Iliad", v. 422.)

And I suppose, you sir, when you stroke any of your scholars, you use
your right hand, and not your left; and it is likely that Venus, the
most skilful of all the goddesses, soothed the heroines after the same
manner.

QUESTION V. WHY PLATO SAYS THAT AJAX'S SOUL CAME TO DRAW HER LOT IN THE
TWENTIETH PLACE IN HELL.

HYLAS, SOSPIS, AMMONIUS, LAMPRIAS.

These discourses made all the other company merry; but Sospis the
rhetorician, seeing Hylas the grammarian sit silent and discomposed (for
he had not been very happy in his exercises), cried out,

But Ajax's soul stood far apart;

and raising his voice repeated the rest to him,

But sit, draw near, and patiently attend,
Hear what I say, and tame, your violent rage.

To this Hylas, unable to contain, returned a scurvy answer saying that
Ajax's soul, taking her lot in