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Question 28. Why do they prohibit the children to
swear by Hercules within doors, but command them to go
out of doors to do it?
Solution. Is the reason (as some say) that they are of
opinion that Hercules was not delighted in a domestic life,
but chose rather to live abroad in the fields? Or rather
because he was none of their native country Gods, but a
foreigner? For neither do they swear by Bacchus within
doors, he being a foreigner, if it be he whom the Greeks
call Dionysus. Or what if these things are uttered in
sport to amuse children; and is this, on the contrary, for
a restraint of a frivolous and rash oath, as Favorinus
saith? For that which is done, as it were, with preparation causes delay and deliberation. If a man judges as
Favorinus doth of the things recorded about Hercules, it
would seem that this was not common to other Gods, but
peculiar to him; for history tells us that he had such a
religious veneration for an oath, that he swore but once
only to Phyleus, son of Augeas. Wherefore the Pythia
upbraids the Lacedaemonians with such swearing, as though
it would be more laudable and better to pay their vows
than to swear.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 2.
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