k and an extraordinary memory, pursued many
branches of study, and had many rivals. This Hippias, of whom I speak,
once came to Pisa during the Olympian games arrayed in raiment that
was as remarkable to the eye as it was wonderful in its workmanship.
For he had purchased nothing of what he wore: it was all the work of
his own hands, the clothes in which he was clad, the shoes wherewith
he was shod, and the jewels that made him conspicuous. Next his skin
he wore an undershirt of triple weft and the finest texture, double
dyed with purple. He had woven it for himself in his own house with
his own hands. He had for girdle a belt, broidered in Babylonian
fashion with many varied colours. In this also no man else had helped
him. For outer garment he had a white cloak cast about his shoulders;
this cloak also is known to have been the work of his own hands. He
had fashioned even the shoes that covered his feet and the ring of
gold with its cunningly engraved signet which he displayed on his left
hand. Himself he had wrought the circle of gold, had closed the bezel
around the gem and engraved the stone. I have not yet told you all the
tale of his achievements. But I will not shrink from enumerating all
the marvels that he thought it no shame to show. For he proclaimed
before that vast concourse that his own hands had fashioned the
oil-flask which he carried. It was in shape a flattened sphere, and
its outlines were round and smooth. Beside it he showed an exquisite
flesh-scraper, the handle[40] of which was straight, while the tongue
was curved and grooved with hollow channels, so that the hand might
have a firm grip and the sweat might be carried off in a trickling
stream from the blade. Who could withhold praise from a man who had
such manifold knowledge of so many arts, who had won such glory in
every branch of knowledge, who was, in fact, a very Daedalus,[41] such
skill had he to fashion so many useful instruments? Nay, I myself
praise Hippias, but I prefer to imitate his fertile genius in respect
of the learning, rather than of the furniture with which it was so
richly equipped. I have, I confess, but indifferent skill in these
sedentary arts. When I want clothes I buy them from the weaver, when I
want sandals, such as I am now wearing, I purchase them from the
shoemaker. I do not carry a ring, since I regard gold and precious
stones of as little value as pebbles or lead. As for flesh-scrapers
and oil-flasks and other ute