Key to Reading Unit 5

1. (i) One crow likes another. (ii) Wisdom [is to be detected] in the hair. (See no.4 below). (iii) Birds' milk (said of something rare [cf. hens' teeth] or of an extreme luxury). (iv) You're talking to a stone. (v) The doors of the Muses [are] not restricted (lit. ungrudged) (i.e. anyone is free to enjoy things of a cultural nature [music, poetry etc.]).

2. Wealth [is] an evil, and does much that is not right (lit. many [things] not correctly).

3. The wicked always marry from among their like.

4. White hairs make [one] wise.

5. You are not clever at speaking, but unable to keep silent.

6. Inopportune laughter [is] a terrible evil among mortals.

7. Deliberately harming [one's] friends [is] unjust.

8. The body [is] mortal, but the soul [is] immortal.

9. Being meddlesome (lit. doing many [things]) is in all cases an evil.

10. When the Thracians had come to Mycalessus, they began to plunder both private houses and temples and to massacre the people; for they would not allow the old or (lit. and) the young to escape, but killed everyone one after the other, both women and children, and in addition the beasts of burden and [any] other living creatures. For the Thracians, in common with the most [blood-thirsty] barbarians, are very murderous. And so, on this occasion, there was both general (lit. other) confusion [which was] not negligible, and every shape of destruction. For in a boys' school, where the boys were [present], they slaughtered [them] all. The disaster seems to me (lit. us) completely unexpected and horrible. (Adapted from Thucydides 7.29).

11. Alcibiades' fleet sailed against Byzantium and began to terrify the Byzantians. Nevertheless, the Peloponnesians and Boeotians [who were] in Byzantium routed the sailors and chased [them] back into their vessels. But, since some of the Athenians were already inside, they joined battle. In the battle Alcibiades was victorious, and the enemy prisoners were numerous. (Adapted from Plutarch Life of Alcibiades 31).