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Gods, and hold converse with them by means of prayers and offerings and
every kind of service, is the noblest and best of all things, and also
the most conducive to a happy life, and very fit and meet. But with the
bad man, the opposite of this is true: for the bad man has an impure
soul, whereas the good is pure; and from one who is polluted, neither
a good man nor God can without impropriety receive gifts. Wherefore the
unholy do only waste their much service upon the Gods, but when offered
by any holy man, such service is most acceptable to them. This is the
mark at which we ought to aim. But what weapons shall we use, and how
shall we direct them? In the first place, we affirm that next after the
Olympian Gods and the Gods of the State, honour should be given to the
Gods below; they should receive everything in even numbers, and of
the second choice, and ill omen, while the odd numbers, and the first
choice, and the things of lucky omen, are given to the Gods above, by
him who would rightly hit the mark of piety. Next to these Gods, a wise
man will do service to the demons or spirits, and then to the heroes,
and after them will follow the private and ancestral Gods, who are
worshipped as the law prescribes in the places which are sacred to them.
Next comes the honour of living parents, to whom, as is meet, we have to
pay the first and greatest and oldest of all debts, considering that all
which a man has belongs to those who gave him birth and brought him up,
and that he must do all that he can to minister to them, first, in his
property, secondly, in his person, and thirdly, in his soul, in return
for the endless care and travail which they bestowed upon him of old,
in the days of his infancy, and which he is now to pay back to them when
they are old and in the extremity of their need. And all his life long
he ought never to utter, or to have uttered, an unbecoming word to them;
for of light and fleeting words the penalty is most severe; Nemesis, the
messenger of justice, is appointed to watch over all such matters. When
they are angry and want to satisfy their feelings in word or deed,
he should give way to them; for a father who thinks that he has been
wronged by his son may be reasonably expected to be very angry. At
their death, the most moderate funeral is best, neither exceeding the
customary expense, nor yet falling short of the honour which has been
usually shown by the former generation to their parents. A