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[94]
25. No more binding are those promises which1
are inexpedient for the persons themselves to whom
they have been given. To go back to the realm of
story, the sungod promised his son Phaethon to do
for him whatever he should wish. His wish was to
be allowed to ride in his father's chariot. It was
granted. And before he came back to the ground
he was consumed by a stroke of lightning. How
much better had it been, if in his case the father's
promise had not been kept. And what of that
promise, the fulfilment of which Theseus required
from Neptune? When Neptune offered him three
wishes, he wished for the death of his son Hippolytus, because the father was suspicious of the son's
relations with his step-mother. And when this wish
was granted, Theseus was overwhelmed with grief.
1 (3) when not expedient for him to whom the promise is made.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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