THE MARGITES

Fragment #1—Suidas, s.v.: Pigres. A Carian of Halicarnassus and brother of Artemisia, wife of Mausolus, who distinguished herself in war... 3401 He also wrote the Margites attributed to Homer and the Battle of the Frogs and Mice.

Fragment #2—Atilius Fortunatianus, p. 286, Keil: ‘There came to Colophon an old man and divine singer, a servant of the Muses and of far-shooting Apollo. In his dear hands he held a sweet-toned lyre.’

Fragment #3—Plato, Alcib. ii. p. 147 A: ‘He knew many things but knew all badly...’

Aristotle, Nic. Eth. vi. 7, 1141: ‘The gods had taught him neither to dig nor to plough, nor any other skill; he failed in every craft.’

Fragment #4—Scholiast on Aeschines in Ctes., sec. 160: He refers to Margites, a man who, though well grown up, did not know whether it was his father or his mother who gave him birth, and would not lie with his wife, saying that he was afraid she might give a bad account of him to her mother.

Fragment #5—Zenobius, v. 68: ‘The fox knows many a wile; but the hedge-hog’s one trick 3402 can beat them all.’ 3403