might be able to do something for him. Ay, and his plight is not so
sorry now. Once he would stand agape at him like one whose gaze is
fixed upon the Gorgons,[38] his eyes one stony stare, and like a stone
himself turn heavily away. But nowadays I have seen the statue
actually blink.[39] And yet, may Heaven help me! my good sirs, I
think, between ourselves, the culprit must have bestowed a kiss on
Cleinias, than which love's flame asks no fiercer fuel.[40] So
insatiable a thing it is and so suggestive of mad fantasy. [And for
this reason held perhaps in higher honour, because of all external
acts the close of lip with lip bears the same name as that of soul
with soul in love.][41] Wherefore, say I, let every one who wishes to
be master of himself and sound of soul abstain from kisses imprinted
on fair lips.[42]

[36] Lit. "creeping down beside his ears." Cf. "Od." xi. 319:

{prin sphoin upo krotaphoisin ioulous
anthesai pukasai te genus euanthei lakhne.}

"(Zeus destroyed the twain) ere the curls had bloomed beneath
their temples, and darked their chins with the blossom of youth."
--Butcher and Lang. Cf. Theocr. xv. 85: {praton ioulon apo
krotaphon kataballon}, "with the first down upon his cheeks"
(Lang); Aesch. "Theb." 534.

[37] {pros to opisthen}, perhaps = "ad posteriorem capitis partem,"
which would be more applicable to Critobulus, whose whiskers were
just beginning to grow, than to Callias. Possibly we should read
(after Pollux, ii. 10) {peri ten upenen}, "on the upper lip." See
Plat. "Protag." 309 B; "Il." xxiv. 348; "Od." x. 279.