Lycophron

“ No kinsman shall be so dear as you.”
Now the only shadow on Nikander’s joy was his anxiety for Lycophron. Dear gods, where might his son be now? Even if Delphi survived the onslaught of the Persians this sorrow would remain. Nikander could never speak his son Lycophron’s name.
A slave brought their breakfast, and as they ate the figs and bread and milk they began to talk seriously of Delphi’s plans of escape. Many citizens had already carried their household treasures up the mountain to the Korykian cave. ”

“ Nikander was now thoroughly angry.
“Theria,” he said, “greet your brother at once or go to your room. Your whims are unbearable.”
“Theria,” began Dryas again. But at his urging voice her anger took flame.
“I won’t praise you!” she cried wildly. “You know the song is mine, mine. I made it myself.”
“Great gods!” laughed Lycophron. “Here’s a pother for you!”
“No pother at all,” spoke Dryas quickly. “Who’ll believe her?”
“Nobody, nobody, my son,” sounded Nikander’s deep voice. “Now, Theria, go! I shall punish you myself for this!”
Here Melantho lifted horrified hands. “What jealousy, Theria! ”

“ Works
Fifteen speeches of Lycurgus were preserved in antiquity, nearly all accusations on serious charges. He prosecuted Euxenippus, whom Hyperides defended; he spoke against the orator Demades, and, in alliance with Demosthenes, against the sycophant Aristogiton. Other speeches known to us by name are Against Autolycus, Against Leocrates, two speeches Against Lycophron, [274] Against Lysicles, Against Menesaechmus, a Defence of himself against Demades, Against Ischyrias, πρὸς τὰς μαντείας (obscure title) , Concerning his administration, Concerning the priestess, and Concerning the priesthood. ”

“ It was very popular in the Byzantine period, and was read and commented on very frequently; the collection of scholia by Isaac and John Tzetzes is very valuable, and the MSS. of the Cassandra are numerous. [1] A few well-turned lines which have been preserved from Lycophron’s tragedies show a much better style; they are said to have been much admired by Menedemus of Eretria, although the poet had ridiculed him in a satyric drama. ”

“ Indeed, this appears to be almost certain, since some of the Greek lexicographers mention a speech of Hyperides 'for Lycophron,' and another 'against Polyeuctus concerning the accusation.' But who Lycophron was, and what was the nature of the defence for him, remain to be more [Pg 138] amply detailed. The subject of this second oration, however, appears to be known,—for Polyeuctus, the Athenian orator, was accused, with Demosthenes, of receiving a bribe from Harpalus. Moreover, the fragments of a papyrus MS. procured a few years ago at Egyptian Thebes by Dr. ”

“ Whereas, those who care for good government take into consideration virtue and vice in states. Whence it may be further inferred that virtue must be the care of a state which is truly so called, and not merely enjoys the name: for without this end the community becomes a mere alliance which differs only in place from alliances of which the members live apart; and law is only a convention, 'a surety to one another of justice,' as the sophist Lycophron says, and has no real power to make the citizens ”

“ Then came the all-important choice of a man.
“Shall he be a Delphian?” was the first question.
“Yes, I think so,” said old Akeretos. “Colonies are not often founded these days. It may be years before another goes out. ’Tis a rare chance to strengthen Apollo’s influence in the west.”
“Yes, yes,” chorused the priests. “A Delphian, by all means.”
Nikander’s face suddenly shone. He had wished for many a month to do some service for Karamanor and Agis in return for their honourable treatment of his poor son Lycophron. They were younger sons without means. ”

“ The date of the first find of Greek papyri in Egypt was in 1778, when some forty or fifty rolls were discovered by some native diggers, who, however, kept only one of them. After this scarcely anything appeared until the year 1820, when was found on the site of the Serapeum at Memphis, as it was reported, a group of documents of the 2nd century B.C. Then followed a fruitful period, when several important literary papyri were secured: in 1821, the Bankes Homer, containing the last book of the Iliad; in 1847, the roll containing the Lycophron and other orations of Hypereides ”

“ Daily, if the sky be clear, the Lycosa, carrying her young, comes up from the burrow, leans on the kerb and spends long hours basking in the sun. Here, on their mother's back, the youngsters stretch their limbs delightedly, saturate themselves with heat, take in reserves of motor-power, absorb energy. ”

“ Myrtale did not lose a single word, but while Lycon was kneeling before her she noticed that his tearful eyes were very handsome, and that a delicate odor of ointment rose from his hair. The power of trifles has always been great, especially with women. This perfume made a strange impression upon her. For a moment she forgot that Lycon was a slave, and compared him in her mind with the son of their neighbor the baker, who after having spent ten days in Athens went as foppishly clad and moved as stiffly as the Athenian dandies. ”

“ Lycopodiaceæ, lī-ko-pō-di-ā′se-ē, n.pl. a class of isoporous vascular cryptogams, having mostly a dichotomous form of branching—its typical genus Lycopō′dium.—n. Ly′copode, a highly inflammable yellow powder made up of the spores of Lycopodium. [Gr. lykos, a wolf, pous, the foot.]
Lyddite, lid′īt, n. a powerful explosive made (at Lydd in Kent) from picrate of potash.
Lydian, lid′i-an, adj. pertaining to Lydia in Asia Minor: of an ancient Greek mode of music: (mus.) soft and slow: luxurious and effeminate. ”

“ Lycon’s heart swelled with a humanity as warm as the greatness of the peril surrounding him. Springing to the stern he shouted to the men in the nearest boats:
“Friends! let us thank the gods for our own deliverance by saving as many of these unfortunates as possible. ”

“ But Lykophron would not even answer the messenger. But Periandros, who was bound up in the young man, made a second attempt, sending his own daughter, Lykophron’s sister, thinking he would most readily listen to her. And when she had come she said, “Dear Lykophron, is it your desire that our lordship should fall to others and thy father’s substance be scattered abroad, rather than come away and have it thyself? Come home; cease punishing thyself. A proud heart is poor profit. Do not cure one evil with another. Many prefer mercy to justice ”

“ Lycon recognized in him an old slave named Satyrus, who had a sullen face and lazy bearing.
At sight of the youth in travelling dress, he said harshly: “What do you want? My master is sick and receives no one.” With these words he slammed the door so that the whole house shook. Lycon signed to Paegnion, who knocked again. “My good fellow,” he called, “announce me to your master. Tell him I am Lycon the Athenian, son of Megacles, and that I bring a greeting and message from Phorion, who was his guest a short time ago.” ”

“ Total abstinence from food could be understood if it were accompanied by inertia: immobility is not life. But the young Lycosæ, although usually quiet on their mother's back, are at all times ready for exercise and for agile swarming. When they fall from the maternal perambulator, they briskly pick themselves up, briskly scramble up a leg and make their way to the top. It is a splendidly nimble and spirited performance. Besides, once seated, they have to keep a firm balance in the mass; they have to stretch and stiffen their little limbs in order to hang on to their neighbours. ”

“ You have not been half so long under my roof as the water-clock needs to run out, yet you seem to read the wishes of my soul. Who are you, young man? Your voice is strangely familiar, yet no ... you speak the Attic dialect so purely that Phorion, who was born in the city, has no better accent.”
With these words he rose slowly, by the help of his cane, and took Lycon’s arm.
“Another person,” he added, “might perhaps be angry with you or feel offended. I am neither. It is seldom, very seldom, that a careless youth has so much affection for a sick and feeble man. ”

“ In nearly every tissue and organ of the body there is a marvelous network of vessels, called the lymphatics. These are busily at work taking up and making over waste fluids or surplus materials derived from the blood and tissues generally. The lymphatics seem to spring from the parts in which they are found, like the rootlets of a plant in the soil. They carry a turbid, slightly yellowish fluid, called lymph, very much like blood without the red corpuscles. The lymph is carried to the lymphatic glands where it undergoes certain changes to fit it for entering the blood. ”

“ There are two sets of absorbent vessels—the lacteals, which convey the chyle from the alimentary canal to the thoracic duct; and the lymphatics, which take up the lymph from all the other parts of the body and return it into the venous system. There is a right lymphatic duct, about a quarter to a half inch in length, which receives the lymph from the absorbents of the right upper limb, the right side of the head and neck, the right side of the chest, the right lung and the right half of the heart, and the upper surface of the liver. ”

“ II. As a pathological state lycanthropy may be described as a kind of hysteria, and may perhaps be brought into connexion with the form of it known as latah. It is characterized by the patient’s belief that he has been metamorphosed into an animal, and is often accompanied by a craving for strange articles of food, including the flesh of living beings or of corpses. In the lower stages of culture the state of the patient is commonly explained as due to possession, but where he leaves the neighbourhood of man real metamorphosis may be asserted, as in ordinary lycanthropic beliefs. ”

“ Lycon, who suspected no evil, continued his usual mode of life. One noon he went to the house of a freedman named Opasion, who usually had gay doings in his home, as he lived by entertaining young men. The little peristyle, scarcely ten feet long, was filled with a noisy, laughing party. Half a score of youths in mantles of every hue had formed a circle around two fighting quails.
“I’ll bet fifteen drachmae against you, Opasion,” shouted one voice. ”

“ The lymphatic vessels conduct both the colourless lymph and the white chyle into the venous part of the circulation. The lymphatic glands act as producers of new blood-cells, and with them is associated the spleen. The centre of movement for the circulation of the fluids is the heart, a strong muscular sac, which contracts regularly and is equipped with valves like a pump. This constant and steady circulation of the blood makes possible the complex metabolism of the higher animals. ”

“ The idea of lycanthropy has probably been familiar to the peasants of Greece continuously from the earliest ages down to the present day, either surviving traditionally like so many other beliefs, or possibly stimulated by actual experiences; for lycanthropy is not a mere figment of the imagination, but is a very real and terrible form of madness, under the influence of which the sufferer believes himself transformed (and by dress or lack of it tries to transfigure himself) into a wolf or other wild animal, and in that state develops and satisfies a craving for human flesh. ”

“ A number of species of Lycopodium are epiphytic and those of Isoëtes live submerged in water. Vegetative reproduction is effected in various ways: by the separation of the branches of a creeping stem in some Lycopodia, the persistence through the winter of the apex of the shoot in L. inundatum, and by the formation of leafy bulbils on the aerial stem of L. Selago and others. A highly specialized means of vegetative reproduction is seen in the tubers of Phylloglossum and the embryos of some Lycopods. The modifications shown by the gametophyte of Lycopodium will be described below. ”

“ Here, in the daytime, if things be peaceful all around, the Lycosa stations herself, either to enjoy the warmth of the sun, her great delight, or to lie in wait for game. The threads of the silk lining afford a firm hold to the claws on every side, whether the object be to sit motionless for hours, revelling in the light and heat, or to pounce upon the passing prey. ”

“ I shall only mention one extreme species, called the Lycanthropia, in which the patient imagines himself to have become a wolf, abandons society, and takes refuge in the woods. These impressions have no doubt been produced, or strengthened by narcotic potions, of hyoscyamus, datura stramonium, and other deleterious infusions, either ignorantly taken, or maliciously administered. ”

“ There is no pump for forcing the lymph to move along; the very gradual motion, which is all that is necessary to keep the fluid from accumulating in the tissue spaces, is brought about by pressure upon the lymphatics resulting from the bodily movements. The lymphatic vessels are like the veins in having valves here and there along them. Whenever by any bodily movement either a lymphatic vessel or a vein is squeezed, the valves insure that the liquid shall be passed along in the direction toward the heart and never in the reverse direction. ”

“ The skull and teeth are quite Cynoid in character: the former presenting only one single slight and unimportant point in which it tends to resemble that of a Hyæna.
The Lycaon is about the size of a Wolf. Its skin varies a good deal in its markings. “White, black, and yellow ochre are its chief tints; the white predominates in some, the black in others, and forms the fundamental colours; the spots are very irregular, sometimes large, sometimes small, very varyingly disposed on the surface of the body; the white and ochreous spots are always mixed with black. ”